first name was the same as the last name of the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Roger Wolcott. An unknown number of citizens intending to vote for Haile and Wolcott carelessly marked Haile and Wolcott Hamlin, so losing their vote for governor. Many instances of such confusion were reported, but so far as this lack of intelligence extended its effects were beyond remedy.

XXXIX

BIG SWING OF THE POLITICAL PENDULUM

IN 1892 President Harrison was to meet ex-President Cleveland at the polls again, this time to suffer defeat. In type they were of a kind, upright, stubborn, not magnetic. Strength of personality they had, but not winning ways. The chief subject of contention was the tariff, upon which President Cleveland staked all in 1887 and lost in the election of 1888. Appeal from the decision of that election four years after was to bring reversal of judgment in the great court of the people.

In the single ballot of the Republican convention held in Minneapolis beginning June 7, Harrison received 535 votes, Blaine 1829, William McKinley 182, Thomas B. Reed 4 and Robert T. Lincoln 1. Only Harrison and Blaine were formally brought before the convention. The unauthorized support given to McKinley evidenced growing strength with the party and foreshadowed his nomination in 1896. Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune, was made the candidate for vice-president. Like Greeley, he was to fail of election.

This convention brought the final humiliation of Mr. Blaine's political life. Mrs. Blaine and her sister, Gail Hamilton, the most brilliant and vitri

olic woman newspaper writer of her time, were not always discreet advisers of the "Plumed Knight”, as the statesman from Maine was called after Robert G. Ingersoll's laudation in the convention of 1876. Family support coming out of consuming loyalty has its perils. It easily passes into intolerance of all less friendly toward the object of worship. It was believed by Colonel McClure, who had great respect for Harrison, and knew the inside of many things, that Mr. Blaine's abrupt retirement from the cabinet three days before the opening of the national convention was precipitated because of Mrs. Blaine's resentment over fancied slights from the White House. It may have been refusal to make Colonel Coppinger, the son-in-law, brigadier general over the heads of outranking officers. At all events, the women of the Blaine family were embittered. Mr. Blaine was a sick man, with waning powers, and the President had been attending to important matters in the department of state. It is clear that Mr. Blaine was a reluctant candidate, and the victim of impetuous misjudgment.

Newspaper men studying affairs appreciate that every one carries information worth their knowing. In a quarter least suspected lies often a link the correspondent may be pursuing. The Harrison managers had taken on some of the aloofness that handicapped their candidate. They gave out general claims; the correspondent needs to get behind the veil. Being in pursuit of some leader who would shed full light, I saw Major J. Henry Gould, chairman of the Massachusetts state committee, heading

toward me across the crowded hotel lobby. We had journeyed together and I imagined that the major had been pumped dry. The natural impulse was to dodge him as irrelevant, but the kindlier thought prevailed. Major Gould approached with warm greeting and took a red memorandum book out of his pocket, saying, "I am acting as secretary of the Harrison conferences and thought you might like to see the record." Here was salvation brought unexpectedly and amply, and new proof afforded that friends are the reporter's capital. There was no longer need to continue the hunt for Mr. Depew. Obtaining loan of the book for half an hour I gathered with exactness the President's growing command of the situation, and knew for a certainty that Blaine was already overwhelmed.

Pleasant recollections remain of that convention in a beautiful city bearing impress of New England's best characteristics. Chauncey M. Depew, in gracious rôle becoming a master of amenities, asked the convention to extend its congratulations to Colonel Dick Thompson of Indiana, eighty-three years old that day. He had been a delegate to every national convention of the party; had voted in every presidential election for sixty years, served with distinction in Congress, and was in the cabinet of President Hayes. If England claimed so much for Mr. Gladstone at eighty-two, America, said Mr. Depew, claimed more for Colonel Thompson at eighty-three,—who, by the way, died in 1900 when ninety-one years old.

The venerable Indianian was brought to the plat

form and made a little talk the day before he was to present President Harrison's name to the convention, which nomination Mr. Depew was to second in behalf of New York. It looked a bit like clever finesse. Senator Edward O. Wolcott of Colorado nominated Mr. Blaine with compact and telling advocacy. There were of course seconding speeches in behalf of Blaine and Harrison.

It was W. Murray Crane's first national convention, and the beginning of his public life. He was one of the four delegates at large, but few of those active in politics had met him when the train pulled out of Massachusetts. By the time we reached Minnesota the man from Berkshire was the friend of all the delegates. So favorable was the impression of him that Jesse Gove of Boston, having political perception, revealed the desire of the delegation to make Mr. Crane the Massachusetts representative on the national committee. Mr. Crapo was to give up the place but Mr. Crane did not care for it. Would I not try to make my friend see that he ought to accept the job?

Mr. Gove was told that while never volunteering advice, I stood ready, if consulted, to "back him to the limit." Next day Mr. Crane asked me to talk the matter over in the light of my experience as an observer of politics. The call to an interest outside a life absorbed in business impressed me as the knocking of Opportunity. He should open the door leading to larger service of party and country. Pleasant association was offered with picked men from every State. From the standpoint of business, here were