PART II
WHITE HALL
If a House Is Divided Against Itself
If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
–Mark 3:25, World English Bible
In some ways, General Green Clay and his son, Major General Cassius Marcellus Clay, could not have been more different. Green Clay was a wealthy tycoon—nearly everything he touched turned to gold. Cassius M. Clay lived his life trying to stay ahead of his debts. The father was a massive slaveholder, believing that slavery was a necessary means of doing business. The son felt that business would be better if slaves were emancipated. One thing they did have in common was a taste for impressive houses. Cassius, with his wife, Mary Jane, would eventually add on to the Clay family home, transforming the palatial country estate into a towering, eye-popping abode. However, before we get to the building, let’s look a little at the man (and woman) behind the mansion.
Cassius M. Clay75 led a charmed life. He grew up in an impressive home with a bountiful table and enslaved individuals to cater to whatever needs he and his family had. Cassius was well educated and was given the foundation at home to provide him with the financial security, social connections and extreme self-confidence to rise up in the world.
Clay’s rise to fame began with his educational studies. Perhaps because he had had so little schooling,76 Green was very generous with providing the means for ample education for his own children. Cassius stated that he attended a number of local area schools, as well as Danville College and Jesuit College,77 before going on to attend Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and then later Yale University in Connecticut.78
While at Transy, Cassius resided in the main building on campus. On a Saturday night in May 1829, Clay was peacefully snoozing in his room while his male slave polished some boots on the stairs. The slave had placed a candle on the steps so that he could view his work but fell asleep without blowing out the flame, which soon tipped over and set fire to the stairway. The building went up in flames rather quickly. Fortunately, no one perished in the fire. Unfortunately, the building was destroyed. Such was the embarrassment of Clay over this incident that he never admitted any connection to this event until he was in his late eighties.79 It is believed that after the fire took place, having no dorm to live in, Cassius went to visit with the Todd family of Lexington. Cassius considered Robert S. Todd, the patriarch of the family, his “old and faithful friend.”80 One of the daughters, Elizabeth, would be a bridesmaid at his future wedding, and another daughter, Mary, would one day become the wife of a man Cassius and a great portion of the rest of the nation would respect: Abraham Lincoln.
Cassius also studied at Yale University but managed not to burn anything down. Cassius’s attendance at Yale would affect him in a major way and would influence Clay to devote his life to the antislavery pro-emancipation cause. What were the factors that played a part in Cassius becoming an emancipationist? The young Clay already had misgivings about the “peculiar institution,” for Cassius stated that he entered Yale with “my soul full of hatred to slavery”81 At a grass-roots level, it could be hypothesized that Cassius’s mother may have played a role in forming his opposition. Clay stated in his Memoirs that “at all events, the mother, being both parent and teacher, mostly forms the character.”82 One could also imagine that Cassius’s older brother, Sydney Payne Clay, had a great deal of influence, as he was also an emancipationist before his untimely death. There also were incidents that occurred that Cassius would have viewed growing up in a slaveholding family. Cassius stated that “my father being the largest slave-owner in the State, I early began to study the system, or, rather, began to feel its wrongs.”83
One incident that had a lasting impact on Cassius involved a family slave by the name of Mary. As a young boy, Cassius had been interested in gardening, and Mary assisted him in plotting out a garden. According to Cassius, a few years later Mary was sent to a separate plantation to cook for the whites, the “hands” and the overseer, named John Payne, and his family. Cassius stated that Payne verbally abused Mary, and when she objected, she angered not only Payne but also his whole family. The family sent her upstairs in their cabin to shell seed corn for planting. Mary was suspicious that something was up and hid a butcher knife in her clothes before she went upstairs. Meanwhile, the Payne family plotted a vendetta below. Eventually, the Paynes came upstairs and attempted to attack her, but Mary turned on them and fatally stabbed John Payne. At this point, she was able to make her escape and ran back to Clermont.84
In June 1820, Mary went on trial for the murder of John Payne. The trial took over a year and half to complete. At first, the court proceedings took place in Madison County, but after it was determined that Mary might not receive a fair hearing there, the trial was moved to Jessamine County. At one point, it was debatable whether Mary would live through the trial, as the horrid conditions of her jail cell compromised her health. A doctor was called in to examine her and provide an affidavit—for Mary to survive; she had to be removed from the unheated jail that was so open to the elements. It took Mary several months to recover from her illness. Throughout the trial, numerous witnesses were called for the Commonwealth, while many other witnesses spoke on behalf of Mary, including Sally Lewis Clay. This fact might lead one to suppose that the Clays believed their slave when she said that she had killed in self-defense. The trial finally came to a close in October 1821.85
Cassius M. Clay seems a little bit hazy on the actual proceedings of Mary’s trail; he stated in his Memoirs that Mary was acquitted of the murder, “held guiltless by a jury of, not her ‘peers,’ but her oppressors!”86 According to the official court documents, Mary was actually found guilty of murder and sentenced to execution on December 1, 1821. The pardon by Governor John Adair on November 13, 1821, was what saved her life.87
Although she was pardoned by the governor of Kentucky, Green Clay’s will instructed that she and a number of other slaves be “sent beyond the limits of this state” and sold “for the best price that can be had with a warranty that they non neither of them shall ever return to reside within this state thereafter.”88
At the time of Green Clay’s death, Mary was still fairly young. It is estimated that she would have been in her late twenties to early thirties and therefore could have had several more years in which she would have been productive in her service to her masters. Why then, was Mary still sold? Had Green Clay worked out a compromise with the governor? Was the stigma attached to Mary too great? Were there other factors that could have resulted in Mary being sold?
Perhaps its possible that Mary had a closer connection to Green than was openly known. In describing Mary, Cassius stated that “[s]he was a fine specimen of a mixed breed, rather light colored, showing the blood in her cheeks, with hair wavy, as in the case with mixed whites and blacks. Her features were finely cut, quite Caucasian.”89 In reference to his father and the possibility of a child out of wedlock, Cassius stated, “In the discipline of women, my father knew, as every sensible man knows, the strength of the sexual passions. Nature ever tends to the preservation of the races of animals. Opportunity, notwithstanding all the sentimentalism about innate chastity, is the cause of most of the lapses from virtue.”90 The possibility that Mary was an illegitimate child of Green Clay’s is not entirely unlikely.
Whether Cassius M. Clay remembered the exact proceedings of Mary’s trial is not as relevant as the impact his father’s will made on Mary’s life and, as a result, on his own life. Clay’s older brother, Sydney P. Clay, was executor of Green Clay’s estate. Although an emancipationist himself, Sydney was required to execute his father’s last orders. Cassius recalled his final time seeing Mary: “Never shall I forget—and through all these years it rests upon the memory as the stamp upon a bright coin—the scene, when Mary was tied by the wrists and sent from home and friends, and the loved features of her native land—into Southern banishment forever…Never shall I forget those two faces—of my brother and Mary—the oppressor and the oppressed, rigid with equal agony!”91
Certainly, the idea of antislavery had to have been introduced to a young Cassius before he attended any higher educational institutions. However, Clay credited the voice of the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison as being the straw that broke the camel’s back.92
It wasn’t just persuasive and influential people in his life who would have caused Cassius to go in this antislavery direction. Nor was it simply a morality issue with Clay. In his travels in the North, as well as his time at Yale, Cassius saw how business was done. The economy did just as well if not better in the New England states without the institution of slavery. Cassius believed that the South’s economy could do the same. In fact, he felt that the southern states could not continue with slavery and survive successfully in the future. Furthermore, Clay believed that slavery took away jobs from the working-class white population.93
Many people in the past and even today have called Cassius M. Clay an abolitionist. Clay personally objected to being called this, stating that it was “a name full of unknown and strange terrors and crimes to the mass of our people.”94 Cassius was undeniably an emancipationist. The two terms diverge in that an abolitionist believed that slavery should end all at once, by legal or illegal means (hence the Underground Railroad and other illegal practices of assisting slaves to freedom). An emancipationist wanted a gradual end of slavery. This measured autonomy would allow the slave owner to prepare economically for the loss of his or her property and also give the enslaved time to mentally adjust—emotionally and in terms of literacy and job preparation—before having the concept of independence thrust upon them.
Cassius felt that since the law sanctioned slavery, the law should then eliminate it, stating that “I consider law, and its inviolate observance, in all cases whatever, as the only safeguards of my own liberty and the liberty of others.”95 Clay practiced what he preached in regard to dealing with his own slaves. Although Cassius freed his own slaves, there were a number he could not liberate legally because they had been put into trust for Cassius’s children through his father’s will.96 Technically, those particular slaves belonged to Cassius’s offspring, and he did not have the right to legally emancipate them, and so these people were enslaved until freed by the Civil War. In a letter to the abolitionist Reverend John G. Fee in 1855, Cassius defended his actions:
I feel it my duty to keep my children’s slaves together and control them, rather than by disavowing any authority over them to allow the sheriff to hire them singly to the highest bidder. I have been in the habit of allowing them such privileges and wages as I think suitable to their condition as slaves, and the responsibility upon me for their support. I consider that I have done my duty when I have done all in my power to bring about legal and peaceable emancipation. Besides, I do not set myself up as perfect: far from it. A balance sheet of good against evil is all I aspire to.97
Cassius stated in his Memoirs, “I never sold a slave of mine in my life. The slaves sold…were trust-slaves—the title being in me only as trustee. I sold them for crime, as was directed in such case by my father’s will; and the proceeds were re-invested in lands, in Lexington, for the benefit of those for whom the ‘cestui qui trust’ was created.”98 In addition, Clay stated, “I never received a dollar from a slave of mine in my life. On the contrary, I liberated all the slaves I inherited from my father and thirteen others whom I bought to bring families together, or liberated at once…The buying and liberating of these slaves, half of whom never entered my service, cost me about ten thousand dollars.”99 It should be noted that although he claimed to have never purchased slaves on his own behalf (aside from those in which he was trustee), Cassius was not opposed to borrowing slaves from his brother Brutus when he needed them.100 Being a large slaveholder, Brutus followed more along the lines of his father Green’s philosophies when it came to the issue of slavery and did not subscribe to his younger brother’s ideals.
Cassius endured criticism and conflict not only from his peers of the white populations but also from his own slaves as well. At one point, Clay went to court over his slave, Emily, whom he believed to have poisoned him and one of his sons.101 Another time, Cassius went to court for shooting a former slave, Perry White, in self-defense. This altercation, nearly thirty years later, also stemmed from an alleged poisoning of a son of Clay’s.102
It may be difficult for those today to fully understand the extreme division and personal moral conflict that contemporaries felt at the time regarding slavery. When speaking a generation after slavery was abolished, Clay himself attempted to convey what it was like: “The present generation can know nothing of the terror which the slave-power inspired; but it can be faintly conceived, when a professed minister of the Christian religion in South Carolina said that it were better for him, rather than denounce slavery, ‘to murder his own mother, and lose his soul in hell!’”103 Cassius himself was Christian in faith, but he did have issues with churches and religions that touted slavery as a “divine institution.” In reference to those who believed as such, Clay stated, “I had no fellowship with men with such a creed; and I preferred, if God was on that side, to stand with the Devil rather; for he was silent, at least. So, if I said and wrote hard things against the Scriptures, and especially the preachers, it was because they were the false prophets which it was necessary to destroy with slavery.”104
It would be safe to say that educating the masses on the evils of slavery was a great love of Cassius’s. Another great love would be his first wife, Mary Jane Warfield. In every great epic, there is a love story. Many times, people will meet their future mate while at college, and such was the case with Cassius M. Clay. While he attended Transylvania, the second daughter of prominent Lexington physician and horse breeder105 Elisha Warfield caught the young man’s eye. Mary Jane Warfield had long, luxuriant auburn hair with large light grayish-blue eyes.106 She was graceful, had a talent for conversation and possessed a beautiful singing voice, and Cassius was so taken by her that before he left for Yale he gave her a copy of Washington Irving’s Sketch-Book with some sweet words inscribed therein.107 Upon returning to the Bluegrass Region, he visited her father’s home frequently enough to have Miss Mary Jane notice him right back.
