ALS signed “H. Clay,” one page both sides, 7.75 x 9.75, July 23, 1840. Letter written from Ashland, Kentucky, in part: "I have duly received your letter inviting my attendance at the Convention intended to be held at Erie on the 10th of September next, to commemorate the Naval victory gained on that day upon Lake Erie. After weighing most respectfully the strong consideration urged by you to engage my attendance, and fully concurring with you in your estimate of the importance of the great contest in which we are engaged, I am nevertheless constrained to inform you that indispensable engagements will prevent my having the pleasure of being with you…
No man living, Gentlemen, can be more penetrated with the absolute necessity of a change of our rulers than I am, nor more desirous of it. I have hitherto done all in my pow[er] to effect it, and am willing to continue my exertions to the final moment. But there is at last a limit to the efforts of any single individual and I own to you that I feel as if I had pressed hard against that limit. I have been absent from my family and my home eight months. Besides my duties in the Senate Chamber, and a most burthensome and extensive correspondence, which I have constantly to maintain, I addressed, during that absence several large popular assemblies. Scarcely a day has passed for many weeks that I have not received invitations to attend conventions and other meetings of the People, in all parts of the Union. I yesterday sent off seven answers to such invitations, and have several others yet to answer. If I could divide myself into twenty parts, I should find full employment for each.
I rejoice at all these movements and manifestations of the People, since they demonstrate that the spirit of liberty is not yet extinct, and that they are alive to the importance of the existing contest. And if it were possible, I would go to every State, County, City, Village in the Union and stimulate my fellow Citizens to the most vigorous exertions. For, in my conscience, I do believe that every thing dear to freemen is now at issue and will be determined in November next. Notwithstanding my incessant occupations, and my previous labors, I would obey with pleasure your summons but for the engagements to which I have adverted." In fine condition, with nearly complete separation along the hinge of its blank integral leaf.
President Van Buren's administration had proved so unsatisfactory to the country that the Whigs felt certain of victory in 1840, and Clay had fully expected to receive the nomination for president. Various maneuvers by Thurlow Weed at the Whig convention in December 1839 gave the nomination to William Henry Harrison. Though Clay was initially outraged, he threw his full support behind the Harrison/Tyler ticket and campaigned vigorously for them throughout the summer and fall.
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