uccess in
politics. He had courage and tact, fascination and audacity, rare
skill on the platform, creditable associations, and marked literary
attainments. Moreover, he had given up a United States attorneyship to
follow Greeley.[1447] Not less helpful was the platform, drafted by
Seymour, which abounded in short, clear, compact statements, without
buncombe or the least equivocation. It demanded the payment of the
public debt in coin, the resumption of specie payment, taxation for
revenue only, local self-government, and State supervision of
corporations. It also denounced sumptuary laws and the third term.

[Footnote 1446: William Dorsheimer, 193; Weed, 155; Stephen T. Hoyt of
Allegany (Liberal), 34; Edward F. Jones of Broome (Liberal), 15.]

[Footnote 1447: He was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern
District of New York on March 28, 1867. His successor's commission was
dated March 23, 1871.--_State Department Records._

The ticket nominated was as follows: Governor, Samuel J. Tilden, New
York; Lieutenant-Governor, William Dorsheimer, Erie; Court of Appeals,
Theodore Miller, Columbia; Canal Commissioner, Adin Thayer,
Rensselaer; Prison Inspector, George Wagner, Yates.]

Although John Kelly aided in nominating Tilden, his desire for
anti-ring candidates did not extend to the metropolis. William F.
Havermeyer's sudden death in November made necessary the election of a
mayor, and Kelly, to keep up appearances, selected William H. Wickham,
his neighbour, an easy-going diamond merchant, whose membership on the
Committee of Seventy constituted his only claim to such
preferment.[1448] But here all semblance of reform disappeared. James
Hayes, charged with making half a million dollars during the Tweed
regime, became the candidate for register, and of fifteen persons
selected for aldermen nine belonged to the old Ring, two of whom were
under indictment for fraud.[1449] Evidently Warren did not betray
ignorance when he pronounced the new Tammany no better than the old.
The Republicans presented Salem H. Wales for mayor, while the
Germans, declining to act with Kelly, selected Oswald Ottendorfer, the
editor, a most able and upright citizen who had proven his fidelity to
the reform movement.

[Footnote 1448: "Wickham has no conception beyond making a pleasant
thing for himself and our friends out of the seat which he occupies."
Letter of Charles O'Conor.--Bigelow, _Life of Tilden_, Vol. 1, p.
245.]

[Footnote 1449: