The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1845-01-30
From the Middlesex Standard.
Henry Clay.
G. M. CLAY.

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ed too with the man of their choice-their
champion and idol; and their opponents,
with candidate vastly inferior, around
whom no personal sympathy or popu-
larity had gathered have triumphed de-
cislvely and completely
To Henry Clay this has undoubtedly
proved severe disappointment. The
hopes and ambitions ofthirty years have
been struck down at blow, and forev-
err. The prize Of the Presidency is no
longer within his reach; the aim of a
long and stormy life of political effort
has been disappointed. All that the
most devoted and Jealous partizans could
do for him has been done-talent, money,
influence, character, conscience, have
been tasked to the uttermost. For, un.
like James Is. Poll, who only comes in
TO Office on the mighty wave of party
reaction-H Henry Clay was supported
more earnestly as a man, than as a
Wing. He had friends who would have
sacrificed their right hands, ScevoIa like
to aid him. AS one of the most brilliant
men of his time bold and prompt in
council, resolute and persevering in &C
ton genial, bland, and captivating in
his social intercourse witty and shrewd
in debate eloquent always whether
perorating from the stump at Kentucky
Barbecue, or filling the arches of the
Capitol with his rich ntonations max
ing grave Senators suspend their breath,
and calling down involuntary applause
from crowded galleries, from the young,
the beautiful, the enthusiastic:
-"whose eyes
Reign influence,
above all, as man who, implacable to
his enemies, has ever been true to his
friends, open, frank, and free hearted
both in love and hate,-we do not mar
vel at the fact that he has found SO many
personal partizans - out and out ,unscru-
pulous, unhesitatng, and fierce deend-
ers. Nor is it matter Of surprise that
the same characteristics, which bound
his friends 10 him as with hooks of steel
have, on the other hand, made his per
sonal enemies inveterate and deadly
No other public man in the country has
SO many friends, or so many implacable
personal foes. All this has been devel-
oped in the late contest.
Aboitonsts have been accused by
the Wings of seeking the defeat of Hem
ry Clay as the great end and aim of their
organization and abors. Little do those
who make this charge understand US
We had no private or personal reasons
for opposing him. For our own part,we
deeply regretted the necessity which the
efforts ofthe Wings, 10 seduce Liberty
men from their integrity, LAID upon US to
present and reiterate the reasons why no
friend of Universal Freedom, and the
highest interest of the country, could
give him his vote. We did this solely as
matter of ALPHABETICALLY and sorrow
fully. Every where our Wing neigh
bors were urging us to give up our or
ganization against slavery to brow
down the weapons which we had so eff
fectually welded, 10 undo all that had
been done by the anti slavery societies,
petitions, and votes Of the last ten years
to forego and abandon all the ndvan
tages Of our positions, for the sake of
voting for Henry Clay. They thus
compelled US to give reasons for declin-
ing their urgent entreaties. They call
ed upon us to state definitely why we
could not do SO. They placed US under
the necessity Of making full and COM
plete exposure of the history, views and
acts Of Henry Clay, IN respect to slave.
ny and its kindred iniquities. Had we
done less than this, we should have been
recreant to our duty to God and the
slave.
So far as we we're personally concern
ed, we had no disposition to exaggerate
the faults Of the Whig candidate. His
brilliant talents, his early republicanism,
his splendid eloquence, excited our boy
ish enthusiasm and admiration. We
would not rob him Of one title of his Just
fame as statesman and man of gen
ius. But, when his friends urged him
upon US for the highest place in the eff
of free people, we felt bound to speak
the whole truth ofhis present position
and past history in relation TO the cause
of Freedom. We had no other alterna-
tive. In linking, deliberately and be.
fore the world, his destiny with the totter-
Ing cause of slavery in closing his eyes
to the signs of the times, and his ears to
the shouts Of emancipated millions and
the clang of breaking letters sounding
across the waters from half the nations Of
Europe and placing his strong Shout
ders against the falling Ark of the A
merican Baal, -making himselfthe cham
Plon of the vilest oppression on which
the sun looks,-he imposed upon the
friends Of the slave the stern duty of de-
nouncing him as unfit to be the recipient
of public favor; and of declaring that the
man who, in the land ofthe Declaration
of Independence, in this nineteenth CEN