inner councils of the Sullivan family prevailed. Illinois swung to Wilson
and he was soon nominated. It was said, after the New Jersey man's
nomination and election, that he showed base ingratitude to Roger
Sullivan, the man who more than any other single individual in the
Convention had brought about his nomination. Mr. Sullivan's devoted
friends in Illinois were particularly bitter at the apparent coldness of
Mr. Wilson toward their friend and idol. The President, as a matter of
fact, was never unmindful of his obligation to Sullivan for the personally
loyal way he had stood by him at Baltimore, and in every way while he was
President he let those associated with him know that Sullivan and his
friends, wherever it was possible, should be preferred in the matter of
the distribution of patronage in Illinois.

The thing, however, which irritated Sullivan's friends and made many of
them irreconcilable foes of Woodrow Wilson was his apparent unwillingness
to say a good word for Sullivan when he announced his candidacy for the
United States senatorship of Illinois. This presented an opportunity for
President Wilson to pay the old debt and "even up" things with Roger.
Realizing the delicacy of the situation and how deeply the progressive
element in the Democratic party throughout the country might misunderstand
and even resent his putting his "okeh" on the candidacy of the Illinois
leader for the senatorship, nevertheless, upon considering the matter, he
decided to do so and prepared a generous and wholehearted letter of
endorsement of Sullivan. He felt that as a good sportsman he was bound in
honour to do this for the man whose influence and support, thrown to him
at the right moment of the Convention, had brought about his nomination
for the Presidency. But there were other and deeper reasons urging him on
to endorse his old friend. He knew how eagerly and earnestly Sullivan had
fought for him at Baltimore and how in doing so he had won the enmity of
the eastern wing of the Democratic party. The old bosses in the party,