Democratic banner., 1848-05-15
NEw YoRK, April Is, 1913.

NEw yoRz, April IS, 1913.
lien. HrNnY CLAY:
Sir in the Tribune Of this morning !
ind a letter dated Ashland, April 10th l84S
over your signature. The letter is adj
dressed, ! presume, to Tie American peo-
PIE. II ! cid not know you well, the inter-
venning space Of three days'oniy. between
its date and its arrival here would load me
to suspect IFS authenticity. If your deter
mination 10 allow your name to gohefore the
Philadelphia Convention as q candidate for
the presidency had BEEN in accordance mere
ly witllyour wishes and individual Judgment,
! should have kept arespcctful silence. But
as Your determination is based upon the
supposed interest of the Wig party, l
shall venture, uhesked, to add my opinion
to ti,at of the numerous Wings to whom
you refer. When / tell you that ROYALTY
rarely hears the TRUTH, you will think, no
doubt, that repeat a very stale dogma, fl
not altogether out Of place in a republic.
But there are parasites in republics, as well
as in ~despoIis,n, and of those you have a
very liberal portion just Enw. We've | to
claim 10 be your personal friend | might
better, perhaps, accomplish my purposes;
but as | have never avowed one class of
sentiments whilst in reality holding aDoth-
.er, tell you frankly that, although from
my earliest youth l had been something
more than a cold admirer of yourself, SO
when you started on the l4th of August,
1915, to the Virginia Springs, leaving your
friends and family to murder me in my sick
bed for vindicating those principles which
you had taught me in your speeches, al
least, | ceased to be your friend, and be-
came, by the necessity of my nature, yOus
enemy. What | shall say to You now, then
will have the more weight, because you
will see that it comes from an honest, if
not an upprejudiced, man; whilst l shall
attempt to divcst myself of the individual.
and speak as the member Of a great party.
shall then take up your letter in its
proper order. In saying that you had "a
strong Discrimination to the use of my your
name in connection with that office" cour-
teSy leads me to c%Gnfne myself to the re-
mark, that you deceive yourseIf-but no
one else! So soon as you were defeated in
the last election, j committee of your
fricHdS from Frankfort waited upon You,
and condoled with You on that melancholy
event. ion responded in a manner that
led me, almost with the powe; of certain
ty, to remark to some friends that Henry
Clay is candidate again for the Presiden-
cy. Time attest my sagacity.
So strong was my conviction that you
would be a candidate, when letters were.
red in the Convention of the ""hig friends.
Of Gen. Taylor" i'll the State House at
Frankfort, from the Hon. J. J. Crittenden,
Hon. Charles S. Moreiiead, and Hon. J. P.
Gaines, begging us to nominate Gen. Tay-
lor, and thus push you from the track, aud
.sayin. that You would on our return
nome GcIire from lEe canvass. III lie pres
.cnce Of the thousands there assembled, |
.r,su and declared iho. "I'h>"sI I .>"P"U-
ted these gentlemen, ! had not the least
confidence that you would i'll truth with
draw. Time at,ests my sagacity. After
Won had gene on 10 New York, and dele
Gates we're chosen 20 TIC National Conven-
ton whist you were the city's guest, and
IL was again asserted you would decline on
YOUR return home, | said no-you refused
to 81 to New York last summer-you
woaId not have gone now unless you had
determined t. run for the Presidency
Time attest the prediction. You say that
Your friends represent that the 'withdrawal
Of my name would be fatal to their sue
cess" If they so speak to you, they speak
ia different language elsewhere. have
been told that all the members Of Congress
from our own State but one told you that
YOU could not be elected, and that divers
others, whom | could name, told you the
same thing, But if these reports be untrue
allow me to tell you that l have heard al
most universally that your name would
again bring us defeat. In that opinion !
concur, and | will give you my reasons