olitics in
1868, was placidly meditating at Deerfield, devoted to agricultural
and historical interests. Nor did his clamour cease after the bucolic
statesman had declared that if he must choose between a funeral and a
nomination he would take the first,[1713] since the mention of
Seymour's name always waked an audience into cheers. Later in the day
Amasa J. Parker, on taking the chair as president, artfully made use
of the same ruse to arouse interest.

[Footnote 1713: Letter to Dr. George L. Miller, New York _Tribune_,
June 21, 1880.]

It was not an enthusiastic convention. Many delegates had lost heart.
Kelly himself left the train unnoticed, and to some the blue badges,
exploiting the purpose of their presence, indicated a fool's errand.
In the previous September they had refused to support Robinson, and
having defeated him they now returned to the same hall to threaten
Tilden with similar treatment. This was their only mission.
Humiliation did not possess them, however, until John B. Haskin
reported that the regulars refused to recognise their existence. Then
John Kelly threw off his muzzle, and with the Celtic-English of a
Tammany brave exhibited a violent and revolutionary spirit. "Tilden
was elected by the votes of the people," said Kelly, "and he had not
sufficient courage after he was elected to go forward, as a brave man
should have gone forward, and said to the people of the country, 'I
have been elected by the votes of the people, and you see to it that I
am inaugurated.' Nothing of the like did Mr. Tilden."[1714]

[Footnote 1714: New York _Sun_, April 21, 1880.]

In other words, Kelly thought Tilden an unfit candidate because he did
not decide for himself that he had been elected and proceed to take
his seat at the cost of a tremendous civil convulsion. Perhaps it was
this policy more than Kelly's personality which had begun to alienate
Dorsheimer. One who had been brought up in the bosom of culture and
conservatism could have little confidence in such a man. The platform,
though bitter, avoided this revolutionary sentiment. It protested
against the total surrender of the party to one man, who has "cunning"
and "unknown resources of wealth," and who "attempts to forestall
public opinion, to preoccupy the situation, to overrule the majority,
and to force himself upon the party to its ruin." It declared that
"Tildenism is personalism, which is false to Democracy and dangerous
to the Republic," and it pr