It is evident from this correspondence that General Grant’s letter, which I take the credit of having inspired, reinforced by the latent, loving power and good judgment of Mrs. Dix, assisted in the wise decision of the war Democrat to accept the Republican office which was judiciously thrust upon him.
The election of Dix made the second calling and election of Grant sure. The Republican party took General Dix into its fold, and the effect was, as I had anticipated, to bring thousands of others similarly situated, to vote, at the Presidential election, for General Grant.
The Dix nomination was the worst black eye that Mr. Greeley received during that campaign, and the Sage of Chappaqua acknowledged on his death bed that that event, together with the Grant mass meetings at the Cooper Institute, described in another chapter, sealed his political doom.
CHAPTER XXX.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE UTICA (DIX’S) CONVENTION.
A Chapter of Secret History.—Conkling gets the Credit for Dix’s Nomination and his “Silence Gives Consent” to the Honor.—Robertson Regards him as a Marplot.—The Senator Innocently Condemned.—The Misunderstanding which Defeated Grant for the Third Term, and Elected Garfield.—How the Noble “306” were Discomfited.-“Anything to Beat Grant.”—The Stalwarts and the Half Breeds.-“Me Too.”—The Excitement which Aroused Guiteau’s Murderous Spirit to Kill Garfield.
The political events succeeding the Utica Convention and the nomination of General Dix for Governor contain some inside history of more than ordinary importance.
Had I not sprung General Dix on that Convention at the peculiar moment, as described in the last chapter, Judge Robertson would have carried the day with flying colors. It was a sudden and crushing blow to the prospects of himself and his political friends, and it dissipated some of the brightest hopes and brilliant schemes that had ever originated in the fertile brain of Senator Conkling. As a consequence of the unique turn that affairs took on that day, the Senator was placed in a false position in relation to some of his best friends. Several of the latter were put in an attitude whereby they misinterpreted the actions of Senator Conkling at that Convention, and unjustly accused him of betraying friends that he had promised to support. This was the result of a misconception on their part, that the Senator was the prime mover of the coup d’etat that surprised the Convention in the nomination of General Dix.
The credit was awarded to Conkling, without any hesitation or inquiry, and he was either too proud, or too indifferent to public opinion to explain. If he had explained his position candidly the chances are that his explanation would have been taken in a Pickwickian or political sense. In fact, he was in a position where he could hardly escape the responsibility of Dix’s nomination, and everybody was ready to believe that the movement in favor of Dix was too good a thing to be engineered by a man of less calibre.
It would have been useless, therefore, for anybody else to explain, as the person attempting to do so would only have been laughed to scorn.