CONKLING PUNISHES GREELEY
1871
"It were idle," said Horace Greeley, soon after the election in
November, 1870, "to trace the genealogy of the feud which has divided
Republicans into what are of late designated Fenton and Conkling men.
Suffice it that the fatal distraction exists and works inevitable
disaster. More effort was made in our last State convention to triumph
over Senator Fenton than to defeat Governor Hoffman, and in selecting
candidates for our State ticket the question of Fenton and anti-Fenton
was more regarded by many than the nomination of strong and popular
candidates. Since then every Fenton man who holds a federal office has
felt of his neck each morning to be sure that his head was still
attached to his shoulders."[1291]
[Footnote 1291: New York _Tribune_, November 10, 1870.]
Conkling's effort to obtain control of the State Committee provoked
this threnody. Subsequently, without the slightest warning, Fenton's
naval officer, general appraiser, and pension agent were removed.[1292]
But as the year grew older it became apparent that designs more fatal
in their consequences than removals from office threatened the Fenton
organisation. It was not a secret that the Governor had kept his
control largely through the management of politicians, entitled
"Tammany Republicans," of whom "Hank" Smith, as he was familiarly
called, represented an active type. Smith was a member of the
Republican State committee and of the Republican general city
committee. He was also a county supervisor and a Tweed police
commissioner. Moreover, he was the very model of a resourceful
leader, acute and energetic, strong and unyielding, and utterly
without timidity in politics. In supporting Fenton he appointed
Republicans to city offices, took care of those discharged from the
custom-house, and used the police and other instruments of power as
freely as Thomas Murphy created vacancies and made appointments.[1293]
In his despotic sway he had shown little regard for opposition leaders
and none whatever for minorities, until at last a faction of the
general city committee, of which Horace Greeley was then chairman,
petitioned the State committee for a reorganisation. So long as Fenton
controlled State conventions and State committees, Smith's iron rule
easily suppressed such seceders; but when the State committee revealed
a majority of Conkling men, with Cornell as chairman, these
malcontents found ready listeners and active sympathisers.
[Footnote 1292: _Ibid._, April 4, 1871.]
[Footnote 1293: "Mr. Murphy's 'weeding out' process is exactly the one
which the devil would use if he were appointed collector of this port,
and that he would perform it on exactly the same principles and with
the same objects and results as Mr. Murphy performs it, we challenge
any one to deny who is familiar with the devil's character and habits
and Mr. Murphy's late doings."--_The Nation_, January 19, 1871.
"No collector was ever more destitute of fit qualifications for the
office." He made "three hundred and thirty-eight removals every five
days during the eighteen months" he held office. Report of D.B. Eaton,
chairman of the Civil Service Commission, p. 23.]
Alonzo B. Cornell, then thirty-nine years old, had already entered
upon his famous career. From the time he began life as a boy of
fifteen in an Erie Railroad telegraph office, he had achieved
phenomenal success in business. His talents as an organiser easily
opened the way. He became manager of the Western Union telegraph
lines, the promoter of a steamboat company for Lake Cayuga, and the
director of a national bank at Ithaca. Indeed, he forged ahead so
rapidly that soon after leaving the employ of the Western Union, Jay
Gould charged him with manipulating a "blind pool" in telegraph
stocks.[1294] His education and experience also made him an expert in
political manipulation, until, in 1868, he shone as the Republican
candidate for lieutenant-governor. After his defeat and Grant's
election, he became surveyor of the port of New York, a supporter of
Conkling, and the champion of a second term for the President. His
silence, deepened by cold, dull eyes, justified the title of "Sphinx,"
while his massive head, with bulging brows, indicated intellectual and
executive power. He was not an educated man. Passing at an early age
from his studies at Ithaca Academy into business no time was left him,
if the disposition had been his, to specialise any branch of political
economic science. He could talk of politics and the rapid growth of
American industries, but the better government of great cities and the
need of reform in the national life found little if any place among
his activities. In fact, his close identification with the
organisation had robbed him of the character that belongs to men of
political independence, until the public came to regard him only an
office-holder who owed his position to the favour of a chief whom he
loyally served.
[Footnote 1294: Stephen Fiske, _Off-Hand Portraits_, p. 58.]
