Henry Clay And Gambling

f hat many of the Whig and Democratie papers do absolutely lik - that is, publish falsehoods, knowing them to be such - deliberately, wiifully and maliciously - is a proposition we are compelled to believe. Some of these lies are expressed, and some are implied: Some are direct, and some come by inference. it is among two thousand party papers, as among the two thousand individual editors: therè may be found all gradations óf veracity, from the most scrupulous conformity to truth, to the most open and shameless manufacture of lies. To the variations from the tnith, wiifully made, must be addedall the unintentional errors which are inseparable from newspaper publications.In the midst of such a medley of error, fnlsehood, and truth, the only course ajudieious, candiel Editor can pursue, is to publish as facts tbose statements only which he believes to be true, accompanied usually, by the reasons for such belief. - This is the course upon which we have uniformly acted. We believe it to be the wisesí, and confortable to scrupulous morality. Such a course, we believe wil] secure the confidence and respect of those of the readers who eren diifer (videly in opinión from the Editor.Sotne of our subscribers have thought that our remarks from week to week have borne hard on Mr. Clay. U they have, they are true or false. If true, is not the ihult with him? And if false, why has not the lie or mistake been exposed?- - Have we ever turned away from our columns acandid exposition or refutation of any mistake into which we had fallen?About a year since, among other disqualifications of Mr. Clay for the Presidency, we named the faet, as we supposed h to be, that he was notorious for the vice of garnbling, and had been since his ear]y years. But this was roundly denied by the Whig papers. He was represented as having been entirely reformed many years since. ConfornmbJy to the rule we liad adoptedof being guided by the amoant of evídence adduced, we ceased adding the vice of gambling to. thé faulis of Duelling, Slaveholding, and Profane Swearing, which we thought and said in our opinión were unbecoming characteristics of a President of this nation. But the following extracts from a letter of General McCalla, published in the Lexingfon (Ky.) Gazette. secms toprove that at almost seventy years of age Mr. Clay is still a practising'Garnbler. We cannot vouch for the truth of all the statements hcrc made. Mr. McCalla is said to be a gentleman of high standing in Kentucky, having been for 12 years U. S, Marshall for the State, and is a member of the Presbyterian church. - His letter was pubJished over h is ownsignature, in Lexington, the residence of Mr. Clay, and we have not yet seen any denial of it. It is dated May, 24, 1844. In allusiou to the referenceto Mr. Clay's reformation, as made in the "Junius Tract," he says: . 'In a speech which 1 made soonafter seeing that tract, I stated my convctions that Mr. C's. habits were unchanged, and that he still continued that practice, which he is represented by Junius to have stigmatized as ''destructive of a good name." I referred to a case as late as the 4th of July last, which occurred near Lexington, where he played and icon behceen one and two hundred dollars, as I was informed by a gentleman who was present, and perhaps played at the same table, bot didnot bet. I was assailed by a Lexíngton editor as having made the assertion and dared to the proof. I did not wish to go inta a public controversy upon su-ch a subject, although well aware that the f act was nqtoriow in all this country, and especïally at ihe public watering places in Kentucky, on the steamboats of the Ohio and Misaissippi, and in Le.xington, Washington City and New Orleans. . That in fact. tfiere wcre thoitsands who had been cye witnesses of the fact. I again, in a speech in Mercer, alluded in a good natured way to Mr. Clay's successful skill in card playing, but not relying upon that as suflïcient to defeat his claims to public office even a.mong professing Cbnstians; many ofwiwm, even of the clergy, have hilherto supported him for the Presidency, itrith a fullknowledge of this habil. I This last speech has blown tip the ire of the editor of the Frankfort Commonwealth, who has assailed me in his paper of the 28th uit., with chararteristic vulgarity ana folly, Mr. Clay's whole history in Ibis country is so mixed up with hs habits at ihe card table, that aconversation about him isalmost iiiTariably interrningled with sporting anecdotes of hrs past ïife. If any reformation has takén place, it must have been long since fhe period fixed by the veracious author of Junius. ï aissert, on the autlwrity of gentlemen of undoubted stnnding, that as late as the 4th of July last he gamed at cards, at fhe place beiore mentioned, for moucy, which hc won. If Mr. Clay Wijl d"are todeny the truth of the charge, as to this particular instance, which is given merehj as onc outof man y recent ijistanccst I will produce tlieproof. The witnessesshall be namecf, and they must testify or stand mute. - There ai-e many who will, although reluctantly, state the íacts. I cannot but admire the cool command of countenance which his indiscreet frienda nrjst possess, when they attempt to den y a charge so well known and admiUcd in every circle in which Mr. Claij has movcd,ñ%om tfiat of tire British Embassador at Washington, withwhom I am informed, he has had many a hard set-to, down to his hard-favored associates at watering places and on steani-boats."