stem as an arbitrary
expression of bossism, chose a delegation representing each ward in
proportion to the number of its Republican voters. The delegation
accepted would control the convention, and although the Radicals
consented to the admission of both on equal terms, the Weed forces,
confident of their strength, refused the compromise. This set the
Radicals to work, and at the morning session, amidst the wildest
confusion and disorder, they elected Lyman Tremaine temporary chairman
by a majority of six over Chauncey M. Depew, the young secretary of
state, whose popularity had given the Conservatives an abnormal
strength.

In his speech the Chairman commented upon the death of James S.
Wadsworth, killed in the battle of the Wilderness on May 6, from whose
obsequies, held at Geneseo on the 21st, many delegates had just
returned. Tremaine believed that the soldier's blood would "lie heavy
on the souls of those pretended supporters of the government in its
hour of trial, whose cowardice and treachery contributed to his defeat
for governor."[948] In such a spirit he eulogised Wadsworth's
character and patriotism, declaring that if justice had been done him
by the Conservatives, he would now, instead of sleeping in his grave,
be governor of New York. Although spoken gently and with emotions of
sadness, these intolerably aggressive sentences, loudly applauded by
the Radicals, stirred the Weed delegates into whispered threats.[949]
But Tremaine did not rely upon words alone. He packed the committee on
contested seats, whose report, admitting both city delegations on
equal terms, was accepted by the enormous majority of 192 to 98,
revealing the fact that the great body of up-State Republicans
distrusted Thurlow Weed, whose proposition for peace did not include
the abolition of slavery. Other reasons, however, accounted for the
large majority. Tremaine, no longer trusting to the leadership of
Greeley,[950] marshalled the Radical forces with a skill learned in
the school of Seymour and Dean Richmond, and when his drilled cohorts
went into action the tumultuous and belligerent character of the
scene resembled the uproar familiar to one who had trained with
Tammany and fought with Mozart Hall. In concluding its work the
convention endorsed the President and selected sixty-six delegates,
headed by Raymond, Dickinson, Tremaine, and Preston King as
delegates-at-large.

[Footnote 948: New York _Tribune_, May 10, 1864.]

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