countered, and a
diligence and perseverance which would have been creditable to the
most vigorous period of life. . . . . . .

In getting the university into operation, he seemed to have regained
the activity and assiduity of his youth. Everything was looked into,
everything was ordered by him. He suggested the remedy for every
difficulty, and made the selection in every choice of expedients. Two
or three times a week he rode down to the establishment to give orders
to the proctor, and to watch the progress of the work still
unfinished. Nor were his old habits of hospitality forgotten. His
invitations to the professors and their families were frequent, and
every Sunday some four or five of the students dined with him. At
these times he generally ate by himself in a small recess connected
with the dining-room; but, saving at meals, sat and conversed with
the company as usual. The number of visiters also to the University
was very great, and they seldom failed to call at Monticello, where
they often passed the day, and sometimes several days. He was so fully
occupied with his duties, as rector of the university, and he found so
much pleasure in the occupation, that for a time every cause of care
and anxiety, of which he now began to have an increased share, was
entirely forgotten; and the sun of his life seemed to be setting with
a soft but unclouded radiance.

[Illustration: ~Henry Clay.~]

THIRD PERIOD ... 1800-1850.

HENRY CLAY.

~1777=1852.~

HENRY CLAY was born at "The Slashes," Hanover County, Virginia, whence
he got his title, "Mill-Boy of the Slashes." His mother, early left a
widow, was poor, and on her second marriage, to Mr. Henry Watkins,
removed to Kentucky. Henry Clay became a clerk and then a law-student
in Richmond, Va., and in 1797 followed his mother to Kentucky, making
his home in Lexington. He rose speedily to eminence as a jury lawyer,
and in 1803 entered public life as a member of the State Legislature.
In 1806 he entered the United States Senate, and after the war of 1812
he was sent to Belgium as one of the Commissioners to treat of peace
with Great Britain.

His share in public life was most important. He was the author of the
Missouri Compromise of 1820, of the Tariff Compromise of 1832, of the
Bill for Protection and Internal Improvements; his agency in the first
two and in the Missouri Compromise of 1850, gaining for him the title
of the "Great Pacificator." With C