of wrong-doing, which became frequent
and noisy.[1020] John Van Buren called Lincoln a "twenty-second-rate
man," and declared the country "irretrievably gone" if McClellan was
defeated.[1021] Seymour did not charge Lincoln with personal
dishonesty, but he thought his administration had rendered itself a
partner in fraud and corruption. "I do not mean to say," he declared,
"that the Administration is to be condemned because, under
circumstances so unusual as those which have existed during this war,
bad men have taken advantage of the confusion in affairs to do wrong.
But I do complain that when these wrongs are done, the Government
deliberately passes laws that protect the doer, and thus make
wrong-doing its own act. Moreover, in an election like this, when the
Government is spending such an enormous amount of money, and the
liability to peculation is so great, the Administration that will say
to contractors, as has been openly said in circulars, 'You have had a
good contract, out of which you have made money, and we expect you to
use a part of that money to assist to replace us in power,' renders
itself a partner in fraud and corruption."[1022]

[Footnote 1019: New York _World_, September 22, 23, 1864.]

[Footnote 1020: "The _Journal of Commerce_ of yesterday indulges in a
general fling against the personal habits of the President and other
members of his family."--New York _Herald_, October 11, 1864.]

[Footnote 1021: _Ibid._, November 5.]

[Footnote 1022: _Public Record of Horatio Seymour_, p. 257.]

After Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana swung into line on October 10 no
doubt remained as to the general result. But Republican confidence in
New York was greatly shaken by the disclosure of a conspiracy to use
the soldier vote for fraudulent purposes. Under an amendment to the
Constitution, ratified in March, 1864, soldiers in the field were
allowed to vote, provided properly executed proxies were delivered to
election inspectors in their home districts within sixty days next
previous to the election, and to facilitate the transmission of such
proxies agents for the State were appointed at Baltimore, Washington,
and other points. Several of these agents, charged with forgery, were
arrested by the military authorities, one of whom confessed that
enough forged proxies had been forwarded from Washington "to fill a
dry-goods box." Of these spurious ballots several hundred were seized,
and two of the forgers committed t