The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-06-05
cLAY's DISAPPOINTMENT.
His Dcfoat For tho Presidential Nomi.
nation I'm 1870.

The Whig convention of 1889 was held In
a new Lutheran church In Harrisburg,
Pa Pa, and 1t IS a safe assumption that never
before or since has house Of God been
made the scene of 30 much and so adroit
political mnnoeuvring as went on there
for the purpose of preventing the nonlina-
ton or Henry Clay for the Presidency.
The chief manipulation was Thurlow
Weed, who appeared there. as the friend
of the powerful firm OF Seward, Weed and
Greeley. This firm was. indeed, the out
come OF the ensuing campaign. Greeley
was at the conYention.-iittie dreaming
that the campaign which was to follow
would give him the opportunity for de-
veloping the qualities which were to make
to the foundation of a great newspaper to
be forever linked indissolubly with his
name. Weed went to the convention with
the determnation of defeating Clay. He
says In his Autobiography" that he had
had the New York delegation instructed
for Scott to keep 1t from Clay. his real
candidate being Harrison. He entered into
an agreement with friends of Webster, on
the way to Harrisburg from New York
city, to act together for Clay's defeat.
had sent word to his friends declining to
be be candidate. primarily because of
,stn t refusal to support him After de-
say that. on reaching Harrisburg, I'VE
found a decided plurality In favor of Mr..
Clay" but that, lin the opinion of the
delegates from Pennsylvania and New
York. Mr.. Clay could not carry either OF
those States. and without them he could
not be elected"
Weed admits bargain in favor of Har-
rison with the friends both of Webster
ana OF Scott. and says the final vote was
stronger candidate tHarrison) for twenty
TOUR hours" In order to placate the angry
friends OF Clay. whose disappointment
Greeley made frank admission. in his
"Recollections of Busy Life" as to the
plot. by saying that he .(Clay) could not
be chosen. IL nominated while another
e9uld be; and acted accordingly" adding
IF politics do not mediate the achieve
ment of beneiicent ends. through the
choice and use of the safest and most ef-
fective means. | wholly misapprehend
them This somewhat Jesuitcal view
did not strike Clay and his friends as an
which an admitted majority of the con
vention had been prevented from express
Ing It's will. John Tyler, of Virginia, one
of Ciay's most ardent friends in the con
vention, was SO overcome with grief al
Harrison's nomination that he shed tears:
and after several unavailing efforts to get
some one else to take the nomination for
vice President, Tyler was named for IT,
ms tears having convinced the convention
nat the placing , Of SO devoted friend Of
the wounds that the method of the CON
vention had caused.
Clay's, rage at the outcome was un-
bounded. He had assumed In the
Senate lofty indifference 10 the Presi-
dency. his famous saying II would rather
NC TlBnt llan De l'ftSluent' having been
made public only short time before the
convention met. There was nobody I'm the
Senate at that time of sufficiently nImble
wit TO think of the biting retort which
Speaker Reed many years later, made to
Congressman who for the thousandth
time was strutting about in Clay's cast
off garments. Don't give yourself the
slightest uneasiness; you'll never be
either" But Clay had given himself
great uneasiness, for ne was most dcsi-
rous of the nomination. He had been u
candidate eight years earlier when he had
no chance OF election, and he believed
tirmly now that IL nominated he, could be
elected. When the news from Harrisburg
reached him In Washington, he lost ali
control of himself He had been drinking
heavily In the excitement of expectation"
says Henry a Wise, who was with him.
He rose from his chair. and walking
backward and forward rapidly, lifting his
feet like horse stringhalted I'm both legs
stamped his steps upon the floor ex-
claiming. MY friends are not worth the
powder and shot ii would take to kill
them. 1t Is diabolical intrigue / know
not how, which has betrayed me. am
the most unfortunate man in the history
of parties-always run by my friends
when sure to be defeated. and now be-
trayed for Il nomination when l. or any
one, would he sure of an election -
'liumor and Iathos of Presidential Con-
yentons,' by Joseph b. Bishop, In the
June Century.