ballot.

CHAPTER XVI

INFLUENCE OF MONEY IN SENATORIAL ELECTIONS

1869

The election of a legislative majority in 1868 plunged the Republicans
into a fierce contest over the choice of a successor to Edwin D.
Morgan, whose term in the United States Senate ended on March 4. In
bitterness it resembled the historic battle between Weed and Greeley
in 1861. Morgan had made several mistakes. His support of Johnson
during the first year of the latter's Administration discredited him,
and although he diligently laboured to avoid all remembrance of it,
the patronage which the President freely gave had continued to
identify him with the Johnsonised federal officials. To overcome this
distrust he presented letters from Sumner and Wade, testifying to his
loyalty to the more radical element of the party.[1211] A revival of
the story of his opposition to Wadsworth in 1862 also embarrassed him.
He had overcome it when first elected to the Senate by the sustaining
hand of Thurlow Weed, whose position in the management of the party
was strengthened by Wadsworth's defeat; but now Weed was absent, and
to aid in meeting the ugly charges which rendered his way devious and
difficult, Morgan had recourse to Edwin M. Stanton, who wrote that
Wadsworth, distinguishing the Senator from his betrayers, repeatedly
spoke of him as a true friend and faithful supporter.[1212]

[Footnote 1211: New York _Tribune_, January 13 and 18, 1869.]

[Footnote 1212: New York _Times_, January 12, 1869.]

Morgan's strength, though of a negative kind, had its head concealed
under the coils of Conkling's position. It was manifest that the
latter's admirers were combining to depose Reuben E. Fenton, Morgan's
chief competitor for the senatorial toga. Chester A. Arthur, looking
into the future, had already recognised the need of a new alignment,
and the young Senator evidenced the qualities that appealed to him.
There was a common impression that if Morgan were re-elected, he would
yield to the greater gifts of Conkling and the purpose, now so
apparent, was to crush Fenton and make Conkling the head of an
organisation which should include both Senators. John A. Griswold
understood this and declined to embarrass Morgan by entering the race.

Fenton at this time was at the height of his power. His lieutenants,
headed by Waldo M. Hutchins, the distributor of his patronage,
excelled in the gifts of strategy, which had been illustrated in the
election of Trum