Here, then, was a contingency against which Clinton had never thought of providing, and, as so often happens, the one thing not taken into consideration, proved decisive in the result.

After Clinton's loss of the Presidency, it must have been clear to his friends and enemies alike that his influence in the Republican party was waning.

Yet, in spite of his genius, which concealed, and, for a time, checked the suddenness of his fall, the rank and file of the party quickly understood what had happened.

The feeling against Clinton was intensified by the common belief that the election of Rufus King, as United States senator to succeed John Smith, on March 4, 1813, paid the Federalists their price for choosing Clinton electors.

A less able and clear-headed man might have gone wrong at this parting of the ways, just as did Obadiah German and other friends of Clinton; but Van Buren never needed a guide-post to point out to him the safest political road to travel.

It sustained the general government by forcible argument, and it appealed with fervid eloquence and deep pathos to the patriotism of the people to continue their support of the party.

Much speculation has been indulged by writers as to the probable course of history had he been elected President, but the mere fact that he was able to inspire so small a fraction of his party with full faith in his leadership is decisive…

Under these conditions, the voters of the country districts saw no reason for defeating a governor whom they liked, for a man whose military service added nothing to his credit or to the lustre of the State.

He was one of those men not infrequently observed in public life, who, without conspicuous ability, have a certain knack for the management of men, and are able to acquire influence and even a certain degree of fame by personal skill in…

Nature had not only endowed him with a genius for political diplomacy, but good fortune had favoured his march to popularity by disassociating him with any circumstances of birth or environment calculated to excite jealousy or to arouse…

These events, coupled with his want of scruples and known capacity for intrigue and indolence, made him an object of such distrust that the Senate, in spite of his social and political connections, barely confirmed him.

One is enthusiastic, resourceful, with ability to organise victory by filling languishing patriotism with new and noble inspiration--the other simply performs his duty, sometimes respectably, sometimes only perfunctorily.

George Clinton illustrated, in his own person, the difference between a great war governor and a governor in time of war.

If he failed to win renown on the battlefield, his ability to inspire the people with confidence, and to bring glory out of threatened failure and success out of apparent defeat, made him the greatest war governor the country had yet known.

In the moment of greatest discouragement he displayed a patriotic courage in borrowing money without authority of law that made his Administration famous.

There is no doubt of DeWitt Clinton's conspicuous devotion to the interests of his country throughout the entire war.

The genius of Clinton had never been more nobly employed than in his efforts to sustain the war, winning him universal esteem throughout the municipality for his patriotic unselfishness and unlimited generosity.

He was not the one to throw up the cards because the chances of the game were going against him.

His was a fighting spirit, and his impulse was ever, like that of Macbeth, to try to the last.

Why should we continue a war from the prosecution of which we have nothing to gain, they asked?

The Orders in Council have been repealed, England has shrunk from facing the consequences of its own folly, and America has already won a complete triumph.

What further need, then, for bleeding our exhausted treasury?

The splendid fighting qualities of Jacob Brown had saved Sackett's Harbour; and the brilliant pluck of Winfield Scott had withstood a force three times his own until British bayonets pushed him over the crest of Queenstown Heights.

Folly such as this could only end in disaster.

The absence of violent democratic innovations was the Constitution's remarkable feature.