Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-09-17
A sCREECHAT THE TAmMANY CON-
VENTION.
How Hendricks was Euchred--Triumph phi
OF the Revolutionists,
WAsHnGToN. Aug. 25. is

How Hendricks was Euchred--Triump ph
OF the Revolutionists,
Correspondence of the n. Y. Sun.
| WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 1868.
The sujoined curious and interesting
document has come into my hands, and
1 forward it to the Sun for publication
Though it is apparently confidential
paper, it has been communicated to me
without any restriction as TO giving it to
the public.
The author of this paper is Mr.. Wins.
low S. Pierce, of Indianapolis. He is a
brother-in-law of Senator Hendricks, and
is sincerely devoted to his elevation
He was delegate from Indiana in the
Tammany Convention, and was the pl lin
cipal representative and manager OF Mr..
Hendricks in that body.
The document in question was written
by him Immediately after the adjourn
ment of the Convention. 1t bears
neither date nor address. 1t appears to
be simply his report, intended for Mr..
Hendricks and his personal friends, of
what had been done in the Convention,
and of the causes and intrigues which
defeated their well-founded hopes.
The original Of this paper is in my
hands in Mr.. Pierce's handwriting, and
can be produced if necessary.
The Convention was composed of the
best, the greatest men of the Democratic
| party, and the aUorst.
| Perhaps no Convention of that party
ever embodied more of the conservative
and patriotic elements of the party than
were at New York on July 4; but among
them We're felt the unseen influences of
a revolutionary character, which in the
| end, meeting with the trading and huck-
stering element of the State of New York,
| led by Horatio Seymour and his imme-
date friends, caused irreparable disaster
In order to truthful representation of
| the state of parties at the time that Con-
vention met, | will endeavor to describe
the position and status of the leading
candidates of that Convention when it
met. / will do so with fairness and
candor and regard for truth which will
| challenge contradiction.
First take Pendleton, not because he
was first with his party, but because he
| represented an idea and sentiment which
controlled the Convention somewhat at
first, and wholly at last, and selected the
candidate.
Pendleton was young and ambitious
Although others were more eminent, he
| could not bide his time, and being loca-
ted at favorable point (Cincinnati) for
the radiation of political influences. early
commenced, insidiously at first, and
finally with naughty means attempted,
to force himself upon the party.
The most potential and the first sup
port he received was from the whisky
ring"
By the aid of money gained in the
corrupt influences of whisky swindling,
he was aided materially, as was not only
nOfnrIonS htlt hx-
ey's testimony before the managers,
where he swore he was engaged in cleo
tioneering for Pendleton as business.
With the sinews Of war thus gained
he picked up in Ohio, Indiana, and Illi-
nois, all the soldiers of fortune" ,"..with-
out visible means of support, and sent
them out as travelling missionaries TO
make converts. With pockets full of
money they went from State to State
with their travelling groceries,. and
while the conservative masses and the
greatest and best men of the party were
trying to organize by means calculated
to commend themselves to the country,
these Pendleton drummers forestalled
action of the better class.
One by one the leading Democratic
presses and newspapers were suborned,
and before the Convention met the PEN
dleton caoal had strength and power
that warranted them in assuming haugh-
ty and imperious airs over the majority
and the better class, who soon saw that
Pendleton must be defeated in Conven-
ton, or Grant would walk over the course.
Not only had Pendleton by this time
apparently the majority of the North
west, but quickly there had come to his
aid the leading and ''unreconstructed'
rebels of the South, led by William C.
Preston and his>confrere Vallandigham;
and hence we saw rebels unrepentant,
and revolutionary sympathizers in the
North, all in the Pendleton boat. birds
OF a feather" &c.
But that is not all. They went to New
York as Ggrdrians, as Jewellers, taking
advantage of the depression in business,
scarcity of money, want of employment,
caused by the drain of money to Eu-
rope to buy what We could produce i'm
our own country and make at home h i'd
we adequate home protection.
They tried to make the issue against
the debt, not openly, not with view to
cause harmony of interests" but in
sidiously attempted to produce sectional
ism and discomfort, and thus shake pub
lie credit and destroy public faith.-
Quickly the keen and sagacious rebels |
OF the Preston stripe were on the alert |
to aid in his object. Anything to pre-
vent tranquility and a settlement of our
sectional difficulties. Quickly, too, the
bitter and disappointed Vallandigham |
rushed into the strifea and all seemed to |
indicate the overthrow of all conserya-
tive influences, although the great ma
jority of the Convention was Conserva-
tive and wished to conserve everything, |
and thus commend itself to the country. |
But the conservative influences proved |
too strong, and, led by Seymour (who |
affected a "holy horror" of the Pendle-
ton movement and its nefaricus objects), |
they were repressed. Seymour, with (
patronizing airs then became par ecceL- |
eBce the leader of those opposed to |
Pendleton, thereby getting into the con-
fidence of conservative men to stab them |
to the heart, and leave them PROSTATE |
and bleeding at the end, as will be OBJ
served when we follow this unscrupul- |
Gus schemer to the last scenes and find |
him praising Pendleton and shaking the |
hands of his congratulators, the chiefs |
of the whisky ring, the Prestons and |
Vallandighams, and gloating over the
they had gained by duplicity, |
bad faith, and huckstering.
Here endeth the first chapter of that |
wonderful Convention--that CORY
slaughter house in which at its closing,
the chief executioner, Seymour, stand
sardonically grinning, receiving the con-
gratulations of his instruments who had
aided him in the tragic scene, waving
his long dagger, dripping with the blood
of his trusting victims, every one of
whom he had smiled upon, and drawn
back into hidden recess, professedly to
whisper words of friendly aid and ad-
vice, and then, with an apparently frien-
lv arm arOund them stahhad thap, II, |
in the back.
CHAPTER II.-Pendleton damned the
true men of the party, the representa-
tives of conservatism, who desired tran
guilty, who longed to be by statesman
rallied. But their progress was Slow
Their headway was often checked by
tickle winds and warning currents never
before observed in that latituted by the
oldest mariners, and threatened by rocks