USA > Kentucky > Fayette County > Lexington > History of Lexington, Kentucky : its early annals and recent progress, including biographical sketches and personal reminiscences of the pioneer settlers, notices of prominent citizens, etc., etc. > Part 17
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In 1832, Mr. Clay, who had disconnected himself from the Jeffersonian Democrats, was again nominated for the
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1797.
presidency by the "National Republicans," or Whigs (as they were beginning to be called), a new party, mainly created by himself. His great antagonist was General Jack- son, the candidate of the "Democratic " party. This con- test was one of the fiercest and most stubborn that had yet been waged in America, and never did the energy and genius of Mr. Clay shine out more resplendent. Mr. Clay's tri- umph was complete in his own state, but the indomita- ble old hero of New Orleans was re-elected President. The Whig party, of which Mr. Clay was the idol, passionately desired to lift him to the chief magistracy of the nation, and again nominated him in 1844. He was opposed by James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate. Mr. Clay was powerfully and almost successfully supported by his party. The contest, which was remarkably close and long, seemed doubtful, and was decided by the vote of New York, and the prize fell to Mr. Polk, while apparently within the very reach of Mr. Clay.
On the slavery question, Mr. Clay was conservative. While deprecating the evils of African slavery, and favoring its gradual abolishment, he invariably denounced the wild and violent sentiments of radical abolitionists.
Mr. Clay was engaged in two duels. The first was with Humphrey Marshall, author of the History of Kentucky. Mr. Clay was wounded in this duel. The second was with John Randolph.
The voice of the world has pronounced Mr. Clay a great man-great as a statesmen, and pre-eminently great as a lawyer; but it is as an orator that he will live longest in the memory of men. The accompaniments of his great intellect were a finely-formed, graceful, and commanding person, fascinating manners, a piercing eye, and a voice of wonderful melody and power. Upon great occasions, he was all earnestness, all feeling, body and soul seemed merged in one spiritual essence, and from his lips flowed a stream of irresistible eloquence, which has given him a place in history as one of the grandest orators the world has ever produced.
211
HENRY CLAY.
1797.]
Mr. Clay's personal appearance in 1845 is thus described :* " He is six feet and one inch in height; not stout, but the op- posite ; has long arms and a small hand; always erect in carriage, but particularly so in debate; has a well-shaped head and a dauntless profile; an uncommonly large mouth; upper lip commanding, nose prominent, spare visage, and blue eyes, electrical when kindled; forehead high, hair nat- urally light, and slow to put on the frosts of age; a well- formed person, and an imposing aspect." Taken as a whole, his appearance and bearing were singularly impressive. His presence was always felt.
Mr. Clay was accurate in business, and exceedingly care- ful to attend to the little things of life .; If he casually borrowed even a dime, he returned it punctually and scru- pulously. He met all his obligations, and expected every one else to do the same. He was always neat in his dress. He sent for a barber on the morning of his death, and was cleanly shaved at his own expressed desire. He always showed great respect for religion. He was born with an appreciation of the courtesies due on all occasions. He was a hard worker. He prepared himself for all public occa- sions. His speeches were the result of study and fore- thought. While he was ready at all times to defend his honor at the pistol's mouth, he was magnanimous and gen- erous, and if, in the heat of the moment, he gave unmerited offense, he was quick to apologize and ask forgiveness. He was great everywhere. He towered when among the most distinguished. One of Mr. Clay's most remarkable traits was his power over men. He was born to command. On one occasion, after the burning of the old court-house, and while court was being temporarily held in the "old Rankin Meeting-house," which stood on the site of the present city school-house, on the corner of Walnut and Short streets, Mr. Clay was called upon to defend a pris- oner. Mr. Clay demanded the warrant, looked at it, found it defective and illegal, and turning at once to the prisoner, said to him, "Go home, sir!" The man hesitated. "Go
*Colton.
tJames O. Harrison, executor of Mr. Clay.
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[1797
home!" thundered Mr. Clay. The man jumped up at once and "put out," without an effort on the part of the astounded sheriff or judge to stop him. No one thought of resisting that imperial personal power.
On the 25th of June, 1847, Mr. Clay united with the Episcopal Church in Lexington.
