Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/179

Rh honor to consult me in reference to a step he was about to take, and which will, perhaps, occur to your minds without a more direct allusion. After stating what he proposed, it was remarked that such a step might be offensive to the ultras of both parties, in the excitement which then existed. To this Mr. Clay replied: ‘I trust the sentiments and opinions are correct; I had rather be right than be President.

This was a fine saying. But, alas! Clay wanted very much to be President, and men who want very much to be President are often not fully conscious of their motives. What he called “right” on this occasion he would not have called right at other periods of his life. He said it with the presidency in his mind. But it did not make him President after all.

He repeated something feebly resembling the sentiments expressed in his speech against the abolitionists, when presenting an anti-slavery petition a year later, in February, 1840. But he showed again that he had by no means lost the appreciation of the moral feelings of mankind with regard to slavery. In April, 1840, when discussing a set of resolutions offered by Calhoun protesting against the liberation of slaves on the American brig Enterprise, which had been forced by stress of weather into a British West Indian port, Clay expressed regret that such resolutions had been offered, for he thought “that prudence and discretion should admonish us not too often to