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his friends on the same point. Thus both parties are led to
the adoption of desperate measures. Out of N. England Adams
has now no reason to expect more than his three or four
votes in Maryland. A partial discomfiture in the east may
therefore bring him below Mr. Clay's western votes, & if it
should appear that he (Adams) cannot get into the house, the
western votes would go to Crawford. If nothing takes place
materially to change the present state of things, we hope to
defeat their plans here. But if you lose your Assembly
ticket, there is no telling the effect it may produce, & my
chief object in being thus particular with you is to conjure
your utmost attention to that subject. About the Governor's
election there is no sort of doubt. I am not apt to be
confident, & _I aver that the matter is so._ But it is to
the Assembly that interested men look, and the difference of
ten members will (with the information the members can have
when they come to act) be decisive in the opinion of the
present members as to the complexion of the next house.
There are _other points of view_ which I cannot now state to
you, in which the result I speak of may seriously affect the
main question. Let me therefore entreat your serious
attention to this matter. _Be careful of this._ Your city is
a gossiping place, & what you tell to one man in confidence
is soon in the mouths of hundreds. You can impress our
friends on this subject without connecting me with it. Do
so.

Your sincere friend,

M. V. BUREN.
Albany, Octob. 28, 1824.

James Campbell, Esq.

The Mr. Hoyt referred to in the opening sentence of this letter was
Jesse Hoyt, another political friend of my father's who, under Van
Buren's administration, was Collector of the Port of New York. During my
child life on Long Island he made my father occasional visits, and in
subsequent years lived opposite us on Hubert Street. He was the first
one to furnish me with a practical illustration of man's perfidy. As a
very young child I consented to have my ears pierced, when Mr. Hoyt
volunteered to send me a pair of coral ear-rings, but he failed to carry
out his promise. I remember reading some years ago several letters
addressed to Hoyt by "Prince" John Van Buren which he begins with "Dear
Jessica."

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