New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-09-28
AFTER THE BATTLE.
SENATOR COMBINES SPEECH UNIVERSALLY AID
MIRED AND neutrality-suspicious. That 1T
WILL CAUSE TIE DEFEAT OF THE PARTY-A
lBY TELEGRAPH To THR TRIBuSR.l

WILL CAUSE TIE DEFEAT OF THE PARIY-A
GRAND OPPORTUNITY LOST
IBY TELEGRAPH THR TRTBUSR.
ROCHESTER, n. Y, Sept. 27.-Yeserday the one
topic was the Administration to-day the Admnstra-
ton has gone out Of sight entirely and the sole sub
ject ofconversation has been the bitter and dead
ly attack upon George William Curtis made by Sem
atOr Conkling. The report of the speech could not
have given any adequate idea of the ferceness of
the assault Only those who heard every word and
saw every gesture can understand how ferocious 1t
The Senator's powerful frame seemed in
thrill of delight, that at last tue time
had come to redress some ancient injuries,
and he began to speak with his head high up,
his nostrils wide, his eyes blazing with an angry
joy, and as eager to begin the onslaught a strong
man is to run a race Indeed, the speech remark
able more on account of its manner than matter
1t was such display of physical yigor and mental
resource, that many, even, whose sympatmes were
with Mr. Curtis, were so lost in admiration at the
power and audacity Of the speaker, that they fairly
forgot the merits of the case and failed to appre-
ciate Just what this angry man was doing When
the status Of the man who made the attack, and the
character of the man upon whom II was made. and
the occasion and method OF making II, are all
considered, it was an incident without parallel
in, at least the recent political history
OF the state. Indeed. one of the most intelligent
of the delegates said that taken altogether, 1t was
the most audacious thing that had ever been done
in American politics and, at the risk of repetition,
it ought to be said again, perhaps that the report Of
the speech gives lttle conception of it, and no
TEN of shorthand has ever been invented yet which
can report the magnificent sneer, OF the flushing face
and flashing eye, or the tone of uuspcakable COLI
tempt in which almost every reference TO Mr. Curtis
was made. The attack began with The very opening
sentences Of the speech. When Mr. Conldng declared
that the Republican party would stand. III power
and grandeur wnen - the piques the resentments,
aud the rivalries Of to-day were remembered only
with pity, or forgotten utterly" ne shook his
hand, it might be said, in Mr. Curis's face. Mr.
Curtis sat some distance back but he spoke at him,
and pointed at hun, IN way that could not be MS
taken. Again, when he spoke # the man-millI-
ncrs the dilletant. the carpet-knights Of poll
tics-uen whose energies, heretofore, have
been devoted, in newspapers, TO accusing and de-
nouucing mcl more honest than thcmselyes| when
he said that parties were not made and upheld by
department, ladies' magazines, or gush !" when he
spoke OF Mr. Curts's unique and delicate vote" he
would lean forward aud shout ont his sentence with
q look and gesture that carried it straight to its
mark. and would even bend to side, where he
could get a full view Of Mr. Curtis, and hurl his
words Nlii Win inc utip ol MS u'-N i5'i' J'''
as straight as a boy would fling stone When he
smoke Of the comparison that Curtis had
instituted between the Senator and himself, he laid
mis- hand on his heart and bowed toward Mr.. Curtis
with a mock reverence, while colossal sneer dis
orted his face Bat perhaps the suOiimest touch OF
The speech was when he spOke-wlth tie inevitable
gesture that always pointed the way for his shaft
Of Harpers eckig as " the journal made famous by
the pencil of Mast" His friends in ecstacy and
even some VINO were Mr.. Curtlss friends could not
refrain from enjoying the skfulness OF the thrust
Perhaps the fercest passage was when he said that
If Mr. Curtis had meant TO refer to him by his story
about Senator Jedediah Jones and President Lin
coin, he hoped ne would signify. AS he
said this it was like challenge to mortal combat
But after it all over, and when the excitement
was on the ebb ii evident thatin the Judgment,
even, of his friends, he had made great mistake
Before that speech he was stronger with the hepuD-
can party Of the State if the bearing of this con-
vention is criterion, than he had been III years be-
fore. 1t would have been bold man who should
have dared before that to hiss him, yet during that
speech he was Kissed l have never heard any
speaker Kissed at convention before
If give the comments of delegates
who voted steadily with him in the con-
ventlon IL will be understood that they do not
come from his opponents. One delegate said that
Mr. Conkliug had dug his own grave with that
speech. Another added that he had not only aug
the grave but had got into it and pulled the earth IN
after him. One or two of the most gloomy said that
he had given the death blow, not only TO his own
future but to that of the Republican party in this
State; these Responding people had reference more
especially to passages in the speech IN winch
the invective against the Administration was
almost as strong that against MI. Curtis
except that it lay chiefly in implication and III the
urn of the hand. Others expressed Indignation that
Mr. COnkling had used convention as the arena for
the wreaking of personal spite at the expense OF
the Republican party for, they said 1t would I'M
doubleday cost them q good many votes. Even
some of the Senator's closest friends had little or
nothing to cay in his defence. They had en-
loved the speech, but hardly seemed inclined to
think it the most judiciOus one that could
have been made. While the indignation OF Mr. Cur
tiss friends was unbounded the object Of the attack
took it quietly enough. lie is reported as having
said this morning that Mr. Conklng had not touched
him at all. lie had missed a great opportunity to
make an able argument against the Southern and
Civil Service reform policies and that was all.
This much is certainly to be said: That Mr..
Conkling has now put Mr. Curtis before the people
of the whole State as his rival whom he hates with
a bitter hatred, whereas before-outsde of political
circles-he has hardly been known in that attitude
The ferceness of the attack also is such as to arouse
sympathy for the man attacked. Mr. Curtis has
also this advantage, through the bad management
of the Conkling men, that tho frebrand
the responsibility for which both parties tIied
to fix on the other, was really thrown into the
convention by the chief representative of the COnk
ling men, next to Conkling himself, Mr.. Platt. the
chairman. 1t was also very well for the Conkling
men to inscribe harmony In floral figures upon the