The Arkansas banner., 1844-10-23

i.ottttt'S HI SOto fldfIS0A 10 that Winch It was likely to inllict upon the wiig cause in the States of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia Our friend John Speed SInilh, as Hwell as others, thought it even endangered the State of Kentucky. This effect resulted from your undertaking to speak of ag pri- eate feelings and those of my near and par ticular friends, and your statement that you had 5een ten years operating ia the abolition cause.
 Under these circumstances, there was an absolute necessity for the note which pub- lished, although ' regretted q catremeiy.- l endeapored So to staPe j. as not to wound your feelings, and hope did rot.
 Had you been here, you would have con cured with myself and other friends in think ing t indispensable
 on must be we'll aware of the very great delicacy ofmy position.
 At the North, am represented as an ulfra supporter of tte institution of sFaeerg, whilst at the South am described as an abolition lst; when am nejtter the one nor fhe otser. As We have the same sirname, and are, more over, related, great use is made at the South agalnst me, of whatever falls from you.- There, you are even represented as being my son hence the necessity of the greatest cir Ecumspection, and especially that you should avoid committing me.
 ou are watched wherever you go; and every word you publicly express will be tor tured and perverted as my own are.
 After all, am afraid that you arc too san guine in supposing that any considerable number of the Liberty men can be induced to support me. How can that be expected after they have voted against Mir Sade3
 With assurances of my thanklulness for your friendly purposes, and with my best respects for Mrs Clay, l am truly and faith fully, Your friend,
 c, NJ CLAY, Esq H. CLAY.
 Now we endorse the opinion of our pre- decessor that the above letter requires little or no comment. When Henry Clay, on the 2d of September, said that he had AT NO TIME expressed any opinions contrary 10 his former statement that he was the ultra sup porter of the institution of slavery, he un- occasionally meant the people of the South to believe and infer that he NEVER WOULD express, either sspublicly or privately.n any other opinions. And yet, in the short space of sixteen days, he writes his letter of the 18th to Cassius NJ. Clay, denying the opin- ions and feelings he laid down in his letter to Wickliile on the 2d of September This would be deemed most extraordinary in man possessed of Henry Clay's political cx- perience, sagacity, and cunning, were 1t not for the fact that something of the kind was necessary to appease Cassius NJ. Clay after the letter to WicklifIe of the 2d. It will be remembered that they are related to each other that they are warm personal and po- litical friends; that Henry Clay recently de- tended Cassius II. Clay in very important trial; thai Cassius IL. Clay started from Ken lucky by and with the advice and consent of Henry Clay, to eadeavor, by all possible means, honorable, of course to secure the New Y ofk. But Gassus N. Clay being great deal too honest, frank, and manly for a travelling, speuting politician, went too far in behalf of his uncle. He told too much he didn7t keep back what he ought to have kept back; in vulgar parlance, he sslet the cal out of the bagn This would have been all very well, as far as Ohio and New ' ork and the Eastern States are concerned; but Henry Clay saw at glance that his neph- ew's frank exposition of his sentiments would vilher and blast his prospects in the approaching elections in the South. It in- jured hIm terribly, according to his own ae- count, at home; but, as he says, that was NOTHING in comparison to the injury it would indict upon him and his prospects and that of the whig party ''lN THE STATES OF TEN NEssEE, NORTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA p And in this Henry Clay was right. "it was all very well, Mir. Ferguson,n to try to carry Ohio and New York by this Janus-faced movement, but ''you must not endanger my prospects in Tennessee-and if you go on thus, you will kill me in North Carolina and Georgia
 Without, therefore, having any control over the original publication of this eYtraor- dinary document, under all the circumstan- ces, we cannot but think it fortunate for the country that the letter has been publishcd.- The loss of it by the whigs, at this peculiar juncture, seems to have been one of those peculiar interpretations of Providence which have so often occurred to favor the righteous cause of Democracy in this great land. Our duNCiSdliCS uIdy Cdil IL dtt Ot1l6L Il ttbt please but, omen or not, it has been the means of exposing the hollowness and de- ceit of the leader of the whig party on the Abolition Question, as the same has been exposed before on the Tariff Question. De- ceit, ialsehood, double-dealing-letters for the North and letters for the South-blow- ing hot and cold with the same breath-ly- ing-pipe-laying- cheating -irauds--Clress- ing up and shaving dead men-getting drunk on hard cider-log cabins, and coon skins rioting, fighting, organizing bands of rn1iaa to knock down and drag out all who oppose them-and making night hideous with their Bacchanalian and disgusting orgies! these, are the means that they employ to try to get into oflice-not for the sake of governing this great people properly; not to protect, perpetuate, and extend the great principles of human liberty, and the happiness, social and political, of all; not to protect one class against the encroachment of another, not 10 shed the blessings of this free, this unparal- |