Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1859-04-30
The Clay Convention.

Inc clay COnVeutlou.
1t would exhaust the powers Of Hogarth, o.
tar to its utmost the genius Of the laughter-lovint
and mirth-proyoking Sydney Smith, to portray
with pen and pencil the scenes that were enacted
at the grand convocation to whose free entertain
ment the lovers Of fun were invited ON Thursday
last The legcrdemain by which six or eight
large counties oil this Commonwealth were crowd
led into the brooches pockets Of n few Lynchburg
delegates, was nothing compared to the facility
and ease with which they were extracted and
thrust into the scale of the Lynchburg candidate,
nor to the good cheer which prcvaicd thanks to
the inventive genius of Mcssrs. Stearns 4 Brum-
mel
| As the hest of friends however will sometimes
fall out, there occasional episodes of rather
angry character; such for example rs that proyok-
ed by the threat of ono delegate that he would
cram Gen Clay down the throat of another;
when the latter intiuated objection to such dose,
bv declaring that CLAY should not be crammed
down his throat" and straightway made bcllig
crcnt demonstration and invited his adversary to
withdraw from the Convention.
| The doughty warriors were followed by sundry
observers who expected to witness tragedy. but
who to their infinite delight, saw only two plaza
bic nature. fused I'M glass Of whiskcy-thc "hair
of the dog" in this instance, proving good for
the bite"
Upon very close calculation Of tao votes rep
resented by delegates and proxes--taking tho
Buchanan vote which includes any quantity of
Wings. who have now the honor Of being classcd
as Dcmccrais-it was claimed that the Convention
held FOUR majority of all the votes of the Dis
trict, though there was not single delegate from
the Southwest except one Goggin Wing from
Roanoke, Who it is alleged, claimed to have rs
much right to represent that county rs anybody
else.
This gentleman nominated Gen. Clay, but before
the fHnl vote WA taken. left on the Eastern
bound train Of cars; thus leaving Roanoke without
representation, and the Convention without n
quorum to net. bud not a good Wing friend of
ours rcsilcn, # this city, cast the vote of that
county for Gen. Clay
The ludicrons blunlcr by which the proxy for
Roanoke conceived himself authorized to east the
vote Of that county. we shall not here detail,
though he now admits that his warrant was n boz
gus one.
In truth, the Wllplc auhlr was bogus from Ne
ginning to end.
As we have stated already. 4 majorH The rofes
cf The District was nneprrwnt,t Nhcn tie nomi-
nation waS mait; number Of counties lnd no
representation, and some six eight repre-
scented e. by Lynchburg proxies, who were deter
mined to thrust Gen, Clay upon the Convention.
Under such circumstances we no more regard
4, 4 Hat, AZ Al
the Democracy of the District than we nro AMI
a Convention constituted rs that was to which hc
owes his nomination, had TO more authority to
speak Far the whole District, than the Lynchburg
l'UJniah Las and whilst we have no personal
objection to the candidate, we trust that the rco-
pie will stamp with the seal If their rcprolaton
tho whole procedure. The Convention is regard
ed here farce the best Joke IF the season,
and perfect bnrleslue upon the caucus system.
We call upon the people to take this matter ont
Of the hands of ii few political trcksters: to take
their interests into their hands, and vote for
the man, he he Wing or Democrat. that combines
the most requisites, Tor the position.
Our readers can bear us witness that we have
deprecated from first t. last, the nomination of
any man for this oIhcc-which il in 10 sense
political one by party. Wcprcicrred n selection
based upon well known qualifications, but expect
ed that if n nomination were ma lc by the Demor
racy, it would be by Convention fairly repre-
senting majority Of that party. Convention
met in this city some time since for the purnosc
aforesaid but adjourned because of the mcagre
attendance and now body no larger, il large;
representing minority, essays to make n nomi
nation and declare who shall fill the vacancy soon
to be made in the Board Of Public Works--fu. it
was asserted in the Convention tina; nomination
was equivalen; 10 an election.
We shall see. But the people shall know all
assembled in this city.
/ =. s. Since the above was in type we have
found that there WAS not at any time ma ority
of the Democratic vote of the District represented
in the Convention.
! Upon a footing up Of the vote of the counties
represented by proxy aud otherwise, the aggregate
is found to be 2S,G76, whilst there were but
1888 votes represented by delegates present, in
Icluding those that in the breeches pockets Of
the Lynchburgers ackiay SIR rotes therefore of
n majority! a mere rump Convention. Will
the people register the clict of such body? We
trust not.
Correction.
| The Republican assures that Mr.. Lynch did
vote for the present Constitution of Virginia. and