ining reading."--The
_Nation_, October 11, 1877.]

Distributed about the hall were William Purcell, DeWitt C. West,
George M. Beebe, John D. Townsend, and other Tammany talkers, who had
a special aptitude for knockdown personalities which the metropolitan
side of a Democratic convention never failed to understand. Their loud
voices, elementary arguments, and simple quotations neither strained
the ears nor puzzled the heads of the audience, while their jibes and
jokes, unmistakable in meaning, sounded familiar and friendly.
Townsend, a lawyer of some prominence and counsel for Kelly, was an
effective and somewhat overbearing speaker, who had the advantage of
being sure of everything, and as he poured out his eloquence in
language of unmeasured condemnation of Morrissey, he held attention if
he did not enlighten with distracting novelty.

Morrissey admitted he was wild in his youth, adding in a tone of
sincere penitence that if he could live his life over he would change
many things for which he was very sorry. "But no one, not even Tweed
who hates me," he exclaimed, pointing his finger across the aisle in
the direction of Kelly, "ever accused me of being a thief."
Morrissey's grammar was a failure. He clipped his words, repeated his
phrases, and lacked the poise of a public speaker, but his opponents
did not fail to understand what he meant. His eloquence was like that
of an Indian, its power being in its sententiousness, which probably
came from a limited vocabulary.

At the opening of the convention Robinson's forces had a clear
majority,[1592] but in the presence of superior generalship, which
forced a roll-call before the settlement of contests, Tammany and the
Canal ring, by a vote of 169 to 114, passed into control. To Tilden's
friends it came as the death knell of hope, while their opponents,
wild with delight, turned the convention into a jubilee. "This is the
first Democratic triumph in the Democratic party since 1873," said
Jarvis Lord of Monroe. "It lets in the old set."[1593]

[Footnote 1592: New York _Tribune_, October 4, 1877.]

[Footnote 1593: New York _Tribune_, October 4.

"The defeat of Bigelow and Fairchild will be the triumph of the
reactionists who think that the golden era of the State was in the
days before thieves were chastised and driven out of the Capital and
State House."--Albany _Argus_, October 4, 1877.]

The adoption of the Credentials Committee's report seated Tammany,
made Clarks