[A NATIONAL convention of whig young men assembled at Baltimore
in May, 1840, to take measures to promote the election of
general Harrison, as president of the United States. On this
occasion, an immense assemblage of delegates from the different
states of the union attended, and the convention was addressed
by various distinguished citizens, particularly by members
of congress, which body was then in session, at Washington.
Mr. Clay being present, was called upon to address the multitude,
to which he responded briefly as follows.]
MR. CLAY commenced by a reference to the northwest wind, which blew
almost a gale, and compared it happily to the popular voice of the
immense multitude who were present. Difficult as it was to be heard by
such a throng, he said he could not refrain from obeying the general
summons, and responding to the call. He was truly grateful for the
honor conferred upon him. This, said he, is no time to argue; the
time for discussion has passed, the nation has already pronounced its
sentence. I behold here the advanced guard. A revolution, by the grace
of God and the will of the people, will be achieved. William Henry
Harrison will be elected president of the United States.
We behold, continued Mr. Clay, in his emphatic and eloquent
manner, the ravages brought upon our country under the revolutionary
administrations of the present and the past. We see them in a disturbed
country, in broken hopes, in deranged exchanges, in the mutilation
of the highest constitutional records of the country. All these
are the fruits of the party in power, and a part of that revolution
which has been in progress for the last ten years. But this party,
Mr. Clay thought he could say, had been, or was demolished. As it had
demolished the institutions of the country, so it had fallen itself. As
institution after institution had fallen by it, and with them interest
after interest, until a general and wide-spread ruin had come upon the
country, so now the revolution was to end in the destruction of the
party and the principles which had been instrumental in our national
sufferings.
This, said Mr. Clay, is a proud day for the patriot. It animated his
own bosom with hope, and I, he added, am here to mingle my hopes with
yours, my heart with yours, and my exertions with your exertions.
Our enemies hope to conquer us, but they are deluded, and doomed to
disappointment.
Mr. Clay then alluded most happily, and amid the cheers of all around
him, to the union of the whigs. We are, said he, all whigs, we are all
Harrison men. _We are united._ We must triumph.
One word of myself, he said, referring to the national convention
which met at Harrisburgh in December last. That convention was composed
of as enlightened and as respectable a body of men as were ever
assembled in the country. They met, deliberated, and after a full and
impartial deliberation, decided that William Henry Harrison was the man
best calculated to unite the whigs of the union against the present
executive. General Harrison was nominated, and cheerfully, and without
a moment’s hesitation, I gave my hearty concurrence in that nomination.
From that moment to the present, I have had but one wish, one object,
one desire, and that is, to secure the election of the distinguished
citizen who received the suffrages of the convention.
Allow me here to say, continued Mr. Clay, that his election is certain.
This I say, not in any boasting or over confident sense, far from it.
But I feel sure, almost, that there are twenty states who will give
their votes for Harrison. Do not the glories of this day authorize the
anticipation of such a victory? I behold before me more than twenty
thousand freemen, and is it anticipating too much to say that such an
assembly as this is a sign ominous of triumph.
Mr. Clay then warned his friends of two great errors in political
warfare――too much confidence, and too much despondency. Both were to be
feared. There should be no relaxation. The enemy were yet powerful in
numbers, and strong in organization. It became the whigs, therefore, to
abstain from no laudable exertion necessary to success. Should we fail,
he added, should Mr. Van Buren be reëlected, which calamity God avert,
though he would be the last man to despair of the republic, he believed
the struggle of restoring the country to its former glory would be
almost a hopeless one. That calamity, however, or the alternative, was
left with the twenty thousand whigs here assembled.
We received our liberty, said Mr. Clay, in conclusion, from our
revolutionary ancestors, and we are bound in all honor, to transfer it
unimpaired to our posterity. The breeze which this day blows from the
right quarter, is the promise of that popular breeze which will defeat
our adversaries, and make William Henry Harrison the president of the
United States.
ON THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY UNDER
MR. VAN BUREN’S ADMINISTRATION.