Introduction

one of honorable and patriotic service; whose voice had never been raised in behalf of political oppression, or in extenuation of official dishonor; in whom the people of New York had often placed confidence, and by whom it had never been betrayed; whose great abilities, indomitable energy, and never-failing tact had seldom been questioned and never surpassed. Deeply read in that portion of the literature of ancient and modern times which pertained to his studies as one of the rising statesmen of America, and personally acquainted, in all their minutiae, with the politics and politicians of New York⁠—then as complicated as they ever have been since that period; a close observer of current events, and fertile in resources for the instantaneous seizure and improvement of passing opportunities, which promised advantage to his cause or to his party; well versed in all the intricacies of the law, and skilled beyond the greater number of his contemporaries in all the graces of elocution; distinguished in arms, in civil life without reproach⁠—he was, above all others of his party, the best qualified for a popular leader, and a champion, before the people of his adopted state, of the new, and widely abused, Constitution.