Very naturally the scheme of the malcontents attracted Cornell, who
advised Horace Greeley that after careful and patient consideration
the State Committee,[1295] by a vote of 20 to 8, had decided upon an
entire reorganisation of his committee. Cornell further declared that
if their action was without precedent so was the existing state of
political affairs in the city, since never before in the history of
the party had the general committee divided into two factions of
nearly equal numbers, one ordering primaries for the election of a new
committee, and the other calling upon the State committee to direct an
entire reorganisation. However, he continued, abundant precedent
existed for the arbitrary reorganisation of assembly, district, and
ward committees by county committees. Since the State committee bore
the same official relation to county committees that those committees
sustained to local organisations within their jurisdiction, it had
sufficient authority to act in the present crisis.[1296]
[Footnote 1295: "Mr. Conkling had already had much to do with the
appointment of this committee, but it is worthy of note that several
changes in the federal offices were made almost simultaneously with
the vote of the committee for Mr. Murphy's reorganisation, and that
the men who voted for it got the best places. Addison H. Laflin was
made naval officer, Lockwood L. Doty was made pension agent, Richard
Crowley was made United States attorney for the Northern District. It
will be seen that the committee were not disinterested in trying to
please Conkling and Murphy."--New York _Evening Post_, September 29,
1871.]
[Footnote 1296: New York _Times_, March 11, 1871.]
Conscious of the motive inspiring Cornell's action, Greeley replied
that the State committee was the creature of State conventions,
delegated with certain powers confined to the interval of time between
such conventions. It executed its annual functions and expired. When
contesting delegations from rival general committees had presented
themselves in 1868, the State convention, rather than intrust the
reorganisation to the State committee, appointed a special committee
for the purpose, and when, in 1869, that committee made its report,
the State convention resolved that the general committee of 1870
should thereafter be the regular and the only organisation. Nor was
that all. When a resolution was introduced in the State convention of
1870 to give the State committee power to interfere with the general
committee, the convention frowned and peremptorily dismissed it.
Neither did the State committee, Greeley continued, take anything by
analogy. County committees had never assumed to dissolve or reorganise
assembly or district committees, nor had the power ever been conceded
them, since assembly and district committees were paramount to county
committees. But aside from this the general committee had other and
greater powers than those of county committees, for the State
convention in 1863, in 1866, and again in 1869 ordered that Republican
electors in each city and assembly district should be enrolled into
associations, delegates from each of which composed the general
committee. No such power was conceded to county committees.[1297]
[Footnote 1297: New York _Tribune_, March 3 and May 2, 1871.]
Although this statement seemed to negative its jurisdiction to
interfere, the State committee, exposing the real reason for its
action, based its right to proceed on the existence of improper
practices, claiming that certain officers and members of the Greeley
and district committees held positions in city departments under the
control of Tammany, and that when members of Republican associations
were discharged from federal offices by reason of Democratic
affiliations, they were promptly appointed to places under Democratic
officials.[1298] To this the Greeley committee replied that Republicans
holding municipal offices did so under a custom growing out of mixed
commissions of Republicans and Democrats, which divided certain places
between the two parties--a custom as old as the party itself, and one
that had received the sanction of its best men. Indeed, it continued,
George Opdyke, a member of the State committee, had himself, when
mayor, appointed well-known Democrats on condition that Republicans
should share the minor offices,[1299] and a Republican governor and
Senate, in placing a Tammany official at the head of the
street-cleaning department, invoked the same principle of
division.[1300] Several members of the State committee had themselves,
until recently, held profitable places by reason of such an
understanding without thought of their party fealty being questioned.
It was a recognition of the rights of the minority. As to the wisdom
of such a policy the committee did not express an opinion, but it
suggested that if members of the general committee or of district
associations, holding such city places, should be charged with party
infidelity, prompt expulsion would follow proof of guilt. It declared
itself as anxious to maintain party purity and fidelity as the State
committee, and for the purpose of investigating all charges it
appointed a sub-committee.[1301]
[Footnote 1298: New York _Times_, January 26.]
[Footnote 1299: New York _Tribune_, September 8.]
[Footnote 1300: New York _Times_, February 3.]
[Footnote 1301: New York _Times_, Feb. 3, 1871.]
