The Portland daily press., 1881-05-21
A Savage Attack.
The Knickerbocker Organ on the New
York designations.
IAlhanV ,IOurnal1

ALBANY Journal.l
Senator Conkling's letter to Gov. Cornell,
stating why he resigned the United States
Senatorship, contains pitiful excuses but no
valid reasons for taking that step. 1t is the
last move of desperate game, and will merely
serve to strengthen the conviction of all intel
ligent men that Mr.. Conkling threw down the
great trust that was committed to him and fled
the field simply because he could not have his
own wilful way. 1t is the letter of banked,
self-centered ambition, not of broad-mnded
craftsmanship. Its tone and temper could not
be worse. Instead of calm discussion there is
angry gnashing of the teeth. Instead of weighty
argement, there is gratuitous assertion. There
is plenty of indirect laudation of Conkling, and
plenty of direct abuse of Robertson. There
fierce filings at the President and his friends
and advisers, and there is the grave humor of
the senior Senator from New York, who has
never missed an opportunity to sneer at civil
service reform. and whose career convicts him
of always regarding the offices of New York as
his personal perquistes, suddenly at the beck
of his own greedy ends, turning into radical
apostle of civil service reform.
What will be the verdict of the Republicans
of the State of New York on the concoctor Of
this remarkable document in the light of the
circumstances out of which it sprung? Unless
we greatly mistake their intelligence they will
lay it down with the remark: "Senator Conk-
ling found that the sense of the Senate was
overwhelmingly in favor of the confirmation
of Robertson, and instead of proving himself
good Republican, an American worthy of the
name, by bowling to the will of the majority.
he seeks to avoid coming out of the small end
of the horn by retreating through the avenue
of resignation. He would fan avoid wound
to his vanity and self-love by ignominously
running from the field of conflict in which he
was worsted in the preliminary engagements,
just before the decisive battle was to be
fought" Such we believe will be the shape
which the public sentiment of the party will
assume, and as result Senator Conkling will
be branded with the condemnation: Thou art
weighed in the balance and found wanting.
The Republicans of this great commonwealt
can forgive q great deal to q great leader but
they despise coward and they have only
contempt Tor man who, raised to high place
by their suffrages, turns around at an exigent
time and endeavors to shpwreck the party
which he could not bend to his own schemes
We have characterized the letter as the last
desperate move in desperate game. That is
all there is of it. Stripped OF surplusage, it
amounts to this: The nomination of Robert
son was SURPRISE zoe asked the President to
withdraw it; he declined to accede to our re-
quest; a number of New Workers, including
sixty Assemblymen, were also opposed to the
nominations; the President withdrew certain
nominations, but not this one; zoe have an i'm
preston that Robertson is not fit man for the
place. The letter resolves itself into these ele-
ments, and apart from there is nothing to it.
And what is there in any of the excuses TINS
advanced, that justities resignation? Abso-
lutely nothing. Grant, for the sake of argu-
ment, that the President would have done
better if he had taken care that the nominal