inated and
defeated in 1868. So few had been available in 1872 that the party had
been reduced to the indorsement of Horace Greeley. Even the scandals of
the Republican administration could not avail the Democrats unless a
leader could be found free from the taint of treason and copperheadism
and strong enough to hold the party North and South.

In the paucity of leaders during Grant's second Administration the
Democrats turned to New York where a reform governor was producing
actual results and restoring the prestige of his party. Like other
Democrats of his day, Samuel J. Tilden had few events in his life during
the sixties to which he could "point with pride" in the certain
assurance that his fellow citizens would recognize and reward them. He
had been a civilian and a lawyer. He had not broken with his party on
its "war a failure" issue in 1864. He had acted harmoniously with
Tammany Hall while it began its scheme of plunder, in New York City. But
he had turned upon that organization and by prosecuting the Tweed Ring
had made its real nature clear. Within the party he had led the demand
to turn the rascals out, and had been elected Governor of New York on
this record in 1874. As Governor he had proved that public corruption
was non-partisan and had exposed fraud among both parties so effectively
that he was clearly the most available candidate when the Democratic
Convention met in St. Louis in 1876.

The only competitors of Tilden for the Democratic nomination were
"favorite sons." Thomas A. Hendricks, a Greenbacker, was offered by
Indiana and pushed on the supposition that this doubtful State could not
be carried otherwise. Pennsylvania presented the hero of Gettysburg,
General Winfield Scott Hancock, through whom it was hoped to bring to
the Democratic ticket the aid of a good war record. The other candidates
received local and scattering votes, and altogether they postponed the
nomination for only one ballot. On the first ballot Tilden started with
more than half the votes; on the second he had nearly forty more than
the necessary two thirds. Hendricks got the Vice-Presidency, and the
party entered the campaign upon a program of reform.

The Republicans had completed their nominations some weeks before the
Democrats met, and having no unquestioned leader had been forced to
adjust the claims of several minor men. Six different men received as
many as fifty votes on one ballot or another, but only three factions