VALENTINE'S MANUAL
 

Henry Clay Gets a Manual

The following letter, from no less a personage than
Henry Clay the great Southern statesman, acknowledges
a copy of the Manual from a well known New Yorker.
It is singular, how true Mr. Clay's comment on the
growth of the city is today, although his letter was written
more than seventy years ago.

Washington, 25 Jan., 1850
My dear Sir:

I am under great obligations and owe many thanks for
the copy of Mr. Valentine's "Manual," which you were
good enough to send me. It seems, however, almost use-
less to attempt to keep pace with the growth of your
great city. The "Manual" of today becomes old and ob-
solete tomorrow. Whilst one comes from the country to
visit the city, the city is going to the country, which he
came frora, to estabĩish itself there. When I first saw
New York, less than half a mile up Broadway, frora the
Battery, would have included raost of the wealth, position,
and the elite of its population. Now Broadway has run,
away many miles (I am sure I don't know how many)
into what was then the country. And how much further
it will stray nobody  can tell,  if this  Union is prescrved.

With great regard,

H. CLAY.
 

James Auchincloss, Esq.
 

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