Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/832

818 commenced to practise in Lexington. His great power of influencing a jury soon brought him a flourishing practice; and having taken a prominent part in the discussions as to the constitution which was drawn up for the State of Kentucky, he was in 1803 chosen member of the Legislature of that State. Three years later he became for a few months member of the Senate of the United States. In the next year he again took his seat in the Legislature of Kentucky, of which in 1808 he was appointed speaker. It was during this session that he challenged a fellow-member, who had attacked him warmly in debate. The meeting took place; two shots were fired, and both parties were slightly wounded. In 1811 he became at once member for the first time and speaker of the House of Congress, and he subsequently held the latter position four times. All his energies were now devoted to bringing about a declaration of war with Great Britain, and maintaining the contest with all the vigour possible. At the end of the war (1814) he was appointed one of the commissioners who was sent to Ghent to conclude the treaty of peace, and it was he who caused the erasure of the clause allowing Great Britain to navigate the Mississippi. During his visit to Europe he spent two months at Paris, enjoying the society of which Mme. de Staël was the queen. On his return to America he was again made speaker of Congress. In 1824 he allowed himself to be nominated for the office of president; but the election did not give to any one the required majority, and the decision between the three who had obtained the greatest number of votes had to be made by Congress. Clay, who had been fourth on the list, gave his support to Quincy Adams, whence arose his second duel, that with John Randolph, in which neither was hurt. Under Adams Clay accepted the post of secretary of state. In 1832 he was again candidate for the presidency, and again unsuccessfully; and in 1844 he was nominated for the third time with a similar result. He now retired from public life; but in 1848 he was again called into the Senate; and in 1850 he carried a bill, which sought to avert the great battle on the slavery question. In 1851, however, the weakness of his health prevented him from taking any part in public life; and on the 29th July of the next year he died. On receiving the news of his death Congress adjourned; next day orations in his praise were delivered in both houses; and the day of his funeral was observed in New York and in all the chief towns of the State to which he belonged.

Henry Clay commenced his political career in 1799 by attempting to persuade the State of Virginia to abolish slavery. He never, however, made any attempt to free the whole country from the system; indeed the effect of his policy (and the most important of his measures were those concerning slavery) was to maintain it. His name is connected with the “Missouri Compromise,” which, while abolishing slavery in all other States north of lat. 36º 30′, permitted it in Missouri, and with several other measures sanctioning slavery in the slave States. His bill of 1850, nicknamed the “omnibus bill,” provided that New Mexico and Utah, the States newly acquired from Mexico, should be left to their own discretion as to slavery, and that California should be received into the Union as a slave State; while, on the other hand, slavery should be prohibited in Columbia. Another most important feature of Clay's policy was the desire to free America from European control, which led him to advocate, in some of his most powerful speeches, the recognition of the independence of the South American republics which had revolted from Spain. The part he took in the war with England has been already noticed. His action with regard to the tariff was not uniform; in 1832 he proposed to reduce gradually a large number of duties, but afterwards he

more than once sought to make it more protective. Though first opposed to the establishment of a national bank, he subsequently spoke vigorously in its favour. For some time he was president of the Colonization Society. See the edition of his speeches and writings, with a life by Calvin Colton (1857 and 1864).  CLAZOMENÆ, now, a town of Ionia, and a member of the Ionian Dodecapolis, or Confederation of Twelve Cities, on the Gulf of Smyrna, about 20 miles from that city in a south-west direction. It stood originally on the isthmus connecting the mainland with the peninsula on which were Erythrre and other towns of note ; but the inhabitants, alarmed by the encroachments of the Persians, abandoned the continent and removed to one of the small islands of the bay, and there established their city in security, Tkis island was connected with the mainland by Alexander the Great by means of a pier, the remains of which are still visible. Though Clazomense was not in existence before the arrival of the lonians in Asia, its original founders were only partly lonians, the great pro portion being Phliasians and Cleona3ans. It remained for some time subject to the Athenians, but about the middle of the Peloponnesian war it revolted. After a brief resist ance, however, it again acknowledged the Athenian supremacy, and repelled the Lacedaemonians when they attempted to gain possession of the town. Under the Romans Clazomenas was included in the province of Asia, and enjoyed an immunity from taxation. The site of the city can still be made out, in the neighbourhood of Vourla, but nearly every portion of its ruins has been removed. Anaxagoras the philosopher was born in Clazomena?, 499 B.C.  CLEANTHES, a Stoic philosopher, born at Assos in Asia Minor, about 300 B.C., was originally a boxer. He first listened to the lectures of Crates the Cynic, and then to those of Zeno, the Stoic, supporting himself meanwhile by working all night as water-carrier to a gardener. His apparent idleness aroused suspicion, and he was summoned before the Areopagus ; but when his story became known the court offered him a present of ten mina?. which he refused to accept. His power of patient endurance, or perhaps his slowness, earned him the title of the Ass ; but such was the esteem awakened by his high moral qualities that, on the death of Zeno in 263, he became the leader of the school. He still, however, continued to support himself as before by the labour of his own hands. Among his pupils were his successor, Chrysippus, and Antigonus, king of Macedon, from whom he accepted 2000 minse. The story of his death, which took place about 220 or 225 B.C., is thus related. Being troubled by an ulcer, he had been directed to fast for a short time, but when that time had expired, he still refused to eat on the ground that he was now half-way on the road to death, and need not take the trouble of twice performing the journey.

1em  CLEARCHUS, a Spartan general of the 5th century B.C. After serving in the Hellespont and at the battle of Cyzicus, he became harmost of Byzantium ; but, during his absence, the town was surrendered, and he was consequently 