the instructions after their election.
"They accepted both commissions and instructions," said the _Times_,
"with every protestation that they were bound by their sacred honour
to obey the voice of the people as expressed by the traditional and
accepted methods."[1678] On the other hand, the Blaine delegates relied
upon the decision of the last National Convention, which held that
where a State convention had instructed its delegation to vote as a
unit, each delegate had the right to vote for his individual
preference. "My selection as a delegate," said Woodin, "was the act of
the delegates representing my congressional district, and the State
convention has ratified and certified that act to the National
Convention. Our commissions secure the right to act, and our
conventions guarantee freedom of choice without restraint or
fetters."[1679]

[Footnote 1678: New York _Times_, May 8.]

[Footnote 1679: From speech made in the Senate on May 7.--New York
_Tribune_, May 8.]

Woodin was the most courageous if not the ablest opponent of Conkling
in the convention. He may not have been an organiser of the machine
type, but he was a born ruler of men. Robust, alert, florid, with
square forehead, heavy brows, and keen blue eyes, he looked determined
and fearless. His courage, however, was not the rashness of an
impetuous nature. It was rather the proud self-confidence of a rugged
character which obstacles roused to a higher combative energy. He was
not eloquent; not even ornate in diction. But his voice, his words,
and his delivery were all adequate. Besides, he possessed the
incomparable gift of reserved power. During his career of ten years in
the State Senate he was unquestionably the strongest man in the
Legislature and the designated as well as the real leader for more
than half a decade. He was not intolerant, seldom disclosing his
powers of sarcasm, or being betrayed, even when excited, into angry or
bitter words. Yet he was extremely resolute and tenacious, and must
have been the undisputed leader of the anti-Conkling forces save for
the pitch that many said defiled him. If he yielded it was not proven.
Nevertheless, it tended to mildew his influence.

It was evident from the speech of Woodin that the anti-Grant forces
had the reasonableness of the argument, but the acceptance of the
Utica instructions put delegates in a delicate position. To say that
Conkling had "tricked" them into a pledge which the convention had