Comments on: Memorializing a Magnificent Oak and “The Great Pacificator”

By: Bryan Cody

Bryan Cody — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:20:44 +0000

We have a collection from a fungus that was collected from near the base of that tree on about the 4th of November 1986. As I was trying to pinpoint the location I found this extremely helpful website. The fungus is Inonotus dryadeus and was probably collected by a student for a mycology class. The current name of the specimen is Pseudoinonotus dryadeus and is a wood rotter that was probably partly responsible for falling limbs.

I look forward to keeping up with Goodnight Raleigh. Thanks.

By: Orion Pozo

Orion Pozo — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:29:26 +0000

Henry Clay was definitely a war hawk before the War of 1812 when he was in his 30s, but he was 67 when he wrote this letter so eloquently against war. His wife’s brother, Captain Nathaniel G. T. Hart, died in the Massacre of the River Raisin in the War of 1812. He was one of 68 American wounded prisoners (mostly Kentucky militia) slaughtered when their fellow Americans had to leave them behind. Of 934 Americans who fought here, only 33 escaped death or capture. The fate of his brother-in-law and his fellow Kentuckians may have been on his mind as the US agitated for another war.
He also lost all six of his daughters to illness, and his son Henry Clay Jr. would be killed at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War 3 years after writing this letter.
I feel an urge to read more about this man and the effects the War of 1812 had on him.

By: Raleigh Boy

Raleigh Boy — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:20:11 +0000

John – Gee, it’s hard to say. The Henry Clay Oak was by far the oldest and largest that was still around in my lifetime. We have lost a number of other large oaks in recent years to Hurricane Fran, disease and just plain indifference on the part of some property owners. There are a couple in the Confederate Cemetery and one at the foot of Tilden St. in Glenwood that come to mind. You have challenged me to a new quest!

And, as you noted re: Henry Clay — an astute observation, my friend!

By: John Morris

John Morris — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:24:29 +0000

RB – I wish I could have seen the tree in person. Do you know what is now the oldest oak in town?

Orion – I agree that words spoken 160+ years ago are still relevant today. Although technology and development change the environment we live in, humanity and politics often stay the same throughout the decades and centuries.

NCSU – I read that too, and was puzzled by his stance on that war in comparison to the one looming with Mexico. Perhaps he became more tempered in his older years?

By: NCSU

NCSU — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:42:52 +0000

Yet Clay was the leader of the Warhawks, who pushed James Madison to declare war on Great Britain in 1812, in part because they wanted to use it as an excuse to invade and occupy Spanish-held Florida.

By: Orion Pozo

Orion Pozo — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:34:10 +0000

Thank you for publishing the text of Clay’s Raleigh Letter. His words are still relevant to a country that is involved in two wars. Let us all hope our country finds Clay’s “honorable peace” soon.

“I regard all wars as great calamities, to be avoided, if possible, and honorable peace as the wisest and truest policy of this country.”

– Henry Clay, in an excerpt from a letter to the Editor of the National Intelligencer

By: Raleigh Boy

Raleigh Boy — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:07:30 +0000

John — You sure got that right — the Henry Clay Oak was indeed ‘magnificent!’ Thanks for spotlighting another of Raleigh’s ‘hidden’ monuments.

Thanks, too, for publishing the old photo of Dr. Crittenden. That’s a great shot of him standing beside the monument gazing up at the tree. I knew him well when I was a boy. ‘Dr.C’ passed away many years ago, but I always remember him with fond affection.