noticed—and it has not been noticed, I regret
to say—might be put upon the pages of our
dehates and find its way to posterity to the
injury of that eminent, and as I say, that
pure man.
The gentleman from Howard (Mr. Sands)
in a very solemn manner, has not only stated
a fact which I think very much impeached
the character of Mr. Clay, inasmuch as he is
presented as on object not of estimation by
those who knew him, but as a man capable
of being directly bribed, and that by a pecu-
niary consideration, and therefore in an atti-
tude of the utmost meanness of character,
After stating facts which cannot but convey
this impression, the gentleman from Howard
has adverted to a written manuscript, in
which those who chose to make the inquiry
would find proof that the circumstances stated
were all consistent with the facts of the case.
I deemed it my duty to make this inquiry.
As I have remarked, Mr. Clay was my per-
sonal friend. I have been associated with him
in political life. I have known him under cir-
cumstances I think quite as much calculated
to try his integrity as those depicted in the
narrative of the gentleman from Howard.
But I have never yet seen that black spot in
his character which would be disclosed by
the estimate formed of him by those who at-
tempted to bribe him.
The manuscript, which doubtless every
gentleman like myself supposed to be some
record entitled from its source to the highest
consideration, and was a well-prepared ac-
count of the transaction by some person in-
timate with the whole history of the case at
the time it occurred—the manuscript is the
composition of the gentleman from Howard
himself. It is a paper on which he has tran-
scribed what he recollects of a conversation,
just as he has detailed recollections of the fact
to the house, and how the manuscript can
challenge higher claim to credit at the hands
of those who read it, or hear of it, than the
statement delivered before the house, accord-
ing to the very letter of that manuscript, I
cannot understand. The gentleman makes
his statement on the floor of this house, ex-
actly in conformity to his written statement.
And then, by way of leaving no doubt about
his accuracy of recollection, he says with
solemn emphasis he has a manuscript to sup-
port his statement.
Now, this manuscript, the work of the gen-
tleman's own hand, professes to be, as the
gentleman stated upon this floor, a history of
aconversation held with Mr. Clay by a young
gentleman. At whose house Mr. Clay, while
making a visit to Mr. Carroll of Carrollton,
was taken and entertained for a few hours.
The young gentleman, ambitious for the
honor of entertaining Mr. Clay—and a very
landable ambition—while Mr. Clay was en
route from Washington to the house of Mr.
Carroll, took .Mr. Clay to his house, and en- |
tertained him there for a few hours, until Mr.
Carroll called for him and took him to his
point of destination. And Mr. Clay, who
never came into a portion of the country he
had not visited before without being received
by crowds—Mr. Clay, in the course of this
visit of a few hours, unbosomed himself to
this young gentleman in relation to one of
the most important political events of the
country, involving not only a serious attack
upon his own reputation, but making utterly
infamous the political character of men who
had before stood high in the estimation of the
people; he disclosed to this young gentle-
man this whole scene of iniquity in a conver-
sation occurring in these few hours at his
house—particulars which were not known to
the most intimate bosom-friend of Mr. Clay.
He had friends by the thousands, as warm
and as ardent as those of any man who ever
lived; even Andrew Jackson not excepted.
And yet not one word has ever been heard
from any one of those thousands of friends
with whom Mr. Clay spent days and nights
in the most intimate relations, upon the most
important and interesting questions in our
political history, in periods of the most in-
tense anxiety as to the fate of his country
and upon this very question,
I have no more to say, I only want these
facts to go upon the record in juxtaposition
with the gentleman's statement. I am willing
that every human icing who shall read these
two statements shall judge whether Mr. Clay
is to be arraigned in the estimation of pos-
terity by any transactions "such as these.
Mr. SANDS. Will the gentleman from Kent
(Mr. Chambers) allow me a moment?
Mr. CHAMBERS. Certainly.
Mr. SANDS. As a matter of personal ex-
planation, I want to set this whole matter on
the record as it is. The other day I stated
facts which had come to my knowledge as
coming from Mr. Clay, in a certain way, and
which facts I said were contained in a manu-
script then in my desk. After the adjourn-
ment of the House, while at a hotel in this
city the gentleman from Kent (Mr. Cham-
bers) said he would like to see that paper. I
came to this Hall, got the paper carried it
to the gentleman's room and submitted it to
the gentleman's perusal, telling how that
statement came to be made, and when that
manuscript was written by myself. I told
him the manuscript had been written at the
time that Senator Hicks took his seat in the
United States Senate, under the appointment
of Governor Bradford. I told the gentleman
that the Senator asked me to reduce the state-
ment to writing and forward it to him at
Washington. And I suppose the color of
the paper and everything aboat it showed
that it had been written at that time—I made
the statement simply as one made to me by a
gentleman of the very highest credit and ve-
racity—not a young gentleman as the gen- |
