Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams Part 9

At the conclusion of the address, a general plaudit burst forth from the vast a.s.semblage, which continued some minutes. Mr. Adams then descended from the chair, and, proceeding to the Judges' table, received from the Chief Justice a volume of the Laws of the United States, from which he read, with a loud voice, the oath of office. The plaudits and cheers of the mult.i.tude were at this juncture repeated, accompanied by salutes of artillery from without.

The congratulations which then poured in from every side occupied the hands, and could not but reach the heart, of President Adams. The meeting between him and his venerated predecessor, had in it something peculiarly affecting. General Jackson was among the earliest of those who took the hand of the President; and their looks and deportment towards each other were a rebuke to that littleness of party spirit which can see no merit in a rival, and feel no joy in the honor of a compet.i.tor.

Shortly after 1 o'clock, the procession commenced leaving the hall. The President was escorted back as he came. On his arrival at his residence, he received the compliments and respects of a great number of ladies and gentlemen, who called on him to tender their congratulations. The proceedings of the day were closed by an "inaugural ball" in the evening.

Among the guests present, were the President and Vice-President.

Ex-President Monroe, a number of foreign ministers, with many civil, military, and naval officers.[Footnote: National Intelligencer.]

Mr. Adams's Inaugural Address is as follows:--

"In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our federal const.i.tution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your presence, and in that of heaven, to bind myself, by the solemnities of a religious obligation, to the faithful performance of the duties allotted to me, in the station to which I have been called.

"In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which I shall be governed, in the fulfilment of those duties, my first resort will be to that const.i.tution which I shall swear, to the best of my ability, to preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the powers and prescribes the duties of the Executive Magistrate, and in its first words, declares the purposes to which these, and the whole action of the Government inst.i.tuted by it, should be invariably and sacredly devoted--to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people of this Union, in their successive generations. Since the adoption of this social compact, one of these generations has pa.s.sed away. It is the work of our forefathers. Administered by some of the most eminent men, who contributed to its formation, through a most eventful period in the annals of the world, and through all the vicissitudes of peace and war, incidental to the condition of a.s.sociated man, it has not disappointed the hopes and aspirations of those ill.u.s.trious benefactors of their age and nation. It has promoted the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all; it has, to an extent far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity, secured the freedom and happiness of this people. We now receive it as a precious inheritance from those to whom we are indebted for its establishment, doubly bound by the examples which they have left us, and by the blessings which we have enjoyed, as the fruits of their labors, to transmit the same, unimpaired, to the succeeding generation.

"In the compa.s.s of thirty-six years, since this great national covenant was inst.i.tuted, a body of laws enacted under its authority, and in conformity with its provisions, has unfolded its powers, and carried into practical operation its effective energies. Subordinate departments have distributed the executive functions in their various relations to foreign affairs, to the revenue and expenditures, and to the military force of the Union, by land and sea. A co-ordinate department of the judiciary has expounded the const.i.tution and the laws; settling, in harmonious coincidence with the legislative will, numerous weighty questions of construction, which the imperfection of human language had rendered unavoidable. The year of jubilee since the first formation of our Union, has just elapsed; that of the Declaration of our Independence is at hand.

The consummation of both was effected by this const.i.tution. Since that period, a population of four millions has multiplied to twelve. A territory bounded by the Mississippi has been extended from sea to sea.

New States have been admitted to the Union, in numbers nearly equal to those of the first confederation. Treaties of pence, amity, and commerce, have been concluded with the princ.i.p.al dominions of the earth. The people of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired, not by conquests, but by compact, have been united with us in the partic.i.p.ation of our rights and duties, of our burdens and blessings. The forest has fallen by the axe of our woodsmen--the soil has been made to teem by the tillage of our farmers; our commerce has whitened every ocean. The dominion of man over physical nature has been extended by the invention of our artists. Liberty and law have marched hand in hand. All the purposes of human a.s.sociation have been accomplished as effectually as under any other Government on the globe, and at a cost little exceeding, in a whole generation, the expenditures of other nations in a single year.

"Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition under a const.i.tution founded upon the republican principle of equal rights. To admit that this picture has its shades, is but to say, that it is still the condition of men upon earth. From evil--physical, moral, and political--it is not our claim to be exempt. We have suffered, sometimes by the visitation of Heaven through disease, often by the wrongs and injustice of other nations, even to the extremities of war; and lastly, by dissentions among ourselves--dissentions, perhaps, inseparable from the enjoyment of freedom, but which have more than once appeared to threaten the dissolution of the Union, and, with it, the overthrow of all the enjoyments of our present lot, and all our earthly hopes of the future.

The causes of these dissensions have been various, founded upon differences of speculation in the theory of republican government, upon conflicting views of policy in our relations with foreign nations; upon jealousies of partial and sectional interests, aggravated by prejudices and prepossessions, which strangers to each other are ever apt to entertain.

"It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me, to observe that the great result of this experiment upon the theory of human rights, has, at the close of that generation by which it was formed, been crowned with success equal to the most sanguine expectations of its founders.

Union, justice, tranquillity, the common defence, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty--all have been promoted by the Government under which we have lived. Standing at this point of time, looking back to that generation which has gone by, and forward to that which is advancing, we may at once indulge in grateful exultation and in cheering hope. From the experience of the past, we derive instructive lessons for the future.

"Of the two great political parties which have divided the opinions and feelings of our country, the candid and the just will now admit, that both have contributed splendid talents, spotless integrity, ardent patriotism, and disinterested sacrifices, to the formation and administration of the Government, and that both have required a liberal indulgence for a portion of human infirmity and error. The revolutionary wars of Europe, commencing precisely at the moment when the Government of the United States first went into operation under the const.i.tution, excited collisions of sentiments and of sympathies, which kindled all the pa.s.sions and embittered the conflict of parties, till the nation was involved in war, and the Union was shaken to its centre. This time of trial embraced a period of five and twenty years, during which the policy of the Union in its relations with Europe const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al basis of our own political divisions, and the most arduous part of the action of the Federal Government. With the catastrophe in which the wars of the French Revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace with Great Britain, this baneful weed of party strife was uprooted. From that time no difference of principle, connected with the theory of government, or with our intercourse with foreign nations, has existed or been called forth in force sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties, or given more than wholesome animation to public sentiment or legislative debate.

Our political creed, without a dissenting voice that can be heard, is, that the will of the people is the source, and the happiness of the people is the end, of all legitimate government upon earth: that the best security for the beneficence, and the best guaranty against the abuse of power, consists in the freedom, the purity, and the frequency of popular elections: that the General Government of the Union, and the separate Governments of the States, are all sovereignties of legitimate powers, fellow-servants of the same masters--uncontrolled within their respective spheres, uncontrollable by encroachments on each other. If there have been those who doubted whether a confederated representative democracy was a Government competent to the wise and orderly management of the common concerns of a mighty nation, those doubts have been dispelled. If there have been projects of partial confederacies to be erected upon the ruins of the Union, they have been scattered to the winds. If there have been dangerous attachments to one foreign nation, and antipathies against another, they have been extinguished. Ten years of peace at home and abroad have a.s.suaged the animosities of political contention, and blended into harmony the most discordant elements of public opinion. There still remains one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and pa.s.sion, to be made by the individuals throughout the nation who have heretofore followed the standards of political party. It is that of discarding every remnant of rancor against each other, of embracing, as countrymen and friends, and of yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence which, in times of contention for principle, was bestowed only upon those who bore the badge of party communion.

"The collisions of party spirit, which originate in speculative opinions, or in different views of administrative policy, are in their nature transitory. Those which are founded on geographical divisions, adverse interests of soil, climate, and modes of domestic life, are more permanent, and therefore, perhaps, more dangerous. It is this which gives inestimable value to the character of our Government, at once federal and national. It holds out to us a perpetual admonition to preserve, alike, and with equal anxiety, the rights of each individual State in its own Government, and the rights of the whole nation in that of the Union.

Whatever is of domestic concernment, unconnected with the other members of the Union, or with foreign lands, belongs exclusively to the administration of the State Governments. Whatsoever directly involves the rights and interests of the federative fraternity, or of foreign powers, is, of the resort of this General Government. The duties of both are obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in the detail. To respect the rights of the State Governments is the inviolable duty of that of the Union: the Government of every State will feel its own obligation to respect and preserve the rights of the whole. The prejudices everywhere too commonly entertained against distant strangers are worn away, and the jealousies of jarring interests are allayed, by the composition and functions of the great national councils, annually a.s.sembled, from all quarters of the Union, at this place. Here the distinguished men from every section of our country, while meeting to deliberate upon the great interests of those by whom they are deputed, learn to estimate the talents, and do justice to the virtues, of each other. The harmony of the nation is promoted, and the whole Union is knit together by the sentiments of mutual respect, the habits of social intercourse, and the ties of personal friends.h.i.+p, formed between the representatives of its several parts in the performance of their service at this metropolis.

