friends of these two patriotic men in the Convention, to the effect, that, as soon as it becomes reasonably clear that the one cannot be nominated, his forces go over to the other to secure his nomination, so that in any event the success of the common cause be safe? The expressed wish of the candidates would no doubt go very far to bring about such an understanding. It would probably be decisive.
I hope you will not charge me with unwarrantable meddlesomeness for making a suggestion like this. My excuse must be my profound anxiety that this Republic be spared the terrible disgrace of Blaine's election and the dangers of a Blaine Administration. There seems to be cause for serious alarm in the confusion of counsel of which the newspapers inform me.
FROM THOMAS F. BAYARD
I have just received your frank and friendly letter of yesterday and in the same spirit [I] respond to it.
I have often wondered how I became a candidate for Presidential nomination, for independent of other reasons I was not only not seeking it but often seeking other things inconsistent with it, such as following and declaring my real convictions on measures and policies contrary to the will or whim of my party.
However, so it is, and there are new contingencies out of which my nomination is possible if, indeed, it is not probable. That thoughtful and patriotic men should recoil from a Blaine-Logan Administration is natural enough, and that you should do so, I fully expected.
I am sure you know that I hold and shall treat all personal questions and ambitions as quite secondary to the chief object—a nomination by the Democratic Convention which shall justify the combination of all the opposing forces to Blaineism.
