speech readily gave him the victory. The effect of the | Senate at the special session in March, contemporanedoctrines which he advocated and of the course which he pursued on the progress of the country has been but slightly indicated here, as the full treatment of it belongs to history rather than to a biographical sketch. As the leader and the chief exponent of a great political party, he exercised immense influence on the destinies of his country. Yet his career seems more remarkable for its defeats than for its victories. The latter, won by compromise, though full of illusion at the time, proved transient and ineffective; yet the principles which he advocated, though sometimes sacrificed for a temporary purpose, were really working their way into the institutions of his country. Throughout his career he was devoted to the preservation of the Union as the only safeguard of liberty and popular government, and to the protective tariff for the maintenance of national independence.

See Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay, by Calvin Colton (6 vols., N. Y., 1864).

ously with the opening of Jackson's eventful admin-
istration. In that body he found himself the youngest
member, the list of his colleagues containing the names
of Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Hayne, Felix
Grundy, Hugh L. White, Edward Livingston, and
others of national distinction. His ability, however,
was quickly recognized. The first regular session be-
gan in December. 1829, and he took part, a few weeks
later-March, 1830--in one of the most famous debates
of the Senate, that upon "Foot's Resolution," which
gave occasion to the great encounter between Messrs.
Webster and Hayne. Of his speech in this debate
John Quincy Adams records in his Diary the judg-
ment that it was one of the most powerful and elo-
quent orations ever delivered in either of the halls of
Congress." His vigor as an orator and the high order
of his capacities as a Senatorial leader gave him rank
at once amongst those who were arrayed in opposition
to the Administration, and he was one of the most
effective of the Senators who antagonized the several
radical measures of Gen. Jackson's two terms.
made an energetic inquiry into irregularities in the
Post-Office Department, and ultimately secured im-
portant reforms in it; he was conspicuous in the pro-
motion of the prompt passage of the "compromise
tariff" in 1833, by which Mr. Calhoun and the nulli-
fication party of South Carolina were afforded a door
of retreat from their threatened rebellion; he advo-
cated effectually the Land Act of 1833, and strongly
supported the United States Bank in its application
for a re-charter and its resistance to the removal of the
deposits and of the pension fund. Voting for Mr.
Clay's resolutions condemning the removal of the de-
posits, he was one of the Senators against whom the
President made an issue, by name, in his famous “Pro-
test." His term of office was now closing; he received,
however, and accepted, a re-election in 1835 as the

He

autumn of 1836 he resigned, and was appointed a few months later chief-justice of the Delaware courts, His first service in the Senate had therefore continued about eight years and a half. He had been since 1833 chairman of the committee on the judiciary.

(J. P. L.) CLAYTON, JOHN MIDDLETON (1796-1856), an American statesman, born at Dagsboro', Sussex co., Del., July 24, 1796; died at Dover, Del., Nov. 9, 1856. He was descended from Joshua Clayton, an English Quaker who came over with Penn and settled in Delaware. James Clayton, the grandson of Joshua, a Sussex farmer, married Sarah Middleton, of Virginia ancestry, and John M. was their second child and eldest son. Receiving some preparatory instruction at schools near his home, he passed the examination at Yale College, and was admitted to its classes on the day he was fifteen years old. He graduated in the class of 1815 with the highest honors, having meantime studied with diligence, not even returning home for a vacation. Entering the office of his cousin, Thomas Clayton (afterwards chief-justice of Delaware and United States Senator from that State), he began the study of law, and in March, 1817, went to the law-school at Litch-proof of the continued confidence of his State. In the field, Conn., where he remained twenty months, studying, he said, sixteen hours a day. In 1819 he was admitted to the bar in his native county, but fixed his residence at Dover, the State capital, in the adjoining county of Kent. Here he came into competition with several lawyers of unusual strength, including his preceptor, Thomas Clayton; Willard Hall, subsequently, for many years, judge of the U. S. district court; and Henry M. Ridgely, who was United States Senator from 1827 to 1829. He took, however, from the first, a high position. His ability as an advocate was remarkable; his power over juries so great that the opinion of Mr. James A. Bayard, his political rival, is quoted to the effect that he had no superior in the country as a jury lawyer. His career at the bar continued ten years, and won him thorough acquaintance and great repute with the people of Delaware, with whose character and tastes he had a singularly perfect sympathy, enabling him to exert with them, during his public career, an influence commanded previously or since by no other man. In 1822 he married Sally Ann, the daughter of Dr. James Fisher of Camden, near Dover, but she died three years later, leaving two infant children, one but a few days old. Mr. Clayton's devotion to her memory was such as to influence in a marked degree the whole of his after life- -more than thirty years and while he never remarried, he even avoided, to a degree, all female society.

