It was his chief interest, and he applied himself to it unremittingly.

He handled his private business successfully; but it was politics in which he was absorbed, and he concerned himself therewith every day in the year.

He had built up an excellent system of organization, and the necessary funds came from corporations and men of wealth who contributed as I have described above.

The majority of the men with a natural capacity for organization leadership of the type which has generally been prevalent in New York politics turned to Senator Platt as their natural chief and helped build up the organization, until under his leadership it became more powerful and in a position of greater control than any other Republican machine in the country, excepting in Pennsylvania.

The Democratic machines in some of the big cities, as in New York and Boston, and the country Democratic machine of New York under David B.Hill, were probably even more efficient, representing an even more complete mastery by the bosses, and an even greater degree of drilled obedience among the henchmen.