ing conditions.
Clinton was honestly proud of his canal policy; more than once he
declared, with exultation, that nothing was more certain to promote
the prosperity of the State, or to secure to it the weight and
authority, in the affairs of the nation, to which its wealth and
position entitled it. Seldom in the history of an American
commonwealth has a statesman been as prophetic. But in managing the
details of party tactics--in dealing with individuals for the purpose
of controlling the means that control men--he conducted the office of
governor much as he did his candidacy for President in 1812, without
plan, and, apparently, without organisation. With all his courage,
Clinton must have felt some qualms of uneasiness as one humiliation
followed another; but if he felt he did not show them. Conscious of
his ability, and of his own great purposes, he seems to have borne his
position with a sort of proud or stolid patience.

This inattention or inability to attend to details of party management
became painfully apparent at the opening of the Legislature in
January, 1818. Van Buren and his friends had agreed upon William
Thompson for speaker of the Assembly. Thompson was a young man, warm
in his passions, strong in his prejudices, and of fair ability, who
had served two or three terms in the lower house, and who, it was
thought, as he represented a western district, and, in opposition to
Elisha Williams, had favoured certain interests in Seneca County
growing out of the location of a new courthouse, would have greater
strength than other more prominent Bucktails. It was known, also, that
Thompson had taken a violent dislike to Clinton and could be relied
upon to advance any measure for the latter's undoing. To secure his
nomination, therefore, Van Buren secretly notified his partisans to be
present at the caucus on the evening before the session opened.

The Clintonians had talked of putting up John Van Ness Yates, son of
the former Chief Justice, a ready talker, companionable and brilliant,
a gentleman of fine literary taste, with an up-and-down political
career due largely to his consistent following of Clinton. But the
Governor now wanted a stronger, more decided man; and, after advising
with Spencer, he selected Obadiah German, for many years a leader in
the Assembly, and until recently a member of the United States Senate,
with such a record for resistance to Governor Tompkins, and active
complicity with the Feder