Mr. Clayton held his judicial office until August, 1839. The active canvass then begun for the election of Gen. Harrison to the Presidency attracted him irresistibly, and he resigned to enter again the political field. The electoral vote of Delaware had been given to Gen. Harrison in 1836, and was again cast for him in 1840, Mr. Clayton having been one of the most earnest and effective of the Whig speakers in his own and other States. He did not, however, re-enter public life until 1845, when he again took his seat in the Senate, having for his colleague his cousin, Thomas Clayton. His service in that body now continued for four years. He took a prominent part in favor of the payment of the French spoliation claims and in the adjustment of the Oregon boundary question; supported the war with Mexico after it had been entered upon; and actively promoted the nomination by the Whigs of Gen. Taylor as their candidate for President. In March, 1849, he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State, resigning, upon the death of the President, in July, 1850. During his service in the State Department he negotiated with Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, then British envoy to the United States, the famous In 1829, Mr. Clayton entered the United States Sen- CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY (which see) relating to the ate. He had filled several clerkships in the State leg-proposed construction of a ship-canal in Central Amerislature one or more of them during his minority-ica to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He also, and had served as a member of that body and as secre- through an agent sent to Hungary, gave expression to tary of state and State auditor. In 1828, in the fierce the interest felt by the American people in the efforts Presidential contest between Mr. Adams and Gen. of that country to gain its independence, and conducted Jackson, he had thrown himself warmly into the fight a correspondence with Lady Franklin in reference to in favor of the former's re-election, and the electoral the search for her husband. vote of Delaware being so decided, the legislature chosen was also in accord with Mr. Clayton's friends. He was therefore chosen Senator, and he entered the

By the election of 1852 the Whigs, friendly to Mr. Clayton, obtained a majority in the Delaware legislature on joint ballot, but as the Democrats had control

in the Senate, it was presumed that they would decline | aforesaid Governments shall approve of as just and to go into a joint convention for the election of a United equitable, and that the same canals or railways, being States Senator. Early in January, 1853, however, open to the citizens of the United States and Great Gen. Cass of Michigan made a speech in the Senate at Britain on equal terms, shall also be open on like terms Washington attacking the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and to the citizens and subjects of every other state which criticising Mr. Clayton in connection with it. The is willing to grant thereto such protection as the United feeling in Delaware was such that the Democrats in the States and Great Britain engage to afford." Senate agreed to a joint session, and Mr. Clayton was again chosen Senator, his term commencing on the 4th of March following (1853). Taking his seat at that time in the special session, he spoke on the 10th in explanation and defence of the treaty, and on the 14th replied to speeches against it delivered by Messrs. Mason and Douglas. The subject continued to occupy at tention at each session during the remainder of his service in the Senate (which closed with his death), and he made other elaborate addresses concerning it. His remains are interred in the Presbyterian church-likewise agree that each shall enter into treaty stipulayard at Dover.

con- same.

ately replied, and made rejoinder to speeches of Messrs. Mason and Douglas, who spoke in support of Cass's views. On Dec. 12, 1853, the Senate called on the President for correspondence that had taken place concerning the treaty between the State Department and the British Foreign Office; and this being communicated on Dec. 30, a second elaborate debate occurred in January, in which Mr. Clayton and Mr. Cass were the principal speakers. In Dec., 1855, upon an allusion to the subject in the President's message, the question again came up, the British Government having at different times manifested an apparent uneasiness and dissatisfaction concerning the treaty. In 1881 -82, on account of the proposed construction of the ship-canal of De Lesseps across the Isthmus of Panama, correspondence between the American Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine, and his successor, Mr. Freylinghuysen, on one side, and Lord Granville, the British minister of foreign affairs, on the other, has revived interest in the question as to the exact nature of the treaty and its bearing upon the present situation.

