fell back upon General Jackson, and the General wrote a long reply, telling the story somewhat differently. According to his account, “a respectable member of Congress” had told him that, as he had been informed by Mr. Clay's friends, Mr. Adams's friends had held out the secretaryship of state to Mr. Clay as a price for his influence, saying that, if General Jackson were elected President, Adams would be continued as Secretary of State, that then “there would be no room for Kentucky,” and that, if General Jackson would promise not to continue Mr. Adams as Secretary of State, they would put an end to the presidential contest in one hour. Then he, General Jackson, had contemptuously repelled this “bargain and corruption.”
When this letter of General Jackson appeared in the newspapers, Clay thought he had at last what he had long been looking for, — a responsible sponsor for the wretched gossip. He forthwith, in an address to the public, made an unqualified and indignant denial of General Jackson's statements, and called for Jackson's proof. In a very spirited speech delivered at a dinner given him by his old constituents at Lexington, he once more went over the whole dreary story, and in the most pointed language he defied General Jackson to produce his “respectable member of Congress,” or, in default thereof, to stand before the American people as a wilful defamer. The General could not evade this, and named James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, as
