The Nevada journal., 1856-08-15
Henry Clay and James Buchanan.

Henry Clay and James Buchanan.
We hope, says the Louisville Journal,
what we are now about to write, will
command the attention of allhonest and
honorable men, aud especially of old
line Wings, the former supporters of
Henry Clay and the present reverers of
his memory. The boast has been made
that the old line Wings will, as a gene
raj rule, support Mr.. Buchanan for
the Presidency. We shall see.
All of our old politicians have vivid
recollection of the leading event Of the
election of President by the House of
Representatives in the early part of
1925. Mr.. Clay was then member of
the House, and he cast his vote and in
fuence in favor of John Q. Adams, who
was elected over General Jackson and
Mr.. Crawford. Mr.. Clay was subse-
quently selected by Mr.. Adams as his
Secretary of State. At later period
Mr.. Clay was charged by his political
enemies with having sold his vote to
Mr.. Adams for the Secretaryship, and
we all know that this cruel and mon
strous charge, though abundantly refu-
ted in every form in which refutation
was possible or conceivable, involved, to
a great extent, the ruin of Mr.. ClaE's
political fortunes. But for that charge
he would afterwards have been cleo
ted President of the United States al
most by acclamation.
Foremost among those who charged
that Mr.. Clay's vote was given to Mr..
Adams on account of promise of the
Secretaryship of State, was Gen. Jack
son. The Gen. gave the name of Mr..
Buchanan as his authority for the truth
of the charge. Mr.. Buchanan had held
private conversation with him upon
the subject, making such statements as
left no doubt npon the subject in the
Generals mind In fact the General
did not hesitate to say, after that inter-
view, that Mr. Buchanan had come to
him with full authority from Mr.. Clay
or his friends to propose terms to him in
relation to their votes, that's to propose
to vote for him for the Presidency if he
could promise office to Mr.. Clay. OF
OF course Mr.. Buchanan was called on
to put into the form of letter what he
knew upon the subject and what he had
stated to Gen. jackson. He according
ly wrote the letter which afterwards be-
came famous in the controversy. That
letter was most adroitly written with a
'view to relieve the author from the ex-
cessively painful position in which he
stood. He dared not say that he ever
had any authority from Mr.. Clay or his
friends to propose terms to Gen. Jack
son, yet he carefully so shaped his Ian
guage as to afford Mr.. Clay's political
enemies pretext forrepeating the afro
cious calumny against him. He eexpres-
sed his own belief of the bargain and
corruption story. He said:
"The facts are before the world that
Mr.. Clay and his particular friends
made Mr. Adams President, and Clay
Secretary of State. The people will
draw their own inference from such
conduct and the circumstances connect
ed with it. They will judge of the
cause from the effect"
Mr.. Clay and his friends regarded Mr..
Buchanan's letter as exculpating him
and them from the charge of having au-
thorized MIR. B. to propose terms to Gen.
Jackson in relation to their votes, and
so indeed it did And yet it was so
cunningly written that the whole of Mr..
Clay's political enemies throughout the
nation considered it and treated it, not
as vindication of the Kentucky states
man, but as confirmation strong of
the truth of the accusation against him.
Thus the whole calumny originated in
Mr.. Buchanan's statement to Gen. Jack
son, and when the author of the state
ment was required by Jackson or his
organ to write it out in the shape of a
letter, he so performed the appointed
task, as, while shrinking from any di-
rect confirmation of the impression he
had previously given to Gen. Jackson,
to afford a pretext to the whole Jack
son party to assail Mr. Clay as a traitor
to his country, and there was not Jack
son newspaper nor jackson politician
in the country that did not treat Mr..
Buchanan's letter as evidence of bar
gain, intrigue and corruption between
Mr.. Adams and Mr.. Clay.
The specific charge, as already sta
ted, which was made against Mr. Clay,
and which Mr.. Buchanan was cited as
a witness to prove, was that Mr.. Clay
had proposed to make Gen, Jackson
President if he himself could be Secre-
tary of State. This charge, involving
the inference that Mr.. Clay did vote for
Mr. Adams, for the promise of the Sec
retaryship, was the charge by means of
which that Mr.. Buchanan then acted
with and ever afterwards aC with,
broke down the greatest and e man
of his age. And now, fellow ,untry-
men, we ask you to mark the develop
ment of facts. The real truth is, that
instead of Mr.. Clay's suggesting to Mr..
Buchanan during the pendency of the
Presidential election, in the House of
Representatives in 1925. that he and
his friends would support General Jack