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CHAPTER XLI.

CLAY OR JACKSON-CLAY'S POLITICAL BLUNDER-THE MAKING OF JACKSON "THE MAN ON HORSEBACK"-PATHETIC DEATH OF WHIG PARTY-WILD BANKING IN KENTUCKY-BASELESS PAPER MONEY: BOUNDLESS SPECULATION-CRY FOR RELIEF ANSWERED.

A presidential election was now impending and it was expected that President Adams would succeed himself. If Adams were not his own successor, it was expected that Henry Clay would be chosen in his stead.

Clay had represented his country with great honor at Ghent when the treaty of peace with England had been arranged. He had a brilliant career in congress, unequalled by that of any other man; as speaker of the house he had acquitted himself with credit. His talents and his patriotic devotion to his country, were everywhere acknowledged. He had held the position of secretary of state which, for years, had pointed to the presidency. Yet across his path to that high honor there stalked the grim figure of Andrew Jackson.

The people of the United States, peace-loving as they are, have always had a warm spot in their hearts for the successful soldier. The east, then as now, considered no man from the west as its equal. The man whose ancestors had not set foot upon Plymouth Rock was not to be considered in the selection of a president. Jackson was a plebeian, a North Carolina mountaineer, and, though he had won the great victory at New Orleans, he was not to be considered as a possible president. Henry Clay, a Virginian, not an aristocrat by birth, but an able man by reason of intellect, made an appeal to them which Jackson could never do. Adams was elected president by the house, but the vote of Mr. Clay for Adams

in the house sounded the death knell of his presidential hopes. Either he should win in 1828, or Jackson should take the prize.

Of the campaign in that year, Judge Little reports Baldwin as saying: "The election of Adams by the house of representatives was turned to account with all its incidents and surroundings, with admirable effect by General Jackson. No one now believes the story of bargain, intrigue and management told upon Adams and Clay, but General Jackson believed it and what is more, made the country believe it in 1825. Adams was an unpopular man, of an unpopular section of the country. Crawford's friends were as little pleased as Jackson's with the course affairs took. The warfare upon Adams was hailed by them with joy and they became parties to an opposition of which, it was easy to see, Jackson was to be the beneficiary."

Clay's ambition, or incaution, betrayed him into the serious and as it turned out, so far as concerns the presidency, the fatal error of accepting office, the first office, under the administration which he called into power. It was in all political respects, an inexcusable blunder. The office added nothing to his fame. It added nothing to his chances for the presidency. He was, on the contrary, to share the odium of an administration at whose head was a very obstinate man of impracticable temper, coming by a sort of bastard process, into office, bearing a name which was the synonym

of political heterodoxy and whose administration was fated to run a gauntlet from the start to the close, through a long lane of clubs wielded by the Forsythes, McDuffies, Randolphs and almost the whole talent of the south.

Mr. Clay was a statesman and an absolutely honest man. He made a mistake in voting for Mr. Adams and but for that mistake, he would, soon or late, have been president of the United States. He was not a mere politician; had he been, he would have played the game. differently. He might have voted for Crawford, who was not likely to live until the next election. But Clay placed himself alongside of those who supported Mr. Adams and brought about the latter's election. The opposing forces of that day charged Mr. Clay with corruption. Time softens the asperities of politics and today there is none to believe that Mr. Clay was corrupt. The worst that can be said, is that he made a mistake in accepting a position in Mr. Adams' cabinet. Mr. Clay's place was in the senate, and there he should have remained. No greater senator has held a seat in that body-not Webster; not Calhoun; no man was greater there than Henry Clay.

A historian of that period has written of the attacks upon Mr. Clay and those who believed with him: "Those assaults were not slow in coming. The public mind had been fallow for some years, and was prepared for a bountiful crop of political agitation. Jack son raised the war cry and the hills and valleys all over the land echoed back the shout. A lava-tide of obloquy poured in a flood over Clay. It seemed to take him by surprise. The idea that his voting for Adams and then occupying the first office in his gift, seconded by the supports which the hypotheses of 'bargain' found, or were made for it, should originate such a charge, seems never to have entered his imagination, and when it came he had the weakness to attempt to strangle it by

personal intimidation or to avenge it by violence.

"The election of Adams under such circumstances, was the making of Jackson. It filled up his popularity. It completely nationalized it. The States Rights party, to whom the name and lineage of Adams were enough for opposition, turned at once to the man who could best defeat him and saw at a glance who that man was, and the popular sympathy was quickly aroused in behalf of the honest, old soldier, circumvented by two cunning politicians."

