hn
C. Jacobs, a senator from Brooklyn, was made chairman; the fairness of
committee appointments allayed suspicion; a platform accepted by if
not inoffensive to all Democrats set forth the principles of the
party,[1653] and an avoidance of irritating statements characterised
the speeches placing Robinson's name in nomination.

[Footnote 1653: The platform, which dealt mainly with State issues,
repeated the fraud-cry of 1876, advocated hard money, and upheld the
Democratic programme in Congress.--See Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1879,
p. 680.]

Tammany's part was less cleverly played. Its effort centred in
breaking the solid Brooklyn delegation, and although with much tact it
presented Slocum as its candidate for governor, and cunningly
expressed confidence in Jacobs by proposing that he select the
Committee on Credentials, two Bowery orators, with a fierceness born
of hate, abused Robinson and pronounced Tilden "the biggest fraud of
the age."[1654] Then Dorsheimer took the floor. His purpose was to
capture the Kings and Albany delegations, and walking down the aisles
with stage strides he begged them, in a most impassioned manner, to
put themselves in Tammany's place, and to say whether, under like
circumstances, they would not adopt the same course. He did it very
adroitly. His eyes blazed, his choice words blended entreaty with
reasoning, and his manner indicated an earnestness that captivated if
it did not convert. His declaration, however, that Tammany would bolt
Robinson's renomination withered the effect of his rhetoric. Kelly had
insinuated as much, and Tammany had flouted it for two days; but
Dorsheimer's announcement was the first authoritative declaration, and
it hardened the hearts of men who repudiated such methods.

[Footnote 1654: See New York papers of September 12, 1879.]

Then the tricksters had their inning. Pending a motion that a
committee of one from each county be appointed to secure harmony, a
Saratoga delegate moved that John C. Jacobs be nominated for governor
by acclamation. This turned the convention into a pandemonium. In the
midst of the whirlwind of noise a Tammany reading clerk, putting the
motion, declared it carried. Similar tactics had won Horatio Seymour
the nomination for President in 1868, and for a time it looked as if
the Chair might profit by their repetition. Jacobs was a young man.
Ambition possessed and high office attracted him. But if a vision of
the governorship momentaril