tform, or repudiated it, the
resolution adopting it is not, in my opinion, entitled to any
confidence whatever. I adopt that ticket which was made by a
convention whose platform was adopted with sincerity and corresponds
with the political life and actions of its framers."[431]

[Footnote 431: New York _Tribune_, September 26, 1853.]

Bronson's letter was dated September 22, 1853; and in less than a
month he was removed from his post as collector. In resentment,
several county conventions immediately announced him as their
candidate for governor in 1854. O'Conor continued in office a little
longer, but eventually he resigned. "This proscriptive policy for
opinion's sake will greatly accelerate and aggravate the decomposition
of the Democratic party in this State," said the _Tribune_. "That
process was begun long since, but certain soft-headed quacks had
thought it possible, by some hocus pocus, to restore the old unity and
health."[432]

[Footnote 432: _Ibid._, October 24, 1853.]

The Whigs delayed their state convention until the 5th of October.
Washington Hunt, its chairman, made a strong plea for harmony, and in
the presence of almost certain victory, occasioned by a divided
Democracy, the delegates turned their attention to the work of making
nominations. It took three ballots to select a candidate for
attorney-general. Among the aspirants were Ogden Hoffman of New York
and Roscoe Conkling of Utica, then a young man of twenty-five, who
bore a name that was already familiar from an honourable parentage.
The people of Oneida had elected him district attorney as soon as he
gained his majority, and, in the intervening years, the successful
lawyer had rapidly proved himself a successful orator and politician
who would have to be reckoned with.[433]

[Footnote 433: "With advancing years Mr. Conkling's temperament
changed slightly. The exactions of legal life, and, to some extent,
the needs of his political experience, apparently estranged him from
the masses, although he was naturally one of the most approachable of
men."--Alfred R. Conkling, _The Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling_,
pp. 203, 204.]

But Conkling did not get the coveted attorney-generalship. The great
reputation of Ogden Hoffman, who has been styled "the Erskine of the
American bar," and who then stood in isolated splendour among the
orators of his party, gave him the right of way. Hoffman had served in
Congress during Van Buren's administration a