caucus, Hammond[245] intimates that the Adams men did not keep faith
with the Clay men, since the four votes taken from Clay and given to
Crawford on the second ballot made Crawford, instead of Clay, a
candidate in the national House of Representatives. Other writers have
followed this opinion, charging the Adams managers with having played
foul with the Kentucky statesman. But Weed and his associates did
nothing of the kind. The agreement was that Clay should have seven
electoral votes from New York, provided he carried Louisiana, but as
Jackson carried that State, it left the Adams men free to give all
their votes to the New Englander. What would have happened had Clay
carried Louisiana is not so clear, for Weed admits that up to the time
news came that Louisiana had gone for Jackson, he was unable to find a
single Adams elector who would consent to vote for Clay, even to save
his friends and his party from dishonour.

[Footnote 245: Jabez D. Hammond, _Political History of New York_, p.
177.]

The failure of the people to elect a President in 1824, and the choice
of John Quincy Adams by the House of Representatives, are among the
most widely known events in our political history. New York remained,
throughout, the storm-centre of excitement. After a large majority of
its presidential electors had declared for Adams, thus throwing the
election into Congress, the result still depended upon the vote of its
closely divided delegation in the House. Of the thirty-four
congressmen, seventeen favoured Adams, sixteen opposed him, and
Stephen Van Rensselaer was doubtful. The latter's action, therefore,
became of the utmost importance, since, if he voted against Adams, it
would tie the New York delegation and exclude it from the count, thus
giving Adams twelve States instead of the necessary thirteen, and
making his election on a second ballot even more doubtful. This
condition revived the hopes of Van Buren and gave Clinton a chance to
work for Jackson.

Stephen Van Rensselaer,[246] born in 1764, had had a conspicuous and
in some respects a distinguished career. He was the fifth in lineal
descent from Killian van Rensselaer, the wealthy pearl merchant of
Amsterdam, known as the first Patroon, whose great manor, purchased in
the early part of the seventeenth century, originally included the
present counties of Albany, Rensselaer, and Columbia. Stephen
inherited the larger part of this territory, and, with it, the old
manor