Chapter XLVI: Appendix: II

CLAY'S LETTER TO JOSEPH SMITH AND THE LATTER'S REPLY.

ASHLAND, November 15, 1843.

DEAR SIR:--I have received your letter in behalf of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stating that you understand that
I am a candidate for the presidency, and inquiring what will be my
rule of action relative to you as a people, should I be elected.

I am profoundly grateful for the numerous and strong expressions of
the people in my behalf as a candidate for President of the United
States; but I do not so consider myself. That must depend upon
future events and upon my sense of duty.

Should I be a candidate, I can enter into no engagements, make no
promises, give no pledges to any particular portion of the people
of the United States. If I ever enter into that high office, I must
go into it free and unfettered, with no guarantees but such as are
to be drawn from my whole life, character and conduct.

It is not inconsistent with this declaration to say that I have
viewed with a lively interest the progress of the Latter-day
Saints; that I have sympathized in their sufferings under
injustice, as it appeared to me, which has been inflicted upon
them; and I think, in common with other religious communities, they
ought to enjoy the security and protection of the Constitution and
the laws.

I am, with great respect, your friend and obedient servant,

H. CLAY.

To Joseph Smith, Esq.

NAUVOO, ILL., May 13, 1844.

SIR:--Your answer to my inquiry, "What would be your rule of
action towards the Latter-day Saints, should you be elected
President of the United States?" has been under consideration since
last November, in the fond expectation that you would give (for
every honest citizen has a right to demand it,) to the country a
manifesto of your views of the best method and means which would
secure to the people, _the whole people_, the most freedom, the
most happiness, the most union, the most wealth, the most fame,
the most glory at home, and the most honor abroad, at the least
expense. But I have waited in vain. So far as you have made public
declarations, they have been made, like your answer to the above,
soft to flatter, rather than solid to feed the people. You seem
to abandon all former policy which may have actuated you in the
discharge of a statesman's duty, when the vigor of intellect
and the force of virtue should have sought out an everlasting
habitation for liberty; when, as a wise man, a true patriot, and
a friend to mankind, you should have resolved to ameliorate the
lawful condition of our _bleeding_ country by a mighty plan of
wisdom, righteousness, justice, goodness and mercy, that would
have brought back the golden days of our nation's youth, vigor
and vivacity, when prosperity crowned the efforts of a youthful
republic, when the gentle aspirations of the sons of liberty were,
"We are one!"

In your answer to my questions last fall, that peculiar tact of
modern politicians declaring, "_If you ever enter into that high
office, you must go into it free and unfettered; with no guarantees
but such as are to be drawn from your whole life, character and
conduct_," so much resembles a lottery-vendor's sign, with the
goddess of good luck sitting on the car of fortune, a-straddle of
the horns of plenty, and driving the merry steeds of beatitude,
without reins or bridle, that I cannot help exclaiming--O frail
man, what have you done that will exalt you? Can anything be drawn
from your _life, character or conduct_ that is worthy of being held
up to the gaze of this nation as a model of _virtue_, charity and
wisdom? Are you not a lottery picture, with more than two blanks
to a prize? Leaving many things prior to your Ghent treaty, let
the world look at that, and see where is the wisdom, honor and
patriotism which ought to have characterized the plenipotentiary
of the only free nation upon the earth? A quarter of a century's
negotiation to obtain our rights on the north-eastern boundary,
and the motley manner in which Oregon tries to shine as American
territory, coupled with your presidential race and some-by-chance
secretaryship in 1825, all go to convince the friends of freedom,
the golden patriots of Jeffersonian democracy, free trade and
sailors' rights, and the protectors of person and property, that an
honorable war is better than a dishonorable peace.

But had you really wanted to have exhibited the wisdom, clemency,
benevolence and dignity of a great man in this boasted republic,
when fifteen thousand free citizens were exiled from their own
homes, lands and property, in the wonderful patriotic State of
Missouri, and you then upon your oath and honor occupying the
exalted station of a Senator of Congress from the noble-hearted
State of Kentucky, why did you not show the world your loyalty to
law and order, by using all honorable means to restore the innocent
to their rights and property? Why, sir, the more we search into
your character and conduct, the more we must exclaim from Holy
Writ, "The tree is known by its fruit."