It was manifest from the first, however, that no investigation, no
purging of the rolls, no compromise would avail. The charge had gone
forth that "Tammany Republicans" controlled the Greeley committee, and
in reply to the demand for specifications the State committee accused
Henry Smith and others with using Tammany's police, taking orders from
Sweeny, and participating in Ring enterprises to the detriment of the
Republican party.[1302] "These men," said the _Times_, "are receiving
the devil's pay, and consequently, it is to be presumed, are doing the
devil's work. Republicans under Tammany cannot serve two masters. A
Republican has a right to serve Tweed if he chooses. But he ought not
at the same time to be taken into the confidence of Republicans who
wage war against Tammany for debasing the bench, the bar, and every
channel of political life."[1303]
[Footnote 1302: _Ibid._, Jan. 7, 12, 25.]
[Footnote 1303: _Ibid._, Jan. 25.]
To articles of this character Greeley replied that the Republicanism
of Cornell and Smith did not differ. They had graced the same ticket;
they had gone harmonious members of the same delegation to the last
State convention; and they were fellow members of the State committee,
created by that convention, Smith being aided thither by Cornell's
vote.[1304] In the presence of such evidence the Fenton faction
declared that there was neither soundness nor sincerity in the
_Times'_ statements or in the State committee's charges. Nevertheless,
it was known then and publicly charged afterward that, although
thoroughly honest himself, Greeley had long been associated with the
most selfish politicians in the State outside of Murphy and the
Tammany Ring.[1305] Thus the accusation against "Tammany Republicans"
became a taking cry, since the feeling generally obtained that it was
quite impossible for a man to perform service for Tweed and be a
faithful Republican. Formerly the question had assumed less
importance, but Tammany, identified with fraudulent government, a
corrupt judiciary, and a dishonest application of money, could no
longer be treated as a political organisation. Its leaders were
thieves, it was argued, and a Republican entering their service must
also be corrupt. In his letter to John A. Griswold, Conkling openly
charged the Greeley committee with being corrupted and controlled by
Tammany money.[1306]
[Footnote 1304: New York _Tribune_, September 15, 1871.]
[Footnote 1305: The _Nation_, May 9, 1872.]
[Footnote 1306: New York _Tribune_, September 4, 1871.]
The controversy, bitter enough before, became still more bitter now.
Conscious that all was lost if the State committee succeeded, the
Greeley organisation, by a vote of 99 to 1, declined to be
reorganised. "The determination of the State committee to dissolve the
regular Republican organisation of the city of New York and to create
another, without cause and without power," it said, "is an act
unprecedented in its nature, without justification, incompatible with
the principles and life of the Republican party, and altogether an act
of usurpation, unmitigated by either policy or necessity."[1307]
Greeley alone appeared willing to yield. He offered a resolution,
which, while describing the State committee's order as an injustice
and a wrong, agreed to obey it; but an adverse majority of 91 to 9
showed that his associates interpreted his real feelings.[1308]
[Footnote 1307: New York _Times_, April 7, 1871.]
[Footnote 1308: _Ibid._]
Thus the break had come. It was not an unusual event for the general
city committee to quarrel. For many years Republican contentions in
the metropolis had occupied the attention of the party throughout the
State. In fact a State convention had scarcely met without being
wearied with them. But everything now conspired to make the spirit of
faction unrelenting and to draw the line sharply between friend and
foe. The removal of Grinnell, the declaration of Greeley against
Grant's renomination,[1309] the intense bitterness between Conkling and
Fenton, and the boast of the State committee that it would control
the State convention and substitute its own creature for the Greeley
committee, all coalesced against harmony and a compromise.
[Footnote 1309: New York _Tribune_, May 6, September 15, 1871.]
Moreover, even the appearance of relations between Greeley and
Conkling had ceased. "Mr. Conkling's frenzy," said the _Tribune_,
"generally comes on during executive session, when, if we may be
allowed the metaphor, he gets upon stilts and supports his dignity....
We can see the pose of that majestic figure, the sweep of that
bolt-hurling arm, the cold and awful gleam of that senatorial eye, as
he towers above the listening legislators." It spoke of him as the
"Pet of the Petticoats," the "Apollo of the Senate," the "darling of
the ladies' gallery," who "could look hyacinthine in just thirty
seconds after the appearance of a woman." Then it took a shot at the
Senator's self-appreciation. "No one can approach him, if anybody can
approach him, without being conscious that there is something great
about Conkling. Conkling himself is conscious of it. He walks in a
nimbus of it. If Moses' name had been Conkling when he descended from
the Mount, and the Jews had asked him what he saw there, he would
promptly have replied, 'Conkling!' It is a little difficult to see why
Mr. Conkling did not gain a reputation during the war. Many men took
advantage of it for the display of heroic qualities. But this was not
Conkling's opportunity. Is he a man to make a reputation while his
country is in danger? He was not. Probably he knew best when to hitch
his dogcart to a star. Such a man could afford to wait. Wrapped in the
mantle of his own great opinion of himself, he could afford to let his
great genius prey upon itself until the fulness of time."[1310] Of
course, after this there could be no relations between the editor and
the senator. These editorials recalled the Blaine episode, and
although not so steeped in bitterness, as a character-study they did
not differ from the prototype.
