ceived seventy-six votes
to forty-five for Fillmore. To balance the ticket, Hamilton Fish
became the candidate for lieutenant-governor. Fish represented the
eastern end of the State, the conservative wing of the party, and New
York City, where he was deservedly popular.

There were other parties in the field. The Abolitionists made
nominations, and the Native Americans put up Ogden Edwards, a Whig of
some prominence, who had served in the Assembly, in the constitutional
convention of 1821, and upon the Supreme bench. But it was the action
of the Anti-Renters, or national reformers as they were called, that
most seriously embarrassed the Whigs and the Democrats. The
Anti-Renters could scarcely be called a party, although they had grown
into a political organisation which held the balance of power in
several counties. Unlike the Abolitionists, however, they wanted
immediate results rather than sacrifices for principle, and their
support was deemed important if not absolutely conclusive. When the
little convention of less than thirty delegates met at Albany in
October, therefore, their ears listened for bids. They sought a pardon
for the men convicted in 1845 for murderous outrages perpetrated in
Delaware and Schoharie; and, although unsupported by proof, it was
afterward charged and never denied, that, either at the time of their
convention or subsequently before the election, Ira Harris produced a
letter from John Young in which the latter promised executive clemency
in the event of his election. However this may be, it is not unlikely
that Harris' relations with the Anti-Renters aided materially in
securing Young's indorsement, and it is a matter of record that soon
after Young's inauguration the murderers were pardoned, the Governor
justifying his action upon the ground that their offences were
political. The democratic Anti-Renters urged Silas Wright to give some
assurances that he, too, would issue a pardon; but the Cato of his
party, who never caressed or cajoled his political antagonists,
declined to give any intimation upon the subject. Thereupon, as if to
emphasise their dislike of Wright, the Anti-Rent delegates indorsed
John Young for governor and Addison Gardiner for lieutenant-governor.

In the midst of the campaign William C. Bouck received the federal
appointment of sub-treasurer in New York, under the act
re-establishing the independent treasury system. This office was one
of the most important in the gi