"swing-around-the-circle;"
but the events that made men bitter and deeply in earnest were the
Memphis and New Orleans riots, in which one hundred and eighty negroes
were killed and only eleven of their assailants injured. To the North
this became an object-lesson, illustrating the insincerity of the
South's desire, expressed at Philadelphia, for reconciliation and
peace.

The Republican State convention, meeting at Syracuse on September 5,
echoed this sentiment. In the centre of the stage the Stars and
Stripes, gracefully festooned, formed a halo over the portrait of
Abraham Lincoln, while a Nast caricature of President Johnson betrayed
the contempt of the enthusiastic gathering. Weed and Raymond were
conspicuous by their absence. The Radicals made Charles H. Van Wyck
chairman, Lyman Tremaine president, George William Curtis chairman of
the committee on resolutions, and Horace Greeley the lion of the
convention. At the latter's appearance delegates leaped to their feet
and gave three rounds of vociferous cheers. The day's greatest
demonstration, however, occurred when the chairman, in his opening
speech, stigmatised the New York friends of the President.[1075] Van
Wyck prudently censored his bitterness from the press copy, but the
episode reflected the intense unpopularity of Seward, Weed, and
Raymond.

[Footnote 1075: New York _Tribune_, September 6, 1866.]

In the privacy of the club Seward's old-time champions had spoken of
"the decline of his abilities," "the loss of his wits," and "that
dry-rot of the mind's noble temper;" but now, in a crowded public
hall, they cheered any sentiment that charged a betrayal of trust and
the loss of principles. Of course Seward had not lost his principles,
nor betrayed his trust. He held the opinions then that he entertained
before the removal of the splints and bandages from the wounds
inflicted by the bowie-knife of the would-be assassin. He had been in
thorough accord with Lincoln's amnesty proclamation, issued in
December, 1863, as well as with his "Louisiana plan" of
reconstruction, and Johnson's proclamation and plan of reconstruction,
written under Seward's influence, did not differ materially. But
Seward's principles which rarely harmonised with those of the
Radicals, now became more conspicuous and sharply defined because of
the tactlessness and uncompromising spirit of Lincoln's successor.
Besides, he was held responsible for the President's follies. To a
convention