e 949: New York _Herald_, May 29.]

[Footnote 950: "Greeley received an almost unanimous call to lead the
party in the State and the first convention which he attended (1862)
bowed absolutely to his will. He thought he was a great political
leader, and he might have been if he had ever been sure of himself;
but he was one of the poorest judges of men, and in that way was often
deceived, often misled, and often led to change his opinions.... In
less than two years his power was gone."--From speech of Chauncey M.
Depew, April 4, 1902. _Addresses of_, November, 1896, to April, 1902,
pp. 238-239.]

The echo of the Syracuse contest reached the Cleveland convention,
which assembled on May 31. Of all the distinguished New Yorkers whose
names had advertised and given character to this movement John
Cochrane alone attended. Indeed, the picturesque speech of Cochrane,
as chairman, and the vehement letter of Lucius Robinson, advocating
the nomination of Grant, constituted the only attractive feature of
the proceedings. Cochrane and Robinson wanted a party in which they
could feel at home. To Cochrane the Republican party was "a medley of
trading, scurvy politicians, which never represented War
Democrats,"[951] while Robinson thought the country "had survived,
through three years of war, many bad mistakes of a weak Executive and
Cabinet, simply because the popular mind had been intensely fixed upon
the single purpose of suppressing rebellion."[952] Both resented the
Administration's infringement of individual rights. "Whoever attacks
them," said Cochrane, "wounds the vital parts of the Republic. Not
even the plea of necessity allows any one to trample upon them."[953]
The Cleveland convention, however, did not help these statesmen any
more than the nomination of John C. Fremont and John Cochrane, "the
two Johns from New York" as they were called, injured the
President.[954] When Lincoln heard that instead of the many thousands
expected only three or four hundred attended, he opened his Bible and
read: "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in
debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto
him; and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about
four hundred."[955]

[Footnote 951: Cochrane's speech at Cleveland. McPherson's _History of
the Rebellion_, p. 411.]

[Footnote 952: _Ibid._, p. 413.]

[Footnote 953: _Ibid._, p. 412.]

[Footnote 954: A singular mistake of the co