[Footnote 1310: New York _Tribune_ (editorials), May 19, 20, 25, 1871.]
This was the condition of affairs when the Republican convention met
at Syracuse on September 27. Except Greeley every prominent leader in
the State attended. The question whether the rival general committee
created by the State organisation should be recognised involved the
whole party, and the audience assembled surpassed any previous
attendance. The presence of a multitude of federal officials as
delegates and leaders indicated that the Administration at Washington
also took a deep interest. There was much doubt and solicitude as to
the result, for no opportunity had been given the factions to measure
strength since the convention of 1870. The nomination of a minority
candidate for speaker of the Assembly in the preceding January had
been claimed as a Fenton victory, but the selection of James W.
Husted, then at the threshold of a long and conspicuous career, did
not turn on such a hinge. Husted had strength of his own. Although
never to become an orator of great power and genuine inspiration, his
quickness of perception, coupled with the manners of an accomplished
gentleman, brilliant in conversation and formidable in debate, made
him a popular favourite whose strength extended beyond faction. Now,
however, the issue was sharply drawn, and when Alonzo B. Cornell
called the convention to order, the opposing forces, marshalled for a
fight to the finish, announced Andrew D. White and Chauncey M. Depew
as their respective candidates for temporary chairman. White's recent
appointment as a commissioner to San Domingo had been a distinct gain
to the President's scheme of annexation, and he now appeared at the
convention in obedience to Cornell's solicitation.[1311] To gain a bit
of advantage Depew, in the interest of harmony, he said, withdrew in
favour of G. Hilton Scribner of Westchester, who had headed a young
men's association formed to allay strife between the rival senators.
The suggestion being accepted, Depew then moved to make Scribner and
White temporary and permanent chairmen. Upon the temporary chairman
depended the character of the committees, and Cornell, with a frown
upon his large, sallow, cleanly shaven face, promptly ruled the motion
out of order. When a Fenton delegate appealed from the Chair's
ruling, he refused to put the question.
[Footnote 1311: White, _Autobiography_, Vol. 1, p. 164.]
Instantly the convention was upon its feet. Demands for roll-call and
the shouts of a hundred men stifled the work of the gavel. Police
interference increased the noise. In the midst of the confusion the
stentorian voice of John Cochrane, a Fenton delegate, declared "the
roll entirely wrong."[1312] This aggravated the situation. Finally,
when delegates and chairman had physically exhausted themselves, Waldo
M. Hutchins was allowed to suggest that in all cases of contested
seats the names of delegates be passed. To this Cornell reluctantly
agreed amidst loud applause from the Fenton faction, which desired its
action interpreted as an unselfish concession in the interest of
harmony; but the tremendous surprise subsequently displayed upon the
announcement of White's election by 188 to 159 revealed its
insincerity. It had confidently counted on twenty-one additional
votes, or a majority of thirteen.[1313] Thus, in a moment, were
brightest hopes and fairest prospects blasted.
[Footnote 1312: New York _Tribune_, September 28, 1871.]
[Footnote 1313: "In particular they [the Fenton men] felt sure of one
vote not received from Allegany County, two from Broome, three from
Columbia, two from Cortlandt, three from Dutchess, three from
Jefferson, one from Ontario, three from Washington, and three from
Wayne."--_Ibid._
"Mr. Murphy's office-holders were numerous and active, and turned the
whole organisation into an instrument for the service of his
[Conkling's] personal ambition. When the State convention was to meet,
Mr. Conkling and Mr. Murphy were among the first at Syracuse. It was
remarked that while they worked hard, they took no thought of the
reform movement. Their sole object was to control the convention. The
confidence which the delegates placed in them was astonishing, but
more astonishing still was the manner in which Andrew D. White lent
himself to this faction and did its work."--New York _Evening Post_,
September 29, 1871.]
