a superior intelligence, and to
people who studied the ballots it plainly appeared that Samuel J.
Tilden had played the game.

Tilden had not sought prominence in the convention. He seldom spoke,
rarely figured in the meeting of delegates, and except to cast the
vote of the New York delegation did nothing to attract attention. But
the foresight exhibited in changing from Church to Hendricks on the
eighth ballot discovered a mind singularly skilled in controlling the
actions of men. The play appeared the more remarkable after the
revelation of its influence. New York did not want Hendricks. Besides,
up to that time, the Hoosier had received less than forty votes, his
own State refusing to unite in his support. Moreover, since adjoining
States save Michigan warmly advocated Pendleton, all sources of growth
seemed closed to him. Yet Tilden's guiding hand, with infallible
sagacity, placed New York's thirty-three votes on Indiana and
absolutely refused to move them. To dispose of Hendricks, Vallandigham
and other Ohio delegates offered to support Chase, and if the chairman
of the New York delegation had led the way, a formidable coalition
must have carried the convention for the Chief Justice. But the man
whose subtile, mysterious influence was already beginning to be
recognised as a controlling factor in the party desired Seymour, and
to force his nomination he met at Delmonico's, on the evening of the
fourth day, Allen G. Thurman, George E. Pugh, Washington McLean,
George W. McCook, and George W. Morgan, Ohio's most influential
delegates, and there arranged the _coup d'etat_ that succeeded so
admirably. This scheme remained a profound secret until the Ohio
delegation retired for consultation after the twenty-first ballot, so
that when Seymour was addressing the New York delegation in behalf of
Chase, Tilden knew of the pending master-stroke. "The artful Tilden,"
said Alexander Long, a well-known politician of the day, "is a
candidate for the United States Senate, and he thinks that with
Seymour the Democrats can carry both branches of the New York
Legislature."[1182]

[Footnote 1182: New York _Times_, September 4, 1868.]

Tilden disclaimed all instrumentality in bringing about the
nomination. "I had no agency," he wrote, "in getting Governor Seymour
into his present scrape."[1183] He likewise professed ignorance as to
what the convention would do. "I did not believe the event possible,"
he said, "unless Ohio demanded i