oice was heard on one side or the other of every question that
interested the American people; and the force he brought to bear,
whether for good or evil, swayed the minds of contemporaries to an
unusual degree.

Van Buren looked his best in these days. His complexion was a bright
blonde, and he dressed with the taste of Disraeli. Henry B. Stanton
describes him as he appeared at church in Rochester on a Sunday during
the campaign. "He wore an elegant snuff-colored broadcloth coat with
velvet collar; his cravat was orange with modest lace tips; his vest
was of a pearl hue; his trousers were white duck; his silk hose
corresponded to the vest; his shoes were morocco; his nicely fitting
gloves were yellow kid; his long-furred beaver hat, with broad brim,
was of Quaker color. As he sat in the wealthy aristocratic church of
the town, in the pew of General Gould who had been a lifelong
Federalist and supporter of Clinton, all eyes were fixed upon the man
who held Jackson's fate in his hands."[256]

[Footnote 256: H.B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 32.]

Van Buren did not propose to take any chances, either in securing the
nomination or the election for governor--hence his visit to Rochester
and the western counties to study for himself the anti-masonic
situation. "The excitement has been vastly greater than I supposed,"
he wrote Hamilton. In order to find some way of pacifying it, he
turned aside to visit the home of his friend, Enos T. Throop, then
living on the wooded and beautiful banks of Lake Owasco. In January,
1827, Throop, who presided at the first trial of the Morgan abductors,
had, to the great delight of all Anti-Masons, flayed the defendants,
before pronouncing sentence, in a remarkably effective and emphatic
address. Such a man was needed to strengthen the Jackson ticket, and
before Van Buren got home it was charged that he had secured Throop's
promise to stand for lieutenant-governor, with the assurance that
within three months after his inauguration, if everything went
according to programme, he should be the acting governor.

These tactics meant the turning down of Nathaniel Pitcher, the acting
governor in place of DeWitt Clinton. Pitcher had served four years in
the Assembly, one term in Congress, and as a delegate to the
convention in 1821. Though a man of limited education and strong
prejudices, with a depth of feeling that made him as vigorously
independent as he was rigidly honest, he proved his