It probably wouldn’t have been hard to notice Cassius, as he was somewhat of a looker himself, standing about six feet tall,108 weighing in at about 183 pounds109 and having fair skin, with dark hair and dark gray eyes (these genetics he attributed to his mother’s side of the family).110 The Cash man was also probably in tiptop shape physically as he enjoyed sports and was rather athletic.111 Sparks had to have flown across the parlor of the Warfield home, but it wasn’t until a hickory nut hunting party that they truly discussed their feelings for each other.
Cassius situated himself under the trees and made himself useful by hulling the nuts while others, including Mary Jane, went about gathering the bounty and dropping off their collections in a pile beside Clay. At one point, when other members of the party had wandered off, Mary Jane approached Cassius with her handkerchief full of the carya fruit, which she emptied onto the pile. When Cassius asked her to “Come and help me,” Mary Jane replied, “I have no seat.” Quick-witted Clay put his legs together and quipped, “You may sit down here, if you will be mine.” It’s doubtful that hickory nuts were the only things on Cassius’s mind when Mary Jane sat down on his lap, brushed his face with her hair and murmured, “I am yours” before flitting off to be with her friends. Cassius was left to wonder if Mary Jane’s technique was “simplicity, or the highest art?”112
It was like a scene from a movie. Some individuals at the time might have married for money, power or title, but it appears that Cassius and Mary Jane married for love, although there would be a few obstacles to overcome before they actually made it to the altar. One made itself known right after the nut hunting party ended. Cassius’s cousin, whom he refers to as Mrs. Allen, noticed the attraction, took the young man to the side and stated, “Cousin Cash, I see that you are much taken with Mary Jane. Don’t you marry her; don’t you marry a Warfield!” Mrs. Allen went on to list a number of eligible young ladies in the area whom Cassius could turn his attentions to, but to no avail—Clay was smitten.113
Another impediment to the star-crossed lovers was Mary Jane’s own mother, Maria Barr Warfield. In the grand tradition of intrusive mothers-in-law, she seemed to have hated Cassius’s guts. The trouble may have started when Cassius asked Elisha Warfield for Mary Jane’s hand in marriage rather than his future mother-in-law. Perhaps Maria felt that Mary Jane should marry a doctor like her father, or maybe it was in retaliation for the proposal slip up that caused Maria to give Cassius a letter written by a former beau of her daughter’s. Dr. John Declarey had said some unkind things about Clay’s character in the letter, and Cassius felt that he had to defend his honor.
What does a gentleman do in Clay’s time when he is insulted in a letter? Why, he goes and beats up the person who wrote the missive! Clay, with his “best man” James S. Rollins, traveled to Louisville, where the offending physician resided. While Rollins held bystanders back, Clay beat the tar out of Declarey in the middle of the street in front of his own hotel. Of course, Declarey responded with a challenge to a duel, which Cassius was only too happy to accept. The two men tried several times to get together to fight without large crowds following them but were unsuccessful, so Clay and Rollins headed back to Lexington, with Clay almost missing his own wedding. Thus under such drama were Cassius and Mary Jane joined in matrimony.114
Word would eventually reach Cassius that Declarey had boasted if he ever saw Clay again he would “cowhide” him (a serious offense at the time, reserved for such individuals as slaves). This caused Clay to again head back up to Louisville, but this time to do so alone. He again went back to Declarey’s hotel and waited for him in the dining room of the establishment. Clay was there leaning against a pillar when Declarey finally returned home. The doctor did not challenge Cassius but did turn a few shades paler and hurried away. Cassius hung out in Louisville for a few days after that hoping to drum up a fight, but Declarey never contacted him, so the newlywed returned home. Clay discovered later that the reason Declarey never communicated with him was because he was dead. The doctor had committed suicide by “cutting his arteries.” Perhaps the fear of actually going through with another physical confrontation with Cassius was too much to bear, or maybe dying was less of an embarrassment than getting beat up. In any event, Cassius never blamed himself for Declarey’s death, but rather Maria Barr Warfield.115 Pass that buck right along.
Although the marriage began with such a rocky start, Mary Jane and Cassius did enjoy (more or less) forty-five years of wedded bliss together. The marriage produced ten children: Elisha Warfield Clay (May 18, 1835–June 21, 1851), Green Clay (December 30, 1837–January 23, 1883), Mary Barr Clay Herrick (October 13, 1839–1924), Sarah Lewis Clay Bennett (November 18, 1841–February 28, 1935), Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. (1843–1843), Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. (1845–April 15, 1857), Brutus Junius Clay (February 20, 1847–June 1, 1932), Laura Clay (February 9, 1849–June 29, 1941), Flora Clay (1851–1851) and Anne Warfield Clay Crenshaw (March 20, 1859–1945).
Cassius and Mary Jane began their married life together with a seven-room brick home to make their own. It was soon decided that Clermont was a little too far out in the country. Lexington seemed a better fit for the young couple. Mary Jane liked being near her family, and Cassius liked being near the politics. The Morton House, located on the corner of Limestone and Fifth Streets in Lexington, looked like an ideal place to resettle. Cassius called the home “the most elegant in the city,”116 and he purchased it in the late 1830s for $18,000.117 The home itself was unusual when compared to other early Kentucky houses in that it was a brick home with stucco covering it.
While he was residing at the Morton House, Cassius began to set his sights on a political career. He studied law at Transylvania, and even though he was not interested in working in that profession (and actually never took out a license to practice),118 Clay could have been very successful had he chosen to go that route. A man accused of murder once asked Clay to represent him in court. The man allegedly killed his neighbor after the neighbor had given him a threatening look. Terrified, the accused claimed that he killed the man in self-defense. Upon hearing of the circumstances, Cassius’s “fighting blood was roused,” and he took the case. The prosecution brought forth the evidence, and it seemed cut and dried: the accused murdered a man in cold blood. Why should Clay even bother to present his side? Undaunted, Cassius quietly made his case and, according to one observer, “laid all the proof before them in a masterful way.” Near the conclusion of his arguments, Clay suddenly turned and gave the jury a chilling glare. The jury, alarmed by this sudden twist, recoiled in fright. Clay then asked, “Gentlemen of the jury, if a man should look at you like this, what would you do?” In response, the jury after a short deliberation decided on a not guilty verdict for the accused.119 Apparently, looks can kill.
The jury’s response to Clay’s glower is not surprising, since only an insane person would have wanted Cassius M. Clay’s temper directed at him or her. Over his lifetime, Clay became well known for not backing down from a fight. This characteristic became very public when Cassius began working on his career in earnest. Politics, antislavery speeches and fighting all seemed to go hand in hand in the 1840s for Cassius. While Clay did not reach the top in terms of political eminence, he was exceedingly talented in the other two departments.
When writing his Memoirs in his seventies and glancing back at his life and his dubious standing,120 Clay stated, “My reputation as a ‘fighting man,’ as the phrase goes, I have never gloried in. On the contrary, it has always been a source of annoyance to me; overshadowing that to which I most aspired—a high and self-sacrificing moral courage—where the mortal was to be sacrificed to the immortal. And, after a calm review of my whole life, I can truly say that I have never acted on the offensive; but have confined myself by will and act to the defensive.”121 Clay was always certain to act if he felt like his views or his (or his wife’s) honor were put into question.
Dirty politics is not a modern invention. In 1840, a rival of Clay’s for a seat in the Fayette County General Assembly, Robert Wickliffe Jr., brought Mary Jane Clay’s name up in an uncomplimentary way during a speech. Naturally, Cassius challenged this mudslinger to a duel. Upon hearing word of this fight, Cassius’s distressed mother, Sally, took pen in hand and wrote to him on August 2, 1840:
Cassius, My Dearly Blv’d Son.
You don’t know the anxiety I have felt since I heard you became a candidate last night. I heard there is a report in town that you and Rob. Wickliffe were expected to fight, altho I can’t believe it; still I feel unhappy knowing your disposition & sense of honour. How can a rational man think it honourable to disobey his maker’s law which says thou shalt not kill? How does it look for men to go out with their physician with them to try to take each other’s life and one kills the other? The survivor lives a miserable life here and without the sovereign mercy of God, dies and is miserable to all eternity! Oh! my son, think of the shortness of life and the vanity of all earthly fame. Surely you will not take it amiss for your Mother to exhort you to be upon gard [sic], you are very dear to my heart; there is no earthly tie stronger than the love an affectionate mother feels for her children; don’t be anxious, and if you are not elected show your philosophy that is more noble than vengeance, which the Almighty says belongs to himself. I hope the Lord will protect you: farewell. My love to M. Jane and the children.122
Clay eventually ended up dueling Robert Wickliffe. The two were spaced ten paces from each other and fired one shot with pistols, each one missing the other. (Apparently, the Lord did protect, as Clay’s mother had hoped.) Although Cassius wanted to try again, the seconds convinced him to let the matter rest.123
Even though Clay dueled with Wickliffe, Sally’s words did have an effect on him. At the bottom of her original letter, housed in the J.T. Dorris Collection of Special Collections and Archives at Eastern Kentucky University, Cassius penciled the words, “Note: This letter so full of good sense and coming from one whom I loved above all the world determined me never again to fight a duel: and I never have. C. 1884.”124 Cassius came to think of dueling as a waste of his time,125 and while a duel might have resulted in minor or no bodily harm, an actual skirmish with Cassius generally brought about serious maiming or death on the adversary’s part.
The battle did continue on between Cassius and Robert Wickliffe Jr. This time, instead of doing the fighting himself, Wickliffe chose to hire an assassin. The hit man was named Samuel Brown. Brown decided that his rendezvous with Cassius was to be on an August day in 1843. The location was a rally at Russell’s Cave in Fayette County. Perhaps the day was overcast, for Brown chose to make himself known first by calling Cassius a liar in the middle of Clay’s speech, then following that claim up with a hard rap against the offending man with his umbrella. Cassius was in the process of withdrawing his Bowie knife when Brown produced a more effective weapon—a deadly pistol—and fired at point-blank range at Cassius’s chest. In retaliation, Cassius took his knife and proceeded to carve Sam up like a Thanksgiving turkey. By the time he was done, Brown had lost an eye, nearly lost an ear, had his nose slit and his skull cleaved to the brain. A number of men threw nearby chairs and hickory sticks at Cassius, while others grabbed him to get him off Brown, though they knew that Clay would eventually get loose. To save Brown’s life, they threw him (Brown, not Clay) over a nearby stone fence.126
How did a man who had been shot at close range still defend himself to the point that multiple people were called to restrain him from his attacker? Brown shot his gun just as Cassius was taking his knife out of his waistcoat. Upon later examination, it was revealed that the bullet had hit the knife’s scabbard (which was lined with silver) and had become lodged there instead of in Clay. It would seem that Providence once again intervened for Cassius. Clay thought so himself, as he mentioned, more than thirty years later, “And when I look back to my many escapes from death, I am at times impressed with the idea of the special interference of God in the affairs of men; whilst my cooler reason places human events in that equally certain arrangement of the great moral and physical laws, by which Deity may be said to be ever directing the affairs of men.”127 It seems that Cassius felt God was certainly on his side in this particular fight.
