Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1881-06-03

Conkling is from the New York Express:
Senator David Davis is reported as say
ing that Mr.. Conkling is the ablest men,
Der of the Senate since Daniel Webster
belonged to that body. No one denies
that Mr.. Conkling has superior talents.
But the question of vital Importance is,
what has he done with them? Brains
are for use. Nobody cares whether Mr..
Conkling has a greater intellect than
Webster, or John Quincy Adams, or
Benjamin Franklin, or Shakespeare.
His brains are his W private property,
except in so far as he uses them for the
public benefit. He might just as well
be an idiot as a sage, so far as the public
is concerned, if he has never used his in
tellect to promote the interests OF the
country. Besides, how is anybody to tell
how much mind a man has except by his
achievements? There are no steelyards
fine enough to determine the quantity OF
a mans intelligence by weight. Quality
of brain force is OF vastly more conse-
ouence in determining the worth of a
man and his rank than mere bulk. The
biggest head in Massachusetts thirty
years ago was that of a fool. The only
way the people can determine the value
and rank of a public man is by what he
has done.
Before returning Roscoe Conkling to
the United States Senate, it is worth
while to see what he has done. Born in
Albany in 1928, his father a respectable
Judge who served as Minister to Mexico,
he was we'll educated and admitted to the
Bar at Utica. Governor Hamilton Fish
appointed him District Attorney before
he was q, and in 1858 he succeeded in
winning his way into Congress, but made
no mark there until the second term.
In the Thirty-seventh Congress his short
speeches won attention, but his course
made him unpopular, and he lost his
election in 1862. In 1864 he secured a
reelection, and in 1866 got chosen to the
Senate. In the House he won distinction
only as a partisan manager, and very
largely through his naughty manner and
dictatorial temper. He made no speeches
Of any consequence. His name is con-
nected with no important measure of leg
i~slation in all that time. He is remem-
bered chiefly on account of the terrible
attack, "his naughty disdain, his grand
Eloquent swell, his majestic, superemin-
ent, o~verpowering, t~urkey-gobbler strut"
called forth from Blaine. He took his
seat in the Senate in 1867, and has served
there IA years. Some of the most inn
portant questions ever brought before
Congress were raised for consideration
during that time-questions of recon
struction, of the government of the
South, of finance, of economy, Of inter-
nal improvements, Of tariff reform, of
foreign policy, of civil service reform, of
railway regulation, and the emancipation
of American commerce from the disabil.
tiles imposed by the Republicans during
and after the war; yet on not one of these
great questions did Mr.. Conkling ever
make a memorable or important speech.
He was all the time preparing to make
the greatest effort of his life, but he
never made it. He felt no interest in
such trivial affairs as the commercial and
mercantile enterprises of this city and
State, and when our merchants and finan.
ciers and business men and farmers
wanted Congress to protect their indus
tries, they were obliged to seek other ad.
vocates.
Daniel Webster, and Clay, and Ben.
ton, and Calhoun. and Wright made their
greatest speeches, the masterpieces Of
American eloquence, on questions of in.
calculably less consequence than have
been discussed in the Senate during
these ID years. They made historic oc-
casions by bringing permanent principles
to bear on the consideration of topics Of
less national moment than those disposed
OF every week in our Legislature. In
the great crisis of our history when it
was proposed to foist a defeated candi-
date into the Presidency to the exclusion
of the man whom the people had elected,
the most magnificent opportunity ever
offered to a man Of superior talents and
far-reaching craftsmanship, he had moth.
ing in particular to say, and finally
acquiesced in the crime. The only ques-
tions that have excited his interest have
related to-party management. The only
topics grand enough to inspire his lofty
intellect to supreme exertion have related
to the distribution of patronage. He
could see our commerce wiped from the
oceans without a syllable, but made a
three-hours' Grafton against the confirma-
ton OF a Collector. The only superlative
talent he has displayed in all these years
was the talent for neglecting public in
terests to mind his own. He has dis
played extraordinary capacity for ignor-
ing the interests and claims Of the five
million people he was sent to the Senate
to represent. He has shown an unex-
ampled genius for quarreling. He has
quarreled from the start. He offended
his constituents so that they refused to
~re-elect him in 1862. He insulted his
associates in the House. He made Blaine
mad. His quarrel with Fenton has lasted
10 years. He quarreled with the
Liberals in 1872. He kept up four.
years quarrel with the Hayes Admins