ect might have continued. After that
catastrophe, which was destined to prove his Waterloo, he had
confidence in nothing except gold and silver.

As anticipated, Van Buren's inauguration as governor preceded his
appointment as secretary of state under President Jackson only seventy
days. It gave him barely time gracefully to assume the duties of one
position before taking up those of the other. But, in making the
change, he did not forget to keep an anchor to windward by having the
amiable and timid Charles E. Dudley succeed him in the United States
Senate. Dudley had the weakness of many cultured, charming men, who
are without personal ambition or executive force. He was incapable of
taking part in debate, or of exerting any perceptible influence upon
legislation in the committee-room. Nevertheless, he was sincere in his
friendships; and the opinion obtained that if Van Buren had desired
for any reason to return to the Senate, Dudley would have gracefully
retired in his favour.

The appointments of Green C. Bronson as attorney-general, and Silas
Wright as comptroller of state, atoned for Dudley's election; for they
brought conspicuously to the front two men whose unusual ability
greatly honoured the State. Bronson had already won an enviable
reputation at the bar of Oneida County. He was now forty years old, a
stalwart in the Jackson party, bold and resolute, with a sturdy
vigour of intellect that was to make him invaluable to the Regency. He
had been a Clintonian surrogate of his county and a Clintonian member
of the Assembly in 1822, but he had changed since then, and his
present appointment was to give him twenty-two years of continuous
public life as a Democrat, lifting him from justice to chief justice
of the Supreme Court, and transferring him finally to the Court of
Appeals.

Silas Wright was a younger man than Bronson, not yet thirty-five years
old; but his admittance to the Regency completely filled the great gap
left by Marcy's retirement. Like Marcy, he was large and muscular,
although with a face of more refinement; like Marcy, too, he dressed
plainly. He had an affable manner stripped of all affectation. From
his first entrance into public life, he had shown a great capacity for
the administration of affairs. He looked like a great man. His
unusually high, square forehead indicated strength of intellect, and
his lips, firmly set, but round and full, gave the impression of
firmness, with a generous and