Again: this is not all. Rather than show yourself an honest man,
by guaranteeing to the people what you will do in case you should
be elected president, "you can enter into no engagement, make no
promises, and give no pledges as to what you will do. Well, it may
be that some hot-headed partisan would take such nothingarianism
upon trust; but sensible men and even _ladies_ would think
themselves insulted by such an evasion of coming events! If a
tempest is expected, why not prepare to meet it, and, in the
language of the poet, exclaim--

Then let the trial come; and witness thou
If terror be upon me,--If I shrink
Or falter in my strength to meet the storm
When hardest it besets me.

True greatness never wavers; but when the Missouri compromise
was entered into by you for the benefit of _slavery_, there was
a mighty shrinkage of _western honor_; and from that day, sir,
the sterling Yankee, the struggling Abolitionist, and the staunch
Democrat, with a large number of the liberal-minded Whigs, have
marked you as a _black-leg_ in politics, begging for a chance to
_shuffle_ yourself into the Presidential chair, where you might
deal out the destinies of our beloved country for a _game of brag_
that would end in--"_Hark from the tombs a doleful sound_." Start
not at this picture: for your "whole life, character and conduct"
have been spotted with deeds that cause a blush upon the face of
a virtuous patriot. So you must be contented in your lot, while
crime, cowardice, cupidity or low cunning have handed you down
from the high tower of a statesman to the black-hole of a gambler.
A man that accepts a challenge or fights a duel is nothing more
nor less than a murderer; for Holy Writ declares that, "_Whose
sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed:_" and when in
the renowned city of Washington the notorious _Henry Clay_ dropped
from the summit of a Senator to the sink of a scoundrel to shoot
at that chalk-line of a Randolph, he not only disgraced his own
fame, family and friends, but he polluted the _sanctum sanctorum_
of American glory; and the kingly blackguards throughout the whole
world are pointing the finger of scorn at the boasted "asylum of
the oppressed," and hissing at American statesmen as _gentlemen
vagabonds and murderers_, holding the olive branch of peace in
one hand and a pistol for death in the other! Well might the
Savior rebuke the heads of this nation with "_Wo unto you scribes,
Pharisees, hypocrites!_" for the United States Government and
Congress, with a few honorable exceptions, have gone the way of
Cain, and must perish in their gainsayings, like Korah and his
wicked host. And honest men of every clime, and the innocent, poor
and oppressed, as well as heathens, pagans and Indians, everywhere,
who could but hope that the tree of liberty would yield some
precious fruit for the hungry human race, and shed some balmy
leaves for the healing of nations, have long since given up all
hopes of equal rights, of justice and judgment, and of truth and
virtue, when such polluted, vain, heaven-daring, bogus patriots
are forced or flung into the front rank of Government to guide
the destinies of millions. Crape the heavens with weeds of wo,
gird the earth with sack-cloth, and let hell mutter one melody
in commemoration of fallen splendor! for the glory of America
has departed, and God will set a flaming sword to guard the tree
of liberty, while such mint-tithing Herods as Van Buren, Boggs,
Benton, Calhoun and Clay are thrust out of the realms of virtue as
fit subjects for the kingdom of fallen greatness. _Vox reprobi, vox
Diaboli_!

In your late addresses to the people of South Carolina, where
rebellion budded, but could not blossom, you "renounced ultraism,"
"high tariff," and almost banished your "banking system" for the
more certain standard of "public opinion." This is all very well,
and marks the intention of a politician, the calculations of a
demagogue, and the allowance for leeings of a shrewd manager, just
as truly as the weathercock does the wind when it turns upon the
spire. Hustings for the South, barbecues for the West, confidential
letters for the North and "American System" for the East.

Lull-a-by baby upon the tree top,
And when the wind blows the cradle will rock.

