ever the motive the coalition hissed when he declared his choice,
and then turned upon Churchill like a pack of sleuth-hounds, defeating
him upon the first ballot in spite of Conkling's assistance.

Tammany's threat to bolt Robinson's renomination may have encouraged
Cornell's nomination, since such truancy would aid his election. John
Kelly was _in extremis_. Tammany desertions and the election of Mayor
Cooper had shattered his control of the city. To add to his
discomfiture the Governor had removed Henry A. Gumbleton, charged with
taking monstrous fees as clerk of New York County, and appointed
Hubert O. Thompson in his place. Gumbleton was Kelly's pet; Thompson
was Cooper's lieutenant. Although the Governor sufficiently justified
his action, the exercise of this high executive function was generally
supposed to be only a move in the great Presidential game of 1880. His
failure to remove the Register, charged with similar misdoings,
strengthened the supposition that the Tilden camp fires were burning
brightly. But whatever the Governor's motive, Kelly accepted
Gumbleton's removal as an open declaration of war, and on September 6
(1879), five days before the Democratic State convention, Tammany's
committee on organisation secretly declared "that in case the
convention insists upon the renomination of Lucius Robinson for
governor, the Tammany delegation will leave in a body."[1649] In
preparation for this event an agent of Tammany hired Shakespeare Hall,
the only room left in Syracuse of sufficient size to accommodate a
bolting convention.[1650]

[Footnote 1649: New York _Star_, Sept. 17, 1879.]

[Footnote 1650: New York _Sun_, Sept. 12.]

The changes visible in the alignment of factions since the Democrats
had selected a candidate for governor in Syracuse reflected the fierce
struggle waged in the intervening five years. In 1874 Tweed was in
jail; Kelly, standing for Tilden, assailed Sanford E. Church as a
friend of the canal ring; Dorsheimer, thrust into the Democratic party
through the Greeley revolt, was harvesting honour in high office;
Bigelow, dominated by his admiration of a public servant who concealed
an unbridled ambition, gave character to the so-called reform; and
Charles S. Fairchild, soon to appreciate the ingratitude of party, was
building a reputation as the undismayed prosecutor of a predatory
ring. Now, Tweed was in his grave; Kelly had joined the canal ring in
sounding the praises of Church; Dors