Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/23

Rh adverse to the measure. Van Buren shared in this hostility and publicly lauded the “Spartan firmness” of George Clinton when as vice-president he gave his casting-vote in the U. S. senate against the bank bill, February 20, 1811. In 1812 Van Buren was elected to the senate of New York from the middle district as a Clinton Republican, defeating Edward P. Livingston, the candidate of the “Quids,” by a majority of 200. He took his seat in November of that year and became thereby a member of the court of errors, then composed of senators in connection with the chancellor and the supreme court. As senator he strenuously opposed the charter of “the Bank of America,” which, with a large capital and with the promise of liberal subsidies to the state treasury, was then seeking to establish itself in New York and to take the place of the United States bank. He upheld Gov. Tompkins when, exercising his extreme prerogative, he prorogued the legislature on March 27, 1812, to prevent the passage of the bill. Though counted among the adherents of the administration of Madison, and though committed to the policy of declaring war against Great Britain, he sided with the Republican members of the New York legislature when in 1812 they determined to break from “the Virginia dynasty” and to support De Witt Clinton for the presidency. In the following year, however, he dissolved his