Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1848-04-26
Letter from Cassius M. Clay to Henry
Clay.
New YoRk, April l3, ls4s.

New Yosk, April ls, ls4s.
Hon. Henry Clay:
SiR-In the Tribune of this morn.
ing fnd letter dated Ashland, April
,o!n, !o4S, over your signature. The
letter Is addressed. l presume, 10 the A.
meIican people. If did not know you
WELL the intervening space Of three days
only between its date and its arrival here,
would lead me to suspect its authenticity.
IL your determination to allow your name
TO 60 before the Philadelphia Convention
as candidate for the Presidency, had been
IN accordance merely with your wishes
and individual judgment, l should have
Kept respectful silence. But rs your de.
termination is based upon the supposed in.
terest of the Whig g party, / shall venture
unasked, to add my opinion TO that of the
numerous Wings TO whom you refer
Wheni tell you that royalty rarely hears
the truth, you will think, no doubt, that
repeat very stale dogma, if not al.ogeth-
er out Of place in a republic. But there
are parasites in republics as we'll as in des-
potisms, and ofthose you have very lib
eral portion just now. Were to claim
to be your personal friend, l might better,
perhaps, accomplish my purpose; but as ]
have never avowed one class Of sentiments
whilst in reality holding another. tell
you frankly that, although from my earli.
est youth had been something more than
a cold admirer Of yourself, so when you
started, on the 18th of August, 1845, to the
Virginia Springs, leaving your friends and
family to murder me in my sick bed, for
vindicating the principles which you had
taught me, in your speeches, at least,
ceased to be your friend, and became, by
the necessity Of my nature, your enemy.
What l 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 tc
divest myself Of the individual and speak
as the member Of q great party.
shall then take up your letter in its
proper order. In saying that you had So
strong inclination TO the use Of my [yourl
name in connection with that Office" cour.
tesy leads me TO confine myself to the re-.
mark that you deceived yourself-but no
one else! So soon as you were defeated in
the last election, committee Of your
friends from Frankfort waited upon you,
and condoled with you on that melancholy
event. You responded in manner that
led me, almost with the power Of certainty,
to remark to some friends that''Henry Clay
is candidate again for the Presidency.
Time attests my. sagacity. $50.
So strong was my convic.ien that yon
would be o candidate, when letters were
read in the Convention Of the "Whig
friends Of Gen. Taylor" in the State
House ut Frankfort, from the Hon. J. J.
Crittenden, Hon. Charles S. Morehsad and
Hon. J. P. Gaines, begging US not to nom.
mate Gen. Taylor. and thus push you from
tho track, and saying that you would on
your return home retire from the canvass,
in the presence Of the thousands there as
sembled, | rose up and declared that al
though | respected those gentlemen, had
not ihe least confidence that you would in
truth withdraw. Time nttests my sagaeity.
After you had gone on to New York, and
delegates were chosen to the National
Convention whilst you were the city's
guest. and it was again asserted tha, you
would decline ON your return home: said
no; you refused to 80 10 New York last
summer. you would not have gone now,
unless you had determined to run for the
Presidency. Time nttes.s the truth Of the
prediction. You say that your friends rep.
resent that ssthe withdrawal Of my name
would be fatal to their success" If they
so speak to you, they speak different lan
guage 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 have heard almost universally
that your name would again bring US de.
feat. In that opinion concur, and will
give you my reasons. Because I am not
guiltIess N self, and because Of the bad
taste of the thing, will not urge objec.
tions to your private character. Neither
will press your prestige Of iH-luck, in
saying that oil the measures which you
have urged upon the people, except the
Missouri compromise, have been erased
from the statute book. For we lament in
common, the fall Of the tariff, the bank,
and internal Improvements, under your
lead! l shall confne myself then to the
we run you and three times your name
mas DfOuSnb Us uclS0t % SOoH as 0e0.
w. H. Harrison had brought US up from
miserable minority, you hurried on to
Washington, when Mr.. Tyler under MIR.
Webster's lead was doing good service to
the country and party, and by attempting
to force on him and US the ''obsoiete Bank"
which we had purposely slurred in the
canvass, you brought US to speedy mi-
nority!~ es.z
A .'long time ago. being too old to per-
form the comparatively light duties Of
Senator, you gave the public q. faresUeH
address and retired from public life! The
democratic party by the excess Of its num-
bers, was at once split into widely separated
fragments. Messrs. Cass, Calhoun, Van
Buren,, Tyler, Polk, and others, were all
pressing their claims with bitterness be-
fore unknown to the party. "Whom the
gods wish to destroy, they frs. make mad"
They determined to bring Texas into tha
Union, avovedly to break down the power
of the free North, and to make this nation
slave empire. The friends Of liberty
rallied once more, and in spite Of your