Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-12-28
CONKLING AND BLAINE.

CONKLING AND BLAINE.
Senator David Davis in the Role of Peace
Maker--A Graphic Description of Great
Scene I'm the United States Senate.
New York Times.
A few days since we took the liberty
of referring to Senator David Davis, of
Illinois, as man whose usefulness was
impaired by his inability to settle any
where Let us hasten to add that SEN
ator David Davis has a mission. He is
a peace-maker. He has reconciled those
ancient foes, Blaine and Conkling. And
this is how it came about: The quarrel
had been one of long standing Each
had called the other hard names, and
neither had forgotten the abuce he had
received from the other But both
longed to be conciliated. When Conk-
ling's fight over the Custom-House APP
pointments in New York came on,
Blaines heart was stirred. 1t was
grand thing to stand by the Custom
House patronage and when Blaine heard
Conkling's cry, "a Conkling for the
tide-waiters!' it reused him like the call
of a trumpet. There was something in
his soul that responded to the defiance
of man struggling to retain official
patronage. He voted with Conkling.
The great man was deeply touched by
this tribute to his excellence and worth.
His heart yearned over Blaine; and
Blaine looked longingly for q sign Of re-
cognition. Thus matters stood, each
anxiously watching for suggestion of
relenting in the fact of his long estrang-
ed and entirely noble friend. The two
foes-foes only in stood near
each other one day, when the ponderous
and oleaginous Senator, David Davis APP
preached them, put pudgy arm about
each, drew them together, and said:
"Oh, why should the spirit Of mortal hs
proud?" "Why indeed?'' said Blaine, the
manly tears coursing down his cheek.
Have you a strawberry mark on your
left elbow?' asked Conkling, in his
deepest bass notes. II have, / have
cried the Senator from Maine, sobbing
violently. ME brother! Me long-lost
brother cried Conkling wildly. Come
to me arms!" They embraced with rap
ture, while Senator David Davis, his
voice husky with emotion, hosrsely
whispered, BLESS you, bless you, me
children" The Senate dissolved in
tears at the sight. Gordon laid down
the bowie-knife with which he was pick
ing his teeth, and applauded violently.
And the Hon. Timothy O. Howe, paus-
ing in the midst of one of his incendiary
speeches on the balance of trade, fur
lively dried trickling tear
1t has been long feud. 1t began in
1866 Nothing but Offices could posi-
bly, have healed it. 1t was in 1866 that
Mr.. Conkling, then a Representative in
Congress, took into the House his little
quarrel with Provost Marshal General
Fry. In the course of business, one
Crandall had been removed from the
office Of Provost Marshal for Mr.. Conk-
ling's district. 1t is needless to say
that Mr. Conkling's soul was in arms
Crandall was his friend, and not Had
dock, who succeeded Crandall. With
true Conkling assurance, the Represen-
tative for the Twenty-frst District car
ried the case into Congress, and made it
his personal quarrel. Mr.. Blaine, COM
lightly on the affair, said that
the House really did not care anything
about the great recruiting frauds Of
New York, or the quarrels Of the gentle
man from New York Mr.. Conkling]
with Gen. Fry, in which quarrels, it was
generally understood, the gentleman
came out second best at the War De
partment." The great man from New
York arose in his wrath. There was a
wordy passage at arms, during which
several small pages tainted with appre-
hension and excitement. Mr.. Conkling
advised the gentleman from Maine to
" preserve himself as free from agita-
ton as possible" and otherwise said
scorching things Then there was an
accusation that Conkling, while Rep
had drawn pay from the
State Department as Judge Advocate
And Conkling magnitcently replied to
this that he =" did not wish to have any
thing to do with the member from
Maine, not even SO much as to yield the
floor to him." This ought to have been
a 9 corker;" but it was not, for the
: member from Maine replied by re-
ferring, with cruel sarcasm, to Conk-
ling's'' naughty disdain, his grandiloquent
swell, his majestic, supereminent, over
towering, turkey gobbler strut" and
other nice personal characteristics of
the great New orker He said that
$ the extra strut which Mr.. Conkling
had been observed to affect was due to
Theodore Tilton's having satirically said
that the mantle of the lately deceased
Henry Winter Davis had fallen on
And striking an attitude, the
Maine Representative exclaimed: Hy-
perion to satyr, Thersites to Hercules,
mud to marble, dunghill to diamond,
singed cat to Bengal tiger, whining
puppy to roaring lion. Shade of the
mighty Davis, forgive the proclamation
of that jocose satire" Now it is not
pleasant to be called satyr, Thersites,
mud, dunghill, singed cat, whining pup
by, all in one breath. SO, from April
30, 1866, until Dec. Is, 1877, these two
eminent professors of billingsgate have
not exchanged a word.
1t is all over now. Senator David
Davis has given the conciliated pair his
only blessing, and everything is lovely.
Hamburg Butler is conciliated. Cor,
don has been conciliated so many times
that he has forgotten to keep account
of his cancellations; and even the Vice
President has poured his share of oil on
the troubled waters by appointing, by
accident as it were, all of Conkling's
friends on Conkling's committee to in
yestigatc the State Department. And,
in the general cancellation and reconcil-
iation, it is meet that Conkling and
Blaine should bury the Ratchet, fall on
each others necks, and forget how lus-
tily they blackguarded each other eley-
en- or twelve years ago. We need only
one more tableau: Conkling, forgiven
and forgiving, clasps Secretary Evarts
to his manly breast, while the light and
airy Senator David Davis hovers over
them like fat cherub.
From Newton Township.