The Daily Dispatch: July 11, 1861., [Electronic resource]

A Prophetic sarcasm.

Mr. Clay, it should be premised, had no special antipathy to Gen. Scott, though the upstart pride and excessive vanity and self conceit of the ‘"young hero,"’ and the fuss he made over the wound he received in the battle of Lundy's Lane, filled him with unutterable disgust. During the session of Congress following the peace of 1815, a dinner party was given at the Executive mansion, at which these two distinguished individuals were present. After dining, the General retired, with others of the party, to the card rooms to a sociable game of whist. Some time after he was seated, Mr. Clay entered the room, fresh from the dining saloon and highly exhilarated. Walking up to Scott's chair, he familiarly slapped him on the wounded shoulder, which made the General writhe with pain as he exclaimed, ‘"Mr. Clay, I will thank you to keep your hands off — you've hurt my wound, sir."’ ‘"Ah, Scott,"’ (was Clay's reply, which he uttered with a peculiarly sarcastic expression,) ‘"I always thought there was something rotten about you."’ Recent events have turned Mr. Clay's sarcasm into prophecy.--The rottenness is fully developed in the alacrity with which a recreant son steps forth at the bidding of blood-thirsty tyrants to plunge a dagger in the bosom of his venerable mother.