The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-04-09
HON. MR.. CLAY AND THE WHlGS
OF ALEXANDRIA.

the Wings of North Carolina he denounced the !
acting President eve thank thee, Jew, for
teaching us that word y as making war upon
Wing principles, very modestly incarnating IN
his own person all truth and all principle. We
suppose that for any one to doubt Mr.. Clay's abb
solute perfection in all things political, would be
to place himself under the immediate influ-
ence of his bitterest enmity. We must there
fore, regard him as the true Sir Oracle, and
"when he opes his mouth let no dog bark"
His letter to the Alexandrians is dated on the
LIST of April, which, over all Christendom, is
called sail fools day." Whether Mr.. Clay had
any design to practice trick on those whom he
addressed, and through them on others, we GER
tainly have no means of determining. All that
we can say is, that if his object was to fool
others, he has wholly failed That he has fool
ed himself, the sequel of his efforts to injure
Mr.. Tyler will sooner or later determine.
Be this as it may, we could have wished to
Mr.. Clay different exit from public life. "That
he has done the State some service" no one is
inclined to deny but that any services which
he may have rendered gives him authority to
abuse every one at pleasure, and after the man
ner he has adopted toward the President, in his
Alexandria letter, is what we utterly deny.
Was it suitable reply to your Alexandria
friends, Mr.. Clay, upon the expression of their
regret al your retirement from the Senate, be-
cause they +" anticipated with full confidence,
the great influence of your efforts in healing in
ternal dissensions, calming the turbid waters Of
political strife, and reconcling existing Difficult
ties" to say that you could not " conform to the
caprices of weak, vaclating, and faithless
Chief Magistrate 2" Is this the way in which,
in his extreme old age, the great COMPROMISED,
the immortal peace-maker, assists in calming
"the turbid waters of political strife?" And
yet such have been the appliances resorted to by
him from the first If he had answered truly,
he would have said to the Alexandrans 81 have
long since thrown off the character Of peace
maker; l am now, as have been for six months
past, through my satellites in and out of Con-
gress, waging war of destruction against the
President, because he would not bend to my i'm
perial will, and have caused him to be abused as
man never was abused before. My voice is still
for war against ga weak, vacillating, and faith
less Chief Magistrate" He might have said
also with Macbeth 81 have waded in so far that
it is easier to 90 on than to retreat" This
would have been to have told the truth, effectu-
ally to have backed his Manifesto friends, his
great retired Cabinet Ministers, his partisans of
the billingsgate press, and to have fulfilled to the
letter his declaration made in his last speech in
the Senate that he had come back to abide the
fate of his friends. This would have been most
manly. But to undertake to sneak out of this
duty by charging the President with being ca
PRECIOUS
"Give us some cvit good apothecary!"
We cannot but deplore the situation in which
Mr.. Clay has placed himself before the country
Abuse of the Chief Magistrate should have been
left to his sculions. 1t would do for the Webbs,
the Premises, and the Moseleys: but for great
and all-accomplished statesman like MIR. Clay,
to get into furious passion, because the Presl-
dent has an opinion of his own, and has dared
to maintain it, and to follow it up with such
abuse as would disgrace Bedlamite, it is too
bad, and altogether to be wondered at. Nay,
we are led to suspect that Mr. Clay does not
believe of the President what he utters. Pray
tell the Alexandrians, Mr.. Clay, how and when
Mr. Tyler has thwarted and circumvented
the present Congress 2" and explain in what lie
has failed to give ''cordial cooperation and
support to measures having plainly in view
the public good? We have heard of no dffe-
renee of action between him and Congress, ex-
cept on the miserable Bank bills, for suffering
which to pass you will, we vouch for it, take no
credit to yourself. We go further and say that
SO far from cordial cooperation being wanting
on his part, months have now elapsed since he
submitted measures of the most vital impor-
lance to Congress, and that up to this time not
one has grown into a law. For Mr.. Clay's part,
instead of cooperating with the President, he
has not moved finger to relieve the country,
but has day after day, found his principal amuse
ment in making others utter TRADES of abuse
against the President. He has in certain reso-
lutions introduced by himself, contented him.
self with laying down the programme OF
would -be-administration three years hence
Among other things the Veto must be abolished,
the dear People whose assent through the State
Legislatures to Bank was matter so revolt
ing to his notions of propriety that he could not
tolerate the idea, are now to be courted and the
one man power must be abolished. Now we put
it to Mr.. Clay to say, whetherthe President, SO far
from being weak" would not have been gen.
tleman of high talents, if he had only sanctioned
Mr.. Clay's Bank? Whether he would have been
pronounced "vacilla ing" if he had only yielded
the convictions OF his whole life at Mr. Clay's
bidding, or whether any man would have heard
from the lips of Henry Clay, that John Tyler
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