It was easy to speculate as to the cause of this overthrow. To declare
it the triumph of patronage; to assert that delegates from Republican
strongholds supported Fenton and that others from counties with
overwhelming Democratic majorities sustained Conkling; to stigmatise
the conduct of Cornell as an unprecedented exhibition of tyranny, and
to charge White with seeking the votes of Fenton members on the plea
that his action would promote harmony,[1314] probably did not economise
the truth. Explanations, however, could not relieve the anguish of
defeat or nerve the weak to greater effort. Many delegates, filled
with apprehension and anxious to be on the winning side, thought
annihilation more likely than any sincere and friendly understanding,
a suspicion that White's committee appointments quickly ratified.
Although the Fenton faction comprised nearly one-half the convention,
the Committee on Credentials stood 12 to 2 in favour of Conkling. Of
course the famous president of Cornell University did not select this
committee. He simply followed custom and fathered the list of names
Cornell handed him.[1315] "But in blindly consenting to be thus used by
the State committee," wrote Greeley, "he became the instrument of such
an outrage as no respectable presiding officer of any prominent
deliberative body has ever committed."[1316]
[Footnote 1314: "Mr. White personally sought the votes of Fenton
members for the temporary chairmanship on the pledge that he would so
act as to promote harmony."--New York _Tribune_, October 21, 1871.]
[Footnote 1315: "I received the list of the convention committees from
the State committee with express assurance that the list represented
fairly the two wings of the party. I had no reason then, and have no
reason now, to believe that the State committee abused my
confidence."--White, _Autobiography_, Vol. 1, p. 166.]
[Footnote 1316: New York _Tribune_, September 29, 1871.]
To the Fenton faction this severe criticism of a presumably fair man
seemed justified after his jug-handle committee had made its
jug-handle report. It favoured seating all contesting delegates
outside of the City, admitted the Greeley delegates and their
opponents with the right to cast half of one vote, and recognised the
organisation established by the State committee as the regular and the
only one. By this time the dullest delegate understood the trend of
affairs. Indeed, dismissals and appointments in the civil service had
preceded the assembling of the convention until politicians understood
that the way to preferment opened only to those obedient to the new
dictator. Accordingly, on the next roll-call, the weak-kneed took
flight, the vote standing 202 to 116. Upon hearing the astounding
result a Fenton delegate exclaimed, "Blessed are they that expect
nothing, for they shall not be disappointed."[1317]
[Footnote 1317: New York _Tribune_, September 28, 1871.]
In discussing the resolution to abolish the Greeley committee the
question narrowed itself to members holding office under Tammany, the
Greeley organisation maintaining that it had simply inherited the
custom, not created it, while Cornell and his associates, having
"Hank" Smith in mind, declared it impossible to avoid the custom
without destroying the committee. To some of the Conkling leaders this
seemed unnecessarily severe. Having showed their teeth they hesitated
to lacerate the party, especially after the mad rush to the winning
side had given them an overwhelming majority. At last, it fell to
Hamilton Ward, a friend of the Senator, for six years a member of
Congress, a forcible speaker, and still a young man of nerve, who was
to become attorney-general and a judge of the Supreme Court, to
propose as a substitute that the State committee be directed to
consolidate and perfect the two city organisations. The Fenton people
promptly acquiesced, and their opponents, after eliminating Smith by
disallowing a member of the organisation to hold office under Tammany,
cheerfully accepted it.
This compromise, thus harmoniously perfected in the presence and
hearing of the convention, was loudly applauded, and the chairman had
risen to put the motion when Conkling interrupted, "Not yet the
question, Mr. President!" Until then the Senator had been a silent
spectator. Indeed, not until the previous roll-call did he become a
member of the convention. But he was now to become its master. His
slow, measured utterances and deep chest-tones commanded instant
attention. If for a moment, as he calmly declared opposition to the
substitute, he seemed to stand alone, his declaration that a horde of
Tammany ballot-box stuffers, pirates, and robbers had controlled and
debauched the Republican organisation in the city of New York called
forth the loudest applause of the evening. His next statement, that
the time had come when such encroachments must cease, renewed the
cheering. Having thus paid his respects to the Greeley committee,
Conkling argued that a new State committee could not do in the four
weeks preceding election what it had taken the old committee months to
accomplish. The campaign must be made not with a divided organisation,
but with ranks closed up. Reading from an editorial in the _Tribune_,
he claimed that it approved the committee's report, and he begged the
convention to take the editor at his word, shake hands, bury
animosities and disappointments, make up a ticket equally of both
factions, and accept the reorganisation of the city committee, so that
double delegations might not appear at the next national convention to
parade their dissensions. He disclaimed any unkind feeling, and in
favouring the admission of both city delegations, he said, he supposed
he had worked in the interest of harmony.
