The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-31

1.So, anu M crawford would nave been
elected president"
But If Mr.. Weed won this battle, chance
iaxoring him. his victory cost him a defeat
"hlch gave him infinite sorrow and caused
q great party such despair as had never
before been witnessed In a presidential
election. Mr.. Adams was elected by the
mouse president, and by the aid of those
states whose first choice had been Henry
Gay. Upon assuming the Office he ap-
pointed Mr. Clay secretary of state, and
the charge was at once made that he had
entered into bargain with Clay. and that
the state department was offered and ac-
copied as the price of Gays support n the
House OF Representatives. The accusation
caused passion which az this day IN Its in
tenSlty seems TO have been utterly unrea-
sonaoie. 1t was yeneYnently asserted and
p.ssionately denied The best opinion
now Is, and it was the opinion OF Mr.
Weed and the politicians of the earlier
Gay, that the accusation was not liter
ally true, but that Mr.. Adams feeling
grateful 10 Clay's party for its support,
ieit that ne could do no less than recog-
nice II by calling Clay TO the cabinet. Yet
this accusation clouded Clay throughout
ms entire career Ii alienated from him
permanently support which afterward,
mad he possessed il. would have seated
him in the White House.
On the other hand, in 1S44 the senti-
ment in the party for CIay's nomination
was as overwhelming as il was for the
nomination Of General Grant in 1858 and
1877. lie was nominated practically with
out ballot. and his election seemed TO be
assured. Two circumstances interposed.
one OF them seemingly petty, trivial and
mlSeraoiy personal, the other q blunder OF
the pen.
In some way. no one ever knew exactly
now, Mr.. Clay had given personal otfense TO
James u. Birney. The Abolition party,
mere handful so inconspicuous that 1t " as
regarded as one of the humors of that
time. had selected Mr.. Birney as its repre-
sentative man, and it determined to put
MN IN nomination for the presidency.
Birney was inclined not to run, believing
that 1t would be better for the party 10
wait before making political demonstra-
ton, but when he found that Mr. Clay
was the Wing nominee he consented to be
candidate No proof was ever offered
tnat this consent was due entirely TO his
ennlty 10 Clay, but az that time most OF
the politicians believed that such was the
fact. No determined canvass was made
Tor Birney, excepting In New York state.
and but little heed was paid 20 his candl-
dacy.
On the morning after election it seemed
as though Clay had carried New York, and
his friends were wild with delight, but
as returns came from the remoter
districts in the state and 1t
was found that half dozen votes here in
TINS Wing town, or perhaps score in that
Wing city had been cast for Birnev. an1-
spalr. for the complete returns showed
that Birney had cut into the Wing party
sufficient TO put il in a minority and to
give the electoral vote of New York state
to Polk by paltry 5000.
Mr.. Clay also heedtesslv wrote a letter
during that canvass which became famous
as the Alabama letter. In it he confessed
that he was not opposed under some con-
dltions to the admission of Texas as
state. 1t was an amazing letter for Clay
to write, and 1t taught Thurlow Weed one
lesson which he afterward emphasized
upon every occasion, and that was that Is
is the height of folly for a presidential
candidate to write letters unless they are
non-committai, and it is ruin to write
from the opposition. Clay had dashed
this letter of thoughtlessly, thinking only
of the political enemy and not of his polit-
ical friends. 1t brought him not a single
recruit from the enemy. and it cost him so
many OF his Wing supporters that he lost
the presidency.
This lesson, Mr.. Weed said, served him
well in the next campaign. If ever one
man nominated another for the presidency,
Weed nominated Zachary Taylor He
brought Taylor out as q candidate In his
paper, the Albany Journal, at q time when
almost all the Wing politicians believed
that the nomination would go to either
General Scott or possibly to Henry Clay.
and he so pulled the wires as TO bring the
Wing party over to his way of thinking
Having nominated Taylor, Weed turned
TO Willard Fillmore, who had unexpect-
eddy received the vice presidential nomi-
nation. and he said to him: Fillmore, if
there is to be any letter writing in this
campaign, you and 1 have got to do it.
There must be no more Alabama letters
anyway"
Therefore, Weed and Fillmore, William
n. Seward aiding, got together and pre-
pared a correspondence. The first fixed
up letter which some inquiring friend
was to send to General Taylor. and having
prepared the inquiry, it was not difficult
to write the answer. The reply was a
marvel of political composition; it said
all things and said nothing; it was so
worded as to stop all other correspondence
and yet 20 give not a hook handle" which
could be used to injure Taylor. TAYLOR
read it through. declared that those were
his sentiments, signed it, and it went forth
TO the country and brought old rough-and-
ready votes.
1t was the lack of inconspicuousness in
Mr.. Weeds opinion which brought the
nomination TO James Buchanan in 1856.
Buchanan had been q candidate twelve
years before, and John W. Forney,
Daniel S. Dickinson and other Dem
ocratic politicians were. of the
opinion that he might have been nomi-
mated then instead of Polk had he not
SHOWN timidlty and insisted upon with
drawing. He was available because he
was popular Pennsylvania, and TO get
rid of him as a candidate, and for no other
reason. in the opinion of contemporary
politicians, Frank Pierce sent him as min
lister to England.
Yet IN so doing he did the very thing
which made Buchanan q possible candi-
date. Out Of the country, he was out of
the hotbed, and anlmoslties were not CEN
tered upon him and men did not unite in
pulling him down. Therefore when the
rival candidates who had been prominent
were not able TO secure sufficient follow
ing, the party turned 10 Buchanan. be-
cause he had no enemiee. having been
away long enough TO cause old animosi-
ties 10 be forgotten.
Mr.. Weed always said that Seward would
have been president instead of Lincoln but
for his almost incidental association with
the American question, as il was called.
While Seward was governor, and after
ward while in the Senate, he had been
rather conspicuous in his opposition To
this American movement, the shadows of
which even now harass some of the vet
eran politicians. This had not injured
him in New York, because all who would
have opposed him for that reason were
bound 10 oppose him anyway, but III Penn
sylvanla and Indiana considerable num-
Der of the citizens had taken umhrage az
Governor Seward on account of his posi-
ton on this question, and it so happened
that those citizens were the very ones upon
whom the candidates for the goyernorship
- raiI a