The tremendous exertions made by Mr. Clay in 1849-50, in behalf of the compromise measures, which employed his whole heart and brain, night and day, sapped his vital powers. The excitement while it lasted kept him alive, but bodily decay soon followed. The last summer Mr. Clay spent with his family and friends in Lexing- ton was in 1850. His health was quite delicate. He looked like a victim of consumption .* Returning to Wash- ington city, "broken with the storms of state," and scathed with many a fiery conflict, Henry Clay gradually de- scended toward the tomb. After the month of March, 1852, he wasted rapidly away, and for weeks lay patiently await- ing the stroke of death. For some days before his death he was not allowed to walk, even with the support of others. His physician, the eminent Dr. Jackson, of Phila- delphia, told him on one occasion not to attempt to walk, that if he stood erect he would faint, and that if he should faint he would breathe no more. "Why is this?" asked Mr. Clay. "Because there is not enough of vitality in the heart to give circulation to the blood." "Has it then come to this," said Mr. Clay, and for a moment sorrow- fully. And seeing the necessity, he suffered himself to be borne like a child to and from his bed.
On the morning of June 28, the great change commenced, and found him ready. The dying statesman whispered to his friend, the Rev. Dr. Butler, "I have an abiding trust in the merits and mediation of our Savior." At night he was calm, but his mind wandered. In a low and distinct voice he named his wife and son and other relatives in a disconnected manner. On the morning of the 29th, he continued perfectly tranquil, though exceedingly feeble, and manifesting a disposition to slumber. About ten
*Journals.
213
HENRY CLAY.
1797.]
o'clock he asked for some cool water, which he was in the habit of taking through a silver tube; upon removing the tube from his mouth, he appeared to have more difficulty in swallowing than previously. He turned to his son and said, " Don't leave me." Soon after he motioned to have his shirt collar opened, and then added, " I am going soon." Serenely he breathed his last, at eleven o'clock A. M., in the presence of his son Thomas, Governor Jones, of Tennessee, and his favorite servant, Charles. His last moments were calm and quiet, and he seemed in full possession of all his faculties, and apparently suffering but little. His counte- nance to the last indicated a full knowledge of his condition.
He had long since made every preparation for his death, giving his son full instructions as to the disposition of his body and the settlement of his worldly affairs.
The sad news was at once flashed to Lexington, when every place of business was immediately closed, and the solemn tolling of the bells announced the great grief that had fallen upon the home of Clay. After every tribute of respect and love had been rendered the illustrious dead in Washington, solemn and impressive funeral honors and services were conducted in the senate chamber at twelve M. of June 31, in the presence of the President and his cabinet, both houses of Congress, the diplomatic corps, and a host of distinguished men from all parts of the country. After laying in state in the capitol building until four o'clock P. M., the body was placed upon a train for Baltimore, but did not reach Lexington until the whole nation, by the most extensive and beautiful demonstrations, had evinced its love and sorrow for the departed sage.
On the morning of Saturday, July 10, his funeral took place at his home, Lexington. (See chapter on 1852.) In the presence of a mighty concourse of the sorrowing, at the sound of the dirge, the minute guns, and the tolling bells, a great procession of his mourning fellow-citizens car- ried him tenderly, and with every token of love and respect, from the old house at Ashland to Christ Church, and from thence to the Lexington Cemetery. Mr. Clay's body was first deposited in the public vault, afterward it was in-
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[1797.
terred by the side of his mother, and lastly, in 1857, it was incased in a beautiful marble sarcophagus, and placed per- manently in the chamber of the Clay monument, then completed. On one of the last days of his life, he said to Judge Underwood, his colleague in the senate, "There may be some question where my remains shall be buried. Some persons may designate Frankfort. I wish to repose in the cemetery at Lexington, where many of my friends and connections are buried."* And so it is this day. Upon the marble sarcophagus, in enduring letters, can be seen these memorable words, uttered by Mr. Clay :
" I can, with unshaken confidence, appeal to the Divine Arbiter for the truth of the declaration that I have been influenced by no impure purpose, no personal motive, have sought no personal aggrandizement, but that, in all my public acts, I have had a sole and single eye, and a warm, devoted heart, directed and dedicated to what, in my best judgment, I believed to be the true interests of my country."
Another marble sarcophagus rests near that of Mr. Clay. It contains the remains of his wife and life-long companion, Mrs. Lucretia Clay, who died in April, 1864, aged seventy-three.
Mr. and Mrs. Clay had eleven children-six daughters and five sons. Two daughters died in infancy. Lucretia died at Ashland, aged fourteen. Eliza died at the same age, while en route for Washington city. Mrs. Duralde only lived to be twenty. Mrs. Irwine died in 1835. Henry, Jr., was killed at Buena Vista, in 1847. James B. died in Canada, in 1864, aged forty seven. Theodore died in 1871, at the age of sixty-nine. Thomas H., born in 1803, died in 1872. John M. Clay, born in 1821, is the only surviving child of the Cicero of the West. All of the deceased mem- bers of the household sleep in the family lot in the Lexing- ton Cemetery, where also repose the remains of Elizabeth Watkins, the mother of the great Clay.
