great plan he himself was to experience many of the vicissitudes of politics. In 1812 he was a candidate for President against James Madison, and received the votes in the Electoral College of all of the New England States but Vermont, and of New York, New Jersey and Delaware, eighty-nine electoral votes in all, while Mr. Madison received 128 votes. It was in 1816 that he became the master spirit of the project to construct the Erie canal. At a mass meeting which was held in New York a memorial in favor of the project, drawn up by himself, was read and adopted. Subse quently this memorial was presented to the Legislature and Mr. Clinton remained in Albany throughout the session draw. ing the attention of members to the scheme. The Legislature passed a law providing for the immediate commence. ment of the construction of the Erie and of the Champlain canal, and Mr. Clinton was one of five Commissioners appointed to carry out the act. In 1817 Mr. Clinton was elected Governor, and then more than ever pushed forward the construction of the canal. Acting as Governor, as he did from 1817 to 1823, he was able to put the canal enterprise in such a position that the State was committed irrevocably to its comple. tion. Returning to office in 1825, he again pushed forward the enterprise and became known all over the United States as "Father of the Erie Canal." On the 26th day of October, 1825, the Erie canal was formally opened for navigation. Governor Clinton on that day, in company with other State officials, took passage in the pioneer canal-boat, "Seneca Chief," and started on a voyage through the canal and the Hudson river to New York. Cannon had been previously posted at intervals along the Erie canal and the Hudson river, and when the Governor's boat entered the Erie canal the signal gun was fired in Buffalo. The signal was then continued from gun to gun, and in one hour and twenty min. utes "the citizens of New York were apprised that a boat was departing from the foot of Lake Erie and was on its way traversing a new path to the Atlantic Ocean." Governor Clinton proceeded from Albany "down the river to New York and accompanied by an immense fleet of boats and steamers, three miles in circumference, sailed through the Bay and Narrows to Sandy Hook, where from the deck of a vessel he emptied a keg of water brought from Lake Erie on the Seneca Chief into the Atlantic Ocean, accompanying the act with appropriate remarks. With this ceremony, remind. ing one of the spousals of the Adriatic, closed the protracted celebration." Thus closed the greatest period of Mr. Clinton's life. He continued to act as Governor for several succeeding years, and it was while Governor, on February 11, 1828, that he suddenly died from heart disease. JOSEPH C. YATES. JOSEPH C. YATES was born in Schenec. tady on November 9, 1768, and was educated at that place. He entered political life in 1798 by accepting a nomination for and being elected Mayor of Schenectady. He became a lawyer and practiced his profession with great success. In 1805 he was elected a member of the State Senate and served his constituents well. Retir. ing from the Senate in 1808 he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court. As a judge it is said he was distinguished "for his plain and practical common He made the innovation of addressing | itures. Upon surrendering the Governorthe Legislature in a written message ship he retired into private life and died instead of orally as had been thecustom be. in Schenectady upon March 19, 1837. MARTIN VAN BUREN. MARTIN VAN BUREN was born at Kinderhook, in Columbia county, on December 5, 1782. His father was too poor to give him an education more than at the common schools and academy of Kinderhook. When only fourteen years old he entered the law office of Francis Sylvester in Kinderhook and began the study of the law. When twenty-one years old Mr. Van Buren was admitted to practice as a lawyer and early gained many clients. He also early showed an interest in politics, and in 1808 received his first political appointment, being made Surrogate of Columbia county when only twenty-six years old. Then it was that he removed from Kin on January 1, 1829. In his first annual message Mr. Van Buren recommended the repeal of the district system of choosing Presidential electors and the substitution of a general ticket and a reform of the banking system of the State. The career of Mr. Van Buren as Governor was brief. After only two months service in that position he resigned it to accept that of Secretary of State of the United States under the administration of Andrew Jackson. His services in that position were so satisfac. tory to his party that he was nominated for Vice-President in 1832 and elected, and in 1836 was elected President. His career as President is well known; his efforts to subdue the anti-slavery agita. tion and to deal successfully with a depressed commercial condition of the country. Defeated for President by William Henry Harrison in 1840, Mr. Van Buren returned to his home in New York and quietly began again there the life of a private citizen. He died in 1861 at Kinderhook. ENOS T. THROOP. ENOS T. THROOP was born at Johns- | Metcalfe at Albany, and was admitted to town on August 21, 1784, and received the bar in 1805. He began the law busi life in 1814 as a Congressman from the district composed of the counties of Cayuga, Seneca, Tioga and Broome. He sustained the war measures of the Administration, and then its measures to restore the financial credit of the country after the war had ended. In 1823 he was appointed Circuit Judge for Seventh Circuit, which comprised the county of Cayuga, and served the people very acceptably as Judge. He re-entered political life as a candidate by accepting a nomination for Lieutenant-Governor in 1828, being upon the same ticket with Martin Van Buren, nominated Governor. Both men were elected. Mr. Van Buren, after occupying the Execu tive chair for two months, resigned it, and Mr. Throop became Governor on March 12, 1829. Mr. Throop's administration was made interesting by the determined efforts of certain voters to for obtain legislative sanction and appropria. tions for the construction of lateral canals, a scheme which was secretly opposed by the Governor, since he did not think the State's financial condition was such as to warrant any enterprises of this nature. The Governor's administration was made noteworthy also by its foundation of asylums for the insane poor and by its encouragement of the creation of academies. Mr. Throop was re-elected in 1831. His second administration was signalized by the abolition of imprisonment for debt. Upon retiring from the Governorship he accepted the office of Naval Officer of the Port of New York, and held it until 1838, when he appointed minister to the two Sicilies. He died at Willowbrook, near Auburn, on November I, 1874. was WILLIAM L. MARCY. appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; and, in 1831, he was elected United States Senator. It was as United States Senator that Mr. Marcy announced the famous doctrine that "to the victor belongs the spoils of the enemy." The politics of New York had been criticised by Henry Clay. Mr. Marcy thus replied to Mr. Clay: WILLIAM L. MARCY, one of the most | Marcy was still farther advanced, being distinguished of New York's Governors, was born at Southbridge, Massachusetts, on the 12th day of December, 1786, and was educated at Leicester Academy and Brown University. Immediately upon his graduation Mr. Marcy went to Troy, New York, and there studied law and began its practice. When only twenty-four years old he became a Lieutenant in the New York Militia and fought bravely in the war against Great Britain. Upon returning from the war he was appointed Recorder of Troy, which he held until removed by the Clintonians in 1818. In 1821 his party, the Republican party, came into power and he was appointed Adjutant-General, and, in 1823, through the same influence, Comptroller. As Comptroller he had a fine record. He first exacted the payment of interest upon State deposits. He opposed the construction of lateral canals and predicted that they would not "pay"-a prediction which was verified. In 1829, Mr. | enjoying the fruits of it. If they are "One of the grounds of opposition to the Minister to London, taken by the Senator from Kentucky, is the pernicious system of party politics adopted by the present administration by which the honors and offices are put up to be scrambled for by partisans, etc. It may be, sir, that the poli ticians of New York are not so fastidious as some gentlemen are, as to disclosing the principles on which they act. They boldly preach what they practice. When they are contending for victory they avow their intention of |