CHAPTER VIII.

Candidates for the Presidency in 1824-No election by the people-Mr. CLAY'S influence given to Mr. Adams-Charge of corruption-Mr. Kremer of Pennsylvania-Revival of the charge by Jackson-More trouble-A duel with Randolph.

NOTHING unusual, either in his personal history, or in the interests of his country, interrupted, for the two or three years subsequent to the events which we have described, the even tenor of Mr. CLAY's life. Between his professional employment, domestic ease, and the toils of legislation, he passed his time until the Presidential canvass of 1824. His abilities and popularity had long pointed significantly toward the Presidency. His admirers waited only for him to attain the proper age and experience, to bring forward his claims.

Jackson, Crawford and John Quincy Adams were before the people for their votes. The friends of CLAY believed that his time, too, had fully come. Several State Legislatures had expressed their preference for him. Kentucky, two years in advance, had promised to stand by him.

The canvass went duly on, but resulted in the election of no one of the four candidates. Jackson stood highest on the list, Adams next, and CLAY the last. The three highest only could be presented to the House for their choice. It devolved, therefore, upon CLAY to decide upon which he would bestow his vote and influence. Meanwhile, he was the object of marked attention from the adherents of the several opposing aspirants for honor. His own personal preferences were for Mr. Crawford, but such was the state of Crawford's health, that he believed him unfitted for the duties of the Presidency. Jackson and Adams he believed to be, practically, the only candidates,

between whom he was called to choose. He gave the preference to Mr. Adams, and thus secured his election. Upon assuming the Presidential chair, Mr. Adams offered to Mr. CLAY a seat in his Cabinet as Secretary of State. This office Mr. CLAY accepted.

Such is the brief history of an occurrence, which party malignity afterward converted into an instrument, which, when he was at the full tide of his popularity, well-nigh proved fatal to the reputation of CLAY. Never before had he felt the blasting breath of calumny, nor taken any abiding lessons in the school of adversity. Confident in the integrity of his own character, trusting to the firmness of an established reputation, he committed what he afterward acknowledged to be the blunder of his life. The finger of suspicion was pointed at him, and through many a long year, his fortunes underwent a disastrous eclipse.

Time has done for him what his own assertions could not do. His character is thoroughly vindicated. It is doubtful, whether the bitterest enemy he ever had, while living, now believes him guilty of corruption in the transaction for which he was reproached. It will not, therefore, be necessary to undertake a formal vindication of his character, but only to give a short and simple history of those proceedings which proposed, as their end, to blacken it.

We have said that, previous to the election in the House, Mr. CLAY was made the subject of marked attentions, by the friends of the opposing candidates. "Every body," as he said, in an address to his constituents, "professed to regret, after I was excluded from the House, that I had not been returned to it. I seemed to be the favorite of every body. Describing my situation to a distant friend, I said to him, 'I am enjoying, while alive, the posthumous honors which are usually awarded to the venerated dead.' A person not acquainted with human nature, would have been surprised, in listening to these praises, that the object of them had not been elected by general acclamation. None made more or warmer manifestations of these sentiments of esteem and admiration, than some of the friends of General

Jackson. None were so reserved as those of Mr. Adams, under an opinion (as I have learned since the election), which they early imbibed, that the western vote would be influenced only by its own sense of public duty; and that, if its judgment pointed to any other than Mr. Adams, nothing which they could do would secure it to him. These professions and manifestations were taken by me, for what they were worth.

"I knew that the sunbeams would quickly disappear, after my opinion should be ascertained, and that they would be succeeded by a storm; although I did not foresee exactly how it would burst upon my poor head. I found myself transformed, from a candidate before the people, into an elector for the people. I deliberately examined the duties incident to this new attitude, and weighed all the facts before me, upon which my judgment was to be formed or reviewed. If the eagerness of any of the heated partisans of the respective candidates, suggested a tardiness in the declaration of my intention, I believed that the new relation, in which I was placed to the subject, imposed on me an obligation to pay some respect to delicacy and decorum.

