Year: 1863




WASHINGTON, MARCH s, 1868
TO the Editors Of the National InteLigencer.


SIRs: In your article Of to-day headed
Soldier and Dp matsf you show the came spirit which
led to defend the mob Lexington which destroyed
my press and overthrow two Constitutions-ha of The
State and that of the National Government AS the Sen
ate will probably act upon my appointment to-day before
reply can reach them, write this only call the atteD-
hon u your readers to an article Of sedeence which
am preparing for the New York Times Til, then only
ak Of the people suspension Of opinion reference to
lhe thick eatumriss which fall upon me. G. NJ CLAY.
We fear that the changeful and stirring scenes
in which Major General Clay has recently been en-
gagged lave somewhat confused his memory Of
events dating SO far back as the era of the mob at
Lexington, Kentucky, in the year 1S45. What
with his difficulty in finding, at first, under this
Administration, diplomatic position suited to his
tastes and dignity, his epistolary tilt with the ed
tor Of the London Times his dazzling reception by
the Czar, his hegira from st, Petersburgh and sud-
den emergence from diplomatist into major &C.
neral waiting not for orders but for proclamation
of freedom, his disgust at Gen. Halleck's insensi-
blity to military capacity, his fiery crusade against
Seymour in New York, and lastly his bout with
George Francis Train, We do not wonder that he





ments Of the living present to recall with accuracy
all the features of the dead past. 1t is only on this
theory that We can explain the misappreheusion
into which he falls when he supposes that we de-
Tended the mob at Lexington which destroyed his
press and thereby broke two Constitutions"


If it be true, as he presumes, that the Senate
acted upon his nomination on Thursday last, our
article of that day exceedingly opportune; and,
as we were by no means chary in expressing our
ardent wishes for his confirmation, we may fatter
ourselves with the hope that we have contributed
somewhat to promote the aspirations of laudable
ambition to serve his "reputation" in sphere
where he can make an empire happy without rem
dering his own country entirely miserable at the
thought of losing him !" in the field !" And as GER
tain of our contemporaries have, it seems been
showering calumnies" on him because, like man
of spirit, he told the President what he would do
as Major General and what he would not do, or
because he denounces the present General-in-C Chief
as intensely pro-slavery," or because he mocks at
the Premier of the Administration we are Informed
that Major General Clay, before starting on his mis-
son will issue article of selfdefence," which he
is even now preparing for the New York Times and
in anticipation of which we unite with him in asking
of the American people "a suspension Of their opin-
ion" upon all the questions affecting the character
of Mr.. Clay dutiful soldier and discreet d.
plomatist. We have no doubt that Major General
Clay will find it an easy task to dispose of the
"calumnies" that fall upon him from other quar-
ters, but to answer the "calumnies" which he has
written against himself in the letter that has ac-
quired such a sudden celebrity would be no easy
matter for less skilled in difficult performances
on what the famous Bilboquet calls the "spring
board Of celebrity"