FROM JACKSON TO FILLMORE-1832-1851 59 



Rarely, if ever, has any scholar used a bit of classical 

 knowledge to better purpose. 



Another leading figure, at a later period, was a Demo- 

 crat, Fernando Wood, mayor of New York, a brilliant 

 desperado ; and on one occasion I saw the henchmen whom 

 he had brought with him take possession of a State con- 

 vention and deliberately knock its president, one of the 

 most respected men in the State, off the platform. It was 

 an unfortunate performance for Mayor Wood, since the 

 disgust and reaction thereby aroused led all factions of 

 the Democratic party to unite against him. 



Other leading men were such as Charles 'Conor and 

 John Van Buren; the former learned and generous, but 

 impracticable; the latter brilliant beyond belief, but not 

 considered as representing any permanent ideas or prin- 

 ciples. 



During the campaign of 1848, as a youth of sixteen, 

 I took the liberty of breaking from the paternal party; 

 my father voting for General Taylor, I hurrahing for 

 Martin Van Buren. I remember well how one day my 

 father earnestly remonstrated against this. He said, "My 

 dear boy, you cheer Martin Van Buren 's name because 

 you believe that if he is elected he will do something 

 against slavery: in the first place, he cannot be elected; 

 and in the second place, if you knew him as we older 

 people do, you would not believe in his attachment to any 

 good cause whatever/' 



The result of the campaign was that General Taylor 

 was elected, and I recall the feeling of awe and hope with 

 which I gazed upon his war-worn face, for the first and 

 last time, as he stopped to receive the congratulations of 

 the citizens of Syracuse; hope, alas, soon brought to 

 naught, for he, too, soon succumbed to the pressure of 

 official care, and Millard Fillmore of New York, the Vice- 

 President, reigned in his stead. 



I remember Mr. Fillmore well. He was a tall, large, 

 fine-looking man, with a face intelligent and kindly, and 

 he was noted both as an excellent public servant and an 

 effective public speaker. He had been comptroller of 



