ons given,
like the illness that kept him from facing the convention, were
largely imaginary. "That crowd saw how beautifully they were done,"
said Depew, then secretary of state at Albany, "while Dean Richmond's
language was never printed."[1012]

[Footnote 1011: "Seymour tried to get the nomination at Chicago by the
same tricky means he has secured it at Albany,--by declaring
beforehand that he would not be a candidate. He failed at Chicago
because of the overwhelming popularity of McClellan; he succeeded at
Albany by his friends seizing a moment to nominate him when the
convention was in a delirium of enthusiasm at his apparent
self-sacrifice in persisting to decline."--New York _Herald_
(editorial), September 17, 1864.]

[Footnote 1012: From Chauncey M. Depew's speech, March 23,
1901.--_Addresses of_, p. 105.

"The ticket nominated is as follows: Governor, Horatio Seymour of
Oneida; Lieutenant-Governor, David R. Floyd Jones of Queens; Canal
Commissioner, Jarvis Lord of Monroe; Prison Inspector, David B. McNeil
of Clinton; electors-at-large, William E. Kelley of Dutchess and
Washington Hunt of Niagara."--New York _Herald_, September 16, 1864.]

Scarcely had the convention adjourned before the brilliant
achievements in the Shenandoah valley thrilled the North from Maine to
California. On September 19, at the battle of Winchester, General
Sheridan defeated General Early, and on the 22d, at Fisher's Hill, put
him to flight. "Only darkness," Sheridan telegraphed Grant, "has saved
the whole of Early's army from total destruction. I do not think there
ever was an army so badly routed."[1013] These victories, recalling
those of Stonewall Jackson in 1862, appealed to the popular
imagination and quickly reassured the country. Besides, on September
21, the withdrawal of Fremont and Cochrane, the Cleveland candidates,
united Radical and Conservative in a vigorous campaign for Lincoln. A
private letter from Grant, who participated in the glory accorded
Sherman and Sheridan, told the true condition of the Confederacy. "The
rebels," he said, "have now in their ranks their last man. They have
robbed the cradle and the grave equally to get their present force.
Besides what they lose in frequent skirmishes and battles, they are
now losing, from desertions and other causes, at least one regiment
per day. With this drain upon them the end is not far distant, if we
only be true to ourselves."[1014]

[Footnote 1013: Official Recor