red. Under these conditions,
the voters of the country districts saw no reason for defeating a
governor whom they liked, for a man whose military service added
nothing to his credit or to the lustre of the State. So, when the
election storm subsided, it was found, to the bitter mortification of
the Federalists, that while the chief towns, New York, Hudson and
Albany, were strong in opposition, Tompkins and Taylor had triumphed
by the moderate majority of 3606 in a total vote of over 83,000.[176]
The Senate stood three to one in favour of the Republicans. The
Assembly was lost by ten votes.

[Footnote 176: Daniel D. Tompkins, 43,324; Stephen Van Rensselaer,
39,718.--_Civil List, State of New York_ (1887), p. 166.]

Tompkins was now at the zenith of his political career. He was one of
those men not infrequently observed in public life, who, without
conspicuous ability, have a certain knack for the management of men,
and are able to acquire influence and even a certain degree of fame by
personal skill in manipulating patronage, smoothing away difficulties,
and making things easy. Nature had not only endowed him with a genius
for political diplomacy, but good fortune had favoured his march to
popularity by disassociating him with any circumstances of birth or
environment calculated to excite jealousy or to arouse the suspicion
of the people. He was neither rich nor highly connected. The people
knew him by the favourite title of the "farmer's boy," and he never
appeared to forget his humble beginnings. "He had the faculty," says
James Renwick, formerly of Columbia College, who knew him personally,
"of never forgetting the name or face of any person with whom he had
once conversed; of becoming acquainted and appearing to take an
interest in the concerns of their families; and of securing, by his
affability and amiable address, the good opinion of the female sex,
who, although possessed of no vote, often exercise a powerful indirect
influence." Thus, while still in the early prime of life, he had risen
to a position in the State which, even in the case of men with
superior intellectual endowments, is commonly the reward of maturer
years and longer experience.

From the moment Tompkins became governor in 1807 the strongest
ambition of his mind was success in the great game of politics; and,
although never a good hater, his capacity for friendship depended
upon whether the success of his own career was endangered by the
asso