the governor of Georgia, "and
I authorise you to say that I concur fully in the sentiments they
advance."

In commenting upon the Albany meeting, Thurlow Weed, with the
foresight of a prophet, wrote in the _Evening Journal_: "This question
of slavery, when it becomes a matter of political controversy, will
shake, if not unsettle, the foundations of our government. It is too
fearful, and too mighty, in all its bearings and consequences, to be
recklessly mixed up in our partisan conflicts."[287] When the
Legislature convened, in January, 1836, Governor Marcy took up the
question in his message. "I cannot doubt," he said, "that the
Legislature possesses the power to pass such penal laws as will have
the effect of preventing the citizens of this State, and residents
within it, from availing themselves, with impunity, of the protection
of its sovereignty and laws, while they are actually employed in
exciting insurrection and sedition in a sister State, or engaged in
treasonable enterprises, intending to be executed therein."[288] Not
content with this show of loyalty to the South on the part of his
friends, Van Buren secured the support of Silas Wright and Nathaniel
P. Tallmadge for the bill, then pending in the United States Senate,
prohibiting postmasters from knowingly transmitting or delivering any
documents or papers relating to the abolition of slavery, and when the
measure, on a motion for engrossment, received a tie vote, Van Buren
cast the decisive vote in the affirmative.[289]

[Footnote 287: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 1, p. 319.]

[Footnote 288: _Governors' Messages_, January 5, 1836.]

[Footnote 289: "When the bill came to a vote in the Senate, although
there was really a substantial majority against it, a tie was
skilfully arranged to compel Van Buren, as Vice President, to give the
casting vote. White, the Southern Democratic candidate so seriously
menacing him, was in the Senate, and voted for the bill. Van Buren
must, it was supposed, offend the pro-slavery men by voting against
the bill, or offend the North and perhaps bruise his conscience by
voting for it. When the roll was being called, Van Buren, so Benton
tells us, was out of the chair, walking behind the colonnade at the
rear of the Vice President's seat. Calhoun, fearful lest he might
escape the ordeal, eagerly asked where he was, and told the
sergeant-at-arms to look for him. But Van Buren was ready, and at once
stepped to his chai