its career; and presently George Clinton, Governor of
New York, and his nephew, DeWitt Clinton, were busy organizing the first
state machine. The Clintons achieved their purpose through the agency
of a Council of Appointment, prescribed by the first Constitution of
the State, consisting of the Governor and four senators chosen by the
legislature. This council had the appointment of nearly all the civil
officers of the State from Secretary of State to justices of the peace
and auctioneers, making a total of 8287 military and 6663 civil offices.
As the emoluments of some of these offices were relatively high, the
disposal of such patronage was a plum-tree for the politician. The
Clintons had been Anti-Federalists and had opposed the adoption of the
Constitution. In 1801 DeWitt Clinton became a member of the Council of
Appointment and soon dictated its action. The head of every Federalist
office-holder fell. 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 89 electoral
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 con