Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/United States/Marcy, William Learned

Marcy, William Learned (1786-1857), was born at Sturbridge, Mass., Dec. 12, 1786. He graduated at Brown University in 1808, was admitted to the bar in 1810, and began practice at Troy, N. Y. He soon became a leading Democratic politician, and one of the “Albany regency” which was supposed to control the action of the party in New York State. He was United States senator in 1831-32, and during his term he incidentally made use of the phrase so frequently afterwards heard, “To the victor belong the spoils.” He resigned to become governor of New York, 1833-39. He was secretary of war under Polk, 1845-49, and secretary of state under Pierce, 1853-57. As secretary of state he conducted with success the Koszta case in 1854, involving a collision with Austria on the subject of the right of expatriation. All his political leanings were to that branch of the Democratic party in New York which made the strength of the new Republican party in 1856, and he would have been its natural leader if he had followed his own convictions on the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He hesitated, and other men took his place. He died at Ballston Spa, N.Y., July 4, 1857.—See Jenkins's Governors of New York.