Thursday, December 17, 2009

Henry Clay on Posterity


[Henry Clay] also harbored a certain intellectual arrogance, manifest in a biting invective directed at those he considered less brainy than himself. Bored by a loquacious man who suggested he spoke for posterity, Clay interjected, "Yes, and you seem resolved to speak until the arrival of your audience."

Robert W. Merry, A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent.

About the illustration:
An anti-Jackson broadside issued during the 1824 presidential election campaign. The text strongly criticizes Jackson's anti-tariff platform and condemns him and William Coleman as advocates of British interests. The author also praises Henry Clay's support of American home industry. The illustrations symbolically represent Industry, Commerce, and Agriculture. The first shows a man at a loom, with the motto "National Industry is National Wealth" below. The central vignette shows a sailing ship with "John Quincy Adams of Washington" across its stern, and flags reading "Free Trade & Sailors Rights" and "No Colonial Subjection" flying from its masts. On the right is a view of a man plowing a field, a liberty pole with a banner inscribed "Speed the Plough," and, in the distance, a small cottage. Below is the motto "Agriculture is the Source of Prosperity."

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