hat not being quite sure which convention he ought to attend, he had
applied to Seward, who wrote him it didn't make any difference. "You
will go in by two doors, but you will all come out through one." Then
everything went by acclamation. Speaker Littlejohn of the Assembly
moved that the two conventions ratify the platforms passed by each
convention; Elbridge G. Spaulding moved that the presidents of the two
conventions appoint a state central committee; and John A. King moved
that the names of the candidates, at the head of whom was Preston King
for secretary of state, be given to the people of the State as the
"Republican Ticket." Only when an effort was made to procure the
indorsement of liquor prohibition did the convention show its teeth.
The invitation, it was argued, included all men who were disposed to
unite in resisting the aggressions and the diffusion of slavery, and a
majority, by a ringing vote, declared it bad faith to insist upon a
matter for which the convention was not called and upon which it was
not unanimous.

The Know-Nothing state convention met at Auburn on September 26. It
was no longer a secret society. The terrors surrounding its mysterious
machinery had vanished with the exposure of its secrets and the
exploiting of its methods. It was now holding open political
conventions and adopting political platforms under the title of the
American party; and, as in other political organisations, the slavery
question provoked hot controversies and led to serious breaks in its
ranks. At its national council, held at Philadelphia in the preceding
June, the New York delegation, controlled by the Silver-Gray faction
which forced Daniel Ullman's nomination for governor in 1854, had
joined the Southern delegates in carrying a pro-slavery resolution
abandoning further efforts to restore the Missouri Compromise. In this
action the anti-slavery members of other Northern States, led with
great ability and courage by Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, refused to
acquiesce, preferring to abandon the Order rather than sacrifice their
principles. The contest in New York was renewed at the state council,
held at Binghamton on August 28; and, after a bitter session, a
majority resolved that slavery should derive no extension from the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The convention at Auburn now took
similar ground. It was not a great victory for the anti-slavery wing
of the party; but it disproved the assurances of thei