iam L. Marcy, the diplomacy of Benjamin Knower, and
the scintillating brilliancy of Samuel A. Talcott; but like McGregor,
Van Buren sat at the head of the table. He cautioned Noah, he
complimented Coleman, he kept Southwick and Crary on the anti-masonic
ticket, he selected the candidate for lieutenant-governor, he called
for funds, and he insisted upon making the Adams administration
odious. In referring to the President and his secretary of state, he
did not personally join in the cry of bargain and sale, of fraud and
corruption, of treachery and knavery; nor did he speak of them as "the
Puritan and the Blackleg;" but for three years his criticisms had so
associated the Administration with Federalism and the offensive alien
and sedition laws which Jefferson condemned and defeated in 1800, that
the younger Adams inherited the odium attached to his father a quarter
of a century before.

The National Republicans retaliated with statements no less base and
worthless, exhibiting Jackson as a military butcher and utterly
illiterate, and publishing documents assailing his marriage, the
chastity of his wife, and the execution of six militiamen convicted of
mutiny. Thurlow Weed, who conducted the Adams campaign in the western
part of the State, indulged in no personal attacks upon Jackson or his
wife, refusing to send out the documents known as "Domestic Relations"
and "Coffin Handbills." "The impression of the masses was that the six
militiamen deserved hanging," he says, in his autobiography, "and I
look back now with astonishment that enlightened and able statesmen
could believe that General Jackson would be injured with the people by
ruthlessly invading the sanctuary of his home, and permitting a lady
whose life had been blameless to be dragged forth into the arena of
politics."[257]

[Footnote 257: _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_, p. 309.]

The result of the election for governor and lieutenant-governor was
practically settled by the nomination of an anti-masonic independent
ticket. Thurlow Weed advised Smith Thompson that votes enough to
defeat him would be thrown away upon Southwick. Van Buren wrote
Hamilton to "bet for me on joint-account five hundred dollars that
Thompson will be defeated, and one hundred dollars on every thousand
of a majority up to five thousand; or, if you can't do better, say
five hundred on the result and fifty on every thousand up to ten." The
returns justified his confidence. He received one