eed ring, must have gone down under
the disclosures of the District Attorney quite as easily as did
Laning. This hasty opinion, however, did not have the support of
truth. Hoffman's campaign in 1866 strengthened him with the people of
the up-counties. To them he had a value of his own. In his speeches he
had denounced wrongs and rebuked corruption, and his record as mayor
displayed no disposition to enrich himself at the expense of his
reputation. He was careful at least to observe surface proprieties.
Besides, at this time, Tammany had not been convicted of crime.
Vitriolic attacks upon the Tweed Ring were frequent, but they came
from men whom it had hurt. Even Greeley's historic philippic, as
famous for its style as for its deadly venom, came in revenge for
Tweed's supposed part in defeating him for Congress in 1866.[1192]

[Footnote 1192: New York _Tribune_, March 5.

The ticket nominated was as follows: Governor, John T. Hoffman, New
York; Lieutenant-Governor, Allen C. Beach, Jefferson; Canal
Commissioner, Oliver Bascom, Washington; Inspector of Prisons, David
B. McNeil, Cayuga; Clerk of Court of Appeals, Edward O. Perrin,
Queens.]

CHAPTER XV

THE STATE CARRIED BY FRAUD

1868

Horatio Seymour's nomination for President worried his Republican
opponents in New York. It was admitted that he would adorn the great
office, and that if elected he could act with more authority and
independence than Chief Justice Chase, since the latter must have been
regarded by Congress as a renegade and distrusted by Democrats as a
radical. It was agreed, also, that the purity of Seymour's life, his
character for honesty in financial matters, and the high social
position which he held, made him an especially dangerous adversary in
a State that usually dominated a national election. On the other hand,
his opponents recalled that whenever a candidate for governor he had
not only run behind his ticket, but had suffered defeat three out of
five times. It was suggested, too, that although his whole public life
had been identified with the politics of the Commonwealth, his name,
unlike that of Daniel D. Tompkins, DeWitt Clinton, or Silas Wright,
was associated with no important measure of State policy. To this
criticism Seymour's supporters justly replied that as governor, in
1853, he had boldly championed the great loan of ten and one-half
millions for the Erie Canal enlargement.

As usual national issues controlled the camp