Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/21

Rh and less “well-born” people was materially lessened. Thus the “mill-boy of the Slashes,” having become known as a young man of uncommon intellectual brightness, high spirits, and good character, and being, besides, well introduced through his friendship with Chancellor Wythe, found it possible to come into friendly contact with persons of social pretensions far above his own. He succeeded even in organizing a “rhetorical society,” or debating club, among whose members there were not a few young men who subsequently became distinguished. It was on this field that he first achieved something like leadership, while his quick intelligence and his sympathetic qualities made him a favorite in a much larger circle. According to all accounts Henry Clay, at that period of his life, was untouched by vice or bad habit, and could in every respect be esteemed as an irreproachable and very promising young man.

But he soon discovered that all these things would not give him a paying practice as an attorney in Richmond so quickly as he desired; and as his mother and step-father had removed to Kentucky in 1792, he resolved to follow them to the western wilds, and there to “grow up with the country.” He was in his twenty-first year when he left Richmond, with his license to practice as an attorney, but with little else, in his pocket.

This was the end of Henry Clay's regular schooling. Thenceforth he did not again in his life find a period of leisure to be quietly and exclusively