either above or below a coal-bed. dry state has a bluish-gray color, coal-plants and patches of coal, smoothly, and is quite plastic.

Clay VI. in the airshows remnants of contains pyrite, cuts

CLASS VII. Clay from Niederpleis, on the Sieg, in Nassau.-It has a greenish-gray color and a mild, soapy touch, falls to pieces in water without hissing, quite plastic, turns black when heated, and finally takes a light-yellow color.

All these classes represent refractory or fire-clays, but those of the first-class are ten times as refractory as those of the seventh class.

The United States are well supplied with clays of all grades and descriptions, eminently fitted for the finest pottery and the most refractory brick. The most developed among these are the beds occupying a belt, five miles wide, stretching across the State of New Jersey from Trenton north-east to Perth Amboy. The best deposits are around the latter town, especially near the village of Woodbridge. This belt is bounded on the north-west by the New Red Sandstone, and to the south-east by the greensand marl. The few fossil plants found in the clay, together with the dip of the beds, indicate the geological position of lower cretaceous of this country, but upper cretaceous of Europe. The beds lie above the red sandstone, but no pebbles of these rocks are found in them. The pebbles found contain fossils which belong to the upper Silurian and lower Devon an and point to a large land-surface, whence the clays where washed to their present place a landsurface to the south-east which lies now beneath the Atlantic. A section near Woodbridge shows the thickness of the entire clay-formation to be 347 feet. Of this, however, only 165 feet are good workable clays; the rest are sands and sandy clays. The dip, being very slight only 60 feet to the mile-points to southeast, and this flatness explains that the formation crops out over an area of over six miles at the widest portion of the belt. The clay-formation appears to lie in eroded portions of the red sandstone, and is generally covered by sands and gravel of the glacial or ice-period. The best fire-clay is obtained around Woodbridge. It supplies the raw material to the potteries and firebrick works at Trenton, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York City.

Of the many analyses for which we are indebted to Prof. Cook and his able assistants on the geological survey of New Jersey, only one is here selected, showing that the clay is quite equal to those of Bischof's Classes I and II., especially in high percentage of

alumina :

Silica, combined.. 43.901

66 sand........ 1.10 46.30
Titanic dioxide... 1.30
Magnesia............ 0.11
Lime..................trace.

Chemical Properties of Clay-Clay can be decomposed by sulphuric acid and by hydrochloric acid when digested with these acids for some time at the boiling heat of water. If enclosed in a strong air-tight vessel, so that the heat generates pressure, the decomposition is more rapid and more complete. In either case the alumina is dissolved, and the silica separated as a flocculent hydrate. The sandy portion remains unaltered, except when it contains carbonates of iron, calcium, magnesium. These metals will enter the solution, whilst CO, escapes in bubbles. If the clay has first been heated for some hours at a cherry-red heat, whereby it loses its water and plasticity, the action of the acids is more rapid. This property is utilized on a large scale for the manufacture of alum, whose valuable component for dyeing and printing is the aluminium sulphate (Al2S3O12+ Aq). This sulphate is combined in alum with either the sulphate of ammonium (NH,),SO,, or the sulphate of potassium, K2SO,. This double salt is very little soluble in cold water, and may be obtained by crystallization in great purity. But the potassium and ammonium go to waste in the applications of alum. In later years the sulphate of aluminum has been produced by itself. As no purification by crystallizing can be employed, this manufacture requires a very pure clay to start with-one which is notably free from iron compounds. The alum clays may be inferior as refractory material containing alkalis, lime, and magnesia. The application of clay in paper-mills is not based on chemical foundation. The fine particles of the white clay are simply cemented to the fibre by means of aluminic hydrate. It serves to give body to wall-paper.

The manufacture of china porcelain rests on observation of the fact that certain white clays will form a semi-transparent, hard, ringing, and impermeable body when exposed to a white heat. Analysis has shown that this property rests upon a certain proportion of fluxing oxides in combination with the pure clay. Some clays have naturally this composition, but in most cases Ferric oxide........... 0.96 it is necessary to compose the mixture artificially. The German porcelain is made by addition of finely pulverized felspar; the English, by adding calcium oxide in the form of chalk or gypsum. The French use both.

Potassa

Soda........

0.15

0.00

Water, combined... 14.10
Hygroscopic water. 0.70

Locality, H. Cutter & Son's pit at Woodbridge.

