A Brief Introduction to Lincoln's Eulogy for Henry Clay
Shortly after Henry Clay’s death in Washington, DC on June 29, 1852, Abraham Lincoln helped organize a memorial service in Springfield, Illinois to honor the public servant and distinguished Whig leader. The centerpiece of this event was a eulogy delivered by Lincoln in which he paid homage to the man who he said was best known for his “deep devotion to the cause of human liberty” and who took “a prominent part, as he did, in all the great political questions of his country for the last half century.”[1] Clay was so widely regarded as an instrumental figure in American politics that after his death he lay in repose in the Senate Chamber of the US Capitol, the first person to be bestowed that honor.[2] He was also such a central figure that he was eulogized by countless politicians in addition to Abraham Lincoln. In the U.S. Congress alone, 22 House members and Senators spoke about him after his death, with a combined length of 135 pages of the Congressional record devoted to words about Clay.[3] Most of these eulogies focused on his work as “The Great Compromiser”, the man who brought the nation back from the brink during the crises surrounding Missouri statehood, nullification of the Tariff of 1828, and debated territorial expansion in the aftermath of the Mexican War.
Lincoln focused on the “Whiggish” legislative successes of Clay in the eulogy, and presents himself as the natural heir to Clay’s political legacy. At the time of Clay’s death, Abraham Lincoln had been retired from the U.S. Congress for over two years but he was still engaged in Whig politics. In fact, in the same week that Clay died, Lincoln was chosen as an Illinois representative to the Whig national committee, signifying his continued activism and importance in the Democrat-dominated state. Abraham Lincoln was positioning himself to return to public life and elected office by masterfully connecting himself to one of the most beloved and respected politicians of the last half century. [1] Abraham Lincoln, “Eulogy on Henry Clay, July 6, 1852,” in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press) 1953. [2] Zachariah Frederick Smith, "Henry Clay (1777-1852)." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 10, no. 28 (1912): 22. [3] Mark E. Neely, Jr., "American Nationalism in the Image of Henry Clay: Abraham Lincoln's Eulogy on Henry Clay in Context," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 73, no. 1 (1975): 540. 548. |