CLAY
CLAY
began he was made captain of the " Old Infan-
try. ■' a company that had seen service under
General Harrison in 1811. While in the advance
of General Scotfs army, on their march to the
City of Mexico, he was taken prisoner, with sev-
enty others, Jan. 23, 1847, being one hundred
miles in the van of the main army. While prison-
ers in the Citj' of Mexico, Captain Clay, by his
presence of mind and gallant bearing, saved him-
self and comrades from death at the hands of
their captors. They were exchanged after Scott
had captured the city, and on his return to Ken-
tucky, Captain Clay was received by his political
enemies as a liero. In Lexington the whole
populace turned out ,to do him honor, and his
fellow citizens presented him with a sword in
token of their appreciation of his valor. In 1848
he supported General Taylor for the presidency,
carrying Kentucky for the ticket. He was still
determined to fight slavery and in 1849 he called
an emancipation convention at Frankfort. In
ISoO he formally separated from the Whig party
and accepted the nomination for governor on the
anti-slavery ticket, polling about 5000 votes in
the election. In the national couA-ention and
canvass of 1856 he gave liis support to Fremont
and in 1860 to Lincoln. He was a " Jeffei'sonian
emancipationist," and advocated emancipating
the slaves by law and reimbursing the owners
for their loss. On March 28, 1861, he was ap-
l)ointed by President Lincoln minister to Russia,
and repaired to Washington preparatory to leav-
ing on his mission, but when the national capital
was threatened he enlisted volunteers and or-
ganized Cla3^'s battalion, which he commanded
until troops arrived from the north. He then
.sailed for St. Petersburg, where his diplomacy
went far toward securing for the Union the sym-
pathy of the Czar. He resigned in June, 1862,
to accept a position as major-general of volun-
teers. In March, 1863, he resigned from the
army and President Lincoln again made him
U.S. minister to Russia, which post he occupied
until Sept. 25, 1869. On his return to the United
States he espoused the cause of the Cubans, tlien
fighting for independence, and was made presi-
dent of the Cuban aid society. He attacked the
administration of President Grant and su])ported
for the presidency Horace Greeley in 1872, Tilden
in 1876, and Hancock in 1880. After 1884,
when he gave his support to Mr. Blaine, he took
but little interest in national politics, living
quietly at his home, " Whitehall, " Ky. On
Dec. 13, 1894, General Clay, then in liis eighty-
fifth year, was married to Dora Richard.son, a
girl of fourteen, from whom he was divorced
in 1898. In 1897 he applied to the government
for a pension for his services in the Mexican war
as a precaution against poverty. A pension of
$50 per month was granted him in April, 1898.
He received the degree of LL.D. from Transyl-
vania university. See " The Life, Memoirs,
Writings and Speeclies of Cassius M. Clay (1896).
He died in Whitehall, Ky., July 22, 1903.
CLAY, Cecil, soldier, was born in Philadel- phia, Pa., Feb. 13, 1842; son of Joseph Ashmead and Cornelia (Fletcher) Clay; grandson of the Hon. Joseph and Mary (Ashmead) Clay; and great 3 grandson of Robert Clay of Sheffield, England, who immigrated to Philadelphia in 1710, and was married to Ann Curtis, grand- daughter of John Curtis of Kent county, Del., a member of Penn's council. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1859 and stud- ied law during 1860-61. In September, 1861, he was appointed 1st lieutenant, 58th Pennsylva- nia volunteers; was promoted captain in Febru- ary, 1862; major in September, 1864; lieutenant- colonel, Nov. 19, 1864, and colonel, Nov. 20, 1864. He was brevetted colonel and brigadier- general, U.S. volunteers, in 1865, and was mus- tered out of service Jan. 24, 1866. He lost his right arm and was shot through the left hand at the storming of Fort Harrison near Rich- mond, Va., Sept. 29, 1864, receiving a medal of honor for distinguished gallantry there. From 1866 to 1880 he was a lumber merchant in Vir- ginia and West Virginia, was clerk in the war department at Washington D.C., 1880-82; and clerk and chief clerk, department of justice, from 1882. He became a member of the Biologi- cal society of Washington; and a tru.stee of the reform school of the District of Columbia, April, 1887. From 1887 to 1897 he was colonel of the 2d regiment, D.C national guards. He was made a member of the Military Order of the loyal legion in 1886; of the Churchman's league, D.C, and of St. Andrew's brotherliood.
CLAY, Clement Claiborne, senator, was born at Huntsville, Ala., in December, 1817; son of Clement Comer Clay. His mother was a sister of Gen. Jonas M. Withers. He was graduated at the University of Alabama in 1834, .studied law at the University of Virginia, and was admitted to practice in 1840. He was a member of the general assembly of the state legislature in 1842, 1844 and 1845, and was judge of the ]Madison county court, 1846^8. In 1853 he was elected to the United States senate, where he was an ear- nest advocate of the theory of state rights as enunciated by Mr. Callioun. He was elected for a second term in 1859 and withdrew on the seces- sion of Alabama, in February, 1861. He was a member of the Confedei'ate senate, and visited Canada in 1864 as a secret emissary of the Con- federate government. After the war he escaped to Canada, but a reward was offered by the U.S.
