[Sidenote] Greeley, “American Conflict,” Vol.  I., p. 324.

Accordingly, in several States, and more notably in the great State of New York, there was begun a quiet but unremitting effort to bring about a coalition or “fusion,” as it was termed, of the warring Democratic factions, on the basis of a division of the spoils which such a combination might hope to secure.  Nor did the efforts stop there.  If the union of the two factions created the probability, the union of three seemed to insure certainty, and the negotiations for a coalition, therefore, extended to the adherents of Bell and Everett.  Amid the sharp contest of ideas and principles which divided the country, such an arrangement was by no means easy; yet in a large voting population there is always a percentage of party followers on whom the obligations of party creeds sit lightly.  Gradually, from talk of individuals and speculations of newspapers, the intrigue proceeded to a coquetting between rival conventions.  Here the formal proceedings encountered too much protest and indignation, and the scheme was handed over to standing committees, who could deliberate and bargain in secret.  It must be stated to the credit of Douglas, that he publicly rejected any alliance not based on his principle of “non-intervention";[4] but the committees and managers cared little for the disavowal.  In due time they perfected their agreement that the New York electoral ticket (numbering thirty-five) should be made up of adherents of the three different factions in the following proportion:  Douglas, eighteen; Bell, ten; Breckinridge, seven.  This agreement was carried out, and the fusion ticket thus constituted was voted for at the Presidential election by the combined opponents of Lincoln.

In Pennsylvania, notwithstanding that Douglas disapproved the scheme, an agreement or movement of fusion also took place; but in this case it did not become complete, and was not altogether carried out by the parties to it, as in New York.  The electoral ticket had been nominated by the usual Democratic State Convention (March 1) prior to the Charleston disruption, and, as it turned out, about one-third of these nominees were favorable to Douglas.  After the disruption, the Douglas men also formed a straight, or Douglas, electoral ticket.  In order to unite the two wings at the October State election, the Executive Committee of the original convention recommended (July 2) that the electors first nominated should vote for Douglas if his election were possible; if not, should vote for Breckinridge.  A subsequent resolution (August 9) recommended that the electors should vote for either Douglas or Breckinridge, as the preponderance of Douglas or Breckinridge votes in the State might indicate.  On some implied agreement of this character, not clearly defined or made public, the Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell factions voted together for governor in October.  Being beaten by a considerable majority at that election,