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LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

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C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO., 25 PARK ROW

SAN FRANCISCO: H. H. BANCROFT & CO.

1860.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852,

BY H. GREELEY & T. MCELRATH,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court, cf the United States, dr the Southern Distric, dog Y.ek.

78887

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SEVERAL sketches, more or less elaborate, of the Character and Career of HENRY CLAY, appeared during his life-time, oftener prefixed to collections of his Speeches; though one independent Memoir, of decided merit, was written more than twenty years since by GEORGE D. PRENTICE, Editor of the Louisville Journal, and then widely disseminated. That, however, has long been out of print, while the more eventful and memorable half of Mr. Clay's biography was yet in the future when Mr. Pren tice wrote. And I have reason to believe that Mr. Clay himself gave the preference, among all the narratives of his life which had fallen under his notice, to that of EPES SARGENT, first issued in 1842, and republished, with its author's revisions and additions, in the summer of 1848.

The aim of Mr. Sargent was not so much to impart his own conception of Mr. Clay's views and motives as to enable every reader to infer them directly from the Statesman's own words, or those of his illustrious cotemporaries-whether compatriots or rivals. His work, therefore, is rather a collection of authentic materials for the future biographer than an original and exhaustive essay. For the time had not arrived-nay, has not yet arrived -for a final and authoritative analysis of Mr. Clay's character, nor for a conclusive estimate of the nature, value, tendencies,

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