ler turned over his
office to Andrew H. Green, thus assuring the protection of the records
which subsequently formed the basis of all civil and criminal actions.
Tilden's sagacity in procuring the opinion of Charles O'Conor also
secured the Mayor's acquiescence in Green's possession of the office,
while his patient investigation of the Broadway Bank accounts
discovered the judicial proofs that opened the prison doors.

[Footnote 1331: Tilden's Speech.--New York _Times_, November 3, 1871.]

[Footnote 1332: Tweed's Speech.--_Ibid._]

These were fatal blows to the Ring. The leading Democratic papers of
the interior, notably the Buffalo _Courier_ and Albany _Argus_, came
boldly out demanding the dismissal of the shameless robbers who were
disgracing the name and destroying the future of their party.
Moreover, Tilden, like an avenging angel, with all the skill and
knowledge of his kind, had united into one great reform party the four
Democratic organisations of the city, pledged to oppose Tammany.[1333]
This formidable combination, having complied with every requirement of
the State committee, selected delegates to the State convention. The
hearts of Tweed and his associates may well have sunk within them as
they studied this list. There were able lawyers like William E.
Curtis; powerful merchants like Havermeyer; influential editors like
Ottendorfer; solid business men like Schell; and determined members of
the Committee of Seventy like Roswell D. Hatch, who had been
conspicuous in tracking the thieves. But the name that must have shone
most formidably in the eyes of Tweed was that of Charles O'Conor. It
stood at the head of the list like a threatening cloud in the sky,
ready to bring ruin upon the Ring. The moral support of his great
legal fame, affirming the validity of Andrew H. Green's possession of
the comptroller's office, had intimidated O'Gorman, Tweed's
corporation counsel, and shattered the plot to forcibly eject Tilden's
faithful friend under colour of judicial process. Thus the reform
party seemed to be in the ascendant. With confidence Tilden expressed
the belief that the State convention would repudiate Tammany.[1334]

[Footnote 1333: The German Democratic General Committee, with 30,000
votes; the Democratic Union, with 27,000; the Ledwith party, with
10,000; and the Young Democracy, led by ex-Sheriff O'Brien. For five
years Mozart Hall, under Fernando Wood, had not placed a ticket in the
field.]

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