olis, for the first time in many years, confined within
strict party lines.[1522]

[Footnote 1522: On March 15, several disaffected Democrats met at
Syracuse and organised a Greenback party, which opposed the resumption
of specie payment and favoured legal tender notes as the standard of
value. A second convention, held in New York City on June 1, selected
four delegates-at-large to the Democratic national convention, and a
third, meeting at Albany on September 26, nominated Richard M. Griffin
for governor. Other State nominations were made by the Prohibitionists,
Albert J. Groo being selected for governor.]

The campaign, although a prolonged and intensely exciting one,
developed no striking incidents. Democratic orators repeated Marble's
rhetorical arraignment of the Republican party, and the Democratic
press iterated and reiterated its symmetrical, burning sentences.
Marble's platform, besides being the most vitriolic, had the
distinction of being the longest in the history of national
conventions. Copies of it printed in half a dozen languages seemed to
spring up as plentifully as weeds in a wheatfield. Every cross-roads
in the State became a centre for its distribution. It pilloried
Grant's administration, giving in chronological order a list of his
unwise acts, the names and sins of his unfaithful appointees, and a
series of reasons why Tilden, the Reformer, could alone restore the
Republic to its pristine purity. It was a dangerous document because
history substantially affirmed its statement of facts, while the
rhythm of its periods and the attractiveness of its typography invited
the reader.[1523]

[Footnote 1523: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1876, pp. 785, 786.]

Conkling, because of ill-health, limited his activity in the canvass
to one address.[1524] It was calmer than usual, but it shone with
sparkles of sarcasm and bristled with covert allusions readily
understood. It was noticeable, too, that he made no reference to Hayes
or to Wheeler. Nevertheless, party associates from whom he had
radically differed pronounced it a model of partisan oratory and the
most conclusive review of the political situation. He admitted the
corruption indicated by Marble, attributing it chiefly to the war
which incited speculative passion in all the activities of life, its
ill consequences not being confined exclusively to public affairs. In
contrasting the management of the two parties, he disclosed under
Buchanan a loss on e