ioned by President Hayes's
civil-service policies is to prevent the national convention
adopting the unit rule."

The unit rule is that if the majority of the delegates from any
State make a decision, the chairman of the delegation shall cast
the entire vote of the delegation from the State for the result
arrived at by the majority, whether it be a candidate or a policy.
Under the unit rule I have seen a bare majority of one vote for
a candidate, and then the chairman of the delegation cast the entire
vote for the candidate, though the minority were very hostile to him.

The delegates of the State convention at Utica returned to Albany
that night. Many of them were State senators whose decapitation
was assured if the old machine supported by federal patronage was
revived. State Senator Webster Wagner was one of them. He and I
chartered a train and invited the whole State delegation to go with
us to Chicago. In the preliminary discussions, before the national
convention met, twenty-six out of seventy-eight delegates decided
to act independently.

Wayne MacVeagh, a lifelong friend of mine, had a strong following
in the Pennsylvania delegation, and after he learned our position
brought over also his people. Emory Storrs, who led the Illinois
delegation, came to me and said that if we would not boom
Elihu B. Washburne, who was a candidate for the nomination, we
would have the Illinois vote. The result of the canvass was that
the convention decided against the unit rule. This released so
many individual delegates to independent action that the field
was cleared and nobody had majority. The leading candidates were
General Grant, James G. Blaine, and John Sherman.

In the history of convention oratory the nominating speeches of
Senator Conkling for General Grant, and James A. Garfield for
John Sherman take the highest rank. Conkling took a lofty position
on the platform. His speech was perfectly prepared, delivered
with great dramatic effect, and received universal applause on
the floor and in the gallery.

General Garfield, on the other hand, also a fine-looking man and
a practised orator, avoided the dramatic element, in which he
could not compete with Conkling, but delivered a speech along
the line of the average thought and general comprehension of his
audience that made a great impression. It was a common remark:
"He has nominated himself."

There were among the audience thousands of Blaine enthusiasts