The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-04-24
THAT INTER VIEW.
WHAT CONKLING THINKS OF HAYES
POLICY AND TITLE.
C0nklIng to support tho Blair BID, AL
though There ~ No Understand
ing Between Him and blair.


RrGas HOUSE.
Washington, d. c.. April 20. 1878.
THE FAMOUS CoHKLINa INTERVIEW,
though In part repudiated and wholly dis
avowed by that statesman as an authorized
or calculated public utterance, has at least
served, through the excitement 1t created, to
show how hollow and insincere Is the footing
upon which the Fraudulent Administration Of
Mr.. Hayes actually rests. | am in position
to assert definitely that the utterances at
tributed to Mr.. Conkling were indeed to some
extent reflex Of his feeling, both political
and personal, toward the administration
and the men who surround 1t. His
own verblage may be traced In portions
Of it, while in other parts there
is departure from the letter Of his usual
line Of comment, Just sufficient to bstray the
fact that the interviewer freely translated
into his own idiom the veil known spirit of
Mr.. Conkling's ordinary private conversa-
tion. It is known to the readers OF the DEM
oCRAT-as In fact it was made subject OF
editorial comment by you on the occasion of
my letters from tho Rochester convention
last fall-that | personally admire Mr. Conk-
ling and like his manly way OF doing things,
which in themselves are politically at least
offensive to my feeling and contrary to my
views of what Is right. Thus under ordinary
circumstances, the criticism might be urged
that / was inclined to accord too great i'm
portance to his utterances But in this in
stance that criticism must fall, from the fact
that the general public, as well as the poll
ticians here in Washington, has been pro-
foundly stirred up by knowledge Of Mr.. Conk-
lings habit Of denouncing not only
THE POLICY OF HAYES,
but the validity Of his title, even in private
conversation. Stripping the putative inter-
view Of its irrelevant personalities and it's
heavy gossip, it appears to be presentation
OF the leading facts Of the situation as re-
garded by Mr.. Conklng in much the same
tenor, If notin the same phrase, that he would
have employed on the floor of the Senate had
| he deemed it texpedient or consistent with the
interests OF the public the Republican party
or OF himself as @ statesman having aspira-
| tioDs, to take public stand rs to the questions
under consideration.
| In order to fully understand
THE ATTITUDE OF MIR. CONKLTNG
and of the school Of Republicans Of which he
| Ia the ablest and most conspicuous represen,
tative, it is necessary to go back to the latter
stages of the electoral count and briefly re-
view the principal events OF that time. Mr.
Conklng spoke and voted in favor OF the cleo
| tOral bill with the idea that 1t afforded &
method of judicially and conclusively deter
mining questions that had arisen through tht
fraudulent and criminal nisteasance OF thu
returning officers OF certain disputed States
questions the rise OF which clearly had never
been contemplated rs possible by the founders
OF our system and for the settlement Of which
no method was provided or even vaguely in
dicated in the constitution. He knew, as die
all men who read the newspapers, thai
by the votes 'as they came out Of the ballot
box" to use his own expression, elected Til
| den. But he knew also that the canvassing
officers, by falsfying the records Of the bal
lot-boxes. had afforded the supporters OF the
defeated candidate an excuse for inauRur.
ating a contest which might Mt any mornen,
become q revolution, and it was as an escape
from this that Mr. Conkling advocated
| THE ELECTORAL BILL.
His idea Of the nature and jurisdiction O
the electoral commission, however, was alto
gether different from the idea which the ma
i0rity of the commission adopted as to theil
powers and duties, and | have the best Of au
the adoption OF the dtiunde doctrine as sub
versive or evasive Of the prime object fo
which the commission was created. An init
mate friend Of Mr.. Conkling, who is promi
DpUJ lawyer OI Ublt9b LOlI iUS IHSb summer
that Conklng said to him, a few days afte
arriving in Utica from Washington, that tn
commission had been organized for tn
purpose OF determining the very questions
which they refused to consider and that there
fore the count which Congress had intended
law and the facts became a mere farce In tn
way of arbitrary exercise Of power according
to the predictions OF the judges. This even
destroyed the moral weight OF the decision
n ls.,k<x
with the administration was dictated not les
by his contempt for it's title than by his dis
like of its pers0nnei and his dissent from it
policy. The shallow pretenses which MI
Hayes made OF a desire to inaugurate
''REFoRhs"
, and which he partcularized by calling to hi
Cabinet such q proverbial cOrruptiOnist a
mercenary as Carl Schrz and such an un
principled political shyster as Evarts, M
Conkling regarded as the weak attempt OF
feeble man to distract attention from tn
; fraud to which he owed his presidential Origin
Now, Conkhng is not great many thing
| that he ought not to be; but whatever he ma
be or not be, some things he always is, to vii
strong, manly, frank, and, in a sense chiva
rous. Thus the molly-coddle methods b
country to the enormity Of the Fraud b
singing OF Sunday nights to driv
away the ghosts that haunted him; hi
meek way OF turning or pretending to tur
the other cheek when one was smitten; in
word, his sickly effort to canonize the r.
turning Board apotheosize Eliza Pinksto
: and evangelize Fraud incarnate in himself; a
this aroused the naughty, contemptuous an
! arrogant nature Of Conkling to its uttermoi
depths. AS a consequence his views as
Hayes and the situation which Hayes ha
: made, whenever he expressed them, wei
D found to be "saIt on the raw
q as the English say, every tim
9 II all that Conkling ever said on this subje
= in private conversation could be reproduce
q uerbatim, the Wortd's interview would sir
q into insignificant tameness. But Mr.. Conl
/. ling holds that
g HIS PRIVATE OPINIONS,
= even If he does express them without reserr
9 in the freedom of private discourse, shou
Y not be made to form part OF his public I
a<.r.J r. honi rnI fr/rp ouk k3rfr 10