son."[274] On the evening Van Buren heard of
his rejection, in London, Lord Auckland, afterward governor-general of
India, said to him: "It is an advantage to a public man to be the
subject of an outrage."

[Footnote 274: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 1, p.
375.]

In New York, Van Buren's party took his rejection as the friends of
DeWitt Clinton had taken his removal as canal commissioner.
Indignation meetings were held and addresses voted. In stately words
and high-sounding sentences, the Legislature addressed the President,
promising to avenge the indignity offered to their most distinguished
fellow citizen; to which Jackson replied with equal warmth and skill,
assuming entire responsibility for the instructions given the American
minister at London and for removals from office; and acquitting the
Secretary of State of all participation in the occurrences between
himself and Calhoun. He had called Van Buren to the State Department,
the President said, to meet the general wish of the Republican party,
and his signal success had not only justified his selection, but his
public services had in nowise diminished confidence in his integrity
and great ability. This blare of trumpets set the State on fire; and
various plans were proposed for wiping out the insult of the Senate.
Some suggested Dudley's resignation and Van Buren's re-election, that
he might meet his slanderers face to face; others thought he should be
made governor; but the majority, guided by the wishes of the Cabinet,
and the expression of friends in other States, insisted that his
nomination as Vice President would strengthen the ticket and open the
way to the Presidency in 1836.

When, therefore, the Democratic national convention met at Baltimore,
in May, 1832, only one name was seriously considered for Vice
President. Van Buren had opponents in P.P. Barbour of Virginia and
Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, but his friends had the convention. On
the first ballot, he received two hundred and sixty votes out of three
hundred and twenty-six. Barbour had forty, Johnson twenty-six.
Delegates understood that they must vote for Van Buren or quarrel with
Jackson.

Van Buren returned from London on July 5. New York was filled with a
multitude to welcome him back. At a great dinner, ardent devotion,
tempered by decorum, showed the loyalty of old neighbours, in whose
midst he had lived, and over whom he had practically reigned for
nearly a qu