to believe that Lewis had any
chance. But DeWitt Clinton had to deal with two classes of men,
naturally and almost relentlessly opposed to him--the friends of Burr
and the Federalists. It was of immense importance that the former
should stand with him, since the Federalists were certain to side with
the Lewisites or "Quids," as the Governor's friends came to be known,
and to secure such an advantage Clinton promptly made overtures to the
Burrites, of whom John Swartout, Peter Irving and Matthew L. Davis
were the leaders.

There is some confusion as to details, but Davis is authority for the
statement that in December, 1805, Theodorus Bailey, as Clinton's
agent, promised to aid Burr's friends through the Manhattan Bank, to
recognise them as Republicans, to appoint them to office on the same
footing with the most favoured Clintonian, and to stop Cheetham's
attacks in the _American Citizen_. Clinton pronounced the story false,
but it was known that the Manhattan Bank loaned eighteen thousand
dollars to a prominent Burrite; that on January 24, 1806, Clinton met
Swartout, Irving and Davis at the home of Bailey; and that afterward,
on February 20, leading Clintonians banqueted the Burrites at Dyde's
Hotel in the suburbs of New York in celebration of their union. There
were many reasons for maintaining the profoundest secrecy as to this
alliance and Dyde's Hotel had been selected for the purpose of
avoiding publicity, but the morning's papers revealed the secret with
an exaggerated account of their doings and sayings. Immediately, other
Burrites, joining the Lewisites at Martling's Long-room, a popular
meeting-place, organised a protestant faction, afterward known as
Martling Men, whose enmity was destined to follow Clinton to his
downfall.

As election day approached the Quids made a decisive struggle against
Clinton. They rehearsed the charges of "Aristides;" they denounced him
as cold and imperious; they charged that he had an almost boundless
political ambition; that he maintained his own councils regardless of
his associates, and accepted no suggestion not in harmony with his own
policy. The Martling Men accused him of duplicity, and of a desire
only for place and pay. In aid of Lewis, Chancellor Lansing took this
opportunity of revealing the secret that led him to withdraw from the
gubernatorial race in 1804, charging that George Clinton had sought
"to pledge him to a particular course of conduct in the administration