| Show rep 0 elpa fa aam agm re nad haun G personal feuds have played their part and a fateful one in the history of the presidency had not alex lander ander hamilton been the unyielding foe of aaron burr the latter and not jefferson would have succeeded surce eded the aaron burr elder adams but even more momentous in its consequences was nas the long battle between andrew jackson and henry clay when jackson first run ran for the presidency in 1821 the candidates opposing him were adais Cr craford auford and clay none of the four secured a majority of the electoral college and the election thus devolved upon the house with ith choice to be made from the three candidates adams Cr clauford craw ford and jackson who inho had lad received the most electoral votes this debarred clay who mho forced as he lie expressed it to choose beewen two evils announced that he had decided to support adams but clays determination min mi no sooner became known than some of jacksons friends attempted to drive him from it A few days before the time set for the election in the house a letter appeared in a philadelphia newspaper newspapers as asserting berting that oat clay had agreed to support adams upon con condition dlton that he be made secretary of state the same terms the letter alleged had been ot fared to jacksons friends but none lr 01 roscoe conkling of t them would descend to such mean barter and sale the letter was wag anonymous but purported to be writ ten te by a member of the house clay a at once published a card in which he pronounced the writer a dastard and a har who if he dared avow his came ame would forthwith be called to the ie field two days later the letter lotter AM acknowledged by a witless ment ber u from pennsylvania kremer kromer by y sine elme who asserted that the state rients ants he lie had made were true and that he A as ready to prove them A w duel ith such a character was out ot 01 the question something howe however verp had 1 to be done and clay immediately delo handed an investigation by a caal committee of the house such stich a committee was as dul selected none of its members hail supported clay for the tile presidency kremer promptly declared his ills willingness to meet tle in juliy but in the end the committee ic te ported that he lie had declined to appeal beffie it seeding sending instead a communication muni cation in aich he lie denied tented the power of the house to compel him to testify no further action was as taken and in this shape for the time being the matter rested soon llou however eier came the election of adams by the house followed quickly wl alexander hamilton by his appointment 0 of clay as ns his liec of state though it is jow generally acknowledged that mere were has been no bargain between manis and clay it was natural that a the moment the rank and file of tack sons following should regard cays appointment as conclusive proof hat such a deal had been made kf BY accepting it clay made himself victim of circumstantial evidence As a matter of fact he lie hesitated in tu accept the place and finally assigned its duties with nith reluctance what colef ly determined him was nas the belief that if h did not accept it woula oula be argi 1 that he lie dared not thia this to clay m was as more wore obnoxious than the other horn of hie tile dilemma he het therefore took the alternative of bold defiance bin buc in so doing committe comm ittu sd a calamitous error in 1880 the unrelenting animosity Y of henry B payne alone prevented alien allen G thurman from being made the tile nominee of the democratic national convention in 1857 pane v a candidate for the democratic nomination for governor of ohio the acon bention met in columbus and thurman then fresh from a period of b bh 41 I 1 X 0 14 0 I 1 le na james 0 blaino llant service on the supreme bench of bis ills state had a friend in whose bandl dacy for state treasurer he was as much interested some of paces panes his knowledge promised without I 1 a ants ns Thurn thurman ifill the of the tile payne foicey tor nib his friend in return for the votes iotes he lie controlled in the convention but the thurman Thur nian candidate for treasurer failed at the tho last moment to receive the tile promised support of the payne following loIng fol and was defeated payne was not aarn of the trick that had been placed upon Thur thurman nian but the hattei who mio scorned double dealing in any faini was as quick to resent it within the hour the to do fell in iii ills its wa ua the convention ended pane went nent to a hotel for dinner accompanied compa tiled by some friends and in jovial jo tal mood opened wine N ine in celebration ol 01 his ills success presently thurman and a few fiends came in and took beats at an adjoining table payne bade the waiter alter carry a bottle of or ni wine ine to the na newcomers but in a moment it came canie luck bak with the gruff message that mr Thi thuirman liman did not care foi any of mr air pannes panes wine in evident surprise at this refusal payin rose from froin his ills scat seat and crossed to th v group of which was as the cen aral figure 1 I trust you and our friends will drink a bottle ot ol wine A tile with NN ith me judge he lie sat said urbanely drink to my success and the victory of the democratic pai baity ty 1 I do to not want mant any of your wine sir was nas the ie icely ply 1 I told that damned waiter to sa as much to you sir a moment ago and anil so saying thurman guined hig his back abruptly on the man mail from fruit cleveland payne never neier forgot nor forgave this public insult the quarrel thus begun henry 6 ever after kept hept the two men apart and three and twenty years later thwarted highest ambition in 1880 he was a can bdate tor for the presidential nomination before the democratic national convention convent lon had he had the unflinching support of the ohio delegation there Is little doubt that he lie would have been the nominee the del delegation gation was aas solid for him on the firm ballot then it broke and the chances of his nomination vanished into thin air payne was as behind the break the delegates from the district in which his influence was supreme led it and were ere strongest in the claim A which aich stampeded the convention to a dark horse As ohio ni was as then an october state and practically certain to 0 go o for garfield the result aou would id be lie disastrous to the democratic cause that argument defeated thurman and nominated hancock and the revenge of payne was complete but the most dramatic of all the political feuds of the tile last forty years both in its inception and its sequel was that between benine and conkling the two men entered tho the popular branch of congress at about the same time and both soon became bece leaders in that body there was however little in common between them save the gift of pre eminent ability conkling made blaine the object of hie his sarcasm whenever opportunity offered and the member from maine wa a prompt to retort in kind thua thus the enmity grew until in the course of one of their many encounters blaine stung to the quick by an unjust and ungenerous taunt burst forth in an onslaught on his tormentor which wrought the house into a high pitch of excitement and marked the beginning of a fierce struggle ruggle Pat in the republican party that ended in the humiliation of oi conkling and arid the defeat of blaine for president here are blaines alnes Bl words and they are a model of excoriation As to the tile cruel aar sarcasm I 1 hope he will not bo be too severe the contempt of that large minded gentleman Is so wilting his haughty disdain his grandiloquent avell his majestic overpowering gobbler strut has been so crushing to myself and all members of this house that I 1 know it was an act of the tile greatest temerity for me to venture upon a controversy with noth him then referring to a chance newspaper comparison of conkling to henry winter davis lately dead he lie continued continue d the gentleman took it seriously and it has given his ills strut additional pomposity the resemblance la Is great I 1 it Is striking hing Ih to a sat katr r Ther to hercules mud to marble dunghill to din diamond biond a singed cat to a bengal dengal tiger a NN shipped hipped pup py to a roaring lion shade of the tile mighty davis forgive the almost profanation of that jocose satire there could be no after such an onslaught and the bat tie tle was to the tile death defeated fop for tho the republican nomination by conk ling and his friends in 1876 and again in 1880 blaine in the latter yeat threw his following 0 to o his mend garneld garfield who nominated and elected made blaine his secretary ol 01 stata and official right hand then came the struggle over the new now york patron age which retired conkling and waa was followed by the assassination of oar car field flold in 1884 when blaino blaine was una final ly the formal choice of his 1 party is r tr conkling was no longer in politics but the sequel proved that bis his was still the will and r iwer to strike a mortal blow A di dt action of a few hundred votes in home 1 azar 13 elf I 1 f I 1 k allan allen Q G thuman county of onelda gave that county normally republican to cleveland and with ith it the electoral vote of new york and the presidency pre conkling had wiped out the hia his ancient enemy Rufus rockwell WU wil flon son in philadelphia ledger |
