somewhat
thin-skinned; he happened, too, to be out of the State Senate, and
thus was compelled to endure, in silence, the attacks of the
opposition. It is believed that at this time, Van Buren had a strong
inclination to accept a Supreme Court judgeship, and thus withdraw
forever from political life. But the fates denied him any chance of
making this serious anti-climax in his great political career. While
the green bag message convulsed the Clintonians with simulated
indignation, the Bucktails declared him, by a caucus vote of
fifty-eight to twenty-four, their choice for United States senator in
place of Nathan Sanford, whose term expired on March 4, 1821.

It appeared then as it appears now, that Martin Van Buren was "the
inevitable man." He was thirty-nine years of age, in the early
ripeness of his powers, a leader at the bar, and the leader of his
party. He had accumulated from his practice the beginnings of the
fortune which his Dutch thrift and cautious habits made ample for his
needs. The simple and natural rules governing his astute political
leadership seemed to leave him without a rival, or, at least, without
an opponent who could get in his way. Times had changed, too, since
the days when United States senators resigned to become postmasters
and mayors of New York. A seat in the United States Senate had become
a great honour, because it was a place of great power and great
influence; and in passing from Albany to Washington Van Buren would
add to state leadership an opportunity of becoming a national figure.
It is not surprising, therefore, that Clinton sought to defeat him;
for he had ever been ready to retaliate upon men who ventured to cross
his purposes. But Clinton's scheme had no place in the plans of
Bucktails. "I am afraid Van Buren will beat Sanford for senator," he
wrote Post as early as the 30th of December, 1820. "He will unless his
friends stand out against a caucus decision."[214] This is what
Clinton wanted the twenty-four Sanford delegates to do, and, to
encourage such a bolt, he compelled every Federalist and Clintonian,
save one, to vote for him, although Sanford represented Tammany and
its bitter hostility to Clinton. But the Bucktails had at last
established a party organisation that could not be divided by Clinton
intrigue, and Van Buren received the full party vote.

[Footnote 214: DeWitt Clinton's Letters to Henry Post, in _Harper's
Magazine_, Vol. 50, p. 414.]

When Roger Skinner a