(PRESIDENTS 1844 CAMPAIGN) Clay Henry Letter to a supporter

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"EXERT OUR UTMOST ENDEAVOR YET TO SAVE OUR COUNTRY" (PRESIDENTS--1844 CAMPAIGN.) Clay, Henry. Letter to a supporter after his heart-breaking loss to Polk. Autograph Letter Signed to Dudley Selden, one page, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches, with address panel and docketing on facing leaf. In a cloth folding case. Ashland, KY, 2 December 1844

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Written to long-time supporter Dudley Selden of New York shortly after the election, which Clay lost to pro-war expansionist candidate James K. Polk. With the defeat of the Great Compromiser, war with Mexico and sectional conflict over slavery now seemed inevitable. Polk's margin of victory proved to be 5,000 votes in New York. Clay took the defeat graciously, and assured his friend that his New York supporters were not to blame: "My dear sir, I was happy to receive a letter from you, conveying an assurance that, altho' we have been most unexpectedly defeated, all our friends manifested fidelity to our cause. I had no reason to doubt that such was the fact. . . . I suppose that no alternative is left to us but that of submission as well as we can, adherence to our principles and to our organization, and to exert our utmost endeavor yet to save our country. In the retirement, which I desire during the residue of my life, I can do but little. Whatever however I can do, in such a situation, will be done cordially. I remain faithfully, your friend, H. Clay."