Western Sun & General Advertiser, Volume 18, Number 33, Vincennes, Knox County, 22 September 1827 — Page 1

KN SUN & GENERAL ABTERllSEiE, BY ELIHU STOUT. VINCENNES, (IND.) SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1827. Vol. IS, No. 33

WESTE

(ft: 4 -T to I. ft

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Mr. CLAY'S SPEECH, at the Dinner at Mr. Aroblca Inn. (continued.) It is possible th:U he may urge, by way of excuse for wh at must be deemed his culpable concealment of meditated corruption, that he did not like to volunteer as a witness before the committee, or to transmit it to the name of his friend the distinguished member of the House of Representatives, although it is not very easy to discern any very just reason for his volunteering now, which would not have applied with more fores at that time. But What apology can be made for his failure to discharge his sacred duty as an American senator ? More than two months, after the alledged overture my nomination to the office which I now hold was made to the senate of the United States, of which General Jackson was then a sworn member. On that nomination he hM to deliberate and act in the most solemn manner. If I were privy to a corrupt proposal to General Jackson, touching the recent clection ; if I had entered into a corrupt bargain with Mr. Adams to secure his elevation, I was unworthy the office to which I was nomin ued ; and it was the duty cf General Jackson, if he really possessed the information which he now puts forward, to have moved the senate to appoint a committee of inquiry, and by establishing my guilt to have preserved the national councils from an abominable con tamination As the conspiracy of George Kremer, k Co. had z short time before meanly shrunk from appearing before the Committee of the House of Representatives tojnake good their charges, I requested "senator of the U Slates when my nomination should be taken up, to ask the senate the appointment of a committee of inquiry, unless it should appear to him altogether unnecessary. One of our own senators was compelled by the urgency of his private business, to leave Washington before my nomination was disposed of; and as I had but little confidence in the fidelity of the professed friendship of the other, I was constrained to present my application to a senator from another state. I was afterwards informed that when it wan acted upon, Gen. Jackson and every other senator present was silent as to the imputations now made, no one presuming to question my honor or integrity. How can General Jackr.on justify to his conscience or to his country this palpable breach of his public duty : It is in vain to say that he gave a silent negative vote. He wa s in possession of information which, if true, must have occasioned the rejection of my nomination. It docs not appear that any other senator possessed the same information. Investigation was alike due to the purity of the national councils, to me, and as an act of Strict justice, to all the other parties implicated. It is impossible for him to escape from the dilemma that he has been faithless, as a senator of the United States, or has lent himself to the circulation of an atrocious calumny. After the election General Jackson was among the first who eagerly pressed his , congratulations upon his successful rival. If Mr Adams had been guilty of the employment of impure means to effect his clection, General Jackson ought to have disdained to sully his own hands by touching those of his corrupt competitor. On the 10th of February, 1825, the very next day after the election General Jackson was invited to a public dinner at Washington, by some of his friends. He

expressed to them his wish that he might J be excused from accepting the invitation, because, alluding to the recent election,

ne saia, " any evidence ot kindness and regard, such as you propose, might, by many, be viewed as conveying with it exception, murmuring, and fetlings of

complaint, which I sincerely hope belong j

to none ot my friends " More than one ! month after the corrupt proposal is prc- : tended to have been received, and after, according to the insinuation of General , Jackson, a corrupt arrangement had been j made between Mr Adams and me after i the actual termination of an election, the

issue of which was brought about, according to General Jackson, by the basest of means, he was unwilling to accept the honors of a public dinner, lest it should imply an exception against the result of the election. General Jackson professes in his letter of the 6th of JuneI quote again his words, " to have always intended should Mr. Clay come out over his own signature, and denying having any knowledge of the communication made by his fiiends to mc, that I would give him the name of the gentleman through whom the communication came " tic pretends never to have seen the Fayettcvillc letter ; and yet the pretext of a denial under my signature is precisely that which had been urged by the principal editors who sustain his cause. If this be an unconcerted, it is nevertheless a most wondetful coinci dence. The general never communica ted to rnc his professed intention, but left me in entire ignorance of his generous purpose: like the overture itself, it was profoundly concealed from me. There was an authorized denial from me, which went the circle of the public prints, immediately after the arrival at Washington of the Faycttcville letter. In that denial my words are given. They were contain ed in a letter dated at Washington City, on the 18th day of April last, and arc correctly statt'd to have been " that the statement th,u ins (my) fiiends had made such a proposition as the letter desci ibcsto the friends of General Jackson was, as far as he knew or believed, utterly destitute of foundation; that he was unwilling to believe that General Jackson had made env

i statement : but that no matter with whom

it had originated, he was fuiiy persuaded it was gross fabrication, of the same calumnious character with the Kremer sto

