ntion on the question of a
platform. This phase of the case left Richmond absolutely helpless.
The secession of the cotton States might weaken Douglas, but it could
in nowise aid the chances of a compromise candidate, since the latter,
if nominated, must rely upon a large portion of the Douglas vote.

But Dean Richmond did not lose sight of his ultimate purpose. The
secession left the convention with 253 out of 304 votes; and a motion
requiring a candidate to obtain two-thirds of the original number
became a test of devotion to Douglas, who hoped to get two-thirds of
the remaining votes, but who could not, under any circumstances,
receive two-thirds of the original number. As New York's vote was now
decisive, it put the responsibility directly upon Richmond. It was his
opportunity to help or to break Douglas. The claim that precedent
required two-thirds of the electoral vote to nominate was rejected by
Stuart as not having the sanction of logic. "Two-thirds of the vote
given in this convention" was the language of the rule, he argued, and
it could not mean two-thirds of all the votes originally in the
convention. Cushing admitted that a rigid construction of the rule
seemed to refer to the votes cast on the ballot in this convention,
but "the chair is not of the opinion," he said, "that the words of the
rule apply to the votes cast for the candidate, but to two-thirds of
all the votes to be cast by the convention." This ruling in nowise
influenced the solid delegations of Douglas' devoted followers from
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota; and
if Richmond had been as loyal in his support, it was reasoned, New
York would have followed the Northwestern States. But Cushing's ruling
afforded Richmond a technical peg upon which to hang a reason for not
deliberately and decisively cutting off the Empire State from the
possibilities of a presidential nomination, and, apparently without
any scruples whatever, he decided that the nominee must receive the
equivalent of two-thirds of the electoral college.[529] After that
vote one can no more think of Richmond or the majority of his
delegation as inspired with devoted loyalty to Douglas. One delegate
declared that it sounded like clods falling upon the Little Giant's
coffin.[530]

[Footnote 529: "The drill of the New York delegation and its united
vote created a murmur of applause at its steady and commanding
front."--New York _Tribune_, June 19, 18