Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/26

 8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS to admit of forming a strong or compact body around any centre. No party could combine votes enough in the legislature of 1818- 19 to elect its candidate for U. S. senator. Yet out of this med ley of factions and muddle of opinions Van Buren, by his moderation and his genius for political organization, evolved order and harmony at the election for senator in the following year. Under his lead all parties united on Rufus King, a Feder alist of the old school, who had patriotically sup ported the war against Great Britain after it was declared, and who by his candor had won the confidence of President Monroe; and Rufus King was re-elected with practical unanimity at a time when he was fresh from the hot debate in the U. S. senate against the admission of Missouri without a restriction on slavery. His anti-slavery views on that question were held by Van Buren to &quot;conceal no plot&quot; against the Republicans, who, he engaged, would give &quot;a true direction&quot; to that momentous issue. What the &quot;true direction&quot; was to be he did not say, except as it might be inferred from his concurrence in a resolution of the legislature of New York instructing the senators of that state &quot;to oppose the admission, as a state in the Union, of any territory not comprised within the original boundaries of the United States without making the prohibition of slavery therein an indispensable condition of admission.&quot; In that Republican reso-