The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-05-15
co NJ M u MIC Alto N.
A REVIEW OF LINN BOYD'S LETTER
No. a.

General Jackson's conduct, is referred to, il is
believed that no unprejudiced man would ever
suppose, after that, that he could be induced to
vote for General Jackson as the Chief Magis
trate Of the country-nor is there any fair grounds
to believe that he supported Mr.. Adams from
personal motives, but from conviction, such as
influenced large body of the people, that ne
was obviously and decidedly the best duallhed
man and as such, he was compelled TO vote ior
him. Moreover, Mr.. Clay believed that General
jackson did not possess the necessary quahea-
tons to administer the great and complicated con.
Germs OF this confederated Republic The want
of statesmanlike qualifications formed an insnr-
mountable objection, and induced MIR. Clay to
withhold from General Jackson his support. The
editor of the Richmond Enquirer, in commenting
on Mr.. Clay's address to his constituents, admits
the validity of the objection, urged by Mr. Clay,
to the election of General jackson:
As 10 General Jackson, we the Richmond
Enquirer have little to say He ,oas not our
choice as President and The strongest objection
to him ,0as the one iohich Mr.. Clay has urged,
to wit: that HE WAS NOT A QUALIFIED STATES
MAN" See Richmond Enquirer, April l, 1925
Thus it appears even Mr. Richie explicitly
justifes Mr. Clay in voting against General Jack
son. Yet strange to say he is found co operating
with you in the rutless effort to PROSTATE one of
the most iIlusriOus men of the country, to grail
fly party NAL ignity and disappointed ambition. If
Mr. Richie concurred with Mr.. Clay in regard
to General Jacksons qualifications. why is it that
he is now engaged in the work of defamation!
Why is it that he is now laboring with ndustr-
GUS malevoence to calumniate the motives of
Mr.. Clay, and to create the impression that
he was influenced by improper considerations,
when he himself states that Mr.. Clay's "objec-
ton" to the election was valid one, and prepon-
derated over all other considerations. Shame to
the genuine and wholesome spirit of truth
Whist this is the practice-whst the sycophant,
like the toad, thrves in filth, owing his very exis
tence to the dark and nauseous track he makes
in his passage over the fairest and objects
of nature-whilst this is at once his business and
his bread-O execrabe morsel, yet eaten by indu-
rated veness without pang-wh Satanic
kind of j,y-what conduct that is laudable, or
what character that is iustrious, may hope to
escape the envenomed pollution! Every plain
fact, thus frauduently dstorted-every act, base
ly m srepresenled, neither the natural affections
or the repose of ilustrious individuals can stand
sure? Were we to give credit to every passing
rumor, what impossible and monstrous tales, with
which every breeze is pregnant, must we not be-
lieve? Every moment has its SANDER, and the
vile insect, for ever on the wing, is busted in COL
lectng venom.
Destroy his web of sophistry In vain,
The creature is at his dirty work again"
As little do we believe that Mr.. Adams nomi-
mated Mr.. Clay to the Senate as Secretary OF
State from personal attachment or obligation !;
but, knowing no man in the country, had passed
through more brilliant public service for up
wards of twenty years than Mr.. Clay, in which
he had acquired great popularity, and evinced
statesmanike ability that cassed him in the
foremost rank of American statesmen, it is fair
to conclude, that Mr.. Adams was governed by the
established reputation of Mr. Clay and the public
sentiment towards him. and that he very properly
desired both his services and his fame to give
usefulness and lusre to his administration.
But you contend that the acceptance of the Of
fee of Secretary of State by Mr. Clay is strong
evidence of a corrupt understanding between him
and Mr.. Adams. How do you arrive at such a
conclusion! Is it that he stood SO low in the es-
timation Of his countrymen, or was SO destitute of
qualifications, that he was compelled to enter in
to corrupt arrangements in order to secure the
Office Cor is it that Mr.. Adams would have Sc
lected an individual, the purity of whose life, the
integrity OF whose principles, the splendor OF
whose abilities, shone with greater lustre than
that of Henry Clay! Is he inferior, in any sim
gle qualification of the head or of the heart, to any
individual then standing prominent in the estma-
ton of the nation! Let the voice of the nation
and of the world answer. He was an early, an
ardent, and undertaking friend of Jefferson and
Madison, and of the Constitution and it may be
added, that, in every sentiment he has uttered in
every principle he has recorded, in every act he
has ever done, may we find at once an evidence
and an example of republican purity that would
have done honor to the best days of Grecian or
Roman virtue
You know, sir, full well, that Mr.. Clay had
stood conspicuously before the country and the
world as one of the first parliamentary orators Of
tle age. The splendor of his character had left
MN without rival in the admiration and in the
affections of his adopted Stale. He had been for
more than twenty years identified with every i'm
portant measure of policy in the councils of the
nation. His fame had gone forth to other coun-
tries, and had been proclaimed in other languages,
as that of the philanthropist and statesman whose
eloquence enlisted the sympathies of his country
men III behalf of South American Independence,
ana terminated the hesitation of the Executive in
recommending its recognition. He had been
known as the prominent champion of his country's
honor In the hour OF insult, injury, and war, and
the able negotator who prepared for her the path
of peace. He had been hailed as the great frienl
of the american System, the adoption of which
consummated the prosperity of the country and as