ck for clerk of the Assembly. Southwick possessed the amiable,
winning qualities that characterised William W. Van Ness. He was
associated with his brother-in-law in the management of the Albany
_Register_, and from his earliest youth had been as zealous a
Republican as he was warm and disinterested in his friendships. To
friend and foe he was alike cordial and generous. He possessed an open
mind, not so eloquent as Van Ness, and less brilliant, perhaps, in
conversation; but the fluent splendour of his speech and the beauty of
his person and manners went as far toward the attainment of his
ambition. He had been elected clerk of the Assembly continuously since
1803, until his popularity among the members, whom he served with
uniform politeness and zeal, seemed proof against the attacks of any
adversary. Just now, however, the enemies of DeWitt Clinton were the
opponents of Solomon Southwick, while his rival, Garret Y. Lansing,
the nephew of the Chancellor, had become the bitterest and most
formidable enemy the Clintons had to encounter. Popular as he was,
Southwick could not win against such odds, although it turned out that
a change of four votes would have elected him.

A Lewis Council of Appointment made a clean sweep of the Governor's
enemies and of DeWitt Clinton's friends. Clinton himself gave up the
mayoralty of New York, Maturin Livingston again assumed the duties of
recorder, and Thomas Tillotson was restored to the office of secretary
of state. Perhaps Clinton thought he stood too high to be in danger
from Lewis' hand. If he did he found out his mistake, for Lewis
struck him down in the most unsparing and humiliating way. Public
affront was added to political deprivation. Without warning or
explanation, the first motion put at the first meeting of the new
Council, on February 6, 1807, made him the first sacrifice. Had he
been a justice of the peace in a remote western county he could not
have been treated more rudely; and, it may be added, if better reason
than that already existing were needed to seal the fate of Lewis,
Clinton's removal furnished it. New York has seldom been roused to
greater passion by a governor's act. It could even then be said of
Clinton that his name was associated with every great enterprise for
the public good. Less than a year before, in his efforts to educate
the children of the poor, unprovided for in parochial schools, he had
laid the foundation of the public school system, heading