The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1896-09-01
CLAY DISAPPOINTED
HIS DEFEAT FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL
NOMINATION IN 1899.

The Part Taken by Thurlow Weed and
Horace Greeley-A Plot Admitted-How
the Senator Received the News of the
C~onvention's Action.
The Wing convention of 1889 vas
held in O new Lutheran church in Har-
risburg, and it is a safe assumption that
never before OF since has a house of God
been made the scene of 80 much and so
adroit political maneuvering as went
on there for the purpose Of preventing
the nomination Of Henry Clay for the
presidency. The chief manipulation was
Thurlow Weed, who appeared there as
the friend Of Governor Seward, and the
future member Of the powerful firm of
Seward, Weed g. Greeley. This firm
was indeed the outcome of the ensu-
ing campaign. Greeley was at the con-
vention, little dreaming that the CAM
paign which was to follow would give
him the opportunity for developing the
qualities which were to make him the
first editor Of his time and lead to the
foundation Of q great newspaper to be
forever linked indissolubly with his
name. Weed went into convention with
the determination Of defeating Clay. He
says in his autobiography that he
had had the New York delegation in
structed for Scott to keep it from Clay,
his real candidate being Harrison.
He entered into an agreement with
friends of Webster, on the way to Har-
risburg from New York city, to act to-
geter for Clay's defeat. Webster was in
Europe at the time and had sent word
to his friends declining to be q candi-
date, primarily because Of Weeds re-
fusal to support him. After detailing
these facts Mr.. Weed goes ON to say that,
on reaching Harrisburg, I'VE found q
decided plurality in favor of Mr.. Clay"
but that, ''in the opinion Of the dele
gates from Pennsylvania and New York,
Mr.. Clay could not carry either Of those
states, and without them he could not
be elected"
Weed admits a bargain in favor of
Harrison with the friends both of Web.
ster and Of Scott, and says the final
vote was Intentionally delayed by the
friends Of the stronger candidate liar
rison) for "a hours" in order to placate
the angry friends Of Clay. "whose dis
appointment and vexation found excited
expression
Greeley makes frank admission in
his "Recollections of a Busy Life" as to
the plot by saying that the parties to
it, chiefly Weed. Judged that he Clay
could not be chosen, il nominated,
while another could be. and acted ac-
cordingly,' adding, IF politics do not
mediate the achievement of beneficent
ends through the choice and use of the
safest and most effective means, l Who'll
ly misapprehend them"
This somewhat Jesuitical view did
not strike Clay and h~is-friends as an
adequate justification of the methods by
which an admitted majority Of the con
vention had been prevented from ex-
pressing its will. John Tyler of Vir-
ginia. one of Clay's most ardent friends
in>the convention. was SO overcome with
grief at 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, his tears having con-
WINGED the convention that the placing
of SO devoted a friend Of Clay ON the
ticket would go far to heal the wounds
| hat the methods of the convention had
| caused.
Clay's rage at the outcome was un-
bounded. He had been assuming in the
senate q lofty indifference to the presi-
dency, his famous saying, Il would
| rather be right than be president, hay
ing been made public only a short time
before the convention met. There was
| nobody in the senatea at that time Of suf-
| fciently nimble wit to think Of the bit
ing retort which Speaker Reed many
years later made to q congressman who
for the thOusandth time was strutting
about in Clay's cast off garments
Don't give yourself the slightest I'M
easiness. You'll never be either" But
Clay had given himself great uneasi-
ness, for he was most DESTROYS of the
nomination. He had been a candidate
eight years earlier, when he had no
chance Of election, and he believed firm.
~ now that il nominated he could DO
elected.
When the news from Harrisburg
reached him in Washington, he lost all
control Of himself. "He had been drink
ing heavily in the excitement of expec-
tation," 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 in both legs, stamped his
boots upon the floor, exclaiming: MY
friends are not worth the powder and
shot it would take to kill them. It is
diabolical intrigue, I know now, which
has betrayed me. I am the most unfor'
tunate man in the history Of parties
always run by my friends when sure x
be defeated, and now betrayed for
nomination when I or any one would b
sure Of an election. '"-"Humor ant
Pathos Of Presidential Conventions, " By
Joseph r. Bishop, in Century.