as absurd and itself proof that
he was sound. He was, by virtue of superior capacity, at the head of
the Ohio delegation to the Republican National Convention of 1880,
and was charged with the management of the candidacy of John Sherman,
Secretary of the Treasury, for the Presidency--the most competent man
in the country for the office.

It had been thought for a time that the combination of important men
for a third term of General Grant would succeed, as the glory of the
General was very great and those who wanted him for President again
were able and resolute. Blaine had hesitated for a moment whether to
take the field; but learning that Sherman would be in the race whether
there was or was not any other man a candidate in opposition to Grant,
he made the fight, and he and Sherman were the representative leaders
against the third term.

Their feeling was that they were not making war upon General Grant,
but upon those who sought to use his fame for their own purpose, and
they meant particularly Senator Conkling. General Grant, at Galena,
wrote a letter to Senator Cameron, and gave it to John Russell Young,
who handed it to Mr. Cameron, and it disappeared. This letter was a
frank and serious statement that he desired not to be considered
a candidate, and no doubt his preference was the nomination of Mr.
Conkling.

The interest of the great convention early centred in the two tall
men on the floor, the undoubted champions of the contending forces,
Conkling and Garfield; and the latter got the first decided advantage
in breaking the third term line when Conkling demanded that the
majority of the delegation of a State should cast the entire vote.
This was the famous unit rule, the defeat of which was the first event
of the convention. Garfield and Conkling were foremost in the fray
because they were the most masterful men of the vast assembly--nearly
twenty thousand people under the roof.

The advocates of the Old Commander for a third term were in heavy
force, and knew exactly what they wanted; and whenever the convention
met, as Senator Conkling usually walked in late, he had a tumultuous
reception. The opposition saw it was necessary to counteract this
personal demonstration, and managed to hold Garfield back so that he
should be later than Conkling, and then they gave him salutations of
unheard-of exuberance far resounding; and this was the beginning
of the end. Garfield, because he was in person, position, and