The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1844-07-31
THE ISLANDER OF HENRY CLAY.

1924 WIN. III. CRAWFORD, who had killed a
man in a duel, and in 1923 and 1882 ANDREW
JACKSON, who had killed, with great GOODNESS
and ferociiy, after bis opponents fire had
been drawn, a Mr.. Dickinson iu a duel grow
ing out of a quarrel at a horse-race, and
who had been engaged in a savage pistol
fight with Col. Benton without even the
decorum Off duel. Mr. Clay has twice been
engaged in duels,-the last, twenty years ago,
and each with men who had heaped upon
him the most unprovoked and calling insults
and ~indignities. We think he was very wrong
in ihis-just as the man is wrong who, on
The impulse of the mOmept. knocks down
any one who spit in his face-he himself
thinks SO and has said so. He declared in an
Address TO his Constituents, in 1925, in re-
ference to the Gard he Lad issued denouu-
cling the unknown author of the Bargain
SANDER,
81 felt that I could no longer remain silent.
A crisis appeared to mt to have arisen in my
public life. ] issued my card. l ought not
to have put in it the last paragraph, because
although it does not necessarily imply the
resort TO a personal combat, il admits of that
construction nor will ! conceal that such a
possible issue was within my contemplation.
| owe it TO the community to say, that what
ever heretofore | may have done. or. by
inevitable circumstances nigh, be forced TO
do, no man in it holds i'll deeper abhorance
than ] do, the pernicions practice. Con-
demned as it must be by the judgment and
philosophy, to say nothing of the religion,
of every thinking man, it is an affair Of feeling
about which we cannot. although we should,
reason. Its true corrective will be found
when all shall unite, as all ought to unite, in
its unqualified prescription"
Acting on this principle. Mr.. Clay in
1888 supported and voted for the law %severly
Furnishing duels in the District of Columbia.
On that occasion he said,
mo man would be happier than he to see
the whole barbarous system forever eradica-
ted. 1t was well known, that in certain
quarters of the country public opinion was
averse from dueling, and no man could fly
in the face of that public opinion, without
having his reputation sacrificed; but there
we're other portions again which exacted o.
bedience TO the fatal custom The man with
a high sense of honor, and nice sensibi'ity,
when the question is whether he shall fight
or have the finger Of scorn pointed at him, is
unable to resist. and few, very few, are found
willing 10 adopt such an alternative. When
public opinion shall be renovated, and chas-
tened by reason, religion and humanity, the
practice of duelinS will at once be discounteu
anced. 1t is the Office of legislation to do all
it can TO bring about that healthful state of
the public mind, and although it may not
altogether effect so desirable a result. vet he
had no doubt it would do much towards it,
and with these views he would give his vote
for the bill"
And now look at the terms in which the
Albany Argus habitually speaks of Henry
Clay.-The following resolution of a Rens-
seIaerville meeting. which we clip from its
columns, is a faithful reflection Of the habit
ual exhibition ofits Editorial articles:
"Resolred, That with feelings of pride and
pleasure, we contrast the private, exalted,
moral and religious character of JAMES h.
Polk with that ofHESRY CLAY-a man who
from his youth has been addicated to nearly
the whole catalogue of now, at the advanced
age of nearly 20 years. is still held by the
civil authorities Of his country under bonds
for the maintenance of the peace"
Such are the charges against Henry Clay
and they are UNANIMOUSLY false. Mr.. Clay
is not more a p~rOfane swearer, than James
h. Polk, though he doubtless, like most men
not professors of religion. has at some time
or other used harsh words which were a
great deal better unsaid.-We know that
WASHINGTON did so. quite as much as Mr..
Clay ever did; yet Washington was not a
profane swearer. How many men among
us, if they ware logged through all their
lives by eves-droppers and spies. could not
be accused Of some such error as this! We
ask every man TO make the case his OWL.
and Judge how he would like 10 have his
lowest whisper Of indignation at some afro
cious villany Qike Folks when he turned
the fairly chosen Wing Members from Miss
issippi ont of their seats by his casting vote,)
trumpeted TO the world as an evidence that
he was a habitual swearer? There is a
baseness in catching up such a murmur of in
dignation and trumpeting it through the
Union which an honorable man must loathe
and abhor, and which the Albany Argus. in
its better days, would have scorned to de
scend to.
Then asto the charge of gambling-it is a
lie, a shameful lie. The negro on whom
Gen. McCalla relied to substantiate it, has
said he carried apack of cards for "Massa
Clay,"bu there are several 'Massa Clays'
about Lexington, and this could not have
been Henry Clay, as he has not knowingly
permitted a pack of cards to enter bis house
for many years. Yet it is true that MT.
Clay has often, when travelling or detained
from home, played whist with a party of
friends-and sometimes, when it has been
insisted by others hat some trifle should be
bet on the result of the game, he has not
stubbornly resisted it. But he has no more
PLAYED for money than the man who plays in
his family circle, with beans for counters,
plays for bears. We have the testimony of
men whose integrity was never questioned
that Mr.. Clay has been uniformly averse to
betting even a tritle, aud has always discour-
aged it This he has lone in conformity
with a resolution adopted by him more than
twenty years ago, having previously been
seduced into the habit then prevalent in The
West and in Washington. q.
Then the duelist accusarion-wiih what
grace does this come from the Loeos of Renss-
l~aerviIle, who have always stood up for Jack
son with all their might! And with what
decency do they alIude to Mr. Clay's being
put under bounds in Washington TO prevent
he occept;no n challenge from Senator King