rtion
that the Administration's "sole and undivided purpose was to prosecute
the war." Simultaneous was another announcement, also in the minds of
the New Englanders, of first importance: "So far as there being any
probability of President Lincoln withdrawing from the canvass, as
some have suggested, the gentlemen comprising the Committee express
themselves as confident of his reelection."(8)

Meanwhile the letters asking for signatures to the pro-posed "call" had
been circulated and the time had come to take stock of the result From
Ohio, Wade had written in a sanguine mood. He was for issuing the
call the moment the Democratic Convention had taken action.(9) On the
twenty-ninth that convention met. On the thirtieth, the conspirators
reassembled--again at the house of David Dudley Field--and Andrew
attended. He had not committed himself either way.

And now Lincoln's firmness with the Executive Committee had its reward.
The New Englanders had made up their minds. Personally, he was still
obnoxious to them; but in light of his recent pronouncement, they would
take their chances on "rescuing" him from the Committee; and since he
would not withdraw, they would not cooperate in splitting the Union
party. But they could not convince the conspirators. A long debate ended
in an agreement to disagree. The New Englanders withdrew, confessed
partisans of Lincoln.(10) It was the beginning of the end.

Andrew went back to Boston to organize New England for Lincoln. J.
M. Forbes remained to organize New York.(11) All this, ignoring the
Executive Committee. It was a new Lincoln propaganda, not in opposition
to the Committee but in frank rivalry: "Since, or if, we must have
Lincoln," said Andrew, "men of motive and ideas must get into the lead,
must elect him, get hold of 'the machine' and 'run it' themselves."(12)

The bottom was out of the conspiracy; but the leaders at New York were
slow to yield. Despite the New England secession, they thought the
Democratic platform, on which McClellan had been invited to stand as
candidate for the Presidency, gave them another chance, especially the
famous resolution:

"That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the
American people, after four years of failure to restore the Union by
the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military
necessity, or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution
itself has been disregarded in every part, and th