Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1888 — DEATH OP ROSCOE CONKLING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DEATH OP ROSCOE CONKLING.

The Dlillogiditatd Kx-Senator Breathed Last at Z o’clock Wednesday Meriting.

The Hon. Roscoe Conkling died at New York, at 2 o’clock a. m. April 18th. At the bedside of the dving man were Mrs. Conkling, JtHge Cqxe, Dr. Anderson, and Mrs. Oakman. Mr, Conkling passed away without moving a limb. He looked as though peacefully sleeping. There was a number of persons outside on the street, waiting to catch the last report. Within doors there were between forty and fifty persons also wailing to bear the worst. They were composed chiefly of representatives of the press and friends of the deal Senator. His death was not unexpected. For several days tbe chances were much sgainsthh recovery. The funeral of Mr. Conkling took place Saturday morning at Utica, N. Y. The entire city was in mourning. Public buildings and private residences were draped and flags were at half-mast everywhere. Distinguished persons from all parts of the country arrived on early trains. Sutler Place,' his former residence, was crowded with people from 12 to 1 o’clock, whep the body lay in state in the hall-way. Beautiful floral tribute 3 were distributed all about the rooms. MaDy thousand people passed through the honse and viewed the remains. At 2 o’clock, after a brief prayer by R9V. Dr. A. Goodrich, the remains were conveyed to Calvary Church, Dr. Goodrich officiating. Mutic was rendered by a double quartet of male voices. Seats were reserved in the church for city offio’als and various delegations from ont of town. The pallbearers included Hon. Franco Kerman, Theodore Pomeroy and Hon. E. Pretiss Bailey. The services ware brief but impressive. At their close the remains Wete taken to Forest Hill Cemetery and placed in a temporary vault. Roscoe Conkling was horn at Albany, N. Y., October 30,1828. His father was a jurist of considerable distinction and served a term as a member of Congress. In 18-16, after an academic course,young Roscoe entered the law office of Spence and Kernan, at Utica, as £ stndent. He was not noted for close application to his studies, hut rather that he gave .rein to his natnral taste for politics and sounding rhetoric. In the spring of 1858 he was elected Mayor of Otiea, and in November of the same year a Representative in Congress, being at the time one es the yonngest men in that body. During his second term he became prominent in the proceedings of the Honse. He was defeated for a third term by Mr. Kernan, bnt followed at the next Congressional election by defeating Kernan. He entered the .United Btates Senate in ] 867, and was looked upon as the coming man. The warfare in whieh Congress was then engaged Against President Johnson gave to the Senate an opportnnity to assert Senatorial prerogative in the matter of Federal patronage, and to agree npon terms of Senatorial courtesy in its bestowment. Mr. Conkling having at that time a not very forceful colleague, came at once into the sole control of New York patronage, and he continued to hold it and wield it to the end. In these years of supremacy at home, and of almost unchallenged precedence in Sanatoria! councils, Mr. Conkling came naturally to develop an almost imperious disposition; and though he might be beaten he never would surrender. During Grant’s administration he was one of the intimate and me st trusted advisers of the President, and his admiration for “the chief” was chivalric. He was the power behind the throne. The first rots of importance which Mr. Conkling cast was in opposition to the proposed Thirteenth Amendmedt to the .Constitution, which provided that “no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will give to Congress the power toafcoish or interfere with” slavery in the States, which would have made slavery perpetual in this coax try, could Affect it. The amendment passed the Senate, bnt only two States—Maryland and Ohio —gave their assent to it. His work during the sessions of this Congress stamped him as one cf the foremost debaters and statesmen of the day. His speeches on questions of the war, his opposition to the legal tender act one ofths vary few times he put himself in opposition to his paity, and his efforts in behalf of various me wares for the reconstruction of the Southern Btites are a part of the bLtory of taat memorable decade. He was a member of the joint committee on reconstruction, and was a