In an odd and certainly unfair twist of events, it was not Samuel Brown, the paid hit man who threw the first punch and shot with intent to kill, who was put on trial for mayhem, but rather the victim of the attack, Cassius M. Clay. Cassius’s famous second cousin, Henry Clay, and his brother-in-law, John Speed Smith, represented him in court. Justice was on Clay’s side, as he was found not guilty.128 Although Clay extended the hand of friendship to his adversary, Brown never accepted the offer and was later killed in a steamboat accident. Cassius stated in his seventies that of all the men he fought in his lifetime, Brown had been the bravest.129
With his views concerning slavery, Cassius M. Clay was not the most liked man around. To add more flames to the fire, in 1845 Clay decided to start his own newspaper. Cassius had gotten into the habit of writing to the local newspapers on the subject of slavery, as well as his opposition to it. The newspapers were less than amused—Lexington being a major slaveholding town at the time and the surrounding areas also being very much proslavery—and stopped publishing the letters. This did not deter young Cassius one bit.
To ensure his freedom of speech, he established the True American, an antislavery newspaper that was published in Lexington and was so controversial that people were up in arms before the ink was wet on the newsprint. Clay received numerous threatening letters, one supposedly written in blood. It looked very much like a mob might advance on Clay’s office and take it down by force.130 His answer to this was to reinforce the exterior doors with sheet iron (to keep the doors from being burned) and outfit the office with an arsenal fit for war (including a number of guns, Mexican lances, two brass cannons and a keg of explosive powder, complete with match). The cannons were placed breast high and were stuffed with nails facing the direction Clay assumed the mob would be arriving. His plan, it is supposed, was that he (or some of his allies) would shoot the cannons at the enemy, light the keg of powder and escape out of trapdoor in the roof of the building.131 Clay believed in being prepared.
As it turned out, a mob did show up. Calling themselves the Committee of Sixty and for the most part composed, surprisingly, of Clay’s friends, the group was slightly more civilized than what Cassius had been expecting. This group secured a bogus court order from a sympathetic judge to stop the production of the True American. At the time, Clay was in bed sick with typhoid fever. He was forced to surrender the keys to his office and allow the group to go in and dismantle his press, which was shipped off to Cincinnati, Ohio. The newspaper continued production in that city, with Cassius editing it in Lexington.132 The newspaper was later purchased by the Louisville Examiner.133 Cassius ended up having the last laugh; he sued the secretary of the Committee of Sixty, James B. Clay (Cassius’s own cousin and son to Henry Clay—how’s that for adding insult to injury) for infringing on his freedom of speech rights and was awarded $2,500 for his pain.134 With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Clay’s approval rating among his peers was at an all-time low. Fortunately for him, the Mexican-American War was just beginning. Although Clay did not agree with what the war stood for (he felt, like many antislavery people at the time, that the war was an excuse to add more slave territory to the South), he suspected that he could potentially go to war and come back a hero. That is exactly what happened. In a capricious expression of their sentiments, the very same people who would have run Cassius out of town before he went off to the Mexican-American War had a parade for the man and presented him with a sword for his bravery in that war upon his return.135
So what did Clay do that was so heroic? He headed out in the latter part of 1846 with the First Kentucky Volunteers as a captain. Upon arriving in Mexico, he and his regiment were very quickly captured by the Mexican troops. The Americans discovered, much to their dismay, that not posting pickets results in the enemy successfully being able to surround and capture a target without a single shot being fired. When the Mexicans threatened to kill the Kentuckians after one of the captains escaped, Cassius reportedly stepped forward and stated, “Kill the officers; spare the soldiers.” A Mexican general came forward and, cocking his gun against Cassius’s chest, prepared to take him at his word. Undaunted, Cassius went on to say, “Kill me—kill the officers; but spare the men—they are innocent!”136
Apparently, the Mexican company was so impressed that it did not kill anyone. The company did, however, retain Cassius and his fellow soldiers as prisoners. On the march to Mexico, and also once under house arrest, Cassius did everything in his power to make sure that his soldiers and the others who were captured were as comfortable as he could make them. He sold his own belongings to do this, and Clay “expressed his regret that he was unable to do more.” One of the soldiers incarcerated with him stated that Cassius M. Clay was truly “the soldier’s friend.”137
Regardless of the fact that he was hailed as a hero by his fellow Fayette Countians, by the late 1840s Clay’s political career in that county had reached an end, and so Cassius and Mary Jane sold the Morton House in 1850, packed up the kiddies (by this time all but two of their ten children had been born) and traveled back to Madison County (where the political grass was a bit greener) and the family homestead of Clermont.
In 1849, Cassius began assisting antislavery candidates in their bid in the Kentucky Constitutional Convention. This convention would decide the fate of the future of slavery in Kentucky. Madison County allowed two delegates. One of the nominees, a local lawyer named Squire Turner, did not like Clay’s tactics. To be fair, when one goes to speak to the public, it is rather annoying to have another person there who rebuts everything one says. Cassius continued this irritating behavior until a speech at Foxtown. Normally, Clay went everywhere armed to the teeth, but this particular rally was near his home, and so he arrived with “only” a Bowie knife.
Squire got up to speak in a positive way regarding the slavery issue, with a few biting negative remarks aimed at Clay. To further infuriate Cassius, he went way over his time limit. Clay once again stood up right after Turner ended his speech to refute what Turner said and to complain that he did not have adequate time to rebut Turner’s speech. Turner’s son, Cyrus, took specific offense to Clay’s words, and when Clay came down from the table he had been standing on while speaking, Cyrus hit him. Clay drew his knife but was held off by about twenty men (interesting that it took that many), and his knife was taken from him. Clay was beaten with sticks and stabbed in the side, but he still was able to grab his knife back (he had partly grabbed it by the blade and cut two of his fingers to the bone in the process) and make his way to Cyrus, whom he stabbed in the abdomen. As seemed to be the case with Cassius, he once again made an apology to the man he had injured, and this time the apology was accepted. Cyrus Turner died soon after, and Clay took some time to heal from his wounds.138
Although there are numerous accounts regarding Cassius M. Clay’s eloquent speeches, his fiery temper and expertise in combat, little has ever been mentioned of Clay’s personal qualities, and what the man was like when he wasn’t behind a podium orating. In the examination of family letters, Clay revealed soft spots when he discussed his children to his wife, particularly the youngest, Annie.139 However, the only third-person narrative that the authors have ever found giving an insight into the family man that Clay was is a biography of Cassius written by his eldest daughter, Mary Barr Clay. Although Mary, like everyone else, does focus on the political realm that Cassius was involved with, she also gives some insight into the private man:
Father was very fond of flowers and music, and spent much money on us children for our musical education—uselessly, for none of us had much talent in that line. He was one of the most forgiving men, and generous to a fault. Living as he did surrounded by his enemies in our neighbors, some of whom sought his life. They would ask favors of him, and he never failed to grant them if it was possible for him to do so. We never knew from him who they were. He allowed us to go to their homes, and they came to ours, and never a word did he say against them. What we knew of them was told us by others. He loved fishing, and often went to the river back of our farm, and other streams, to enjoy the sport. On one occasion the men were having a barbecue on the river, and were out swimming, when Mr. David Willis became cramped, and while all the others were paralyzed at the danger of going near him, they called for “Clay” who was some distance off. He plunged in the water and seized him by the hair as he went under the third time, and brought him safely to shore, and saved his life.
He required strict obedience from us, but I remember only three times of his punishing us himself. Mother did that. A word from him was enough, as well as from her, generally.
My earliest recollections of my father was of his carrying the sick babies in his strong arms, and with a crooning song lulling them to sleep. He was the tenderest of nurses.
When we lived in Lexington, often when he came home from his printing office, he would take off his coat and get down on all fours and play horse, while we would climb upon his back, when the horse would suddenly rise up, or kick up and scatter children right and left. On one occasion I remember the servantman came ushering a gentleman, Mr. Charles Sumner, into the library, who no doubt was much amused and surprised at the performance.
We had a large cherry tree at the front door, and when cherries were ripe he would climb up and begin to eat them without throwing us any. We would call up to him to throw us some. He would say, “Dad’s sick.” We would begin to pelt him with sticks and grass until he was tired out, when he would throw us all we could eat. When at home from one of his speaking tours, when he wanted to take a nap, he often preferred to do so in the room where we were sitting, where our voices lulled him to sleep. He rarely used a pillow, but would lie with his arm under his head; he could sleep anywhere, no matter how hard or uncomfortable his position seemed to others.
His library adjoined our sitting room, and mother endeavored to keep it quiet for him to rest. He enjoyed reading Don Quixote, and would lie by the hour screaming with laughter over it. He was full of playing pranks on us children. He was particularly fond of the youngest ones, as he said: “The older one had too much will.” We would say in reply “like our Dad.” He loved to be with our young visitors, and always made himself agreeable to them.140
Cassius may have been an accomplished fighter, but through the eyes of his daughter, he was also a great dad.
There was a break from violent episodes involving Cassius for a time. He was still very active in the antislavery cause. One could say that a college was built because of his beliefs. Cassius had heard of the abolitionist Reverend John Gregg Fee and the persecution that Fee had suffered for his beliefs regarding slavery. Clay invited the minister to Madison County and gave him a tract of land for a house, as well as $200 in order to build it. In addition, Clay also gave Fee land on which to build a church and a school. The school would become Berea College, an institution where the white and black populations, be they male or female, could acquire an equal education. Founded in 1855, the organization became the first interracial and coeducational college in the South141 and is still a thriving college today that is one of a handful of educational institutions that offer free tuition to its students. Although Clay credited Fee with being responsible for the success of the institution,142 some acknowledgment should go to Cassius for providing the means by which the college got its start.143
Cassius continued on with his political rounds, speaking out against slavery at every meeting he could attend. Many times, doors were closed to him, so Clay took to speaking outside. Such was the case in 1856 in Springfield, Illinois. Cassius spoke for a few hours on universal freedom while Abraham Lincoln sat under the trees, whittling wood and listening.144 That was the first time that Cassius had met Lincoln, although he was a good friend of Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and her family. Of that first encounter, Clay always felt that he might have had some impact on Lincoln’s views regarding slavery, as he stated, “I sowed there also seed which in due time bore fruit.”145 Four years later, the two men happened to meet each other once again on a train. Cassius, never shy about his beliefs and also not one for brevity when it came to discussing his view on a subject, had a lengthy one-way discussion with Lincoln on the issue of slavery. After silently listening to Clay, Lincoln made the plain but pithy remark, “Yes, I always thought, Mr. Clay, that the man who made the corn should eat the corn.”146
Both men were up for the presidential nomination at the Republican Convention in 1860. (An interesting side note is that Cassius M. Clay was a founder of the Republican Party.) Cassius was also up for a vice presidential nomination; however, Lincoln took the presidential vote for the party, and Hannibal Hamlin was the choice for vice president.147 Although not the popular choice, Cassius still did his part campaigning for Lincoln, and he was sure that once Lincoln was made president, a high political office would be his. Lincoln was victorious, but the hoped-for appointment was not immediately forthcoming. Cassius finally went to Lincoln and reminded him of all of the hard work he had done on the new president’s part. Although Clay was offered a ministership to Spain, he declined that post and eventually accepted the position of minister to Russia.148
Although she stood by her husband, Mary Jane was not as excited over the prospect of a potential move. In an 1861 letter dated March 12, Mary Jane wrote to her sister, Katy, about the love she had for her home and her fears concerning her husband’s political appointments:
I have done all the gardening & other work in the grounds that can profitably be done yet awhile & am quietly writing to see if Mr. Lincoln means to appoint Mr. Clay to any mission, which he will accept. If he does, it will break us up here, I suppose, as all will want to go with him & the girls are heartily tired of country life. The place grows more beautiful & more dear to me continually & if I consulted my own pleasure I would remain just here. This a bright morning & the grass & evergreens look so beautifully. My fit flowers are as luxuriant as possible the birds are singing gaily, all nature is smiling! Ah! My own loved home, how my heart throbs at the thought of giving you up, well, we all must submit to circumstances, so I will not repine!149
Submit to circumstances she did, for in the spring of 1861 Cassius, Mary Jane and five of their children were packed up ready to leave for Russia when there was a fear that the Confederate forces would overtake the White House. Cassius, with other men, formed a group of volunteers to protect the White House and Capitol. Called the “Clay Battalion,” the men stood guard until other reinforcements came in. Cassius was offered a military post at this point but felt that he could best serve his country (and himself) by traveling over to Russia.150 He did, however, accept the title of major general.
