d, for this, the
great senators combined and spoke against him--Webster, Clay, Hayne,
Ewing of Ohio, Holmes of Maine, and seven others--"just a dozen and
equal to a full jury," wrote Benton. Webster said he would pardon
almost anything when he saw true patriotism and sound American
feeling, but he could not forgive the sacrifice of these to party.
Clay characterised his language as that of an humble vassal to a proud
and haughty lord, prostrating the American eagle before the British
lion. In the course of his remarks, Clay also referred, in an
incidental way, to the odious system of proscription practised in the
State of New York, which, he alleged, Van Buren had introduced into
the general government.

Only four senators spoke in Van Buren's defence, recalling the weak
protest made in the Legislature on the day of DeWitt Clinton's removal
as canal commissioner, but this gave William L. Marcy the greater
opportunity for acquitting himself with glory and vindicating his
friend. It was not a strong argument he had to meet. Van Buren had
been unfortunate in his language, although in admitting that the
United States was wrong in refusing the privileges offered by the
British law of 1825, he did nothing more than had Gallatin, whom Adams
sent to England to remedy the same difficulty. Furthermore, by
assuming a more conciliatory course Van Buren had been entirely
successful. To Webster's suggestion of lack of patriotism, and to
Clay's declaration that the American eagle had been prostrated before
the British lion, Marcy might have pointed to Van Buren's exalted
patriotism during the War of 1812, citing the conscription act, which
he drafted, and which Benton declared the most drastic piece of war
legislation ever enacted into law. To Clay's further charge, that he
brought with him to Washington the odious system of proscription, the
New York senator could truthfully have retorted that the system of
removals, inaugurated by Jackson, was in full swing before Van Buren
reached the national capital; that if he did not oppose it he
certainly never encouraged it; that of seventeen foreign
representatives, the Secretary of State had removed only four; and
that, in making appointments as governor, he never departed from the
rule of refusing either to displace competent and trustworthy men, or
to appoint the dishonest and incompetent. He could also have read
Lorenzo Hoyt's wail that Van Buren would "not lend the least weight of
his