"Meanwhile, that very reserve supplied aliment to newspaper criticism. The critics could not comprehend how a man standing as I had stood, toward the other gentlemen, should be restrained, by a sense of propriety, from instantly fighting under the banners of one of them, against the others. Letters were issued from the manufactory at Washington, to come back, after performing long journeys, for Washington consumption. These letters imputed to Mr. CLAY and his friends a mysterious air,— a portentous silence,' etc. From dark and distant hints, the progress was easy to open and bitter denunciation. Anonymous letters, full of menace and abuse, were almost daily poured in on me. Personal threats were communicated to me through friendly organs, and I was kindly apprized of all the glories of village effigies, which awaited me. A systematic attack was simultaneously commenced upon me, from Boston to Charleston, with an object, present and future, which it was impossible to mistake. No man but myself, could know the nature, extent,

and variety of means which were employed to awe and influence me. I bore them, I trust, as your representative ought to have borne them, and as became me."

The friends of Jackson, at last, as it would seem, became convinced that, unless desperate measures were resorted to, Mr. CLAY'S vote and influence would be given to Mr. Adams. A new mode of intimidation was therefore adopted. A letter appeared in the Columbian Observer, published at Philadelphia, charging definitely upon Mr. CLAY the terms of a bargain between himself and Mr. Adams, in accordance with which he was to support the latter, and receive, as his reward, the first seat in the Cabinet. The letter professed to be written by a member of Congress, acquainted with the facts which he affirmed.

Mr. CLAY felt himself called upon to publish an indignant denial, and to brand the author of the letter, "as a base and infamous calumniator." The publication of this card, by Mr. CLAY, called out one from Mr. Kremer of Pennsylvania. In it he avowed, "though somewhat equivocally, that he was the author of the letter to the Columbian Observer." "To Mr. Crowninshield, a member from Massachusetts, formerly Secretary of the Navy," continues Mr. CLAY, in the address from which we have quoted, "he declared, that he was not the author of that letter. In his card he draws a clear line of separation, between my friends and me, acquitting them and undertaking to make good his charges in that letter, only so far as I was concerned. The purpose of this discrimination is obvious. At that time the election was undecided, and it was, therefore, as important to abstain from imputations against my friends, as it was politic to fix them upon me. If they could be made to believe that I had been perfidious, in the transport of their indignation, they might have been carried to the support of General Jackson.

"I received the National Intelligencer, containing Mr. Kremer's card, at breakfast, on the morning of its publication. As soon as I read the card, I took my resolution. The terms of it clearly implied, that it had not entered into his conception to have a personal affair with me, and I should justly have exposed

myself to universal ridicule, if I had sought one with him. I determined to lay the matter before the House, and respectfully to invite an investigation of my conduct. I accordingly made a communication to the House, on the same day, the motives for which I assigned. Mr. Kremer was in his place, and, when I sat down, rose and stated, that he was ready and willing to substantiate his charges against me. This was his voluntary declaration, unprompted by his aiders and abettors, who had no opportunity of previous consultation with him, on that point. Here was an issue, publicly and solemnly joined, in which the accused invoked an inquiry into serious charges against him, and the accuser professed an ability and a willingness to establish them.

"A debate ensued, on the next day, which occupied the greater part of it, during which Mr. Kremer declared to Mr. Brent of Louisiana, a friend of mine, and to Mr. Little of Maryland, a friend of General Jackson, as they have certified, that he never intended to charge Mr. CLAY with corruption or dishonor, in his intended vote for Mr. Adams as President, or that he had transferred, or could transfer, the votes or interests of his friends; that he (Mr. Kremer) was among the last men in the nation to make such a charge against Mr. CLAY; and that his letter was never intended to convey the idea given to it.””

A committee was appointed by the House, agreeably to the request of Mr. CLAY. It consisted of seven members, not one of whom was his political friend.

The committee "called upon Mr. Kremer to execute his pledge, publicly given, in his proper place, and also previously given in the public prints." "Mr. Kremer was stimulated by every motive which could impel to action; by his consistency of character; by duty to his constituents, to his country; by that of redeeming his solemn pledge; by his anxious wish for the success of his favorite, whose interests could not fail to be advanced by supporting his atrocious charges.

"But Mr. Kremer had now the benefit of the advice of his friends. He had no proofs, for the plainest of all reasons, because there was no truth in his charges. They saw that to attempt to establish them, and to fail, as he

must fail in the