Pierre Van
Cortlandt served with fidelity for eighteen years without getting the
long wished-for promotion; Morgan Lewis jumped over Jeremiah Van
Rensselaer in 1804; and Daniel D. Tompkins was preferred to John
Broome in 1807. Indeed, with the exception of Enos T. Throop, Hamilton
Fish, David B. Hill, and Frank W. Higgins, none of the worthy men who
have presided with dignity over the deliberations of the State Senate
have ever been elected governor.

DeWitt Clinton now wished to succeed Broome; and a large majority of
Republican legislators quickly placed him in nomination. Clinton had
first desired to return to Albany as senator, as he would then have
possessed the right to vote and to participate in debate. But the
Martling Men, who held the balance of power, put forward Morgan Lewis,
his bitterest enemy. It was a clever move on the part of the
ex-Governor. Clinton had literally driven Lewis from the party, and
for three years his name remained a reminiscence; but, with the
assistance of Tammany, he now got out of obscurity by getting onto the
ticket with Governor Tompkins. To add, too, to Clinton's chagrin,
Tammany also put up Nathan Sanford for the Assembly, and thus closed
against him the door of the Legislature. But to carry out his
ambitious scheme--of mounting to the Presidency in 1812--Clinton
needed to be in Albany to watch his enemies; and, although he cared
little for the lieutenant-governorship, the possession of it would
furnish an excuse for his presence at the state capital.

The announcement of DeWitt Clinton's nomination raised the most
earnest outcries among the Martling Men. They had endeavoured to
defeat his reappointment to the mayoralty; but their wild protests had
fallen upon deaf ears. Indeed, the hatred of Minthorne, the intriguing
genius of Teunis Wortman, and the earnestness of Matthew L. Davis,
seemed only to have been agencies to prepare the way for Clinton's
triumphant restoration. Now, however, these accomplished political
gladiators proposed to give battle at the polls, and if their
influence throughout the State had been as potent as it proved within
the wards of New York City, the day of DeWitt Clinton's destiny must
have been nearly over.

Since its organisation in 1789, the Society of St. Tammany had been an
influential one. It was founded for charitable purposes; its
membership was made up mostly of native Americans, and its meetings
were largely social in their character.