is friends. On September 15, in a convention of
sixty or more delegates from all the States north of the Potomac, it
was recommended that, as it would be inexpedient to name a Federal
candidate because impractical to elect one, Federalists should
co-operate in the election of a President who would be likely to
pursue a different policy from Madison.

This resolution was largely due to the eloquence of Harrison Gray
Otis. He urged that the defeat of Madison would speedily lead to a
peace, for which the door stood open in the repeal of the Orders in
Council. Rufus King insisted that the name all had in mind be given in
the resolution; although, he admitted, no one knew whether Clinton
would pursue a policy different from Madison's. No man in the country,
he said, was more equivocal in his character. He had disapproved the
embargo and then receded from his opinion; and, to restore himself to
the confidence of his party, he had published a tirade against the
Federalists. "If we succeed in promoting his election," thundered the
orator, "I fear we may place in the chair a Caesar Borgia instead of a
James Madison."[170] These were bitter words, recalling Hamilton's
famous criticism of Aaron Burr, but they were spoken without the
wealth of Hamilton's experience to support them. That Clinton would
sacrifice his own interests and his own ambition for the sake of any
political cause no one could believe; that he had played fast and
loose for a time with the great question of embargo was too well known
to be denied; but that anything had occurred in his public career to
justify Rufus King's simile, his worst enemies could not seriously
credit. Even Christopher Gore was compelled to admit that the Federal
leaders of Massachusetts "are favourably impressed with the character
and views of Clinton. Indeed, since last spring I have scarcely heard
any one speak of him but extolled the excellence of his moral
character and the purity of his present political views."[171] To this
King simply replied: "I stated my sentiments to the meeting, a great
majority of whom thought them incorrect. Time, which reveals truth,
must decide between us."[172]

[Footnote 170: Rufus King, _Life and Correspondence_, Vol. 5, p. 281.]

[Footnote 171: Rufus King, _Life and Correspondence_, Vol. 5, pp.
281-4.]

[Footnote 172: _Ibid._, Vol. 5, p. 283.]

By the middle of September, Clinton exhibited lamentable weakness as a
political organiser. Opposing him,