They were in despair.

When having had a few hours of rest I reached the convention hall toward noon it was too late.
I got into the thick of it in time to see the close, not without an angry collision with that one of the newly arrived actors whose coming had changed the course of events, with whom I had lifelong relations of affectionate intimacy.

Sailing but the other day through Mediterranean waters with Joseph Pulitzer, who, then a mere youth, was yet the secretary of the convention, he recalled the scene; the unexpected and not over attractive appearance of the governor of Missouri; his not very pleasing yet ingenious speech; the stoical, almost lethargic indifference of Schurz.
"Carl Schurz," said Pulitzer, "was the most industrious and the least energetic man I have ever worked with.

A word from him at that crisis would have completely routed Blair and squelched Brown.

It was simply not in him to speak it." Greeley was nominated amid a whirl of enthusiasm, his workers, with Whitelaw Reid at their head, having maintained an admirable and effective organization and being thoroughly prepared to take advantage of the opportune moment.