rs for the Senator in Van Buren's
behalf.

The time appointed for the convention in Baltimore drew near. One day
the Senator received an intimation that he would be put in nomination if
Van Buren failed. Immediately he wrote to Judge Fine, of Ogdensburg,
chairman of the delegation from the northern district of New York,
forbidding such use of his name on the ground that his acquiescence
would involve disloyalty to his friend the Ex-president.

He gave me leave to go to the convention on my way home to meet Sally. I
had confided to Mrs. Wright the details of my little love affair--I had
to--and she had shown a tender, sympathetic interest in the story.

The Senator had said to me one day, with a gentle smile:

"Bart, you have business in Canton, I believe, with which trifling
matters like the choice of a president and the Mexican question can not
be permitted to interfere. You must take time to spend a day or two at
the convention in Baltimore on your way.... Report to our friend Fine,
who will look after your comfort there. The experience ought to be
useful to a young man who, I hope, will have work to do in future
conventions."

I took the stage to Baltimore next day--the twenty-sixth of May. The
convention thrilled me--the flags, the great crowd, the bands, the
songs, the speeches, the cheering--I see and hear it all in my talk. The
uproar lasted for twenty minutes when Van Buren's name was put in
nomination.

Then the undercurrent! The slave interest of the South was against him
as Wright had foreseen. The deep current of its power had undermined
certain of the northern and western delegations. Ostensibly for Van
Buren and stubbornly casting their ballots for him, they had voted for
the two-thirds rule, which had accomplished his defeat before the
balloting began. It continued for two days without a choice. The enemy
stood firm. After adjournment that evening many of the Van Buren
delegates were summoned to a conference. I attended it with Judge Fine.

The Ex-president had withdrawn and requested his friends in the
convention to vote for Silas Wright. My emotions can be more readily
imagined than described when I heard the shouts of enthusiasm which
greeted my friend's name. Tears began to roll down my cheeks. Judge Fine
lifted his hand. When order was at last restored he began:

"Gentlemen, as a friend of the learned Senator and as a resident of the
county which is the proud possessor of his home, your enth