The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-11-08

on the party. They said that Clay had
been a candidate in 1924 and had been
beaten That was the year in which
Jackson, Crawford. Clay and John
Quincy Adams had received votes in
the electoral college, and in which
Adams was chosen by the house OF re-
representatives. when the contest went
to that body in the absence o ia ma
toral college. Clay had also been beat
Ell in 1892 when he was the candidate
OF the national republicans and of
other anti-Jackson elements in the
electorate, jackson IN that year car
ryil.g the election for second term.
In 1882 Clay was supported with great
enthusiasm, and TO the last he ex-
pressed his confidence of victory. But
he was defeated overwhelmingly. al
though Jackson had Immediately pre-
ceding the campaign done some things
which arrayed powerful factions of his
own party against him. This gave
Clay bad record as presidential as
pirant, and melted some of the most
astute of the whig managers to look
for a candidate who would lack the
Clay hoodoo. They concentrated upon
Harrison and they revived the men,
yro of a long-forgotten battle, that at
Tippecanoe. in his favor.
The mode of proceedings by Clay's
whig opponents was we'll calculated
to accomplish its purpose. When Clay
at Thurlow Weeds invitation. visited
New York in the summer of 1899.
Weed cautiously sounded him on
the question of his withdrawal from
the race for the nomination. Weed
, told Clay that he probably could not
carry the state of New York, at the
same time Weed said that he person.
ally preferred Clay to any body whose
name had been coupled with the nom
nation, Clay refused to withdraw.
Then came what Clay's old friend
Henry A. Wise, the man who after.
wards as governor of Virginia, hanged
John Brown, termed the triangular
| correspondence" participated in by
Wing bosses in different parts of tho
state. One would tell another to '.do
all you can for Clay In your region
| for he has no strength In this section
The person to whom this letter was
directed would show it to many Wing
! local chieftains, he. at the same time
pretending to be ardently in favor OF
Clay's candidacy. BY this means the
three false friends of Clay worked III
sentiment against him which. b.
some sharp practice in the convention
enabled them to defeat him, to defeat
also, the will of the Wing voters, ant
| paign of 1910 Harrison swept the coun
| try, but he lived only 4 month aftel
entering Office. A revulsion Of feeling
in Clay's favor Immediately set in, ant
he was the unanimous choice of hi
party in 1914, but was defeated at tn,
polls by Polk.
Polk object Of Forged Tale.
! Polk was the object of a forged tale
in that canvass, which doubtless tool
away some votes from him, but no
enough to defeat him. In September
1874, an Ithaca IN. W paper published
an extract from what purported to b.
a book, entitled Roorback's "Tou
| Through the, Western and Southern
States in 1885, which told Of a caml
of slave drivers on Duck River, ant
said that forty-three of the slaves hat
been purchased Of Hon. ]. X. Polk
the present speaker of the house o
representatives, the mark of tn
branding iron, with the initials Of hi
name, on their shoulders, distinguish
ing them from the rest" This Polk
who was speaker of the house at tn
time that the bogus Roorback saw thi
alleged camp was the Polk who wa
then the democratic candidate TO
president, and who was to be voted 70
few weeks later. Thurlow Weed
paper. the Albany Evening Journal
Immediately copied this pretended dis
closure against Polk, and it went tn
rounds of all the Wing papers in tn
country. Polk promptly denied it, an,
/ everybody now knows 1t to have beel