r governor against
Clinton. In this respect he was unlike Robert, chief justice, his
father's cousin, who first ran for governor on the Federalist ticket
at the suggestion of Hamilton, and, three years later, as an
anti-Federalist candidate at the suggestion of George Clinton,
suffering defeat on both occasions. He was, however, as ambitious as
the old Chief Justice; and, had the time seemed ripe, he would have
responded to the call of the Kinderhook statesman as readily as Robert
did to the appeals of Hamilton and George Clinton.

Peter B. Porter was more willing. He belonged to the Tompkins-Van
Buren faction which nourished the hope that the soldier, who had
recently borne the flag of his country in triumph on several
battlefields, would carry off the prize, although the caucus was to
convene in less than forty-eight hours. There could be no doubt of
General Porter's strength with the people. He had served his State and
his country with a fidelity that must forever class his name with the
bravest officers of the War of 1812. He rode a horse like a centaur;
and, wherever he appeared, whether equipped for a fight, or off for a
hunt through the forests of the Niagara frontier, his easy, familiar
manners surrounded him with hosts of friends. The qualities that made
him a famous soldier made him, also, a favoured politician. As county
clerk, secretary of state, and congressman, he had taken the keenest
interest in the great questions that agitated the political life of
the opening century; and as a canal commissioner, in 1811, he had
supported DeWitt Clinton with all the energy of an enthusiast.

At this time Porter was forty-four years old. He was a graduate of
Yale, a student of the law, and as quick in intelligence as he was
pleasing of countenance. His speeches, enlivened with gleams of
humour, rays of fancy, and flashes of eloquence, expressed the
thoughts of an honourable, upright statesman who was justly esteemed
of the first order of intellect. Certainly, if any one could take the
nomination from DeWitt Clinton it was Peter B. Porter.

It is possible, had the nomination been left exclusively to Republican
members of the Legislature, as it had been for forty years, Porter
might have been the choice of his party. Spencer, however, evidently
feared Van Buren's subtle control of the Legislature; for, early in
the winter, he began encouraging Republicans living in counties
represented by Federalists, to demand a voic