166 POLITICAL LIFE -VIII 



among the various factions of the party, and especially 

 between those who favored and those who opposed the 

 administration; this plea was received with kindness, and 

 shortly afterward came the appointment of committees. 

 Of course, like every other president of such a body, I 

 had to rely on the standing State committee. Hardly one 

 man in a thousand coming to the presidency of a State 

 convention knows enough of the individual leaders of poli 

 tics in all the various localities to distinguish between their 

 shades of opinion. It was certainly impossible for me to 

 know all those who, in the various counties of the State, 

 favored General Grant and those who disliked him. Like 

 every other president of a convention, probably without 

 an exception, from the beginning to the present hour, I 

 received the list of the convention committees from the 

 State committee which represented the party, and I re 

 ceived this list, not only with implied, but express assur 

 ances that the agreement under which I had taken the 

 chairmanship had been complied with; namely, that the 

 list represented fairly the two wings of the party in con 

 vention, and that both the Grant and the anti-Grant dele 

 gations from New York city were to be admitted on equal 

 terms. 



I had no reason then, and have no reason now, to believe 

 that the State committee abused my confidence. I feel sure 

 now, as I felt sure then, that the committee named by me 

 fairly represented the two wings of the party; but after 

 their appointment it was perfectly evident that this did 

 not propitiate the anti-administration wing. They were 

 deeply angered against the administration by the fact that 

 General Grant had taken as his adviser in regard to New 

 York patronage and politics Senator Conk] ing rather than 

 Senator Fenton. Doubtless Senator Conkling s manner 

 in dealing with those opposed to him had made many 

 enemies who, by milder methods, might have been brought 

 to the support of the administration. At any rate, it was 

 soon clear that the anti-administration forces, recognizing 

 their inferiority in point of numbers, were determined to 



