overnor by acclamation, many representatives of the
People's party walked out of the hall and reorganised another
convention, resolving to support Tallmadge, but protesting against the
nomination of Clinton--"a diversion," says Weed, "which was soon
forgotten amid the general and pervading enthusiasm."[233]

[Footnote 233: _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_, p. 120.]

The election of governor in 1824 passed into history as one of the
most stirring ever witnessed in the State. In a fight, Samuel Young
and DeWitt Clinton were at home. They neither asked nor gave quarter.
There is no record that their fluency or invective did more than add
to the excitement of the campaign; but each was well supplied with
ready venom. Young was rhetorical and dramatic--Clinton energetic and
forceful. People, listening to Young, rocked with laughter and
revelled in applause as he pilloried his opponents, the ferocity of
his attacks being surpassed only by the eloquence of his periods. With
Clinton, speaking was serious business. He lacked the oratorical gift
and the art of concealing the labour of his overwrought and too
elaborate sentences; but his addresses afforded ample evidence of the
capacity and richness of his mind. In spite of great faults, both
candidates commanded the loyalty of followers who swelled with pride
because of their courage and splendid ability. The confidence of the
Regency and the usual success of Tammany at first made the friends of
Clinton unhappy; but as the campaign advanced, Young discovered that
the Regency, in insisting on the choice of electors by the
Legislature, had given the opposition the most telling cry it could
possibly have found against him; that the popular tumult over
Clinton's removal was growing from day to day; and that his opponents
were banded together against him on many grounds and with many
different purposes. Two weeks before the election, it was evident to
every one that the Regency was doomed, that Van Buren was
disconcerted, and that Young was beaten; but no one expected that
Clinton's majority would reach sixteen thousand,[234] or that
Tallmadge would run thirty-two thousand ahead of Erastus Root. The
announcement came like a thunderbolt, bringing with it the
intelligence that out of eight senators only two Regency men had been
spared, while, in the Assembly, the opposition had three to one. In
other words, the election of 1822 had been completely reversed.
Clinton was again in the sad