See the Congressional Globe for the Senate debates on the subject, and the volumes of executive documents, etc., for correspondence relating to the treaty.. (H. M. J.)

66

amount it owes to the other banks belonging to the
clearing-house. If a balance is due to a particular
bank it is said to have gained," but if there be a
balance against it the bank is declared to have “
"lost,"
the amount of the difference. The reader will perceive
that the sum-total of the losses of the losing banks
must be precisely equal to the sum-total of the gains
of the gaining banks. The balances, therefore, against
some of the banks which are paid to the clearing-house
are paid over by that institution to those banks which
have balances in their favor. Within a certain hour
of the day the debtor banks must pay into the clearing-
house the sum due by them, and with the funds thus
received at a later hour the creditor banks are paid.
This is a purely voluntary association, and its success
depends on the faithful performance by each member
of its obligations. The advantages of the system are
so great that there has never been any serious difficulty
in the way of securing an easy compliance with the reg-
ulations except when banks have failed and had not the
funds to respond. A clearing-house may be legally in-
corporated, but generally it is a private association or-
ganized among banks to suit their own requirements
and convenience.

Clearing-houses, however, are not necessarily limited to banking operations. In London, Paris, and Vienna there are stock-clearings, and recently an attempt has been made to introduce a mode of clearing stock at the New York Stock Exchange. The chief objection to any plan yet devised is that there is not enough secrecy of the operations of the individual members. There is a stock clearing-house in Philadelphia, in which clearings are effected daily. Various plans have been considered for establishing clearings in connection with the leading exchanges in the country, and it is quite likely that this will be eventually done.

Concerning the general character of the treaty, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, in a letter written in 1853 and read in the Senate, said: "It is the first instance within my knowledge in which two great nations of the earth have thus endeavored to combine peacefully for the prosecution and accomplishment of an object which, when completed, must advance the happiness and prosperity of all men. In Jan., 1854, the British Government having suggested a new treaty, Mr. Cass himself said he could not see what the United States could gain by it. "The first," he continued, "is well enough if carried out in its true spirit. What we want, and all we want, is that the Central American states should be let alone to manage their own affairs in their own way. And all this is precisely what the Clayton-Bulwer treaty would effect if fairly interpreted and fairly exe- The New York Clearing-House is by far the most cuted." Mr. Seward, in concluding his eulogy upon important institution of the kind in this country, and Mr. Clayton in the Senate in 1856, declared that the its leading features are worth description. It does not negotiation of the treaty was "the first universal fact include all the banks, however; indeed, there are only in the history of the world-a fact indicating an ulti-sixty-three members out of a total of one hundred and mate union of the nations. . . . Whatever difficulties seventy-seven banks and bankers. Those outside of have hitherto attended the execution of that great the association clear or make their exchanges through treaty, whatever future difficulties may attend it, the some others or by special arrangement. It has been treaty itself is the bow of promise of peace, harmony, said that without this facility for effecting clearings it and concord to all nations. would be difficult to do business, as the only method would be to present all the checks they received on other banks at their individual counters by the hands of messengers. A bank which performs a service of this kind for another opens an account with it as with an individual, and undertakes the business on the deposit of such a security as shall be fixed by the parties. The use of this credit balance is the compensation received for doing the business. In thus acting it agrees to pay all checks drawn on the outside bank, and it must give one day's notice to the Clearing-House before it can discontinue exchanging for it. Nevertheless, solvent banks not belonging to the association have no difficulty in getting some member of the Clearing-House to act for them. All the large banks are included in the association, but before a bank can be admitted to membership it must be examined. No fixed limits, however, with respect to the amount of capital or other conditions have been prescribed. A committee of five are chosen annually to supervise and direct the officers of the association, but the manager, who is under the control of the committee, has immediate charge of all the business. The hour for making exchanges is ten o'clock. Between half past twelve and half-past one the debtor banks pay to the manager the balances against them in actual coin, United States legal-tender notes, or United States certificates of deposit. At half-past one, or as soon afterward as the amounts can be made up and proved, the creditor banks receive from the manager the balances due to each of them. If any member of the Clearing-House should fail at the proper hour to pay the balance against it, the amount must be immediately furnished

