d Fenton. The result was that he
transferred the federal patronage of the State to Senator Conkling.

Conkling was a born leader, very autocratic and dictatorial. He
immediately began to remove Fenton officials and to replace them
with members of his own organization. As there was no civil
service at that time and public officers were necessarily active
politicians, Senator Conkling in a few years destroyed the
organization which Fenton had built up as governor, and became
master of the Republican party in the State.

The test came at the State convention at Saratoga. Senator Conkling
at that time had become hostile to me, why I do not know, nor
could his friends, who were most of them mine also, find out.
He directed that I must not be elected a delegate to the convention.
The collector of the port of New York, in order to make that
decree effective, filled my district in Westchester County with
appointees from the Custom House.

Patronage, when its control is subject to a popular vote, is
a boomerang. The appointment of a citizen in a town arouses
the anger of many others who think they are more deserving.
I appealed to the farmers with the simple question whether old
Westchester should be controlled by federal authority in a purely
State matter of their own. The result of the appeal was
overwhelming, and when the district convention met, the Custom
House did not have a single delegate.

The leader of the Custom House crowd came to me and said: "This
is a matter of bread-and-butter and living with us. It is nothing
to you. These delegates are against us and for you at the
convention. Now, we have devised a plan to save our lives. It is
that the three delegates elected shall all be friends of yours.
You shall apparently be defeated. A resolution will be passed
that if either delegate fails to attend or resigns, the other two
may fill the vacancy. One of these will resign when the convention
meets and you will be substituted in his place. In the meantime
we will send out through the Associated Press that you have been
defeated." I did not have the heart to see these poor fellows
dismissed from their employment, and I assented to the proposition.

When we arrived at the convention Governor Cornell, then State
chairman, called to order. I arose to make a motion, when he
announced: "You, sir, are not a member of this convention." My
credentials, however, under the arrangement made in Westchester,