bed "Scratchers." The party press
stigmatised them as traitors, and several journals refused to publish
their address even as an advertisement. So bitterly was Curtis
assailed that he thought it necessary to resign the chairmanship of
the Richmond County convention. Party wits also ridiculed him. Henry
Ward Beecher said, with irresistible humour, that scratching is good
for cutaneous affections. Martin I. Townsend declared that no
Republican lived in Troy who had any disease that required scratching.
Evarts called it "voting in the air." To all this Curtis replied that
the incessant fusillade proved his suggestion not so utterly
contemptible as it was alleged to be. "If the thing be a mosquito,
there is too much powder and ball wasted upon it."[1658]

[Footnote 1656: _Harper's Weekly_, October 4, 1879.]

[Footnote 1657: New York papers, October 10, 1879.]

[Footnote 1658: _Harper's Weekly_, November 8, 1879.]

Nevertheless, the speech of the Secretary of State cut deeply. Evarts
represented an Administration which had removed Cornell that "the
office may be properly and efficiently administered." Now, he endorsed
him for governor, ridiculed Republicans that opposed him, and pointed
unmistakably to Grant as the "strong man" who could best maintain the
power of the people.[1659] The _Nation_ spoke of Evarts' appearance as
"indecent."[1660] Curtis was not less severe. "Both his appearance and
his speech are excellent illustrations of the reason why the political
influence of so able and excellent a man is so slight. Mr. Evarts,
musing on the folly of voting in the air, may remember the arrow of
which the poet sings, which was shot into the air and found in the
heart of an oak. It is hearts of oak, not of bending reeds, that make
and save parties."[1661]

[Footnote 1659: Cooper Union speech, October 21.]

[Footnote 1660: October 23.]

[Footnote 1661: _Harper's Weekly_, November 8.]

Talk of a secret alliance between Tammany and the Cornell managers
began very early in the campaign. Perhaps the fulsome praise of John
Kelly in Republican journals, the constant support of John F. Smyth by
Tammany senators, and Kelly's avowed intention to defeat Robinson,
were sufficient to arouse suspicion. Conkling's sudden silence as to
the danger threatening free elections, of which he declaimed so warmly
in April, seemed to indicate undue satisfaction with existing
conditions. To several newspapers the action of two Republican pol