Clay County, Missouri

“ Their outrages are beyond description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so to any extent you may think necessary.
The governor also ordered Major General Wallock of Marion County, to raise five hundred men, and join General Doniphan of Clay County, who had been directed to raise a like number of men, and together they were to proceed to Daviess County to cut off the retreat of the "Mormons" to the north. General Parks had been ordered to raise four hundred men and join Clark at Richmond, and thus the campaign was planned. ”

“ From 1857 to 1862 times had become rather hard on slaves in Chariton County, Missouri, and were very little better for the free Negroes, for while they were called free, they really had but few more privileges than the slave. They had to choose guardians to transact all their business, even to writing them a pass to go from one township to another in the same county. They could not own real estate in their own right, except through their guardian, neither could they sell their crop without his written consent. ”

“ His place was located about seven or eight miles from Keytesville, Missouri. At that time this country was sparsely settled; a farm house could be only seen in every eight or ten miles. I was greatly pleased with the country; for there was plenty of everything to live on, game, fish, wild fruits, and berries. The only drawback to our pleasure was Jack Perkinson, who was the meanest man I had ever seen. He had about thirty-five slaves on his large farm and could and did raise more noise, do more thrashing of men, women and children, than any other man in that county. ”

“ It was to the genius of Henry Clay that the ship of State was successfully steered out of these waters. The famous “Missouri Compromise” admitting one free State—Maine—and one slave State—Missouri—at the same time and enacting that no other slave State should be formed north of latitude thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes, which was the southern boundary line of Missouri, seemed likely to solve the difficult question, and certainly postponed the conflict.
The disappointment of Henry Clay’s life was his failure to be elected President. ”

“ Another charge against our friends, and one that is urged as a reason why they must immediately leave the county of Clay, is, that they are making or are likely to make, the same "their permanent home, the center and general rendezvous of their people." We have never understood such to be the purpose, wish or design of this society; but on the contrary, have ever supposed, that those who ever resided in Clay County, only designed it as a temporary residence, until the law and authority of our country should put them in the quiet possession of their homes in Jackson County ”

“ At that time Clay county was unorganized territory, and the B. & M. railroad was being extended from Lincoln west.
September 11, 1871, Governor James issued a proclamation for the election of officers and the organization of Clay county fixing the date, October 14, 1871. The election was held at the home of Alexander Campbell, two miles east of Harvard, and fifty-four votes were cast. Sutton was chosen as the county-seat. F. M. Brown was elected county clerk; A. K. Marsh, P.O. Norman, and A. A. Corey were elected county commissioners. ”

“ Clay exerted his eloquence, his arts of pacification, and all the might of his personality, to bring members to their senses. He even had a long conference with his ancient foe, John Randolph. He threw himself into this work with such ardor, and labored at it so continuously, day and night, that, when the final triumph was won, he declared that, if Missouri had been kept out of the Union two weeks longer, he should have been a dead man. ”

“ He had driven them to the very ‘ultima thule’ of argumentative debate, applying the lash of logic at every step, until they had become insensible to its infliction. ‘What is your plan as to Missouri,’ he would say to them. ‘She is no longer a territory. She is a state, whether admitted into the union or not. She is capable of self-government, and she is governing herself. Do you mean to force her permanently from the union? Do you mean to lose the vast public domain which lies within her limits? ”

“ The pastor's flock consisted of poor people. A rock in South Anna River has long been pointed out as a spot “from which he used at times to address his congregation.” Henry Clay's mother was a daughter of George Hudson, of Hanover County. She is said to have been a woman of exemplary qualities as a wife and a mother, and of much patriotic spirit. ”

“ No person may participate in both a supernumerary program and the Employees' Retirement System based on the same service. For the purposes of this amendment, the words "elected or appointed Clay County official" shall include, subject only to express limitation, any person elected to represent Clay County in any representative body of the state and includes any person appointed to serve the remaining term of an elected or appointed Clay County official. The words do not include a judge, district attorney, constable, school board member, or any official elected from a judicial circuit. ”

“ Moses C. Nickerson to the Prophet, 40; John F. Boynton to Prophet, 40, 41; from presidency to Orson Hyde, 48; from brethren in Clay County, Mo., to Gov. Dunklin, 49 (and note) ; W. W. Phelps to brethren in Kirtland, 61; brethren in Clay Co., to Gov. Dunklin, 75; Elders in Clay Co., to Gov. Dunklin, 84; Gov. Dunklin to Col. J. Thornton, 84 et seq.; Gov. Dunklin to Col. Thomas Pitcher, 89; Judge Ryland to A. S. Gilbert, 89; Elders in Clay Co., to Messrs Doniphan and Atchison, 92; John Corrill to the Evening and Morning Star (note) 92; brethren in Clay Co. to Jackson mob, 107; Elders in Clay Co. ”

“ Mr. Archibald Dixon of Kentucky, the last Whig governor of that State, had been chosen to succeed Mr. Clay in the Senate. But he did not succeed to Mr. Clay's political principles. He belonged to a class of men that had been recently and rapidly growing in the South,—men avowedly and aggressively pro-slavery. Mr. Dixon was the first to strike an open blow against the Missouri Compromise. Mr. Clay had been honorably identified with the pacific work of 1820, and throughout his life believed that it had been effectual in allaying the strife which in his judgment had endangered the Union. ”

“ Clay's Congressional life was in connection with the Missouri Compromise of 1821. He did not originate the plan of compromise, but it was certainly his influence and tact which caused the plan to prevail. Fortunately, he had been absent from Congress during some of the earlier attempts to admit Missouri; and thus he arrived in Washington in January, 1821, calm, uncommitted, and welcome to both parties. Fierce debate had wrought up the minds of members to that point where useful discussion ceases to be possible. Almost every man had given personal offence and taken personal offence ”

