Convention, as it
proved), the Ohio delegation took the first and most important step, in
formally withdrawing the name of Mr. Pendleton. The voting was then
resumed, and the nineteenth and twentieth ballots showed a slight loss
for Hancock, and a corresponding gain for Hendricks. On the
twenty-first ballot Hancock had 135-1/2, and Hendricks 132; with 48-1/2
divided among minor candidates. At this point the Ohio delegation,
having been absent in conference, entered the hall, and amid a hush
of expectation and interest proposed the name of Horatio Seymour. Mr.
Seymour had been frequently mentioned, and would have been formidable
from the first if he had permitted the use of his name, but he had
invariably met the proposition with the answer that he could under no
circumstances become a candidate. He now repeated this statement from
the chair, but Ohio insisted and New York assented. With a whirl of
excitement all the States followed, and the nomination was made on the
twenty-second ballot by a unanimous vote. Mr. Seymour had, no doubt,
been sincere in declining to be a candidate; but the prolonged
balloting had produced a great anxiety among the delegates, and the
pressure had at last come in a form which he could not resist.

The ticket was completed without delay. Just prior to the Convention
General Frank Blair had written a remarkable letter to Colonel
Brodhead, one of the Missouri delegates. General Blair's name had been
mentioned as a Presidential candidate, and in this letter he defined
his position. He insisted, as the supreme issue, that the
Reconstruction Acts and their fruits must be overthrown. How they
should be overthrown he thus indicated: "There is but one way to
restore the Government and the Constitution, and that is for the
President to declare these Acts null and void, compel the army to
undo its usurpations at the South, dispossess the carpet-bag State
governments, allow the white people to re-organize their own
governments and elect senators and representatives." General Blair
contended that this was "the real and only question," and that until
this work was accomplished "it is idle to talk of bonds, greenbacks,
the public faith, and the public credit." This letter, as will be
noted, harmonized in thought and language with the plank which Wade
Hampton had inserted in the platform, and its audacious tone commended
its author to those who had been potential in committing the Convention