Ashland, for nearly half a century the home of Mr. Clay, is situated about a mile and a half from the Lexington
*Judge Underwood.
215
HENRY CLAY.
1797.]
court-house, on the southwest side of the turnpike leading to Richmond. The grounds are beautiful, and the forest trees magnificent. The land, which is not surpassed for richness in the famous " Blue Grass Region," cost Mr. Clay about ten dollars an acre, in 1805 or 1806. The "old house" which Mr. Clay occupied, stood on the site of the present beautiful residence, which was erected by James B. Clay, in 1857. The " old house" was a spacious and comfortable brick mansion, devoid of architectural adornment. Here Mr. and Mrs. Clay entertained, with simple elegance, Daniel Webster, Lafayette, President Monroe, Mr. Lowndes, Martin Van Buren, Mr. Politica (the Russian minister), General Bertrand, Lord Morpeth, and a host of other dis- tinguished men of this and foreign countries.
Mr. Clay's law office* was, for a long time, in the house now occupied by Dr. Bruce, on Mill, between Church and Second streets. He, and his son James, also used the office now occupied by Judge Carr, on Short, between Upper and Limestone streets. Some of Mr. Clay's grandest oratorical efforts were made in the present court-house, and in the yard surrounding it. Before Mr. Clay purchased Ashland, he lived in a house erected on the site of the Hunter resi- dence, on Mill street, and opposite his old law office.
*Jas. O Harrison and Wm. Swift.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1798.
CHAPTER XXX.
Resolutions of "'98"-St. Andrew's Society : List of Members- Caledonian Club-Jesse Bledsoe.
NOWHERE in the United States was the administration of President John Adams more odious than in Lexington, and when, on the 9th of November, 1798,* the Kentucky legislature passed the resolutions introduced by John Breck- inridge, of Fayette, protesting against the notorious alien and sedition laws, the gratification and excitement of the citizens was intense. Liberty poles and tri-color cockades were more numerous then in Lexington than in any other place in the whole country.
The Scotchmen of Lexington organized an association on the 17th of November, 1798,; which they entitled the " St. Andrew's Society of Lexington, in the State of Kentucky." John Maxwell was the chairman of the meeting of organiza- tion, and George Muter, afterward one of the judges of the supreme court of the state, was elected the first president. The objects of the society, as stated verbatim in the pre- amble to its constitution, were : "To promote philanthropy amongst those of the natives of Scotland who have chosen as their residence different parts of the State of Kentucky, and to promote a friendly union and intercourse with the de- scendants of parents who came originally from that coun- try; desirous, also, to extend the benevolent hand of relief to such of this description, whether presently residing in said state, or who may hereafter arrive therein."
The first anniversary meeting was held in Megowan's tavern, on Friday, November 30, 1798, when a dinner was
*Butler.
tSociety Records.
217
JUDGE BLEDSOE.
1798.]
given, which was enjoyed by the members of the society, and a number of invited guests. The original members of the society were Alexander McGregor, John Cameron, William McBean, John Maxwell, David Reid, Richard Lake, John Arthur, William Todd, Thomas Reid, George Muter, Miles McCoun, James Russell, Alexander Springle, and James Bain. Up to 1806, the following additional names had been added to the roll of the society, viz: Rob- ert Campbell, Allan B. McGruder, John Bradford, Daniel McBean, John Brand, John Ferrier, Thomas Bodley, E. Sharpe, William Miller, George Anderson, John Jackson, and Joseph McClear. The St. Andrew's Society has been succeeded by the present "Caledonian Club," which regu- larly celebrates the birthday of Robert Burns.
About the year 1798, Jesse Bledsoe commenced the study of law in Lexington .* Judge Bledsoe was born in Cul- pepper county, Virginia, April 6, 1776, and was the son of Joseph Bledsoe, a Baptist preacher, and Elizabeth Miller, his wife. Judge Bledsoe was brought by an elder brother to the neighborhood of Lexington when a boy, and was sent to Transylvania Seminary, where he soon made him- self conspicuous by his talents, industry, and scholarly attainments. After completing his collegiate course, he studied law, and commenced its practice with success and reputation. About this time, he married the eldest daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Gist.
