d the richest" of the nearly thirty colleges in the State. Even the
_Times_, the great organ of the Conservatives, admitted that the
Governor's "executive control, in the main, has been a success."[1156]
Opposition to his promotion, however, presented well-defined lines. To
Thurlow Weed he represented the mismanagement which defeated the
party,[1157] and to Conkling he appealed only as one on whom to employ
with effect, when occasion offered, his remarkable resources of
sarcasm and rhetoric. The Governor understood this feeling, and to
avoid its influence delegates were instructed to vote for him as a
unit, while three hundred devoted friends went to Chicago. Daniel E.
Sickles became chairman of the delegation.

[Footnote 1156: New York _Times_, February 4, 1868.]

[Footnote 1157: T.W. Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p. 459.]

The Republican convention convened at Chicago on May 20, and amidst
throat-bursting cheers and salvos of artillery Ulysses S. Grant was
nominated for President by acclamation. For Vice-President a dozen
candidates were presented, including Henry Wilson of Massachusetts,
Reuben E. Fenton of New York, Benjamin Wade of Ohio, and Schuyler
Colfax of Indiana. Fenton's friends, finding the Northern States
pre-empted by other candidates, turned to the South, hoping to benefit
as Wade's strength receded. Here, however, it was manifest that Wilson
would become the Buckeye's residuary legatee. Fenton also suffered
from the over-zeal of friends. In seconding his nomination an Illinois
delegate encountered John A. Logan, who coolly remarked that Fenton
would get three votes and no more from his State. To recover prestige
after this blow Daniel E. Sickles, in a brief speech, deftly included
him with Morton of Indiana, Curtin of Pennsylvania, Andrew of
Massachusetts, and other great war governors. In this company Fenton,
who had served less than four months at the close of the war, seemed
out of place, and Sickles resumed his seat undisturbed by any
demonstration except by the faithful three hundred.[1158] Fenton's
vote, however, was more pronounced than the applause, although his
strength outside of New York came largely from the South, showing that
his popularity centred in a section whose representatives in National
Republican conventions have too often succumbed to influences other
than arguments.[1159]

[Footnote 1158: _Official Proceedings of the Convention_, p. 96.]

[Footnote 1159: BALLOTS