This appeal has been called one of Conkling's "most remarkable
speeches."[1318] Unlike the Senator's usual efforts laboured
preparation did not precede it. The striking passage and the
impressive phrase are entirely wanting. Epigrammatic utterances are
the supreme test of a great orator or poet, but Conkling's speech of
September 27 added nothing to that vocabulary. It may be said to lack
every element of a well-ordered oration. As preserved in the
newspapers of the day[1319] it is hard, if not impossible, to find
sufficient rhetorical merit to entitle it to a place in any volume of
ordinary addresses. It wanted the persuasive power that allures by an
exquisite choice of words, or charms by noble and sympathetic
elocution. Even the style of his appeal for harmony was too
self-assured and his faith in his own superiority too evident.
Nevertheless, of the living who heard his explosive exclamation, "Not
yet the question, Mr. President," and the flaming sentences arraigning
the Greeley Republicans as partners of Tammany, it lingers in the
memory as a forceful philippic, full of pose and gesture and dramatic
action. Its influence, however, is not so clear. The power of
patronage had already twice carried the convention, and that this
incentive would have done so again had Conkling simply whispered to
his lieutenants, must be evident to all who read the story. Ward's
motion was lost by 154 to 194, the Conkling vote being eight less than
on the preceding roll-call.[1320]
[Footnote 1318: "Such a speech, in its terms, its forcible eloquence,
its overwhelming results, was perhaps never heard in a similar
assemblage. Many of Senator Conkling's friends insist that this was
one of his most remarkable speeches."--Alfred R. Conkling, _Life of
Roscoe Conkling_, p. 341.]
[Footnote 1319: Syracuse _Standard_, New York _Times_, September 28,
1871.]
[Footnote 1320: "Just as the whole convention had agreed upon the
compromise, Conkling arose and ordered his office-holders to reject
it."--New York _Evening Post_, September 29.]
Conkling desired a solid delegation at the next Republican National
Convention, and the recognition of the organisation established by the
State committee assured it, whereas the Ward amendment, by including
the Greeley constituency, inspired the fear of a divided one.[1321]
Perhaps the failure of his friends to appreciate this fear justified
Conkling's interference, but a single word of dissent was sufficient
to alarm them, while a less arrogant and dominating spirit might
easily have avoided making the bitter assault which provoked a storm
of hostile criticism. Greeley's stinging retort illuminated the
Senator's insincerity. "Conkling declared it right," said the editor,
"to abolish the regular organisation because corrupted and controlled
by Tammany money, and then invited its delegates to an equal share in
making the platform and selecting a ticket. If he believed what he
said, he was guilty of party treason in the offer; if he did not, he
added the folly of insult to the crime of foul slander."[1322] This was
the view of the Greeley delegates, and refusing to accept the offered
terms, Moses H. Grinnell, Marshall O. Roberts, and their associates,
amid ironical cheers, withdrew from the convention.
[Footnote 1321: New York _Tribune_, June 1, 1871.]
[Footnote 1322: New York _Tribune_, September 29, 1871.]
After this business progressed smoothly and easily. There were no
divisions, no debates, and no questions of importance. Nominations
aroused little enthusiasm,[1323] and the platform which Greeley called
"the miracle of clumsiness,"[1324] indorsed the administration of
President Grant, denounced the crimes of the Tweed ring, and
recommended local option. Meanwhile the seceders, assembled in Wild's
Opera House, gave vent to bitter criticism and the whispered scandal
of hotel lobbies.[1325] When this proceeding finally ended they
separated with the consciousness that their last performance, at
least, had made them ridiculous.
[Footnote 1323: The State ticket was as follows: Secretary of State, G.
Hilton Scribner, Westchester; Comptroller, Nelson K. Hopkins, Erie;
Treasurer, Thomas Raines, Monroe; Attorney-General, Francis C. Barlow,
New York; Engineer, William B. Taylor, Oneida; Canal Commissioner,
Alexander Barkley, Washington; Prison Inspector, Thomas Kirkpatrick,
Cayuga.]
[Footnote 1324: New York _Tribune_, September 29, 1871.]
[Footnote 1325: _Ibid._]