nry A. Foster; the Radicals John A. Dix and
Michael Hoffman. There was more, however, at stake than the selection
of two senators; for the President would probably choose a member of
his Cabinet from the stronger faction; and to have time to recruit
their strength, the programme of the Radicals included an adjournment
of the caucus after nominating candidates for the unexpired terms of
Wright and Tallmadge. This would possibly give them control of the
full six years' term to begin on the 4th of the following March. A
majority of the caucus, however, now completely under the influence of
Edwin Croswell and Horatio Seymour, concluded to do one thing at a
time, and on the first ballot Dix was nominated for Wright's place,
giving him a term of four years. The second ballot named Dickinson for
the remaining month of Tallmadge's term. Then came the climax--the
motion to adjourn. Instantly the air was thick with suggestions.
Coaxing and bullying held the boards. All sorts of proposals came and
vanished with the breath that floated them; and, though the hour
approached midnight, a Conservative majority insisted upon finishing
the business. The election of Dix for a term of four years, they said,
had given the Radicals fair representation. Still, the latter
clamoured for an adjournment. But the Conservatives, inexorable,
demanded a third ballot, and it gave Dickinson fifty-four out of
ninety-three members present. When the usual motion to make the
nomination unanimous was bitterly opposed, Horatio Seymour took the
floor, and with the moving charm and power of his voice, with temper
unbroken, he made a fervid appeal for harmony. But bitterness ruled
the midnight hour; unanimity still lacked thirty-nine votes. As the
Radicals passed out into the frosty air, breaking the stillness with
their expletives, the voice of the tempter suggested a union with the
Whigs for the election of Samuel Young. There was abundant precedent
to support the plan. Bailey had bolted Woodworth's nomination; German
had defeated Thompson; and, in 1820, Rufus King had triumphed over
Samuel Young. But these were the tactics of DeWitt Clinton. In 1845,
the men who aspired to office, the men with a past and the men who
looked for a future, had no words of approval for such methods; and
before the Whigs heard of the scheme, Samuel Young had stamped it to
death.

[Footnote 350: "On that occasion the feud between the two sections of
the party was disclosed in all