Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/59

Rh assemblage gathered in Lexington. Henry Clay was a young man of twenty-one at the time, newly come from Virginia, almost unknown, and hitherto unheard. The crowd hustled him into a wagon and told him to tell them the state of affairs. It was a splendid opportunity for a born orator, and he ably improved it. His own opinions and those of the crowd closely coincided. Youth gave boldness to his words if it detracted from his judgment. So, throwing himself without reserve into his subject, he denounced the hated laws with bold invectives, to the eminent satisfaction of his hearers and his own repute. The field wherein this youthful champion first fleshed his blade was too important to be left even to such an one. The two most able members of the bar, George Nicholas and John Breckinridge, came to the front at once. A meeting was held and resolutions were passed of the same general tenor with those which emanated from other counties. But George Nicholas was not content with this. After playing a most important part in the Virginia convention which ratified the Constitution, this able barrister moved to Lexington and early became prominent both in politics and at the bar. He was a brother of John Nicholas, member of Congress from Virginia, who ably combated these very laws and was prominent in securing their repeal. Another brother was Colonel Wilson Carey Nicholas, the intimate friend of Jefferson, senator and governor of Virginia, one of the ablest of the younger generation of Virginia Statesmen; and a third, Judge Philip Narbonne Nicholas,