CLEARING-HOUSE. This is an institution established by banks in large cities for the settlement of mutual claims by the payment of the difference. The total of the claims is called "clearings," and the differences are called "balances.' The clearings mainly consist of checks held by different bankers who receive them in the way of ordinary deposit. The process of clearing is a very simple one, and is substantially the same in all clearing-houses. At a certain hour in the morning-usually ten o'clock-every bank which is a member of the clearing-house sends a clerk or deputy and a messenger. The deputy takes with him all the checks on other banks belonging to the clearing-house that have been received by his own bank during the preceding day. Each bank has a desk there, and all of them are arranged in a certain order. When the work of clearing begins, each deputy is found at his desk; and he receives from the messengers of the other banks in turn all the checks and exchanges held against it for payment. When the messengers deliver their exchanges, they take a receipt for the amount. When they have made the tour of the room, each bank will have received all the checks held against it by the other banks belonging to the clearing-house, and will have delivered to the messenger of every other bank all the checks and exchanges it holds against it for payment. Each bank is then credited on the books of the clearing-house with the amount due to it from other banks, and is debited with the

66

ists classed the plant with the bryony. The Bryonia Nantes, and went to Paris to study medicine. There dioica was with them Vitis nigra, and the clematis he associated with the young republicans and contribwas Vitis alba, probably from its white blossoms. The uted political articles to various journals. Having thus bryony is a dioecious plant, sometimes, as it is now become obnoxious to the imperial government, in 1865 known, becoming monoecious with age. ""Tis call'd he removed to the United States, where he settled at virgin-vine," says Louis Liger d'Auxerre, "in regard Hartford, Conn.. and was soon after married to Miss it has never yet produced anything, and so is a virgin, Mary G. Plummer In September, 1870, on the downas 'twere," alluding to its unisexual flowers. The fall of the Empire, he returned to Paris and established origin of the name Vitalba is apparent, and its rela- himself as a practising physician in Montmartre, in tion to the Virgin has probably followed from this Paris. But he was almost immediately called to be early association with bryony. Another European mayor of the arrondissement, and during the subsespecies, C. Flammula, has retained as its specific ap-quent siege of the city by the Germans was conspicupellation its original common name. Flammula was ous for energy and administrative ability. In Februthe name given to an acrid, burning species of Ranun- ary, 1871, he was elected to the National Assembly for culus (R. Flammula), and the acrid leaves of this the department of the Seine. species, with some resemblance in the foliage under On the uprising of the Commune in March, Clémensome conditions, brought about the association. An- ceau exerted himself to prevent bloodshed and to reother species, Clematis Viorna, has retained its orig-store order, but the mob, suspecting him of being an inal proper name, some supposing it to have been agent of the national government, which was then orderived from “adorning the way; but it may be sim-ganized under M. Thiers, thrust him from his office, ply "ornamental vine.' Viorne is the French name and even sought his life. When the second siege of of the viburnum, which in English is "wayfaring tree. the city began, Clémenceau retired from the National Dr. Arnold Bromfield, in Flora Vectensis, notes that Assembly to share the fortune of his fellow-citizens. "the slender flexile branches [of C. Vitalba served Yet he continued his efforts for conciliation, and early occasionally for binding faggots, and as a substitute in May went on a mission to other cities of France to for the more costly pipe or cigar to our young rustic endeavor to secure an immediate meeting of the newlysmokers," and that with these the branches were known elected republican delegates in the interests of peace. as "bedwine. 'Pethwine" is, however, the correct Before his return the gates of Paris were closed, and vernacular. The Greek klemata is suggestive of the the Commune movement was presently suppressed. use of the branches for tying purposes. Having returned to the Assembly, Clémenceau, in March, 1872, presented the draft of a law authorizing the election of a municipal council for Paris. On its passage he was elected in July to this council, and became in succession its secretary, vice-president, and president. In February, 1876, he was elected to the new Chamber of Deputies, where he was a member of the extreme Left. In May, 1877, he took part in the famous protest of the 363 against the prorogation of the Assembly by the Duc de Broglie; and when the Assembly was dissolved, in June, he was one of the committee of eighteen which directed the vigorous electoral campaign which ensued. In the strongly republican Assembly thus elected Clémenceau continued to proclaim bluntly his radical ideas and to denounce unsparingly the administration of Marshal MacMahon. He was then a supporter of M. Gambetta, and, though in character and manner widely different, was for a time his personal friend. This was shown by his being Gambetta's second in his duel with M. de Fourton in November, 1878. In January, 1879, M. Grévy became president of France, and Gambetta was made Speaker of the House. Clémenceau then succeeded to the leadership of the extreme Left, and was active in carrying through the House the radical programme for the exclusion of the clergy from educational affairs, the expulsion of the Jesuits, and the amnesty of the communists who had been banished to New Caledonia. At this time it became evident that Gambetta, for the purpose of uniting firmly the people of France, had adopted the policy of opportunism, but Clémenceau remained stanch in his aggressive radicalism. He openly opposed the ministry of Jules Ferry, and when Gambetta became minister continued to wage a more vigorous policy. Since the death of Gambetta the followers of the latter have mostly joined in supporting M. Clémenceau.

