"NEW YORK, _1845_.
"I cannot give you in full detail the grounds of the almost universal
odium with which Mr. Van Ness is regarded by the Democracy of this city
and State, but will briefly allude to some of them.
"His appointment was not originally recognized as a Democratic one
or received from a recognized Democratic President. He was personally
and politically a stranger; did not occupy that proper representative
relation to the party here to make his selection proper or acceptable,
or to give him or entitle him to their confidence. On the contrary, all
that was known of his private character and of his political tendencies
was calculated to repel such confidence.
"His conduct since has confirmed and exacerbated the sentiments with
which his original appointment was regarded. In his official action
and his political influence he has been the mere representative and
instrument of a miserable little faction, whose fortunes he has solved
equally when it was in a state of partial alienation and open hostility
to the Democratic party and its regular nominations. For months after
Mr. Polk's nomination, for two-thirds of the whole canvass, he was an
open and decided supporter of Mr. Tyler. All sorts of intrigue were
employed by this little band of officeholders and their dependents to
exact from the mass of the party a partial approval of Mr. Tyler's
administration and an adoption of his appointments as a condition
precedent to his withdrawal. Such had been the abuses and corruptions
of his administration in the use of its patronage here--incredible
to those who like yourself have looked upon them from a less central
position--and shocking to the moral sense of honest men of all parties;
such was the general disgust and hostility pervading the masses of the
Democracy which had been for several years vexed by the abuses and
corruptions of the government patronage employed for the purpose of
distracting the party; so large was the number who had been the subject
of exclusion and proscription because of their very political fidelity,
and so large also the number who desired a new distribution of official
favors, that such a concession as was demanded would have revolted
public sentiment, in all probability have lost this city by a very
large majority. Such was the conviction at the time of our soundest and
most judicious men, who kindly and temperately but firmly resisted and
defeated the project.
"The perilous crisis in our local politics you may form some idea
of, if you will remember that there were then, delicately poised and
uncertain to go for Clay or Polk until within a few weeks of the
election, a body of men more than sufficient to have changed the
result in this State. Mr. Polk has now to choose between the 19/20ths
of the party and this faction; between the disinterested and honest who
were true to his and the party's interest, and the venal gathered from
all former parties into the common receptacle of Tylerism, who would
have sacrificed both to their own mercenary objects. His choice between
them will indicate the _morale_ of his character and administration.
Ever since Mr. Tyler's attempt in 1841 to become the Presidential
candidate of the Democracy, the patronage of the government in this
city has been assiduously employed to harass or control the party here.
It was managed by Mr. Curtis, who was skilful in if not the originator
of all the corrupt tactics of the Glentworth school; and since his
removal, his machinery has been used by Mr. Van Ness [with] much more
industry and zeal and with no less profligacy."