Political Ping-Pong
Henry Clay was elected to the Kentucky state House of Representatives in 1803. Three years later, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate—in violation of the U.S. Constitution, which mandated that senators had to be at least thirty years old. He was twenty-nine years old when he took office. Clay’s stay in the Senate was short. His appointment lasted from November 19, 1806, to March 3, 1807—and he was still not yet thirty when he stepped down.
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Henry Clay defended Aaron Burr in 1806 on charges that he was conspiring to separate the western states from the rest of the country. Burr beat the rap. Thomas Jefferson persuaded Clay later that Burr had been guilty. The victory in court turned into a bitter defeat for Clay. When he bumped into Burr in New York nine years later, Clay refused to shake his former client’s hand.
Clay returned to the state assembly for the 1808−09 session, becoming Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives. After Humphrey Marshall objected to Clay’s motion to require members of the Assembly to wear homespun suits instead of British clothing, the two engaged in fisticuffs on the House floor. That led to a three-round duel in which Clay inflicted a slight flesh wound on Marshall’s side during the first round of shots. Both men missed their shots in the second round. In the third and final round, Marshall shot Clay in the thigh. That ended the duel.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“GOVERNMENT IS A TRUST, AND THE OFFICERS OF THE GOVERNMENT ARE TRUSTEES; AND BOTH THE TRUST AND THE TRUSTEES ARE CREATED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PEOPLE.”
—HENRY CLAY
Then, it was back to the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. to replace Buckner Thruston, whom President James Madison had appointed to a judge’s seat on the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. Clay was of legal age this time.
The Revolving Door Keeps Spinning
After completing his second short term as a U.S. Senator, Clay returned to the U.S. House of Representatives until President James Monroe appointed him as one of the commissioners charged with negotiating a peace treaty with Britain to end the War of 1812. And on it went. For the next thirty-seven years Clay made his presence known in every major event in the nation’s evolution.
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Henry Clay once filled his own vacant congressional seat. The governor of Kentucky declared Clay’s seat vacant so he could accept a position as envoy to Britain. Once he completed the assignment, he won a special election in 1815 to fill his own vacant seat.
Clay encouraged the United States to go to war with Britain in 1812 to end once and for all the indignities he felt Britain had been inflicting on the United States since 1805, such as the seizure of American merchant vessels and the impressments of their crews.
Clay advocated tariffs on imported goods to help bolster the country’s economy as part of “The American System,” a program he designed to balance the roles of agriculture, commerce, and industry in the nation’s economy. He refereed the Missouri Compromise to settle the slavery impasse, working out an agreement where new states except Missouri above a fixed line between the north and south would be slave free, while those beneath it could retain their slaves. Thus, he contained the spread of slavery, although it remained legal in some states. The compromise was Clay’s signature achievement, although it turned out to be far from a permanent solution to the slavery problem in the United States. Based on his achievements and negotiating skills, Clay was among the first statesmen people turned to when they sought settlements in thorny issues.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“SHOULD ANY OF OUR VESSELS BE HEREAFTER SEIZED AND CONDEMNED, HOWEVER UNJUSTLY, AND THAT ALL WILL BE SEIZED AND CONDEMNED MAY BE CONFIDENTLY EXPECTED, WE MUST BE SILENT, OR BE HEARD BY FOREIGN POWERS IN THE HUMBLE LANGUAGE OF PETITION ONLY.”
—HENRY CLAY IN A LETTER IN SUPPORT OF THE WAR OF 1812
The “Corrupt Bargain”
Clay was not always appreciated by his fellow politicians. One of the low points of his career occurred in 1824, when he ran for president of the United States.
The 1824 presidential election was one of the most confusing campaigns in American history. Four members of the Democratic-Republican party vied for the presidency. They included Clay, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William Crawford. None of them earned the victory after the election results were tallied.
Clay finished fourth in the popular and Electoral College voting. He won 13.1 percent of the popular vote and 37 of the 261 electoral votes. Jackson and Adams had the highest number of electoral votes. Clay believed that Adams was more amenable to his policies and would be more helpful to him than Jackson as president—and might even appoint him to his cabinet. He used his influence to sway the House of Representatives, which would settle the issue, to elect Adams. It did, and Clay got his coveted cabinet position.
Adams appointed Clay as secretary of state. He served in that position from 1825−29. Jackson and his followers declared Clay’s action as a “corrupt bargain.” Clay did not see what he did as corruption; it was politics as usual.
Despite the stain on his reputation, he exercised his influence for the rest of his career, which ultimately spanned half a century. His list of accomplishments was significant throughout that time. He was still serving in the U.S. Senate when he died, well over the legally mandated minimum age.
