he machine's,
since the influence of his control tended to transform political
action into such subserviency that men of spirit, though loving their
party, frequently held aloof from its service.

[Footnote 1425: Conkling, _Life of Conkling_, p. 656.]

[Footnote 1426: "He who does a thing by the agency of another, does it
himself."]

[Footnote 1427: The _Nation_, December 4, 1873.]

But Conkling used only the methods inherited with his leadership, and
to all appearances the grasp of the Republican party in New York in
January, 1873, was as firm as the most ardent partisan could desire.
This feeling controlled the State convention at Utica on September 24
to such a degree that its action resembled the partisan narrowness of
a ward caucus. Conkling did not attend, but his lieutenants, evidently
considering the party vote as a force which only needed exhortation or
intimidation to bring out, dropped Barlow, the attorney-general,
without the slightest regard to public sentiment, and visited the
penalty of party treason upon Thomas Raines, the State treasurer, for
his support of Greeley. From a party viewpoint perhaps Raines deserved
such treatment, but Francis C. Barlow's conduct of his office had been
characterised by the superb daring with which he met the dangers and
difficulties of many battlefields, making him the connecting link
between his party and the Reform movement. He had prosecuted the Erie
spoilers, and was then engaged in securing the punishment of the
Tammany ring. O'Conor spoke of his "austere integrity" in refusing to
accept millions as a compromise.[1428] Moreover it was conceded that
Barlow, with the possible exception of Tilden and O'Conor, knew more
of the canal frauds than any one in the State. The list of suits
brought by him showed the rottenness of the whole system of canal
management, while a recent letter, denouncing a leader of the Ring,
did not veil his hostility to its individual members.[1429] This
attack, boldly directed against a prominent Republican, aroused the
fierce opposition of the contract manipulators, whose influence
sufficed not only to defeat him, but to nominate the very man he had
accused.

[Footnote 1428: Bigelow, _Life of Tilden_, Vol. 1, p. 245.]

[Footnote 1429: This letter, dated September 14, 1874, is published in
nearly all the State papers of September 18. It is given in full in
the New York _Herald_ and _Times_.

Sanford E. Church, in a published interview, ch