vened at Syracuse each party
sought its strongest man for governor. The Hards and the Softs were
first in the field, meeting in separate conventions on July 30. After
inviting each other to join in a union meeting they reassembled as one
body, pledged to support the Cincinnati platform. It was not an
occasion for cheers. Consolidation was the only alternative, with
chances that the ultra pro-slavery platform meant larger losses if not
certain defeat. In this crisis Horatio Seymour assumed the leadership
that had been his in 1852, and that was not to be laid down for more
than a decade. Seymour was now in his prime--still under fifty years
of age. He had become a leader of energy and courage; and, although
destined for many years to lead a divided and often a defeated
organisation, he was ever after recognised as the most gifted and
notable member of his party. He was a typical Northern Democrat. He
had the virtues and foibles that belonged to that character in his
generation, the last of whom have now passed from the stage of public
action.

The effort to secure a Democratic nominee for governor required four
ballots. Addison Gardiner, David L. Seymour, Fernando Wood, and Amasa
J. Parker were the leading candidates. David Seymour had been a steady
supporter of the Hards. He belonged to the O'Conor type of
conservatives, rugged and stalwart, who seemed unmindful of the
changing conditions in the political growth of the country. At
Cincinnati, he opposed the admission of the Softs as an unjust and
utterly irrational disqualification of the Hards, who, he said, had
always stood firmly by party platforms and party nominations
regardless of personal convictions. Fernando Wood belonged to a
different type.[488] He had already developed those regrettable
qualities which gave him a most unsavoury reputation as mayor of New
York; but of the dangerous qualities that lay beneath the winning
surface of his gracious manner, men as yet knew nothing. Just now his
gubernatorial ambition, fed by dishonourable methods, found support in
a great host of noisy henchmen who demanded his nomination. Addison
Gardiner was the choice of the Softs. Gardiner had been elected
lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Silas Wright in 1844, and later
became an original member of the Court of Appeals, from which he
retired in 1855. He was a serious, simple-hearted, wise man, well
fitted for governor. But Horatio Seymour made up his mind that Parker,
al