2: Wilson received 364-1/2 votes to 321-1/2 for Colfax of
Indiana, who had declared his intention to retire from public life.
When, later, he changed his mind, Wilson possessed the advantage.]

At their State convention, held in Utica on August 21, Republicans
felt no fear of factional feuds since the aggressive Fenton leaders
had passed into the Liberal camp. But reasons for alarm existed. The
election in 1871, carried by the inspiration of a great popular
uprising in the interest of reform, had given them control of the
Legislature, and when it assembled honest men rejoiced, rogues
trembled, and Tweed failed to take his seat. The people expected the
shameless Erie ring and its legislation to be wiped out, corrupt
judges to be impeached, a new charter for New York City created, the
purity of the ballot-box better protected, canal management reformed,
and a variety of changes in criminal practice. But it proved timid and
dilatory. At the end of the session the Tweed charter still governed,
the machinery of the courts remained unchanged, and reforms in canal
management, in elections, and in the city government had been
sparingly granted. In cases of proven dishonesty its action was no
less disappointing. It allowed a faithless clerk of the Senate to
resign without punishment;[1383] it permitted the leaders of the
Tammany ring to continue in office; it decided that a man did not
disqualify himself for a seat in the Senate by taking bribes;[1384] and
it failed to attack the Erie ring until the reign of Jay Gould was
destroyed by the bold action of Daniel E. Sickles.[1385] Never did a
party more shamelessly fail in its duty. Even credit for the
impeachment of the Tweed judges belonged to Samuel J. Tilden. "That
was all Tilden's work, and no one's else," said Charles O'Conor. "He
went to the Legislature and forced the impeachment against every
imaginable obstacle, open and covert, political and personal."[1386]

[Footnote 1383: New York _Tribune_, February 15, 1872.]

[Footnote 1384: _Ibid._, April 11.]

[Footnote 1385: For narration of this _coup de main_, see Morgan Dix,
_Life of John A. Dix_, Vol. 2, pp. 163-167.]

[Footnote 1386: _The Century_, March, 1885, p. 734.]

Such a record did not inspire the party with confidence, and its
representatives looked for a head to its State ticket who could
overcome its shortcomings. Of the names canvassed a majority seemed
inclined to William H. Robertson of Westchester. He had