The little prestige thus gained made him the democratic nominee for governor, and at a time (his luck still following him) when the Republican party of the State was rent with dissensions.

He was elected, and (still more luck) by the unprecedented and unheard of majority of nearly 200,000 votes.

Two years later his party nominated him for president and he was elected.
"There sat this man before me, wholly undisturbed by the pageantry of the occasion, calmly waiting to perform his part in the drama, just as an actor awaits his cue to appear on a stage.

It was his first visit to Washington.

He had never before seen the Capitol and knew absolutely nothing of the machinery of government.