The result was that the Republicans had a large majority of the delegates, only a few counties having elected Democratic delegates.

The only reason that there were any Democrats in the Convention at all was that the party was not unanimous in the adoption of the policy of "Masterly Inactivity," and consequently did not adhere to it.

The Democrats in a few counties in the State rejected the advice and repudiated the action of the State Convention of their party on this point.

The result was that a few very able men were elected to the convention as Democrats,--such men, for instance, as John W.C.

Watson, and William M.Compton, of Marshall County, and William L.Hemingway, of Carroll, who was elected State Treasurer by the Democrats in 1875, and to whom a more extended reference will be made in a subsequent chapter.
The result of the election made it clear that if the Democratic organization in the State had adopted the course that was pursued by the members of that party in the counties by which the action of their State Convention was repudiated, the Democrats would have had at least a large and influential minority of the delegates, which would have resulted in the framing of a constitution that would have been much more acceptable to the members of that party than the one that was finally agreed upon by the majority of the members of that body.