Political consistency was another prominent characteristic of Mr. Clay. This, like a line of light, is traceable through all his public life. The soundness of his judgment was worthy of note, by which he was enabled to predict, with almost prophetic accuracy, the effect of the adoption of certain measures. As a writer, Mr. Clay’s style was nervous, perspicuous, and concise, evincing the freshness and beauty of originality, usually moving on in a deep and quiet current, but at times rushing like the mountain torrent, overthrowing all obstacles. He was peculiarly qualified for the regions of argument and close investigation, yet he could soar into that of imagination, and whenever he did, it was the flight of the eagle towards heaven. His power of illustration was felicitous, demonstrating an intimate acquaintance with the secret springs of the soul, and a sagacious knowledge of its ♦mysterious movements. His conversational faculties were striking, and exceedingly versatile, enabling him to accommodate himself to the capacities of all, to the humblest, as well as to the loftiest intellect. It was remarked of Mr. Burke, by Dr. Johnson, that if a tempest, or any other occurrence, should cause him to take shelter under the roof of a peasant, he would find sufficient topics to employ his conversational powers, and _would so employ_ them as to leave indelibly impressed upon the mind of its lowly occupant, the belief, that he was listening to no ordinary man. This would be emphatically true of Mr. Clay, who possessed, in an eminent degree, the faculty attributed to Mr. Burke. It was the exercise of this, that so endeared him to those who were privileged to come within the sphere of its influence, which invested his domestic and social relations with their greatest charms.
In private life, Mr. Clay exhibited the noblest characteristics of human nature, which may be expressed by one word――_openheartedness_. He was kind and liberal to a fault. Says one who was intimate with him, ‘his door and his purse were alike open to the friendless stranger and the unfortunate neighbor. Frank, open, and above the meanness of deception himself, and consequently never searching for duplicity and treachery in those around him, he more than once suffered from the vile ingratitude of men who have been cherished by his bounty and upheld by his influence.