The consequence was that the difference soon shaped itself in the State as between these two favorite citizens, and it needed but little time to prove that the largest sympathies were with the farmer's boy, as the Governor was styled. Mr. Tompkins is described as a man of much more than ordinary intellectual strength and culture, but is better remembered for a cordiality and kindliness of manner that gave him great acceptablenesa and influence in his public and private relations. In the year 181.5 Mr. Jonathan Ward, who had represented ^Westchester County in the State Senate, was sent as
member of Congress to Washington, and there is little doubt that this election had much political significance, from Mr. Ward's known opposition to Mr. Clinton. When the Presidential choice was to be made of a successor to Mr. Madison, it was evident that the choice lay between Mr. James Monroe and Governor Tompkins. The preferences of Mr. Madison had much weight with the Republican i)arty, and Mr. Monroe was elected, with Governor Tompkins as Vice-President. With the removal of this gentleman to Washington, the fortunes of De Witt Clinton revived, and the Republicans naming him, he wa.s, almost without opposition, elected Governor of the State. But the truce in party dispute, so welcome, was but the precursor of a contest in the State, and in the County of Westchester, of uncommon bitterness. It might be right hereto state that the championship by Mr. Clinton of the measures for the construction of the Erie Canal, the importance of which was the more evident as the work progressed, gave him an increased hold upon the confidence of the people. This however was more immediately felt in the neighborhoods to be benefited than in others, as Westchester County, where the influence could only be indirect.