Indiana Palladium, Volume 3, Number 32, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, 18 August 1827 — Page 1

EQUALITY OF RIGHTS IS NATURE'S PLAN AND FOLLOWING NATURE IS THE MARCH OF MAN. Barlow.

S1

Volume III.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED M. Gregg & D. V. Cullej, ; ON E VER Y SA TURD A Y. HR. CLiAY'SSPEECH, At the Dinner at Noble's Inn, near Lexington July 12, 1827. Our distinguished guest Henry Clay The fu rnace of persecution may be heated seven times hotter and seventy times more, he will come out unscathed by the fire of malignity, brighter to all and dearer to his friends; while his enemies shrill sink with the dross of their own vi!c materials. Mr. Clay, after the above toast had been read, addressed the company as follows: Mr. President. Friends and Pet Iozd- Citizens I beg permission to offer my heart thank?, and to make my respectful acknowledgments for the affectionate reception, which has been given me during my present visit to my old congressional district, and for this hospitable and honorable testimony of your esteem ;md confidence. And I thank you especially for the friendly sentiments and feelings expressed in the toast which you have just done me the honor to drink. I always had the happiness of knowing that I enjoyed in a high degree, the attachment of that portion of my fellowcitizens whom I formerly represented; but I should never have been sensible of the strength and ardor of their affection, except fur the extraordinary character of the times. For near two years and a half I have been assailed with a rancor and bitterness which have few examples. I have found myself the particular object of concerted and concentrated abuse; and others, thrusting themselves between you and me, have dared to arraign me for treachery to your interests. Bat my former constituents, unaffected by the calumnies which have been so perseveringh circulated to my prejudice, have stood by me with a generous constancy and a noble magnanimity. The measure of their regard and confidence has risen with,-and even surpassed thai of the malevolence, great as it is, of my personal and political foes. I thank you, gentlemen, who are a large portion of my late constituents. I thank you, and every one of them, with all my heart, for the manly support which I have uniformly received. It has cheered and consoled me amidst all my severe trials; and may I not add that it is honorable to the generous heaits and enlightened heads who have resolved to protect the character of an old friend -Mid a faithful servant? The numerous manifestations of your confidence and attachment will be among the latest and most treasured recollections of my life. They impose on me obligations winch can never be weakened or cancelled. One of these obligations is, that I should embrace every fair opportunity to vindicate that character which you have so generously sustained, and to evince to you and to the world, that you have not yielded to the impulse of a blind and enthusiastic sentiment. I feel that I am, on all lit occasions, especially bound to vindicate myself to my former constituents, ft was as their representative; it was in the fulfilment of a high trust which they con-1

tided to me, that I have been accused ofjav0VVC(j ly Mr. George Krcmer, 1 in-j violating the most sacred of duties, of atantly demanded from the House of; treating thjir wishes with contempt, and Representatives an investigation. A:

their interests with treachery. Nor is this obligation, in mv conception of its import, at all weakened by the dessolution of the relathms w hich heretofore existed between u-. I wcuid instantly re sign the place I hold in the councils of the nation, and directly appeal to the suffrages of my late constituents, as a candidate for re-election, if I did not know, that my foes are of that class whom one rising from the dead cannot convince, whom nothing can silence, and who wage a war of extermination. On the issue of such an appeal, they would redouble their abuse of me and of you; for their hatred is romrnon to us both. They have compelled me so often to be the theme of my addresses to the people that I should have willingly abstained on this festive occasion, from any allusion to this subject, but for a new and imposing form which the calumny against me has recently assumed. I am again put on my defence, not of any new charge nor by any new adversary, but of the oid charges, clad in a new dress, and exhibited by an open and undisguised enemy. The fictitious names have been stricken from ths foot of the indictment

LAWRENCEBURGH, INDIANA; SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1827.

