Constitutional Whig

Henry Clay.—Mr. Clay certainly accepts the Department of State. Whether we consider his great talents, his reputation abroad, his influence at home, his particular position in the west, or his republican principles, no man perhaps, has superior claims to that station.—Why should he not accept it? Because, say his open denouncers and spurious friends, he would be furnishing evidence of a corrupt compact with Mr. Adams.—Is his voting for Mr. Adams then, to have the extraordinary effect of a moral exclusion from office? We are free to acknowledge that we should esteem Mr. Clay's rejection of the office, as much more suspicious than his acceptance. In the last, we see the honest independence, which consulting its own wishes, and relying on conscious rectitude, is indifferent to consequences—in the first, we should perceive the trembling cowardice, which hesitates to accept the reward, earned by infamy. Of one thing, Mr. Clay may assure himself, that act as he may, he can never conciliate the party whom he has recently, and past forgiveness offended. His usual fearlessness is the course both of honesty and policy.