Speech at the Delaware Whig Mass Convention, held at Wilmington, June 15, 1844
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format. Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship.
Address on the Life, Character, and Services of Com; Jacob Jones: Delivered in Wilmington Tuesday, December 17, 1850 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Address on the Life, Character, and Services...)
Excerpt from Address on the Life, Character, and Services of Com; Jacob Jones: Delivered in Wilmington Tuesday, December 17, 1850
At that period many patriotic bosoms burned with de sire to avengethe wrongs of our country; and Truxton shed new and unfading lustre on the glory of the American name. Can we fail at this day to pay the just tribute of our gratitude to the memory of the brave, who, while the nation was yet in its infancy, sprang forward to defend it against one of the most powerful nations of Europe. Our Navy, upon which we now depend as the right arm of the nation's defense, then consisted of but five frigates, nineteen sloops of war, and a few ships of an inferior class; and a contest with the well-equipped frigates and heavy ships of the line of the aggressor, seemed to promise little besides disaster and defeat.
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Speech of Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, delivered at the Whig mass meeting held in Wilmington on the 15th of June, 1844
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format. Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship.
John Middleton Clayton was an American farmer, lawyer, and statesman. He was a member of the Whig Party who served in the Delaware General Assembly, and as U. S. Senator from Delaware and U. S. Secretary of State.
Background
John Middleton Clayton was born on July 24, 1796 in Dagsborough, Sussex County, Delaware, United States. He was a descendant of the Quaker, Joshua Clayton, who accompanied William Penn to America. From his mother, Sarah Middleton of Annapolis he derived conversational fluency and charm; from his father, James Clayton of Delaware, an interest in law and politics. When he was still an infant the family removed to Milford, Kent County, where James Clayton engaged in the milling and tanning business as well as in farming.
Education
At home, John was well grounded in the Bible and Shakespeare, and in academies at Berlin and Lewes and Milford he secured his early schooling and preparation for Yale College, from which he graduated in 1815 with the highest honors. Following this, he spent some time in the law office of his cousin, Thomas Clayton, after which he attended the famous law school at Litchfield, Connecticut, for almost two years.
Career
At Georgetown in November 1819 he was admitted to the bar, and soon began practise in Dover. Clayton's superior training, remarkable memory, great eloquence, charming manners, and rare skill as a cross-examiner, won him a reputation unrivaled in Delaware. He was counsel in more than a thousand cases, some of them nationally famous. He reached his majority in the politically dull "era of good feeling, " and at first took little interest in partisan politics, though, following family tradition, he allied himself with the Federalist group. He early developed, however, a deep love for his native Delaware, and served it while still very young in various state offices. The bitter Adams-Jackson strife made him an ardent partisan. His services to the local Whigs in 1828 won him a seat in the national Senate. Though the youngest member of that body, he at once became very active, and soon established his reputation as an orator, his first notable speech, made in 1830, being in favor of the Foote Resolution. The next year he began an investigation of the abuses in the Post Office Department, which resulted in reform and reorganization. He had strong affection for the Union, and supported Jackson in the nullification controversy; but opposed the President's bank policy, and voted for the resolution of censure against the removal of the deposits. An intense advocate of protection, he aided Henry Clay greatly in putting through the tariff bill of 1833. In 1834 he was reelected to the Senate, but, feeling that his family needed him, he resigned in 1836 and became chief justice of Delaware. After two and a half years he left the state bench to campaign for William Henry Harrison, and for some time following Harrison's election he devoted most of his energies to scientific farming near New Castle, and became noted as an agriculturalist far beyond the borders of Delaware. Though rather disgusted with the political trend, in 1845 Clayton again accepted election to the federal Senate, where he favored peace with England and Mexico, but supported the Mexican War after it had begun. From his position in the Senate he took an active interest in the presidential election of 1848. Though long a close friend of Henry Clay, he felt that the latter had no chance of election, and so gave his support to Gen. Zachary Taylor. His reward was the portfolio of the State Department. But the defection brought a permanent coolness between himself and Clay, and thereafter his closest political friend and adviser was Gov. John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. He was also in close confidential relations with Richard Montgomery Bird, editor of the Philadelphia daily, the North American. In this paper, Clayton had a large financial interest, and from it he usually received hearty support for his policies. When he joined Taylor's cabinet, Clayton was one of the most attractive personalities in the Capital. As secretary of state, it was his policy to pay strict regard to international obligations, as well as to the rights of his own country, and to promote assiduously American commerce. He, accordingly, did his utmost to prevent the departure of filibustering expeditions for Cuba, but when a group of alleged filibusters were unjustifiably seized on the Mexican coast by a Spanish vessel, he vigorously contended for and ultimately secured their release. Nevertheless, due largely to the influence of Taylor, he made upon Portugal extreme demands for indemnity for the destruction of American vessels, refused arbitration, and presented what was virtually an ultimatum of war; and with France the United States was brought to the very brink of conflict over the merest trifle, by the Secretary's undiplomatic language and the arbitrary stand of the President. Clayton's commercial plans were more successful and made for national progress and continental well-being. The program prepared at his instruction for opening up trade relations with the Orient was used a few years later by Perry in his expedition to Japan. With England, he made the famous Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which was doubtless his most important work. The agreement, which perhaps averted war with England, provided for a neutralized international canal across Central America, and contained pledges that ultimately forced Great Britain to withdraw from large tracts of territory which, in plain violation of the rights of the Central-American nations, it had been occupying upon the Isthmus. Taylor died, however, before the treaty could be put into effect, and Clayton gave up his office, July 22, 1850, and retired to his farm. But when in 1852 Cass, Douglas, and others began to attack the treaty which he had made with Bulwer, Clayton again returned to the Senate, and ably defended the document. He now worked with great effort, for his health was rapidly declining from kidney disease, and he realized that his career was drawing to a close. The end came in Dover, at the home of his niece, and he was buried beside his wife and sons in the cemetery of the local Presbyterian Church.
Achievements
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he facilitated the settlement of the boundary dispute between Michigan and Ohio, which left the Upper Peninsula to the former.
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Politics
A Whig, he remained loyal to the party until it went to pieces, when he joined the embryonic Republican group.
Personality
He was more than six feet tall and well-built, with good features, dominated by large, friendly gray eyes shaded by dark, bushy brows, but his hair, worn brushed back in pompadour style, was prematurely white. In conversation he was brilliant; in manners, polished. He was unusually kind-hearted and unselfish; but was known at times to use questionable methods to gain political ends; and was somewhat wanting in tact and patience, as well as in firmness and stability of character.
Connections
In 1822 he married Sarah Ann, daughter of James Fisher, a physician of Kent.
