this nomination. I did not believe any circumstance would make
it possible except that Ohio, with whom we have been unfortunately
dividing our votes, demanded it. I was anxious that whenever we should
leave this convention there should be no heart-burnings, no jealousy,
no bitter disappointment; and I believe that in this result we have
lifted the convention far above every such consideration. And I
believe further that we have made the nomination most calculated to
give us success."[1177]

[Footnote 1176: New York _Times_, Sept. 4, 1868.]

[Footnote 1177: New York _World_, July 10.]

This did not then seem to be the opinion of many men outside the
convention. The nomination did not arouse even a simulated enthusiasm
upon the streets of the metropolis.[1178] In Washington Democratic
congressmen declared that but one weaker candidate was before the
convention,[1179] while dispatches from Philadelphia and Boston
represented "prominent Democrats disgusted at Seymour and the
artifices of his friends."[1180] Even Tammany, said the _Times_,
"quailed at the prospect of entering upon a canvass with a leader
covered with personal dishonour, as Seymour had said himself he would
be, if he should accept. Men everywhere admit that such a nomination,
conferred under such circumstances, was not only pregnant with
disaster, but if accepted stained the recipient with personal
infamy."[1181]

[Footnote 1178: New York _Times_, July 10.]

[Footnote 1179: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 1180: New York _Times_, July 10, 1868.]

[Footnote 1181: _Ibid._]

Not since the Democratic party began holding national conventions had
the tactics practised at New York been equaled. The convention of 1844
must always be ranked as a masterpiece of manipulation, but its
diplomacy was played to defeat Van Buren rather than nominate a
candidate. In 1852 circumstances combined to prevent the nomination of
the convention's first or second choice, and in the end, as a
ball-player at the bat earns first base through the errors of a
pitcher, Franklin Pierce benefited. But in 1868 nothing was gained by
errors. Although there was a chief candidate to defeat, it was not
done with a bludgeon as in 1844. Nor were delegates allowed to
stampede to a "dark horse" as in 1852. On the contrary, while the
leading candidate suffered slow strangulation, the most conspicuous
man in the party was pushed to the front with a sagacity and firmness
that made men obey the dictates of