Another very important property of clay is that when heated with the proper proportion of pure limestone (carbonate of calcium) at a high red heat, it will form a hard, ringing, cinder-like body-that is, the calcium has combined with the silica and alumina, the carbonic acid has been expelled. If this mass be finely ground and the powder stirred with water, it will soon set, and by degrees become of stony hardness, and be insoluble in water. This compound is artificial hydraulic, or Portland, cement. Some limestones are naturally mixed with the right proportion of clay (65: 35); they are the material for the natural hydraulic, or Roman, ce

This clay forms a layer six feet thick and is overlaid by
a dark-colored sandy clay. It is quite white and much
used for paper-sizing. It is very plastic, but somewhat
water-stiff. Lignite coal lies in the dark clay. The
economic importance of these clay-beds may be inferred
from the product, which was in 1874 about 260,000
tons, valued at $927,500. The price varies from $1.50
to $13 a ton (George H. Cook, Geological Report on
Clays, 1878). Pennsylvania, although not quite so rich,
is yet well provided with good clays. In the south-ment, and are usually called "hydraulic marls."
eastern portion-Chester and Delaware counties—we
find kaolin in place upon the coarse granite portions
of the gneiss-rock. This material, after refining, is
mostly used for sizing in paper-mills. On the northern
side of South Mountain, in Lehigh county. we find
an excellent clay lying in eroded cavities of the lower
Silurian limestone; white, red, yellow, and brown_clay
in close proximity to limonite iron ore-deposits. Good
clays are found in the coal-measures of the anthracite

Examination of Clay.-A complete examination to establish the value of a given clay, or the relative value of portions of one and the same clay-bank, embraces: 1. The estimation of the ratio between sand- and claysubstance, and, again, the proportion of coarse to fine sand; 2. The determination of the degree of refractoriness; 3. The degree of porousness; 4. The degree of binding power; 5. The color of the clay after burning it; 6. A complete and very quantitative analysis.

=

The first five tests may be made by any intelligent per--the gauge registering 2.5 cm., h, and the volume son; the methods will therefore be described. The of water V flowing from K being 50 cc. per minute, sixth test can only be made by a very competent chem- the velocity c in BC will be per minute, ist if it is to be of any use at all; the methods of analysis are therefore not of general interest, and will be omitted.

B

A

св

V = c

πα
4

C=

4× V
πα

;

C=

4× 50 3.141 × 25

2.55 cm.,

and per second = 0.042 cm. =0.42 mm.; when the column, h=25 mm. Now, by varying hascending and descending, values will be found which can be easily laid down in a parabolic curve; and thus for any desired velocity in actual experiment, the correspondingh can be read from the curve.

66

66

This method is serviceable in the examination and comparison of soils. There are, in fact, nothing but very impure clays, going all the way to nearly pure quartz sand.

