I suppose that everybody in
that room when he left it felt as certain as of any event
in the future that Mr. Allison would be nominated in the convention.
But when we met at the time fixed, the three delegates at
large from New York said they were sorry they could not carry
out their engagement. Mr. Depew, who had been supported as
a candidate by his State in the earlier ballots, had made
a speech withdrawing his name. But when the action of the
meeting was reported to him, he said he had been compelled
to withdraw by the opposition of the Agrarian element, which
was hostile to railroads. He was then President of the New
York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company. He said that
his opposition to him came largely from Iowa, and from the
Northwest, where was found the chief support of Allison; that
while he had withdrawn his own name, he would not so far submit
to such an unreasonable and socialistic sentiment as to give
his consent that it should dictate a candidate for the Republican
Party. The three other delegates at large were therefore
compelled to refuse their support to the arrangement which
had been conditionally agreed upon, and the thing fell through.
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