Unfortunately, Clay may have been a bit of an embarrassment to Lincoln and his cabinet. Cassius was outspoken as always, and on his stops to England and France on the way to Russia, he berated those two countries for being sympathetic with the United States South. Fortunately, Russia tended to think more along the lines of Clay, and he found the imperial Russian court very agreeable. Russia at the time was just coming out of an ancient feudal system. The czar at the time, Alexander I, had freed the serfs in 1861, right before Clay arrived in the country. Clay was very complimentary and worked very hard to be accommodating in hosting entertainments: “If they liked flowers I accommodated them; if paintings, I had some of the rarest; if wines I had every sample of the world’s choice; if the menu was the object, nothing was there wanting.”151 Although Cassius was enjoying his political office, Mary Jane was not so content. The cold, bitter Russian climate was not to her liking, and she was extremely homesick. It was decided that she and the children would return to the United States.
Cassius continued on as ambassador until 1862, when an embarrassment within Lincoln’s cabinet caused the president to recall Cassius to the States so that he could get Simon Cameron out of there to avoid further humiliation.152 Lincoln also put Cassius on a special assignment. Clay was to return to his native Kentucky and test the waters on a new policy Lincoln was thinking about that would later become the Emancipation Proclamation.153 At the time, Kentucky was a border state, was truly an area where brother was against brother, as portions of the state sided with the North while many others went with the South. Lincoln wanted to make sure that such a proclamation would not alienate Kentucky and cause the state to secede with the South.
At this time, Cassius also had a short stint in serving in the war. In late August 1862, General L. Wallace was in command of the Union forces. According to Cassius, Wallace asked Clay to take charge of the company after Clay made the suggestion that the troop plan a defense along the Kentucky River. Never one to back down from an opportunity that could put him in a position of grandeur, Cassius readily agreed and headed out of Lexington with the group of men and weapons. One can almost imagine Cassius shouting, “Follow me boys, I know the way!” as they headed toward Madison County.
Clay’s reign as commander was short-lived, as Major General William “Bull” Nelson arrived in Lexington, found out what was going on and rode in to take control of the troop. It is uncertain whether Clay took power because he was unclear about the chain of command, had the best interest of the company at heart or simply wanted his own wartime glory—possibly all three. In any event, Cassius seemed to take his demotion with grace, if a little disappointment.154 Had Cassius remained in charge of the infantry, the outcome would probably have been very different. Clay knew the region very well, and his expertise in this area would have provided an advantage for the Union troop. Instead, the company moved southward and became involved in one of the most definitive Confederate victories in the Civil War, the Battle of Richmond. In place of battle on the front, Clay went on to address the House of Representatives concerning the concept of an Emancipation Proclamation. Cassius reported back to Lincoln that Kentucky would stand with the Union should such a decree be made.155
Clay was appointed a second term as minister to Russia, and he returned to that country in 1863. In the middle of his tenure, word reached Cassius that Lincoln had been assassinated. He sent formal condolences to the first lady and continued on at his post until its successful conclusion in 1869. In speaking of Lincoln, Cassius stated:
We all know that Mr. Lincoln was not learned in books; but he had a higher education in actual life than most of his compeers. I have always placed him first of all the men of the times in common sense. He was not a great projector—not a great pioneer—hence not in the first rank of thinkers among men; but, as an observer of men and measures, he was patient, conservative, and of sure conclusions. I do not say that more heroic surgery might not have put down the Rebellion; but it is plain that Lincoln was a man fitted for the leadership at a time when men differed so much about the ends as well as the methods of the war.156
Clay went on to state:
But Lincoln was not only wise, but good. He was not only good, but eminently patriotic. He was the most honest man I ever knew. Lincoln’s death only added to the grandeur of his figure; and, in all our history, no man will ascend higher on the steep where “Fame’s proud temple shines afar.”157
Cassius was immensely successful as an ambassador to Russia. Clay had great respect for the leaders of that country, and this admiration seems to have been reciprocated. The greatest accomplishment Clay would achieve as minister was his effective negotiations for the purchase of Alaska from Russia for the United States. On March 30, 1867, Alaska would come under United States control, although it would be nearly ninety years before that territory would be admitted as an official state. Clay was justifiably pleased with his involvement in the acquisition and had said that if one thing could be placed on his tombstone, he wanted it to be the word “Alaska.”158 Sadly, this did not occur. What’s more, both his birthdate and death date are recorded wrong on his gravestone.159 Apparently, his children weren’t paying much attention.
Cassius served his second appointment as minister without his family by his side. It was decided that Mary Jane and the children would continue on in Kentucky. The younger children, Brutus and Laura, would pursue an education. The oldest son, Green, served overseas as well. The older daughters, Mary Barr and Sarah, assisted their mother and looked out for marriage prospects. The youngest daughter, Ann, was only four when her father returned to Russia; she spent time at home.
The family kept busy landscaping the yard around the original home. In March 1863, Mary Jane and her two oldest daughters were working hard. Mary Barr had a rockery built where a former building once stood, while Sally worked on having a pool dug. Mary Jane worked on leveling and grading the land around an old well, as well as the carriage road.160 This all was in preparation for construction to begin on an addition to the family home.
Cassius had set up working plans for his family home of Clermont to be enlarged while he was away. He chose for the architect and engineer Major Thomas Lewinski. Clay knew Lewinski as the latter had assisted Clay in protecting the True American.161 Although a fairly busy architect in the 1840s, by the mid-1850s Lewinski had secured a position as a secretary for the Lexington Gas Company, and by that time he was semi-retired and only ventured into the realm of architecture to oblige friends and former patrons.162
The builder was John McMurtry, one of Lexington’s most productive architects and builders.163 McMurtry had trained locally as an apprentice,164 and he liked to keep things interesting by building structures in various styles rather than sticking to one genre. Said to always have his black stovepipe hat and umbrella in tow, McMurtry was well qualified as he had supervised and built a vast number of homes and buildings in central Kentucky.165 Perhaps McMurtry had more of a hand in construction than just as the builder, for in 1887 he claimed that he “designed and superintended Gen. C.M. Clay’s residence.”166 Indeed, McMurtry is listed by name in a few Clay family letters, whereas Lewinski is not. It is possible that Lewinski simply produced the initial plans for the addition, and McMurtry took over with any changes that would have been made. Noted Kentucky architect Clay Lancaster thought as much, stating, “Lewinski and McMurtry had worked together closely on many projects, and it is not unlikely that the latter made more than a superintendent’s contribution to the final effect.”167
It is not known just how much input Cassius and Mary Jane had in the final appearance of their home. Most assuredly, Mary Jane would have kept Cassius abreast of each new improvement and solicited his advice. In addition, Cassius’s older brother, Brutus Clay, was an advisor to Mary Jane. However, in studying the structure, it is apparent that both the builder and the architect had strong influence on the finished product. The older home had been built in a Georgian style. The new addition would be built in Italianate.
Any knowledge pertaining to the timeline of the building of the addition would not have been possible for those researching the topic today had it not been for Laura Clay. Fortunately for contemporary researchers, Laura Clay, the next-to-youngest daughter, was away at school for the majority of the construction. Laura’s mother and siblings wrote letters to her to inform of the progress of the new addition. Although Mary Jane admonished her daughter to “never show any letters to anyone”168 and in at least a couple of instances instructed Laura to burn her letters,169 happily the daughter had a sentimental streak and saved them, so that a record still exists that offers a small window into the history of the house.
The foundation for the addition was laid in mid-April 1863. In a letter to her daughter Laura, Mary Jane mentioned, “I may not do more than build the foundation this year.”170 In January 1864, Mary Jane had been told by “the man who undertakes to put it up” (possibly this was Lewinsky or McMurtry or just one of their construction crew)—that the house would be under cover in August.171
Mary Jane had extreme faith in her builders. Many modern homeowners who have overseen the construction of a new house have had to endure endless waiting and dragging of the feet of the people they employ. Such was also the case, apparently, in the 1860s. Nearly a year later, in March 1864, the workmen were still toiling on the foundation. Mary Jane mentioned on March 13, 1864, that there were men at work on the foundation. At this point in time, to Laura she also hinted at the “beautiful improvements” that were made to the yard. However, much to the frustration and disappointment of these particular authors, she “will not mention them but let you enjoy them when you come home.”
Mary Jane also stated that the work on the foundation would be finished in two days, weather permitting.172 The weather must have not permitted. Those two days stretched into a month and a half. In an April 27, 1864 letter, the reader can really feel Mary Jane’s frustration when she wrote, “The stone masons left here last Saturday after working only one day & a half on the foundation & only a lick today, losing three days this week…I hope McMurtry will be here tomorrow.”173 Perhaps she was hoping that the builder would set a fire under the other workmen’s pants. He might have. A letter from Sarah to her sister Laura two days later stated, “The work on the house is progressing well. The workmen expect to finish the foundation of the house by the first of June.”174 The construction crew kept to this timetable, for on May 23, 1864, Mary Jane stated that the foundation “will be nearly complete next week.” It is apparent that after more than a year of dealing with the building, she became pretty burnt out, as she mentioned, “I am not so elated about it as I have been. I hope when Brutus gets here & I get rested some, I may enjoy the prospect of a house, as I have done.”175 Clearly, Mary Jane needed a break.
