Dickinson until his leading friends had
committed themselves by a second choice; but, in speaking of the
matter to Thurlow Weed ten years afterward, Dickinson said that had it
come in time he would cheerfully have accepted it, adding that
whatever may have been his opinion in 1852, he now knew it would have
resulted in Marcy's nomination.

The disturbance among the New York delegates at Baltimore had its
influence at Syracuse when the Democratic state convention assembled
on September 1. Seymour was the leading candidate for governor, and
Dickinson opposed him with a bitterness born of a desire for revenge.
The night before the convention Seymour's chances were pronounced
desperate. Whatever disappointments had come at Baltimore were laid at
his door. Seymour made Cass' defeat possible; Seymour refused to help
Buchanan; Seymour was responsible for a dark horse; Seymour filled
Marcy's friends with hopes of ultimate victory, only to heighten their
disappointment in the end. All these allegations were merely founded
upon his steadfastness to Marcy, and he might have answered that
everything had been done with the approval of a majority of the New
York delegation. But Dickinson was no match for the Utica statesman.
Seymour's whole life had been a training for such a contest. As Roscoe
Conkling said of him many years later, he had sat at the feet of Edwin
Croswell and measured swords with Thurlow Weed. He was one of the men
who do not lose the character of good fighters because they are
excellent negotiators. Even the cool-headed and astute John Van Buren,
who joined Dickinson in his support of John P. Beekman of New York
City for governor, found that Seymour could cut deeply when he chose
to wield a blade.[414] Seymour, moreover, gave his friends great
satisfaction by the energy with which he entered the gubernatorial
contest. When the first ballot was announced he had 59 votes to
Beekman's 7, with only 64 necessary to a choice. On the second ballot,
the Utican had 78 and Beekman 3. This concluded the convention's
contest. Sanford E. Church was then renominated for lieutenant-governor,
and the Baltimore platform approved.

[Footnote 414: "Seymour was among the most effective and eloquent
platform orators in New York. Less electrical than John Van Buren, he
was more persuasive; less witty, he was more logical; less sarcastic,
he was more candid; less denunciatory of antagonists, he was more
convincing to opponents. These t