Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/291

Rh The frenzy to which politicians wrought themselves up was sometimes grotesque in its manifestations. In Virginia it became known that John Tyler had written a letter to Clay approving his conduct in the last presidential election; where upon the “Virginia Jackson Republican,” a newspaper published at Richmond, broke out in these exclamations: “John Tyler identified with Henry Clay! We are all amazement! heartsick!! chop-fallen!! dumb!!! Mourn, Virginia, mourn!! for you, too, have your time-serving aspirants who press forward from round to round on the ladder of political promotion, under the disguises of republican orthodoxy, while they conceal in their bosoms the lurking dagger, with which, upon the mature conjuncture, to plunge the Goddess of Liberty to the heart.” So John Tyler found himself obliged to explain, in a letter several columns long, that he might have approved of Clay's vote for Adams without supporting the Adams administration.

General Floyd, a member of Congress from Virginia, in a speech to his constituents, spoke of “times like these, when great political revolutions are in progress,” and told his hearers that they were “now engaged in a great war, — a war of patronage and power against patriotism and the people.” He fiercely denounced the “coalition” which had put Mr. Adams in power, and now made “the upper part of Virginia the great theatre of its intrigues;” but at the same time he informed