Garrison, on the Death of Henry Clay

In July, 1852, the Liberator, includes announcement of Clay’s death.  “He was a brilliant orator, and exceedingly attractive and magnetic in social life, but utterly devoid of principle, and one who has done more than any other man to extend and perpetuate slavery, and render popular the accursed doctrine of  ‘compromise’.  Death has its uses; and never is this more clearly seen than in the removal of such a man from a world which he has only cursed by his bad example.  In his removal, the colored people of the country, both bond and free, have lost their most insidious and influential persecutor.”