will doubtless disappear.


So strong was the movement in favor of General Grant as President
that the united strength of the other candidates had difficulty
in staying the boom, which, indeed, might have been successful
but for the arrogant methods and tactical blunders of Senator
Conkling. When three of the delegates voted against a resolution
binding all to support the nominee whoever that nominee might be,
he offered a resolution that those who had voted in the negative
"do not deserve and have forfeited their vote in this
convention." The feeling excited by this condemnatory motion was
so strong that Conkling was obliged to withdraw it. He also made
a contest in behalf of the unit rule but was defeated, as the
convention decided that every delegate should have the right to
have his vote counted as he individually desired. Notwithstanding
these defeats of the chief manager of the movement in his favor,
Grant was the leading candidate with 304 votes on the first
ballot, James G. Blaine standing second with 284. This was the
highest point in the balloting reached by Blaine, while the
Grant vote made slight gains. Besides Grant and Blaine, four
other candidates were in the field, and the convention drifted
into a deadlock which under ordinary circumstances would have
probably been dissolved by shifts of support to Grant. But in the
preliminary disputes a very favorable impression had been made
upon the convention by General Garfield, who was not himself a
candidate but was supporting the candidacy of John Sherman, who
stood third in the poll. On the twenty-eighth ballot, two votes
were cast for Garfield; although he protested that he was not a
candidate and was pledged to Sherman. But it became apparent that