THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN-1872 165 



gates from New York opposed to General Grant could be 

 admitted to the convention on equal terms with those who 

 favored him, and if he, Mr. Cornell, and the other man- 

 agers of the Grant wing of the party would agree that the 

 anti-Grant forces should receive full and fair representa- 

 tion on the various committees, I would accept the presi- 

 dency of the convention in the interest of peace between 

 the factions, and would do my best to harmonize the differ- 

 ing interests in the party, but that otherwise I would not 

 consent to be a member of the convention. In his answer 

 Mr. Cornell fully agreed to this, and I have every reason 

 to believe, indeed to know, that his agreement was kept. 

 The day of the convention having arrived (September 27, 

 1871), Mr. Cornell, as chairman of the Republican State 

 committee, called the assemblage to order, and after a 

 somewhat angry clash with the opponents of the adminis- 

 tration, nominated me to the chairmanship of the con- 

 vention. 



By a freak of political fortune I was separated in this 

 contest from my old friend Chauncey M. Depew; but 

 though on different sides of the question at issue, we sat 

 together chatting pleasantly as the vote went on, neither 

 of us, I think, very anxious regarding it, and when the 

 election was decided in my favor he was one of those who, 

 under instructions from the temporary chairman, very 

 courteously conducted me to the chair. It was an immense 

 assemblage, and from the first it was evident that there 

 were very turbulent elements in it. Hardly, indeed, had 

 I taken my seat, when the chief of the Syracuse police 

 informed me that there were gathered near the platform 

 a large body of Tammany roughs who had come from New 

 York expressly to interfere with the convention, just as 

 a few years before they had interfered in the same place 

 with the convention of their own party, seriously wound- 

 ing its regular chairman ; but that I need have no alarm 

 at any demonstration they might make; that the police 

 were fully warned and able to meet the adversary. 



In my opening speech I made an earnest plea for peace 



