The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser

POLITICAL.
THE ADMINISTRATION

The Editor of the Albany Argus, in speaking of the Administration of the General Government, remarks--"At this time, neither the state of the public mind, nor the general posture of affairs, seems to require a gratuitous exhibition of hostility on the one hand, or loud profession ther. If we were friends, we should regret any necessity which should require a constant proclamation of the fact; and if we were opponents, we should expect to add very little to the weight of our opposition by a continual show of the belligerent. Under nearly all circumstances, extraordinary or ill-timed zeal lay itself open to the imputation of indiscretion or of hypocrisy. In relation to our own opinion, whether we believe the administration of Mr. Adams to be entitled to the support of the country,' the question can be answered more fitly when the leading measures of the Administration shall be more fully developed, or after sufficient time shall have elapsed to judge of such as have been already adopted.

Mr. Clay (says the Lexington Gazette,) has had a most hearty and welcome reception on his late return to Kentucky. Besides the public dinner which was given him at Sanders' garden, he has been invited to a barbecue and dance in Woodford county, and to a public dinner at Winchester in Clarke county. We publish in this day's paper the invitation addressed to him from Winchester, together with his answer. He has also been invited to public dinners at Georgetown, Frankfort, and Bardstown, but has been obliged to decline their acceptance.

WINCHESTER, July 22, 1826.

Honorable H. Clay:

Dear Sir: We, as a committee in behalf of the People of Clarke county and town of Winchester, beg leave to offer you their cordial and respectful salutations upon your arrival in this District.

The change of political relation has not altered the high estimation, which they have so long placed upon your public services and private worth, and they now hasten to tender their congratulations, to the first minister of the Republic, upon his arrival among them, with the same friendship, affection and confidence, which you have so often experienced upon your return from the Congress of the nation by their immediate Representative.

That portion of your Constituents which we on this occasion have the pleasure to represent are anxious to see and greet you individually, and have directed us to invite you to partake of a public dinner at this place on the 29th of this month.

In noticing the character of the opposition which has been waged against the administration of the General Government, and against yourself in particular. we have felt no surprise; for experience had taught us, that the most exalted wisdom, and the purest virtues will not protect the Government from the assault of faction. History proves, that the violent, desperate; and discontented part of every nation, united under the banners of disappointed ambition, will always constitute an inveterate opposition to the best of Governments.

Heretofore the factions in these United States have had the address to make their opposition plausible. Even Washington did not escape the virulence of party hostility, and his opponents endeavored to dignify their opposition with the name of principle; but the present adversaries of the Government seem to stand confessed contenders for place and power.

We have the most lively confidence that the good sense of the American People will distinguish between the measures of a wise administration, and the selfish efforts of a faction, whose object is manifestly the gratification of private ambition.

That the leaders of the opposition should reserve and pour out upon you, the very bitterest of their revilings, was to be expected. The estimation in which you are held as a statesman in the two Americas and in Europe, and the anxiety that is felt by the friends of human happiness and free principles throughout the world to see you have an efficient influence in the American Cabinet, have made you the chief obstacle to the success of the faction, and of course your destruction is their first and main object.

Those who dare not meet you on the arena of honorable and true ambition, where talents are measured, and where worth and services are compared, have sought in vain to deprive you of your well-earned fame, by the base and detestable arts of falsehood and detraction.

You have been engaged in the discharge of arduous public duties. The eyes of a nation have rested on you. You have stood the scrutiny of an inquisition erected for your condemnation, and the blows of your enemies have only served to burnish brighter the escutcheon of your fame.

Your fellow-citizens feel a pride in this triumph of political rectitude, which they wish not to suppress. On all occasions they sympathise with the victim of calumny. But when, they view the arrows of detraction levelled at the breast of him, who has grown up among them, and upon whom they rely as upon their own right arm, his cause is their cause, and his success is their triumph.

Go on persevere in your efforts for the good and glory of the nation. If there be any place in this world where virtue shall have the ascendancy over vice-where truth shall prevail against falsehood--where the real statesman and true patriot shall triumph over the ambitious pretender, that place is surely these United States.

Accept assurances of our individual friendship.

[Signed by a Committee of Citizens.]

MR. CLAY'S ANSWER.

LEXINGTON, 24th July, 1826.

Gentlemen: I have received, with lively emotions of gratitude and thankfulness, your affectionate note of the 22d instant, expressing the friendly congratulations of my fellow-citizens of Clarke and Winchester, in consequence of my recent return to Kentucky and inviting me to a public dinner which they propose on the 29th instant. Such an honorable testimony of esteem and confidence, emanating from any portion of the public, would be highly gratifying, but proceeding as it does from a respectable community, with many of whose members I have been intimately associated, in public or private life, for more than a quarter of a century, it has a value which no language can adequately express. I regret that the circumstances of my situation will not allow me to accept the honor intended me. I came home to see my relations and friends, but to see them informally and without parade, to transact some private business, and to recover from the fatigues of a laborious office. Occurrences since I left Washington oblige me to abridge the time which I had hoped to abide in Kentucky, and I must dedicate the small remnant to my private affairs. I trust that the People of Clarke and Winchester will be persuaded that, in thus yielding to the necessity which controls my movements, I shall not be less mindful of the new and the old obligations under which they have placed me.

The administration of the General Government has experienced, in some of the measures they have proposed a degree of opposition which could not have been anticipated. I take upon myself to assert, with perfect truth, that those measures were results of an anxious desire to promote the public prosperity. Whether their actual tendency will be good or bad must be decided by time and the public judgement. To these tests the most confident appeal is made.

I thank the People of Clarke county and Winchester for the sympathy and interest which they kindly feel in my behalf. I have borne my full share of calumny and abuse; but I have enjoyed, at the same time, the consolations which ardent, enlightened and devoted friends and conscious rectitude must ever inspire. I defy my accusers to point out, in the measures of the present Administration, a single deviation from those great principles of national policy, of which I have ever been a faithful, if not an efficient supporter.

If they choose to arraign me for not hitching myself to the car of a particular individual, I plead guilty. The invariable principle of my public life has been earnestly to inquire after, and fearlessly to pursue, what appeared to me for the public good. In acting upon it, I have confided in the just awards of the public intelligence, deliberately pronounced. I have not been, nor shall be, deceived. Cheered by the animating encouragement which I am happy to receive from the great body of the nation, as well as from both the local parties of my own State, I will, while life and health are spared me, obey your mandate, to persevere in my humble endeavors to advance the happiness and prosperity of our common country."

Accept, gentlemen, assurances of the sincere respect and regard of your friend and fellow-citizen,

H. CLAY.

To Messrs. Hubbard, Taylor, Fc. &c.