eer. Thus, since
England had blockaded one-half of Europe and France the other half, he
thought it time for dignified retirement, until England felt the need
of additional supplies, and France awoke to the loss of its luxuries.

At the close of the spirited debate, DeWitt Clinton's resolutions were
adopted by both houses--in the Senate without a division; in the
Assembly by a vote of sixty-one to forty-one. But almost before the
result was announced, American wheat dropped from two dollars to
seventy cents a bushel, turning the election of April, 1809, into a
Federalist victory. It was a great surprise to Tompkins and his party,
whose only gleam of hope grew out of the failure of the Federalists to
return senators from the middle and eastern districts, thus
preventing, as they assumed, a Federalist majority in the new Council
of Appointment and a wholesale removal of Republican officials. But
the Federalists understood their work. After welcoming to the
speakership their old friend, William North of Duansburgh, who had
served in the same capacity in 1795 and again in 1796, the Assembly
elected to the Council, two Federalists and two Republicans, including
Robert Williams of the middle district. Williams had been a Lewisite,
a Burrite, and a Clintonian. With the help of a Federalist governor in
1799, he became sheriff of Dutchess County, and, although he bore the
reputation of a trimmer, he seems to have concealed the real baseness
of his character until the meeting of the new Council, when his
casting vote turned out of office every Republican in the State. By
this treachery his son-in-law, Thomas J. Oakley, of whom we shall hear
much hereafter, became surrogate of Dutchess County; Jacob Radcliff,
the great chancery lawyer, mayor of New York; Abraham Van Vechten,
attorney-general, and Abraham G. Lansing, treasurer of state. From the
moment of his apostacy Robert Williams, classified by his neighbours
with Judas Iscariot and ignored by men of all parties, passed into
obscurity.

CHAPTER XV

TOMPKINS DEFEATS JONAS PLATT

1810

Though DeWitt Clinton again lost the mayoralty of New York, he was
still in the Senate; and to maintain an appearance of friendship with
the Governor, he wrote the address to the people, signed by the
Republican members of the Legislature, placing Tompkins in the race
for re-election. The Federalists, encouraged by their gains in April,
1809, had with confidence nominated Jonas Platt