sprung up in opposition to the ease with which
foreigners secured suffrage and office; and, although it shrewdly
avoided nominations for governor and President, it demoralised both
parties by the strange and tortuous manoeuvres that had ended in the
election of a mayor of New York in the preceding spring. It operated,
for the most part, in that city, but its sympathisers covered the
whole State. Then, there was the anti-rent party, confined to Delaware
and three or four adjoining counties, where long leases and trifling
provisions of forfeiture had exasperated tenants into acts of
violence. Like the Native Americans, these Anti-Renters avoided state
and national nominations, and traded their votes to secure the
election of legislative nominees.

But the organisation which threatened calamity was the abolition or
liberty party. It had nominated James G. Birney of Michigan for
President and Alvan Stewart for governor, and, though no one expected
the election of either, the organisation was not unlikely to hold the
balance of power in the State. Stewart was a born Abolitionist and a
lawyer of decided ability. In the section of the State bounded by
Oneida and Otsego counties, where he shone conspicuously as a leader
for a quarter of a century, his forensic achievements are still
remembered. Stanton says he had no superior in central New York. "His
quaint humour was equal to his profound learning. He was skilled in a
peculiar and indescribable kind of argumentation, wit, and sarcasm,
that made him remarkably successful out of court as well as in court.
Before anti-slavery conventions in several States he argued grave and
intricate constitutional questions with consummate ability."[336]

[Footnote 336: H.B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 135.]

It was evident that the Anti-Renters and Native Americans would draw,
perhaps, equally from Whigs and Democrats; but the ranks of
Abolitionists could be recruited only from the anti-slavery Whigs.
Behind Stewart stood Gerrit Smith, William Jay, Beriah Green, and
other zealous, able, benevolent, pure-minded men--some of them
wealthy. Their shibboleth was hostility to a slave-holder, or one who
would vote for a slave-holder. This barred Henry Clay and his
electors.

At the outset the Whigs plainly had the advantage. Spring elections
had resulted auspiciously, and the popularity of Clay seemed
unfailing. He had avowed opposition to the annexation of Texas, and,
although his let