t of Tilden as due to fraud, applauded Hayes for
his Southern policy, declared for reapportionment of the State, and
bitterly assailed railroad subsidies. But it had no words of
unkindness for Tilden and Robinson. Indeed, with a most sublime
display of hypocrisy, Kelly pointed with pride to the fruits of their
administrations, made illustrious by canal reforms, economy, and the
relentless prosecution of profligate boards and swindling contractors,
and vied with the apostles of administrative reform in calling them
"fearless" and "honest," and in repudiating the suggestion of desiring
other directing spirits. His only issue involved candidates. Should it
be the old ticket or a new one? Should it be Bigelow for a third term,
or Beach, the choice of the ring? In opposing the old ticket several
delegates extended their hostility only to Bigelow; others included
the attorney-general. Only a few demanded an entire change. But
Tammany and the Canal ring tactfully combined these various elements
with a skill never before excelled in a State convention. Their
programme, sugar-coated with an alleged affection for Tilden, was
arranged to satisfy the whim of each delegate, while Robinson's
policy, heavily freighted with well doing, encountered the odium of a
third-term ticket.

Nevertheless, the Governor's control of the chairmanship assured him
victory unless Hill yielded too much. But Kelly was cunning and quick.
After accepting Hill without dissent, he introduced a resolution
providing that the convention select the committee on contested seats.
To appoint this committee was the prerogative of the chairman, and
Hill, following Cornell's bold ruling in 1871, could have refused to
put the motion. When he hesitated delegates sprang to their feet and
enthroned pandemonium.[1591] During the cyclone of epithets and
invective John Morrissey for the last time opposed John Kelly in a
State convention. His shattered health, which had already changed
every lineament of a face that successfully resisted the blows of
Yankee Sullivan and John C. Heenan, poorly equipped him for the
prolonged strain of such an encounter, but he threw his envenomed
adjectives with the skill of a quoit-pitcher.

[Footnote 1591: "How the Kelly faction got control of the Democratic
convention and used it for the supposed benefit of Kelly is hardly
worth trying to tell. A description of the intrigues of a parcel of
vulgar tricksters is neither edifying nor enterta