May 6 Monday – Upon his return to New York, Sam had been presented with an invitation (a “call”) by 200 Californians living in New York to give his Sandwich Islands lecture. Frank Fuller, a Comstock mining pal of Sam’s and later governor of Utah for a day, headed the California committee. Sam and Fuller set this as the date of the lecture and hired Cooper Institute’s Hall, one of the largest in the city. Nevada Senator and former Territorial Governor James Warren Nye was to introduce Sam. Sam and Fuller waited at the Westminster Hotel, but Nye did not show, later claiming the reason was that Sam was “secesh,” even though Fuller had gone to Washington and secured Nye’s agreement. Lorch points out that Nye’s betrayal afforded Sam a “true blessing. It taught him that self-introductions had special advantages, especially for a humorous lecture” [65].
Nevertheless, the standing-room only New York lecture was a great success. Many were turned away for want of space. Sam’s worries had been for naught. “Make your mark in New York, and you are a made man” [Sanborn 228-30; MTL 2: 40]. Sam was a made man. (See May 11 Tribune review.) Note:
Paine claims Fuller had given out enough complimentary tickets to schoolteachers to fill the house [MTB 315-17].