of men and in the book of the world. Seward
thought him "a kind, honest, amiable, and sagacious man, his easy and
fascinating manners lacking neither dignity nor grace." Beginning as
town clerk, Bouck had served acceptably as sheriff, assemblyman, and
for nineteen years as canal commissioner, personally superintending
the construction of the canal from Brockport to Lake Erie, and
disbursing, without loss, eight millions of dollars. He had travelled
up and down the State until the people came to know him as "the old
white horse," in allusion to a favourite animal which he rode for many
years; and to labourers and contractors his election became a matter
of the greatest personal interest.

But the hardships growing out of the panic of 1837 and the crisis of
1839 guided the actions of men. It made little difference to them that
Bouck had been a faithful, prudent, and zealous supporter of the
canals, or that, like DeWitt Clinton, he had been removed as canal
commissioner on purely political grounds. The issues were
national--not state. Van Buren clearly saw the force and direction of
public sentiment. Yet his sub-treasury measure, so beneficent in its
aims that its theory was not lost in the necessities growing out of
the Civil War, proved the strongest weapon in the armory of his
opponents. Webster, with mingled pathos and indignation, denounced his
"disregard for the public distress" by his "exclusive concern for the
interest of government and revenue," declaring that help must come to
the people "from the government of the United States--from thence
alone!" This was the cry of the greenbacker in 1876 and the argument
of the free silver advocate in 1896. "Upon this," said Webster, "I
risk my political reputation, my honour, my all. He who expects to
live to see these twenty-six States resuming specie payments in
regular succession once more, may expect to see the restoration of the
Jews. Never. He will die without the sight." Yet Webster lived to see
the resumption of specie payments in a very short time, and he lived
long enough also to exclude this St. Louis speech from his collected
works. Nevertheless, Webster's eloquence contributed to Van Buren's
overwhelming defeat.

Much has been written of the historic campaign of 1840. The enthusiasm
has been called "frenzy" and "crazy fanatacism." It has also been
likened to the crusading spirit, aroused by the preaching of Peter the
Hermit. "The nation," said Clay, "was like