. Most of the
delegates were under the control of Senator Platt. The Senator notified
me that if I refused to accept the nomination for Vice-President I
would be beaten for the nomination for Governor. I answered that I would
accept the challenge, that we would have a straight-out fight on the
proposition, and that I would begin it at once by telling the assembled
delegates of the threat, and giving fair warning that I intended to
fight for the Governorship nomination, and, moreover, that I intended to
get it. This brought Senator Platt to terms. The effort to instruct
the New York delegation for me was abandoned, and Lieutenant-Governor
Woodruff was presented for nomination in my place.

I supposed that this closed the incident, and that no further effort
would be made to nominate me for the Vice-Presidency. On the contrary,
the effect was directly the reverse. The upset of the New York machine
increased the feeling of the delegates from other States that it was
necessary to draft me for the nomination. By next day Senator Hanna
himself concluded that this was a necessity, and acquiesced in the
movement. As New York was already committed against me, and as I was
not willing that there should be any chance of supposing that the New
Yorkers had nominated me to get rid of me, the result was that I was
nominated and seconded from outside States. No other candidate was
placed in the field.

By this time the Legislature had adjourned, and most of my work as
Governor of New York was over. One unexpected bit of business arose,
however. It was the year of the Presidential campaign. Tammany, which
had been lukewarm about Bryan in 1896, cordially supported him in
1900; and when Tammany heartily supports a candidate it is well for the
opposing candidate to keep a sharp lookout for election frauds. The city
government was in the hands of Tammany; but I had power to remove
the Mayor, the Sheriff, and the District Attorney for malfeasance or
misfeasance in office. Such power had not been exercised by any previous
Governor, as far as I knew; but it existed, and if the misfeasance or
malfeasance warranted it, and if the Governor possessed the requisite
determination, the power could be, and ought to be, exercised.

By an Act of the Legislature, a State Bureau of Elections had been
created in New York City, and a Superintendent of Elections appointed
by the Governor. The Chief of the State Bureau of Elections was
John McCullagh, form