ts held on at
39. An assurance that the object of their labours would be reached
with the assistance of some of Harris' votes on the next ballot, made
the friends of Greeley jubilant. It was equally apparent to the
astonished followers of the grim manager who was smoking vehemently in
the executive chamber, that Evarts would be unable to weather another
ballot. A crisis, therefore, was inevitable, but it was the crisis for
which Weed had been waiting and watching, and without hesitation he
sent word to elect Harris.[660] This settled it. Greeley received 49,
Harris 60, with 6 scattering. Weed did not get all he wanted, but he
got revenge.

[Footnote 660: "Pale as ashes, Weed sat smoking a cigar within earshot
of the bustle in the crowded assembly room where the caucus sat.
Littlejohn stalked over the heads of the spectators and reported to
Weed. Unmindful of the fact that he had a cigar in his mouth, Weed
lighted another and put it in, then rose in great excitement and said
to Littlejohn, 'Tell the Evarts men to go right over to Harris--to
_Harris_--to HARRIS!' The order was given in the caucus. They wheeled
into line like Napoleon's Old Guard, and Harris was nominated."--H.B.
Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 218.]

There were reasons other than revenge, however, that induced men
vigorously opposed to secession to resent the candidacy of Horace
Greeley.[661] The editor of the _Tribune_ certainly did not want the
Southern States to secede, nor did he favour secession, as has often
been charged, but his peculiar treatment of the question immediately
after the November election gave the would-be secessionists comfort,
if it did not absolutely invite and encourage the South to believe in
the possibility of peaceable secession.

[Footnote 661: "It is quite possible that the _Tribune's_ articles of
November, 1860, cost Greeley the senatorship."--James F. Rhodes,
_History of the United States_, Vol. 3, p. 142.]

Greeley seems to have taken failure with apparent serenity. He
professed to regard it as the downfall of Weed rather than the defeat
of himself. His friends who knew of the antagonistic relations long
existing between Harris and Weed, said the _Tribune_, exultingly, were
willing to see Harris nominated, since "he would become an agent for
the accomplishment of their main purpose--the overthrow of the
dictatorship, and the establishment upon its ruins of the principle of
political independence in thought and act