ated definitely that I could not be a
candidate, and a few days afterwards, in reply to an editor who
was entitled to a frank answer, as to whether my name was to be at
the head of the state ticket, I said:

"I am not a candidate, never have been, and could not accept the
gubernatorial nomination under any circumstances. It is out of
the question. There was a manifest disposition at one time to run
me _nolens volens_, but my friends now understand my position fully,
and will not press the point. It is as though the possibility had
never been suggested, and the less said about it the better."

This declaration was variously regarded by the newspapers; by one
as a proclamation of a panic, by another as a doubt of success, by
another as a selfish desire to hold on to a better office, neither
of which was true. While I did not wish the nomination, I would
have felt it my duty to accept it if the convention had determined
that my acceptance was necessary for success. Upon my return to
Mansfield in May, in an interview with a reporter, I mentioned
several able men in the state who were well qualified for that
office. I spoke of Judge Foraker as one who would make an acceptable
candidate. I did not then know him personally, but from what I
had heard of him I preferred him to any other person named. He
was young, active, eloquent and would make a good canvass. At that
time there was a movement to push the nomination of Thurman and
Sherman as competing candidates. The state convention was approaching
and I had been invited to attend. I went to Columbus on the 5th
of June. All sorts of rumors were being circulated. The general
trend of them was thus stated by a leading Republican journal:

"The question is being quietly discussed by a number of prominent
Republicans, and the movement promises to assume such proportions
before the day of the convention, that it will result in the
nomination of Senator Sherman for governor. It has been stated
that Mr. Sherman would not accept, yet one of the most prominent
of Ohio Republicans says, with emphasis: 'Mr. John Sherman has
been honored for the last thirty years by the Republican party,
and he could not afford to decline the nomination, and he would
not.' The great interest manifested throughout the country in
Ohio, is such that it is deemed wise, owing to existing circumstances,
to insist on the nomination of Mr. Sherman, thereby avoiding all
contest in the conventio