islative resolutions did not advance
because of it.

[Footnote 939: _Ibid._, February 7.]

A month later a letter addressed by several New Yorkers to the
National Republican Executive Committee requested the postponement of
the Baltimore convention.[940] "The country is not now in a position
to enter into a presidential contest," it said. "All parties friendly
to the Government should be united in support of a single candidate.
Such unanimity cannot at present be obtained. Upon the result of
measures adopted to finish the war during the present spring and
summer will depend the wish of the people to continue their present
leaders, or to exchange them for others. Besides, whatever will tend
to lessen the duration of an acrimonious Presidential campaign will be
an advantage to the country."[941] If the sentiment of this letter was
not new, the number and character of its signers produced a profound
sensation. William Cullen Bryant headed the list, and of the
twenty-three names, seventeen were leading State senators, among them
Charles J. Folger and James M. Cook. "This list," said the _Tribune_,
"contains the names of two-thirds of the Unionists chosen to our
present State Senate, the absence of others preventing their signing.
We understand that but two senators declined to affix their
name."[942] Greeley did not sign this letter, but in an earlier
communication to the _Independent_ he had urged a postponement of the
convention.[943] Moreover, he had indicated in the _Tribune_ that
Chase, Fremont, Butler, or Grant would make as good a President as
Lincoln, while the nomination of either would preserve "the salutary
one-term principle."[944]

[Footnote 940: It was called to meet on June 7.]

[Footnote 941: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1864, p. 785.]

[Footnote 942: New York _Tribune_, April 25, 1864.]

[Footnote 943: New York _Independent_, February 25, 1864.]

[Footnote 944: New York _Tribune_, February 23, 1864.]

It is not easy to determine the cause or the full extent of the
dissatisfaction with Lincoln among New York Republicans. Seward's
influence and Weed's relations seriously weakened him. After the
election of 1862 Radicals openly charged them with Wadsworth's defeat.
For the same reason the feeling against Edwin D. Morgan had become
intensely bitter. Seeing a newspaper paragraph that these men had been
in consultation with the President about his message, Senator Chandler
of Michigan, the prince of Radica