1. Determination of Sand- and Clay-Substance.The sample must be taken so as to represent the average of a lot or of a clay-bed. It should be allowed to become thoroughly air-dry (plastic clays should be cut into thin plates to expedite this process). Five grams (80 grains) of the dry substance will then be placed in a porcelain dish and thoroughly disintegrated with water by boiling for at least one hour, replacing the evaporated water. Thus prepared, the sample is washed through a 50-inch sieve into the funnel-shaped Since the sandy particles vary in diameter from 1 glass vessel ABDEFC (represented in the adjoining mm. to microscopic sizes, it is not possible to draw an L figure). This vessel was first absolute line of separation between the clay-substances used and described by E. Schöne and the sand. According to Seeger, Schulze, and Bis(Schämmanalyse und ein neuer chof, it is most practical to wash first with a velocity Schlämmapparat, Berlin, W. Mül- c=0.18 per second until the water shows but a slight ler, 1867), and of all proposed it is milky turbidity. The particles going over at this velothe most perfect. It can be bought city cannot have a larger diameter than 0.01 mm. This for about four dollars from any of is clay-substance. The receiving beaker-glass is now K the larger houses dealing in chemi- replaced with an empty one and the velocity increased cal glass-ware. The dimensions are to 0.10 mm. per second. The material going over at given in centimetres and millime- this rate ranges between 0.01 and 0.025 mm. in diamtres. It must be securely fixed to eter. It shows still a small degree of plasticity. What stand in a vertical position. The passes over at a velocity of 1.5 mm. may be designated space BC is exactly cylindrical; the as dust-sand," ranging in size from 0.025 to 0.04 mm. inner diameter at D, 4 mm. : DEF Fine sand from 0.04 to 0.33 mm., and everything above is a correct semicircle; the tube the last size, would be called coarse sand. The DEFG must not be less than 4-5 solid materials in the several beaker-glasses are allowed mm. in inner diameter. The end to settle, the clear water drawn off; the residue, rinsed of G has been connected by a rub- into small porcelain dishes, is evaporated to dryness, ber tube of equal diameter with weighed, and reserved for further examination, microa sheet-tin water-reservoir, con-scopic and chemical. structed as a Mariotte flask to ensure equal constant outflow. The rubber tube carries a clamp-screw. Into the neck A the bent barometer tube HJKL is well fitted with a good cork. The bends at J and K must be sharp (without reducing the diameter), and JK is inclined 40-45°. At K the tube has a hole, not larger than 2 mm., directly in the line KL; the rim of this hole is well rounded. The branch KL is 100 cm. long, and graduated from the point K into millimetres for the first 3 cm. ; from 5-10 cm., into cm. ; from 10-50, intocm.; from 50-100, intocm. This pipe is very important; it acts as a pressure-gauge. Before washing the sample into the tube, the clamp is opened fully, to expel any airbubble from the apparatus. Then, closing the inflow, the funnel is emptied by means of a syphon, and while the sample is introduced a very slow inflow is maintained to prevent any heavy grains from clogging the tube at D. Placing the cork in the neck and a beaker-glass under the hole K, the cylindrical portion BC fills in about eight minutes, then rises more rapidly in the neck; the turbid water flows from K, and the lines in the branch KL. Now it only remains to regulate the inflow in such a manner that the velocity of the water in the cylindrical tube BC will keep in suspension those particles of the clay which it is intended to separate. For a given apparatus this velocity is measured directly by the column of water in the gauge KL. As no two apparatus are exactly alike, it is necessary to construct a table for each instrument by noting the quantity of water which flows through in a minute under various heights of the column in KL. The diameter d of BC being known-say exactly 5 cm.

D

E

F

2. Determination of the Degree of Fusibility-For this purpose a clay is selected of known excellence, like that from Saarau, or an artificial mixture is prepared of pure alumina and pure silica, in the proportion of 1 1. One part of the clay under examination is then intimately mixed with one, two, three, four, or more parts of the No. 1 clay or of the artificial clay. These mixtures are shaped into cylinders of equal size, together with one of the clay by itself. After drying they are exposed to the same intense white heat in a wind- or a small blast-furnace. Supposing, now, that the mixture of 1 to 3 showed the least effect like the No. 1 clay, then the clay in question would be 100 (3 × 10)=70. This test is the most practical of all. It gives with least expenditure of time and money a perfectly reliable basis upon which the value of a given clay may be considered.

3. The Degree of Binding-Power or Plasticity may be ascertained by several methods. The most convenient one is based upon the fact that the surface of dry plastic clay when rubbed with the finger only leaves a fine film of dust on the finger, while a lean clay will yield a powder-the more, the leaner it is. We prepare a finely-pulverized quartz, passing it through a 60-mesh sieve, and mix one grain of the dry clay (which is to be examined) with one, two, three, or four grains of this quartz by rubbing them together in an agate mortar. Then add water and form thick cream of each sample; place it with a spatula upon a slab of plaster of Paris. It will very soon be of sufficient stiffness to be moulded into a prism or other convenient shape, each one being marked with the number equal to the parts of quartz. When thoroughly air-dry, each one is subjected to the abrading action of the finger by passing it over once; that number which stands the rubbing without yielding powder gives the degree of plasticity. If pure plastic clay-substance

will take 10 parts of quartz, its plasticity is 10; one which takes 7 parts of quartz will have the degree 7; and so forth.

