The State was to vote in August; and the gubernatorial canvass between Judge Owsley, the Whig candidate, and General William O.Butler, the nominee of the Democrats, was attracting the attention of the whole nation.

This local contest not only enlisted Mr.Clay's interest, but aroused his deep personal feeling.

In a private letter, since made public, he urged the editors of the Whig press "to lash Butler" for some political shortcoming which he pointed out.

In a tone of unrestrained anger, he declared that "we should have a pretty time of it with one of Jackson's lieutenants at Washington, and another at Frankfort, and the old man in his dotage at the Hermitage dictating to both." To lose Kentucky was, for the Whigs, to lose every thing.

To reduce the Whig majority in Mr.Clay's own State would be a great victory for the Democracy, and to that end the leaders of the party were straining every nerve.
Mr.Clay realized that it was his position on the Texas question, as defined in the Raleigh letter, which was endangering his prestige in Kentucky.