Van Buren will be nominated and he will defeat Clay or any other National Republican–no, no, Whig, I must get used to calling them that. How topsy-turvy it is! Those of us who were for the Revolution were Whigs. Those for Britain were Tories. Then there was the fight over the federal Constitution. In our state Governor Clinton wanted a weak federal government. So some of the Whigs became anti-Federalist, and some like Hamilton became Federalist. Then the Tory-Federalists became Republican. Now Tory-Federalist-Republicans call themselves Whig though they are anti-Whig while the anti-federalist Republicans are now Jacksonian Democrats. Oh, names are magic here!
-From Burr – A Novel, by Gore Vidal, Part 1834, Chapter Four
More on Burr here.
Rant on.
-T
worstwriter 