"Pa.s.sing from this general review of the purposes and injunctions of the Federal const.i.tution and their results, as indicating the first traces of the path of duty in the discharge of my public trust, I turn to the administration of my immediate predecessor, as the second. It has pa.s.sed away in a period of profound peace: how much to the satisfaction of our country, and to the honor of our country's name, is known to you all. The great features of its policy, in general concurrence with the will of the Legislature, have been--To cherish peace while preparing for defensive war to yield exact justice to other nations, and maintain the rights of our own--to cherish the principles of freedom and equal rights, wherever they were proclaimed--to discharge, with all possible prompt.i.tude, the national debt--to reduce within the narrowest limits of efficiency the military force--to improve the organization and discipline of the army--to provide and sustain a school of military science--to extend equal protection to all the great interests of the nation--to promote the civilization of the Indian tribes; and to proceed to the great system of internal improvements, within the limits of the const.i.tutional power of the Union.

Under the pledge of these promises, made by that eminent citizen at the time of his first induction to this office, in his career of eight years the internal taxes have been repealed; sixty millions of the public debt have been discharged; provision has been made for the comfort and relief of the aged and indigent among the surviving warriors of the Revolution; the regular armed force has been reduced, and its const.i.tution revised and perfected; the accountability for the expenditures of public monies has been more effective; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired, and our boundary has been extended to the Pacific Ocean; the independence of the southern nations of this hemisphere has been recognized, and recommended by example and by counsel to the potentates of Europe; progress has been made in the defence of the country, by fortifications and the increase of the navy--towards the effectual suppression of the African traffic in slaves--in alluring the aboriginal hunters of our land to the cultivation of the soil and of the mind--in exploring the interior regions of the Union, and in preparing, by scientific researches and surveys, for the further application of our national resources to the internal improvement of our country.

"In this brief outline of the promise and performance of my immediate predecessor, the line of duty, for his successor, is clearly delineated.

To pursue to their consummation those purposes of improvement in our common condition inst.i.tuted or recommended by him, will embrace the whole sphere of my obligation. To the topic of internal improvement, emphatically urged by him at his inauguration, I recur with peculiar satisfaction. It is that from which I am convinced that the unborn millions of our posterity, who are in future ages to people this continent, will derive their most fervent grat.i.tude to the founders of the Union--that in which the beneficent action of its Government will be most deeply felt and acknowledged. The magnificence and splendor of their public works are among the imperishable glories of the ancient republics.

The roads and aqueducts of Rome have been the admiration of all after ages, and have survived thousands of years after all her conquests have been swallowed up in despotism, or become the spoil of barbarians. Some diversity of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of Congress for legislation upon objects of this nature. The most respectful deference is due to doubts, originating in pure patriotism, and sustained by venerated authority. But nearly twenty years have pa.s.sed since the construction of the first national road was commenced. The authority for its construction was then unquestioned. To how many thousands of our countrymen has it proved a benefit? To what single individual has it ever proved an injury? Repeated, liberal and candid discussions in the Legislature have conciliated the sentiments, and approximated the opinions of enlightened minds, upon the question of const.i.tutional power. I cannot but hope that, by the same process of friendly, patient, and persevering deliberation, all const.i.tutional objections will ultimately be removed.

The extent and limitation of the powers of the General Government, in relation to this transcendently important interest, will be settled and acknowledged to the common satisfaction of all; and every speculative scruple will be solved by a practical public blessing.

"Fellow-citizens, you are acquainted with the peculiar circ.u.mstances of the recent election, which have resulted in affording me the opportunity of addressing you at this time. You have heard the exposition of the principles which will direct me in the fulfilment of the high and solemn trust imposed upon me in this station. Less possessed of your confidence, in advance, than any of my predecessors, I am deeply conscious of the prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indulgence.

