inst the Administration." He might have added,
also, that the debate distinctly marked Van Buren's position in
history as a party-maker in the second great division of parties in
America.

Van Buren's coalition with DeWitt Clinton, however, came perilously
near prostrating them both. At their state convention, held at Utica,
in September, 1826, the Clintonians and the People's party renominated
Clinton for governor. In the following month, the Bucktails met at
Herkimer, and, if Van Buren could have had his way, the convention
would have indorsed Clinton. Finding such action inadvisable, however,
Van Buren secured the nomination of William B. Rochester, on the
theory that he was a good enough candidate to be beaten. Rochester was
not a man of marked ability. He had done nothing to make himself known
throughout the State; he did not even favour a state road through the
southern tier of counties. He was simply a lawyer of fair attainments
who had served a term in the Legislature, one in Congress, and two
years as a circuit judge, a position from which he resigned, in 1825,
to become minister to Panama.

But Rochester proved vastly more formidable as a candidate for
governor than the Van Buren leaders anticipated. It became well known
that he was a supporter of the Adams administration, and that Henry
Clay regarded him with favour. Indeed, it was through the latter's
personal and political friendship that he secured the mission to
Panama. Thus, the feeling began to obtain that Rochester, although
the nominee of the Regency party, more nearly represented the
interests and principles of the Adams administration than DeWitt
Clinton, an avowed Jackson man, who had formed a coalition with Van
Buren. For this reason, Peter B. Porter, an ardent admirer of Clay,
and now a member of the People's party, entered with spirit into the
campaign, appealing to the Clintonians, a large majority of whom
favoured Adams, to resent Clinton's deal with Jackson's friends, and
vote for Rochester, whose election would insure the success of the
President, and bring credit to the people of the western counties,
already ambitious to give the State a governor. This potent appeal was
taken up throughout the State, influencing many Clintonians to support
Rochester, and holding in line scores of Bucktails who favoured Adams.

It was a critical moment for Van Buren. He was not only a candidate
for re-election to the United States Senate, but he had stak