Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-03-15
s.Greatness" Again.

OOn klIn& uEcStthcss hS"Ahs
Is Mr.. Conkling great man? If
he is, in what does his greatness con-
sist? These questions have been ask
ed many times; but while his admir-
ers have always FASTENED to answer
the first promptly and emphatically in
the affirmative, no one of them has
ever ventured upon reply to the Sec
ond. Usually when a man is great
there is no difficulty in pointing out
the elements which constitute his
greatness, but Mr.. Conkling seems to
be unique specimen. OF gorgeous
eulogy, like that of Mr.. Foster and DIR.
Newman, We have had surfeit, but
we doubt if even those two eminent
slobberers would be willing to call
their eloquence by SO cold name as
evidence. Turning from his friends to
the record of his public career, what do
we find? Mr.. +. w. Whitridge ans
wered this question in the October No. OF
The Information ReUiea0, in an ad-
mirabIe article from which we quote
elswhere. He showed that the record
was scarcely more vocal on the ques-
ton of greatness than Mr.. Conkling's
friends were. His long career in Con-
gress and in the Senate has left no en-
during mark upon the Legislation OF his
time. His great efforts were nearly
all made in caucus or in secret session,
and were aimed to defend partisanship
in politics rather than to promote the
public welfare. As a lawyer he has
had only six cases in the Supreme
Court, where Senator Edmunds has
had nineteen. and General Garfield,
who was hardly thought of as a law
yer, had thirteen. In the Newly ork
Court of appeals he had only five cases,
two of them political, in one of which
he had made his celebrated 'halcyon
and vociferous' appeal which has lived
only because of its grotesque absurdl-
ty of rhetoric.
"Ah," his friend say, 'iyou must ad
NIT that he showed great abilities as
political manager? No man but a
born leader could have Leld the COM
plete sway which he held for so many
years over the Republican party OF
New-York." Yes, he did hold COM
plete sway, but how? Simply because
President Grant gave him absolute
control of all the'patronage OF the State.
No man could hope for Office unless he
first bowed down to Mr.. Coukling If
it be an exhibition of greatness for a
man to succeed when he has things
all his own way, then Mr.. Conkllng
was great. By the same rule Tweed
was great The test of a mans abili-
ty is his conduct in adversely. What
became of Mr. Conkling's greatness
when his patronage was taken away :?
From the time his absolute control of
New York appointments ended he did
nothing but blunder. Thrown upon
his own resources, with the support
of the National Administration re-
moved, he first made great show of
fighting, then resigned his seat and
ran away. This was certainly long
way fron greatness. But what shall
be said of the political sagacity of a
leader-to give it no higher name
who resigns in the expectation of be-
ing elected without first making sure
that he can be reelected =? What can be
said of him when, after finding that he
cannot be elected, he makes hopeless
fight for weeks for "a vindication," on
ly to be DEBATED in the end Was his
greatness visible in any of this
Compare him with the other men
whose names have been associated
with his in the political methods CON-
mon to all of them. Nobody attributes
greatness to Senator Don Cameron, of
Pennsylvania, yet his sway over Penn
sylvania politics has been as complete
for many years as Mr.. Conkling's ever
was in New York.
Wherein, then, is Mr.. Conkling
great2 He is clearly not great as
statesman, not great as lawyer, not
great as political manager. What
else remains? Will he, can he be
great as Judge ? Is the long-deferred
greatest effort of his life to be made on
the Supreme Bench F? Perhaps it is.
Perhaps be is merely great in expecta-
tion.-NeU York Tribune.
The Mean Velocity of Streams.
AT recent meeting of the American
Society of Civil Engineers, paper by
Mr.. r. E. McMath, of st. Louis, on
the above subject, was read, and with
it was presented set of diagrams of