Intentions upright and pure, a heart devoted to the welfare of our country, and the unceasing application of the faculties allotted to me to her service, are all the pledges that I can give for the faithful performance of the arduous duties I am to undertake. To the guidance of the legislative councils; to the a.s.sistance of the executive and subordinate departments; to the friendly co-operation of the respective State Governments; to the candid and liberal support of the people, so far as it may be deserved by honest industry and zeal; I shall look for whatever success may attend my public service: and knowing that 'except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain,' with fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit, with humble but fearless confidence, my own fate, and the future destinies of my country."

In entering upon the discharge of his duties as President, Mr. Adams proceeded to form his cabinet by nominating Henry Clay, of Kentucky, Secretary of State; Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Treasury; James Barbour, of Virginia, Secretary of War; Samuel L.

Southard, Secretary of the Navy, and Wm. Wirt, Attorney General. These were all men of superior talents, of tried integrity and faithfulness, and well worthy the elevated positions to which they were called.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARGES OF CORRUPTION AGAINST MR. CLAY AND MR. ADAMS--MR. ADAMS ENTERS UPON HIS DUTIES AS PRESIDENT--VISIT OF LA FAYETTE--TOUR THROUGH THE UNITED STATES--MR. ADAMS DELIVERS HIM A FAREWELL ADDRESS--DEPARTS FROM THE UNITED STATES.

The election of Mr. Adams to the presidency, was a severe disappointment to the friends of Gen. Jackson. As the latter had received a majority of fifteen electoral votes over Mr. Adams, it was confidently antic.i.p.ated, nay, virtually demanded, that he should be elected by the House of Representatives. This claim, it was insisted, was in accordance with the will of the people, as expressed in the electoral colleges, and to resist it would be to violate the spirit of the const.i.tution, and to set at nought the fundamental principles of our republican Government. A sufficient reply to these positions is found in the fact, that Gen.

Jackson did not receive a majority of the electoral votes, and hence a majority of the people could not be considered as desiring his election.

The absolute truth, subsequently obtained on this point, was, that Mr.

Adams had received more of the primary votes of the people than Gen.

Jackson; and thus, according to all republican principles, was ent.i.tled to be considered the first choice of the citizens of the United States.

The position of Mr. Clay, in this contest for the presidency, was one of great delicacy and difficulty. He was precisely in that critical posture, that, whatever course he might pursue, he would be subject to misrepresentation and censure, and could not but raise up a host of enemies. Originally one of the four candidates for the presidency, he failed, by five electoral votes, in having a sufficient number to be one of the three candidates returned to the House of Representatives, of which he was then Speaker. In this posture of affairs, it was evident that upon the course which should be pursued by Mr. Clay, and his friends in the House, depended the question who should be elected President. As Mr.

Crawford, on account of the critical state of his health, was considered out of the question, Mr. Clay was left to choose between Mr. Adams and Gen. Jackson.

In this posture of affairs, Mr. Clay saw, that however patriotic the principles on which he acted, and however pure the motives by which he might be governed in making his selection, he must inevitably expose himself to the severest animadversions from the defeated party. But he did not hesitate, in the discharge of what he believed to be a solemn duty he owed his country, to throw his influence in behalf of the man whom he believed the best fitted to serve that country in the responsible office of the presidency. Long before it had been foreseen such a contingency would occur, he had expressed his want of confidence in the ability and fitness of Gen. Jackson for the executive chair. But in Mr. Adams he saw a man of the utmost purity and integrity of private character--a scholar of the ripest abilities--a statesman, a diplomatist, a patriot of unquestioned talents and of long experience,--one who had been entrusted with most important public interests by Was.h.i.+ngton, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and also had received from these ill.u.s.trious men every mark of confidence--whose familiarity with the internal condition and foreign relations of the Union was unequalled by any public man! Between men so dissimilar in their qualifications, how could Mr. Clay, with the slightest regard to the welfare of the nation, the claims of patriotism, or the dictates of his conscience, hesitate to choose? He did not hesitate. With an intrepid determination to meet all consequences, he threw his influence in behalf of Mr. Adams, and secured his election.

