rer,
Wheeler H. Bristol, Tioga; Attorney-General, Marshall B. Champlain,
Allegany; Engineer, Van R. Richmond, Wayne; Canal Commissioner, George
W. Chapman; Prison Inspector, David B. McNeil, Cayuga.]

The convention was stunned. It became dizzy when he denied Tammany's
right to be regarded as the regular organisation, but his
proclamation, defiantly and clearly made, that hereafter he should
bolt its nominations even if the convention refused to impeach its
regularity, struck a trenchant blow that silenced rather than excited.
Such courage, displayed at such a critical moment, was sublime. An
organised revolt against an association which had for years been
accepted as regular by State conventions meant the sacrifice of a
majority and an invitation to certain defeat, yet he hurled the words
of defiance into the face of the convention with the energy of the Old
Guard when called upon to surrender at Waterloo. The course taken by
Tilden on this memorable occasion made his own career, and also a new
career for his party. From that hour he became the real leader of the
Democracy. Although more than a twelvemonth must pass before his voice
gave the word of command, his genius as a born master was recognised.

The attitude of the Reformers strengthened the Republicans, whose
distractions must otherwise have compassed their defeat. Murphyism and
Tweedism resembled each other so much that a contest against either
presented a well-defined issue of political morality. The greater
importance of the Tammany frauds, however, obscured all other issues.
To preserve their organisation in the up-State counties the Democrats
made creditable local nominations and professed support of the State
ticket, but in the city the entire voting population, irrespective of
former party alignments, divided into Tammany and anti-Tammany
factions. As the crusade progressed the details of the great crime,
becoming better understood, made Tammany's position intolerable. Every
respectable journal opposed it and every organisation crucified it. In
a double-page cartoon, startling in its conception and splendidly
picturesque, Nast represented the Tammany tiger, with glaring eyes and
distended jaws, tearing the vitals from the crushed and robbed city,
while Tweed and his associates sat enthroned.[1339] "Let's stop those
damned pictures," proposed Tweed when he saw it. "I don't care so much
what the papers write about me--my constituents can't read; but they