Fully as exciting was the Democratic Convention held for the first time in the West, as St. Louis was then designated, owing to its being across the Mississippi River. This convention was entirely different from the Republican gathering. Colonel Henry Watterson, famous editor of the Louisville _Courier Journal_, was temporary chairman. Tilden, like Blaine, was chiefly the favourite, but, unlike Blaine, was quickly nominated. As his election to the governorship of New York in 1874, with a fifty thousand majority, proved, he was one of the leading Democrats. Thomas A Hendricks of Indiana was chosen for his running mate. The election was the hardest fought, the bitterest, and the closest in history. The Democrats had capitalized the frauds and scandals of the Republican administration; the Republicans had followed the retaliating policy by waving the “Bloody Shirt,” as the reference to reconstruction policies was called. The consequence was a campaign heated, excited, and doubtful. Mr. Hayes received but one electoral vote over Mr. Tilden, and this the Democrats contested. Senator Zachariah Chandler (Michigan) was the only prominent Republican leader to remain unshaken in his assertion of a Hayes victory. His assurance of this fact aroused such a furore of resentment and threats of vengeance among Democrats that it looked for a time as though another Civil War might ensue. The Senator telegraphed to President Grant urging the concentration of United States troops in the Southern States’ capitals to insure a fair count. The President referred the matter to General W. T. Sherman, General of the Armies, saying: “Should there be any grounds of suspicion of fraudulent count on either side, it should be reported and denounced at once. No man worthy of the office of President should be willing to hold it if counted in or placed there by fraud. Either party can afford to be disappointed by the result. The country cannot afford to have the result tainted by the suspicion of illegal or false returns.”