d misrepresentation. No intelligent reader of the
_Tribune_ has for months been left in doubt of the fact that I deemed
the nomination of Governor Seward for President at this time unwise
and unsafe; and none can fail to understand that I did my best at
Chicago to prevent that nomination. My account of 'Last Week at
Chicago' is explicit on that point. True, I do not believe my
influence was so controlling as the defeated are disposed to represent
it, but this is not material to the issue. It is agreed that I did
what I could.

"It is not true--it is grossly untrue--that at Chicago I commended
myself to the confidence of delegates 'by professions of regard and
the most zealous friendship for Governor Seward, but presented defeat,
_even in New York_, as the inevitable result of his nomination.' The
very reverse of this is the truth. I made no professions before the
nomination, as I have uttered no lamentations since. It was the simple
duty of each delegate to do just whatever was best for the Republican
cause, regardless of personal considerations. And this is exactly what
I did.... As to New York, I think I was at least a hundred times asked
whether Governor Seward could carry this State;[572] and I am sure I
uniformly responded affirmatively, urging delegates to consider the
New York delegation the highest authority on that point as I was
strenuously urging that the delegations from Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois must be regarded as authority as to who
could and who could not carry their respective States.

[Footnote 572: "At Chicago, Seward encountered the opposition from his
own State of such powerful leaders as Greeley, Dudley Field, Bryant,
and Wadsworth. The first two were on the ground and very busy. The two
latter sent pungent letters that were circulated among the delegates
from the various States. The main point of the attack was that Seward
could not carry New York. Soon after the adjournment of the
convention, William Curtis Noyes, a delegate, told me that a careful
canvass of the New York delegation showed that nearly one-fourth of
its members believed it was extremely doubtful if Seward could obtain
a majority at the polls in that State."--H.B. Stanton, _Random
Recollections_, pp. 214-15. "Perhaps the main stumbling block over
which he fell in the convention was Thurlow Weed."--_Ibid._, p. 215.]

"Mr. Raymond proceeds to state that I had, 'in November, 1854,
privately but distinctly repu