This decisive step, as had been clearly foreseen, drew upon the head of Mr. Clay the severest censures of the supporters of Gen. Jackson. Motives of the deepest political corruption were attributed to him. They charged him with making a deliberate stipulation or "bargain" with Mr. Adams, to give his influence, on the understanding that he was to receive, in payment, the appointment to the state department. The undoubted object of this charge was to ruin Mr. Clay's future prospects, and make capital to the advantage of Gen. Jackson in the next presidential campaign. It implicated Mr. Adams equally with Mr. Clay. If the latter had been so corrupt as to offer his support on the promise of office, the former was quite as guilty in accepting of terms so venal. There never was a more base charge against American statesmen--there never was one more entirely dest.i.tute of foundation, or even shadow of proof! It was at no time considered ent.i.tled to the slightest particle of belief by those who were at Was.h.i.+ngton during these transactions and had an opportunity of knowing the true state of things at that time. But there were many, throughout the country, too ready to receive such reports in regard to public men. Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay were greatly prejudiced by this alleged collusion--a prejudice which years did not efface.

This charge first appeared in a tangible form shortly previous to the election by the House of Representatives, in an anonymous letter in the "Columbian Observer," at Philadelphia. It was soon ascertained to have been written by Mr. Kremer, a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Mr. Clay immediately published a card in the National Intelligencer, denying, in unequivocal terms, the allegation, and p.r.o.nouncing the author "an infamous calumniator, a dastard, and a liar!"

A few days after this, Mr. Kremer acknowledged himself the author of the letter in the "Columbian Observer," and professed himself ready to prove the corruptions alleged: whereupon Mr. Clay demanded that the House raise a committee to investigate the case. The committee was appointed; but Mr.

Kremer, on grounds of the most frivolous description, refused to appear before the committee, or to furnish a particle of proof of the truth of the grave a.s.sertions he had uttered--thus virtually acknowledging their slanderous character.

Mr. Clay being in this manner denied the privilege of vindicating his innocence, and showing the depravity of his accusers, the matter continued in an unsettled state until the next presidential campaign, when it was revived in a more tangible form, and brought to bear adversely to Mr.

Adams's administration and reelection. In 1827, Gen. Jackson, in a letter to Mr. Carter Beverly, which soon appeared in public print, made the following statement:--

"Early in January, 1825, a member of Congress of high respectability visited me one morning, and observed that he had a communication he was desirous to make to me; that he was informed there was a great intrigue going on, and that it was right I should be informed of it. * * * * * * *

He said he had been informed by the friends of Mr. Clay, that the friends of Mr. Adams had made overtures to them, saying, if Mr. Clay and his friends would unite in aid of Mr. Adams's election, Mr. Clay should be Secretary of State; that the friends of Mr. Adams were urging, as a reason to induce the friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their proposition, that if I were elected President, Mr. Adams would be continued Secretary of State; that the friends of Mr. Clay stated the West did not wish to separate from the West, and if I would say, or permit any of my confidential friends to say, that in case I were elected President Mr. Adams should not be continued Secretary of State, by a complete union of Mr. Clay and his friends, they would put an end to the presidential contest in one hour.

And he was of opinion it was right to fight such intriguers with their own weapons."

On a subsequent statement, Gen. Jackson a.s.serted that the gentleman who called upon him with these propositions was James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania.

This was the Kremer charge made definite in circ.u.mstances and application; and if well grounded, was susceptible of plain proof. On the appearance of this statement by Gen. Jackson, Mr. Clay came out with a positive denial. He said:--

"I neither made, nor authorized, nor knew of any proposition whatever, to either of the three candidates who were returned to the House of Representatives, at the last presidential election, or to the friends of either of them, for the purpose of influencing the result of the election, or for any other purpose. And all allegations, intimations, and inuendoes, that my vote on that occasion was offered to be given, or was in fact given, in consideration of any stipulation or understanding, express or implied, direct or indirect, written or verbal,--that I was, or that any other person was not, to be appointed Secretary of State; or that I was, or in any other manner to be, personally benefitted,--are devoid of all truth, and dest.i.tute of any foundation whatever."

