Mr. Letcher
insisted that they were important to the reputation of more than Mr.
Clay: still Buchanan refused; and to this day the question of veracity
remains unsettled between Jackson and Buchanan. The public have,
however, long since declared that General Jackson was too brave a man
to lie.
Toward the close of Mr. Clay's life, one Carter Beverly, of Virginia,
wrote Mr. Clay some account of the part he himself had taken in the
concoction of this slander, craving his forgiveness. This letter was
received by Mr. Clay while a visitor at the home of the writer, and
read to him: it dissipated all doubts upon the mind of Mr. Clay, if
any remained, of the fact of the whole story being the concoction of
Buchanan. Creemer was a colleague of Buchanan, and was a credulous
Pennsylvanian, of Dutch descent; honest enough, but without brains,
and only too willing to be the instrument of his colleague in any
dirty work which would subserve his purposes.
Beverly was one of those silly but presumptuous personages who thrust
themselves upon the society of men occupying high positions, and feel
their importance only in that reflected by this association; and ever
too fond of being made the medium of slanderous reports, reflecting
upon those whose self-respect and superior dignity has frowned them
from their presence.
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