Suppose you should also, taking your "whole life, character and
conduct" into consideration, and, as many hands make light work,
stir up the old "Clay party," the "National Republican party," the
"High Protective Tariff party," and the late coon-skin party, with
all their paraphernalia, _ultraism, ne plus ultraism, sine qua
non_, which have grown with your growth, strengthened with your
strength, and shrunk with your shrinkage, and ask the people of
this enlightened republic what they think of your powers and policy
as a statesman; for verily it would seem, from all past remains of
parties, politics, projects and pictures, that you are the _Clay_;
and the people the _potter_; and as some vessels are marred in the
hands of the potter, the natural conclusion is that _you are a
vessel of dishonor_.

You may complain that a close examination of your "whole life,
character and conduct" places you, as a Kentuckian would pleasantly
term it, "in a bad fix." But, sir, when the nation has sunk deeper
and deeper into the mud at every turn of the great wheels of the
Union, while you have acted as one of the principal drivers, it
becomes the bounden duty of the whole community, as one man, to
whisper you on every point of government, to uncover every act of
your life, and inquire what mighty acts you have done to benefit
the nation, how much you have tithed the mint to gratify your lust,
and why the fragments of your raiment hang upon the thorns by the
path as signals to _beware_.

But your _shrinkage_ is truly wonderful! Not only your banking
system and high tariff project have vanished from your mind "like
the baseless fabric of a vision," but the "annexation of Texas"
has touched your pathetic sensibilities of national pride so
acutely, that the poor Texans, your own _brethren_, may fall back
into the ferocity of Mexico, or be sold at auction to British
stock-jobbers, and all is well. For "I," the old Senator from
Kentucky, and fearful it would militate against my interest in the
north to enlarge the borders of the Union in the south. Truly "a
poor wise child is better than an old foolish king who will be no
longer admonished." Who ever heard of a nation that had too much
territory? Was it ever bad policy to make friends? Has any people
ever become too good to do good? No, never. But the ambition and
vanity of some men have flown away with their wisdom and judgment,
and left a croaking _skeleton_ to occupy the place of a noble
_soul_!

Why, sir, the condition of the whole earth is lamentable.
Texas dreads the teeth and the nails of Mexico. Oregon has the
rheumatism, brought on by a horrid exposure to the heat and cold of
British and American trappers. Canada has caught a bad cold from
extreme fatigue in the patriot war. South America has the headache
cause by bumps against the beams of Catholicity and Spanish
Sovereignty. Spain has the gripes from age and inquisition. France
trembles and wastes under the effects of contagious diseases.
England groans with the gout, and wiggles with wine. Italy and the
German States are pale with the consumption. Prussia, Poland, and
the little contiguous dynasties, duchies and domains, have the
mumps so severely, that "the whole head is sick, and the whole
heart is faint." Russia has the cramp by lineage. Turkey has the
numb palsy. Africa, from the curse of God, has lost the use of her
limbs China is ruined by the queen's evil, and the rest of Asia
fearfully exposed to the small-pox, the natural way, from British
peddlers. The islands of the sea are almost dead with the scurvy.
The Indians are blind and lame; and the United States, which ought
to be the good physician with "balm from Gilead" and an "_asylum
for the oppressed_," has boosted and is boosting up into the
council chamber of the Government a clique of political gamblers,
to play for the old clothes and old shoes of a sick world, and
"_no pledge, no promise to any particular portion of the people_"
that the rightful heirs will ever receive a cent of their Father's
legacy. Away with such self-important, self-aggrandizing and
self-willed demagogues! Their friendship is colder than polar ice,
and their profession meaner than the damnation of hell.

O man! when such a great dilemma of the globe, such a tremendous
convulsion of kingdoms shakes the earth from centre to
circumference; when castles, prison-houses, and cells raise a
cry to God against the cruelty of man; when the mourning of the
fatherless and the widow causes anguish in heaven; when the poor
among all nations cry day and night for bread, and a shelter from
the heat and storm; and when the degraded black slave holds up his
manacled hands to the great statesmen of the United States, and
sings--

"O liberty, where are thy charms,
That sages have told me are sweet?"

And when fifteen thousand free citizens of the high-blooded
republic of North America are robbed and driven from one State
to another without redress or redemption, it is not only time
for a candidate for the presidency to pledge himself to execute
judgment and justice in righteousness, law or no law; but it is
his bounden duty as a man, for the honor of a disgraced country,
and for the salvation of a once virtuous people, to call for a
union of all honest men, and appease the wrath of God by acts of
wisdom, holiness, and virtue! "The fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much."

