ore, and they now demanded that he become senator; but in the
interest of harmony, both finally withdrew in favour of David Dudley
Field.

The inspiration of an historic name did not yet belong to the Field
family. The projector of the Atlantic cable, the future justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States, and the eminent New York editor,
had not taken their places among the most gifted of the land, but
David Dudley's activity in the Free-soil contests had made him as
conspicuous a member of the new party as his celebrated Code of Civil
Procedure, passed by the Legislature of 1848, had distinguished him in
his profession. Promotion did not move his way, however. Thurlow Weed
insisted upon Preston King. It is likely the Albany editor had not
forgotten that Field, acting for George Opdyke, a millionaire client,
had sued him for libel, and that, although the jury disagreed, the
exciting trial had crowded the courtroom for nineteen days and cost
seventeen thousand dollars; but Weed did not appeal to Field's record,
since he claimed the agreement at the state convention included John
A. King for governor and Preston King for senator, and to avoid
controversy he adroitly consented to leave the matter to Republican
legislators of Democratic antecedents, who decided in favour of King.
This ended the contest, the caucus giving King 65 votes and Hunt 17.

In 1857, events gave the Republican party little encouragement in New
York. Public interest in Kansas had largely died out, and, although
the Dred Scott decision, holding inferentially that the Constitution
carried with it the right and power to hold slaves everywhere, had
startled the nation, leading press, pulpit, and public meetings to
denounce it as a blow at the rights of States and to the rights of
man, yet the Democrats carried the State in November, electing Gideon
J. Tucker secretary of state, Sanford E. Church comptroller, Lyman
Tremaine attorney-general, and Hiram Denio to the Court of Appeals. It
was not a decisive victory. The Know-Nothings, who held the balance of
power, involuntarily contributed a large portion of their strength to
the Democratic party, giving it an aggregate vote of 194,000 to
175,000 for the Republicans, and reducing the vote of James O. Putnam,
of Buffalo, the popular American candidate for secretary of state, to
less than 67,000, or one-half the number polled in the preceding year.

Other causes contributed to the apparent decrease of