152 POLITICAL LIFE- VII 



abroad, and his struggle, almost against fate, in the time 

 of our reverses, I was fascinated. The book had arrived 

 early in the evening, and next morning found me still 

 seated in my library chair completely absorbed in it. 



In the spring of the year 1870, while as usual in the 

 thick of university work, I was again drawn for a moment 

 into the current of New York politics. The long wished 

 for amendment of the State constitution, putting our high- 

 est tribunal, the Court of Appeals, on a better footing 

 than it had ever been before, making it more adequate, the 

 term longer, and the salaries higher, had been passed, and 

 judges were to be chosen at the next election. Each of the 

 two great parties was entitled to an equal number of 

 judges, and I was requested to go to the approaching 

 nominating convention at Rochester in order to present 

 the name of my old friend and neighbor, Charles 

 Andrews. 



It was a most honorable duty, no man could have de- 

 sired a better candidate, and I gladly accepted the man- 

 date. Although it was one of the most staid and dignified 

 bodies of the sort which has ever met in the State, it had 

 as a preface a pleasant farce. 



As usual, the seething cauldron of New York City poli- 

 tics had thrown to the surface some troublesome delegates, 

 and among them was one long famed as a "Tammany 

 Republican." 



Our first business was the choice of a president for the 

 convention, and, as it had been decided by the State com- 

 mittee to present for that office the name of one of the most 

 respected judges in the State, the Honorable Platt Potter, 

 of Schenectady, it was naturally expected that some mem- 

 ber of the regular organization would present his name 

 in a dignified speech. But hardly had the chairman of 

 the State committee called the convention to order when 

 the aforesaid Tammany Republican, having heard that 

 Judge Potter was to be elected, thought evidently that 

 he could gain recognition and applause by being the 

 first to present his name. He therefore rushed for- 



