ndidate
for governor, I remarked that another aspirant had 'stolen his
thunder.' In other words, while he had shaken the temperance bush,
Myron H. Clark would catch the bird. I informed Mr. Greeley that
Know-Nothing or 'Choctaw' lodges had been secretly organised
throughout the State, by means of which many delegates for Mr. Clark
had been secured. Mr. Greeley saw that the 'slate' had been broken,
and cheerfully relinquished the idea of being nominated. But a few
days afterwards Mr. Greeley came to Albany, and said in an abrupt but
not unfriendly way, 'Is there any objection to my running for
lieutenant-governor?'... After a little more conversation, Mr. Greeley
became entirely satisfied that a nomination for lieutenant-governor
was not desirable, and left me in good spirits."--_Ibid._, Vol. 2, p.
226.]

Myron H. Clark, now in his forty-ninth year, belonged to the class of
men generally known as fanatics. He was a plain man of humble
pretensions and slender attainments. He was originally a cabinet-maker
and afterward a merchant. Then he became a reformer. He sympathised
with the Native Americans; he approved Seward's views upon slavery;
and he interested himself in the workingmen. But his hobby was
temperance. Its advocates made his home in Canandaigua their
headquarters, and during the temperance revival which swept over the
State in the early fifties, he aided in directing the movement. This
experience opened his way, in 1851, to the State Senate. Here he
displayed some of the legislative gifts that distinguished John Young.
He had patience and persistence; he could talk easily and well; and,
underneath his enthusiasm, lingered the shrewdness of a skilled
diplomat. When, at last, the Maine liquor bill, which he had
introduced and engineered, passed the Legislature, his name was a
household word throughout the State. Seymour's veto of the measure
strengthened Clark. People realised that a governor no less than a
legislature was needed to make laws, and, with the spirit of
reformers, the delegates demanded his nomination. To Weed it seemed
hazardous; but a majority of the convention, believing that Clark's
public career had been sagacious and upright, refused to take another.

Clark's nomination made the selection of a candidate for
lieutenant-governor more difficult. The prohibitionists were
satisfied; Greeley was not. In their anxiety, the delegates canvassed
several names without result. Finally, with great sudden