Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/394

384 ate beginning immediately after the adjournment of Congress for the consideration of executive business, and Senators holding themselves entitled to compensation for traveling expenses as if between the adjournment of Congress on March 4th and the opening of the “called session” on the 5th they had journeyed to their homes and returned to Washington.

Clay's health was seriously impaired. A severe cough tormented him, of which his physicians did not seem to know the cause. “I have finally concluded,” he wrote to his wife, “to return by Cuba and New Orleans. The great difficulty I have felt in coming to the conclusion has been my long absence from you, and my desire to be with you. But my cough continues; although I do not lay up, my health is bad, and the weather has been the worst of March weather. I hope that I may be benefited by the softer climate of Cuba. I expect to go on the 11th from New York in the steamer Georgia. And I think my absence from home will not be prolonged beyond a month; that is, the middle of April.”

But the climate of Cuba did not meet his hopes. His cough continued to distress him. During the summer of 1851 he remained at Ashland, watching the course of events and corresponding with his friends. Again he was addressed by over-zealous admirers who desired to bring him forward as a candidate for the presidency in 1852. The ambition of others pursued him when his own was