pkins had gentleness, and that
refined courtesy, amounting almost to tenderness, which seemed so
necessary in successfully dealing with Madison.

The desire to be first in every path of political success had become
such a passion in Tompkins' nature that the question presented by the
President's invitation found an answer in the immediate impulses of
his ambition. No doubt his duties as Governor and the importance of
his remaining through the impending crisis appealed to him, but they
did not control his answer. He wanted to be President, and he was
willing to sacrifice anything or anybody to secure the prize. So, it
is not surprising that he declined Madison's gracious offer, since the
experience of Northern men with Virginia Presidents did not encourage
the belief that the Presidency was reached through the Cabinet.[184]
Yet, had Tompkins fully appreciated, as he did after it was too late,
the importance of a personal and pleasant acquaintance with the
Virginia statesman and the other men who controlled congressional
caucuses, he would undoubtedly have entered Madison's Cabinet. As the
ranking, and, save Monroe, the oldest of the President's advisers, he
would have had two years in which to make himself popular, a
sufficient time, surely, for one having the prestige of a great war
governor, with gentleness of manner and sweetness of temper to disarm
all opposition and to conciliate even the fiercest of politicians.
Fifteen years later Martin Van Buren resigned the governorship to go
to the head of Jackson's Cabinet, and it made him President.

[Footnote 184: Henry Adams, _History of the United States_, Vol. 8, p.
163.]

It is not at all unlikely that Madison had it in mind to make Tompkins
his successor. He had little liking for his jealous secretary of state
who had opposed his nomination in 1808, criticised the conduct of the
war, and forced the retirement of cabinet colleagues and the removal
of favourite army officers--who had, in a word, dominated the
President until the latter became almost as tired of him as of
Armstrong. But, as the time approached for the nomination of a new
Executive, Madison's jealous regard for Virginia, as well as his
knowledge of Monroe's fitness, induced him to sustain the candidate
from his own State. This was notice to federal office-holders in New
York to get into line for the Virginian; and very soon some of
Tompkins' closest friends began falling away. To add to the Governor's