efeat of his party in 1875. The Union League Club, a body of earnest
Republicans and generous campaign givers, declared for pure government
and a reforming Executive. Several county conventions voiced a protest
against pledged delegations, and _Harper's Weekly_, in order to divide
Republicans more sharply into Conkling and anti-Conkling advocates,
suggested, in a series of aggressive editorials, that a reform
Democrat might be preferable to a Republican who represented the low
tone of political honour and morality which exposed itself in official
life. On the assembling of the State convention (March 22) to select
delegates to Cincinnati, Curtis opened the way wider for a determined
struggle. "The unceasing disposition of the officers and agents of the
Administration to prostitute the party organisations relentlessly and
at all costs to personal ends," he said, "has everywhere aroused the
apprehension of the friends of free government, and has startled and
alarmed the honest masses of the Republican party."[1487] This shot
fired across the bow of the organisation brought its head into the
wind.

[Footnote 1487: New York _Tribune_, March 23, 1876.]

The Conkling managers had secured a majority of the delegates, whose
desire to advertise an undivided sentiment for the Senator in New York
manifested itself by a willingness to yield in the interest of
harmony. Finally, their resolution to instruct the delegation to vote
as a unit took the more modest form of simply presenting "Roscoe
Conkling as our choice for the nomination of President." Curtis,
refusing his assent, moved a substitute that left the selection of a
candidate to the patriotic wisdom of the National convention "in full
confidence that it will present the name of some tried and true
Republican whose character and career are the pledge of a pure,
economical, and vigorous administration of the government." This was
an issue--not a compromise. It practically put Conkling out of the
race, and after its presentation nothing remained to be done except to
call the roll. At its completion the startling discovery was made that
of the 432 delegates present only 363 had answered, and that of these
113 had boldly stood with Curtis. Equally impressive, too, was the
silence of the 69 who refrained from voting. Thus it appeared that,
after the whole office-holding power had worked for weeks to secure
delegates, only 33 more than a majority favoured even the presentation
of