De Alexander

This election, and other successes in many towns throughout the State, greatly encouraged the leaders of the opposition.

The Whigs became enthusiastic, and, as the United States Bank now began relieving the commercial embarrassment by extending its loans and giving its friends in New York special advantages, the party felt certain of victory.

Whether Marcy's scheme really averted the threatened calamity, or whether the United States Bank had already carried its contraction as far as it intended, it is certain that the fear of a panic served its purpose in the campaign.

To relieve this situation, Governor Marcy and the Legislature, acting with great promptness, pledged the State's credit to the banks, should the exigency require such aid, to the amount of six million dollars.

By suddenly curtailing its loans, ostensibly because of the removal of the deposits, it brought such pressure upon the state banks that a suspension of specie payment seemed inevitable.

The evident purpose of the United States Bank was to create, if possible, the fear of a panic.

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 seems the most eloquent, I might almost say the only eloquent man in the Senate.

Tracy is ... a man of original genius, of great and varied literary acquirements, of refined tastes, and high and honourable principles.

In other words, the Jackson party was sustained by banks and the opponents of banks, by men of means and men without means, by the rich and the poor.

The United States Bank is in the field, and I can not but fear the effect of fifty or one hundred thousand dollars expended in conducting the election in such a city as New York.

The act and the veto amounted to an appeal to the people, and in an instant the country was on fire.

Instead of killing him, the Senate's rejection had swung open a wider door for his entrance to the highest office in the gift of the people.

The people will see nothing in it but a combination of rivals against a competitor.

A man's status in the United States Senate is determined by the calibre and skill of the opponents who are selected to cross weapons with him in the forum.

Both were statesmen of scrupulous honesty, who despised jobbery.

At all events, Marcy did not exhibit the parliamentary spirit that seeks to lead, or which delights in the struggles of the arena where national reputations are made.

In this debate, he gave evidence of that genius for legislation which was destined soon to shine in the United States Senate at a time when some of the fiercest political fights of the century were being waged.

Even in the closing years of Van Buren's venerable life, when people used often to see him, white-haired and bright-eyed, walking on Wall Street arm in arm with his son John, his was still the face of a master diplomatist.

The prominent feature of Van Buren's message was the bank question, which, to do him credit, he discussed with courage, urging a general law for chartering banks without the payment of money bonus, and declaring that the only concern of…

Unlike some of his predecessors, with their sentences of stilted formality, he wrote easily and with vigour.

I discerned also unmistakable evidences of stern integrity, earnest patriotism, and unswerving fidelity.

The people recognised a fighter; the thoughtful distinguished a powerful mind; and politicians discovered such a genius for leadership that Albany became a political centre for the National Republicans as it was for the Bucktails.

Often his attacks were so severe and merciless that the distress of his opponents created sympathy for them.

His sarcasms had needle-points, and his wit, sometimes a little gross, smarted like the sting of wasps.