That break wouldn’t come. By early June, Mary Jane complained, “I have had in the last month as many as fifty men here at once in some way or another to be attended to.”176 By mid-November 1864, the first story had been completed, as Brutus Clay related to his sister Laura, “Ma is getting along slowly with her house, but the first story is finished, and she finds that she will have plenty of brick, which takes a great weight from her mind.”177 According to Cassius’s grandson, Green Clay, the clay used to make the bricks for the new addition was harvested from the very same pits that yielded the clay for the original house bricks. Green stated, “This accounts for the remarkable blending of color in the outer material used in the old and the new.”178 The brick was laid in American bond style, which would have been the easiest style of brickwork to lay. That’s a good thing, as the building would end up being massive. By early December, the second story was up, as the windows were being built in.179
In the early part of 1865, the family was still residing in Clermont while overseeing the work being done on the new addition. There was planning done in preparation for the finished home. Mary Barr did some research in Cincinnati, Ohio, for furnishings, carpets and fireplace mantels and grates.180 The completion of the second and third floors took place that year, for by October the family had moved somewhat into the new addition. Sarah wrote to Laura from the breakfast room of the home, stating, “The house is torn entirely to pieces, this being the only room in which I can have a fire.” Still, the family was making do in the unheated new section, as Sally (how Sarah was known to her family) stated, “We are all sleeping at present in the third story in mine and Mary’s room & without glass.”
Mid-October in Kentucky can get a bit chilly, and to sleep in bedrooms without windows might not have been ideal, as Sally commented, “You can imagine we are not perfectly comfortable however in a day or two we expect to come down into Ma’s and Pa’s & the nursery rooms which are now having the glass and grates put into them.” Although there were eleven workmen employed in construction at the time, “The house goes on slowly.”181 In December, Laura’s sister-in-law Cornelia (“Cornie,” as she was known to family and friends) wrote to her from the nursery, describing the progress that had taken place on the home:
Ma’s House is nearly finished it seems to me, and yet it requires some time yet to do all that needs doing. Ma says she will send the workmen away next week whether they finish or not, until the spring. The painters are here, but they have painted none of the inside work, nor will not this winter, except the library. The girls [in reference to Laura’s sisters Mary Barr and Sarah] are very anxious to have it finished that they may have a place to sit down in comfort.182
By the turn of the New Year in January 1866, the house had been completed enough for servants to be working in it. Sarah Clay related to her sister Laura that “Lucinda at five dollars cleans bed-rooms and nashes [Sarah probably means ashes, in reference to cleaning out the fireplace grates]. Amelia keeps the rooms down stairs and attends the table for eight.”183 A little later that month, Mary Jane was busy decorating and planning for the upcoming months. She told her daughter:
I am cleaning up around the house some & if I can continue at it for two weeks I will be much more comfortable. I hung the portraits [possibly of either her in-laws Green and Sally or of herself and Cassius] and candelabras in the dining room & library today & am very much pleased with the arrangement of them. I have Fullilove doing some jobs which the other carpenters left undone which is making me more comfortable. I must send for the workmen as early in Spring as they can work so as to have the house as nearly complete as possible by the time you and Brutus return home in June.184
Also in January, older sister Mary Barr was in Cincinnati, Ohio, purchasing furnishings for the new house. These items may have been the same ones she was researching the previous year, as among her purchases were bedroom furniture, rugs, carpeting and fireplace mantels.185
These mantels would be mainly for show. One progressive invention that was incorporated into the house was the central heating system. This was a concept that the family encountered while in Russia. Kentuckians at the time had to deal with messy, inefficient fireplaces—soot and ash would be everywhere. A great deal of the heat (but unfortunately not so much of the smoke) was lost out of the flues. Russia, being a colder climate, had perfected a heating system in order to adapt to the frigid temperatures. In a letter back to a friend, Laura discussed the appearance of the heating vents, which were adopted for White Hall: “The fireplaces are made in a kind of furnace which is made to resemble marble.”186 In addition, Mary Jane, while in Russia in 1861, wrote back to her sister Jule on the process of how the heating system worked where she was living, “The heat is shut off…a tight-fitting cap is placed over the chimney, a hole is opened in the wall of the room & the heat rushes from the chimney into the room.”187
This type of system apparently worked extremely well. Mary Jane stated, “In the morning the rooms are entirely pleasant to get up when one chooses without waiting to have a fire made.”188 In the same letter, Mary Jane also speculated on the construction of such a system, saying, “I suppose furnaces are built on the same principle tho’ & preferable on account of being in the cellar & only needing one fire for the whole house. Whether the heat can all entirely be thrown into the house or not is a question for me. Can it be or not? If ever we build I hope to have a furnace for the whole house.”189
Mary Jane’s hope became reality. The mansion had two furnaces that would have burned coal, wood or both installed into the basement. Ductwork was incorporated into the walls of the new section. The hot air was forced through this system into the rooms upstairs. Large openings, a lot like modern heating vents today, were in each room for the hot air to come through. There were fireplace mantels installed into the rooms, but these were faux and were too shallow to be used as actual fireplaces. All of the air would have traveled up out of one of two main chimneys in the house. The older section continued with the more archaic wood burning fireplaces.
Indoor plumbing was another modern amenity included in the home that either was influenced by the Clay family’s travels overseas or may have been a suggestion of Lewinski’s. This particular system was really ingenious, and it is believed to be one of the first of its kind in Kentucky. The plumbing was gravity fed. Water was collected from the gutters on the roof. It then traveled down through a pipe or pipes into a large storage tank, located on the third floor. From that cistern, the water passed through one of three pipes into three different rooms below on the second floor. The first room contained a toilet. The second room’s actual usage is not entirely known,190 but the authors believe to be a wastewater disposal area for chamber pots, dirty washbowl water and other similar refuse. The third room contained a bathing tub with a shower.
Although considered odd by modern standards, having three separate rooms rather than all of the bathing necessities in one room made great sense. The tank above could hold an immense amount of heavy water, and the three walls separating the rooms would help support that weight. Also, the three divided rooms allowed for more efficient usage of the spaces. One family member could use the necessities while another was able to bathe in privacy.
The incorporation of the indoor plumbing was completed sometime in 1866, or perhaps even later. The one reference that has been found concerning the system was made by Mary Jane in an April 27, 1866 letter to her daughter Laura. In the letter, Mary Jane mentioned that she “will go on to complete the house as fast as I can get the workmen to do it, except the cistern & bath room & closets connected with it. We can be comfortable without that being done so will wait on more convenient season.”191 As accustomed to modern indoor plumbing as contemporary society is, perhaps this statement might not seem to make sense. Virtually no one today would consider a home complete without a functioning bathroom. The Clay family, like most people up until this point, would have used portable baths, called hip tubs or hip baths, for bathing. (The newly installed permanent bathtub would be much larger than these more moveable baths.) Answering nature’s call would have been done in a small building or buildings located behind the main house (referred to as the “Mrs. Jones” by one Clay daughter).192 Should the need arise in the middle of the night or on some cold and snowy day, one could also employ the services of chamber pots, which the Clay family most certainly had. The indoor bathrooms were definitely a luxury, not a necessity.
It is a common misconception of modern society that those in the past did not bathe regularly. Personal hygiene at that time had a lot to do with opportunity, social standing and one’s own viewpoints concerning the subject. Mary Jane wrote to her daughters admonishing them to be clean and to change their underclothes regularly.193 In addition, the family felt that a cold bath was good for the constitution.194
A unique feature to the home is the number of closets the house contains. It was not a normal practice for a home in the 1860s to contain closets. Most people at the time stored their clothing and linens in wardrobes or armoires. The mansion contains two closets in nearly every bedroom, and the master bedroom contains three closets. All together there are seventeen closets in the home if one includes the bathroom spaces as three separate closet spaces, and Mary Jane did, as she refers to them as closets.195
The actual usage of the bedroom closets is unknown, as the Clay family is surprisingly mute on the subject. One can make educated guesses as to the purpose of such rooms. The closets could have been used like one does today, with the spaces being for clothing storage. Perhaps Mary Jane was making a reference to this when she told Laura in a May 1864 letter, “After a while we will have plenty of room for our clothes. Will that not be charming?”196 White Hall does not have a useable attic, and so the rooms could have been for extra storage. When traveling in the 1860s, one did not use the small and efficient luggage that is a staple of today’s society. Instead, large trunks would have been utilized. A portion of the closet space could have been employed for the storage of these traveling chests. Also, at the time, if one had personal slaves, those slaves stayed near a person, even at night, in case the owner needed anything. The rooms are large enough to have been a sleeping space for a person.
In the spring of 1866, Mary Jane was still busy working on the outside features to the home and yard. In March, Mary Jane moved the yard gate at McMurtry’s suggestion. She was “delighted” by its placement. The new addition essentially was built above and around the former house, keeping Clermont intact by literally wrapping around the original structure. The southern-facing porch to the main entrance of Clermont was enclosed in glass and made into a conservatory or sun porch. The main entrance to the new addition now faced east, a fact that Mary Jane was proud of and pleased with. She stated, “The yard appears to fine advantage which it never did before & the house produces a much finer effect, from the side toward Green’s. [This is in reference to Mary Jane’s son Green Clay’s farm.] The house appears to greater advantage than any other position & from the lumber house I think it is beautiful.” At this same time, Mary Jane was also working at removing all of the litter made by the building from around the mansion and was in the process of getting brick and stone to lay out the carriage path. All the work and hassle had been worth the wait; she went on to state, “I do enjoy my house so much, even in its unfinished state, it is a pleasure to me.”197 Later, Mary Jane gushed, “I am now delighted with my yard for the first time. The change in the entrance is the greatest improvement. It is beautiful!”198
Despite her delight, Mary Jane was still working with both ends of her candle burning. She became worn down from all of her responsibilities and confided to Laura, “I hope your Father will be content to come home & attend to his peculiar duties & allow me to attend to mine only, for which I would be truly thankful.”199 In April 1866, she relayed to Laura, “I am so weary, or lazy, or something, that I do not feel inclined to go out of the yard at all & I feel all the time that I will rest myself after each job is completed but each one is so long being completed that other things are pushing to be done continually.”200 In another letter, Mary Jane seemed close to despair when she said, “Oh! My life is all toil!”201
In addition, Mary Jane felt that she could not deal with the family business as she should when her attentions were devoted to the progress on the house and yard. In another letter, also written in March 1866, Mary Jane related:
I am very busy having the yard cleaned & laying out the carriage drive. I feel that I am neglecting every business to this pleasure. I feel that I am getting lazy about business & it is becoming very irksome to me. I am yet without workmen but am anxious to have the stonemason come & finish the work & would like the plasterer to come as soon as practicable to finish his job. Sally wrote to your Pa to send us carpeting for all the house & he answers that he will so perhaps we may get the house carpeted. If he can do it without going into debt I will be very glad for it would be very uncomfortable looking to have naked floors for years. I shall add furniture very shortly. I feel very comfortable now, I suppose it is the result of having been so uncomfortable for so long.202
The drudgery continued for Mary Jane: “Feely & two other stone masons are here at work & I believe all the stone work will be completed next week. Then I will send for plasterers & then another stone mason to lay the floor of the vestibule & portico, after which I do not calculate upon having any other workmen.” Even without outside workers, Mary Jane intended to keep going: “I may be able to get the pantry papered & painted this spring but will attempt nothing now. Your Father will send some carpeting for halls & stairs, all other furniture we can do without & will furnish as we can afford it.”203
She may have been weary, but Mary Jane still enjoyed watching the progress on her home. She mentioned in a late April 1866 letter, “I am much entertained just now in having the terraces made by two good Irishmen & Jerry is dressing up the walks & flower beds.” She added, “I will have these Irishmen to lay stone on the carriage drive as soon as they finish the terrace & clean out the cellars.” She concluded, “It is all beautiful and delightful; if I can afford to keep it in order, I will be much gratified.”204
The reader can glean from just these excerpts of letters that money was an issue for the Clays. Viewers today of the palatial mansion might get the impression that the family had an endless supply, but this was not the case. Cassius did get a stipend as minister. This he used where he could at home, but he was also expected to maintain a certain standard as a United States ambassador. In one such letter, Cassius related home to his wife, “I do deny myself a great many things here: but you must remember that the government give me a certain salary to maintain a certain degree of respectability here: which I cannot forego by turning every thing to private account. Almost all ministers from our country spend salary: and private fortune both.”205
In this letter, Clay also denied a pleasure trip for their daughter Sally, stating that he didn’t think it was prudent of Mary Jane to spend money on something so frivolous “when you have not a bed hardly to give her, when she is married!”206 He needn’t have bothered; Mary Jane knew that the bills were accruing. Family letters are peppered with references to money and making “ends meet.”207 One way was to sell cash crops and raise livestock in the effort to bring in more money. In an undated letter (probably circa 1866), Mary Jane bemoaned to Laura, “I sent my sheep to market & did not get half as much money as I expected from them and as I have still such heavy bills to pay for erecting our home it greatly distresses me for I have yet to furnish it, which I despair of doing so for a long time yet.”208 There was the prospect of a lucrative investment in the oil industry; in the same letter, Mary Jane mentioned that “I am now hoping for a great, great success in our oil speculation. If it succeeds, all will go merry as a marriage ball. Hope is a great comforter.”209 Hope was all she had, for although other letters between family members mentioned the wished for oil payday, it must have never occurred. There is no record of the Clay family striking it rich with the “black gold” or “Texas tea”—or of them “moving to Beverly.”210
By the late 1860s or early 1870s, the mansion would have been on the back end of completion. It took nearly a decade to finish and transformed a modest seven-room home into a forty-four-room mansion. Any guest visiting the estate would have been greeted by two massive wooden front doors that opened to reveal a main hallway large enough to intimidate horizontally and vertically, with its stretching length and sixteen-foot ceilings complete with decorative frieze work. The curving main staircase leading to the second floor would have evoked admiration in all but the most jaded of callers. To the side of the staircase was a room made to access the space underneath the stairs. Perhaps this could have been employed as a cloakroom or general receiving area, as this smaller space was also meant to impress, with plaster frieze work in a fruit pattern incorporated into the ceiling decoration.
