e gift
of oratory; he had neither grace of manner nor alluring forms of
expression. On the contrary, there was a certain quality of antagonism
in his manner, as if he took grim satisfaction in letting fly his
words, seemingly almost coldly indifferent to their effect; and on
this occasion his sledge-hammer blows gave Peter R. Livingston,
evidently acting by prearrangement, abundant chance for forcing a
quarrel. In the confusion that followed, the caucus hastily adjourned
amid mutual recriminations. When too late to mend matters the
Clintonians discovered the trick. They had the majority and could
easily have named Spencer as the candidate of the party, but in the
excitement of German's speech and Livingston's attack they lost their
heads. Thus ended forever all caucus relationship between these
warring factions, and henceforth they were known as two distinct
parties.

At the joint session of the Legislature, on February 2, 1819, the
Clintonians gave Spencer sixty-four votes, while Young received
fifty-seven, and Rufus King thirty-four. "A motion then prevailed to
adjourn," wrote John A. King to his father, "so that this Legislature
will make no choice." Young King, a member of the Assembly, was
looking after his father's re-election to the Senate. He deeply
resented Clinton's control of the Federalists, because it made his
father a leader only in name; and to show his dislike of Federalist
methods he associated and voted with the Bucktails. Nor did the father
dislike Clinton less than the son. Rufus King had felt, what he was
pleased to call "the baleful influence of the Clintons," ever since
his advent into New York politics. They had opposed the Federal
Constitution which he, as a delegate from Massachusetts, helped to
frame; they assisted Jefferson in overwhelming Hamilton; and they
benefited by the election trick which defeated John Jay. For more than
two decades, therefore, Rufus King had watched their control by
methods, which a man cast in a mould that would make no concessions to
his virtue, could not approve. Under his observation, DeWitt Clinton
had grown from young manhood, ambitious and domineering, accustomed to
destroy the friend who got in his way with as much ease, apparently,
as he smote an enemy. Hence King regarded him much as Hamilton did
Aaron Burr; and against his candidacy for President in 1812, he used
the argument that the great Federalist had hurled against the
intriguing New Yorker in 1801.