The Progress. [volume] (White Earth, Minn.) 1886-1889, 1888-05-12

HllF fH'>,\\ WIZ
..r ROSCOE. CoNKL1No.
The sad news spread rapidly in the Hof-
man House and was licked off by the wire
to sorrowing country: There was hush
In the corridors of the hotels near by and
a pervading oppressive quiet and solemn
ity ALI voices were subdued The friends
who came to make. last call went away
with sOrrowful faces
AL the afternoon the sick statesman lay
nlotionless in his bed in the Hoffman House
annex He occasionally moved his arms.
which were under the bed covering He
lay on his right side il order that the
wound On the left side of his head might
not get Initiated
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Roscoe Ccnkling was born in Albany N. Y,
October 30, 1929. HIS father, Albert Conkling,
was a Representative in the Seventeenth Con-
gress and afterward filed the position OF
United States Judge for the Northern dis
trict of New York and Minister to Mex.
leo. Roscoe received q common school
and academic education. Removing to
Auburn and Geneva with his father. he studied
law three years under his tuition. In 1916 he
entered the law office Of Spencer & Herman IN
Utica, and in 1919 was appointed by Hamilton
Fish district attorney of Oneida County sew
eral months before he attained his majority.
On the day he was Fl he was admitted to
the bar. During the next decade he dis
closed rare qualities of management and
became leader in local politics. In law he
| ranked with the first of the profession as an
advocate. The triumphs he achieved at the
bar. and which We're his passports to public
preference, We're gained before he reached the
| age Of 20. After thai he accepted but few cases.
but in these his success Was marked He mar
| ried Julia Seymour, sister of ex Governor Hora-
! ito Seymour. In 1858 he was elected mayor
| OF Utica. and IN November of the same
! year he was elected q Representative in the
! Thirty-sixth Congress and took his seat in that
| body at the beginning OF its first session, in
December. 1879, session noted for its long and
| bitter contest over the Speakership. He was
reelected in 1869, his brother. Frederick A.
| Conkling, being elected at the same time
| for, New York district. The two
brothers entered the Thirty-seventh Con-
| gress at the opening OF the special session
| convened by President Lincoln, July T. 1861.
| In this Congress Roscoe Conl1ling was CHAIR
man of the Committee on the District of Co.
| lumba, and also OF a special committee ap-
| pointed to frame q bankrupt law. A
| candidate for reelection to the Thirty
| eighth Congress, he defeated by his old
| law partner, Francs Herman. In 1864
| Conllng defeated him, serving on the Com
| mittees on Ways and Means and on Recon-
| struttion. He startled the Nation by an attack
| on the tactics of General Mcclellan, and gave
| thekeynote for carnestneSS in all future WAR
| legislation at a time when hesitancy and vacl-
laton prevailed. In February, 1862, he OPP
| posed Mr.. Spauldngs Lcgal-Tender act by
speech and vote, sustaining, contrary to the
| prevailing party policy, Mr.. Horizons amend
| melt providing for the issue of an Interest,"
| bearing note, and against the final passage Of.
| the b II rs amended by Thaddeus Stevens. In
| the same session he voted for the payment
OF interest on the debt in COIN. Mr..
| CoEklng was a firm upholder Ct all
| legislation tending to uphold the hands Of the
| Administration in prosecuting the war for the
| suppression of the rebellion In the: fall OF
| 1856 he was elected to the Fortieth Congress,
| but before that Congress met he was elected
| to succeed Judge Ira Harris as United
| States Senator from the State Of New
! York. He took his seat in the
! twice, his second term beginning March L. 1873,
| and his third term March 4, 1879. He was a
! jealous supporter Of General Grants Admins
traton. The general policy of that Admins
| traton toward the South was largely directed
! by Senator Conlzling, who advocated it with all
thepowers of his eloquence and all the potency
| Of his personal and political influence He
! was also largely instrumental in the incen-
| ton and passage Of the Civil Rights bill. In
| 1876 be took prominent part in forming tho
| act for the Electoral Commission, and in carry
! ing i through. In 1897 Senator Conkling led
Ilt 1TdAI lOFceS aG tno tSSpuDllcan nominating
! convention in Chicago, and made the speech
! putting him in nomination Soon after the
| election of President Garfield he differed
| from him questions OF public policy, and
! in 1881 he resigned his seat in the Senate
and applied to the Legislature of New York
| for Endorsement and reelection. He failed in
| this, and retired from politics, resuming the
active practice of the law to redeem his fort.
! nnes, Which were sadly shattered. He speed
| lily assumed the foremost position at the New
| York bar, and was engaged in a number
! of prominent and remunerative cases.
His last visit to Chicago was ia
July, 1887, when he argued patent case
J in the United States Court, and received much
attention, being rendered reception by the
Grant Club. OF late years he had been repeat
| eddy solicited to re-enter politics, and his re-
| cent replies had indicated that he might
| reconsider the resolution he made
| in 1881. Mr. Conkling had narrow escape
| from death in the recent blizzard in New
! York, being almost overcome one night IN the
| drifts and the binding snow, and only his
| magnificent physique carried him through
! Although his hair and beard had whitened
| of late years, Mr.. Conkling still retained his
fine physical proportions, which would have
! made him marked man in any assentlage
"A St. Louis hotel-keeper has cat
that has developed an uncomfortable
appetite for strong drink, his favorite