nominee for secretary of state at the head of
the ticket; but in this instance the committee deemed it wise to
nominate for attorney-general first and give it to the man of first
importance. The nomination proved a popular hit. Instantly Syracuse
and the State were ablaze, and Republican as well as many Democratic
papers prophesied that it settled the result in November. The
convention professed to discard party lines and traditions, and its
sincerity, thus put early to the test, did much to magnify its work,
since with marked impartiality it placed upon its ticket two Hards,
two Softs, one American, and four Republicans.[799]

[Footnote 798: Dickinson's Ithaca speech, delivered the day after the
Democratic convention adjourned, is printed in full in the New York
_Tribune_ of September 10, 1861.]

[Footnote 799: The ticket was as follows: Attorney-general, Daniel S.
Dickinson of Broome; Secretary of State, Horatio Ballard of Cortland;
Comptroller, Lucius Robinson of Chemung; Treasurer, William B. Lewis
of Kings; Court of Appeals, William B. Wright, Sullivan; Canal
Commissioners, Franklin A. Alberger of Erie and Benjamin F. Bruce of
New York; State Engineer, William B. Taylor of Oneida; State Prison
Inspector, Abram B. Tappan of Westchester.]

Whenever the People's convention recessed delegates to the Republican
convention immediately took control. Indeed, so closely related were
the two assemblies that spectators at one became delegates to the
other. Weed did not attend the convention, but it adopted his
conciliatory policy. "The popular fiat has gone forth in opposition,
on the one hand, to secession and disunion, whether in the shape of
active rebellion, or its more insidious ally, advocacy of an
inglorious and dishonourable peace; and, on the other, to everything
that savors of abolition, or tends towards a violation of the
guarantees of slave property provided by the Constitution."[800]

[Footnote 800: New York _Herald_ (editorial), September 13, 1861.]

It cannot be said that the Democratic campaign opened under flattering
conditions. Loomis' resolution, known as the ninth or "secession"
plank, had led to serious difficulty. Men recognised that in time of
war more reserve was necessary in dealing with an Administration than
during a period of peace, for if the government's arm was paralysed it
could not stay the arm of the public enemy. This had been the position
of Laning, and it appealed strongly to Lyman T