(and that of a known and substantial secutor has been voluntarily offered Undaunted by the formidable name of that prosecutor, I will avail myself, with your indulgence, of tins fit opportunity of free and unreserved intercourse with you, as a large number of my late con stituents, to make some observations on the past and present state of the ques tion. When evidence shall be produc ed, as I have now a clear right to demand in support of the accusation, it will be the proper time for me to take such notice of it as its nature may require. In February, 1825, it was my duty, as the Representative of this District, to vote for some one of the three candidates for the Presidency, who were returned to the House of Representatives. It has been established, and can be further proved that, before I left thU State the preceding fall, I communicated to several gentlemen of the highest respectability, my fixed determination not to vote for Gen. Jackson. The friends of Mr. Crawford asserted to the last, that the condition of his health was such as to enable him to administer the duties of the office. I thought other wise, after I reached Washington City, and visited him to satisfy mself, and that, that physical impediment, if there were no other objections, ought to prevent his election. Although the delegation from four of the States', oted for him. and his pretensions were zealously pressed to the verv last moment, it has been of late asserted, and 1 believe by some of the very persons who then warmly espoused his cause, that his incompetency was so palpable as clearly to limit the choice to two of the three returned can didates. In my view of my duty, there was no alternative but that which I embraced. That I had some objections to Mr Adams; I am read' freely to admit, but these did not weigh a feather in comparison with the great and insurmountable objections, long and deliberately entertained against his competitor, i take this occasion, with great satisfaction, to slate, that my objections to Mr. Adam? arose chiefly from apprehensions which have not been realized. I have found him at the head of the Government able, en lightened, patient of investigation, and ever ready to receive with respect, and when approved by his judgment, to act upon the councils of his ofheial advisers I add, with unmixt pleasure, that, from the commencement oi the Government with the exception of Mr. JclVersoifs Ad ministration, no Chief Magistrate has found the members of his Cabinet so uni ted on all public measures, and so cor dial and friendly in all their intercourse private and official, as those are of the present President. II ad I voted for Gen. Jackson, in op position to me wen Known opinions which I entertained of him, one tenth part of the ingenuity and zeal which have been employed to excite prejudi ces against me would have held me up to universal contempt: and what would have been worse, I should have felt that I really deserved it. Before the election, an attempt was made by an abusive letter, published in the Columbian Observer, at Philadelphia, a paper which, as has since trans pired, was sustained by Mr. Senator Laton, the colleague, the friend and the biographer of General Jackson, to assaih

my motives and to deter ine in the cxer-'ed

cise of rnv dulv. This letter hrinrr

committee was accordingly, on the otfn may employ, in examining its contents,! graciously condescends to receive the j ilu y are punhshed in a newspaper, and day of February, 1G2j, appointed in the I feel myself bound by no other obliga-jcommunicaiion, and in consideration of: thence circulated throughout the Union rare mode of balloting by the House, in- tions than those which belong tc truth,; (lie high standing of the distinguished! And now he pretends that these statestead of by the selection of the Speaker, to public decorum, and to myself. member, and of his having always beenments were made, "without any calcU'

It was composed of some of the leading members of that body, not one of whom was my political friend, in the preceding Presidential canvass. Although Mr. Kremer, in addressing the house had declared his willingness to bring forward his proofs, and his readiness to abide the issue ot the inquiry, his fears, oroth cr counsels than his own, prevailed upon him to take refuge in a miserable sub-t terfuge. Of all possible periods that was tlie most fitting to substantiate the charge if it was true. Every circumstance was then fresh; the witnesses all living and present; the election not yet compietc: and therefore the imputed corrupt bargain not fulfilled. All these powerful considerations had no weight with the conspirators and their accessaries, and they meanly shrunk from even an attempt to prove their charge, for the best of all possible reasons because, beiug false and fabricated, they could adduce no procf which v not false and fabricated.

-r rT'"- ' J-

pro-jcasc 1 was elected President, Mr. Ad ams should not be continued Secretary During two years and a half, which have now intervened, a portion of the press, devoted to General Jacksor, has been teeming with the vilest calumnies against me, and the charge, under every cameleon form, has been a thousand times repeated. Up to this lime, I have in vain invited investigation, and demanded evidence. None not a particle has been adduced. The extraordinary ground has been taken, that the accusers were not bound to establish by proof the guilt of their designated victim. In a civilized, christian and free community, the monstrous principle has been assumed, that accusation and conviction are synonymous; and that the persons who deliberately bring forward an atrocious charge are exempted from all obligations to sub stantiate it! And the pretext is, that the crime beh g of a political nature, i shrouded in darkness and incapable of be ing substantiated, but is there any real difference, in this respect, between political and other offences? Do not all perpe trators of crime endeavor to conceal their guilt and to elude detection? Ir the accuser of a political offence is ab solved from the duty of supporting his accusation, every other accuser of of fence stands equally absolved. Such a principle, practically carried into socit ty would subvert ill hatmony, peace and tranquility. None no age, nor sex, nor profession, nor calling would e salt against its baneful and overwhelming in fluence. It would amount to an universal license to universal calumny! iSo one has ever contended, that the proof should be exclusively that of eyewitnesses, testifying from their senses positively and directly to the fact. Political, like all other ollences, may be es tablished by circumstantial as well as positive evidence. Rut do contend that some evidence, be it w hat it may, ought to be exhibited. If there be none how do the accusers knoro that an offence has been perpetrated? If they do knowit, let us have the facts on w hich their conviction is based. 1 will not even assert that in public ninths, a citizen has: not a right, freely to express his opininjis of public men, and to speculate upon the motives of their conduct. Rut it he cltuoscs to promulgate opittior.7 let then) be triven as opinions, The public will correctly judge of their value and theii grounds. No one has a right to put forth the positive assertion, that a political offence has been committed, unless he stands prepared to sustain, by satisfactory proof of some kind, its actual existence. If he who exhibits a charge of a political crime is, from its very nature, disabled to establish it, how much more difficult is the condition of the accused? How can he exhibit negative proof of his innocence, if na affirmative proof of his guilt is or can be adduced? It must have been a conviction that the justice of the public required a definite charge, by a responsible accuser, that has at last extorted from Gen. Jackson his letter of the Gth of June, lately published. I approach that letter with great reluctance, not on my own account, for on that I do most heartily and sincerely rejoice that it has made its up