He early attracted popular attention and favor, and was frequently elected to the Kentucky legislature. He was at one time state senator from Bourbon county, after which his superior abilities caused him to receive the appointment of secretary of state under Governor Charles Scott. In 1812, while a member of the legislature, he was elected to the United States Senate, the distinguished John Pope being his colleague. He was appointed circuit judge in the Lexington district, by Governor Adair, in 1822, where- upon he removed to, and settled permanently in Lexing- ton; where, before, he had only resided at times. Simul-
*Collins.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1798.
taneous with his appointment as judge, he was made pro- fessor of law in Transylvania University, and after ably filling both places for a number of years, he resigned, and resumed the practice of liw.
Subsequently, he abandoned his profession for a short time for that of the ministry; and in 1831,* he preached the dedication sermon on the opening of the Christian Church, on the corner of Mill and Hill streets. In 1833, Judge Bledsoe removed to Mississippi, and from thence, in 1835,t to Texas, and was gathering materials for a history of that new Republic, when he was taken sick and died, June 25, 1836, at Nacogdoches. Judge Bledsoe was a man of powerful intellect, no little eccentricity, and remarkable eloquence. His speeches were noted for strength, wit, originality, and fire, and rarely failed to carry conviction with them. In his best days, but few men were considered the mental equals of Judge Bledsoe. Amos Kendall, who knew him in his palmiest day, said of him :{ " Mr. Bledsoe was a man sui generis. He was endowed with splendid talents, and with the exception of Henry Clay, was the most eloquent man in Kentucky. His manner was slow and deliberate, his language beautiful, his gestures graceful, and his thoughts communicated with the utmost clearness." Judge Bledsoe's residence in Lexington was, at one time, on the place now occupied by Mr. A. M. Barnes, fronting on Fourth street, and at the head of Walnut. At another time, he lived on Short, between Walnut and Dewees streets, and in the house now occupied by Mr. Armstrong.
*Observer and Reporter. +Collins. #Kendall's Biography.
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STREET IMPROVEMENT, ETC.
1799.]
CHAPTER XXVI.
Street Improvement-Second Constitutional Convention-Ken- tucky Vineyard Association.
THE first improvement of the streets of Lexington com- menced in 1799, in which year a part of Main street was paved. Up to this time, the citizens had contented them- selves with narrow "log-walks," with here and there a broad, flat stone. Macadamized roads were unknown, and mud-holes were so deep and numerous on Main street and the "public square," that the trustees had a " bridge" ex- tended from the court-house to what is now called Carty's corner .* The " Branch," or as it was then frequently called, the "Canal," rose so high in 1799, that it overflowed the bridge which extended across it on Upper street.
It did not take the people of Kentucky many years to discover that they wanted a more democratic constitution than that of 1792, and a convention to revise it was accordingly called by the legislature. In May, 1799, the following delegates were elected in Fayette to the convention, which met the succeeding June, viz: John McDowell, Buckner Thurston, John Breckenridge, W. Carr, ru and John Bell. The convention framed the second consti- tution of Kentucky, which went into effect in June, 1800.
The Kentucky Vineyard Association was formed in Lex- ington in 1799, and seven hundred and fifty acres of land, "lying in the big bend of the Kentucky river, near the mouth of Hickman creek," were purchased. The asso- ciation assured the public that, "in less than four years, wine may be drank on the banks of the Kentucky, pro- duced from European stock." This was, probably, the first regular attempt to cultivate a vineyard ir. America.
*Trustees' Book.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1800.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Population of Lexington-Death of Washington-The Great Revival.
IN the year 1800, Lexington was the rising town of the West. Her population amounted to two thousand four hundred, while the adjacent village of Cincinnati, which bought much of its merchandise in Lexington, could only claim a population of seven hundred and fifty.
The news of the death of Washington, which occurred December 14, 1799, was a long time in creeping "out West;" but as soon as it was known in Lexington, due respect was paid to the memory of the Father of his Country. On the 22d of January, 1800,* the town council unanimously "Re- solved, That the trustees of Lexington will join the pro- cession on Saturday next from respect to the memory of George Washington, as commander-in-chief of the Revo- lutionary army of the United States, who led his country to independence, and then resumed his station as a private citizen in 1783." The " procession " formed at Masons' Hall, at twelve o'clock M., on Saturday, January 25, 1800, and was composed of military with arms reversed, musicians, trustees, president, professors and students of Transylvania Univer- sity, Masons in regalia, clerk of the town and board of trustees, clergy, justices of the peace, and private citizens. To the measure of a solemn dirge, the procession slowly moved to the frame Presbyterian church on Cheapside, when an ap- propriate address was delivered by Professor James Brown, of Transylvania University.t
The remarkable religious excitement which had com- menced in the Green river country some time before, reached
*Town Records.
tOld Gazette.
