Two days and a night and a half the Quadrilateral had the world in a sling and things its own way.

It had been agreed, as I have said, to limit the field to Adams, Trumbull and Greeley; Greeley being out of it, as having no chance, still further abridged it to Adams and Trumbull; and, Trumbull not developing very strong, Bowles, Halstead and I, even White, began to be sure of Adams on the first ballot; Adams the indifferent, who had sailed away for Europe, observing that he was not a candidate for the nomination and otherwise intimating his disdain of us and it.
Matters thus apparently cocked and primed, the convention adjourned over the first night of its session with everybody happy except the D.Davis contingent, which lingered on the scene, but knew its "cake was dough." If we had forced a vote that night, as we might have done, we should have nominated Adams.

But inspired by the bravery of youth and inexperience we let the golden opportunity slip.

The throng of delegates and the audience dispersed.
In those days, it being the business of my life to turn day into night and night into day, it was not my habit to seek my bed much before the presses began to thunder below, and this night proving no exception, and being tempted by a party of Kentuckians, who had come, some to back me and some to watch me, I did not quit their agreeable society until the "wee short hours ayont the twal." Before turning in I glanced at the early edition of the Commercial, to see that something--I was too tired to decipher precisely what--had happened.

It was, in point of fact, the arrival about midnight of Gen.