4. The Degree of Shrinkage.-The sample of clay must be well mixed with water until it forms a cream. This is stiffened upon a plaster slab until it easily parts from the latter by a shrinkage beginning. It is now moulded into a prismatic body of inch in thickness, inch wide, and 4 inches long. Thus it is placed upon a glass plate of corresponding size and its weight taken. A very sharp incision is made near each end, and the distance between the two measured to 1 of an inch. The clay is left standing at a dry place until the weight does not change sensibly; then it is dried at increasing temperature in an air-bath up to 130° C. until the weight remains constant. If the distance between the two marks be now measured, the difference between the first and the last measurement gives the linear shrinkage, whilst the volume of the evaporated water gives the cubic shrinkage. If the dimensions of the wet prism are exactly ××4, its volume will be cubic inch. The loss of water in grams is equal to the volume of the same number expressed in cubic centimetres (one cubic inch 16.129 cubic centimetres). Now, suppose that for a given clay the loss of water had been 0.2 gram : 0.2 cubic centimetres. Then the cubic shrinkage would be ×16.129+0.2=0.2016, or nearly (G. A. K.)

of the old school sufficed to give "the Millboy of the Slashes" that courtly grace which in later years captivated all who met him, while his clerkship taught him the methodical business habits which served him in good stead when he was Speaker of the House of Representatives and leader of a great political party. He never became a scholar, nor even a student of history, but he cultivated the art of oratory, for which Nature had amply endowed him with a receptive mind, a ready tongue, and a voice of wonderful clearness and compass. By the advice of his aged friend, the chancellor, he studied law, and after spending a year in the office of the State attorney-general, Robert Brooke, he was admitted to the bar in 1797. Then, barely twenty years of age, he removed to Lexington, Ky., where his fluency of speech soon found abundant employment in defending criminals and settling disputed land-claims. In 1799 he married the daughter of Col. Thomas Hart, the most prominent man in the town, and his married life was eminently happy.

When the people of Kentucky were forming their first State constitution, in 1799, Clay and other young men, seeing the evils of the slave system, urged the insertion of a clause providing for the gradual abolition of slavery an idea to which he adhered throughout life. But the effort was in vain, as was his similar effort fifty years later. Though his advice on this question was summarily rejected, his hearty good-fellowship made him a favorite with all classes. His influence was sought by the scheming and plausible Aaron Burr in his prospecting-tour in the West; and when Burr was arrested on a vague charge of treason, the chivalrous young lawyer secured his discharge-a result which destroyed the professional reputation of "Jo" Daviess, the prosecuting attorney. In 1804, Clay had been elected to the State legislature, and when, two years later, Gen. John Adair resigned his seat in the United States Senate, Clay was chosen to fill the vacancy, though he had not yet attained the constitutional age.

CLAY, CASSIUS MARCELLUS, an American statesman, son of Gen. Green Clay, was born in Madison co., Ky., Oct. 19, 1810. He graduated at Yale College in 1832, and began to practise law. In 1835 he was elected to the State legislature, and again in 1837 and 1840, but his strong opposition to slavery interrupted his political career. In 1844 he advocated the election of his relative, Henry Clay, to the Presidency, and made a tour in the Northern States in his behalf. In 1845 he began to publish in Lexington a weekly newspaper called the True American. It encountered violent opposition from the mob, and after several conflicts he was obliged to have it printed at Cincinnati. No one could better appreciate than a patriotic KenWhen the War with Mexico commenced, although he tuckian the necessity of binding more closely the rehad opposed the annexation of Texas, he entered the mote settlers beyond the Alleghenies to the people of service as captain, and was taken prisoner. In 1848 he the seaboard; and when President Jefferson, in his advocated the election of Gen. Zachary Taylor, the message of 1806, proposed that part of the money Whig candidate for the Presidency. When, the next then beginning to accumulate in the national treasury year, the constitution of Kentucky was to be revised, should be spent on roads and canals, he found a ready he gathered a convention at Frankfort in favor of the supporter of his views in the young Senator from Kenemancipation of the slaves. In 1850 he left the Whig tucky. Clay's first speech in the Senate was in favor party and became anti-slavery candidate for governor, of building a bridge over the Potomac; he next probut received only 5000 votes. In 1861 he was appointed posed an appropriation for a canal around the falls of minister to Russia by Pres. Lincoln; he returned in the Ohio at Louisville, and introduced a resolution 1862 to take part in the Civil War as major-general directing the Secretary of the Treasury to report on of volunteers, but after a year's service resumed his position in Russia, and remained there till 1869, when he returned to Kentucky. A volume of his speeches and writings was published in 1848.

