The idea for the cartoon had been suggested following the Liberal Republican Convention by the Cincinnati Evening Post of May 15, 1872. The newspaper reported journalist Samuel Bowles’s account (originally printed in the Springfield Republican) of a meeting of Liberal Republicans in a private home. All were dejected after Greeley won and Charles Francis Adams lost the nomination. “Mr. Schurz was unable to speak, but going to the piano, played with the skill of the accomplished amateur he is … There was not a dry eye .. in the whole company …” Nast willingly took the hint with the cartoon “Played Out!” The scene was transferred from Cincinnati to Washington, D.C.