Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/47

Rh when Clay, presenting a petition of workingmen of Philadelphia, the “builders' memorial,” and speaking of the President's power to afford relief, suddenly turned upon the Vice-President, Van Buren, in the chair, and, as if involuntarily, moving down to the Vice-President's desk, apostrophized him personally in a most impressive burst of eloquence: —

“Those who in this chamber support the administration [he said] could not render a better service than to repair to the executive mansion, and, placing before the chief magistrate the naked and undisguised truth, prevail upon him to retrace his steps and abandon his fatal experiment. No one, sir, can perform that duty with more propriety than yourself. You can, if you will, induce him to change his course. To you, then, sir, in no unfriendly spirit, but with feelings softened and subdued by the deep distress which pervades every class of our countrymen, I make the appeal. Go to him and tell him, without exaggeration, but in the language of truth and sincerity, the actual condition of his bleeding country. Tell him it is nearly ruined and undone by the measures which he has been induced to put in operation. Tell him that in a single city more than sixty bankruptcies, involving a loss of upward of fifteen millions of dollars, have occurred. Tell him of the alarming decline of all property, of the depreciation of all the products of industry, of the stagnation in every branch of business, and of the close of numerous manufacturing establishments which, a few short months ago, were in active and flourishing operation. Depict to him, if you can find language to portray, the heart-rending wretch-