In 1832, Mr. Clay was again a candidate for the presidency, but was defeated by General Jackson, who had been referred to in preceding campaigns as "the honest old soldier, circumvented by cunning politicians." If history were a place for jokes, this would be a point where one could be interjected. The idea of Andrew Jackson being circumvented by cunning politicians is calculated to cause a smile wherever the actions of that sturdy old soldier are known. What he did not know about the practical side of politics it was worth the time of no man to learn. Mr. Clay possessed the politician's hatred for General Jackson and when each of them had passed from the arena in which their lieutenants had bravely struggled, they left a heritage of hatred which did not die for years. How pitiful is this bitterness of politics. Men who stand shoulder to shoulder in business affairs; who entrust thousands of dollars to each other without a written word to witness the transaction, profess not to believe in the honesty of their political opponents and can find no words which properly define that distrust. It is sickening and disgusting to know that this is true, and the writer of these words is glad to know that he has reached an age when he can give to political friend and political opponent an equal meed of praise. The man who cannot do so, is a man who puts political place and power above political decency. The masses

of mankind are personally honest and the man who arrogates to himself and those who join in his beliefs, all the honesty and relegates to the opposition all the dishonesty of political belief, is a man who should be constantly watched because he is not a good citizen. The division of political parties in our country is too nearly equal for all the good men to belong to the one party, all the bad men to the other.

The Whig party in Kentucky, which had supported Mr. Clay with an enthusiasm rarely equaled, felt very bitterly the effects of defeat. He was the idol of his party and justly So. No greater man had led a party to victory or defeat than he. Not the solid Republican phalanx which in after years, stood like a stone wall by the side of Mr. Blaine, the favorite son of his party, was more earnest than the men who aligned themselves by the side of Mr. Clay and who, time after time, went down to defeat with Kentucky's favorite son. The Whig party maintained its organization in Kentucky but to do so, it must maintain a constant struggle. The seeds of dissolution had been sown and it was not long until they would blossom into full fruitage and the party cease to be. It only remained for Mr. Clay to pass from the field of action when there should be no Whig party in Kentucky or elsewhere.

Jackson was the hero of the moment. The people of the United States have never feared "the man on horseback." To the contrary, they have always advanced him to high executive position. Mr. Clay did not recognize this fact. He claimed that the people should distrust the military chieftain, whose election to high position was dangerous to the safety of the government. The people thought otherwise. They elevated to the presidency Washington, the Father of his Country, who was nothing if not a soldier; they put into power later, Harrison, Taylor and Grant, the latter long after Mr. Clay had passed away;

and under none of these did the republic suffer. "The Man on Horseback," may prove a shibboleth for the opposition, but he can never disturb nor distress the republic, whether successful or not in his efforts to reach the presidency. Mr. Clay, though of humble birth, was, in the end, a patrician. He could never abide the low-born Jackson and after the success of the latter, he is found writing to a friend: "The military principles have triumphed and triumphed in the person of one devoid of all the graces, elegancies and magnanimity of the accomplished men of the professions." But it was not then as it is not now, a wise thing to underestimate the power of one's adversary. Jackson was president and president he was destined to be for eight years, during which by a skillful use of the tremendous power of the presidency, he built up a party which the opposition could not successfully assail and which gave to him the opportunity to name his successor in the executive office.

Mr. Clay, though the idol of his party, and justly so, was compelled to bide his time, awaiting new opportunities and by the irony of fate new defeats. The Whig party in Kentucky awaited with Mr. Clay, the coming of the day when it should come into power, ever hopeful; ever doomed to defeat. It had no part in the control of the affairs of the government; it had a high disdain for those who controlled national affairs; it was the aristocrat of politics and looked with disdain upon those who enjoyed the loaves and fishes which it imagined belonged by divine right, to itself. It was dying not slowly but swiftly and did not know it. There came a few years afterwards the dreadful war which separated our people and among other ideas which were definitely settled by that contest were the questions which the Whig party had deemed its own, and which were no more to be considered by the people of Kentucky. It was not slavery alone which that contest definitely set

tled; it was a new alignment of political parties and the old Whig party was not among them, because it was dead. There was something pathetic about its demise, chiefly because it did not know that its end had come. For years after the war had closed, there were sturdy old aristocrats who voted the Democratic ticket, explaining meanwhile, that they had to do so, not that they were Democrats, but that they were not Republicans and had to vote against some one. It is pleasant to remember these sturdy old gentlemen today. They remind us of the ruffle-shirted, knee breeches era and one can easily see them going to the polls and voting for Mr. Clay, after that great statesman had passed to his reward; even as the Democrats were charged with voting for General Jackson years after he had been gathered to his fathers.

It would be pleasant for the historian of this period to cease to consider the Old Court and New Court question, but it was not to be disposed of, though the latter had met its deserved end. It was to mingle, in some degree, with the politics of Kentucky for some years yet.