Should one be so lucky, the visitor might be invited into the awe-inspiring drawing room, which continued with the sixteen-foot ceiling height and included two towering Corinthian columns, with decorative plaster frieze work located on the upper portion of the pillars, encircling the entire ceiling, as well as a medallion above the chandelier. A back hallway that included a staircase leading to the second floor, a set of stairs that went to the basement and a small closet would have been hidden from view by a massive door. Originally, the house had a parlor, a dining room and a study or second parlor on the first floor. At completion, the parlor was turned into a dining room, the study or second parlor became a library with floor-to-ceiling glass-covered bookshelves and the old dining room became a breakfast room and pantry, with a closet added in the southeast corner of the room.211
If the visitor was an overnight guest, he or she would ascend the stairs and would have probably spent a pleasant evening in one of two impressively sized bedrooms, each with a pair of walk-in closets, and he or she would have been able to utilize the modern three-closet bathroom in the back hall. Transom windows were placed over each of the bathroom doors to ensure adequate lighting and airflow. The more private second floor to the old home had been updated as well. The master bedroom, referred to as “Pa’s” (Cassius’s) room in multiple letters,212 was nearly tripled in size. A wall was removed between two rooms that had been bedchambers previously, providing a roomier space. Three large transomed closets were added in to the existing original master bedroom, and a large retreat room was incorporated onto the backside of the main staircase and faced the front side of the mansion. The remaining two bedrooms on this floor seem to have not been altered a great deal.
As mentioned previously in a letter, new glass and fireplace grates were installed in the bedrooms. In addition, the stairs that would have led up to the original attic were removed along with a window that would have been in the original hallway. This slightly enlarged one of the bedrooms, while the third room remained the same size. To reach the attic space, the guest must exit out of the old section of the second floor and travel up a flight of back steps. The attic was transformed into two large rooms. One room had the ceiling raised to a higher level, with new windows installed, while the other room maintained the lower ceiling with sloping sides that would have reflected the original roofline. Because of the low ceiling height, this room could have potentially been used as a storage space.
Continuing on to the third floor, which is the only level of the mansion that was an entirely new addition and does not have any of the existing house incorporated in to it, the guest would view three additional bedrooms, each containing two closets apiece and a massive hallway. Gazing out the windows on the top story, one can get a sense of how tall the structure is, as it towers over the mature trees surrounding the home. To gain an even better view, the guest could step through the front windows of the second and third floors of the addition onto a balcony with beautiful scrollwork.
Should the guest venture into the basement area, he or she would find that a full basement was added in as well, one that would have housed the fireboxes for the heating and served as storage space for coal or wood to feed to the furnaces. There is also a room that could have potentially been used as a wine cellar. At least a portion of the ceilings in the basement were finished; however, the flooring remained dirt.213
Behind the mansion, the warming kitchen off of the back porch became the cooking kitchen, while the stone building that once served as loom house and kitchen was converted into a washhouse for laundry.214
The surrounding grounds would have been improved as well, with numerous plantings and gardens around the main house. A lover’s walk wound its way around the front yard amid roses and honeysuckle. Cherry, peach, apple, cedar, oak and elm trees were on the grounds. A large grape arbor was also present. A grandson remembered, “Ivy vines clung and clambered everywhere.”215 On the corners of the outside of the mansion were placed statues representing the four seasons.216 There also would have been a number of outbuildings on the property. These would have included a mule barn, a gristmill, an icehouse, a smokehouse, a chicken house, a loom house and laundry,217 a summer house,218 a carriage house and barns, just to name a few.
The new structure was referred to as White Hall. Many guests will ask how the name was chosen. In truth, letters written long before the new addition was built had White Hall inscribed in them. This could have been referring to the mailing address, the White Hall District of Madison County. It is possible that the house took its name from the surrounding area.
Why was such a large house built? There are two different possible reasons for the grand home—a his and hers type of dueling viewpoints. Up to that time, despite the opposition to his views regarding slavery, Cassius M. Clay had an active career in politics. He was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1835 as a Whig and served as a member of the General Assembly in 1840. Clay was a founding member of the Republican Party and, in 1851, ran unsuccessfully for governor in that faction. By 1860, he was up for the Republican presidential and vice presidential nominations—of those two Cassius was last on the ballot for president, while in the vice presidential race, he rose to number two. Close but no cigar. In 1861, he was made minister to Russia. Later, in 1876, there were some who would have Cassius nominated for vice president again, this time on the Democratic ticket.219 One may notice that Cassius did not stay too long in one particular party. He stated, “Those who follow principles can not always remain in the same party.”220 Despite his political party hopping, there probably was little cause in Clay’s mind that he would not continue in eminence in terms of politics. A large showplace home would be necessary in terms of prestige and hosting lavish parties.
A woman’s perspective could be that Mary Jane Clay had a great number of healthy children, whom she probably foresaw as continuing on with even more healthy children of their own. Perhaps she envisioned a sizeable home filled to the brim with children and grandchildren to keep her company. In any event, if these could have been the reasons for the addition, those dreams of what the home was to be used for never came to fruition. It’s probably a good thing she did not have her children and grandchildren with her indefinitely. Years later, she complained that a number of her grandchildren “cannot keep hands or face clean 30 minutes.” To keep the annoying offspring out of her hair, “I keep a pie in Mary’s [Mary Jane’s oldest daughter, Mary Barr] room all the time.”221 A very clever tactic, for who can escape the allure of pie?
Cassius was relieved of his ambassadorial duties in 1869 and traveled back to the United States that same year. He did not, however, return straight home. Cassius took up residence in New York for a time.222 While residing there, Mary Jane wrote and informed him that she did not want to be buried at the Richmond Cemetery, where he had purchased burial plots for himself and, he presumed, his spouse. She preferred to be interred at the Lexington Cemetery, where her parents were buried and where their deceased children also had been laid to rest.223 This might have given Cassius a clue as to the state of things within his marriage. If his wife was not willing to be near him in death, she probably didn’t want to be around him in life either.
When he made it back to his family in 1870, Cassius received a decidedly less than enthusiastic reception. Rather than have her newly returned husband reside with her in her own room, or in the room that had previously been his, Mary Jane placed all of Cassius’s clothes in a third-floor bedroom of the new addition, which, at the time, had no heating as the fireplace was unfinished. Clay claimed that the temperatures were so extreme that he had icicles frozen in his beard when he awoke the next day.224 Mary Jane gave Cassius the cold shoulder in the truest sense of the word.
The couple was not always so estranged. Throughout their forty-five years of married life, the Clays had their share of ups and downs. In a letter written by Cassius to Mary Jane on December 29, 1850, some twenty years earlier, one can see the deep love Clay had for his wife when he concludes his letter saying:
How is it—does my pride no longer lead me to conceal my feelings, or am I indeed more in love with you at forty than at 23! But so it is—I feel more “foolish” about you now, than ever before in my life! Can it be that I have more tried life—its fame—its splendor—its wonders—and am more and more convinced that happiness can only be found in one loved one—or am I more in love with your character, than I was once with your person!—But this I know—that now—I pour out my soul at your shrine—and when absent fear that envious fate may prevent the realization of the bliss of our reunion—forgive my silliness and believe me
Ever yours only
CM Clay225
What would cause a union that had been so loving to go wrong? It does take two to make a marriage work, and the fault should not be placed on one individual or the other. Generally, it is not one specific reason that causes the collapse but rather a number of factors, and such was the case with Cassius and Mary Jane’s marriage.
The unfaithfulness of a spouse can certainly cause a marriage to crumble, and this might have played a role in the demise of this couple’s marriage. Cassius claimed that Mary Jane was the first to make the “breach upon the marriage duties.”226 While some might interpret this to mean that Mary Jane was untrue to Cassius in a sexual way, there has never been any proof to this claim. Indeed, Cassius did not intend for others to think this, as he challenged an individual to a duel once when he erroneously made this assumption.227 Indeed, in a letter to his publisher, Clay stated, “No one this side of the Mason & Dixon’s line ever hinted at such a meaning as the breach of the 7th Commandment on the part of Mrs. C.”228 Perhaps, then, Cassius is referring to the fact that he expected Mary Jane to return to Russia with him when he took a second term as minister in 1863, and she preferred to stay in Kentucky.
There are, however, numerous instances in which the fickle finger of unfaithfulness can be pointed at Cassius. In 1845, Cassius claimed that he threw away his wedding ring.229 A year later, while held captive in Mexico, he would sneak out of his prison to visit a young Mexican girl by the name of Lolu. Alas for Cassius, this tryst may not have ended as he had hoped, for he stated rather dejectedly in his Memoirs that Lolu chose to kiss her pet parrot, Leta, rather than him.230 Years later, Clay stated in an interview in reference to his marriage to Mary Jane, “I was practically divorced long before it took legal shape, therefore I considered myself free to love anybody.”231
Money issues also often contribute to divorce, and the Clays were no exception to this. As seen through the excerpts included in this book thus far, money and the lack thereof were indeed problems. One such letter written by Cassius to Mary Jane in October 1865 dealt specifically with debts:
Dear Mary Jane,
Your letter of the 24 Sept. is received. And as you have so much to ___ think of, I conclude to make this letter particularly a business letter so that you can file it, and refer to it: for I see you forget always what I say on these subjects.
