The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-09-26
W A S HIN G I @ N.
THURSDAY EVENING, SEPT. 26, 1874
CHARACTER OF MR. CLAY'S REVILERS


CHARACTER OF MR.. CLAWS REVILERS.
We have paid but little attention TO the calum-
MES which have been ndustriously propagated
against Mr.. Clay by the prostituted Locofoco
press, from conviction that such tales, from such
sources, could have little effect upon the public
mind Mr. Clay has been so long and SO promi-
nently before the public, that such characters as
Blair and Kendall will labor in vain in the nefa-
rous work of viifying him.
There is something amusing in the tone OF hy-
pocritical cant with which these men, mercenary
as they are, discourse about virtue and morality.
1t requires an uncommon degree of assurance on
their part or a vain belief that all the world is
obvious of the past, to enable Amos Kendall or
Francis P. Blair to appear as the accusers of Mr..
Clay, or any body else, for breach of decorum.
How have these men kept breath in their bodies!
How have they grown rich Has it not been by
the most servile adulatior, year by year, for the
last fifteen or eighteen, of man who has violated
every precept, perhaps, save one, in the deca
logue? Have they not, and do they not to this
day, habitually bedaub, besmear, and begrime
General Jackson all over with fnlsome fattery
Did not General Jackson, their idol, kill Dickin-
son in a FOUL bloody duel, after the latter had
fired! Did not General Jackson marry another
mans wife, in violation of law Has he not, for
the greater part of his life, been an habual gam
bier, and won his thousands? Has he not been
always, perhaps until very recently, the most
profane of men. confirming every declaration by
pompous and impious appeal to the Great Eter-
nal! Dare any Locofoco controvert any one of
these allegations They not, without lying
in their throats And yet it is the pampered
panders to this mans fierce passions who assa
the moral character OF Henry Clay! What hon
orabe man must not feel the most infinite con-
tempt and adherence for such calumnes and
their authors
The pious, heaven-born Amos Kendall, inter-
prefer of Provdential Dispensations, has recount
ed in his I" Life OF Jackson" that the very first
money which General Jackson acquired by his
own exertons, was by gambling at Charleston.
We have not the book before us, but we intend,
one of these days, to publish the account of the
transaction in Kendals own language. No ho-
norable man can read it without feeling of dis
gust, and without INDUCING the hope that the
case is falsely stated. Kendall represents Gen.
JdCksoH as having ueeh Sunty VI d uHly liiCh'
Gambling is in itself immoral and sinful and yet
man may gamble honoraby-but Kendall, evil
= IDENTIFY with view to show the sharpness OF
his hero, 1.-THE only quality which the author could
appreciated has put General Jackson in the pre-
dcament of sorry blackleg, playing ohile he
:. had run of luck, and breaking off, without CIV
ing his adversary an opportunity of recovering
We frus hall inc1 tn
suspect, that Kendall from mean, groveng
admiration of cunning, has done njustice'to Gen
Jackson. But such is his own story, told of the
man whom he has for years fattered and fawned
upon.
Blair and Kendall were both the warm friends,
professedly, of Mr.. Clay twenty years ago, at a
time when he was younger and not more moral
than now. They then basked in the sunshine of
his favor, thought him worthy of the Presidency,
and tried to elect him. Now, pious souls, they
are Mortified at the thought of electng him, from
regard to religion and virtue.
DR.. Bascom, eminent and talented Metho-
dist minister, neighbor and friend of Mr.. CLAY,
was called upon to say whether the charges
against that gentleman's private character were
true With every opportunity Of knowing, he
gave the charges fiat and positive contradiction
We would have supposed that the statement of
gentleman eminent for plety and intelligence,
with full knowledge of the facts, would have
satisfied even the scrupulous fears of the patri-
otto and devout Amos. But the propagators of
the ISLANDERS were not to be estopped easily.
Their next device to assail the character of
DIR. Bascom-a name endeared to the friends of
religion and virtue from Maine to Louisiana.
The neighbors of this gentleman, without dis
tinction of sect, have noby come forward to vim
dictate him from the foul ,asPersions Of the Loco