Spectacular Henry Clay Autograph Letter Saying He Fears for the Country After the 1828 Election of His Great Foe Andrew Jackson
“…It has filled me with awful apprehension…the remaining energies of all of us should be directed in our respective spheres whatever they may be, to avert any calamity which may be impending over us, in consequence of the event …Still there is hope while there is life, or liberty.”
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Henry Clay was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the...
Henry Clay was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the “Great Compromiser” and was part of the “Great Triumvirate” of Congressmen alongside fellow Whigs Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun.
Autograph Letter, Washington, Feb. 7, 1829 to former War and Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford. “Your favor of the 24th January has been recd. Mr. Olin has been nominated as secretary of legation to London. I have not yet learned the fate of the nomination, nor can I venture to tell you what it will be. A majority of the Senate it would seem is resolved to act only on those nominations of the President which it thinks proper. Whether this unconstitutional rule will be applied to the case of your friend, so as to defeat his nomination, is to be seen. As to the termination of the contest for the presidency to what the close of your letter you advert, it is now useless to speculate on causes which might have prevented the particular issue. A much more interesting inquiry is, as to the consequences of it upon our country and its institutions; upon the present generation and posterity. Although it is not my habit to look too steadily at the gloomy side of the picture, I own to you that it has filled me with awful apprehension. Still there is hope while there is life, or liberty. And the remaining energies of all of us should be directed in our respective spheres whatever they may be, to avert any calamity which may be impending over us, in consequence of the event. With kindest regard.”
Very good, the signature on the letter is cut off, but the signed free frank still remains. Andrew Jackson and Clay had hated each other for years and Clay lost the presidency to him in the election of 1832. In a letter to then Sec. of State Martin Van Buren in 1825 Crawford had expressed disappointment that Stephen Olin had not been made secretary of legation to London. It is to him the letter refers.
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