“ We have no doubt but your very seasonable mediation in the time of so great an excitement will accomplish your most sanguine desires in preventing further disorder; and we hope, gentlemen, that while you reflect upon the fact that the citizens of Clay county are urgent for our friends to leave you, that you will also bear in mind that by their complying with your request to leave they are surrendering some of the dearest rights guaranteed in the Constitution of our country; and that human nature can be driven to a certain extent when it will yield no further. ”

“ Efforts have been made by enthusiastic admirers to find for him a noble ancestry in England, but with questionable success. We may content ourselves with saying that the greatness of his name rests entirely upon his own merit. The family from which he sprang emigrated from England not long after the establishment of the colony of Virginia, and settled on the southern side of the James River. His biographers, some of whom wrote under his own supervision, agree in the statement that Henry Clay was born on April 12, 1777, in Hanover County, Virginia, in a neighborhood called the “Slashes.” ”

“ Therefore, while our friends suffer so much and forego so many sacred rights, we sincerely hope, and we have every reason to expect it, that a suitable forbearance may be shown by the people of Clay county ”

“ It is said that our friends are poor; that they have but little or nothing to bind their feelings or wishes to Clay County, and that in consequence, have a less claim upon that county. We do not deny the fact, that our friends are poor ”

“ Far indeed was he from foreseeing that the ambition of a man born in New England, calling himself a disciple of Andrew Jackson, would, within five years, destroy all compromises, and render all future compromise impossible, by procuring the repeal of the first,—the Missouri Compromise of 1821.
Henry Clay was formed by nature to please, to move, and to impress his countrymen. Never was there a more captivating presence. We remember hearing Horace Greeley say that, if a man only saw Henry Clay's back, he would know that it was the back of a distinguished man. ”

“ That would mean in time fourteen Northern and two Southern Senators. It would mean seven times the chances of population for representation in the House. At last, Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, who had favoured slavery in Missouri, was able to effect a compromise whereby thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes was accepted as the dividing-line; but the State of Missouri, which lay to the north of it, was made an exception and admitted without any restriction and, consequently, open to slavery. ”

“ The struggle over the question was a long and bitter one, but finally both the North and the South agreed to give up a part of what they wanted; that is, they agreed upon a compromise. It was this: Missouri was to enter the Union as a slave State, but slavery was not to be allowed 235in any part of the Louisiana Purchase which lay north or west of Missouri. This was called the Missouri Compromise (1820) .
It was brought about largely through the eloquence and power of Henry Clay, and because of his part in it he was called “the Great Peacemaker.” ”

“ First, the bonds recite that they were issued under and pursuant to the orders of the board of supervisors of Clay County, as authorized by virtue of the laws of the State of Illinois. The act of Nov. 6, 1849, authorized the judges of the county court to issue the bonds only in case a majority of the voters of the county, taking as a standard the number of votes thrown at the next preceding general election, should vote in favor of the proposition to subscribe to the stock of some designated railroad company, and pay for it by the issue of county bonds. ”

“ The county of Callaway furnished all the requisites thus set forth. The road as ultimately built did pass through Bowling Green, across the Missouri road between the towns of Mexico and Wellsburg, thence through the whole length of the county of Callaway to a point opposite Jefferson City on the Missouri River. We discover nothing to show that this point might not properly have been decided by the company to have been a more suitable and advantageous place at which to terminate its road than any other upon the Missouri River. ”

“ The leading men of Clay County who were brought into contact with him felt that he possessed remarkable power. There was that in his dignified deportment and in the fearless glance of his blue eyes which warmed the souls of other men to his own, and they submitted to his charm of manner, even when they had come to oppose him. ”

“ They sent word to Richmond, Ray county, and had their agents working in Clay county, intending to raise force sufficient to annihilate our brethren. About two hundred volunteered in Jackson, seventy in Clay, and fifty in Ray counties, and were to form a junction near Fishing river ford. ”

“ No one having received a clear majority, the election devolved upon the House of Representatives; and as, according to the Constitution, the choice by the House was confined to the three candidates having the highest number of votes, Clay's chance was gone. He received the whole electoral vote of only three states, Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri, and four votes from New York. For the vice-presidency, Calhoun had a decided majority, one hundred and eighty-two out of two hundred and sixty one. ”

“ Their industry and thrift are a temptation to the idle and dissolute.
With the simple hope of enjoying the life, liberty, and religious freedom guaranteed by the constitution, the Saints immigrated into northern Ray in considerable numbers. In December, 1836, they petitioned the legislature of the state of Missouri to incorporate the Shoal Creek region and surrounding lands, which were almost entirely unoccupied except by them, as a new county. The prayer was granted in that month, and the county was organized under the name of Caldwell. ”

“ The people of Missouri became again throughout an orderly and law-abiding people, until at the commencement of the present year the governor could proclaim in his message that there was not a county in the State where the sheriff could not at any time obtain a posse to aid him in the execution of the laws, and that life and the rights of property were as safe in Missouri as in any State of the Union. ”

“ They called Cassius M. Clay, then in the first bloom of his fame as an anti-slavery champion, from meeting to meeting, to explain the true status and bearing of the Texas question from his point of view. All in vain. Washington Hunt wrote to Thurlow Weed: “We had the abolitionists in a good way, but Mr. Clay seems determined that they shall not be allowed to vote for him. I believe his letter will lose us more than two hundred votes in this county (Niagara) . Cassius Clay's powerful usefulness is much weakened by the last letter of Mr. Clay. ”