LYDIA DARRAGH
Dublin, Ireland
1728−December 28, 1789
A Mother’s Instinct
Lydia Darragh, a Quaker and resident of Philadelphia, helped save Washington’s army from defeat at White Marsh, Pennsylvania, in December 1777. She did it by using a sack of flour as a pretext and making a dangerous trek outside the city to warn the Americans that General William Howe was heading their way. Afterwards, she returned to the mundane life she was used to—and excommunication by the Quakers.
A Victim of the Quartering Acts Mentality
When the British occupied Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, the Darraghs were told to vacate their dwelling as the Quartering Acts allowed the British to demand.
Lydia Darragh asked General Howe, who was domiciled nearby, if she could stay in her home. She explained that she had already sent her two youngest children to live with relatives and that she had no place else to go.
Howe offered a compromise. If she would reserve a room in her house where British officers could hold meetings, she could stay, as long as she gave them complete privacy.
Done, said Darragh. Unknowingly, Howe had made a tactical blunder.
Lydia Darragh Becomes a Snoop
There were no discernible problems with Darragh’s living arrangements at first. On December 2, 1777, several British officers, including Howe, showed up at the house for a meeting. They warned Darragh to make sure nobody lingered around the meeting room. Howe’s purpose for the meeting was twofold: to discuss new information he had acquired from his spies regarding Washington’s move to a new camp and to plan how to catch the Americans in the open, when they were most vulnerable.
Darragh suspected the British were up to devilry, and that their plans might have a bearing on her son Charles, who was fighting with the Second Pennsylvania Regiment stationed near White Marsh. Darragh’s maternal instincts prompted her to turn a linen closet next to the meeting room into a listening post. What she heard through the wall confirmed her suspicions. Howe was planning to attack Washington near White Marsh, thirteen miles down the road.
She improvised a plan to thwart the British.
A Flour Sack and a Brisk Hike
Darragh decided on a way to warn Washington. All she needed was a pass and a flour sack. Local citizens often asked British authorities for passes to places outside the city where they could buy supplies. The British routinely authorized the requests. Accordingly, Darragh procured a pass to the flour mill in nearby Frankford.
With flour sack in hand, she headed through the snow in that direction.
She also had with her a notebook in which she kept notes about the information she garnered in Philadelphia. She reached the mill—and kept right on going.
According to the diary of Colonel Elias Boudinot, Washington’s commissary general of prisoners, she handed her notebook to him as he was dining at the Rising Sun Tavern, north of the city, along the route to White Marsh. Boudinot passed the information to Washington.
“Did You Do It?”
The British marched out of Philadelphia on December 4 to surprise Washington. But Washington was ready for them. Based on the information Darragh had fed Boudinot, Washington knew Howe’s strength. According to Boudinot, Darragh had given him “a piece of paper rolled up into the form of a pipe shank. On unrolling it I found information that General Howe was coming out the next morning with 5,000 men, 13 pieces of cannon, baggage wagons, and 11 boat on wheels. On comparing this with other information, I found it true and immediately rode post to headquarters.”
The two armies sparred around the area for the next few days. Neither gained an advantage, and damages were held to a minimum.
FEDERAL FACTS
There were 150 Americans killed or wounded and fifty-four captured at White Marsh. The British suffered 112 casualties, seventy-nine of whom were killed or wounded. The more significant statistic for the British was the number of missing (thirty-three) and desertions—a staggering 238 soldiers.
Howe returned to Philadelphia, convinced that he could not destroy Washington’s army. That ended the fighting in 1777. Six months later the British left Philadelphia and the reunited Darragh family moved back into their house on Second Street—but not before Lydia misled the British for the last time.
The day after the British troops returned to Philadelphia, British Major John André visited Darragh’s house and asked her if she had tipped off the Americans about Howe’s plans. She said no. André was not convinced, but he let the matter drop. Unfortunately, the Quakers did not.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“ONE THING IS CERTAIN. THE ENEMY HAD NOTICE OF OUR COMING, WERE PREPARED FOR US, AND WE MARCHED BACK LIKE A PARCEL OF FOOLS. THE WALLS MUST HAVE EARS.”
—JOHN ANDRé TO LYDIA DARRAGH ON DECEMBER 9, 1777
Technically, Darragh could have been treated as a traitor and executed had the British determined that she was a spy, but they didn’t. However, the Quakers excommunicated her in 1783—the same year her husband died—because of her involvement in the war. They reinstated her in 1789—the same year she died.
After the war, Darragh operated a store in Philadelphia, the city that owed her so much for her heroic stand that saved it from possible permanent occupation—and Washington from a devastating military defeat.
