ink, damaged him a good deal," wrote
William Cullen Bryant, "and in this city there is one thing which has
damaged him still more. I mean the project of Thurlow Weed to give
charters for a set of city railways, for which those who receive them
are to furnish a fund of from four to six hundred thousand dollars, to
be expended for the Republican cause in the next presidential
election."[543] Such a scheme would be rebuked even in this day of
trust and corporation giving. People resented the transfer to
Washington of the peculiar state of things at Albany, and when James
S. Pike wrote of Seward's close connection with men who schemed for
public grants, it recalled his belief in the adage that "Money makes
the mare go." Allusion to Seward's "bad associates," as Bryant called
them, and to the connection between "Seward stock" and "New York
street railroads" had become frequent in the correspondence of leading
men, and now, when delegates could talk face to face in the
confidence of the party council chamber, these accusations made a
profound impression. The presence of Tom Hyer and his rough marchers
did not tend to eliminate these moral objections. "If you do not
nominate Seward, where will you get your money?" was their stock
argument.[544]

[Footnote 543: Parke Godwin, _Life of William Cullen Bryant_, Vol. 2,
p. 127.]

[Footnote 544: Horace Greeley, New York _Tribune_, May 22, 1860.]

Horace Greeley, sitting as a delegate from Oregon, stayed with the
friends of Bates and Lincoln at the Tremont Hotel. The announcement
startled the New Yorkers. He had visited Weed at Albany on his way to
Chicago, leaving the impression that he would support Seward,[545] but
once in the convention city his disaffection became quickly known. Of
all the members of the convention none attracted more attention, or
had greater influence with the New England and Western delegates. His
peculiar head and dress quickly identified him as he passed through
the hotel corridors from delegation to delegation, and whenever he
stopped to speak, an eager crowd of listeners heard his reasons why
Seward could not carry the doubtful States. He marshalled all the
facts and forgot no accusing rumour. His remarkable letter of 1854,
dissolving the firm of Weed, Seward, and Greeley, had not then been
published, leaving him in the position of a patriot and prophet who
opposed the Senator because he sincerely believed him a weak
candidate. "If we have ever demurre