The Portland daily press., 1876-03-21
Our New York Letter.
Mr. Conkiipg the Choice of New York.
dency.---A Little History Mr.. Conk-
ling Representative ofthe Adminisira.
tiou.
NEW YORK, March 18, 1876.

or tne delegates chosen to the state convention
| to be held Wednesday are heartily and en-
| Enthusiastically for ROSCOE CoNKLINc. Hell
their first and only choice, and nobody will be
| accredited to the Cincinnati convention who is
| not iron clad on this point. The delegates to
| that body will be made to understand very
distinctly what the will of their constituents is
| The mode id which this will be done may be
open to discussion but the doing of it is
thing about which there will be substantial
| agreement and accord. Whether the terms
| pledged or instructed are employed or
some other word is substituted that is what
will be meant and there will be nothing am.
biguous in the phraseology. The great power
| of the Empire STATE is not to be frittered away
| BY scattering and random voting Every
| delegation the Republicans have sent to a
National Convention has been pledged to
particular candldate-to Seward in 1860, Lin
| coin in 1864, Grant in 1868 and 1S72-aud it
| would be a strange thing if now, when a man
having such preeminent claims to popular es-
TEEN is in the list, his own state should dis
card the precedent which tends to strengthen
his candidacy. The suggestion was childish
| and not entitled to serious consideration.
/
Conkling should be impregnably strong in his
party. He is unusually gifted, inHexibly
| honest and thoroughly we'll bred. There are
few men of his time who are his equals in
| scholarship. Certainly no lawyer of his years
has eclipssd him in the variety and success of
his practice. When we consider that of the
| forty-six years he has lived at least sixteen
| have been spent in laborious public stations,
some idea can be formed of his prodigious
capacity for achievement. He has O wonder
fu! memory and that has beea great assist
ance to him. But even with that help it is an
evidence of great mental powers that he should
have pursued his various avocations so success
| fully, giving half his time to the state for a
pittance, and deyoting the other half to the
business by which he gained his livelihood.
But the chief charm of the Senator's char
acter is his reliability and manliness. He is
| absolutely incapable Of sinister or deceptive
| thought or action. You know where to find
him every time. He does not say one thing
| and mean another. His word is good for any,
| thing that he gives it for.
| Now when you take man with these ex-
| press qualities and find blended with them
| that peculiar fascination which comes of an
eloquent voice, it is not at all singular that he
| gets firmly rooted in the hearts of the people.
Mr. Conkling it must be remembered, has
| talked to great numbers of his constituents;
their hearts have been stirred within them by
his impressive cratory; they have been mag
netized by his frank, ingenious face And
then again he has always counselled them
wisely and told them the truth. Very often
he has had occasion to warn them against pop
ular delusons, and to combat prevailing ,errors
| But they always found him right in the end,
| and that was reason enough why they should
| learn to trust him implicitly.
1t was in 1871 that his sagacity and good
sense as leader were conspicuousy mani
tested. TWAS at that time that Fenton began
| to show discomfort at the distribution of pa
ronage, and having artfully contrived to
| draw Greeley into the net with him they or
ganized conspiracy in the ranks, and set
up business under the name of Lib. Pub
In point of numbers this revolt reminded
one of the general rebellion in Mr.
| Crummles' theatre, which was accomplished.
| exclusively by two supernumerares-that en-
bracing all the resources of the establishment.
| However il m ide quite q show on paper, and
| the Tribune columns magniied it several hun
| dred thousand times beyond its actual proper
tiors. There were enough at any rate to make
a contesting delegation at the State Convention,
and there was good deal of hesitation as to
whether it was better to turn them out or CON-
| promise with them by admitting them with half
vote each. The debate ran along till late
hour, and at point in the proceeding when
| the regulars showed unmistakable signs of
| yielding, there was an extensive shoatlng Of
question! question +" In the midst of it the
| Senator rose and there was an instant hush OF
| silence. He looked superbly. There was fire
in his eye and majesty in his countenance
mot yet, Mr.. President the question"-were
his opening words and then he summed up tie
whole case with cleasness and forcs that com
pletely changed the spirit of the convention.
He spoke about fifteen minutes, and when he
had concluded both sides felt that there was
nothing more to be said. The vote was taken
and the contestants elected by q large majority.
That seemed like a bold measure then, but
subsequent events plainly demonstrated its
wisdom. If these disturbers could have re-
tanned foot hold within the party lines at that
time they would have kept it in trouble till
they we're finally turned out. They went off with
Xxi! hi! ! got up the Cincinnati Convention,
laid in large stock of offensive adjectises-
fraud and corruption" for instance-to hurl
at the Republicans, and were suuffed out of ex-
istence as soon as they got within the extin-
gushing influence of the ballot box
But it was not till towards the fall of 1872
that Senator Conkling rose to the full stature
of great leader of the people. The Philade-
phia Convention had renominated Grant and
placed Wilson on the ticket with him. There
was perfect deluge of slang, slander, defama-
tion and scurrility pouring out through the
newspapers. The President was assailed with
| a coarseness and brutality of which this gener-
alton had never seen the like. Five Senators
Of the United States had deserted their party
and their desertion was represented rather as a
merit than fault They were quite generally
applauded for their independence and all that
sort of thing. All the preconceived ideas of
ethics, which had tended to demonstrate that it
was an infamous act to betray cause or sneak
out of camp were entirely lost sight of. The
depth of baseness became suddenly the height
of virtue and the man who was false to his Or
der was extolled, who was true to it was de-
nounced.
1t was at this eventful crisis in American
politics when Republican institutions were i'm
perilled and some Hercules was invoked to
sweep away the fetid mass of newspaper gar
bage which was threatening a moral pesti-
lence throughout the land, that Senator Conk-
ling took the field in person. The way he
pitched the lies and the liars of the campaign
into one common ditch is a thing to be re-
membered with admiration and gratitude by
every Republican in the United States. 1t was
but a very little while before the poor wretches
who had started out to assault the administra-
tion were covering beneath his vigorous blows,
and crawling out of sight to avert them. He
had made short work of charlataus and pre-
tenders, and held them up to public exposure
and scorn with an effectiveness quickened by
his innate contempt for the breed. His speeches
were copied every where. He furnished texts
for all the orators of the campaign. When he
began the bettir was three to one that the CO.
alitiOn wonld carry New York IL cave Grant