To this I replied that I should like to be nominated, and if nominated would promise to throw myself into the campaign with all possible energy.  I said that I should not make war on Mr. Platt or anybody else if war could be avoided; that what I wanted was to be Governor and not a faction leader; that I certainly would confer with the organization men, as with everybody else who seemed to me to have knowledge of and interest in public affairs, and that as to Mr. Platt and the organization leaders, I would do so in the sincere hope that there might always result harmony of opinion and purpose; but that while I would try to get on well with the organization, the organization must with equal sincerity strive to do what I regarded as essential for the public good; and that in every case, after full consideration of what everybody had to say who might possess real knowledge of the matter, I should have to act finally as my own judgment and conscience dictated and administer the State government as I thought it ought to be administered.  Quigg said that this was precisely what he supposed I would say, that it was all anybody could expect, and that he would state it to Senator Platt precisely as I had put it to him, which he accordingly did; and, throughout my term as Governor, Quigg lived loyally up to our understanding.[*]

[*] In a letter to me Mr. Quigg states, what I had forgotten, that I told him to tell the Senator that I would talk freely with him, and had no intention of becoming a factional leader with a personal organization, yet that I must have direct personal relations with everybody, and get their views at first hand whenever I so desired, because I could not have one man speaking for all.

After being nominated, I made a hard and aggressive campaign through the State.  My opponent was a respectable man, a judge, behind whom stood Mr. Croker, the boss of Tammany Hall.  My object was to make the people understand that it was Croker, and not the nominal candidate, who was my real opponent; that the choice lay between Crokerism and myself.  Croker was a powerful and truculent man, the autocrat of his organization, and of a domineering nature.  For his own reasons he insisted upon Tammany’s turning down an excellent Democratic judge who was a candidate for reelection.  This gave me my chance.  Under my attack, Croker, who was a stalwart fighting man and who would not take an attack tamely, himself came to the front.  I was able to fix the contest in the public mind as one between himself and myself; and, against all probabilities, I won by the rather narrow margin of eighteen thousand plurality.