Here was a direct collision between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Clay. All now rested with Mr. Buchanan. His testimony would either prostrate Mr. Clay, or place him, in regard to this matter, beyond the reach of the foulest tongue of calumny. In due time Mr. Buchanan made his statement, in which he denied, in unequivocal language, having made any such proposition to Gen. Jackson. In his explanation he says:--

"I called upon General Jackson solely as his friend, upon my individual responsibility, and not as the agent of Mr. Clay, or any other person. I never have been the political friend of Mr. Clay, since he became a candidate for the office of President. Until I saw General Jackson's letter to Mr. Beverly, of the 6th ult., and at the same time was informed, by a letter from the editor of the United States Telegraph, that I was the person to whom he alluded, the conception never once entered my head, that he believed me to be the agent of Mr. Clay, or of his friends, or that I had intended to propose to him terms of any kind from them, or that he could have supposed me to be capable of expressing the opinion that 'it was right to fight such intriguers with their own weapons.' Such a supposition, had I entertained it, would have rendered me exceedingly unhappy, as there is no man on earth whose good opinion I more valued than that of General Jackson. * * * * * * * * * I owe it to my character to make another observation. Had I ever known, or even suspected, that General Jackson believed I had been sent to him by Mr. Clay or his friends, I should immediately have corrected his erroneous impression, and thus prevented the necessity for this most unpleasant explanation. * * * *

* * * I had no authority from Mr. Clay, or his friends, to propose any terms to General Jackson in relation to their votes, nor did I ever make any such proposition."

This statement fully and triumphantly exonerated Mr. Clay, Mr. Adams, and their friends, from the charge of "bargain" and "corruption," which had been so boldly made and widely disseminated. The only witness ever brought upon the stand to support such an allegation, a.s.serted, in a manner the most positive and decisive, the entire innocence of the parties implicated.

That Mr. Clay, in throwing his influence in behalf of Mr. Adams, was but following out a resolution formed long before he had any opportunity of communication with Mr. Adams or his friends, on the subject, is proved by the following extract of a letter from a gentleman in Lexington, Ky., to the editors of the National Intelligencer, dated March 21, 1825:--

"At different times, before Mr. Clay left this place for Was.h.i.+ngton, last fall, I had conversations with him on the subject of the choice of a President by the House of Representatives. In all of them, he expressed himself as having long before decided in favor of Mr. Adams, in case the contest should lie between that gentleman and General Jackson. My last interview with him was, I think, the day before his departure, when he was still more explicit, as it was then certain that the election would be transferred to that tribunal, and highly probable that he would not be among the number returned. In the course of this conversation, I took occasion to express my sentiments with respect to the delicate and difficult circ.u.mstances under which he would be placed. He remarked that I could not more fully apprehend them than he did himself; but that nothing should deter him from the duty of giving his vote; and that no state of things could arise that would justify him in preferring General Jackson to Mr. Adams, or induce him to support the former. So decisive, indeed, were his declarations on this subject, that had he voted otherwise than he did, I should have been compelled to regard him as deserving that species of censure which has been cast upon him for constantly adhering to an early and deliberate resolution."

It was thought, by some of Mr. Clay's friends, that he erred in judgment in accepting the office of Secretary of State, as it would tend to strengthen his enemies in their efforts to fix upon him the charge of corruption. Among those entertaining this opinion was Mr. Crawford, himself one of the three presidential candidates returned to the House of Representatives. In a letter to Mr. Clay he says:--

"I hope you know me too well to suppose that I have countenanced the charge of corruption which has been reiterated against you. The truth is, I approved of your vote when it was given, and should have voted as you did between Jackson and Adams. But candor compells me to say, that I disapproved of your accepting an office under him."

In replying to this letter Mr. Clay remarked:--

"I do, my dear sir, know you too well to suppose that you ever countenanced the charge of corruption against me. No man of sense and candor--at least none that know me--ever could or did countenance it. Your frank admission that you would have voted as I did, between Mr. Adams and Gen. Jackson, accords with the estimate I have ever made of your intelligence, your independence, and your patriotism. Nor am I at all surprised, or dissatisfied, with the expression of your opinion, that I erred in accepting the place which I now hold. * * * * * * * The truth is, as I have often said, my condition was one full of embarra.s.sments, whatever way I might act. My own judgment was rather opposed to my acceptance of the department of state. But my friends--and let me add, two of your best friends, Mr. McLane of Delaware and Mr. Forsyth--urged us strongly not to decline it. It was represented by my friends, that I should get no credit for the forbearance, but that, on the contrary, it would be said that my forbearance was evidence of my having made a bargain, though unwilling to execute it. * * * * * * * * These and other similar arguments were pressed upon me; and after a week's deliberation, I yielded to their force. It is quite possible that I may have erred * * * *

* * I shall, at least, have no cause of self-reproach."