Independent Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1842-1844, 1842-10-15
From the Ne,o York Evening Post.
MR.. CLAY.

from the Neto orr fSOentnS fOW.
Mr.. CLAY.
The New World publishes, in a supple
mentary sheet, Life of Henry Clay
written by one of his admirers.
Our attention has just been called to a
fraud which this man committed on the
Constitution of the United States upon
taking his seat in the United States Senate.
The first sentences in the memoir OF the
New World are these:
"Henry Clay is native OF Hanover
county, Virginia. He was born on the
18th Of April, l777,* in district Of coun.
try Familiarity known in the neighborhood
as the sldshes."
Henry CLAY, therefore, attained the age
of thirty years on the 18th of April,
1907; at which time, and not before, he
would be allowed by the Constitution to
enter the United States Senate. The
second chapter of Henry Clay's Life, in
the New World, opens with these words:
"On the twenty-ninth of December,
lsO6,* Mr.. Clay. then in his 29th [30thl
wear, produced his credentials, and took
his seat in the Senate OF the United
States.'
Mr.. Clay, therefore, Struggled himself
into the Senate of the United States about
four months before he had any right to be
there. The second section of the first ar
licle Of the Constitution of the United
States saws:
"No person shall he Senator, who
shall not have attained to the age Of thir-
~ years."
Let us look at this matter with perfect
fairness; let us forget that we are either
the political friends or the political enc
mics of Mr.. Clay; let us suppose he has
been dead hundred years, and that we
are an impartial posterity, DESTROYS only
of pronouncing just moral judgment up
oa this act, which was the first public act
of his career as politician OF the FEEDER
al Government.
In the frs, place, it was violation of
the Constitution. This will not be denied /;
the words of that instrument are express.
1t is the duty of member of Congress to
obey the Constitution; and here is a pub
lie life commenced by deliberate and
wiliu iniraction of one of its plainest
provisions. But is il nothing more than a
mere violation of the national charter (?
Every Senator, before taking his seat,
swears TO support the Constitution IF the
United States. Mr.. Clay took This oath,
on presenting himself in the Senate; and
Immediately broke it, by assuming tunc-
tons which the Constitution forbade him
to exercise. lie superadded the guilt of
violating a solemn pledge, to the wrong Of
transgressing the organic law Of the ma
tlon.
Let us 60 further, and sec il, in addition
to this breach of the Constitution, and
this disregard of his public oath, there was
no dishonesty in Mr.. Clay's taking a seat
in Congress before his time of life emit
tied him to it. Every man who appears
TO claim a seat in Congress, implies, by
that very act, that he is properly qualified,
according TO the Constitution. lie pre-
sents himself, not only as person elected
according to constitutional forms' but as a
person OF the Constitutional age. If he
allows himself to be sworn in and admit
ted to his seat, under false impression
on the part of the other members that he
has reached the time of lite which quail
ties HIM for the place, he commits fraud.
He utters no verbal ialsehood, il is true
but he acts talschood, which is just as
bad.
1--WE have examined the life of Mr..
Clay prepared by Geo. ID. Prentice and
find that it corresponds with these dates.