[235] DeWitt Clinton's Letters to Henry Post, in Harper's Magazine, Vol. 50, p. 568.
[236] Ibid., Vol. 50, p. 586.
[237] DeWitt Clinton's Letters to Henry Post, in Harper's Magazine, Vol. 50, p. 568.
[238] Ibid., p. 568.
[239] Ibid., p. 569.
[240] Ibid., p. 569.
[241] Ibid., p. 569.
[242] Ibid., p. 569.
"Clinton's presidential aspirations made him a very censorious judge of all who did not sympathise with them. The four competing candidates, Crawford, Clay, Calhoun, and Adams, could hardly be paralleled, Clinton being judge, by an equal number of the twelve Cæsars of Suetonius. Crawford is 'as hardened a ruffian as Burr'; Calhoun is 'treacherous', and 'a thorough-paced political blackleg.' Adams 'in politics was an apostate, and in private life a pedagogue, and everything but amiable and honest', while his father, the ex-President, was 'a scamp.' Governor Yates is 'perfidious and weak.' Henry Wheaton's 'conduct is shamefully disgraceful, and he might be lashed naked round the world.' Chief Justice Ambrose Spencer is classed as a minus quantity, and his son John C., 'the political millstone of the West.' Peter B. Porter 'wears a mask.' Woodworth 'is a weak man, with sinister purposes.' Root is 'a bad man.' Samuel Young 'is unpopular and suspicions are entertained of his integrity.' Van Buren 'is the prince of villains.' The first impression produced is one of astonishment that a man capable of such great things could ever have taken such a lively interest, as he seemed to, in the mere scullionery of politics."—John Bigelow, in Harper's Magazine, March, 1875.
[243] Autobiography of Thurlow Weed, p. 127.