rty in politics, if not an absurdity,
at least is evidence of indecision. We are not yet declared enemies,
but if I mistake not, the question of Council and the choice of a
United States senator must, if these gentlemen persist, decide the
matter irrevocably. Mr. W. Duer, Van Vechten, Bunner, Hoffman, and
myself are opposed to Mr. W. Van Ness, Oakley, and J. Van Rensselaer.
Mr. Clinton has found means to flatter these gentlemen with the
prospect of attaining their utmost wishes by adhering to and
supporting his administration."[192]

[Footnote 192: Charles R. King, _The Life and Correspondence of Rufus
King_, Vol. 6, p. 102.]

Clinton committed the second great error of his life when he consented
to bolt the caucus nominee of his party. It was an act of conscious
baseness. He had not manfully put forward his strength. Instead of
managing, he temporised; instead of meeting his adversaries with a
will, he did nothing, while they worked systematically and in silence.
Even then he need not have entered the caucus; but, once having
voluntarily entered it, it was his plain duty to support its nominee.
As a question of principle or expediency Clinton's conduct, therefore,
admits of no defence. The plea that Van Buren had secretly assembled
the Bucktails in force neither justifies nor palliates it; for the
slightest management on Clinton's part would have controlled the
caucus by bringing together fifty members instead of thirty-three, and
the slightest inquiry would have discovered the weakness of having
only thirty-three present instead of fifty.

Clinton professed to believe that the Federalists no longer existed as
a party; and it is probably true that he desired to create a party of
his own out of its membership, strengthened by the Clintonians, and to
leave Tammany and its Bucktail supporters to build up an opposition
organisation. But in this he was in advance of his time. Though the
day was coming when a majority of the Clintonians and Federalists
would make the backbone of the Whig party in the Empire State, a new
party could not be built up by such methods as Clinton now introduced.
New parties, like poets, are born, not made, and a love for principle,
not a desire for spoils, must precede their birth. If Clinton had
sincerely desired a new organisation, he should have disclaimed all
connection with the Republican or Federalist, and planted his standard
on the cornerstone of internal improvements, prepared to make