own, too, that Chase's strength had increased in other delegations.
Eleven Ohio delegates favoured him as their second choice, while
Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Georgia, and Wisconsin could be
depended upon. Indeed, it was in the air that the Chief Justice would
be nominated. When the convention opened, however, a letter several
days old was read from Pendleton withdrawing from the contest. This
quickly pushed Hendricks to 107. On the twenty-first ballot he rose to
132 and Hancock fell off to 135-1/2, while four votes for Chase, given
by Massachusetts, called out hisses[1172] as well as applause,
indicating that the ambitious Justice was not entirely _persona grata_
to all of the Westerners. To the confused delegates, worn out with
loss of sleep and the intense heat, the situation did not excite hopes
of an early settlement. New York could not name Chase since
Pendleton's withdrawal had strengthened Hendricks, while the
nomination of a conservative Union soldier like Hancock, so soon after
the close of the war, would inevitably exasperate the more radical
element of the party. Thus it looked as if the motion to adjourn to
meet at St. Louis in September presented the only escape. Pending a
roll-call, however, this motion was declared out of order, and the
voting continued until the Ohio delegation, having returned from a
conference, boldly proposed the name of Horatio Seymour. The
delegates, hushed into silence by the dominating desire to verify
rumours of an impending change, now gave vent to long, excited
cheering. "The folks were frantic," said an eye-witness; "the delegates
daft. All other enthusiasms were as babbling brooks to the eternal
thunder of Niagara. The whole mass was given over to acclaims that
cannot even be suggested in print."[1173]

[Footnote 1172: New York _World_, July 10, 1868.]

[Footnote 1173: New York _World_, July 10, 1868.]

Seymour had positively declined a score of times. As early as
November, 1867, after the Democratic victories of that month, he had
addressed a letter to the _Union_, a Democratic paper of Oneida,
stating that for personal reasons which he need not give, he was not
and could not be a candidate. Other letters of similar purport had
frequently appeared in the press. To an intimate friend he spoke of
family griefs, domestic troubles, impaired health, and the
impossibility of an election. Besides, if chosen, he said, he would be
as powerless as Johnson, a situation th