€larke of the Albany Register, who had so ably answered
-every point that Noah charged their authorship to Clinton
himself. But after Van Buren had spoken, the Advocate,
suddenly, as if by magic, changed its course, and, with the
rest of the Bucktail contingent, rallied to the support of
<31inton's pet scheme with arguments as sound and full of
•clear good sense as the Governor himself could wish. The
people, however, had good reason to know that statesmen
were not all and always exactly as they professed to be ; and
the immediate effect of the Bucktail change of heart
amounted to little more than public notice that the canal
policy was a complete success, and that Tammany and its
friends had discovered that further opposition was useless.
CHAPTER XXIV

KE-ELECTION OF RUFUS KING

1819-1820

Althodoh Clinton's canal policy now dominated Back-
tails as well as Clintoniaos, eliminating all differences as
to public measurea, the bitterness between these factions
increased until the effort to elect a United States senator
to succeed Rufus King resulted in a complete separation.
The Clintonians had settled upon John C Spencer, while the
Bucktails thoaght Samuel Yonng, a decided friend of Clin-
ton's canal policy, the most likely man to attract support.
Both were representative men, and either would have done
honour to the State.
