er, was a man of large and comprehensive vision, and, although
sometimes charged with insincerity, his rise in politics had not been
more rapid than his success in business. Before his majority he had
become the director of a bank, and at the age of thirty-eight he had
established himself in Buffalo as a prosperous dealer and shipper.
Then, he aided in consolidating seven corporations into the New York
Central Railroad--securing the necessary legislation for the
purpose--and in 1853 had become its vice president. Eleven years
later, and two years before his death, he became its president. In
1860, Dean Richmond was in his forty-seventh year, incapable of any
meanness, yet adroit, shrewd, and skilful, stating very perfectly the
judgment of a clear-headed and sound business man. As chairman of the
Democratic state committee, he was a somewhat rugged but an intensely
interesting personality, who had won deservedly by his work a foremost
place among the most influential national leaders of the party. His
opinion carried great weight, and, though he spoke seldom, his mind
moved rapidly by a very simple and direct path to correct
conclusions.[521]

[Footnote 520: "Many of New York's delegates were eminent men of
business, anxious for peace; others were adroit politicians, adept at
a trade and eager to hold the party together by any means."--James F.
Rhodes, _History of the United States_, Vol. 2, p. 474.]

[Footnote 521: "Though destitute of all literary furnishment, Richmond
carried on his broad shoulders one of the clearest heads in the ranks
of the Barnburners."--H.B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 183.]

Around Richmond were clustered August Belmont and Augustus Schell of
New York City, Peter Cagger and Erastus Corning of Albany, David L.
Seymour of Troy, Sanford E. Church of Albion, and a dozen others quite
as well known. Perhaps none of them equalled the powerful Richardson
of Illinois, who led the Douglas forces, or his brilliant lieutenant,
Charles E. Stuart of Michigan, whose directions and suggestions on the
floor of the convention, guided by an unerring knowledge of
parliamentary law, were regarded with something of dread even by Caleb
Cushing, the gifted president of the convention; but John Cochrane of
New York City, who had attended Democratic state and national
conventions for a quarter of a century, was quite able to represent
the Empire State to its advantage on the floor or elsewhere. He was a
man of