tend to their suits here. He would not be a candidate for the next Congress, as it would materially injure his business. On the second reading of the bill to erect a bridge over the Potomac, Henry Clay made an eloquent and forcible speech against the postponement. He animadverted with great severity on Tracy's observations. As a speaker Clay is animated, his language bold and flowery. He is prompt and ready at reply, but he does not reason with the force and precision of Bayard.”
And finally: —
“February 13. Henry Clay is a man of pleasure; fond of amusements. He is a great favorite with the ladies; is in all parties of pleasure; out almost every evening; reads but little; indeed, he said he meant this session should be a tour of pleasure. He is a man of talents; is eloquent; but not nice or accurate in his distinctions. He declaims more than he reasons. He is a gentlemanly and pleasant companion; a man of honor and integrity.”
The reports of Clay's speeches delivered at this session, which have been preserved, do not bear out Mr. Plumer's description of them. His oratory seldom was what might properly be called “flowery.” While his appeals rose not unfrequently to somewhat lofty flights of rhetoric, he used figurative language sparingly. His speeches, occasional passages excepted, consisted of argumentative reasoning, which, in print, appears not seldom somewhat dry and heavy. But the dramatic fire of delivery peculiar to him gave that reasoning a vivacity to which the Senate, then a very small and
