, to join the Election District Committee. When
thus affiliated each one could vote for a member of the Committee on
Organisation and for delegates to nominating conventions. On October 7
(1881) Abram S. Hewitt, chairman of the Committee of One Hundred,
issued an address, declaring that the organisation had 26,500 enrolled
members, and had elected delegates to attend the State convention
which met at Albany on October 11.

Kelly did not attend the convention. On his way from the depot to the
hotel he found the air too chilly and the speech of people far from
complimentary. It was plain, also, that the crushing defeat of Hancock
had obliterated factional division in the up-State counties and that
Daniel E. Manning was in control. Nevertheless, Tammany's delegates,
without the slightest resemblance to penitents, claimed regularity.
The convention answered that the County Democracy appeared upon the
preliminary roll. To make its rebuff more emphatic Rufus W. Peckham,
in presenting the report on contested seats, briefly stated that the
committee, by a unanimous vote, found "the gentlemen now occupying
seats entitled to them by virtue of their regularity."[1773] Kelly's
conceit did not blind his penetration to the fact that for the
present, at least, he had reached his end.

[Footnote 1773: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1881, p. 655.

The State ticket was as follows: Secretary of State, William Purcell,
Monroe; Comptroller, George H. Lapham, Yates; Attorney-General,
Roswell A. Parmenter, Rensselaer; Treasurer, Robert A. Maxwell,
Genesee; Engineer, Thomas Evershed, Orleans; Judge, Court of Appeals,
Augustus Schoonmaker, Ulster.]

The Republican convention (October 5) proved not less harmonious.
Arthur had become President (September 19),[1774] Conkling did not
appear, and Warner Miller's surprising vote for temporary chairman
(298 to 190), sustaining the verdict of the Legislature in the
prolonged senatorial struggle, completely silenced the Stalwarts.
Conkling's name, presented as a contesting delegate from Oneida,
provoked no support, while Depew, whom the Senator a year earlier had
sneeringly referred to as a "creature of no influence," became
permanent chairman without opposition. In the selection of State
candidates few organization men found favour.[1775] Finally, in their
overconfidence the Independents carelessly postponed a resolution
reorganising the party in New York City to an hour when their rural
support had le