eley frankly admitted that while he was not an aspirant
for office, he should never decline any duty which his political
friends saw fit to devolve upon him.[1361]

[Footnote 1358: New York _Tribune_, June 13, 1871.]

[Footnote 1359: Paine, _Life of Nast_, p. 162.]

[Footnote 1360: _Ibid._, p. 223.]

[Footnote 1361: New York _Tribune_, May 30, 1871.]

Nevertheless, the men whose earnest efforts had prepared the way for
the Liberal movement did not encourage Greeley's ambition. Especially
were his great newspaper associates dumb. A week before the convention
Bowles of the Springfield _Republican_ mentioned him with Sumner and
Trumbull as a proper person for the nomination, but Godkin of the
_Nation_, Halstead of the Cincinnati _Commercial_, and Horace White of
the Chicago _Tribune_ remained silent. The _Evening Post_ spoke of him
as "the simple-minded philanthropist, with his various scraps of
so-called principles."[1362] Jacob D. Cox, Stanley Matthews, and George
Hoadley, the conspicuous Liberal triumvirate of Ohio, repudiated his
candidacy, and Schurz, in his opening speech as president of the
convention, without mentioning names, plainly designated Adams as the
most suitable candidate and Greeley as the weakest.[1363]

[Footnote 1362: New York _Post_, May 2, 1872.]

[Footnote 1363: New York _Times_, May 3.]

The first New Yorker to appear at Cincinnati was Reuben E. Fenton,
followed by John Cochrane, Waldo M. Hutchins, Sinclair Tousey, and
other seceders from the Syracuse convention of 1871. These political
veterans, with the cunning practised at ward caucuses, quickly
organised the New York delegation in the interest of Greeley. On
motion of Cochrane, Hutchins became chairman of a committee to name
sixty-eight delegates, the people present being allowed to report two
delegates from their respective congressional districts. These tactics
became more offensive when the committee, instead of accepting the
delegates reported, arbitrarily assumed the right to substitute
several well-known friends of Greeley. Not content with this
advantage, the majority, on motion of Cochrane, adopted the unit rule,
thus silencing one-third of the delegation.[1364] Henry R. Selden,
whose reputation for fair dealing had preceded him, characterised this
performance as "a most infamous outrage," and upon hearing a protest
of the minority, presented by Theodore Bacon of Rochester, Schurz
denounced the proceeding "as extraordinary" an