stant 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. I repeat
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 1821, 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