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348 earnestly as anywhere. We are to have an interesting and arduous session. Everything is to be attacked. An array is preparing much more formidable than has ever yet assaulted what we think the leading and important public interests. Not only the tariff, but the Constitution itself, in its elementary and fundamental provisions, will be assailed with talent, vigor, and union. Everything is to be debated as if nothing had ever been settled. It would be an infinite gratification to me to have your aid, or rather your lead. I know nothing so likely to be useful. Everything valuable in the government is to be fought for, and we need your arm in the fight.”

Clay was reluctant to yield to these entreaties. His instinct probably told him that for a presidential candidate the Senate is not a safe place, especially while the canvass is going on. But he obeyed the call of his friends, which at the same time appeared to be the call of the public interest. When it became known that he would be a candidate for the Senate of the United States before the Kentucky legislature, the Washington “Globe,” President Jackson's organ, opened its batteries with characteristic fury. Commenting upon the fact that Clay attended the legislature in person, and forgetting that his competitor, Richard M. Johnson, the Jackson candidate, did the same, the “Globe” spoke thus: —

“If under these circumstances Mr. Clay should come to the Senate, he will but consummate his ruin. He will