Atlantic city soon precluded the austere government of
a ruling class such as obtained on the Puritan soil of
New England, and its political life had long been an
uninterrupted series of struggles of rival condottieri.
These were supplied at one time by great families,
with a large plebeian following, like the optimates in
Rome; at another by successful parvenus, who
generally allied themselves with the patricians. More
intelligent than the Roman plebs, less wretched and
above all more alive to their capacity of "men and citi-
zens," the people of New York required to be managed
with skill, with science, to be drawn into either of the
rival camps. Necessity produced the men and created
the scientific modes of action.

Among the first of these clever manipulators of the
electoral material to whom tradition goes back was
Aaron Burr, the man who, after having attained the
Vice-Presidency of the Republic, dragged out the long
and miserable existence of a Cain, abhorred as the mur-
derer of Hamilton and as a traitor to his country. A
born organizer of men, full of resource and possessing
considerable personal charm, Burr was able to gather
round him, in the city of New York and in most of the
counties of the State, men of a similar stamp, who com-
bined great skill and activity with unbounded devotion
to their chief. Over the whole area of the State they
formed a sort of net, the meshes of which served for
catching the voters. Their power of attraction con-
sisted in a thorough knowledge of the various elements
of the electorate and a consummate skill in combination
and negotiation, whether in the making up of the lists
of the candidates, or in the distribution of rewards after

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