Selections: Henry Clay And Slavery

I he Richmond Whig, Apnl 18, bos a very long article against Mr. Wiee, grounded on theallegation that Mr. W. had charged Mr. Clay and the Whig party with 'leaning to the abolitionists,' and instanced Speaker White'e appointment of Mr. Adams as Chr'n of the commitee on Foreign Relations. - The Whig refutes theee charges with great bpirit: 'How daré Mr. Wise breathe one whisper of distrust against Mr. White, and Mr. Clay, on the subject of abolition in any connexion? Mr. White may not have exhibited himself so boisterous a friend of the Soiuh; but he is not on that account the less Joyal and Iru3 - genuine loyalty and unoffectcd sincerity, are never accompanied by blustering professions. And, as to Mr. Clay, does not Mr. Wise rVar for his cliaracter and candor, when he presumes to impeach the orthotlexy of Mr. C. on the slave question? We challenge this liberal fault-finder to point the country to oneman, m us broau extent, who has taKen i er nnd more decided ground against the abolitionists and all their doctrines and proceedings! Has he never read the inimitable address of Mr. Clay to Mr. Mendenhall, of Indiana, in which abolilionism encountered the sevei est and most effectual rebuke it lias ever mot, from its'tdawning hour to the present? That mitchless, anmhllaf.ng argument against abolitionism nnd its wild schemes, we dare assert, gives better earnest of Henry Clay's devotion to the peculiar interests of the South, than a thonsand and one rhodomantfides of Mr. Wie and contains tu ore solid ant1 effective reasoning against the pretentions of anti-slavery fanatics, tlian Henry A. Wise could genérate and pour forth in a generation. Besides, both Mr. White and Mr. Clay are slaveholders - large slave-owners; and ïf, like the rest of mortal?, they feel the impulses df self-interests, they have irresistible nducements, incommon with all other slaveholders, to oppose, to the uttermost, all, who, in any form, assail the institution of slavery. And we do not doubt for one moment, that at this hour, Mr. Clay is more odious to the abolitionists than any other man in America. These sagacious fanatics - for funaticism is ever watchful and cunning - are not unaw.ire of the immovablc firmness of Mr. Clay . They know wei!, that he has never, in all his public life, tremblnd orfaltered; íhat he has never sacrificed conviction, principie, or duty, to 'catch the popular breeze;' that what he honestly thinks. he boldly says; that what he maintains, he fearlessly executes, without regard toeclf; that he does not 6trive, like Mr. Wise, to be 'all things to all men' - this thir.g to-day, and that to-morrow; 'every thing by tuns and nothing long.' No! They are sensible Ihat tn Mr. Clayihey have an implacable foe, and one whose opposition is not like the puff of'.he whirlwind. whistling vilently for a inoment, and then gone forever,but who,by calm, áignified and steady resistance, will make that resis'ance, by íts morpl forcé, effecüial. For Lhis teason, the iiorthern fanalic? detest ond fear Mr Clay more thun any one else,far more Lhan they do Mr. Wise and such ]ke,to whom they are actually grateful for that indiscreet fire u.n.1 noisy agitation.which, more than anything else, fan the fíame of aboliüon, and save it from extinguiíhment. Miserable sophistry, then, and illiberal disingennosness, that would endeavor, through an ungeneroiis, unmanly and artful assault upon Mr. White and Mr. Clay,to connect tlie whig party with the abolitionists! Mr. Wise will live to see the day when he will regret, in the bitierness of liis eoul, that ever he descended to such a rancor, or ventured to display to the public gazc, malignity covered by so flimsy a veil. He might as wel 1 essay to blow down the Al'eghanies by a respiration ol his lungs, as to prove on the whig party in geneial, any tcndency to aboution,&nd least of all, on that distinguinhed statesman, who is so justly the favorite of the whigs of the United Siates.'