CLAY. HENRỶ (1777–1852), an eminent American See Vol. V. statesman, was born in a swampy district P. 530 Am called "The Slashes," in Hanover county, ed. (p. 610. Va., April 12, 1777. His father, a Bap Edin. ed.). tist preacher, died when Henry, the fifth of seven children, was only five years old, leaving for the support of the family a little farm with two or three slaves. The widowed mother, a woman of considerable ability, struggled bravely under her burden. At the district school Henry received only the rudiments of education, and at the age of thirteen was compelled to work on the farm. The next year he became clerk in a drug-store in Richmond, and in 1792, when his mother married again, his stepfather, before removing to Kentucky, procured for him a clerkship in the Virginia court of chancery. Henry's remarkably neat penmanship soon led to his employment as amanuensis by Chancellor George Wythe, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and deservedly eminent as a jurist and classical scholar. Four years of daily association with this Virginia gentleman

the whole subject of internal improvements. In 1807, Clay was again a member of the State legislature, and in the next year was made Speaker of that body. In his advocacy of President Jefferson's policy of nonintercourse with Great Britain, he urged the members of the legislature to pledge themselves to wear nothing that was not of home manufacture. For this he was denounced by Humphrey Marshall as a demagogue. A challenge and a duel ensued, in which the combatants fired twice and were both wounded slightly. In 1809, Clay was again elected to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, and began to urge the systematic protection of American manufactures. His speech that attracted most attention during the term was in opposition to the rechartering of the United States Bank, the arguments of which were afterward employed by President Jackson in his bank veto of 1832, when Clay had changed his views on that subject.

In 1811, Clay was elected to the House of Representatives, and, though this was his first appearance in that chamber, he was already so well known that he was chosen Speaker by a large majority. The younger members of the Republican party were eager for war with England, whose wanton outrages on the Ameri

can flag on the high seas had excited public feeling | to the highest pitch. Led by Clay and Calhoun, they forced President Madison to declare war, although n proper preparations had been made for it. In spite of opposition in the House, the collapse of the finances, and repeated disaster in the field, Clay maintained the war-spirit to the close of the contest. When Great Britain had conquered a peace in Europe, and no longer had actual need to search American ships to discover possible subjects, she quietly relinquished the practice which had given offence and expressed her willingness to enter on negotiations for peace. Madison and his Secretary of State, Monroe, anxious for peace on any terms, gradually receded from any attempt to obtain an acknowledgment of the principle for which the war had been undertaken. Clay, being appointed one of the commissioners to frame the treaty, resigned the Speakership on Jan. 19, 1814, and sailed for Europe He was the representative of the interests of the people of the Mississippi Valley, as John Quincy Adams was of those of New England, while the adroit and conciliatory Gallatin was assiduously employed in bringing them to common ground. The negotiations were concluded Dec. 24, 1814, but Clay did not return to the United States until the following September. In the mean time, he had been unanimously re-elected by his constituents, and when the House assembled he was again chosen Speaker.

fifteen hundred dollars a year, but this vote had nearly cost him his seat at the next election. He now retired to devote himself to his private affairs, which had ṣuffered while he was attending to his public duties; but in the next term he returned, and had the satisfaction of seeing the independence of Greece recognized by the United States.

As the close of Monroe's administration drew near, the clique which had long been dominant in national affairs marked William H. Crawford, then Secretary of the Treasury, as his successor, and the Congressional caucus gave him the nomination. But the younger men gave no assent to this plan, and the Presidential campaign became a personal contest between four candidates nominally of the same party. While John C. Calhoun received 182 electoral votes for the Vice-Presidency, the votes for President were thus distributed: Andrew Jackson, 99; John Q. Adams, 84; W. H. Crawford, 41; Clay, 37. When the choice devolved upon the House of Representatives, voting by States, Clay, as having the lowest number, was excluded, and his friends, joining with those of Adams, secured for the latter thirteen States, while Jackson had seven and Crawford four. Jackson had already been at enmity with Clay, on account of a speech in which Clay had condemned Jackson's conduct in his invasion of Florida in 1818; this new cause of offence inspired in him a deadly hatred. When Clay accepted the position of Secretary of State under President Adams, Jackson's partisans never the reckless and intractable John Randolph uttered his well-known sarcasm on "the coalition of Puritan with blackleg. This language led to a duel between Randolph and Clay, April 8, 1826, in which each fired two shots without effect.

