Republican party by "opposing the election of
President Madison." There was much truth in some of these charges.
Clinton had quarrelled with Aaron Burr; he had overthrown Morgan
Lewis; and he was ready to defeat Daniel D. Tompkins. Even Cheetham
had left him some months before his death, and Richard Riker, who
acted as second in the duel with John Swartout, was soon to ignore the
chilly Mayor when he passed. The estrangement of these friends is
pathetic, yet one gets no melancholy accounts of Clinton's troubles.
The great clamour of Tammany brought no darkening clouds into his
life. He was soon to learn that Tammany, heretofore an object of
contempt, was now a force to be reckoned with, but he did not show any
qualms of uneasiness even if he felt them.

Tammany bolted Clinton's nomination, selecting for its candidate
Marinus Willett, its most available member, and most brilliant
historic character. Before and during the Revolution, Willett did much
to make him a popular hero. He served the inefficient Abercrombie in
his unsuccessful attack on Ticonderoga in 1758; he was with the
resolute Bradstreet at the brilliant charge of Fort Frontenac; he led
the historic sortie at Fort Schuyler on the 7th of August, 1777. Men
were still living who saw his furious assault upon the camp of
Johnson's Greens, so sudden and sharp that the baronet himself, before
joining the flight of his Indians to the depths of the thick forest,
did not have time to put on his coat, or to save the British flag and
the personal baggage of Barry St. Leger. The tale was strange enough
to seem incredible to minds more sober than those of the Tammany
braves, who listened with pride to the achievements of their sachem.
With two hundred and fifty men and an iron three-pounder, Willett had
fallen so unexpectedly upon the English and Indians, that the advance
guard, panic-stricken, suddenly disappeared--officers, men, and
savages--leaving twenty-one wagon loads of rich spoil. This heroic
deed was a part of Willett's stock in trade, and, although he was
wobbly in his politics, the people could not forget his courage and
good judgment in war. But Willett's influence was confined to the
wards of a city. The rural counties believed in New York's mayor
rather than in New York's hero; and when the votes were counted,
Clinton had a safe majority. He had fared badly in New York City,
being deprived of more than half his votes through the popular
candidacy of Nichola