ferring to his campaign as "a rhetorical spree," called
him a "buffoon," a "political harlequin," a "repeater of mouldy
jokes,"[852] and in bitter terms denounced his "low comedy performance
at Tammany," his "double-shuffle dancing at Mozart Hall," his
possession of a letter "by dishonourable means for a dishonourable
purpose," and his wide-sweeping statements "which gentlemen over their
own signatures pronounced lies."[853] It was not a performance to be
proud of, and although Van Buren succeeded in stirring up the
advertising sensations which he craved, he did not escape without
wounds that left deep scars. "Prince John makes a statement," says the
_Herald_, "accusing Charles King of slandering the wife of Andrew
Jackson; King retorts by calling the Prince a liar; the poets of the
_Post_ take up the case and broadly hint that the Prince's private
history shows that he has not lived the life of a saint; the Prince
replies that he has half a mind to walk into the private antecedents
of Wadsworth, which, it is said, would disclose some scenes
exceedingly rich; while certain other Democrats, indignant at
Raymond's accusations of treason against Seymour, threaten to reveal
his individual history, hinting, by the way, that it would show him to
have been heretofore a follower of that fussy philosopher of the
twelfth century, Abelard--not in philosophy, however, but in
sentiment, romance, and some other things."[854]

[Footnote 852: New York _Tribune_, October 28, 1862.]

[Footnote 853: _Ibid._, October 30.]

[Footnote 854: New York _Herald_, October 29, 1862.]

Wherever Van Buren spoke Daniel S. Dickinson followed. His admirers,
the most extreme Radicals, cheered his speeches wildly, their fun
relieving the prosaic rigour of an issue that to one side seemed
forced by Northern treachery, to the other to threaten the gravest
peril to the country. It is difficult to exaggerate the tension. Party
violence ran high and the result seemed in doubt. Finally,
conservatives appealed to both candidates to retire in favour of John
A. Dix,[855] and on October 20 an organisation, styling itself the
Federal Union, notified the General that its central committee had
nominated him for governor, and that a State Convention, called to
meet at Cooper Institute on the 28th, would ratify the nomination. To
this summons, Dix, without declining a nomination, replied from
Maryland that he could not leave his duties "to be drawn into any
party s