If I had consented to the same thing on a later ballot it
would have put him in the position of having his forces diminishing
and falling away. I thought I ought not, for a mere empty
honor to myself, to permit such an injury to be inflicted
upon him, although I confess I did not then think his nomination
likely. But while the Massachusetts delegation does not seem
to me to have exerted a very decisive influence upon the result
of that convention, it came very near it. After several ineffectual
ballotings, in which the votes of the different States were
divided among several candidates, the convention took a recess
at twelve o'clock to four o'clock of the same day. Immediately
a meeting was called by a number of gentlemen representing
different delegations in a room in the building where the
convention was held, for consultation, and to see if they
could agree upon a candidate. The Massachusetts delegation
had authorized me to cast their vote as a unit for any candidate
whom I should think best, whom sixteen of the delegates--
being one more than a majority--approved.
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