Richmond Enquirer

Bogus corrupt efforts to influence or control the recent election in Kentucky.

The Reporter charges, that, 'for weeks prior to the election, the public mail from Washington had been burthened with the Globe and other papers and documents, designed to influence the result'—that papers friendly to the Clay cause were totally excluded from the mail, or came with irregularity—that Missionaries from Washington, abandoning their public duties, 'were planted in different parts of the State'—that these Missionaries were charged with large sums of money, and other means to control the election—and that the whole artillery of the government had been directed against this State.

The Journal charges, that not a mail came from Washington without bringing bushels of those periodicals and pamphlets, to the exclusion of almost every thing else'—that every village and cottage in the State was literally filled with them—that money was supplied to the opponents of Mr. Clay, 'so prodigally, that they might have paved the streets with it'—and that 'clerks in the departments of government and other United States officers were here, distributing stipends in all quarters and maturing plans of operation.'

The people of Kentucky and of the Union will naturally inquire why these foul charges have been made immediately after the general election in this State. Why are we now falsely told that such means were used against the Clay party, and that the great wonder is, that they have 'not been ground to powder?'

The reason is obvious. The Clay party have been signally defeated in Mr. Clay's own State. Hence the desperate effort that has been made by the Reporter and Journal to apologise to the leaders of the opposition in other States for the result of the general election in Kentucky. Had the Clay party been victorious in Kentucky, we should not have heard a syllable of complaint about the means resorted to in the late canvass. All would have been joy on the part of our opponents. They would have shouted victory, without venturing to insinuate that the people were controlled by the influence of the Government, or bought up by showers of money brought from Washington. Such is the conclusion every man of sense will draw from the unfounded and outrageous charges fulminated by the Reporter and Journal immediately after the elections in this State.

From one to two months previous to the late election, the State was flooded with the infamous and libellous Circulars of James Clark and Thomas Chilton, with a view to make false impressions on the public mind with respect to the expenditures of the government; and an effort was made (which completely succeeded in this city) to bring the influence of the Bank of the United States to bear against the Jackson party in the election. To counteract these efforts, and the libels which had been published against the Post Master General, about sixteen thousand copies of an Extra Public Advertiser were distributed in this State previous to the election. The Extra contained Mr. Clay's speech against re-chartering the old Bank of the U. S., which stopped the mouths of his friends in relation to the present Bank, except in this City, and, perhaps, some one or two of the counties. Through the State generally, it operated as a damper to those who were ready to hurra for the Bank. To be thus silenced, and by a speech of Mr. Clay, was too much for human endurance. Hence the Clay partisans were loud and vehement against the Extra. They swore it was a 'tissue of libels, from beginning to end'—Mr. Clay's speech and all.

But, to return to the charges. It is not true that the mail was, at any time, burthened with papers, documents, pamphlets and periodicals, from Washington, designed to influence or control the election. It is not true that the papers or publications of the opposition were, at any time, or place, excluded from the mail, or intentionally retarded in their progress. It is not true that Missionaries from Washington were planted in any part of the State. It is not true that any individual in Kentucky was charged with a single dollar, from Washington, (from the administration or the government,) to be expended in electioneering in Kentucky—nor is it true that the 'artillery of the government' was directed against the Clay party here.

If the friends of Mr. Clay believe the charges we have just noticed—if they can sustain them by such evidence as will convince the people that they are true—we call upon them to do it. Nay, we challenge them to the proof. We say the charges of the Reporter and Journal were only got up to serve as an apology to the leaders of the opposition in other States, for the defeat of Mr. Clay in his own State. To sustain us right on this point, if we are in error, our opponents will have to prove, by reputable witnesses, (not by the perjurious assertions of such creatures as Smith and Prentice,) that Missionaries from Washington were planted in different parts of the State, charged with large sums of money—that clerks and officers were here distributing stipends in all quarters—and that money was supplied to the opponents of Mr. Clay 'so prodigally, that they might have paved the streets with it.'

In Kentucky these charges are known to be utterly unfounded—as vile as the authors of them are degraded and contemptible. It is also known here, that, if the science of corruption was brought to perfection within the last six months in Kentucky, its present state of perfectibility is attributable solely to the followers of the individual who made Mr. Adams President in 1825, by 'influence and intrigue, bargain and management.'

The fact is, Mr. Clay and his friends begin to perceive that all is lost in the West. Their last great effort has been made, and what is the result? They are defeated in the Congressional elections in Kentucky as they already admit; and, when an accurate list of members of the Legislature can be made out, it will be found that parties are again tied or nearly tied in that body. In Indiana, the Clay party has lost ground; in Missouri, Barton, the Clay candidate for Congress, has been distanced; in Illinois, the factious opposition are not powerful enough to make a noise, much less a respectable stand against the friends of the administration. In a word, the recent elections prove that Mr. Clay is a fallen man. This accounts for the reckless charges of the Reporter and Journal.

At the late session of Congress, the Clay party had four men here—Chilton, Kincaid, Letcher and Clark. At the next, they will certainly have four—Letcher, Allen Marshall and Tompkins—and possibly Chilton, though the two Jackson candidates in Chilton's district received a decided majority of the people's votes. The people of the nation will thus see that Mr. Clay has been beaten in 8 out of 12 Congressional Districts in Kentucky. Who has triumphed?

At the late session of the Legislature parties were so equally poised that neither could elect a Senator to Congress. At the next session the two parties may find themselves in a similar predicament. The returns that have reached us, lead us to believe that neither party will have a majority of six on joint ballot. Again, we ask, who has triumphed?

It is alleged by the Clay papers that the Clay candidates for Congress received a decided majority of the people's votes. This is a mistake. Leaving out the votes in Letcher's District, in which there was no Jackson candidate, and the votes of Johnson's district, in which there was no Clay candidate—the majorities will be found nearly as follow:

JACKSON CLAY
Allan 1300
Marshall 378
Tompkins 158
1836 2541

Those majorities are not official, nor do we pretend that they are entirely accurate—they are sufficiently correct, however, to prove that the Jackson candidates for Congress have received a majority of the people's votes in this State at the recent elections.

Wickinfe	367
Gather	180
Daniel	215
Adair	819
Lecompt	360
Lyon	800
Chilton's Di.	100

Al.	xander.
Crockett
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Crockett