influence to displace from office such men as John Duer," Adams'
appointee as United States attorney at New York. But Marcy did nothing
of the kind. He made no use of the abundant material at hand, out of
which he might have constructed a brilliant speech if not a perfect
defence. Quite on the contrary he contented himself simply with
replying to Clay's slur. He defended the practice of political
proscription by charging that both sides did it. Ambrose Spencer, he
said, the man whom Clay was now ready to honour, had begun it, and he
himself "saw nothing wrong in the rule that to the victors belong the
spoils of the enemy."

If the conspiracy of distinguished statesmen to defeat Van Buren's
confirmation was shallow and in bad taste, Marcy's defence was
scarcely above the standard of a ward politician. Indeed, the
attempted defence of his friend became the shame of both; since it
forever fixed upon Marcy the odium of enunciating a vicious principle
that continued to corrupt American political life for more than half a
century, and confirmed the belief that Van Buren was an inveterate
spoilsman.[273]

[Footnote 273: "To this celebrated and execrable defence Van Buren
owes much of the later and unjust belief that he was an inveterate
spoilsman. Benton truly says that Van Buren's temper and judgment were
both against it."--Edward M. Shepard, _Life of Martin Van Buren_, p.
233.]

Probably an abler defence would in no wise have changed the result.
From the first a majority of senators had opposed Van Buren's
confirmation, several of whom refrained from voting to afford Vice
President Calhoun the exquisite satisfaction of giving the casting
vote. "It will kill him, sir, kill him dead," Calhoun boasted in
Benton's hearing; "he will never kick, sir, never kick." This was the
thought of other opponents. But Thomas H. Benton believed otherwise.
"You have broken a minister and elected a Vice President," he said.
"The people will see nothing in it but a combination of rivals against
a competitor."

This also was the prophecy of Thurlow Weed. While the question of
rejection was still under consideration, that astute editor declared
"it would change the complexion of his prospects from despair to hope.
His presses would set up a fearful howl of proscription. He would
return home as a persecuted man, throw himself upon the sympathy of
the party, be nominated for Vice President, and huzzaed into office at
the heels of General Jack