Edgar Lee Masters on the crony capitalism of Henry Clay

[Henry] Clay was the champion of that political system which doles favors to the strong in order to win and to keep their adherence to the government.  His system offered shelter to devious schemes and corrupt enterprises...  He was the beloved son of Alexander Hamilton with his corrupt funding schemes, his superstitions concerning the advantage of a public debt, and a people taxed to make profits for enterprise that cannot stand alone...  The Whigs adopted the tricks of the pickpocket who dresses himself like a farmer in order to move through a rural crowd unidentified while he gathers purses and watches.

~ Edgar Lee Masters, Lincoln the Man (1997), p. 27

(as quoted by Tom DiLorenzo in Hamilton's Curse, pp. 120-121 and The Real Lincoln, pp. 58-59)

Henry Clay
1873