[
244]
would have so decreed.
The
Greeley supporters received unexpected aid when the vote of
Illinois was announced, as it gave
Greeley 14 and
Adams only 27.
This marked the beginning of the end. The
Greeley hurrah was kept up, votes were changed so rapidly and amid so much confusion that the secretaries could not keep accurate register of them, and the chairman, unable to recognize any one, had to suggest that the changes be handed up in writing.
When at last the announcement of the ballot was made, it gave
Greeley 482 and
Adams 187.
Greeley was the nominee of the convention, with
Brown for
Vice-President. “When the call for a unanimous vote came,” said the
Tribune's report, “the element known as Free Trade and
Revenue Reform manifested a disposition to mar the enthusiasm by dogged silence, and an indignant and unanimous nay.”
When the country heard of this result, it taxed public credulity.
Greeley's nomination by these tariff reformers and civil service reformers seemed like an impossibility.
At the Union League Club in New York city members individually predicted that the candidate would decline the honor, but Greeley had no such intention.
How could it seem to him otherwise than that the gratification of