In 1828, Gen. Jackson attained the object of his ambition, being elected to the Presidency, by a ma jority of both popular and electoral votes, over John Quincy Adams, his only competitor. His hour for revenge had come, and he made a clean sweep from office of every person known to be, or suspected of being, a friend of Clay, while appointments were lavished on those who were especially hostile to him. The United States Bank, whose championship Clay had undertaken, was doomed to share his fate.

The costly experience of the war had proved to Clay's mind the necessity of a national bank for public emergencies. Gallatin, the ablest-in fact, the only-wearied of crying, "Bargain and corruption!" while financier of his party, had pleaded for such an institution, but was unable to break down the prejudices of years. A. J. Dallas, who followed him in the difficult position of Secretary of the Treasury, managed to obtain for the same plans the support of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster. The success of the bank was such that Clay never hesitated to assume its championship. In all other respects the war had fully confirmed the views which Clay had inherited from Jefferson. The political independence of the nation was to be confirmed by establishing the industrial independence of the people; the protection of American manufactures was to go hand in hand with the improvement of internal communications. But the same love of liberty which impelled him to foster American institutions made him the champion of all oppressed people who were struggling to win for themselves the blessings of self-government. His memorable speech in 1818 in favor of recognizing the South American republics was read by Gen. Bolivar at the head of his troops. In a similar way, in 1822, Clay espoused the cause of the insurgent Greeks, and roused a strong spirit of sympathy with their war for independence.

In American history, Clay is especially noted as the compromiser who deferred from time to time the crisis of the irrepressible conflict between the systems of free labor and slavery. His ingenuity in this regard was first shown in the Congressional struggle over the admission of Missouri as a State. He suggested the balancing of Missouri as a slave State with Maine, and when that plan was rejected secured a committee of conference, which under his guidance prepared the celebrated Missouri Compromise. By this, Missouri was admitted without restrictions as to slavery, while in all the remaining portion of the Louisiana Purchase lying north of 36° 30′ slavery should be for ever prohibited. To Clay's tact and personal influence the acceptance of this scheme was due. Yet at the very time when, in the estimation of the great body of his fellow-citizens, he had thus saved the Union, he was compelled to retire from Congress on account of the inadequacy of his salary to his needs. It is true that in his younger days his good-fellowship had led him to share the gambling habits of his associates, but after he became Speaker of the House, though an inveterate whistplayer, he strictly limited his stakes. In 1816 he had voted to increase the pay of members of Congress to

"

Meantime, Clay recruited his energies in the peaceful pursuits of farming and the outdoor life dear to every Kentuckian, until 1831, when he was again elected to the United States Senate. Here he defended the protective tariff, which was then filling the national treasury to overflowing, though also exciting discontent, especially in South Carolina. In support of his financial and economical views, which he had now fully developed in what he called "the American system, Clay organized a national party, which subsequently assumed the name of "Whig. In 1832 this party, with Clay as its Presidential candidate, seemed likely to be successful; but Jackson, who had been pledged to a single term, thrusting aside Calhoun, again entered the field, and through his overwhelming popularity with the masses carried off the prize. Bitter as was the animosity of the rival candidates, their devo tion to the Union was shown when South Carolina, under the influence of Calhoun, declared the tariff acts null and void and threatened to establish an independent government if they were enforced by the Federal authorities. This declaration was made by the State convention which assembled Nov. 24, 1832, and in reply President Jackson issued his fa mous proclamation of Dec. 11, declaring his determi nation to enforce the law at all hazards. Clay, with his ingrained tendency to compromise, now sacrificed the principle of protection by proposing that all duties exceeding 20 per cent. ad valorem should be reduced to that uniform rate by removing annually one-tenth of the excess. This compromise was accepted by both Houses, even Calhoun, who had resigned the Vice

Presidency and was now a member of the Senate, | to give the electoral vote of that State to Polk, assenting. Thus once more was threatened disunion an avowed friend of the annexation policy. But the averted by compromise. annexationists, led by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, did not wait even for Polk's accession; in spite of constitutional restrictions, the project was hurried through before Tyler left the Presidential chair, and to Polk was left the inevitable sequence of a war with Mexico. Clay had opposed the course which led to war; but when the war came, he would not refuse whatever was necessary to the success of the army. In the course of the war he was called to mourn the loss of his son Henry, who was killed, while in command of a regiment, at the battle of Buena Vista, Feb. 22, 1847.