SILAS DEANE
Groton, Connecticut
December 24, 1737−September 23, 1789
Framed Framer
Silas Deane was just the man the Americans needed to convince the French to support their cause. He was a wealthy lawyer, merchant, and politician whose diplomatic skills were supposed to complement those of his fellow ambassadors, Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, although it did not turn out that way. But he was also willing to use the war as an opportunity to make a profit for himself, which didn’t always sit well with some patriots—and led to questions in Congress about his integrity and judgment. Deane, a member of the Connecticut Colonial Assembly (1772–74) and the Continental Congress from 1774−76, persuaded a few European military officers to enlist in the Continental armed forces to fight against the British. Some of the European officers were more interested in personal glory than the American cause. For his efforts, Deane was recalled under a cloud of suspicion, exiled from his home country, and possibly murdered.
From Connecticut to France
Silas Deane was solidifying his reputation in Connecticut as a man to be trusted in the days leading up to the American Revolution based on his integrity as a businessman and representative in the colony’s General Assembly. When the call went out for delegates to the First Continental Congress in 1774, Deane was among those chosen, and he was reappointed in 1775.
Deane was optimistic that the Congress could find a way to get the colonies out from under British rule. He was even more convinced after he arrived in the thriving city of Philadelphia, the largest city in the colonies at the time, and met the other delegates of distinction. Congressional leaders were so impressed with his abilities that they sent him to France to seek French support for American independence.
Deane joined Franklin and Lee in Paris to negotiate an alliance with France. The United States and France signed two separate treaties on February 6, 1778: the Treaty of Alliance, and a Treaty of Amity and Commerce that promoted trade and commercial ties between the two countries. According to the terms of the Treaty of Alliance, both countries agreed not to negotiate a separate peace with Great Britain. More importantly, American independence would be a condition of any future peace agreement.
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Silas Deane and his brother Simeon operated a successful privateering business during the war. They, like so many other merchant-patriots, were adept at converting patriotism into profits in the interest of “helping their country.”
“Jealous-Lee”
The arms and supplies France sent to the Continental Army played a major role in its surprising victory over British troops at Saratoga, New York, in September and October 1777. Historians suggest that the victory was the turning point in the war. It elevated the Continental Army’s morale and removed the aura of invincibility many Americans thought surrounded their British foe.
But Arthur Lee grew jealous of Silas Deane’s success in Paris and accused Deane that year of embezzling some of the funds intended to pay for such arms. Lee suspected Franklin had done the same thing, which Franklin denied.
Congress recalled Deane to investigate his alleged questionable conduct. On November 27, 1777, it appointed John Adams to replace Deane in Paris.
Deane delayed his return to the colonies until the treaties were signed. Then he returned in a triumphant manner aboard a French warship to defend himself. It was not surprising that Deane made a few business deals of his own in Paris. After all, he arrived there in July 1776 ostensibly as a businessman. The Committee of Secret Correspondence had told him, “On your arrival in France, you will for some time be engaged in the business of providing goods for the Indian trade. This will give good countenance to your appearing in the character of a merchant, which we wish you continually to retain among the French, in general, it being probable that the court of France may not like it should be known publicly that any agent from the Colonies is in that country.”
Nothing More Than Shoddy Bookkeeping
Perhaps Deane created some of his troubles. Several of the European officers he recruited comported themselves badly during the war. Irish General Thomas Conway became involved in a cabal to overthrow General George Washington, and Comte de Broglie, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Baron de Kalb hatched a scheme to install Lafayette as the commander in chief of the American army. Critics viewed Deane’s involvement with such officers as a reflection on his inability to assess officers’ ethics and leadership skills. And there was no doubt Deane and some silent partners were making lucrative business deals on the side. There were no direct connections between and among the various charges and suspicions about Deane’s conduct in Paris, but Congress was determined to investigate Lee’s allegations.
The long, bitter hearings regarding Deane’s conduct were messy. France refused to furnish copies of receipts and other documents, claiming that to do so would demonstrate that they had been involved in diplomatic negotiations with a noncountry prior to signing treaties with it. That would embarrass the French.
Deane went on the offensive. He demanded that Congress break off diplomatic relations with France and questioned the integrity of members of Congress who disagreed with him.
Deane returned to Paris in 1781 to find copies of documen
ts such as receipts and journal entries that would prove his innocence. But, Congress was in no hurry to review the accounts he prepared. His cause was lost. Worse, his American colleagues were reluctant to let him return to the colonies because they thought he was a traitor to their cause.
A Man Without a Country
Deane stayed in Europe for a few years, first in the Netherlands and then England, where he lived in poverty. He published a defense of his actions in An Address to the Free and Independent Citizens of the United States of North America, which was published in Hartford, Connecticut, and London in 1784. He planned a return to the United States in 1789 to establish his innocence and reclaim his wealth, but he became mysteriously ill before his ship sailed for home. There was some speculation that he had been poisoned deliberately by a British spy. He died on September 23, 1789.
Congress never found Deane guilty of anything. His family did not believe he was. His granddaughter Philura and her husband pressed Congress to review his case. It did—and exonerated him.
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