! ry, put forth for the double purpose of jn

i juring his public character, and propping J the cause of General Jackson ; and that for himself and for his friends he d-JIed the substantiation of the charge belore any J fair tribunal whatever." Such were my I own words transmitted in tl;c form of a j letter from a friend to a knowti per son. Whereas the charge which they repelled was contained in a letter written by a person then unknown to some person also unknown Did I not deny the charge under my own signatuac in my card, of he 31st January, 1825, published in the Natppal j Intelligencer ? Was there not a substani tial denial of it in my letter to Jiicfge Brooke, dated the 2Sth of the same month ? In my circular to my constituents ? In my Lewisburgh speech ? And may I not add in the whole tenor cf my public life and conduct. If Genera! Jack son had offered to furnish me the name of i a member of Confess, who was capable

of advising his acceptance of a base and corrupt proposition, ought I to have resorted to his infamous and discredited w it-

wishes on any political subject whatever ; and to such and expression great deference and regard arc due ; but it is not ob

ligatory. The people, when in Agust,

fkation to read the official statement that they had ingloriously fied, I was nevertheless thankful for the success of the arm

of my country, and felt grateful to him la "

r.css ? It has been a thousand times asserted and repeated, that I violated instructions which I ought to have obeyed. I deny the charge ; and I am happy to have this opportunity of denying it it the presence of my assembled constituents. The General Assembly requested the Kentucky delegation, to vote in a particular way. A majority of that delegation, including myself, voted in opposition to that request The Legislature did not intend to give any imperative instruction. This distinction between a request and instruction was familiar to the legislature ; and their rolls attest that the former is always addressed to the members of the House of Representatives, and the latter only to the Senators of the United States. Hut I do not rely exclusively cn this fecognized distinction. I dispute at once the right of the legislature to issue a mandatory instruction to the Representatives of the people. Such a right has no foundation in the Constitution, in the reason or nature of things, nor in the usage of the Kentucky Legislature. Its exercise would he a manifest usurpation. The General Assembly has the incontrovertible right to express its opinion and to proclaim its

1824, they elected members to the Genor- who had most contrihntarl tn' thp

al Assembly did not invest them with any memorable victory. This concession is power to regulate or control the exercise not now made for the purpose of ccnciliaof l-uj discretion ot the Kentucky dek ga- ting the favor or mitigating the wrath of tion in the Congress of the United States. General Jackson. He has erected an imI put it to the candor of every elector pre passable barrier between us, and I would sent, il he intended to part with his own scorn to accept any favor at his hards. I right, or anticipated the exertion of any thank God I that He has endowed me with such power by the legislature, when he a soul incapable of apprehension from tho gave his vote in Agust 1824 anger of any being but himself. The only instruction which I received I have, as your representative, freely from a legitimate source, emanated horn examined, and in my deliberate judgment, a respectable portion of my immediate condemned the conduct of General Jackconstituents ; and that directed metocx- &on in omc of our Indian wars. I becrcise my own discretion, regatdlcss of lieved, and yet believe him to have tramthc will of the Legislatuie. Yousubsc- P1 upon the constitution of his country, qucntly ratified my vote by unequivocal anu" f have violated the principles of hudemonstrations, repeatedly given, ol your inanity Entertaining these opinions, I aftectionate attachmcntaniiyour unshaken did not and could rot voteforhim. confidence. Y u ratified it two years a- 1 ov;e you, my friends and fellow-citi-go by the election of my pcisonal ai d po 2C11S many apologies for this long interlitical friend Judge Clarke, to succeed u.e ruption of the festivities of the day. I in the House o! Representatives, who had noiJC lliat my desire to v indicate their bonhimself subcibcd the only legitimate oud object, and to satisfy you that he is instruction which 1 received. You ratify not altogethei unworthy of them will be it by the presence and the appiobation of sufficient.

tnia vast & respectable asst mUlage.

I rejoice, again and again, that the con

test has a las assumed its present piacli-

IMr. M'DUI F.IS SPEECH.

( Cor.tinutd J

I f . II - '

cai ioim. tierttoiorc, malignant wrusp- j i now invite your att t.t.m o srrre of crs and datk surmises, base been clandes the objectons urged b Mi. t lay and his tinely circulated, so cptniy and unblush- paitUan against Gen Jackson, as an exingly utteied by irresponsible agents cusclortht conduct ol Mi . Clay in voting

ivj uuuit Ufuij nit; uiuu. diiu ( &"Uibl AilfTfe

!ike them, were invisible and intangible.

So responsible man stood forward to sustain them w ith his acknowledged authority. They hae, at last, a local habitation and a name. General Jackson has now thrown off the mask and comes conlessedly forth from behind his concealed batter

ies, publicly to accuse and convict me.

It is said, by Mr. CIav,that Gen. Jack

son is a military chieftain," and that it would cndar.ger the liberties of the conntry to cleatt him to the chief civil ofiico f the Republic. A very brief recurrence to the history of military usurpers will satisfy you that such an objection would be better suited

We stand confronted before the American I tn the declamations of a school hnv. fhfr tr

people. Pronouncing the chai ges, as 1 j the grave disiussions of a statesman.

