e Democratic state convention assembled at Herkimer on September 12,
and unanimously renominated William L. Marcy and John Tracy. Marcy
had made an able governor for three consecutive terms. His declaration
that "to the victors belong the spoils" had not impaired his
influence, since all parties practised, if they did not preach it;
and, although he stultified himself by practically recommending and
finally approving the construction of the Chenango canal, which he
bitterly opposed as comptroller, he had lost no friends. Canal
building was in accord with the spirit of the times. A year later, he
had recommended an enlargement of the Erie canal; but when he
discovered that the Chenango project would cost two millions instead
of one, and the Erie enlargement twelve millions instead of six, he
protested against further improvements until the Legislature provided
means for paying interest on the money already borrowed. He clearly
saw that the "unregulated spirit of speculation" would lead to ruin;
and, to counteract it, he appealed to the Legislature, seeking to
influence the distribution of bank stock along lines set forth in the
law. But Marcy failed to enforce his precepts with the veto. In
refusing, also, to reassemble the Legislature, for the repeal of the
Small Bills act, the passage of which he had recommended in 1835, he
gave the _Evening Post_ opportunity to assail him as "a weak,
cringing, indecisive man, the mere tool of a monopoly junto--their
convenient instrument."

Marcy held office under difficult conditions. The panic, coming in the
summer of 1837, was enough to shatter the nerves of any executive;
but, to the panic, was now added the Canadian rebellion which occurred
in the autumn of 1837. Though not much of a rebellion, William L.
McKenzie's appeal for aid to the friends of liberty aroused hundreds
of sympathetic Americans living along the border. Navy Island, above
the Falls of Niagara, was made the headquarters of a provisional
government, from which McKenzie issued a proclamation offering a
reward for the capture of the governor-general of Canada and promising
three hundred acres of land to each recruit.

The Canadian authorities effectually guarded the border, and
destroyed the _Caroline_, presumably an insurgent steamer, lying at
Schlosser's dock on the American side. In the conflict, one member of
the crew was killed, and several wounded. The steamer proved to be an
American vessel, owned by New Y