leader in the great debates on that question. Mr. Conkling’s quarrel with Mr. Blaine, arising from personalities used in debate iu the Honse in 1865, has exercised remarkable influence upon the fortunes of the two men, and 1 upon the political history of their country. It was a strong element in the defeat of Mr. Blaine in the Cincinnati convention of 1876, and again at Chicago in 1884,and elected Mr. Cleveland President. It also led indirectly to the quarrel of Conkiing with Garfield, the resignation of Conkling and Platt, the assassination of Gaifield, and the fatal embitterment of the Republican factions in New York State. These incidents have become a part of thfe history of the country. Mr. Conkling was uufortnnate in bis quarrel. His enemies he has usually characterized in terms which forever Bfter forbade reconciliation. He quarre’ed with Cornell, never foigiving him for not attending a conference in New York in 1881, when all his friends were to decido on his course as er reiigning his eeat. Mr Conkling spoke of tbe Governor afterward as “that lisard on the hill.” He quarreled with Chester A. Arthur because he, when President, would not appoint John F. Smytbe, of Albany, collector of tbe port of New York, and remove W. ,H. RobiDsoa to make the necessary vacancy “Good heavens! I can’t do that,” laid the President. “Robertson’s appointment caused the trouble between yon and Mr. Garfield, and indirectly ltd to tbe President’s dea'h. Why the entire matter would be reopened. Maligant critics would have a chance to widen the breach that already demoralizes the parly.” Mr. Conkling quitted the White House abruptly, saying that the consequences the Preiident so greatly feared would prove only temporary. After that the Conkling men spoke of Mr. Arthur only as “the dude in the White Honse.” Mr. Conkling diiagTeed with Andrew S. Draper, and fall out with Charlts Emory Smith, or “Little Charley Smith,” as he ever after called him. He lest the friendship of E list H. Roberts, and, in fact, turned it to angry enmity. In 1876 Mr. Conkling received nearly 100 votes on the first ballot for the Republican presidential nomination in tbe Cincinnati convention. The nomination of Hayes disgruntled him, and the alministration of Hayes utterly disgusted him. In those four years, it is said, he never set foot in the executive mansion. He was a warm advocate of the electoral commission bill in 1877, and delivered a two-days’ speech in advocacy of it when the measure was before the Senate. Although he did net oppose the findings of the commission in the Senate he did not vote to sustain them, bnt conspicuously absented himself when the adjudication of the commission in the Florida case came up for approval. It was owing to the common belief that he did not believe Hayes’s case a good one, that he was not made a member of the commission, Mr. Fralinghuysen being finally chosen in his stead. In 1880 Mr. Conkling wa3 a warm advocate of the nomination of General Grant for a third term, and led the Grant forces in the Chicago convention. His speech nominating the ex-President beginning: When asked what Btete he hails frem Our sole reapon-e ihall be. He comes from Appomattox And its iamoun apple tree—has become famous. It was Mr. Conkling, too, who offered tits resolution pledging every member of the convention to support the nominee, “whoever that nominee mav be,” and when three delegates voted “no,” itlwas Mr. Conkling who offered a resolution expelling the time delegates. In the warm discussion which followed, General Garfield played tbe part of ptacemaker, and the incident gave him an opportnnity to make lhat favorable impression npon the convention which largely promoted his nomination four days later. He accepted the nomination of Garfield relnctantly, and only consented to advocate Garfield’s election toward the close of the campaign. Blaine and Conkling quarrellei when they were both members cf the Honse of Representatives, dnring the civil war, and the appointment of Blaine to the chief office in Garfield’s Cabinet was accepted by Conkiing and his friends as a declaration of war by the new administration on the New York Senator. War was formally declared when Judge Robertson, of Westchester, an avowed opponent of Conkling, was nominated for collector of customs at New York. Conkling endeavered to prevent by the Senate of Collector Robertson, and failing, resigned his seat in that body together with his oolleegue, Mr. Platt They-appealed to the New York Legislator for an indorsement by means of re-alecti rn, bnt were deflated by Lapham and Miller. The fight at Albany wa3 one of ihe moat bitter and in some reepeete the meet disreputable in the political history of the country. , ’ With the incoming of Arthnr it was the eommon expectation that CbnSlTng would f gain be a power, and for weeks, exteuciaa even to months, the public curio icy attended every move which might imply a p’ace for the ex-Sepator. As be had already declined a seat cm the Supreme bench, tendered him in 1872 by President Grant, it was not thought a like tender’would he made by President Arthur; and it had eome to he an accepted idea in some quarters that perhaps, after all, Mr. Conkling

bad retire definitely from public life to the practice ©f law, and the rebuilding of his pe regnal fortune thereby. He did,however,receive an offer to goon the Supreme Bench at associ tie justice, bnt declined it. ThSn he turned his attention to the practice cf the law at New York, being rit ined by many wealthy corporations and, ic is said, somewhat recuperated his shattered fortunes whch were tolsw, when he lef; Washington in 1881 that, it is arid, he bad to borrow sl2 to bay bis railroad ticket. Mr. Conkling married the youngest ehteref Horatio Seymour, at Utica, in 1858, and has one daughter married, ailio at Utica. In Washington, while Senator, Mr. Conkling lived quietly at Wormley’s, and but rarely bad his wife with him. As an orator, Mr. Conkling was perhaps, without a peer in the country. He had a splendid command of language, 1 and his mind was always well stored with ideas, which he expressed ia picturesque phrases. Not, perhaps, as pronounced a lawyfcr as either Thurman or Edmonds, nor as ready a debater as either B’a’ns or Lamar, still he had a combination of qualities that iu a great deliberative body made him the superior of either oi tho3e mentioned in a general way. In personal appearance he was a handsome man. He always dressed with care and neatness, and his olothis were always cut in the latest fashioD. A curl invariably decorated his forehead, and biu full beard was ever cut close to the cheeks and pointed at the chin. He was haughty in disposition and bard to become acquainted with.

BOSCOE CONKLING.