Perhaps you may think I go too far with my strictures and
innuendos, because in your concluding paragraph you say "it is not
inconsistent with your declarations to say that you have viewed
with a lively interest the progress of the Latter-day Saints, that
you have sympathized in their sufferings under injustice; as it
appeared to you, which has been inflicted upon them, and that you
_think_, in common with all other religious communities, they ought
to enjoy the security and protection of the Constitution and the
laws." If words were not wind, and imagination not a vapor, such
"views" "_with a lively interest_" might coax out a few Mormon
votes; such "sympathy" for their suffering under injustice might
heal some of the sick yet lingering amongst them, raise some of
the dead, and recover some of their property from Missouri; and
finally, if thought was not a phantom, we might, in common with
other religious communities, "_you think, enjoy the security_ and
_protection of the Constitution and laws_." But during ten years,
while the Latter-day Saints have bled, been robbed, driven from
their own lands, paid oceans of money into the treasury to pay your
renowned self and others for legislating and _dealing_ out equal
rights and privileges to those _in common with all other religious
communities_, they have waited and expected in vain! If you have
possessed any patriotism, it has been veiled by your _popularity_,
for fear the Saints would fall in love with its charms. Blind
charity and dumb justice never do much towards alleviating the
wants of the needy; but straws show which way the wind blows. It
is currently rumored that your _dernier resort_ for the Latter-day
Saints is to migrate to Oregon or California. Such cruel humanity,
such noble injustice, such honorable cowardice, such foolish
wisdom, and such vicious virtue could only emanate from Clay. After
the Saints have been plundered of three or four millions of land
and property by the people and powers of the _sovereign_ State of
Missouri--after they have sought for redress and redemption, from
the county court to Congress, and been denied through religious
prejudice and sacerdotal dignity--after they have builded a city
and two temples at an immense expense of labor and treasure--after
they have increased from hundreds to hundreds of thousands, and
after they have sent missionaries to the various nations of the
earth to gather Israel, according to the predictions of all the
holy prophets since the world began, that great plenipotentiary,
the renowned secretary of state, the ignoble duelist, the gambling
senator, and Whig candidate for the presidency, _Henry Clay_, the
wise Kentucky lawyer, advises the Latter-day Saints to go to Oregon
to obtain justice and set up a government of their own.

O ye crowned heads among all nations, is not Mr. Clay a wise man,
and very patriotic? Why, great God! to transport 200,000 people
through a vast prairie, over the Rocky Mountains, to Oregon, a
distance of nearly two thousand miles, would cost more than _four
millions!_ or should they go by Cape Horn in ships to California,
the cost would be more than _twenty millions!_ and all this to
save the United States from inheriting the disgrace of Missouri
for murdering and robbing the Saints with impunity! Benton and Van
Buren, who make no secret to say that if they get into power they
will carry out Boggs' exterminating plan to rid the country of the
Latter-day Saints, are

"Little nipperkins of milk,"

compared to "Clay's" great aquafortis jars. Why, he is a real
giant in humanity! "Send the Mormons to Oregon, and free Missouri
from debt and disgrace!" Ah! sir, let this doctrine go to-and-fro
throughout the whole earth--that we, as Van Buren said, know your
cause is just, but the United States government can do nothing for
you, because it has no power. "_You must go to Oregon, and get
justice from the Indians!_"

I mourn for the depravity of the world; I despise the hypocrisy
of Christendom; I hate the imbecility of American statesmen; I
detest the shrinkage of candidates for office from pledges and
responsibility; I long for a day of righteousness, when "He whose
right it is to reign shall judge the poor, and reprove with equity
for the meek of the earth;" and I pray God, who hath given our
fathers a promise of a perfect government in the last days, to
purify the hearts of the people and hasten the welcome day.

With the highest consideration for virtue and unadulterated freedom,

I have the honor to be,
Your obedient servant,
JOSEPH SMITH.

Hon. Henry Clay, Ashland, Ky.