on our side, for I was sure that beneath the surface
the Republicans, with resolute determination and multiplied resources,
were as busy as bees.

Mr. Robert M. McLane, later Governor of Maryland and later still
Minister to France--a man of rare ability and large experience, who
had served in Congress and in diplomacy, and was an old friend of Mr.
Tilden--had been at a Gramercy Park conference when my New Orleans
report arrived, and had then and there urged the agitation recommended
by me. He was now again in New York. When a lad he had been in England
with his father, Lewis McLane, then American Minister to the Court of
St. James, during the excitement over the Reform Bill of 1832. He had
witnessed the popular demonstrations and had been impressed by the
direct force of public opinion upon law-making and law-makers. An
analogous situation had arrived in America. The Republican Senate was as
the Tory House of Lords. We must organize a movement such as had been
so effectual in England. Obviously something was going amiss with us and
something had to be done.

It was agreed that I should return to Washington and make a speech
"feeling the pulse" of the country, with the suggestion that in the
National Capital should assemble "a mass convention of at least 100,000
peaceful citizens," exercising "the freeman's right of petition."

The idea was one of many proposals of a more drastic kind and was the
merest venture. I myself had no great faith in it. But I prepared the
speech, and after much reading and revising, it was held by Mr. Tilden
and Mr. McLane to cover the case and meet the purpose, Mr. Tilden
writing Mr. Randall, Speaker of the House of Representatives, a letter,
carried to Washington by Mr. McLane, instructing him what to do in the
event that the popular response should prove favorable.

Alack the day! The Democrats were equal to nothing affirmative. The
Republicans were united and resolute. I delivered the speech, not in
the House, as had been intended, but at a public meeting which seemed
opportune. The Democrats at once set about denying the sinister and
violent purpose ascribed to it by the Republicans, who, fully advised
that it had emanated from Gramercy Park and came by authority, started a
counter agitation of their own.

I became the target for every kind of ridicule and abuse. Nast drew a
grotesque cartoon of me, distorting my suggestion for the assembling of
100,000 citizens, which was both offens