political committee, he asked Jay Gould, president of
the Erie company, for a campaign contribution, and was refused for the
reason that he had already given $20,000 for Fenton. Harris and Gould
knew nothing of the transaction.[1218]

[Footnote 1214: New York _Commercial Advertiser_, January 2, 1869.]

[Footnote 1215: New York _Sun_, January 4.]

[Footnote 1216: New York _Tribune_, January 9.]

[Footnote 1217: New York _World_, January 6.]

[Footnote 1218: The _Nation_, March 18.]

Matthew Hale, chairman of the Senate investigating committee, did not
include this testimony in his report, and the startling and improbable
publication in the _Commercial Advertiser_ must have withered as the
sensation of a day, had not the belief obtained that the use of money
in senatorial contests played a prominent and important part. This
scandalous practice was modern. Until 1863 nothing had been heard of
the use of money in such contests. But what was then whispered, and
openly talked about in 1867 as Conkling testified, now became a common
topic of conversation. "It is conceded on all hands," said the
_Times_, editorially, "that money will decide the contest."[1219]

[Footnote 1219: New York _Times_, January 9, 1869.]

Talk of this kind appealed to the pessimist who believes a legislator
is always for sale, but Speaker Younglove, an assemblyman of long
experience, knowing that good committee appointments were more potent
than other influences, tactfully withheld the announcement of his
committees. Such a proceeding had never before occurred in the history
of the State, and twelve years later, when George H. Sharpe resorted
to the same tactics, William B. Woodin declared that it made Younglove
"a political corpse."[1220] Nevertheless, Morgan soon understood that
chairmanships and assignments on great committees were vastly more
attractive than anything he had to offer, and on January 16 (1869) the
first ballot of the caucus gave Fenton 52 votes to 40 for Morgan. A
month later, Richard M. Blatchford, then a justice of the United
States Supreme Court, wrote Thurlow Weed: "Morgan loses his election
because, you being sick, his backbone was missing."[1221]

[Footnote 1220: New York _Tribune_, January 13, 1881.]

[Footnote 1221: T.W. Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p. 462.]

CHAPTER XVII

TWEED CONTROLS THE STATE

1869-70

William M. Tweed had become a State senator in 1867. At this time he
held seventeen c