[ l6 ] LEONARD CHALMERS of governors of the almshouse. A Free-Soiler in 1848, Tiemann's opposition to slavery won him the plaudits of Republicans. While the Germans pointed to his Teutonic antecedents, Tiemann's sympathy for nativism received the approbation of the Know-Nothings. In Tiemann's opinion, the main issue of the election was the restoration of honest and economical government as well as the honor of the Democratic party. The time had come, he wrote, "when mere organization must yield to principle, and corruption and depravity must be rebuked!'22 Similar allusions to corruption were made by Sickles and John McKeon who reminded their listeners that prior to his election Wood had narrowly escaped imprisonment after defrauding his business partner. They also accused Wood along with his brother Benjamin of cheating the city of $30,000 in the sale of ballot boxes, of conspiring in 1855 to raise a sunken ship for $13,000 after rejecting a bid of $5,000 to perform the same work, and of approving the purchase of a lot valued at $60,000 for $196,000. Their charges received a cordial reception from taxpayers who attributed their increased levies to Wood's maladministration. But Sickles carefully added that the 1857 campaign transcended material concerns. The pertinent question was whether good or bad government would prevail.23 The Wood forces, on the other hand, maintained that Tammany's trafficking with Republicans and Know-Nothings attested to its immorality. In their view, honor decreed the observance of the nominating convention's mandate. Even the pro-Tammany New York Leader demanded loyalty from all Democrats and castigated the bolters. At the Tammany ratification meeting, where the numerous empty chairs on the platform bore witness to the defections, Congressman John Cochrane, the main speaker, rebuked the dissidents and promised to back Wood even if he were "a devil incarnate, so long as in the judgment of the upright and intelligent democracy of Tammany Hall... he has been pronounced to be a worthy standard-bearer of 22Courier and Enquirer, November 21,1857; New York Daily News, May 20, 1856; Herald, November 25,1857; Louis Scisco, Political Nativism in New York State, Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, XIII (New York: 1901), 223; Daniel Tiemann to Buchanan, December 8,1857, Buchanan Papers, HSE 23 Times, November 25,28,1857.