nce he spoke hard words to him,
say a syllable which he need regret, but his deathbed seemed hardly
less inaccessible than his life."--Mrs. James G. Blaine, _Letters_,
Vol. 2, p. 203. Dated, San Remo, May 1, 1888. Addressed to Walker
Blaine.]

CHAPTER XXXVI

CLEVELAND'S ENORMOUS MAJORITY

1881-2

While Conkling was being deposed, John Kelly, to whom responsibility
attached for Hancock's defeat, also suffered the penalty of selfish
leadership.[1772] Although his standard of official honesty had always
been as low as his standard of official responsibility, it never
aroused violent party opposition until his personal resentments
brought Democratic defeat. This classified him at once as a common
enemy. In vain did he protest as Tweed had done against being made a
"scape-goat." His sentence was political death, and as a first step
toward its execution, Mayor Cooper refused to reappoint him
comptroller, an office which he had held for four years. Republican
aldermen joined in confirming his successor. Similar treatment,
accorded his office-holding associates, stripped him of patronage
except in the office of register.

[Footnote 1772: "He wantonly sacrificed the Hancock ticket to his
unscrupulous quest of local power. The Democracy here and elsewhere
perfectly understand his perfidy, and they only await an opportunity
for a reckoning. They intend to punish him and make an example of him
as a warning to bolting renegades and traitors."--New York _Herald_,
November 5, 1880.]

Then his Democratic opponents proposed depriving him of control in
conventions, and having failed to reorganise him out of Tammany
(April, 1881), they founded the County Democracy. William C. Whitney,
corporation counsel, Hubert O. Thompson, the young commissioner of
public works, and other leaders of similar character, heading a
Committee of One Hundred, became its inspiration. Under the Tammany
system twenty-four men constituted the Committee on Organisation,
while a few persons at any Assembly primary might represent all the
votes of the district. The new organisation proposed to make its
Committee on Organisation consist of six hundred and seventy-eight
members and to place the control of all nominations in the hands of
the people. It was a catchy scheme and quickly became popular. To
carry it into effect a public enrolment was made of the Democratic
voters in each election district, who had an opportunity, by
registering their names