New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-20

Dftu pIPiLuucu Dt tic circumstances OF tnClr
election from helping him in any warfare he
! might have begun upon the Administration, he
would thus have been left in position Of some
power and dignity. When the present LegSla-
ture was elected four-ffths of the Republican
members We're known as Conklng men, A
large proportion of these men promptly. and in
frank and manful way, expressed their down
right disapproval Of the designations This
made it impossible that they should vote for
Messrs. Conking and Plat, but did not make it
impossible that they should allow their old
friendship for the former to influence somewhat
their selection OF his succcsSOr-Or successors.
Indeed, Mr.. COnkling has been playing into
the hands of his opponents from the start
Having once resigned his wise course was to
refuse to be a candidate for reelection. But he
forced himself upon the Legislature, and the
necessary result was that all the clements Of
passive disapproval became elements of active
opposition Men who would have been glad to
remain his friends were compelled for the sake
OF the party, to become his political enemies
and as the contest heightened, they were forced
further and further from the man who, they
saw, was ready 70 wreck the Republican party
for the sake of personal advantage. There is
no need OF following ont the details of the con-
test so fresh i'll the general memory. 1t
suilices to say that Mr.. Conkling seems to have
squandcred in two months the accumulated
prestige and power of lifetime. He alienated,
as we have said, large section of the party
who would have been glad, if his conduct had
made it unsuitable, to remain on good terms
with him. He Disguised the men who did stand
by him by the grcedincss of his lcvies upon
their friendship. He astonished the public to
whom he had been depicted as a man of intense
pride, by engaging in the most persistent cam
pagn of buttonholing on record. As time
passed, instead of the popular reaction which
his friends predicted, there came only ii greater
feeling against HIM. He lost friends in the
Legislature, lost newspapers in the State and
outside, lost day by day such support in the
party as he had, and with each sign of growth
in the popular reprobation his obstinacy only
rooted itself more firmly. He energies from
the scramble for reelection with nothing but the
rags of his former reputation and influence and
with his ability 10 damage the Republican party
practically destroyed. If Mr.. Conllling's course
had been governed by the utmost prudence he
would never have been able to put the Rcpub-
ican party of this State in an attitude of hos
tility to the wise and patriotic Administration
of President Garfield. At the furthest, he could
only have made himself the leader Of a trouble
some faction. Bat he has now put it out of
his own power to do rhat.
The retirement OF MIR. Conkling need not dis
tnIb the harmony of the party in the least. and
viii not. The Republican voters OF this state
know that great organization for political
ends such As that to which they belong does not
depend upon the goodwill of amy one man,
Whatever his abilities are and whatever his in
fuence may have been. They know that
leaders have their day. and that Mr. Conkling
has had long one. While his downfall is more
dramatic than is usually the case when n DO
litiral cheftain is oNcrthrown, they see that il
Is substantially repetition of former incidents
in Our politics the logic of which makes it I'M
likely that he should ever regain his old place
The fact that he has shown strange lack of
hdcHty to his party makes this still more un-
likely. Mr.. Conkliug WaS mistaken when he
said he had chosen murder; lac chose suicide
and suicide is not fashionable The Repubh-
cans of NcW-Iork, strong with all the vigor of
sound principles, are not going down into the
grave because Mr.. Conlling is there. The
party will close up its ranks, and move on and
neither he nor any other one man will be missed
IL Will bc two months and half before The
State Convention will need to meet. IF the
Albany contest has aroused any bitterness. il
viii have time to sub~idc. But the fact i,-and
every observer ut Albany must conccde it
that there never was political contest lasting
so long and in which SO much WAS mt stake, that
WAS carried on with such goOd-natur as the
Albany deadlock. one secret OF this was that
most OF the men who were kept by their bosses
voting for Nh. ConlIpg, thought as poorly OF
him rs the men did who were opposing him,
and while the Legislature was divided in lis
votes, IT was in reality OF one mind ON this sub
jcCt. The present disposition of the party is to-
ward harmony, and that disposition, we are
confident, viii be strengthened by wise and
concliatory course on the part of thc Admins
tIation, which, while it will rot forget its
friends, Will not stOop to policy OF revenge