234 POLITICAL LIFE-XII 



turned out afterward, opposed the Republican nomina- 

 tion. 



At the convention which met shortly afterward at 

 Rochester (September, 1S91), things went as I had an- 

 ticipated, and indeed as I had preferred. Mr. Flatt found 

 the elements supporting .Mi 1 . Fassett even stronger than 

 he had expected. The undercurrent was too powerful for 

 him, and he was obliged to yield to it. 



Of course sundry newspapers screamed that he had de- 

 ceived and defeated me. I again do him the justice to say 

 that this was utterly untrue. I am convinced that he went 

 to Rochester believing my candidacy best for the party; 

 that he really did what he could in my favor, but that he 

 found, what I had foretold, that Mr. Fassett, young, ener- 

 getic, known, and liked by the active political men in 

 various parts of the State, naturally wished to lead the 

 forces and was naturally the choice of the convention a 

 choice which it was not within Mr. Flatt 's power to 

 change. 



Mr. Fassett was nominated, and I do not know that I 

 have ever received a message which ga^e me a greater 

 sense of relief than the telegram which announced this fact 

 to me. 



As regards the inside history of the convention, Fro- 

 fessor Jenks of Cornell University, a very thoughtful 

 student of practical politics, who had gone to Rochester 

 to see the working of a Xew York State convention, told 

 me some time afterward that he had circulated very freely 

 among the delegates from various rural districts; that they 

 had no acquaintance with him, and therefore talked freely 

 in his presence regarding the best policy of the conven- 

 tion. As a rule, the prevailing reeling among them was 

 expressed as follows: "White don't know the boys; he 

 don't know the men who do the work of the party; he 

 supports civil-service reform, and that means that after 

 doing the work of the campaign we shall have no better 

 chance for the offices than men who have done nothing in 

 fact, not so good, perhaps, as those who have opposed 



