sion." The resolutions closed
with an expression of confidence in the patriotism and integrity of
the government.

[Footnote 207: DeWitt Clinton's Letters to Henry Post, in _Harper's
Magazine_, Vol. 50, p. 413.]

[Footnote 208: _Governors' Speeches_, November 7, 1820, p. 179.]

Meanwhile, Clinton was urging Post to help him out of his difficulty.
"I want authenticated testimony of the interference of the general
government in our elections," he wrote on November 19. "Our friends
must be up and doing on this subject. It is all important."[209] Eight
days later he stirred up Post again. "What is the annual amount of
patronage of the national government in this State?" he asked.[210]
"Knowing the accuracy of your calculations, I rely much on you." Then
he developed his plan: "The course of exposition ought, I think, to be
this--to collect a voluminous mass of documents detailing facts, and
to form from them a lucid, intelligible statement. On the
representation of facts recourse must also be had to inferences, and
it ought also to unite boldness and prudence."[211] It is evident that
thus far inferences outnumbered facts, for far into December Clinton
was still calling upon his friends to collect testimony. "Go on with
your collection of proofs," he wrote. "I think with a little industry
this matter will stand well."[212]

[Footnote 209: DeWitt Clinton's Letters to Henry Post, in _Harper's
Magazine_, Vol. 50, p. 413.]

[Footnote 210: _Ibid._, Vol. 50, p. 413.]

[Footnote 211: _Ibid._, Vol. 50, p. 414.]

[Footnote 212: _Ibid._, Vol. 50, p. 415.]

When submitted to the Legislature, on January 17, 1821, the documents,
according to the Governor's instructions, were indeed very voluminous.
It required a bag to take them to the capitol--the green bag message,
it was called; but it proved to be smoke, with little fire. It fully
established that the naval storekeeper at Brooklyn, and other federal
officials were offensive partisans, just as they had been under
Clinton's control, and just as they have been ever since. The
Bucktails saw distinctly enough that the State could not be aroused
into indignation by such a mass of documents; but there was one letter
from Van Buren to Henry Meigs, the congressman, dated April 5, 1820,
advising the removal of postmasters at Bath, Little Falls, and Oxford,
because it seemed impossible to secure the free circulation of
Bucktail newspapers in the interior of the State, which provoked