the loss on betrayal by the Fenton faction. In 1871, Conkling gained Grant's support to reform the New York City organization. State chairman Alonzo Cornell removed the "Tammany Republicans" over Fenton’s objection and founded a successor organization led by Horace Greeley and Jackson S. Schultz; Greeley declined and joined Fenton’s organization instead, precipitating a struggle for power within the city party. The struggle was ended at the 1871 state convention in Syracuse. Hamilton Ward Sr. suggested that each organization be given half the vote of New York County, but Conkling successfully prevented this move, delivering an extemporaneous speech: A horde of ballot-box pirates and robbers have clutched by the throat the greatest city of the Western world. A horde of pirates, whose firm-name is Tammany Hall… is presenting in its own organization the most hideous spectacle in modern history, has disbanded, tampered with, and to a large part controlled that glorious organization which is the brightest in the annals of political parties… The delegates voted to seat the Conkling delegation, and the party platform included an endorsement of President Grant and condemnation of "astounding revelations of fraud and corruption in the city of New York." For the next decade, Conkling was the undisputed leader of the New York Republican Party. Fenton eventually left the party entirely in 1872, supporting the new Liberal Republican Party, which nominated Greeley for President in opposition to Grant. Hayes administration Conkling and President Rutherford B. Hayes got off to a rocky start after Hayes named William M. Evarts, a New York opponent of Conkling’s machine, as Secretary of State. In addition to elevating a Conkling critic, the appointment precluded Conkling’s ally Thomas C. Platt from joining the cabinet as Postmaster General on grounds of regional diversity; traditionally, only one cabinet member could come from a state. In April 1877, Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman appointed a commission to investigate the New York Custom House. The investigation brought to light extensive irregularities in the service, showing that the federal office holders in New York were rather a large army of political workers and that their positions were secured by and dependent upon their faithful service on behalf of New York City politicians. After Conkling returned from a European vacation, he took an active part in the 1877 New York state campaign. He and Platt were openly critical of the Hayes administration at the state convention,