ernan's nomination by acclamation.[1398] As further evidence of
harmony Kelly moved the appointment of Tilden as a State
committeeman-at-large, and subsequently, on the organisation of the
committee, continued him as its chairman.

[Footnote 1398: The first ballot resulted as follows: Kernan, 42-1/2;
Beach, 32; Schell, 24-1/2; Nelson, 10; Church, 11; Robinson, 6;
necessary to a choice, 64.

The ticket nominated by the two conventions was as follows: Governor,
Francis Kernan of Oneida, Democrat; Lieutenant-Governor, Chauncey M.
Depew of Westchester, Liberal; Canal Commissioner, John Hubbard of
Chenango, Democrat; Prison Inspector, Enos C. Brooks of Cattaraugus,
Liberal; 1 Congressman-at-large, Samuel S. Cox of New York, Democrat.]

Both conventions endorsed the Cincinnati platform, denounced the
Legislature for its failure to expel dishonest members, and charged
the National Administration with corruption and favoritism. As a
farewell to the Governor, the Democrats resolved that "the general
administration of John T. Hoffman meets the approbation of this
convention."[1399]

[Footnote 1399: New York _Tribune_, September 6, 1872.]

Hoffman's political career closed under circumstances that a more
heroic soul might have avoided. In his last message he had repudiated
the Ring. He had also made some atonement by authorising such suits
against it as Charles O'Conor might advise,[1400] and by vetoing the
Code Amendment Bill, devised by Cardozo and designed to confer
authority upon the judges to punish the press for attacking the Ring;
but the facts inspiring Nast's cartoon, which pictured him as the
Tammany wooden Indian on wheels, pushed and pulled by the Erie and
Tweed combination, had fixed the Governor in the popular mind as the
blind tool of rings. "I saw him in 1885," says Rhodes, "at the
Schweizerhof in Lucerne. Accompanied by his wife he was driving
through Switzerland; and in this hotel, full of his own countrymen, he
sat neglected, probably shunned by many. The light was gone from his
eyes, the vigour from his body, the confidence from his manner;
consciousness of failure brooded in their stead. He had not become
dissipated. Great opportunities missed; this was the memory that
racked him, body and spirit, and left him nerveless and decrepit,
inviting death."[1401] He died in Germany in 1888.

[Footnote 1400: Attorney-General Champlain had publicly announced his
purpose to authorise O'Conor to bring such suits b