produce the most astonishing political results; that, with the office of Collector, he could on all important occasions command the vote of the city of New York, and par consequence of the state.” Curtis, as a warm partisan of Webster, had with great industry and zeal helped to defeat Clay at the Harrisburg Convention. But seeing now that Webster had no chance, Curtis would persuade Webster to give up his presidential aspirations forever, and henceforth Clay would be Curtis's candidate. Clay contemptuously suggested that this information be communicated to Webster. But Thurlow Weed took the matter very seriously, and wrote to a friend that, if Curtis now failed because he had opposed Clay's nomination, “such a condition of things would destroy us.”
Clay resolved to have nothing to do with the distribution of the spoils. A month before Harrison's inauguration he informed his friend Brooke: “I have been constrained, after a full consideration, to adopt the principle of non-interference with the new administration as to new appointments. Without it, if the day had a duration of forty-eight hours, I should be unable to attend to the applications I receive.”
But, while he did not ask for appointments, he no doubt sought to exercise a controlling influence as to the policies and measures of the new administration; and, as he felt himself to be the true chief of the Whig party, it is not unlikely that his advice was given with that air and tone of command to
