ded its
wire-pulling schemes to understand that it sought only its own
aggrandisement. It cared nothing for the Democratic party except as it
contributed to its selfish ends. This corrupt oligarchy, continued the
orator, his face flushed and his eyes flashing with anger, intends
through Hoffman to control the entire patronage of the State, and if
Seymour is elected it will grasp that of the whole country. Suppose
this offensive ring, with its unfinished courthouse and its thousand
other schemes of robbery and plunder, controls the political power of
the State and nation as it now dominates the metropolis, what honest
Democrat can charge corruption to the opposite party? Did men from the
interior of the State understand that Hoffman for governor means a
ring magnate for United Sates senator? That is the game, and if it
cannot be played by fair means, trickery and corruption will
accomplish it. Kings County, which understands the methods of this
clique, has not now and he hoped never would have anything in common
with it, and he warned the country members not to extend its wicked
sway.[1190]

[Footnote 1190: New York _Times_, _World_, and _Tribune_, September 3,
1868.]

Morris' speech anticipated the startling disclosures of 1871, and as
the orator raised his voice to a pitch that could easily be heard
throughout the hall, the up-State delegates became deeply interested
in his words. He did not deal in glittering generalities. He was a
prosecuting officer in a county adjoining Tammany, and when he
referred to the courthouse robbery he touched the spot that reeked
with corruption. The Ring winced, but remained speechless. Tweed and
his associate plunderers, who had spent three millions on the
courthouse and charged on their books an expenditure of eleven, had
no desire to stir up discussion on such a topic and be pilloried by a
cross-examination on the floor of the convention. A majority of the
delegates, however, convinced that Tammany must not control the
lieutenant-governor, nominated Allen C. Beach of Jefferson, giving him
77 votes to 47 for Laning.[1191]

[Footnote 1191: New York _World_, July 10, 1868.]

In the light of this result Murphy's friends seriously regretted his
hasty withdrawal from the contest. Morris intended arraigning Tammany
in his speech, nominating the Brooklyn Senator for governor, and the
latter's supporters believed that Hoffman, whom they recognised as the
personal representative of the Tw