f it is
to be in all respects like the victory of last fall."[1228]

[Footnote 1226: New York _Tribune_, July 24, 1869.]

[Footnote 1227: _Ibid._, July 22.]

[Footnote 1228: _Ibid._, July 24, and 29.]

Local party leaders, resenting the _Tribune's_ declarations, packed
conventions, renominated the black-listed legislators, and spread such
demoralisation that George William Curtis, Thomas Hillhouse, and John
C. Robinson withdrew from the State ticket. As a punishment for his
course the State Committee, having little faith in the election of its
candidates, substituted Horace Greeley for comptroller in place of
Hillhouse.[1229] In accepting the nomination Greeley expressed the
hope that it never would be said of him that he asked for an office,
or declined an honourable service to which he was called.[1230]

[Footnote 1229: The Republican State convention, held at Syracuse on
September 30, 1869, nominated the following ticket: Secretary of
state, George William Curtis, Richmond; Comptroller Thomas Hillhouse,
Ontario; Treasurer, Thomas S. Chatfield, Tioga; Attorney-General,
Martin I. Townsend, Rensselaer; Engineer and Surveyor, John C.
Robinson, Broome; Canal Commissioner, Stephen F. Hoyt, Steuben; Prison
Inspector, Daniel D. Conover, New York; Court of Appeals, Lewis B.
Woodruff, New York; Charles Mason, Madison.

Franz Sigel, Horace Greeley, and William B. Taylor of Oneida were
subsequently substituted for Curtis, Hillhouse, and Robinson.]

[Footnote 1230: New York _Tribune_, October 11, 1869.]

If corruption had demoralised Republicans, fear of a repetition of the
Tweed frauds paralysed them. The plan of having counties telegraph the
votes needed to overcome an up-State majority could be worked again as
successfully as before, since the machinery existed and the men were
more dexterous. Besides, danger of legal punishment had disappeared.
The Union League Club had established nothing, the congressional
investigation had resulted in no one's arrest, and Matthew Hale's
committee had found existing law insufficient. Moreover, Hale had
reported that newspaper charges were based simply upon rumours
unsupported by proof.[1231]

[Footnote 1231: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1869, p. 486.]

Tweed understood all this, and his confidence whetted an ambition to
control the State as absolutely as he did the city. At the Syracuse
convention which assembled in September (1869) Tilden represented the
only influence that could