pearance. But it is a reluctance excit-ithal

bv the feedings of respect which Would anxiouslv hnve cultivated to-! wards its author. He has, however! by that letter, created such relations be-' tween us that, in any language which l! lhe first consideration w hich mustja on the perusal of the letter, force itself upon every reflecting mind is, that which arises out. of the delicate posture in which Gen. Jackson stands before the American public. He is a candidate for the Presidency, avowed and pro i claimed, lie has no competitor at nre sent, and there is no probability of his having any, but one. i no charges which he has allowed himself to be the organ of communicating to the very publie, who is to decide the question of the Presidency, though directly aimed at mc necessarily implicate his only competi tor. Mr. Adams and myself are both guilty or we are both innocent of the imputed arrangement between us. His innocence is absolutely irreconcilable with my guilt. If Gen. Jackson, therefore, can establish my guilt, and, by inference or by insinuation, that of his sole rival, he will have removed a great obstacle to the consummation of the object cf his ambition. And if he

n1

- can, at the same time, make out his own purity of conduct, and impress the American people with the belief that his putity and integrity aleuc prevented his success before the House of Representatives, his claims will become absolutely irresistible. Were there ever more powerful motives to propagate, was there ever greater interest, at all hazards, to prove the truth of charge? I state this case I hope fairly; I mean to state it fail I v and fearlessly, li the position be one which exposed Geneial Jackson to unfavorable suspicions, H must be borne in mind that he has voluntarily taken it and he must abide the consequences. 1 am acting on the defensive, and it is he who avails mo, and who has culled forth, by the eternal laws of self-protection, the right to Use ail legitimate means of self detent e. Gn J nekton has shown, ie hi letter that he is not exempt from the iniiuei ce of that bins towards one's own interests, which is unfortunately the too cernmoi lot of human nature. L is Asinurest to make out that he is a j erson cf spotless innocence and of unsullied integrity ; and to establish, by direct cha:ge, or by necessary infereite, the vant of those qualities in hU rival. A coiuingly we find, throughout the letter a labored atkrrpt t. tot forth his own immaculate puiity in striking contrast with the corruoiion v. Inch is attributed to others. Wo u uld imagine from his let ter that he very seldom touches a news paper. The Tchgr;.pn is mailed regularly for him at v n-ni. gtor., hut it arrives at the Hv rmitege very irregularly, lie would hie the public to infer that the post-master al NashviLV, whose appointment happened rot to be upon his recommendation, obst ? ucted his reception of it. In consequence of his not receiving the Telegraph, he had not on the Gth June, 1827, seen Carter Beverly's famous FayelteviJle letter, dated the 8th of the preceding M nth, published in numerous gazettes, and published, I have very little doubt, although I have not the means of ascertaining, the fact, in the gazettes of Nashville. I will not sav, contrary to Gen. Jackson's assertion, that he had never read that letter, when he wrote that of the Gth of June, but I must think that it is very strange that ho should not have seen it; and that i Gi Ubt whetner mere is an other man iT juiy i'o!:tictii eminence ii 'the United Slates who has not read it. There is a remarkable coincidence between Gen. Jackson and certain editors who espouse his interest, in relation to Mr. Beverly's letter. They very early took the ground, in respect to it, that I ought, under my mm sgnature to come ait and deny the statements. And Gen. Jackson now says, in his letter of the Gth June, that he "always intended should Mr. Ciay ucome ei.t, over his own name, and deny having any know ledge of the communication made by his friends to my friends and to me, that I would give him the name cf the gentleman through whom that communication came." The distinguished member of Congress, who bore the alleged overture, according to General Jaikson, presented himself with diplomatic circumspection lest he should wound ti e very great sensibility of the General. He avers the communication w as intended Twith the most friendly motives, "that he rame as a frh-nd' and that he honed.

