ing
popularity. This office, however, plunged him at once into partisan
politics, and gave to his career an uncertain character, as if a turn
of chance would decide what path of political life he was next to
follow. Now, at the age of thirty-eight, Tammany proposed making him
governor.

But Hoffman represented neither the principles nor the purposes of the
Philadelphia convention. The success of that movement depended largely
upon the pre-eminent fitness of the men who led it. The question was,
would the State be safer in the hands of a well-known Democratic
statesman like Dix than in the control of Fenton and the Radicals? Dix
stood for everything honest and conservative. For more than three
decades his prudence had been indissolubly associated with the wise
discretion of William L. Marcy and Silas Wright, while Hoffman, the
exponent of unpurged Democracy, charged with promoting its welfare and
success, was the one man whom conservative Republicans wished to
avoid, and whom, in their forcible presentation of Dix, they were
driving out of the race.

Democratic leaders saw the situation with alarm. They had endorsed the
Philadelphia movement to get into power,--not to give it to Dix and
the Conservatives. The President's reconstruction policy, benefiting
their party in the South and thus strengthening it in national
elections, had been adopted with sincerity, but they did not seriously
propose to merge their organisation in the State with another, giving
it the reins and the whip. "The New York delegation to Philadelphia,"
said the _World_, "was appointed by a gathering of politicians at
Saratoga, who neither represented, had any authority to bind, nor made
any pretence of binding the Democratic organisation of the
State."[1085] Indeed, it was treated as a surprising revelation that
conservative Republicans and Dix Democrats should come to Albany with
such a notion. However, the Dix appeal, developing wonderful strength,
could not be reasoned with, and in their desperation the Democrats
sought an adjournment until the morrow. This the convention refused,
granting only a recess until four o'clock. In the meantime Dix's
chances strengthened. It was plain that his nomination, on lines
approved by Seward, meant a split in Republican ranks, and the
up-State delegates, fearing delay, stood for early action. Then came
the inevitable trick. On reassembling a motion to adjourn was voted
down three to one, but Sanford E. Church