.""Till f!r r j'th'iiiu .( -ill I r i A . . n x .1

jj"1" mv, i.3iuuv iyi tin i v u 1 11 1 ci lull, UllU gioss aspersions, whether clandestinely or openly issued horn the halls of the Capitol, the saloons of the Hermitage, or by iho press, by pen, or by tongue. At d salcly resting upon my conscious integrity, I demand the witness and await the event with fearless confidence. The issue, is fairly joined. The imputed offence dees not comprehend a single ft lend, but the collective body ol my hiends in Com-t evi ; and it accuses thnm of clVeiitig, and me with sanctioning corrupt propositions, derogating from honor, a;:d in violation of the most sacred duties.

The three principal militaty usurr.er.

who have figured in the histoiy ol the world, arc ("cesar, Cromwell, and Bonaparte ; and I invite your particular attention to the condition of Rume, ard France, at the period of their respective usurpations, and to the causes which paved the way foi their ascendency. In each of Mu se remaikable instances, the countiy ot the militaiy usurpers was notoriously sunk to the very lowest depths of wretchedness, and involved in destmctivc anarchy civil war, by the universal corruption and oppressive despotism of i he civil government Who. ;1 he had been a Kon.an, would not have mcferterl

years cicuoeration. General Jackson has 1 the dominion ol lxs.r, to t! ai of tho voluntarily taken his position, and without j profligate and coi upt f: rtioi isis who provocation. In voting against him as j weic put down by hin ? Wf o, il an President of the United States, I pave. Englishman, would not liw pcfei red tic him no just cause of ofTmce. 1 exercised j dominion of Cromwell, wl n cat hd the no more than my indisputable piivilr ge, '. glory ol England to the exiitn.mes of li e as, on a subsequent occasion, of which I earth, to the profligate tyranny of e have never complained, he exercised his, ! Steuarts, who bee air e the detruded t nin voting against me as Secretary of State. ! siont rs ol Franre, i- order to ens hi c Vt ir Had I voted for him, I m'3t have gone i own subjects? Who, if he v e e a coun-cr to every fixed principle of my ' Tienchman, wouUi ... i even pref. . public life. I believed him incompetent, j litat y despotism o Bonaparte eithei to the iti . f i. . . . .

uuu nis ciecuon iraugnt Him danger. rt civil lyrmnv and civo corruption o the

The charge has been made after two

this early period of the Republic, keeping

steadily in view the danger which had overturned other free states. I believed it to be essential to the lasting preservation of our liberties, that a man, devoid cf civ il talents, and offering no recommendation but one founded on military service, should not be selected to administer the government. I believe so yet ; and shall consider the days of the Commonwealth numbered, when an opposite principles is established. I believed, and still believe, that now, when our institutions aic in comparative infancy, is the time to establish the great principle, that military qualification alone, has not a sufficient title to the Presidency . If we start right, we may run a long race of liberty, happiness, and glory. If we stumble it setting out, we shall fall as others have fallen before us : and fall without even a claim to

j thcregietsor sympathies of mankind.

I have never done General Jackson, knowingly, an injustice. I have taken pleasure, on every proper occasion, to bestow on him merited rraise for the clori-

ous issue of the battle of New Orleans. i No American citizen enjoyed higher sat- ( isfaction than I did with the event. I j heard it for the first time on the Uoulcvardsof Paris; and I eagerly perused the details of the action, with the anxious hope that I should find that the gallant mi , litia of my own state had avenged, on the banks of Mississippi, the blood which they had so freely spilt on the disastrous field of Raisin That hope was not then gratified ; and although I had the morti-

Bourbons, o to tin tl".;cl dpo'ism of such m nxersasR bespieie Ma:a bt-d Dantot!, who assurer: the mme of iib.rty only to stain he alts wi'h the blood of her most patriotic eitiz n. ? In fact, it may be bioad.y laid down as a general political truth ar d I defv any one to produce a sin 'le exception in tho history of civilized naii; ns that no k military chieftain" ever has usurped, or in the nature of things can ever Usurp the government of a country, but in a state of civil war gi owing out of civil de .spot Urn or civil corruption And in every instance it will be found that the military usurper, so far from destroying the public liberty, has paitially saved the country from that anarchy, whose throne has been previously erected upon the ruins of that liberty. What, then, is the motal drawn from these examples ? It is that our liberty can be destroyed only by the corruption cf our civil rulers: and that if a 44 military usurper" ever should obtain the sceptre of dominion, the corruption of the civil government is the only avenue through which he can march to empire. How ridiculous, then, does the objection appear, that General Jackson is a military chieftain," even if he were such in the fullest sense of the expression ? Hov? much more have we to apprehend, for the liberty of the country, from these corrupt political bargains, by which such men a3 Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, defraud tho people of their rights, than from the election, by the people, of such a "military chieftain" as General Jackson i Acfl