Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1860-08-29
The Defmaers ofCIay.

We clip the following from the Chicago
Press and Tribune: Perhaps no eminent A
mericau statesman ever suffered more from
the false accusations and vile detraction of
his political opponents than fell to the lot
of Mr.. Clay during his long and political
career. But of all the calumnies heaped
upon him, that which give him the most
pain, and which did more TO prevent him
from attaining the Presidency than all 9th
er causes combined, was the charge, con
tinued from 1926 until the day of his death
of bargain and corruption" in securing
the election of John Quincy Adams by the
House of Representatives. The charge
was that in consideration of Cabinet of
fee, Mr.. Clay sold his own vote and that
of his friends to Mr.. Adams; and it was
sometimes varied by vague intimations
that an indefinite amount of British gold
had been thrown in to make the trade the
more palatable to Mr.. Clay. Those of our
readers in Illinois, who were in the habit
of hearing Mr.. Douglas on the stump, in
1914, will remember that it was in the lat
ter shape that he most delighted to prefer
the charge. 1t is not so well known that
Mr.. Bell himself labored hard to fasten
this stain upon Mr. Clay. Such, however,
is the fact. Mr.. Bell publicly and pri-
vately ascribed Mr.. Clay's appointment to
the Office of Secretary of State to corrupt
motives and denounced the administration
of Mr.. Adams, as coalition formed upon
the "basis of mutual benefits "to be re-
ceived and conferred, to defeat the "will of
the people," In 1927 Mr. Bell wrote let
ter which was quoted by Andrew Johnson
in speech speech in Congress in 1874,
when Mr.. Clay was a candidate for the
Presidency, from which the following ex-
tract is taken:
"Iufuenced by these considerations, |
reiterate that my opinions of the present
are in accordance with |
what believe TO be those of the great |
body of the Republicans In the United |
States, Ihaue seen the highest and most inn
F0rtant once tn the government filled by means
and under circumstances g6ording all the eu-
idenee Of a coalition formed upon the basis Of
mutual benefits 10 be reeeiued and conferred;
Independently Of any eoniropsrted point in tie |
details, that the government can never ex-
pect the light of, in any combination |
that has been or may be entered into, to
defeat the will of the people. Ambitious |
and aspiring politicians who have great
characters to sustain, have sense enough to /
guard against the common blunders of less |
practical adopts in the arts of intrigue and |
management in forming coalitions, but |
will seldom expose themselves to the dan
ger of detection from positive proof. 1t is
not, therefore, in my view, of so much i'm
portance to consider whether possibility /
of innocence can be admitted in favor of
the parties implicated, as to determine
whether the presumption to thelcontrary is
not so great in the present instance that
their continuance would be incompatible |
with the safety aud well being of our po-
litical institutions"
About the time this letter was being
read In Congress, Mr. Douglas, on the
stump in Illinois, was repeating the charge,
but in broader terms and coarser style.-
More than that Mr.. Douglas was also ac-
cusing Mr.. Clay of being influenced by
corrupt motives at that very time, relative
to the Oregon boundary question. In
speech delivered in the Court House Square
at Carolton, Green County, IN 1914 Doug
lasl said:
81 denounced him (Clayl in the Con-
gress OF the United States, and l now de-
nounce him as a TRAIToR-AN OLD BLACK
HEARTED TRAIT0R-The first Ameri-
can statesman who ever attempted to sell
his country for British gold!"
The followers and admirers of Henry
Clay have not forgotten these Infamous
charges. 1t remains to be seen how far they
will permit the authors to use them in car
rying out coalition" whose object is the
defeat of Clay lifelong friend and Jealous
defender.