Kelly, Indiana voted a solid
No. Nine other States, including Kentucky, Louisiana, and North
Carolina, did likewise. Indeed, nearly two-thirds of the Southern
delegates ranged themselves against the Boss. To add to the public
proof of Kelly's weakness New York asked to be excused from
voting.[1725]

[Footnote 1725: The vote stood, without New York, 205 to 457 in favor
of rejecting the Shakespeare Hall delegation. With New York it would
have been thirty-nine more than a two-thirds majority.]

Nevertheless, Kelly had his friends. They were not as strong in
numbers or in voice as those who cheered Conkling at Chicago, but in
the absence of a master-mind the galleries seized upon the Tammany
leader and cheered whenever he appeared. To give greater spectacular
effect to his first greeting, Wade Hampton of South Carolina got upon
his crutches and stumped down the aisle to shake him solemnly by the
hand. Kelly, however, did not reach the culminating point of his
picturesque role until Hancock's nomination. After Randall, Hampton,
and others had spoken, cries for Kelly brought to the platform a
delegation of Tammany leaders walking arm in arm, with John Kelly,
Augustus Schell, Amasa J. Parker, and George C. Green in front. The
convention, save the New York delegation, leaped to its feet, and when
Kelly declared that hereafter whoever alluded to the differences which
had heretofore existed in the New York Democracy should be considered
a "traitor to his party," the great enthusiasm forced cheers from
one-half of the New York delegation. To make the love-feast complete,
John R. Fellows, finally responding to impatient calls from all parts
of the hall, also took the platform.

Fellows, still in his forties, had had a varied, perhaps a brilliant
career. Born in Troy he found his way in early boyhood to Arkansas,
joined the Confederate army, fought at Shiloh, escaped from Vicksburg,
surrendered at Port Hudson, and remained a prisoner of war until June,
1865. Returning to Arkansas he served in the State Senate, and in 1868
came to New York, where he secured an appointment in the office of the
District Attorney. Public attention became instantly fixed on the
attractive figure of the intrepid young assistant. He leaped into
renown. He soon became the principal Democratic speaker in the city,
and from the first followed the fortunes of the pale, eager form of
the distinguished reform Governor. At Cincinnati he represented the
conser