the reason
that its members are the constitutional advisers of the President,
without whose assent no bill can become a law, no office can be
filled, no officer of the government impeached, and no treaty made
operative.

In taking leave of the United States Senate, Clinton probably gave
little thought to the character of the place, whether it was a step up
or a step down to the mayoralty. Just then he was engaged in the
political annihilation of Aaron Burr, and he felt the necessity of
entering the latter's stronghold to deprive him of influence. Out of
six or seven thousand appointments made by the Council of Appointment
not a friend of Aaron Burr got so much as the smallest crumb from the
well-filled table. Even Burr himself, and his friend, John Swartout,
were forced from the directorate of the Manhattan Bank that Burr had
organised. "With astonishment," wrote William P. Van Ness, "it was
observed that no man, however virtuous, however unspotted his life or
his fame, could be advanced to the most unimportant appointment,
unless he would submit to abandon all intercourse with Mr. Burr, vow
opposition to his elevation, and like a feudal vassal pledge his
personal services to traduce his character and circulate
slander."[123]

[Footnote 123: _Letters of "Aristides"_, p. 69.]

Governor Clinton feebly opposed this wholesale slaughter by refusing
to sign the minutes of the Council and by making written protests
against its methods; but greater emphasis would doubtless have availed
no more, since the constitutional convention had reduced the governor
to the merest figurehead. His one vote out of five limited the extent
of his prerogative. Power existed in the combine only, and so well did
DeWitt Clinton control that when the famous Council of 1801 had
finished its work nothing remained for succeeding Councils to do until
Clinton, the prototype of the party boss, returned in 1806 to crush
the Livingstons.

Occasionally a decapitated office-holder fiercely resented the
Council's action, and, to make it sting the more, complimented the
Governor for his patriotic and unselfish opposition. John V. Henry
evidenced his disgust by ever after declining public office, though
his party had opportunities of recognising his great ability and
rewarding his fidelity. Ebenezer Foote, a bright lawyer, who took his
removal from the clerkship of Delaware County very much to heart,
opened fire on Ambrose Spencer, charging him with base a