how ever it might be received, there! fore they are committed to paper, by would be no alTeration in the friendlylone of his guests, and transmitted in the feelings between them. The General' form of a letter to another State , where

professed friend , he is promise d impu - nity, and assured tin

change of amicable ties. Alter all thesei the indiscretion of the guest who hart necessary preliminaries arc arranged be-violated the sanctity of a conversation tween the high negotiating power?, thejat the hospitable beard? Far from it, envoy pioceeds: " ie had been in form-J The public is incredulous. It cannot ed by the fiiends of Mr. Clay , that thej belie e that Genera! Jackson would be friends of r. Adams had made ovcrturesjso wanting in delicacy ai d decorum.to them, saying if Mr. Clay and hisjThe guest appeals to him for the confriends would unite in aid ef the lectiunjlirmath-n of the published statements; of Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay should be Sec- and the' General promptly addresses a

rotary ary of State; that the fiiends of Adanisj w ere urging as a reason to induce the friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their proposition, that if I was elected Presi dent, Mr. Adams would be continued Secretary of State (incendo there would be no room for Kentucky.'") Is this Gen. Jackson's inuendo, or that of the distinguished member of Congress. "That the friends cf Mr. Clay stated the West dees not w ant to separate from the West, and if I would say or permit any of my confidential friends to say that, in of Stale, by a complete; Union of 3Ir.

Number 39.

Clay and his fiiends, they wcnld put an end to the Presidential contest in one hour; and he was of opinion it was right to fight such intriguers w ith their own w capons." To which the General states himself to have replied in substance, 'that in politics as in every thing else my guide is principle, and contrary to the expiesscd and unbiassed will oi the people or their constituted agents, I never would step into the Presidential chair; and requested him to say to Mr. Ciay and his iiiei ds, (ior 1 did sifpcse he had em. fun) Mr. Clay, uithvugh he vsed the terms vj Mr. Lioys Jrithiis,) that belt: e 1 w cuid i each tin I i evidential chair by such means et bargain and corruption, I would see the earth cpen and swallow both Mr. Clay, ai d his friends and myself. with them." Now all these professions are eiy tine and dirplay admirable purity, liui its sublimity would be sen. e what mere impiessive, if tome person other than Gel. Jackson had proclaimed it. lie wculd go into the Pi evidential chair, but never, no, ne vei ! tontraiy to "the expressed and unbiased will of the people, or their constituted agents:" two modes cf arriving at it the more reasonable, as there hnpteis to be no other constitutional way. He wcuici sec "the earth open and swallow both Mr. Clay and hrs friends ai d myself,' befoie he would reach the Presidential chair by "such means of bargain and corrupiici I hope Gen. Jacksoi did it iniei d that the whole human race should be also swallowed up, on the contingency he has stated, nor that they were to guarantee that he has an absolute repuguai.ee to the employment cf any exceptionable means to secure his elevation to the Presidency, it he had rendered the distinguislic u men.uer or v.cngiess u muu nit re distinguished, by instantly ordering him from his presence, and by forthwith denouncing him and the infamous prepo sition which he bore, to the American public, we shouid be a little better prepared to admit the claims to untarnished integrity, which the General so modestly puts forward. But, according to his own account, a corrupt and scandalous proposal is made to him, the person whoconvey ed it, advises him to accept it, and vet that person stiil retains the frienuship of Gen. Jackson, who is so tender of his character that his name is carefully concealed unci reserved to be hereafter brought forward as a witness! A man who, if he be a member of the House of Rt prcsentaiives. is doubly infamous infamous for the advice w .ich he gave, and infamous lor his w il!i gi.t ss to connive- at at the corrupiici; of the be dy of which he was a swon iijernhv i is the ciedible witness by w hem Gen. Jackson stands ready to establish ihe C( ri uplion ot ff en whose characters were never run sunned. Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is sn highly prized as that of character. Gen. Jackson cannot be insensible to its value, for he appears to be most anxious to set forth the loftiness and puiity of his own. How has he treated mine? During the dispensation of the hospitalities ci the Hermitage, in the mid;4ofa mixed company, cemopscd of individuals from various States, he permits himself to make certain statements respecting my friends and me, which, if true, would forever dip honor and degrade us. The words 'are hardlv nassed from his mouth, be Intion that they were to he thrown nno

here shall be no'the public journals. JJc-es nc reprove

letter to him, in w hicli 4ihc most une quivocally confirms (sjs Mi C. LeverIv) all 1 have said recant in c the overture made to him pending the last Presidential election befoie Congress; and he asserts a greet deai more than he ever ids me." I should be glad to know if nil they versions of the talc have now made their appearance, and whether Gen. Jacksoft w ill allege that he did not "calculate," upon the publication of his letter of the Gth of June. The General states that the unknown envoy used the terms "Mr. Clay 6