he country in its highest offices. But
I could not get the majority of the Massachusetts delegation
to come to my way of thinking. General Coggswell, a very
able and accomplished member of the House of Representatives,
and Mr. Edward D. Hayden, also a member of the House--a
service which he left greatly to the regret of his own constituents
and the people of the State--seemed to have very strong objections
indeed to Mr. Sherman. The delegation very kindly offered
before the first ballot, and again just before the fourth
or fifth ballot, to present my name as the candidate of Massachusetts.
It would have been a very great honor to have received such
a vote from Massachusetts. I was told also by gentlemen from
other States, who spoke to me about it, that I should have
had a considerable vote from other parts of the country. I
had quite a number of very intimate friends in the convention
from States outside of Massachusetts. I thought then, and
think now, though that is a matter of conjecture, that I should
have got about seventy votes. But I thought my nomination
out of the question. I thought also that it would be utterly
inexpedient, if it could be accomplished. And I thought also
that the office of a Senator from Massachusetts would be
more agreeable to me, and better adapted to my capacity than
that of the President of the United States. Still the temptation
to get the high compliment and honor of such a vote was very
strong indeed. But there were thirteen of our delegation
of twenty-eight, who were willing to vote with me for Mr.
Sherman. If I had consented to the subtraction of their votes
from his column on the first ballot, it would have made a
serious diminution of his strength.

If I had consented to the same thing on a later ballot it
would have put him in the position of having his forces diminishing
and falling away. I thought I ought not, for a mere empty
honor to myself, to permit such an injury to be inflicted
upon him, although I confess I did not then think his nomination
likely. But while the Massachusetts delegation does not seem
to me to have exerted a very decisive influence upon the result
of that convention, it came very near it. After several ineffectual
ballotings, in which the votes of the different States were
divided among several candidates, the convention took a recess
at twelve o'clock to four o'clock of the same day. Immediately
a meeting was called by a number of gentl