The Commonwealth's Bank and the replevin laws which were a part of its history, were doomed to destruction by the triumph of the Old Court party. The replevin laws were repealed, and the bank was destroyed by successive acts of the legislature directing that its paper should be gradually destroyed instead of being reissued. In a few years, all of its issue had disappeared from commerce and in its stead, the issue of the United States. Bank was accepted. This latter bank had two branches in the state, one at Louisville, and the other at Lexington. Jackson and the party which stood behind him, had for their object the destruction of this bank, and when Jackson was re-elected president in 1832, the end of the bank was near. No one expected its charter to be renewed, and in its stead state

banks were to be established throughout the Union to supply its place.

In 1833 and 1834, the legislature established the Bank of Kentucky, the Bank of Louisville and the Bank of Northern Kentucky; the first with a capital of five millions, the second with a capital of two millions and the third with a capital of three million dollars.

The usual result followed this multiplication of banks and the enormous increase of capital. Paper money was everywhere to be had and the wildest spirit of speculation dominated the country. Prices of the commonest commodities rose to high figures, and the different municipalities, even the states, embarked in enterprises on the most gigantic scale. The people went mad in speculation. Not the tulip excitement of Holland was greater than that which sent the people into the stock market, mad with the desire for the sudden accumulation of riches. Where men had not money, they borrowed it at ruinous rates. Railroads, canals, slack water navigation, turnpike roads, any and everything that looked like public improvement, caught the popular fancy and the people, gone mad with the idea of great riches speedily to accrue, put into these schemes every dollar they could borrow and calmly sat down awaiting the flow into their coffers of endless riches. There could be but one end to this wild scheme of investment with no solid backing behind it.

In the spring of 1837, all the banks of Kentucky suspended specie payments and the end was near. Kentucky was spending one million dollars annually in the construction of turnpike roads, the improvement of water ways, and was looking to the early construction of railways. The people, vainly imagining that the plenitude of money was to be continuous, were involved in speculations heedless of the day of settlement. There was near them a day like that which had brought about

the relief agitation of the recent years, yet they halted not but continued their financial operations based upon imaginary capital as though the day of settlement were never to come. They seemed then to believe that the printing press would issue paper for their redemption, as many years later their descendants were to imagine themselves rich men, if only the mints would coin silver dollars as fast as their demands were made.

When the legislature met in 1837, it made legal the suspension of specie payments; refused to order the banks to resume such payment, and also refused to declare forfeited their charters. In other words, it gave the banks carte blanche to continue as they had been and left the people to suffer. The banks and the people minimized as much as was within their power, the crisis which was upon them. This gave temporary relief only. There was no specie available for any purpose. There were issued by towns, cities and individuals small representatives of currency which had no value beyond its immediate place of issue. In later years, like small currency was issued by the United States and was known as "shinplasters," and which served a very useful purpose.

In the midst of the crisis of 1837, the banks were managed with prudence, and forbore to press their creditors. In the latter portion of 1838, they cautiously begun the resumption of specie payments and as this spread throughout the United States, confidence was again felt and speculation was resumed, the apparent prosperity causing many to believe that there was no longer a panic to be feared.

But there was not yet a firm foundation for financial prosperity. In the latter months of 1839, specie payments ceased to be made by all except a few eastern banks. Bankruptcy

started the people in the face. Many states could not pay the interest upon their bonded indebtedness. Kentucky added fifty per cent to her direct tax to avoid defaulting upon her general indebtedness. In 1841-42, she was no longer able to postpone the day of reckoning. Her courts were congested with suits filed for the collection of private indebtedness. Property was being sacrificed under forced sales on every hand.

The people, willing to pay, anxious to pay, were unable to do so, and once again the former cry for relief was heard. Regardless of the failure of the past, the harassed debtors made a demand for a Bank of the Commonwealth which should offer them a way of relief, permit them to meet their indebtedness and save for their families the property they had accumulated. It is characteristic of the debtor class that they seize upon every device that is offered and recognize in each, the panacea for all their financial woes. It was so in 1896 and will be so as long as men owe more than they can pay.

In the elections of 1842, the old Relief party found itself again to the fore but only temporarily so. The legislature when assembled, rejected the measures offered by the Relief party having learned something by experience. But concessions were not denied and the more reasonable of the members of that party agreed to these and there was a practical adjustment of conditions. Certain terms of the circuit courts and of the magistrates' courts, were for the time being discontinued, in order that judgments might not be had against helpless debtors. The banks were required to issue more money and to give longer accommodation on their paper. Gradually business became more settled and by 1844, affairs had assumed practically their normal condition.

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