ALS signed “H. Clay,” two pages on two adjoining sheets, 8 x 10, November 21, 1829. Letter to attorney P. R. Fendall. This letter was written just one year after Andrew Jackson defeated John Quincy Adams in a bitter presidential race, and Clay, as Adams’ Secretary of State, returned to private life at his estate in Kentucky. In part: “However much gratified I should be, in some respects, to see you a resident of Kentucky, I should regret it extremely if it were to be the consequence of the failure of the Journal. That paper has been edited with very great ability, generally since the commencement of the present administration; and is considered in this quarter as standing unquestionably at the head of the papers which are arrayed against the military despot…I do not think that any discouragement ought to arrive out of the latest Elections. The last presidential contest was too recent, and the next is too remote. This had a double operation to stimulate our opponents, flushed with recent victory, and to produce apathy among our friends, who saw nothing at hand worthy of a great struggle. Even with this unfavorable aspect, we have sustained no positive loss except in N. Jersey, of which I have had such explanations as to induce me to count it as noting. On the other hand, both in N. York and Penna some gleams of hope have broken out of the darkness that enveloped these two states.”
Clay ran for president in 1824 and finished far out of the race in fourth place. However, none of the candidates had received a majority of the votes, so the House of Representatives chose the victor. Clay used his influence to support John Quincy Adams, a fellow nationalist, who won despite having trailed Andrew Jackson in both the popular and electoral votes. Adams then appointed Clay as U .S. Secretary of State in what Jackson partisans termed “the corrupt bargain.” Jackson, outmaneuvered for the Presidency in 1824, combined with John C. Calhoun to form a coalition that defeated Adams in 1828. That new coalition became a full-fledged party that, by 1834, called itself the Democrats. In fine condition, with some mild toning, and light show-through from text on reverse.
RRAuction COA.
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