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“The Ticket Is Finished”
No caption.
This
cartoon parodies the reaction of Congressman Thomas Spriggs after the
New York State Democratic Convention nominated Lucius Robinson for
governor and William Dorsheimer for lieutenant governor. Spriggs
led the effort to entice Horatio Seymour, a former governor of New York
(1853-1855, 1863-1865) and Democratic presidential nominee in 1868, to
run once again for the governorship. In this cartoon, Seymour's
refusal, and the subsequent nomination of Robinson, has caused the state
party's banner to slide toward Tammany Hall from the Manhattan Club, the
exclusive gentlemen's club associated with the wealthier members of
Irving Hall, the rival Democratic machine in New York City. The
parrot from Robinson Crusoe, the only talking companion of the
title character for many years, laments the sheepish Democratic ticket,
which is comprised of only a head (Robinson) and tail (Dorsheimer), but
no body (else). Samuel
J. Tilden, the sitting governor and Democratic presidential nominee in
1876, hoped his lieutenant governor, Dorsheimer, would succeed him as
governor. Tammany Hall wanted former congressman Clarkson Potter
to get the nod, while Spriggs worked to return his fellow Utica
townsman, Seymour, to the office. In order to block the nomination
of Potter, Tammany opponents joined forces at the August state
convention in Saratoga to nominate Seymour by acclamation. The
former governor cabled his response, politely but firmly declining the
nomination. Believing he could convince Seymour to accept, Spriggs
headed a delegation to Utica, suppressed the telegram, and told the
convention to "Go ahead and complete your ticket." The
happy delegates renominated Dorsheimer for lieutenant governor, and then
adjourned, as newspapers reported selection of the Seymour-Dorsheimer
ticket.
On September 4, Seymour wrote
the Democratic state chairman, Daniel Magone Jr., to decline the
nomination because of ill health. The letter was published the
next day, and received generally kind remarks in the press. It put the
New York Democrats in a bind, however. Tilden called for delegates
to reconvene in Saratoga on September 13, at which time they nominated
Robinson for governor after an agreement was forged between Tammany Hall
and Irving Hall.
Lucius Robinson was a lawyer
who had been elected to the New York State Legislature as a Republican
in 1859. In 1861, he was elected state comptroller, and reelected
two years later. He chaired the state constitutional convention in
1871-1872, but thereafter broke with the Republican Party, and was
reelected state comptroller in 1875 as a Democrat. In November
1876, about a month after this cartoon appeared, Robinson was elected
governor of New York over his Republican rival, Edwin Morgan, by a
margin of 51%-48%. Robinson lost a bid for reelection three years
later when Tammany boss John Kelly, who had broken with the governor
over patronage, ran for governor on a Tammany slate, allowing the
Republican candidate, Alonzo Cornell, to win the election.
Born in 1832, William Dorsheimer was raised
in Buffalo, New York, and educated at Phillips Academy (Andover,
Massachusetts) and Harvard. He left Harvard before graduation to
study law, but the institution later granted him an honorary
degree. In 1854, he passed the state bar and established a law
practice in Buffalo. During the Civil War, he served as a major in
the U.S. Army and as aide-de-camp to General John C. Frémont. Dorsheimer had been active in the Republican Party,
campaigning for Frémont in 1856 and supporting the Lincoln
administration (1861-1865).
After the war, though,
Dorsheimer sided with President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, against the
Radical Republicans, and the president rewarded him with an appointment
as U.S. attorney for the northern district of New York
(1867-1871). In 1872, he was a delegate to the Liberal Republican
Convention. Two years later, he was elected lieutenant
governor of New York as a Democrat, and reelected in 1876, when he also
served as a manager in Tilden's presidential campaign. In 1880, Dorsheimer moved to New York City, where
he practiced law, and was elected to Congress in 1882.
The next year, he was appointed president of the Niagara Park
Commission, and in 1884, he declined to seek reelection to Congress. In
1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed him U.S. attorney for the
southern district of New York, but he shortly resigned to edit the New
York Star newspaper. William Dorsheimer died in 1888.
Robert C. Kennedy
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