its avowed purpose to rid the city of dishonest political tricksters,
the County Democracy made bedfellows of Tammany and Irving Hall, and
nominated Franklin Edson for mayor. This union was the more offensive
because in its accomplishment the Whitney organisation turned its back
upon Allan Campbell, its choice for governor, whom a Citizens'
Committee, with Republican support, afterwards selected for mayor.
Campbell as city-comptroller was familiar with municipal affairs, and
of the highest integrity, independence, and courage. His friends
naturally resented the indignity, and for ten days an effective
canvass deeply stirred New York.

Nevertheless, the Republican party was doomed. Managers beckoned hope
by frequent assertions, sometimes in the form of bulletins, that the
indignation was subsiding. Smyth and his State Committee disclaimed
any part in the wrong-doing by expressing, in the form of a
resolution, their "detestation of the forged proxy, and of all the
methods and purposes to which such wretched fraud and treachery
apply."[1803] Even the nominee for lieutenant-governor argued that he
was an honest man. But the people had their own opinion, and a count
of the votes showed that Folger, in spite of his pure and very useful
life, had been sacrificed,[1804] while Cleveland had a majority
greater than was ever known in a contested State election. It was so
astounding that Democrats themselves did not claim it, in the usual
sense, as a Democratic victory.[1805] Everybody recognised it as a
rebuke to Executive dictation and corrupt political methods. But no
one denied that Cleveland helped swell the majority. He became known
as the "Veto Mayor," and the history of his brief public life was
common knowledge. His professional career, unlike Tilden's, disclosed
no dark spots. He had been an honest lawyer as well as an upright
public official, and the people believed that his stubborn
independence and sturdy integrity would make him a real governor, the
enemy of rings and bosses, and the foe of avarice and revenge.

[Footnote 1803: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1882, p. 608.]

[Footnote 1804: "It will be two weeks to-morrow since I dined with
Judge Howe, the postmaster-general, going out to the table with him,
and here he is dead! Poor Arthur, he will find the Presidency more
gruesome with a favourite cabinet minister gone! If it were Folger
now, I suppose he would not care, for they really do not know what to
do with him.