ARTHUR, CLEVELAND, AND ELAINE 1881-1884 203 



command more popular support than Mr. Edmunds. An 

 earnest effort was made in favor of John Sherman 

 of Ohio, and his claims were presented most sympatheti- 

 cally to me by my old Cornell student, Governor Foraker. 

 Of all the candidates before the convention I would have 

 preferred to vote for Mr. Sherman. He had borne the 

 stress of the whole anti-slavery combat, and splendidly; 

 he had rendered great services to the nation as a statesman 

 and financier, and was in every respect capable and worthy. 

 Unfortunately there were too many old enmities against 

 him, and it was clear that the anti-Blaine vote could not 

 be concentrated on him. My college classmate, Mr. 

 Knevals of New York, then urged me to vote for President 

 Arthur. This, too, would have been a fairly satisfactory 

 solution of the question, for President Arthur had sur- 

 prised every one by the excellence of his administration. 

 Still there was a difficulty in his case : the Massachusetts 

 delegates could not be brought to support him ; it was said 

 that he had given some of their leaders mortal offense 

 by his hostility to the Eiver and Harbor Bill. A final ef- 

 fort was then made by the Independents to induce General 

 Sherman to serve, but he utterly refused, and so the only 

 thing left was to let matters take their course. All chance 

 of finding any one to maintain the desired standard of 

 American political life against the supporters of Mr. 

 Blaine had failed. 



As we came into the convention on the morning of the 

 day fixed for making the nominations, I noticed that the 

 painted portraits of Washington and Lincoln, previously 

 on either side of the president's chair, had been removed. 

 Owing to the tumultuous conduct of the crowd in the gal- 

 leries, it had been found best to remove things of an 

 ornamental nature from the walls, for some of these or- 

 naments had been thrown down, to the injury of those 

 sitting below. 



On my calling Curtis 's attention to this removal of the 

 two portraits, he said: " Yes, I have noticed it, and I am 

 glad of it. Those weary eyes of Lincoln have been upon 



