He had, indeed, been re-elected governor, but the small majority, scarcely exceeding one per cent. of the total vote, showed that he was now merely an independent, and a very independent member, of the Republican party.
This observation underscores the changing political landscape and the diminishing influence of a once-powerful figure.
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It cared nothing for the Democratic party except as it contributed to its selfish ends.
Thoughtful men who were not in any sense political partisans gave careful heed to his words.
Indeed, he went a step farther in the way of irreconciliation, preferring Hoffman and Tammany, he said, to "the reckless, red-radicalism which rules the present Congress....
As he lived, so he died, a strange, lonely, unhappy man, out of tune with the beautiful world in which he was permitted to exist upward of four score years.
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