All his life long he fought for national issues; for the
War of 1812, for a protective tariff and an "American system,"
for the Missouri Compromise of 1820 as a measure for national
safety; and he had plead generously for the young South American
republics and for struggling Greece. He had become the perpetual
candidate of his party for the Presidency, and had gone down
again and again in unforeseen and heart-rending defeat. Yet he
could say honorably: "If any one desires to know the leading and
paramount object of my public life, the preservation of this
union will furnish him the key." One could wish that the speeches
of this fascinating American were more readable today. They seem
thin, facile, full of phrases--such adroit phrases as would catch
the ear of a listening, applauding audience. Straight, hard
thinking was not the road to political preferment in Clay's day.
Calhoun had that power, as Lincoln had it. Webster had the
capacity for it, although he was too indolent to employ his great
gifts steadily. Yet it was Webster who analyzed kindly and a
little sadly, for he was talking during Clay's last illness and
just before his own, his old rival's defect in literary quality:
"He was never a man of books .
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