tly discriminated in favour of these
particular corporations and deprived the city of a large amount of
revenue.--Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1882, p. 600.]

[Footnote 1786: Albany _Evening Journal_, August 20, 1882.]

For these purely personal reasons an extraordinary situation was
created, revealing the methods of purse and patronage by which the
Gould-Conkling combine and the Administration got revenge. In their
efforts in Folger's behalf delegates were coerced, and efficient
officials at Albany, Brooklyn, Utica, and Ogdensburg, removed in the
middle of their terms, were replaced by partisans of the President.
Even after the patronage packed convention assembled the questionable
methods continued. Gould's agent hovered about Saratoga. To secure the
selection of a temporary chairman by the State committee, Stephen B.
French, an intimate of Arthur, presented a fraudulent proxy to
represent William H. Robertson.[1787] Had the convention known this
at the moment of voting swift defeat must have come to the
Administration, which barely escaped (251 to 243) by getting
postmasters into line.[1788]

[Footnote 1787: French presented a telegram to the secretary of the
State committee purporting to be sent from New York by Robertson. An
investigation made later showed that the message was written in Albany
on a sender's blank and had not been handled by the telegraph company.
French explained that he had wired Robertson for a proxy, and when
handed the message supposed it to be an answer. It was plain, however,
that the telegram to Robertson and his alleged answer were parts of
the same scheme.]

[Footnote 1788: New York _Times_, September 22; see also the _Nation_,
October 5; _Harper's Weekly_, October 14 and 21; New York _Sun_,
September 22; Albany _Evening Journal_, September 22.]

The candidacy of James W. Wadsworth, son of the famous general, and
recently state-comptroller, likewise became a decoy for Folger.
Wadsworth himself had no understanding with that wing. He was
absolutely independent and unpledged. But the Stalwarts, in districts
opposed to them, promoted the choice of such so-called Wadsworth
delegates as could be captured by the persuasive plea for harmony, and
under the stress of the second ballot, when Starin's and Robinson's
support broke to Cornell, some of them voted for Folger. This gave the
Administration's candidate eight more than the required number.[1789]

[Footnote 1789: Whole number of votes, 4