e in the nominating
caucus. It was a novel idea. Up to this time, governors and
lieutenant-governors had been nominated by members of the Legislature;
yet the plan now suggested was so manifestly fair that few dared
oppose it. Why should the Republicans of Albany County, it was asked,
be denied the privilege of participating in the nomination of a
governor simply because, being in a minority, they were unrepresented
in the Legislature? There was no good reason; and, although Van Buren
well understood that such counties would return delegates generally
favourable to Clinton, he was powerless to defeat the reform. The
result was the beginning of nominating conventions, composed of
delegates selected by the people, and the nomination of DeWitt
Clinton.

The blow to Van Buren was a severe one. "An obscure painter of the
Flemish school," wrote Clinton to his friend and confidant, Henry
Post, "has made a very ludicrous and grotesque representation of Jonah
immediately after he was ejected from the whale's belly. He is
represented as having a very bewildered and dismal physiognomy, not
knowing from whence he came nor to what place bound. Just so looks Van
Buren, the leader of the opposition party."[189] Yet Van Buren seems
to have taken his defeat with more serenity and dignity than might
have been expected. Statesmen of far nobler character have allowed
themselves to indulge in futile demonstrations of disappointment and
anger, but Van Buren displayed a remarkable evenness of temper. He
advocated with ability and sincerity the bill to construct the canal,
which passed the Legislature on April 15, the last day of the session.
Indeed, of the eighteen senators who favoured the project, five were
bitter anti-Clintonians whose support was largely due to Van Buren.

[Footnote 189: DeWitt Clinton's Letters to Henry Post, in _Harper's
Magazine_, Vol. 50, p. 412.]

In this vote, the noes, in both Assembly and Senate, came from
Clinton's opponents, including the Tammany delegation and their
friends. From the outset Tammany, by solemn resolutions, had denounced
the canal project as impractical and chimerical, declaring it fit only
for a ditch in which to bury Clinton. At Albany its representatives
greeted the measure for its construction with a burst of mockery; and,
by placing one obstacle after another in its way, nearly defeated it
in the Senate. It was during this contest that the friends of Clinton
called his opponents "Bucktai