ion comprised nearly one-half the convention,
the Committee on Credentials stood 12 to 2 in favour of Conkling. Of
course the famous president of Cornell University did not select this
committee. He simply followed custom and fathered the list of names
Cornell handed him.[1315] "But in blindly consenting to be thus used by
the State committee," wrote Greeley, "he became the instrument of such
an outrage as no respectable presiding officer of any prominent
deliberative body has ever committed."[1316]

[Footnote 1314: "Mr. White personally sought the votes of Fenton
members for the temporary chairmanship on the pledge that he would so
act as to promote harmony."--New York _Tribune_, October 21, 1871.]

[Footnote 1315: "I received the list of the convention committees from
the State committee with express assurance that the list represented
fairly the two wings of the party. I had no reason then, and have no
reason now, to believe that the State committee abused my
confidence."--White, _Autobiography_, Vol. 1, p. 166.]

[Footnote 1316: New York _Tribune_, September 29, 1871.]

To the Fenton faction this severe criticism of a presumably fair man
seemed justified after his jug-handle committee had made its
jug-handle report. It favoured seating all contesting delegates
outside of the City, admitted the Greeley delegates and their
opponents with the right to cast half of one vote, and recognised the
organisation established by the State committee as the regular and the
only one. By this time the dullest delegate understood the trend of
affairs. Indeed, dismissals and appointments in the civil service had
preceded the assembling of the convention until politicians understood
that the way to preferment opened only to those obedient to the new
dictator. Accordingly, on the next roll-call, the weak-kneed took
flight, the vote standing 202 to 116. Upon hearing the astounding
result a Fenton delegate exclaimed, "Blessed are they that expect
nothing, for they shall not be disappointed."[1317]

[Footnote 1317: New York _Tribune_, September 28, 1871.]

In discussing the resolution to abolish the Greeley committee the
question narrowed itself to members holding office under Tammany, the
Greeley organisation maintaining that it had simply inherited the
custom, not created it, while Cornell and his associates, having
"Hank" Smith in mind, declared it impossible to avoid the custom
without destroying the committee. To some of the Co