sponded to the
advantages of the money plethora. Democracy rode on the crest of the
wave, and Jackson's financial policy was accepted with joy.

Nevertheless the Whig party, hoping to strengthen its numbers in
Congress, did not relax its zeal. When the vote, however, revealed
nearly thirty thousand majority for Marcy[290] and the Van Buren
electoral ticket, with ninety-four Democrats in the Assembly and only
one Whig in the Senate, it made Thurlow Weed despair for the Republic.

[Footnote 290: William L. Marcy, 166,122; Jesse Buel, 136,648--_Civil
List, State of New York_ (1887), p. 166.]

CHAPTER II

SEWARD ELECTED GOVERNOR

1836-1838

The overwhelming defeat of the Whigs, in 1836, left a single rift in
the dark cloud through which gleamed a ray of substantial hope. It was
plain to the most cautious business man that if banking had been
highly remunerative, with the United States Bank controlling
government deposits, it must become more productive after Jackson had
transferred these deposits to state institutions; and what was plain
to the conservative banker, was equally patent to the reckless
speculator. The legislatures of 1834 and 1835, therefore, became noted
as well as notorious for the large number of bank charters granted. As
the months passed, increased demands for liberal loans created an
increasing demand for additional banks, and the greater the demand the
greater the strife for charters. Under the restraining law of the
State, abundant provision had been made for a fair distribution of
bank stocks; but the dominant party, quick to take an advantage
helpful to its friends, carefully selected commissioners who would
distribute it only among their political followers. At first it went
to merchants or capitalists in the locality of the bank; but
gradually, Albany politicians began to participate, and then,
prominent state officers, judges, legislators and their relatives and
confidential friends, many of whom resold the stock at a premium of
twenty to twenty-five per cent. before the first payment had been
made. Thus, the distribution of stock became a public scandal,
deplored in the messages of the Governor and assailed by the press.
"The unclean drippings of venal legislation," the New York _Evening
Post_ called it. But no remedy was applied. The Governor, in spite of
his regrets, signed every charter the Legislature granted, and the
commissioners, as if ignorant of the provisions to secure a