lost if these three votes, or even two of them,
were cast for the Crawford ticket. Weed straightway proposed that the
dishonourable purposes of these men should be anticipated by an
immediate declaration of war; and, upon their appearance in Albany,
Henry Wheaton faced them with the story of their dishonour,
threatening an exposure unless they voted a ballot bearing the
initials of himself and Tallmadge. Conscious of their guilty purposes,
the timid souls consented to Wheaton's proposition and then kept their
pledges.

In the meantime, Van Buren's confidence in the weakness of the
Adams-Clay men was never for a moment shaken. Of the thirty-nine Clay
supporters in the Legislature, Crawford only needed sixteen; and
these, Samuel Young and his Clay friends, had promised to deliver.
There is no evidence that Van Buren had any knowledge of Weed's
management at this time; it so happened, by design or by accident,
that in their long careers they never met but once, and then, not
until after Van Buren had retired from the White House. But the
Senator knew that some hand had struck him, and struck him hard, when
Lieutenant-Governor Root drew from the box the first union ballot.
Instead of reading it, Root involuntarily exclaimed, "A printed split
ticket." Thereupon Senator Keyes of Jefferson County, sprang to his
feet, and, in a loud voice, shouted, "Treason, by God!" In the
confusion, Root was about to vacate the speaker's chair and return
with the senators to their chamber, when James Tallmadge, in a
stentorian voice, called for order. "I demand, under the authority of
the Constitution of the United States," he said, "under the
Constitution of the State of New York, in the name of the whole
American people, that this joint meeting of the two houses of the
Legislature shall not be interrupted in the discharge of a high duty
and a sacred trust."[243] This settled it. The count went on, but, so
nearly were the parties divided that only thirty-two electors, and
these on the union ticket, received votes enough to elect them. On the
second ballot, four Crawford electors were chosen. "Had our secret
transpired before the first ballot," says Weed, "such was the power of
the Regency over two or three timid men, that the whole Crawford
ticket would have been elected."[244]

[Footnote 243: _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_, p. 127.]

[Footnote 244: _Ibid._, p. 127.]

Writing without full information of the agreement made in the secret