Sheriffs, county clerks, surrogates, recorders, justices by the dozen, auctioneers by the score, were proscribed for the benefit of the Clintons.De Witt was sent to the United States Senate in 1802, and at the age of thirty-three he found himself on the highroad to political eminence.But he resigned almost at once to become Mayor of New York City, a position he occupied for about ten years, years filled with the most venomous fights between Burrites and Bucktails.Clinton organized a compact machine in the city.A biased contemporary description of this machine has come down to us."You [Clinton] are encircled by a mercenary band, who, while they offer adulation to your system of error, are ready at the first favorable moment to forsake and desert you.A portion of them are needy young men, who without maturely investigating the consequence, have sacrificed principle to self-aggrandizement.Others are mere parasites, that well know the tenure on which they hold their offices, and will ever pay implicit obedience to those who administer to their wants.Many of your followers are among the most profligate of the community.
They are the bane of social and domestic happiness, senile and dependent panderers."In 1812 Clinton became a candidate for President and polled 89electoral votes against Madison's 128.Subsequently he became Governor of New York on the Erie Canal issue; but his political cunning seems to have forsaken him; and his perennial quarrels with every other faction in his State made him the object of a constant fire of vituperation.He had, however, taught all his enemies ''the value of spoils, and he adhered to the end to the political action he early advised a friend to adopt: "In a political warfare, the defensive side will eventually lose.The meekness of Quakerism will do in religion but not in politics.Irepeat it, everything will answer to energy and decision."Martin Van Buren was an early disciple of Clinton.Though he broke with his political chief in 1813, he had remained long enough in the Clinton school to learn every trick; and he possessed such native talent for intrigue, so smooth a manner, and such a wonderful memory for names, that he soon found himself at the head of a much more perfect and far-reaching machine than Clinton had ever dreamed of.The Empire State has never produced the equal of Van Buren as a manipulator of legislatures.No modern politician would wish to face publicity if he resorted to the petty tricks that Van Buren used in legislative politics.And when, in 1891, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, he became one of the organizers of the first national machine.
The state machine of Van Buren was long known as the "Albany Regency." It included several very able politicians: William L.
Marcy, who became United States Senator in 1831; Silas Wright, elected Senator in 1833; John A.Dix, who became Senator in 1845;Benjamin F.Butler, who was United States Attorney-General under President Van Buren, besides a score or more of prominent state officials.It had an influential organ in the Albany Argus, lieutenants in every county, and captains in every town.Its confidential agents kept the leaders constantly informed of the political situation in every locality; and its discipline made the wish of Van Buren and his colleagues a command.Federal and local patronage and a sagacious distribution of state contracts sustained this combination.When the practice of nominating by conventions began, the Regency at once discerned the strategic value of controlling delegates, and, until the break in the Democratic party in 1848, it literally reigned in the State.
With the disintegration of the Federalist party came the loss of concentrated power by the colonial families of New England and New York.The old aristocracy of the South was more fortunate in the maintenance of its power.Jefferson's party was not only well disciplined; it gave its confidence to a people still accustomed to class rule and in turn was supported by them.In a strict sense the Virginia Dynasty was not a machine like Van Buren's Albany Regency.It was the effect of the concentrated influence of men of great ability rather than a definite organization.The congressional caucus was the instrument through which their influence was made practical.In 1816, however, a considerable movement was started to end the Virginia monopoly.It spread to the Jeffersonians of the North.William H.Crawford, of Georgia, and Daniel Tompkins, of New York, came forward as competitors with Monroe for the caucus nomination.The knowledge of this intrigue fostered the rising revolt against the caucus.
Twenty-two Republicans, many of whom were known to be opposed to the caucus system, absented themselves.Monroe was nominated by the narrow margin of eleven votes over Crawford.By the time Monroe had served his second term the discrediting of the caucus was made complete by the nomination of Crawford by a thinly attended gathering of his adherents, who presumed to act for the party.The Virginia Dynasty had no further favorites to foster, and a new political force swept into power behind the dominating personality of Andrew Jackson.
The new Democracy, however, did not remove the aristocratic power of the slaveholder; and from Jackson's day to Buchanan's this became an increasing force in the party councils.The slavery question illustrates how a compact group of capable and determined men, dominated by an economic motive, can exercise for years in the political arena a preponderating influence, even though they represent an actual minority of the nation.This untoward condition was made possible by the political sagacity and persistence of the party managers and by the unwillingness of a large portion of the people to bring the real issue to a head.
Before the Civil War, then, party organization had become a fixed and necessary incident in American politics.The war changed the face of our national affairs.The changes wrought multiplied the opportunities of the professional politician, and in these opportunities, as well as in the transfused energies and ideals of the people, we must seek the causes for those perversions of party and party machinery which have characterized our modern epoch.
