It was now in the power of the County Democracy to
nominate Slocum. Manning approved it and Murphy had already given him
the Corning vote. But the County Democracy, inspired by men of
prescience and of iron nerve, went to Cleveland in a body, making the
hall resound with cheers. Had Tammany, the next delegation called,
followed suit, Kelly might have divided with his opponents the honour
of Cleveland's nomination. Instead, it practically voted as before.
But Albany, Rensselaer, and other counties, catching the tide at its
turn, threw the convention into a bedlam. Finally, when Kelly could
secure recognition, he changed Tammany's vote to Cleveland.

To the tally-clerks Cleveland's nomination by two majority was known
before the completion of the ballot. Yet upon the insistence of the
Slocum men, because of confusion in making changes, the convention
refused to receive the result and ordered another roll-call. This gave
Cleveland eighteen votes to spare.[1783]

[Footnote 1783: Whole number of votes, 385; necessary to a choice,
193. First ballot: Slocum, 98; Flower, 97; Cleveland, 66; Corning, 35;
Campbell, 37; Nelson, 26; Belmont, 12; Hutchins, 13. Second ballot:
Slocum, 123; Flower, 123; Cleveland, 71; Campbell, 33; Nelson, 15;
Belmont, 6; Hutchins, 13. Third ballot: Slocum, 156; Flower, 15;
Cleveland, 211.]

The result brought the Democrats into perfect accord for the first
time in many years. It had come without the exercise of illegitimate
influences or the incurrence of personal obligation. To no one in
particular did Cleveland owe his nomination. Besides, his success as a
politician, his character as a public official, and his enthusiastic
devotion to the clients whose causes he championed, challenged the
most careful scrutiny. He was then unmarried, forty-four years old,
tall, stoutly-built, with a large head, dark brown hair, clear keen
eyes, and a generous and kindly nature concealed under a slightly
brusque manner. His sturdy old-fashioned rectitude, and the just
conviction that by taste and adaptability for public life he had
peculiar qualifications for the great office of governor, commended
him to popular confidence. In Buffalo, where he had lived for a
quarter of a century, people knew him as a man without guile.

Two days before Cleveland's nomination (September 20), the Republicans
had selected Charles J. Folger, then secretary of the treasury. In
character for honesty and ability the two men were not