the Senator for suggestions. Seward accepted
the burden of looking after patronage. "I detest and loathe this
running to the President every day to protest against this man or
that,"[394] he wrote; but the President cheerfully responded to his
requests. "If the country is to be benefited by our services," he said
to the Secretary of the Treasury, "it seems to me that you and I ought
to remember those to whose zeal, activity, and influence we are
indebted for our places."[395]

[Footnote 394: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 113.]

[Footnote 395: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
175.]

While Weed employed his time in displacing Hunker office-holders with
Whigs, the Democratic party was trying to reunite. It called for a
bold hand. John Van Buren, with a courage born of genius, had struck
it a terrible blow in the face of tremendous odds, the effect of which
was as gratifying to the Barnburners as it was disastrous to the
Hunkers. But, in 1849, the party professed to believe that a union of
the factions would result in victory, since their aggregate vote in
1848 exceeded the Whig vote by sixteen thousand. It is difficult to
realise the arguments which persuaded the Barnburners to rejoin their
adversaries whom they had declared, in no measured terms, to be guilty
of the basest conduct; but, after infinite labour, Horatio Seymour
established constructive harmony and practical co-operation. "We are
asked to compromise our principles," said John Van Buren. "The day of
compromises is past; but, in regard to candidates for state offices,
we are still a commercial people. We will unite with our late
antagonists."[396]

[Footnote 396: H.B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 165.]

Seymour and Van Buren did not unite easily. From the first they were
rivals. As an orator, Seymour was the more persuasive, logical, and
candid--Van Buren the more witty, sarcastic, and brilliant. Seymour
was conciliatory--Van Buren aggressive. Indeed, they had little in
common save their rare mental and social gifts, and that personal
magnetism which binds followers with hooks of steel. But they stood
now at the head of their respective factions. When Van Buren,
therefore, finally consented to join Seymour in a division of the
spoils, the two wings of the party quickly coalesced in the fall of
1849 for the election of seven state officers. The Free-soil faction
professed to retain its principles; and, by plac