Arkansas intelligencer., 1848-05-13
ALLEN WOOD.
From the New York Courier and Enquirer
Letter from CaSSigS Il. Clay,
New YORK. A April l3. 1913.


Letter from CaSSigS II. Clay
New YORK, April l3, 1913.
Hon. Henry Clay:
SIR In the Tribune of this morning find a
letter dated at Ashland, April 10Th, 1913. over
your signature. The letter is addressed | pre-.
sumo, 10 the American people. If did not know
you WELL the intervening space of three days only
between It's date and It's arrival here, would lead
me to suspect its authenticity. If your determi-
nation to allow your name to 90 before the Pha-
delphla Convention as a candidate for the Presi-
dency had been in accordance merely with your
wishes and individual judgment, | should have
kept respectful silence. But rs your delermi-
uatlon IS based upon the supposed interest of the
whIg party, | shall venture, unasked, 20 add my
opinion TO that of the numerous wings TO whom
you refer. When / tell you that royalty rarely
hears the truth, you will think, TO doubt, that
repeat very stale dogma, if not altogether out
of place in a republic. But there are parasites
in republics as well as in dcspoasms, and Of those
you have a very liberal portion Just now. Were
to claim TO be your personal friend might bet
ter, perhaps accomplish my purposes tut as
have never avowed one class Of sentiment. whilst
in reality holding another, tell you frankly that
although from my earliest youth had been some
thing more than a cold admirer Of YOURSELF so
when you started, on the l4lh August, 1915, to
the Virginia Springs, leaving your frC IS and
family 10 murder me in my sick bed foEyindi-
eating those principles which you had taught me,
in your speeches, atLeast ceased to be your friend
and became, by the necessity Of my nature, your
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 unprejudiced
man whilst shall attempt 10 divest myself of
the individual and speak as the member Of great
party.
shall then take up your letter in its proper or
der. In saying that you had . strong disncl.-
nation to use my [yOur name in connection with
that Office courtesy leads me to conliue myself
10 the remark that you deceive yourself-but 40
one else So soon as you were defeated in the
last election, committee of your friends from
Frankfort waited on you and condoled with YOU
on that melancholy event. You responded il
manner that led me, almost with the power Of
certainty, 10 remark TO some friends that Henry
Clay is candidate again for the presdency.-
Time 0ttests my sagacily.
So strong was my conviction that you would
be a candidate, when letters were read in the con.
venton of the "whig friends of Gen. Taylor,'
in the State House at Frankfort, from the Hon.
J. J. Crittenden, Hon. Charles s. MOrehead, and
Hon. J. =. Gaines, begging not to nominate
Gen. Taylor and thus push you from the track,
| and saying that you would on your return home
| retire from the canvass. in the presence of the
thousands there assembled rose up and declared,
that although | respected these gentlemen, | had
not the least confidence that you would in truth
withdraw.
Time attess my sagucity. After you lad gone
on to New York, and delegates were chosen to the
National Convention whilst you were ne city'S
| guest, and It was again asserted that you would
decline on your return home, | said 40, you re-
fused to 90 to New York last summes you would
not have gone now, unless you had determined 10
run for the Presidency. Time attets the truth
of the prediction. You you say tha your friends
| represent that - the withdrawal Of my name
would be fatal to their success" Ifthey so speak
to you, they speak different language elsewhere.
have been told that all the memters Of Congress
from our own Stale but one tol( you that you
could not be elected and that divers others whom
could name told you the sane thing. But if
these reports be untrue, allow to tell you that
have heard almost universally that your name
would again bring us defeat. In that opinion
concur, and | will give my rGsons. Because |
! am not guiltess myself, and because of the bad
taste of the thing, | will nc urge objections to
your private character. Neiher will press your
prestige of Ill luck, in suyic; that all the mea-
sures which you have urged pon the people, ex-
! cept the Missouri compromis, have been erased
from the statute book. For lament in com.
mon, the fall Of the tariff, tIe bank, and internal
/ improvements, under your lad | shall confine
myself then TO the question d availability.
! Three times have we runyou and three times
your name has brought us defeat So soon as
Gen. w. Il. Harrison had bought us from mis-.
cradle minority, whore you Ind left us, to a large
majority, you hurried td Washington, when
! Mr.. Tyler (under Mr.. Webser's lead) was doing
good service 10 the country aid party, and by at
tempting 10 force on him andon us the " obsolete
bank" which had purpSely slurred in the
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