when out of
office, as they always have done. I have had enough, Heaven knows, of
the power and pomp of place."[318]

[Footnote 318: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 1, p. 547.]

With Seward out of the way, Luther Bradish was the logical candidate
for governor. Fillmore had many friends present, and John A. Collier
of Binghamton, alternating between hope and fear, let his wishes be
known. But, as lieutenant-governor, Bradish had won popularity by
firmness, patience, and that tact which springs from right feeling,
rather than cold courtesy; and, in the end, the vote proved him the
favourite. For lieutenant-governor, the convention chose Gabriel
Furman, a Brooklyn lawyer of great natural ability, who had been a
judge of the municipal court and was just then closing a term in the
State Senate, but whose promising career was already marred by the
opium habit. He is best remembered as one of Brooklyn's most valued
local historians. The resolutions, adhering to the former Whig policy,
condemning Tyler's vetoes and indicating a preference for Clay, showed
that the party, although stripped of its enthusiastic hopes, had lost
none of its faith in its principles or confidence in its great
standard-bearer.

The Democrats had divided on canal improvements. Beginning in the
administration of Governor Throop, one faction, known as the
Conservatives, had voted with the Whigs in 1838, while the other,
called Radicals, opposed the construction of any works that would
increase the debt. This division reasserted itself in the Legislature
which convened in January, 1842. The Radicals elected all the state
officers. Azariah C. Flagg became comptroller, Samuel Young secretary
of state, and George P. Barker attorney-general. Six canal
commissioners, belonging to the same wing of the party, were also
selected. Behind them, as a leader of great force in the Assembly,
stood Michael Hoffman of Herkimer, ready to rain fierce blows upon the
policy of Seward and the Conservatives. Hoffman had served eight years
in Congress, and three years as a canal commissioner. He was now, at
fifty-four years of age, serving his first term in the Assembly,
bringing to the work a great reputation both for talents and
integrity, and as a powerful and effective debater.[319] Hoffman was
educated for a physician, but afterward turned to the law. "Had he not
been drawn into public life," says Thurlow Weed, "he would have been
as eminent a lawyer as he bec