in the next presidential campaign.  It implicated Mr. Adams equally with Mr. Clay.  If the latter had been so corrupt as to offer his support on the promise of office, the former was quite as guilty in accepting of terms so venal.  There never was a more base charge against American statesmen—­there never was one more entirely destitute of foundation, or even shadow of proof!  It was at no time considered entitled to the slightest particle of belief by those who were at Washington during these transactions and had an opportunity of knowing the true state of things at that time.  But there were many, throughout the country, too ready to receive such reports in regard to public men.  Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay were greatly prejudiced by this alleged collusion—­a prejudice which years did not efface.

This charge first appeared in a tangible form shortly previous to the election by the House of Representatives, in an anonymous letter in the “Columbian Observer,” at Philadelphia.  It was soon ascertained to have been written by Mr. Kremer, a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  Mr. Clay immediately published a card in the National Intelligencer, denying, in unequivocal terms, the allegation, and pronouncing the author “an infamous calumniator, a dastard, and a liar!”

A few days after this, Mr. Kremer acknowledged himself the author of the letter in the “Columbian Observer,” and professed himself ready to prove the corruptions alleged:  whereupon Mr. Clay demanded that the House raise a committee to investigate the case.  The committee was appointed; but Mr. Kremer, on grounds of the most frivolous description, refused to appear before the committee, or to furnish a particle of proof of the truth of the grave assertions he had uttered—­thus virtually acknowledging their slanderous character.

Mr. Clay being in this manner denied the privilege of vindicating his innocence, and showing the depravity of his accusers, the matter continued in an unsettled state until the next presidential campaign, when it was revived in a more tangible form, and brought to bear adversely to Mr. Adams’s administration and reelection.  In 1827, Gen. Jackson, in a letter to Mr. Carter Beverly, which soon appeared in public print, made the following statement:—­

“Early in January, 1825, a member of Congress of high respectability visited me one morning, and observed that he had a communication he was desirous to make to me; that he was informed there was a great intrigue going on, and that it was right I should be informed of it. * * * * * * * He said he had been informed by the friends of Mr. Clay, that the friends of Mr. Adams had made overtures to them, saying, if Mr. Clay and his friends would unite in aid of Mr. Adams’s election, Mr. Clay should be Secretary of State; that the friends of Mr. Adams were urging, as a reason to induce the friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their proposition, that if I were elected President,