tance,[565] which
once seemed of iron, became as clay. Nevertheless, Richmond's control
of the New York delegation remained unbroken. The minority tried new
arguments, planned new combinations, and racked their brains for new
devices, but when Richmond finally gave up the hopeless and thankless
task of harmonising the Douglasites and seceders, a vote of 27 to 43
forced the minority of the delegation into submission by the screw of
the Syracuse unit rule, and New York finally sustained the majority
report.

[Footnote 563: "The Soft leaders still shiver on the brink of a
decision. But a new light broke on them yesterday, when they
discovered that, if they killed Douglas, his friends were able and
resolved to kill Seymour in turn."--New York _Tribune_ (editorial),
June 21. "The action of New York is still a subject of great doubt and
anxiety. As it goes so goes the party and the Union of course."--_Ibid._
(telegraphic report).]

[Footnote 564: "A dispatch from Douglas to Richmond was sent because a
letter containing similar suggestions to Richardson had been kept in
the latter's pocket. But Richmond suppressed the dispatch as
Richardson had suppressed the letter."--M. Halstead, _National
Political Conventions of 1860_, p. 195. "Richardson afterward
explained that the action of the Southerners had put it out of his
power to use Douglas' letter."--James F. Rhodes, _History of the
United States_, Vol. 2, p. 415.]

[Footnote 565: "It was asserted in Baltimore and believed in political
circles that New York offered to reconsider her vote on the Louisiana
case, and make up the convention out of the original materials, with
the exception of the Alabama delegation. It could not agree to admit
Yancey & Co. But the seceders and their friends would not hear to any
such proposition. They scorned all compromise."--M. Halstead,
_National Political Conventions of 1860_, p. 195. "Many were the
expedients devised to bring about harmony; but it was to attempt the
impossible. The Southerners were exacting, the delegates from the
Northwest bold and defiant."--James F. Rhodes, _History of the United
States_, Vol. 2, p. 474.]

After this, the convention became the theatre of a dramatic event
which made it, for the moment, the centre of interest to the political
world. The majority report seated the Douglas faction from Alabama and
Louisiana, and then excluded William L. Yancey, a representative
seceder, and let in Pierre Soule, a represen