1. In reference to sending you more money: I wrote you early this spring, that I had invested my spare money in speculation and could send you none this year, and probably no more during my ministry here.
2. Brutus [Cassius’s brother] relinquished his lien upon our estate upon the conditions that we would go on steadily to pay him off. This is the 5th year, I desire you therefore as my agent to pay off the balance of this debt. Then you can do as you please with the property, always reserving us a child’s portion of the estate.
3. There is money coming to me from the Hector Lewis Estate. James Garrad, the executor, and Charles Garrad of Bourbon security. The records are in the Fayette County Court. Collect It.
4. Continue to pay my taxes on my lands in Iowa & Minnesota and the “Glade” land in Madison County.
5. I have cattle with Brutus—½ of the increase is mine, the balance of the increase his, for keeping them.
6. Place my deeds in special deposit in the Na Bank of Kentucky of Ky. at Lexington.
7. Keep out of debt: then if you have any thing to spare—spend it as you like. In my opinion there is to be a “crack” in monied matters yet as prosperous as times seem!
8. In regard to carpeting and ornaments for the house etc. I shall not aid you in that: because I have a great deal of furniture here which I shall bring home. Paintings, statues, and chairs & carpets and window curtains. Till those are placed we don’t know what more we shall want: and it is better to have an unfurnished house than none! We are too old now to recover from new debts, and will have no family to help us again.
9. Green [Cassius and Mary Jane’s older son] ought now to take care of himself: but you can do as you please with your own: after you pay my debt to B.J. Clay [Cassius’s brother, whom he referred to earlier in the letter].
10. I desire Brutus [Cassius and Mary Jane’s younger son] to be kept at school till I say quit, I don’t want him to receive the reproach of “illitraite” from any body.
11. I am opposed to Laura’s being in a boarding school—you may act however as you like in that.
12. I am trying to make provisions myself to pay off the debt to the “contingent” fund of my father’s estate, and may legalize to the girls—my sisters. I shall never die happy if I am in debt to any one!
Having ___ way would I close this letter asking you to read it occasionally, to refresh your memory. You have two estates your own, and mine: and you must live upon them—or suffer.
Kiss Annie & give my love to all the children.
Yours ever, C.M. Clay232
It is clear from this letter that Cassius desired his wife to pay off the family’s existing debts and to live within their means. Clay would have had extensive experience when it came to debt management, or lack thereof. He suffered many setbacks involving his finances throughout his life, including going bankrupt.233 Despite Clay’s wisdom and advice of keeping debts to a minimum, Mary Jane was not as good a steward of the finances as Cassius requested.
Questions concerning finances and fidelity came to a head one evening when Cassius and Mary Jane sat down to look at their budget. Cassius had allotted Mary Jane $8,000 to build onto the existing house. When all was said and done, the construction expenses mounted up to over four times the initial amount, an estimate of more than $30,000.234 Cassius stated that he had already paid for the cost of the materials used in building the home235 and, upon learning the total, probably was shocked and appalled by this price tag. It is the authors’ belief that upon accusations from Cassius, Mary Jane could have pulled out the October 21, 1865 letter, for an inscription written on the outside of the letter by Mary Jane stated, “Gives permission to do anything with the property I choose after paying B.J. Clay’s debt.”236 In the way that women are capable of, she probably brought to his attention that he had given her a free hand. This is, of course, speculation on the writers’ part. What is known about this particular meeting is that Cassius accounted for all of the money that had been sent to his wife while he was away, and Mary Jane in turn offered to pay him back. Clay refused this suggestion. It seems at this point that the discussion took a turn for the worse. Mary Jane went from defending her purchases in Clay’s absence to questioning Clay about his activities while oversees.237
There were a few instances while Cassius M. Clay was in Russia in which his foreign peers might have misconstrued his actions. In reality, Clay was attempting to be a southern gentleman. However, certain behaviors that at that time in the United States would have been considered chivalrous were major breeches in appropriate conduct in Russia.
One such incident occurred on a day when Clay was invited by the emperor to one of the summer resorts. The emperor had provided one of his own carriages to transport Cassius to the resort, and on the way there, Clay passed by Princess Louise Suwarrow, who happened to be staying at the resort with her husband. No husband was in sight with the princess; instead, she had a female attendant and some footmen with her. The company had decided to row a boat on the nearby lake. A chilly summer rain came upon them, and since the princess had no coat, Clay gallantly offered for her to use the emperor’s carriage and to drive home with her attendant. Clay had trouble understanding why the princess was reluctant to do so, but in the end she took his offer and went home. Cassius waited under the trees until the carriage returned for him, and then he made his own way back to the palace. Later, Clay discovered that he had committed a great faux pas, as the noblewoman was seen driving home in the emperor’s carriage with no reason given as to why she should be in it. Human nature is naturally spiteful, and when no reason is given, others are only too happy to supply one, and most of the time, that reason will be exceedingly unflattering. According to Cassius, the empress never forgave Clay for this blunder and was not quite as welcoming to him after this.238
Cassius must have been a medieval knight in another lifetime, as he couldn’t seem to stop himself from coming to the aid of ladies in distress. Unfortunately, Clay ended up getting himself involved in an even worse quagmire when he attempted to assist a woman by the name of Eliza Chautems. Perhaps Clay first became acquainted with Mrs. Chautems and her two daughters by dining at the restaurant that they owned in St. Petersburg (the husband, Jean Chautems, was the cook for the establishment). Mrs. Chautems must not have been a very good businesswoman, or her husband’s culinary creations were not that appetizing, for her eatery failed. Upon hearing that she had been placed in prison for her debts, Clay, along with another gentleman by the name of John Saville Lumley, rushed to her aid (on white horses, no doubt). Both men gave Chautems money; Cassius’s amount was to pay for the rent on a house and furniture to go in it. Mrs. Chautems thanked the men and promised to pay them back. Clay later discovered that Chautems and her family were selling the furniture and other household effects that Cassius’s money purchased for their own profit. Upon hearing this, Cassius contacted the police and evicted them from the house. He then sold the furniture to help pay the debt that the family owed him.239
In retaliation, Mrs. Chautems resorted to blackmail, starting with suing Clay in the Russian court system. This ploy was foiled when Russian authorities ordered her to be sent out of the empire, as Mrs. Chautems was originally from Ireland—she also had a bad reputation that preceded her. The British ambassador stopped her deportation from happening, and so Chautems went on with Plan B. If she couldn’t get Russia interested in her story, perhaps the United States would be more accommodating. Writing a letter, she sobbingly informed Congress that Clay had pretty much swooped in and rescued her for his own darker devices. She claimed that Cassius had designs on not only herself but also her older daughter, who was thirteen years old at the time. She also alleged that Clay stole her jewels and broke into her house and assaulted her.240
Cassius sent these charges along with his denials and a letter of resignation to Prince Gortchacow, asking for the Russian court to take him to trial to let Clay prove his innocence that way. This was all brushed aside. The Russians felt that he was an innocent party who was being taken advantage of through what he thought were good deeds.241
Mary Jane may have thought otherwise. The affair had made its sordid way across the Atlantic to the local newspapers.242 Mary Jane wrote to Cassius questioning him on the scandal. Clay took offense and stopped writing to her.243 We may never really know whether there was more to the incident than what Clay claims. Whether there was a grain of truth to the allegations or not, they did have a great impact on Cassius, for he went on for a whole chapter in his Memoirs about the affair, including numerous letters defending his honor.
Also in his Memoirs, Cassius claimed a long list of grievances against his wife, including that Mary Jane cut down all of his ornamental trees, did not put a suitable roof on the house and (in one of the more absurd claims) did not pay him any rent.244 Clay could have been referring to tenants renting the grounds, or then again, he might have been signifying his own wife’s occupancy. When a friend had asked Cassius to reconcile with his wife, he pointed to the top balcony of White Hall and stated, “Do you see that balcony? I would rather jump off from that, and be dashed to pieces, than again marry that woman!”245 In the end, Mary Jane felt like she would have a better life in Lexington rather than White Hall. She left in 1872, and Cassius filed for divorce in 1878 on grounds of desertion.246 Mary Jane would not marry again.247 Instead, possibly because of her experiences with Cassius and her divorce, she (along with all of her daughters) would become an advocate for women’s rights.248
Mary Jane would also continue as a fruitful businesswoman, successfully running her own farm, using the experience she surely had gained from managing the family farm in Clay’s absence. Cassius may have been uncomplimentary of her, but in truth Mary Jane did a great deal of work while he was away in Russia. She singlehandedly managed to take care of their children, run the family estate and oversee massive construction on their house, all during the Civil War. This was made doubly hard, for supplies and workers would have been scarce, and since Cassius wasn’t the most liked man around, the family was consistently terrorized by threats ranging from horse thieves to arsonists.249 Regardless of the terrorization, Mary Jane ran a lucrative business trafficking mules for the Union army.250 Without a doubt, White Hall certainly would not be here today had it not been for the business savvy and bravery of this woman.
Perhaps Mary Jane’s claims of infidelity had some virtue, for shortly after her departure to Lexington, a young boy arrived in Richmond. Cassius picked up the child at the local train station and took him to White Hall.251 He changed his name and legally adopted him.252 Thereafter, White Hall was home, and Cassius was his father.
Thus began a debate that continues on even today about Cassius’s adopted son Launey Clay’s parentage. Cassius stated in his Memoirs, “In the great city of St. Petersburg, of now near a million people—that city of isolation, infinite intrigues, and silence—was born, in the year 1866, a male child. To the secret of his parentage I am the only living witness—I who have, of all men living, the best reason to know—and that secret will die with me.”253 Some claim that Cassius was just that, an adoptive parent and nothing more, while others (including the authors) maintain that Cassius had direct blood ties to the boy. Speculation also has risen about who Launey’s parents could be if the father is not Cassius. These thoughts range to a royal conspiracy of the child being an illegitimate offspring of noblemen ranging from Prince Gortchacow (whose ears resemble Launey’s) to the imperial family themselves. Others believe that Cassius could have been covering for his own son Green’s indiscretions.
Regardless of all of these hypotheses, there are still Cassius M. Clay’s own words to study on the subject. In reference to Launey’s mother, Clay stated, “The next woman I loved was the mother of my adopted son Launey, but as what I had to say about him has already been published in my memoirs, I never expect to open that question again unless I am forced.”254 This would lead one to believe, then, that Cassius adopted Launey not out of obligation to a close friend or relative’s transgressions, but rather because of the feelings he had for the mother of the child. If Clay had loved the mother of Launey, than perhaps he himself was the father of the child. In an interview he gave in 1894, Clay stated, “When I brought home from Russia with me the child who is now known as Lonnie [sic] Clay, I did not do as others have done—disown my own flesh and blood—but I had that child adopted and made him the equal of my other children as heir to this estate.”255 This declaration would seem to clearly state that Launey was Clay’s actual son.
