[273] "To this celebrated and execrable defence Van Buren owes much of the later and unjust belief that he was an inveterate spoilsman. Benton truly says that Van Buren's temper and judgment were both against it."—Edward M. Shepard, Life of Martin Van Buren, p. 233.
[274] Thurlow Weed Barnes, Life of Thurlow Weed, Vol. 1, p. 375.
[275] "Chancellor Kent's bitter, narrow, and unintelligent politics were in singular contrast with his extraordinary legal equipment and his professional and literary accomplishments."—Edward M. Shepard, Life of Martin Van Buren, p. 246.
[276] "On one important question, Mr. Weed and I were antipodes. Believing that a currency in part of paper, kept at par with specie, and current in every part of our country, was indispensable, I was a zealous advocate of a National Bank; which he as heartily detested, believing that its supporters would always be identified in the popular mind with aristocracy, monopoly, exclusive privileges, etc. He attempted, more than once, to overbear my convictions on this point, or at least preclude their utterance, but was at length brought apparently to comprehend that this was a point on which we must agree to differ."—Horace Greeley, Recollections of a Busy Life, p. 314.
[277] William L. Marcy, 166,410; Francis Granger, 156,672. Civil List, State of New York (1887), p. 166.
[278] Autobiography of Thurlow Weed, p. 421. Seward, in his Autobiography, says of Tracy, p. 166: "Albert H. Tracy is ... a man of original genius, of great and varied literary acquirements, of refined tastes, and high and honourable principles. He seems the most eloquent, I might almost say the only eloquent man in the Senate. He is plainly clothed and unostentatious. Winning in his address and gifted in conversation, you would fall naturally into the habit of telling him all your weaknesses, and giving him unintentionally your whole confidence. He is undoubtedly very ambitious; though he protests, and doubtless half the time believes, that dyspepsia has humbled all his ambition, and broken the vaultings of his spirit. I doubt not that, dyspepsia taken into the account, he will be one of the great men of the nation."
[279] F.W. Seward, Life of W.H. Seward, Vol. 1, p. 238.
[280] William L. Marcy, 181,905; William H. Seward, 168,969.—Civil List, State of New York (1887), p. 166.
[281] Autobiography of William H. Seward, p. 241.
[282] Autobiography of William H. Seward, p. 241.