e real character
and fatal tendency of his associates had not been revealed to him.
Nevertheless, ambition seems to have blunted a strong, alert mind. The
appointment of Ingraham, Cardozo, and Barnard to the General Term of
the Supreme Court within the city of New York, if further evidence
were needed, revealed the Governor's subserviency. To avoid the Tweed
judges as well as interruption to the business of the Courts, the Bar
Association asked the Executive to designate outside judges. Tweed
understood the real object, and before the lawyers' committee,
consisting of Charles O'Conor, Joseph H. Choate, Henry Nicoll, William
H. Peckham, and William E. Curtis, could reach Albany, the Governor,
under telegraphic instructions from the Boss, appointed the notorious
trio. Such revelations of weakness plunged the _Evening Post_ and
other admirers into tribulation. "The moral of Hoffman's fall," said
the _Nation_, "is that respectable citizens must give up the notion
that good can be accomplished by patting anybody on the back who,
having got by accident or intrigue into high official position, treats
them to a few spasms of virtue and independence.... Had Hoffman held
out against the Erie Ring he would have had no chance of renomination,
all hope of the Presidency would be gone, and he would find himself
ostracised by his Democratic associates."[1240]

[Footnote 1240: The _Nation_, May 27, 1869.]

Hoffman knew this as well as the _Nation_, and his obedience made him
the favourite of the Democratic State convention which assembled at
Rochester on September 21, 1870. It was a Tweed body. When he nodded
the delegates became unanimous. Tilden called it to order and had his
pocket picked by a gentleman in attendance.[1241] "We hope he has a
realising sense of the company he keeps," said the _Nation_, "when he
opens conventions for Mr. Tweed, Mr. Hall, and Mr. Sweeny."[1242] A
week later it expressed the opinion that "Tilden's appearance ought to
be the last exhibition the country is to witness of the alliance of
decent men for any purpose with these wretched thieves and
swindlers."[1243] The plundering Boss denied so much as a hearing to
the Young Democracy whom Tilden encouraged, while their delegates,
without vote or voice or seat, witnessed the renomination of Hoffman
by acclamation, and saw the programme, drafted by Tweed, executed with
unanimity. Mighty was Tammany, and, mightier still, its Tweed! The
Rochester authorities u