The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-04-25
MIR. cLAY's GENERAL ORDERS

MR.. CLAY'S GENERAL ORDERS!
Choosing the United States Gazette as the
medium of his communication 10 the public, and
speaking in the person OF its editor, Mr.. Clay
has honored with his notice some remarks OF
ours, published a week or ten days ago. The
paragraph Of our article, which Mr.. Clay
makes the subject of his observations, is the fol-
lowing:
CAS- to Mr.. Clays apparently graceful withdrawal
from the controversy for the sake of harmony, and
the eltefproduced and read the occasion, there
was nothing in all this but show. Mr. Clay's friends
never gave up their persistence their pertnacty their
adherence (o the strongest parliamentary phrase)
TO Mr. Clay's nomination, till he was beaten, tho
roughly beaten, irrecoverably beaen, in the Conven-
ton. And then an attempt was made, adroit enough,
but such deceived nobody to turn his defeat into
withdrawal"
After sneers at this paper, and attempts at
wit, about as fortunate and apt as his late quo
tation from Blackstone, he pronounces the sub
stance Of our remark to be falsehood, and in
tended to deceive and proceeds TO observe
'The popular vote in the Harrisburg Convention,
Of 1899, was as follows:
CLAW. 1903
Harrison, oil
Scott, At
Now to any man who remembers the state of feel
ing in the lower part Of New York, and the eastern
part Of New Jersey il is unnecessary say that three
iourtts of those who voted for General Scott would
have preferred Mr.. Clay to General Harrison, and in
so doing would have represented the feelings OF their
constituents better than they did And we may say
the same of almost every delegation that gave Scott
vote And not tpo of those WHO gave HARRISON
vote, would have gone TO Scott instead OF Clay"
I'll .
pIau,ibillty, but nothing more. The attempt is,
10 show that Mr.. Clay was the real favorite Of
the Convention, by stating what is called the
popular vote" But that popular vote only
proves that the States favorable to Mr. Clay,
were more numerously represented in the Con-
vention than the other States. This we all
know to be true; and therefore Mr.. Clay's
friends insisted on deciding the question, not
by receiving from each Delegation as many
votes as the States il came from would give in the
Electoral College, but by polling the whole Con
ventlon and taking the individual vote Of every
member present. twas by successful resistance
to this last mode of voting, that the whole coun-
try was enabled to be heard. Each State in
proportion to its real strength and the conse-
quence of this was Mr.. Clay's defeat Mr..
Clay's friends, who are not apt to be negligent,
had taken more care than The friends Of either
of the other candidates, not 10 be wanting
in numbers, when the Convention should
assemble and it was, in TRUTH death blow
to their hopes, and his hopes to resolve
that mere numerical vote Of the mem
bers present should not settle the question:
This resolution was adopted on the motion,
and by the support of clear-slghted men, who
saw into things as far as Mr.. Clay, and who
pe,ceived, that without such mode of proceed
ing the result would be no true indication Of
public opinion. But those men Mr.. Clay has
never forgiven, and never will forgive. II is
within our knowledge that he has spoken of them
with the utmost anger and bitterness within
the last three weeks. He has been, and still is,
particularly incensed against those, who at first
voted for General Scott, and finally, not sue
ceeding in that first object of their choice, pre-
ferred ultimately General Harrison to Mr.. Clay,
and thus secured the nomination Of the former
gentleman. We see by the remarks on which
We are now commenting, how sharply he re-
sents this. He will have it, that the New York
and New Jersey delegations misrepresented
their constituents, and violated their duty, in
preferring General Harrison to himself. But
this is all groundless presumption. 1t is mere
Imagination of Mr.. Clay's brain New Jersey
was undoubtedly Harrison State, and had
been so for wears and as to New York, no
person Of intelligence, acquainted with the cur
rent Of opinion in that State, can suppose that
Mr. CLAW could, under any circumstances, ever
receive the vote of that State.
The Wing strength Of New York lies in the
West, beyond Cayuga bridge, and in that whole
region, with the exception of few personal
friends, Mr.. Clay had never any strength at all,
and never can have, for reasons neither ren.ov-
able nor conquerable Itcannot be proved, ma
dramatically, but it can be shown, TO the salts
faction of any reasonable man, and indeed, is
apparent enough TO persons acquainted with the
subject, without any showing at all, that if Mr..
Clay had been the candidate, New York would
most assuredly have given her vote for Mr.. Van
Buren,. A similar result will happen hereafter,
should there be folly enough, as there is not like
ly to be, to try the experiment: Mr. Clay's at
tempt is to make it out that he ought TO hare
been the candidate he attempts this by what he
calls the popular vote' of the Convention
But even in that vote he had not majority !;
and therefore he endeavors to raise proof of a
majority in the country by argument, construc
ton, and imputation +; the common resorts OF
defeated candidates. The article even goes the
length of saying, not only against notorious
facts, but also against its own statements, that
the Convention was composed of "a large ma
jorily OF sound Clay menw But, then, there
were cautiug gentlemen, whose cry was, we
cant elect him!n With statements and rea-
sons like these, Mr.. Clay endeavors to soothe