[8] LEONARD CHALMERS Wood. Augustus ScheU, an old friend of Buchanan who had solicited contributions from wealthy Democrats during the campaign, headed a second clique. But most of the Tammany leaders comprised a third group—the New York Hotel Committee, so named because that hotel had served as its headquarters during the campaign. The leaders, Congressman Daniel E. Sickles, also a friend of Buchanan, and Postmaster Isaac V Fowler, expected the President to grant one of their followers the collectorship. Buchanan, however, named Schell as collector and gave the remaining federal offices in the city to the New York Hotel men.3 The appointment prompted reassessment of the standing of the Democratic leaders within Tammany Hall. Sickles, who bore a personal grudge against Schell, had counted upon the collectorship to reduce the power of his rival. Instead, he found himself on the defensive. "The Administration gave to my enemy the control of the patronage" he lamented, "which would be used ruthlessly against my friends!' Like Sickles, Wood expected no patronage from Schell, who maintained that the Mayor lacked the personal qualifications for his office. But Wood turned adversity to his advantage. Recalling that he and Schell shared a common antagonist in Sickles, who had broken with Wood in 1856 after failing to receive the Mayor's endorsement for corporation counsel, Wood called on the new Collector. He convinced Schell that Sickles and the New York Hotel Committee would exert pressure on Buchanan for his removal. This argument sounded logical to Schell, a timid and vacillating person. To forestall the New York Hotel clique, he placed himself under Wood's protection. As a consequence the doors of the Collector's office opened at the Mayor's approach but slammed shut for Sickles and his allies.4 The predicted demands for Schell's dismissal followed. Sickles poured out his resentment in a sixteen-page letter that called for the President to discharge Schell. Another member of the New York Hotel group informed Buchanan that Schell and Wood intended "to intimidate and corrupt" the party through their control of the patronage. &New York Daily Times, March 24, 25, 26, 1857; Stephen D. Dillaye, Letter to the Hon. Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury (New York: 1858), 14. 4 Daniel E. Sickles to Howell Cobb, July 23, 1857, Howell Cobb MSS, University of Georgia Library; Times, April 18,1857; New York Leader, November 20,1858.