Clay continued on living in his massive house, with Launey and the occasional servant to keep him company. Soon enough, Launey would grow up and travel away to school, leaving the aging man to himself. In his own words, Clay “drifted out of politics” and read a great deal.256 Cassius also stated that he “sought companionship” with plants and livestock. He also had dogs and fish, and he fed the wild birds. During the day, Cassius may have been able to put up a front of happiness, but “at night I was left all the more alone—till I often opened wide the shutters that the bats should enter to pick the flies, as is their wont, from the walls; and their fluttering—life—life—was a pleasure to me.”257 Because he was so lonely, it is only natural that Clay would search for someone with whom to share his life.
Cassius had always had an eye for a pretty lady, and as he got older, his taste in women got decidedly younger. Clay mentioned that he had at least four romances (or aspirations) with those of the female persuasion before settling down to married life once again. Perhaps these earlier relationships did not succeed because the objects of his affection all ranged in age from fifteen to sixteen years old. Some discussions were broken off by outraged parents and families, while in other instances it was the young lady herself who discontinued the relationship.258
After a long string of unsuccessful courtships, Cassius finally settled down with a young lady by the name of Dora Richardson. Dora was the sister of a tenant farmer of Clay’s, which is probably how he came to know her. She was essentially an orphan and had the unfortunate circumstance of being a witness to her own mother’s death by train. Her heroic actions in an effort to save her brother in that instance had impressed Cassius.259 Her long red hair and glowing skin impressed him even more.260 It is unclear whether Dora really felt any love for Clay more than as a fatherly figure, but she did accept his proposal, and the two were married on November 13, 1894,261 much to the chagrin of Madison Countians in general and Clay’s own children in particular.
Cassius’s marriage would cause national headlines,262 as the groomsman was eighty-four years old at the time, while his blushing bride was anywhere from thirteen to fifteen years of age.263 It is interesting that the marriage caused so much controversy, as the legal marriage age of a girl in Kentucky at the time was actually twelve years old.264 Perhaps it was the vast difference in the ages that caused such uproar. On the day of their marriage, a reporter came out from a local newspaper and interviewed a welcoming Cassius. At one point, he requested an audience with Clay’s new bride so that he could record her image. This was refused, as she “never had a picture taken and I will not allow her to have one taken until she is fixed up with nice clothes and her hair is properly dressed.”265 Clay did, however, graciously offer to have his own picture taken in its stead.266
Cassius welcomed reporters but not the posse that was sent out to White Hall in the effort to rescue Dora, as many felt that she was being held against her will. Cassius met the group on his own front porch and informed them that he had “[n]ever had to detain a lady against her will.” Dora herself called down from one of the upper balconies and said that she was there because she wanted to be and not because she was being held hostage. The posse then moved on peaceably. It didn’t hurt matters that Cassius had a cannon loaded and was ready to fire at them if the posse gave him any issues—luckily they didn’t. Numerous stories abound about this particular incident.267 Many claim that Cassius did open fire on the posse.268 However, in an interview the following day, Clay stated that he had not fired his canon and speculated on the many funerals that would have occurred had he used the weapon.
Unfortunately, a long and happy marriage was not in the stars for the couple. They were only wed for four years, and two and half of those years Dora was separated from Clay. They still wrote loving letters back and forth to each other, Dora’s generally asking for money and Clay’s generally giving it and warning her against the “vendetta.”269 Finally, on September 10, 1898,270 the old general gave in to the inevitable and granted his young wife a divorce. Dora would later return to White Hall271 and serve as Clay’s housekeeper, while her new husband, Riley Brock, worked as a maintenance man for his wife’s former husband. The young couple even named their child after Cassius.272
After his separation and then divorce from his young wife, Clay could have easily married again, as he received numerous marriage proposals.273 Clay chose, however, to only have the occasional servant at White Hall, and he pretty much led a solitary existence at White Hall in his later years. Despite this, Cassius’s life was not totally devoid of company.
Clay’s fame was still running strong in his twilight years, and numerous newspaper reporters ventured to the lion’s den274 in order to capture an interesting story. Through these interviews, the modern reader is able to get a glimpse of how White Hall appeared in the 1880s and 1890s. Cassius had kept active with his crops and livestock. He had divided his acreage up between his children275 and left 360 acres for himself. This he sowed with corn, wheat, timothy, blue grasses and clover. The land that wasn’t being used for food crops or for haying was kept wooded. Cassius claimed that the 30 acres surrounding his house were landscaped.276 A correspondent verified this when describing his visit to White Hall: “Forest and orchard trees and shrubs surrounded the house, or mansion, for such it really is. To the west is a sweep of ‘bluegrass.’ At the east side are low lands from which came the tinkling of sheep bells.”277
Clay stated in this interview that he had four hundred Southdown sheep, which he preferred to the Merino sheep that his father had raised. In another unfortunate choice of words, much like his father being a “great lover of sheep,”278 Cassius stated, “You city people might think it curious when I say that my sheep give me a great deal of comfort.”279 In Clay’s defense, he was spending a lot of time alone. Cassius would continue raising his sheep until 1902, when they were sold at auction.280
Clay was also quite the gardener and would feed his visitors a variety of homegrown delights in addition to meat from his livestock. At one point, he told a guest reporter that “everything on his table, with the exception of the pepper, the salt, and the coffee, had been raised by him on his farm and that he felt happy and independent.”281 Clay was known for raising prized watermelons, even writing an article on the subject.282 He would often offer a sampling of this fruit to his guests.283 One reporter on a visit recalled, “He is famed for his watermelons, and on the inside of the hall near the door I noted at least a score of great melons, some of which were four feet long and about eighteen inches in diameter. I found them as sweet as they looked.”284 Clay would impart that the best watermelons never went into town to sale—their rinds were so thin they would crack during shipment and become ruined.285
In addition to the grounds, writers also commented on the mansion and its furnishings. One newsperson noted that Joel T. Hart busts of Henry Clay and Horace Greeley were located in the niches on the front porch of the mansion.286 Upon entering the front hallway, the immense size was commented on by the reporter, who stated that it was so wide “you could turn a wagon load of hay about in it without touching the walls.”287 The reporter went on to describe the furnishings of the hall: “It is furnished with sofas and chairs, none of which are less than one hundred years old, and upon its walls hang works of art by famous European painters. Gortchakoff and the Empress of Russia look down upon you from the left as you enter, and on the right you see a magnificent painting by the Landseer of Russia of the Czar Alexander II riding in a sleigh.”288
Another writer described the drawing room with its chandelier, sconces and large mirrors, stating that “[t]he walls are adorned with the paintings of the masters, and all that can add beauty and effect is present.”289 By 1903, Cassius would cease to occupy the upper floors of his great home, leaving them empty, instead residing in one room on the first floor.290
Not all of Clay’s guests were invited or welcomed. Cassius had had so many death threats and had been in so many life-threatening fights in his lifetime that by the time he got older, he still felt that everyone was out to get him. He would take to writing letters to the local sheriff, urging him to come to White Hall as the “vendetta” was coming to get him. Who knows who or what the vendetta actually was. In many cases, it was likely just figments of the old man’s imagination. There was one night, however, when the threat was real.
Three men broke in through the sun porch with the intention of killing and robbing Cassius. They made their way into the library to discover that the weak, elderly, defenseless man they were searching for was actually a well-armed and capable defender of his estate. One man was shot as he entered the room and lay dying on the library floor while Cassius stabbed the second man with one of his Bowie knives. Although this man made it outside the home, he was found dead near the icehouse. The third man was lucky enough to get away with his life.291 The sheriff had been sent a note that the “vendetta” was coming. He arrived after the fight took place to find Cassius sitting beside the fire in his library. The only thing that appeared to be wrong with Cassius was that the bottom of his dressing gown was singed, where he had fallen into the fire while fighting. What makes this story even more remarkable is that by this point in time Cassius had gout so severe that he did not have a bedroom upstairs; rather, he used the library (where the intruders broke in) as his sleeping area. In addition, Cassius fought off these three men at the advanced age of eighty-nine years old.292
Two years later, Cassius caused even more excitement for the community and headlines for the papers when he had a standoff with the local law enforcement. Clay had invited his oldest daughter, Mary Barr Clay, to live with him. In a change of heart (or perhaps a befuddled mind), he ordered her out of his house.293 She went but had the sheriff stop by a day or two later for her furniture. What occurred then was like a scene from a western movie, complete with showdowns and shootouts.294 This inciting story provided front-page fodder for newspapers for almost a week. One paper jokingly referred to the altercations as Cassius simply “spring housecleaning.”295 Each day, the progress of the sheriff was recorded, and in the end, Cassius was the victor.296 It has always been a case of wonder whether Mary Barr ever did get her furniture back while her father was still alive. She did wind up getting paid for the value of her possessions.
After a month of trying, the sheriff finally succeeded in serving Clay with a writ of attachment for $1,200.297 It was probably because of instances like this one that Clay’s children on July 8, 1903, had him declared “of unsound mind.”298 Cassius’s revolver and Bowie knife were taken from him by his nurse. Understandably, Clay took offense.299 Cassius without his weapons felt perhaps like an ordinary person without his clothes—naked and defenseless without them.
Cassius continued to provide fodder for the papers even in the final days of his life. The pope at the time was also in failing health, and Kentucky papers wondered who would be the first to succumb to the inevitable. In the end, it was Pope Leo XIII who passed away first.300 In every challenge of his life, Cassius came away the winner, and this was no exception; he probably took grim satisfaction in outlasting the holy man.301 Cassius would not be the victor forever, though. He could beat people but not the enlarged prostate that resulted in acute renal failure. Amid a stormy night on July 22, 1903, Cassius Marcellus Clay peacefully passed away in the library of the home. He was just three months shy of his ninety-third birthday.
Thus a whole era passed out of existence. Accolades abounded in the newspapers after Clay’s death. One editor wrote, “He was a man seen but once and a character known to all. He, more than any other one man, stood for the world’s idea of a Kentuckian—bold, fearless, generous, kind, quick to avenge and insult and equally quick to forgive a wrong, an orator and a hand-to-hand fighter.”302
Cassius M. Clay’s funeral took place at the First Baptist Church in Richmond, Kentucky.303 Conducted by Reverend Timberlake, the service was considered one of the largest attended memorial services that Madison County had seen in some years. Among the many mourners were Clay’s children and grandchildren—family who had been estranged from Clay for many years due to the fact that Cassius thought they were his enemies and were out to get him. Clay was buried at Richmond Cemetery, and the burial was very simple, with a plain coffin, as Cassius had stated that only $100 should go toward the expense of his funeral.304
As a testament to Clay’s antislavery work, mourners at his death included both the white and African American population. A contemporary newspaper commented, “Never was a more striking scene witnessed on the way to Richmond, where the funeral services were to be held. From every humble negro cottage along the roadside and at every cross roads, the mothers and large children carrying those who were too little to walk, the negroes were lined up to pay their last respects to the man whom they honored as the Abraham Lincoln of Kentucky.”305
Perhaps one of the best descriptions of Clay came from the man himself. Once, Cassius had a friend assist him in composing a will. Clay began dictating his thoughts, “I, Cassius Marcellus Clay…” When the assistant suggested Clay change the first line to Cassius M. Clay Sr., Cassius replied, “No! There is but one C.M. Clay—all the rest came after me; I alone have the name, without an affix.”306 Too true, there never has been another man like him.
The man who was larger than life was gone, and his home now stood in lonely vigil. What was to become of Clay’s grand estate?