to be independent in his leadership, and preferred the Senate as his field of action. He informed Harrison that his confidence in Webster had been somewhat shaken during the last eight years; but with proud condescension he assured the President elect that the appointment of Webster to a place in the Cabinet would not diminish his interest in the administration, nor his zeal in its support, if it were conducted on the principles he hoped it would be. In parting, Clay cautioned Harrison, if any efforts were made by any one to create distrust or ill-feeling between them, to listen to no reports in regard to his opinions, or intended course concerning this or that act or measure of the administration, but to depend upon his frankness, — which Harrison promised. In the Cabinet, subsequently appointed by Harrison, Clay had four strong friends: Ewing of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Badger of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; Bell of Tennessee, Secretary of War; and Crittenden of Kentucky, Attorney General. Webster was Secretary of State, and his friend Granger Postmaster General.
Congress had hardly met, in December, 1840, for the last session under Van Buren, when Clay offered a resolution in the Senate that the sub-treasury act “ought to be forthwith repealed.” The speech with which he accompanied it sounded like a wild shout of triumph. He would not make an argument, he said. He would “as lief argue to a convicted criminal with a rope around his