The commonest American clematis in the Eastern portion of the continent is C. Virginiana, closely allied to the European virgin's bower," but differing in having ternate instead of pinnate leaves; and, singularly enough, a species differing but slightly from this, and chiefly in narrower leaflets and sepals, is found in Japan. C. ligusticifolia, also nearly allied, takes the place of C. Virginiana in the Rocky Mountains and westward to the Pacific coast. China and Japan have several very ornamental species, and these have been the parents of many pretty forms.in gardens, in some of which the flowers are double by the transformation of stamens to petals. Clematis Japonica, closely allied to our C. Virginiana, is known in this country as Futs Kusa. Shecut, an early botanist of South Carolina, notes in his Botany of that State: "The Spanish, or blistering, flies are very fond of Clematis crispa (a Southern species), and it would be well for medical gentlemen in the country to propagate the plant about their residences, in order to secure a constant succession of these valuable insects." Florists, however, find no necessity for such action, the blister-beetle being one of the most persistent of insect enemies. A species of Egeria is also very destructive as a stemborer, and the roots are preyed on by a species of Anguillula, making them granulated, as Phylloxera does the roots of the grape. Besides this, a fungous disease often kills the plants as if by lightning. These enemies render clematis-culture no sure success in American gardens.

In regard to Clematis Viorna, Shecut says that a yellow dye may be extracted from both leaves and branches. The fibrous shoots may be converted into paper, and the wood is yellow, compact, and odoriferous, furnishing an excellent material for veneering. Clematis Vitalba is commonly known as German clematis in American gardens. In the time of Dodonæus the German vernacular was Lignen. In modern times the Germans called it Waldrebe. The "ladies' bower of Virginia," of the early English herbalists, is the passion flower, Passiflora incarnata.

Clematises have generally no odor, but C. Flammula of Europe, and C. coccinea of the Southern part of the United States, are delightfully scented.

(T. M.) CLÉMENCEAU, GEORGE BENJAMIN EUGÈNE, a French statesman, was born at Mouilleron-en-Pareds (Vendée), Sept. 28, 1841. He was educated at

CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE, an American humorist, generally known by his assumed name, 'Mark Twain," was born at Florida, Mo., Nov. 30, 1835. A few years later his father removed with his family to Hannibal, on the Mississippi River, where Samuel entered a printing-office. After learning the printer's trade he journeyed from town to town as far as New York; then, returning, found his way to New Orleans. He then resolved to become a Mississippi steamboat pilot, but scarcely had he become perfect in his knowledge of the navigation on that river when it was closed by the outbreak of the Rebellion. Then his brother, having been appointed lieutenant-governor