missioner, Daniel C. Spencer,
Livingston; Prison Inspector, Charles W. Trowbridge, Kings.]

The day's work, however, left bitter thoughts. Conkling's absence
exaggerated Arthur's poor generalship and George H. Sharpe's failure
to support Cornell. Sharpe was one of the organisation's cleverest
leaders, and his indifference to Cornell's interests left a jagged
wound that was not soon to heal. Moreover, it could not be concealed
that Morgan's nomination was a Pyrrhic victory. In fact, the
conventions at Cincinnati and Saratoga had thrown the Conkling machine
out of gear, and while the repair shop kept it running several years
longer, it was destined never again to make the speed it had formerly
attained.

CHAPTER XXVII

TILDEN ONE VOTE SHORT

1876

After the election in 1875 the eyes of the national Democracy turned
toward Tilden as its inevitable candidate for President. He had not
only beaten a Canal ring, strengthened by remnants of the old Tweed
ring, but he had carried the State against the energies of a fairly
united Republican party. Moreover, he had become, in the opinion of
his friends, the embodiment of administrative reform, although he
suffered the embarrassment of a statesman who is suspected, rightly or
wrongly, of a willingness to purchase reform at any price.[1503] To
prove his right to be transferred from Albany to Washington he now
made his message to the Legislature a treatise upon national affairs.

[Footnote 1503: Tilden's policy of pardoning members of the Tweed ring
had become intolerable. "On an average about nine out of ten men who
were confessedly guilty of stealing were accepted as witnesses against
the other one man, until the time came when there was but one man
against whom any testimony could be used, and it was not considered
wise to try him. It was a shameful condition of affairs."--John D.
Townsend, _New York in Bondage_, p. 141.]

Dwelling at length upon the financiering of the Federal Government,
Tilden sought to account for the financial depression, and in pointing
to a remedy he advocated the prompt resumption of specie payment,
criticised the dread of imaginary evils, encouraged economy in
legislation, and analysed the federal system of taxation and
expenditure. Furthermore, he sought to cut loose from the discredited
past of his party, and in paying high tribute to the patriotism of the
South, he expressed the hope that its acceptance of the results of the
war might