Reflecting on Cassius M. Clay’s early writings

The Writings of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Including his Speeches, and Addresses (1848) chronicled his political and social opinions. The famed editor of the New York Tribune and abolitionist, Horace Greeley edited the anthology, and lauded Clay’s character in his preface. Clay was famous as well as affluent and thus harbored no ulterior motive as he commenced publishing the anti-slavery newspaper True American during June of 1845.

First, the Writings revealed his notions regarding suffrage. It is known today that he did not support the woman suffrage cause, which factored in his estrangement from his wife and daughters. The fairer gender needed protection from the tumult of politics and the community at large. If society would or could not maintain their safety and “should it appear that they are capable of voting judiciously, without the loss of a greater good, then they have a fight to vote.”

The drawback for woman suffrage centered upon the premise that the current structures of male patriarchy, chivalry, and the role of wife & mother represented the best system for female happiness. Virtue, manners, and modesty constructed the nucleus of the upright feminine life, and voting could even undermine their niche in society. The text read “---they would lose power by mingling in the angry and indecent contests of the polls. I conclude then that it is best for women not to exercise that right.”

Second, Writings depicted Clay’s religious and moral perceptions. Jesus of Nazareth served mankind as a great moral teacher and represented the spirit of God. Jesus presented the image of God for humanity. This supreme being loved all people, and everyone in turn should love their fellow man. One should love God and treat others the way he/she would want to be treated. His teachings coincide with the laws of nature, so Clay said he knew of no higher moral teacher.

His high regard for Jesus did not insinuate a literalist approach to the Hebrew scriptures. To the contrary he stated that the Bible should be analyzed with equal criterion to other ancient texts. On other religious topics Clay was not bound by orthodoxy. Satan was a metaphor for evil that could be within us all. A bodily resurrection did not coincide with the laws of physics or nature. His view on the immortality of the soul appeared like that of Plato. The Greek psyche (mind) did not cease to exist with natural bodily death. Clay viewed a person as composed of mind and matter. Like the ancient psyche, the mind lives on in its present state, after matter disintegrates.

Truth and liberty to Clay, represented the essential dynamics of religious and spiritual teaching. Nothing justified intolerance or compulsion to adhere to any dogmatic world view, as so many Christian establishments did in Europe and in the American colonies such as Puritan New England. His text read: “My religion is, that truth is always useful---is God’s law; that intolerance, so far from being a virtue, is the greatest of crimes; that liberty of thought is the gift of the deity---the right of every responsible being.”

Third, the Writings depicted his understanding on government. Like Thomas Hobbs and John Locke, he rejected life in a “state of nature”. This primordial life left no restraints upon anyone’s acts, regardless of its destruction or death upon the less powerful. Force represented the sole law and the strong killed or enslaved those unable to resist. No laws were intact to protect the vulnerable. Since force was the sole rule of life, mankind killed or enslaved without deterrence.

People therefore decided to construct communities with various forms of government to make rules for living. Clay alluded to the writings of Jeremy Bentham, who realized that the” dog eat dog” mode of existence cast nearly all of mankind into misery, fear, and early death. Even the more powerful may die at the hands of numerous weaker forces that had agreed to work together. All sides agreed to forgo the right to kill each other “for the higher good of being safe from the assaults of others” and thus bring about security of life and property. This would lead to what Thomas Jefferson wrote as “the pursuit of happiness.”

These forms were despotism, monarchy, aristocracy, and democratic republics. The first was the worst form since it only benefitted a single person or family. The next worse to Clay was Aristocracy as it grants power to a small number of elites, with almost no regard for the masses. Constitutional monarchy is better in that the consent of the governed played a more active role. The republic represented the best form since it works for the will of the masses. There also exists some division of power in the latter two forms.

Clay insisted that government’s primary function was to protect all citizens’ liberty, including minority groups. This meant that the institution of slavery was not congenial with any legitimate government. When a state oppressed a small subset of its residents, life for them became no better than a state of primeval savagery. Clay’s text read: “Such is the case with slavery in the United States---. It has stripped him (the African slave) of all his natural rights in the pretense of protection. It secures him neither life, nor property, nor character, but systematically strips him of all.” The social cohesion of the United States was undermined by the oppression of a small part of its people.

Finally, as a publisher and writer, Clay knew that people needed to become informed of local incidents, economic issues, national events, and international news. Therefore, a free press was indispensable if the public was to make informed decisions during elections. The free exchange of viewpoints with factual data was vital to society then, as it is now.

In sum, the early writings of Cassius Marcellus Clay of Madison County depicted his opinions, and goals well before the Civil War and Reconstruction. The values impacted his long life and career until his death in 1903. Through Clay Madison County contributed a key player in the intellectual and social landscape of Kentucky.