221
THE GREAT REVIVAL.
1800.]
Lexington and Fayette county in 1800. It was confined to Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists, and before the " great revival," as it is called, had ended, the most aston- ishing events transpired. At Lexington and Walnut Hill, meetings were commenced which frequently extended through entire days and nights. The people attended in vast crowds from all the surrounding country, on foot, on horseback, and in every imaginable vehicle, bringing with them tents, provisions, and cooking utensils for a protracted visit, and often a camp-meeting concourse would number from ten to twenty thousand persons. The wildest excite- ment, and the most ridiculous extravagances, characterized these meetings. A hymn or an exhortation was the signal to the living mass of humanity to shout and groan and laugh and scream until the noise was almost equal to the ocean in a storm. Visions and trances were of frequent occurrence. In Lexington,* a woman swooned, and when she awoke, said she had been walking on the tree tops. One fainted and had a vision of heaven, and another had a view of hell. These epileptic evidences of piety were succeeded by growling and barking, kissing and hugging, dancing, jerking, falling, rolling, and tumbling. The influence of the imagination on the nervous system has never been more strikingly illustrated than during the "great revival " of 1800.
*Lyle, 7.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1801.
CHAPTER XXVIII. The First Kentucky Bank-Nail Factory.
THE first bank chartered in Kentucky was the Lexing- ton Insurance Company, which was incorporated by the legislature in 1801,* and inadvertently with banking privi- leges. The clause giving it such powers was not per- ceived or understood by the members, and they voted for the bill, while they were bitterly hostile to all banks. The officers of "the bank," as the institution was always called in early days, were : President, William Morton ; directors, John Jordon, Stephen Waute, Thos. Hart, and Thomas Wallace; cashier, John Bradford; clerk, Wm. McBean. The bank was located on Main, between Mill and Broad- way, about where the Scott bakery now stands, and issued bills of various denominations. The bank was subsequently located on the site of Thompson and Boyd's saddlery store, on Main, between Upper and Limestone. The institution exploded in 1818.
A cut-nail manufactory, the first one in Kentucky, was established in Lexington, by George Norton, in 1801. Ten- penny nails were sold at one shilling fourpence per pound, and six pennies at one shilling sixpence. Cincinnati bought all her nails in Lexington, and purchasers often came from points two hundred miles distant for Lexington nails, and carried them home in saddle-bags on horseback. In fact, Lexington was then the metropolis of a great ter- ritory, and was noted among other things fort her stores, manufactories, newspaper, taverns, paper and powder mills, tanyards, and her two rope-walks, which supplied the ship- ping on the Ohio.
*Acts Legislature.
+Michaux.
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MEDICAL SOCIETY, ETC.
1802-3-4.]
CHAPTER XXIX.
Medical Society-Members-Musical Society-Lorenzo Dow- Miscellaneous-G. M. Bibb-Dr. Joseph Buchanan.
THE " Lexington Medical Society" was in active opera- tion in 1802, and numbered among its members Drs. B. W. Dudley, Samuel Brown, Frederick Ridgely, Walter Warfield, J. L. Armstrong, and others .*
Thomas Paine's writings afforded Lexington subjects for long and animated discussions in 1803. In this year, a musical society was formed. The excitement in regard to the acquisition of Louisiana was such that "volunteers for New Orleans" paraded on the streets.t
The citizens of Lexington celebrated the annexation of Louisiana, in the spring of 1804, by a grand barbecue, at Maxwell Spring, at which patriotic toasts were given, and salutes were fired by four military companies. In June, twelve splendid looking Indian chiefs of the Osage nation, passed through the city on their way to Washington, to try to effect a treaty with the United States. The noted and eccentric Lorenzo Dow arrived in Lexington, on foot, October 3d, and preached a characteristic sermon.
In 1804, and for several years after, the late distinguished George M. Bibb was a member of the Lexington bar. He was a native of Virginia, and a graduate of Princeton. He died April 14, 1859, aged eighty, after having been successively senator in Congress, chief justice of Ken- tucky court of appeals, and secretary of the treasury under Tyler. Hon. John J. Crittenden studied law in Lexington, under Mr. Bibb, in 1805.
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