umbering stage coach that took five or six days and nights,
and, in muddy seasons, six days and seven nights of continuous travel,
to go from Albany to Buffalo, made a strenuous life, but Weed's
devotion to party, and fidelity to men and principles, sent him on his
way with something of the freshness of boyhood still shining on his
face. He had his faults, but they were not of a kind to prevent men
from finding him lovable.

When Weed came to Albany, in November, 1824, as the advocate of John
Quincy Adams, the only hope of success was the union of the friends of
Clay and Adams, since only two electoral tickets, under the
Constitution, could be voted for. In the Senate, Crawford had
seventeen votes, and Adams and Clay seven each; in the Assembly, the
first ballot gave Crawford forty-three, Adams fifty, and Clay
thirty-two. Until some combination was made, therefore, a majority
could not be obtained for any candidate. To make such an union
required fine diplomacy between the Adams and Clay men; for it
appeared that Clay must have at least seven electoral votes from New
York in order to become one of the three candidates to be voted for in
the House of Representatives, should the election of President be
thrown into Congress. Fortunately for the Adams men, the Crawford
people also had their troubles, and to hold two senators in line they
placed the names of six moderate Clay men on their ticket. Thereupon,
at a secret meeting, the Adams and Clay leaders agreed to support
thirty Adams men and the six Clay men upon the Crawford ticket, the
friends of Adams promising, if Clay carried Louisiana, to furnish him
the needed seven votes. Naturally enough, the success of this
programme depended upon the utmost secrecy, since their ticket, with
the help of all the Clay votes that could be mustered, would not
exceed two majority. The better to secure such secrecy Weed personally
printed the ballots on the Sunday before the final vote on Tuesday.

There was another well-kept secret. Thurlow Weed had had his
suspicions turned into absolute evidence that Henry Eckford of New
York City, a wealthy supporter of Crawford, had furnished money to
influence three Adams men to vote for the Georgian. He had followed
their go-between from Syracuse to Albany, from Albany to New York, and
from New York back to Albany; he had heard their renunciation of Adams
and their changed sentiments toward Crawford; and he knew also that
the Adams ticket was