CONKLING AND FOLGER-1867-1S68 143 



of committees, there was really not enough business ready 

 for the convention to occupy it through all the days of the 

 week, and consequently it adopted the plan, for the first 

 weeks at least, of adjourning from Friday night till Tues- 

 day morning. This vexed Mr. Greeley sorely. He in- 

 sisted that the convention ought to keep at its business 

 and finish it without any such weekly adjournments, and, 

 as his arguments to this effect did not prevail in the con- 

 vention, he began making them through the " Tribune " 

 before the people of the State. Soon his arguments be- 

 came acrid, and began undermining the convention at 

 every point. 



As to Mr. Greeley 's feeling regarding the weekly ad- 

 journment, one curious thing was reported: There was 

 a member from New York of a literary turn for whom the 

 great editor had done much in bringing his verses and 

 other productions before the public a certain Mr. Du- 

 ganne ; but it happened that, on one of the weekly motions 

 to adjourn, Mr. Duganne had voted in the affirmative, and, 

 as a result, Mr. Greeley, meeting him just afterward, up- 

 braided him in a manner which filled the rural bystanders 

 with consternation. It was well known to those best ac- 

 quainted with the editor of the "Tribune" that, when ex- 

 cited, he at times indulged in the most ingenious and pic- 

 turesque expletives, and some of Mr. Chauncey Depew's 

 best stories of that period pointed to this fact. On this 

 occasion Mr. Greeley really outdid himself, and the 

 result was that the country members, who up to that 

 time had regarded him with awe as the representative of 

 the highest possible morality in public and private life, 

 were greatly dismayed, and in various parts of the room 

 they were heard expressing their amazement, and saying 

 to each other in awe-stricken tones: "Why! Greeley 

 swears!" 



Ere long Mr. Greeley was taking, almost daily in the 

 "Tribune," steady ground against the doings of his col- 

 leagues. Lesser newspapers followed with no end of 

 cheap and easy denunciation, and the result was that the 



