The Daily Madisonian

A MINORITY.

Many of the Bank presses, while acknowledging that, under the auspices of Mr. Clay, the Whigs have, during the last two years, been completely routed in nineteen or twenty of the States, endeavor to find consolation in the reflection that in 1838 and '39 they were in a similar predicament, and, notwithstanding, they carried every thing before them in 1840.

It is very true that the Whigs were beaten in '38 and '39, under Mr. Clay's lead, pretty much as they have been beaten in '42 and '43: but it cannot follow that they derived any advantage from being beaten under Mr. Clay's weight in the State elections, because General Harrison triumphed in 1840. If Mr. Clay had been run, we have no doubt he would have held his own—that is, his usual strength, his old vote, a minority of less than one fourth of the States. And this will be proven in 1844, if he should be the candidate; for we are very sure that his claims and merits cannot be more prominently set forth hereafter than they have been heretofore. Indeed, his political life has been thoroughly discussed several times already, by his party, and we believe he has never yet been elected. If any thing new has occurred in his public career which may give him additional claims—if any thing of importance has been omitted by his numerous biographers—of course he should have the advantage of it, whatever it may be, and doubtless he will. But, in the mean time, being universally recognised by all true Republicans as the noted leader of the common enemy—as one whose principles and proposed measures are, beyond comparison, the most obnoxious to them—it should not be wondered at if his opponents, now become familiar with every passage in his history, from repeated presentations of his name, were to avail themselves of counter-balancing blemishes for all the new beauties expatiated on by his adherents.