without disproof; yet during two years they could
only oppose to it a general denial; but, in March, 1827, a letter from
Mr. Carter Beverly, a friend of General Jackson, came into their
possession, by which it appeared that Jackson, before a large company,
in Beverly's presence, had declared that, "concerning the election of
Mr. Adams to the Presidency, Mr. Clay's friends made a proposition to
his friends, that if they would promise for _him_ not to put Mr. Adams
into the seat of Secretary of State, Mr. Clay and his friends would _in
one hour_ make him the President;"[5]--a proposition which, Jackson
said, he indignantly rejected. No sooner was this statement made known
to Mr. Clay, than he pronounced it "a gross fabrication, of a
calumnious character, put forth for the double purpose of injuring his
public character and propping up the cause of General Jackson; and
that, for himself and his friends, he defied the substantiation of the
charge before any fair tribunal whatever." This compelled General
Jackson, in self-defence, to come before the public; and in a letter to
Carter Beverly, dated the 5th of June, 1827, he made specific charges
against Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams. He stated that early in January, 1825,
a member of Congress, of high respectability, informed him that there
was a great intrigue going on, which it was right he should know; that
the friends of Mr. Adams had made overtures to the friends of Mr. Clay,
that if they would unite in the election of Mr. Adams, 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 he (Gen. Jackson) was elected President, Mr. Adams
would be continued Secretary of State [_Innuendo_, there would be no
room for Kentucky]; that the friends of Mr. Clay stated, that the West
did not wish to separate from the West, and if he would say, or permit
any of his confidential friends to say, that, in case he was elected
President, Mr. Adams should not be continued Secretary of State, by a
complete union of Mr. Clay and his friends they would put an end to the
presidential contest in one hour; and that this respectable member of
Congress declared that _he was of opinion it was right to fight such
intriguers with their own weapons_. To which General Jackson replied,
that he would never step into the presidential chair by such means of
bargain and corruption; and added, that the sec