Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/282

 and gentleman Henry Clay, there is—a great distance, and I do not know why he just now presented himself to my memory out of the great number of persons that I saw in New York this week. I saw him at the house of Anne Lynch, who is one of his especial lady friends, and sometimes acts as his secretary. He is a very tall and thin old gentleman, with an unusually lofty, bald brow, an ugly but expressive countenance, an awkward figure, but with real grace of manner and a pleasing, sonorous voice. He has when he likes, and he always likes to have it with ladies, a remarkably obliging, I might say heart-felt, expression and manner. He is likewise surrounded by female worshippers, and he himself seems to be a great worshipper of woman. He has been some few days in New York, and overwhelmed by friends and invitations. He seemed, however, to me to bask himself in the sunshine of his popularity more than I should have thought an old man would have done. I should not have thought that he could have endured that horrible fine life of day labour!——The Americans have more enthusiasm for their great statesmen than the Europeans for their kings. Clay, though from one of their slave-states (Kentucky), is, I believe, a liberal-minded man, who understands and who desires the true greatness of his country. Although not properly of the Yankee race—for the Southern states were peopled by that political party, known in England under the name of Cavaliers, and opposed to the Puritans in manners, life, and temper—he has, nevertheless, some of that viking-spirit which distinguishes the sons of the New World. He is what is here designated “a self-made man;” his father was a poor farmer, and his life has been a restless combat on the stormy sea of politics; he has fought several duels, and as a senator, has combated by word, and by influence in the Congress of the United States, for the well-being of the Union at home and for its power