Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/417

Rh concerning the inscription to be put upon a large gold medal which his friends in New York caused to be struck in commemoration of his public services. The inscription, as amended by him, read thus: —

These were the salient points of his career which Clay himself desired most to be remembered. Singularly enough, the policy of internal improvements was not named in this enumeration, and it is a significant fact that the longest and bitterest of his political struggles — that for the Bank of the United States against Jackson — could not be mentioned in the list of his public services; nor would his efforts to be made President of the United States, which had so intensely engaged his mind and heart, fit a record of the things he was proud of.

But, however incomplete, that record showed how large a place Henry Clay had filled in the public affairs of the Republic during almost half a