Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/27

MARTIN VAN BUREN 9 lution of 1820 "the Wilmot proviso" of 1847 appeared above our political horizon, but soon vanished from sight on the passage of the Missouri compromise in 1821. On February 6, 1821, Van Buren was elected U. S. senator, receiving in both houses of the legis lature a majority of twenty-five over Nathan San- ford, the Clintonian candidate, for whom the Federalists also voted. In the same year he was chosen from Otsego county as a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state. In that convention he met in debate Chancellor Kent, Chief-Justice Ambrose Spencer, and others. Against innovations his attitude was here conserva tive. He advocated the executive veto. He opposed manhood suffrage, seeking to limit the elective franchise to householders, that this "inval uable right" might not be "cheapened" and that the rural districts might not be overborne by the cities. He favored negro suffrage if negroes were taxed. With offence to party friends, he vehe mently resisted the eviction by constitutional change of the existing supreme court, though its members were his bitter political enemies. He opposed an elective judiciary and the choice of minor offices by the people, as swamping the right it pretended to exalt. He took his seat in the U. S. senate, December 3, 1821, and was at once made a member of its