nd as United States
attorney under Harrison and Tyler. He was now sixty years of age, a
fit opponent to the brilliant Brady, twenty-two years his junior. "But
for indolence," said Horace Greeley, "Hoffman might have been governor
or cabinet minister ere this. Everybody likes him and he always runs
ahead of his ticket."[434] There was also an earnest effort to secure
a place upon the ticket for Elbridge G. Spaulding of Buffalo. He had
been district attorney, city clerk, alderman, and mayor of his city.
In 1848 he went to the Assembly and in 1849 to Congress. He had
already disclosed the marked ability for finance that subsequently
characterised his public and business career, giving him the
distinguishing title of "father of the greenback." His friends now
wanted to make him comptroller, but when this place went to James M.
Cook of Saratoga, a thrifty banker and manufacturer, who had been
state treasurer, Spaulding accepted the latter office. In its
platform, the convention hailed with satisfaction the prospect of a
speedy completion of the canals under Whig management, and boasted
that the Democrats had at last been forced to accept the Whig policy,
"so necessary to the greatness and prosperity of the State."

[Footnote 434: New York _Tribune_, October 6, 1853.]

The success of the Whigs was inevitable. The secession of the Hards
could not operate otherwise than in a division of the Democratic vote;
but no one dreamed it would split the party in the middle. The Hards
had fought against the prestige of party regularity, the power of
patronage, the influence of Tammany, and the majority of the press,
while the removal of Bronson served notice upon office-holders that
those who favoured the Hards voluntarily mounted a guillotine. "Heads
of this class," said Greeley, "rolled as recklessly as pumpkins from a
harvest wagon."[435] Yet the Softs led the Hards by an average
majority of only 312. It was a tremendous surprise at Washington. A
cartoon represented Pierce and Marcy as Louis XVI and his minister, on
the memorable 10th of August. "Why, this is revolt!" said the amazed
King. "No, sire," responded the minister, "it is Revolution."

[Footnote 435: New York _Tribune_, October 8, 1853.]

The Whigs polled 162,000 votes, electing their state officers by an
average plurality of 66,000 and carrying the Legislature by a majority
of forty-eight on joint ballot. Yet Ruggles and Denio, whose names
appeared upon the ticket of ea