ides, Weed had his eye on the lucrative place of state printer. In
the campaign of 1839, therefore, he set to work to win the higher body
of the Legislature by carrying the Albany district, in which three
senators were to be chosen. For eighteen years, the Senate had been
held by the Regency party, and, in all that time, Albany was numbered
among the reliable Democratic districts. But Weed's friends now
brought up eight thousand dollars from New York. The Democrats had
made a spirited fight, and, although they knew Weed was endowed with a
faculty for management, they did not know of his money, or of the
ability of his lieutenants to place it. When the votes were counted,
Weed's three nominees had an average majority of one hundred and
thirty-three. This gave the Whigs nineteen senators and the Democrats
thirteen. It was an appalling change for the Democrats, to whom it
seemed the prologue to a defeat in 1840. In the "clean sweep" of
office-holders that followed, Tallmadge went back to the United States
Senate, and Weed took from Croswell the office of public printer.

The presidential election of 1840 began in December, 1839. During
Clay's visit to Saratoga, in the preceding summer, Weed had told him
he could not carry New York; but, that Clay's friends in New York
City, and along the river counties, might not be unduly alarmed, Weed
masked his purpose of forcing Harrison's nomination, by selecting
delegates ostensibly favourable to General Scott. Twenty delegates for
Scott were, therefore, sent to the national convention at Harrisburg,
two for Harrison and ten for Clay. On his way, Weed secured an
agreement from the New England leaders to act with him, and, by a
combination of the supporters of Scott and Harrison, the latter
finally received one hundred and forty-eight votes to ninety for Clay.
The disappointment of Clay's friends is historic. Probably nothing
parallels it in American politics. The defeat of Seward at Chicago in
1860, and of Elaine at Cincinnati in 1876, very seriously affected
their friends, but the disappointment of Clay's supporters at
Harrisburg, in December, 1839, took the form of anger, which, for a
time, seemed fatal to the ticket. "The nomination of Harrison," wrote
Thurlow Weed, "so offended the friends of Clay that the convention was
thrown entirely in the dark on the question of Vice President. The
Kentucky delegation was asked to present a candidate, but they
declined. Then John Clayton of