which he had become accustomed. Harrison, a much weaker man, could easily be made to feel that his dignity would fatally suffer if he permitted it to be believed that he was under Clay's dictation. It is reported that on one occasion he sharply turned on Clay, saying: “Mr. Clay, you forget that I am President.” Clay's influence was still visible in Harrison's inaugural address, which, at the request of prominent Whigs, was submitted to him. It was also mainly Clay's impatient urgency which prevailed upon Harrison to call an extra session of Congress to meet on May 31, 1841. But Harrison had not been President ten days when something very like a rupture of friendly relations occurred between them..
Nathan Sargent, as he tells us in his “Public Men and Events,” one day found Clay in his room greatly agitated. “He had received an intimation from the President that whatever suggestion or communication he wished to make to the President he should make in writing, as frequent personal interviews between them might give occasion for remark, or excite the jealousy of others.” The indignation of the proud man was, no doubt, much toned down in the farewell note he addressed to Harrison on March 15, on the eve of his departure from Washington. He would not trouble the President again by a personal visit.
“I was mortified,” he continued, “by the suggestion you made to me on Saturday, that I had been represented as dictating to you or to the new administration,
