earned him
an enviable reputation as a justice of New York's court of last
resort.

The factions differed little in men or in principle, and not at all
upon the question of slavery. Two conventions were, therefore,
absolutely unnecessary except upon the theory that the Hunkers, having
little to gain and nothing to lose, desired to embarrass the
administrations of Governor Seymour and President Pierce. Their
secession was certainly not prompted by fear of bullies. Neither
faction was a stranger to blows. If fear possessed the Hunkers, it
grew out of distrust of their supporters and of their numerical
strength; and, rather than be beaten, they preferred to follow the
example of the Barnburners in 1847, and of the Silver-Grays in 1850,
two precedents that destroyed party loyalty to gratify the spirit of
revenge.

It was at this time that the Hunkers were first called Hardshells or
"Hards," and the Barnburners Softshells or "Softs." These designations
meant that Dickinson and his followers never changed their principles,
and that the Marcy-Seymour coalition trimmed its sails to catch the
favouring breeze.

The action of the Hards in September, 1853, left the prestige of
regularity with the Softs. The latter also had the patronage of the
state and national administrations, the possession of Tammany, and the
support of a large majority of the newspapers. But the Hards still
treated the Softs as the real secessionists. "We have gotten rid of
the mischievous traitors," said Daniel S. Dickinson, in his Buffalo
speech of September 23, "and let us keep clear of them. It is true
they say we are all on one platform, but when did we get there? No
longer ago than last winter, when such resolutions as the platform now
embodies were introduced into the Assembly, a cholera patient could
not have scattered these very men more effectually."[428] Dickinson
was not blessed with John Van Buren's humour. A flash of wit rarely
enlivened his speeches, yet he delighted in attacking an adversary
even if compelled to do it with gloomy, dogged rhetoric. Of all the
Softs, however, Horatio Seymour was the one whom Dickinson hated. "It
was the first time a governor was ever found in their convention,"
continued the Binghamton statesman, "and I know it will be the last
time _that_ Governor will be guilty of such an impropriety. He
tempted them on with spoils in front, while the short boys of New York
pricked them up with bowie knives in the rear."