SENATORSHIP AT ALB ANY- 1865 -1867 125 



In the following autumn the question of my renomina- 

 tion came. 



It had been my fortune to gain, first of all, the ill will 

 of Tammany Hall, and the arms of Tammany were long. 

 Its power was exercised strongly through its henchmen 

 not only in the Democratic party throughout the State, 

 but especially in the Republican party, and, alcove, .all, 

 among sundry contractors of the Erie Canal, many of 

 whose bills I had opposed, and it was understood that 

 they and their friends were determined to defeat me. 



Moreover, it was thought by some that I had mortally 

 offended sundry Catholic priests by opposing their plan 

 for acquiring Ward's Island, and that I had offended 

 various Protestant bodies, especially the Methodists, by 

 defeating their efforts to divide up the Land Grant 

 Fund between some twenty petty sectarian colleges, and 

 by exerting myself to secure it for Cornell University, 

 which, because it was unsectarian, many called * ' godless. ' ' 



Though I made speeches through the district as for- 

 merly, I asked no pledges of any person, but when the nom- 

 inating convention assembled I was renominated in spite 

 of all opposition, and triumphantly: a gifted and hon- 

 orable man, the late David J. Mitchell, throwing him- 

 self heartily into the matter, and in an eloquent speech 

 absolutely silencing the whole Tammany and canal com- 

 bination. He was the most successful lawyer in the 

 district before juries, and never did his best quali- 

 ties show themselves more fully than on this occasion. 

 My majority on the first ballot was overwhelming, the 

 nomination was immediately made unanimous, and at the 

 election I had the full vote. 



Arriving in Albany at the beginning of my third year 

 of service 1866 I found myself the only member of the 

 committee appointed to investigate matters in the city of 

 New York who had been reflected. Under these circum- 

 stances no report from the committee was possible; but 

 the committee on municipal affairs, having brought in a 

 bill to legislate out of office the city inspector and all his 



