Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/43

Rh “More than thirty years ago, an attempt was made, in this commonwealth, to adopt a system of gradual emancipation, similar to that which the illustrious Franklin had mainly contributed to introduce in 1780, in the state founded by the benevolent Penn. And among the acts of my life which I look back to with most satisfaction is that of my having coöperated, with other zealous and intelligent friends, to procure the establishment of that system in this state. We were overpowered by numbers, but submitted to the decision of the majority with that grace which the minority in a republic should ever yield to that decision. I have, nevertheless, never ceased, and shall never cease, to regret a decision, the effects of which have been to place us in the rear of our neighbors, who are exempt from slavery, in the state of agriculture, the progress of manufactures, the advance of improvements, and the general progress of society.”

His early advocacy of that cause no doubt displeased the people of Kentucky; but what helped him promptly to overcome that displeasure was the excitement caused by another topic of great public interest, on which he was in thorough accord with them, — the alien and sedition laws, that tremendous blunder of the Federalists in the last days of their power. The conduct of the French government toward the United States, and especially the corrupt attempts of its agents, revealed by the famous X Y Z correspondence, had greatly weakened that sympathy with the French Revolution which was one of the most efficacious means of agitation in the hands of the American Democrats.