fidence. To these persons, should my proof be
submitted, public attention would be irresistibly drawn."[131]

[Footnote 131: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
35.]

Lansing had the instinct, equipment, and training for a chancellor. It
has been truly said of him that he seemed to have no delights off the
bench except in such things as in some way related to the business
upon it. He had the unwearied application of Kent, coupled with the
ability to master the most difficult details, and, although he lacked
Livingston's culture, he was as resolute, and, perhaps, as restless
and suspicious; but it is doubtful if he possessed the trained
sagacity, the native shrewdness, and the diplomatic zeal to have
negotiated the Louisiana treaty. Lansing began the study of law in
1774, and from that moment was wedded to its principles and constant
in his devotions. His mysterious murder must have been caused by an
irresistible longing to trace things to their source, bringing into
his possession knowledge of some missing link or defective title,
which would throw a great property away from its owner, but which, by
his death, would again be buried from the ken of men. This, of course,
is only surmise; but Weed indicates that property prompted the crime,
and that the heirs of the murderer profited by it. Lansing was in his
seventy-sixth year when the fatal blow came, yet so vigorous that old
age had not set its seal upon him.

In 1804 Lansing hesitated to exchange the highest place on the bench,
which would continue until the age limit set him aside in 1814, for a
political office that would probably end in three years; but he
finally consented upon representations that he alone could unite his
party. Scarcely, however, had his name been announced before a caucus
of Republican legislators named Aaron Burr, with Oliver Phelps of
Ontario for lieutenant-governor--nominations quickly ratified at
public meetings in New York and Albany. Among Burr's most conspicuous
champions were Erastus Root of Delaware, James Burt of Orange, Peter
B. Porter of Ontario, and Marinus Willett of New York.

If it is surprising that these astute and devoted friends did not
appreciate, in some measure, at least, the extent to which popular
esteem had been withdrawn from their favourite, it is most astonishing
that Burr himself did not recognise the strength of the
Clinton-Livingston-Spencer machine as it existed in 1804. Its managers
were