their utterance, but
was at length brought apparently to comprehend that this was a point
on which we must agree to differ."--Horace Greeley, _Recollections of
a Busy Life_, p. 314.]

The western anti-masonic counties gave their usual majorities for
Francis Granger, but New York City and the districts bordering the
Hudson, with several interior counties, wiped them out and left the
Jackson candidate ten thousand ahead.[277]

[Footnote 277: William L. Marcy, 166,410; Francis Granger, 156,672.
_Civil List, State of New York_ (1887), p. 166.]

This second defeat of Francis Granger had a depressing influence upon
his party. It had been a contest of giants. Webster's great speeches
in support of the United States Bank were accepted as triumphant
answers to the arguments of the veto message, but nothing seemed
capable of breaking the solid Jackson majorities in the eastern and
southern counties; and, upon the assembling of the Legislature, in
January, 1833, signs of disintegration were apparent among the
Anti-Masons. Albert H. Tracy, despairing of success, began accepting
interviews with Martin Van Buren, who sought to break anti-Masonry by
conciliating its leaders. It was the voice of the tempter. Tracy
listened and then became a missionary, inducing John Birdsall and
other members of the Legislature to join him. Tracy had been an
acknowledged leader. He was older, richer, and of larger experience
than most of his associates, and, in appealing to him, Van Buren
exhibited the rare tact that characterised his political methods. But
the Senator from Buffalo could not do what Van Buren wanted him to do;
he could not win Seward or capture the _Evening Journal_. "We had both
been accustomed for years," says Thurlow Weed, "to allow Tracy to do
our political thinking, rarely differing from him in opinion, and
never doubting his fidelity. On this occasion, however, we could not
see things from his standpoint, and, greatly to his annoyance, we
determined to adhere to our principles."[278]

[Footnote 278: _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_, p. 421. Seward, in his
_Autobiography_, says of Tracy, p. 166: "Albert H. Tracy is ... a man
of original genius, of great and varied literary acquirements, of
refined tastes, and high and honourable principles. He seems the most
eloquent, I might almost say the only eloquent man in the Senate. He
is plainly clothed and unostentatious. Winning in his address and
gifted in conversation, you would f