New-York tribune., 1872-10-15
SENATOR CoNKLINgS MISSTEP.

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SENATOR Combines MLSSTEP.
When the Hon. Roscoe Conkling, at speech
in this city, last July, went out of his way to
vilify and abuse his colleague in the Senate,
he must have thought that nobody would ever
call in question the statements which he conn
dently made. No man could see the peril
nency of campaign speech which was ex-
clusively made up of violent personal at
tack. No man will fail to see that
that attack is proved now to be as Sian
derous and baseless as it was impertlnent.
Senator Fenton has just made speech IN his
native town, surrounded by his old friends
and neighbors, in which he has exposed the
falsity of the charges which Senator Conkllng
banded with such recklessness in his Cooper
Institute oration. Mr.. Conkling prOfessed to
linn the portrait of the Senior Senators he
seems to have succeeded in producing his
own. 1t was COnkling who charged Fenton
with busying himself about an immedi-
ate repeal of tho Tenure-Of-Oiice Law
when Grant came into power; but
the official record of Congress shows
that it wac Conl4iins who repeatedly pleaded
for radical change in or repeal OF that sJa-
tute. 1t was COnkling who charged his col
league with making .herculean efforts to con-
troll the canvass of 1870 but it was COnkling
who turned the enginery OF the Custom house
and all the seductiveness OF public plunder
into that memorable canvass, seeking to earn
the approving smiles of the President. And 30
on to the end Of the chapter
AS for the malicious libel Of The ReI0- York
Times, so often and persistently repeated, Sen
ator FentOn, surrounded by the companions
of his boyhOod and manhood, asked them to
recall the misadventure which he bore in that
town when he was 18 years old That
he was in Jail for few hours on
wholly mistaken grounds, his audence-his
neighbOrs and acquaintances-knew. But
that occurrence has been magnified and
distorted by willful malice into a charge
of crime. How groundless it was appears now
when the object of it, not content with the
letters and afidavts in our possession, stands
up in his native village and appeals to the
witnesses to the facts to substantiate the
truth of his explanation. 1t is not worth
while to waste words in an attempt to
characterize the slander which falls so weakly
to the ground. Nor does Mr.. COnlding's veraclty
fare much better when Mr.. Fenton turns his
attention to the other personal parts OF his
extraordinary speech. Mr. COnkling boldly
declared that his colleague was out OF the
State during the canvass of 1870, and was in
different to the progress of the campaign.
Mr.. FentOn shows that he was absent seven
DAYS, and did his duty in the field.
But it is not an agreeable task to follow the
exposure of Senator Conllling's errors of judg-
ment and paltering with truth. A more COM
plete and utter rending of tissue of falsity
has seldom been made. If the Oneida Senator,
whose arrogance and cOnceit are equal to
almost any strain, can contemplate the picture
Of his own moral nakedness and re-
tain self-compOsure, his stOicism must
be admirable. He has also made
much of the charge of intermeddling in New
York politics which he brings against Mr.
Fenton. That any lacbey of this Administra-
ton should have word to say on such a
subject is indeed a marvel Of temeIity. The
Senator, in his jamestown speech, Is mild ana
forbearing when he only alludes to New-York
and Arkansas as notable examples OF the
marring of harmony by our meddlesome, quar-
relsome President and his personal following.
That any man should say word about the
meddling of others than the Administration
Ring is a huge jest; it is scarcely worthy the
grave words which Mr. FentOn gives the sub
iect. The financial ignorance of Mr.. COnkling
and his Misrepresentation of the best-knoWn
facts are also briefly but clearly exhibited.
These have been criticised and dlssected
before But now that an exhaustive review
of the whole specious special pleading has
been made, Mr.. COnding appears in a worse
attitude than even his own words are apt to
assure him.