ans alike suffered, including the able and
distinguished Thomas Addis Emmet, an ardent friend of Clinton who had
been urged to accept the attorney-generalship after the death of
Matthias B. Hildreth in the preceding August. But Clinton had the
support of Jonas Platt, the leading member of the Council, and Platt
refused to permit his removal. Doubtless the latter hoped to fill up
the Federalist ranks with Clintonian recruits; and so with greater
confidence than usual the Federalists, when their turn came, nominated
Stephen Van Rensselaer for governor and George Huntington of Oneida
County for lieutenant-governor.

Aside from the result of the elections of the preceding November,
which had given Federalists twenty out of thirty congressmen, it is
difficult to understand upon what the party of Hamilton really based
its confidence. Before the campaign was a month old, it must have been
evident that the defeated candidate for President had as little
influence as Van Rensselaer, who, as a major-general of militia in
command at Fort Niagara, was a miserable failure. After shivering with
fear for sixty days lest Hull's fate overtake him, Van Rensselaer,
apparently in sheer desperation, had suddenly ordered a small part of
his force across the river to be shot and captured in the presence of
a large reserve who refused to go to the assistance of their comrades.
The news of this defeat led Monroe to speak of him as "a weak and
incompetent man with high pretensions." Jefferson thought Hull ought
to be "shot for cowardice" and Van Rensselaer "broke for
incapacity."[175]

[Footnote 175: Jefferson to Madison, Nov. 5, 1812; _Jefferson MSS.
Series V._, Vol. XV.]

But the Federalists, unmindful of the real seriousness of that
disaster, contested the election with unusual vehemence, until the
best informed men of both parties conceded their advantage. The
Government's incapacity was abundantly illustrated in the failure of
its armies and in the impoverished condition of its treasury, and if
the home conditions had been disturbed by distress, the confidence of
the Federalists must have been realised. The people of the State,
however, had seen and felt nothing of actual warfare. In spite of
embargoes and blockades, ample supplies of foreign goods had continued
to arrive; and, except along the Niagara frontier, occupied by a few
hundred scattered settlers, the farms produced their usual harvests
and the industries of life were not impai