The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-04-18
ROSCOE coNKLING.
THE HERALD,
Salt Lake City, UtaI

prived of one Of its, brightest minds. NO
body can faiEto mourn the death OF this
intellectual giant among men, for all
must fee! that civilization, humanity
and progress are sad losers by his tax
ing of. Such minds as his are Sc rare
that when one is developed it com
mands the respect and admiration of
mankind; hence the name and fame OF
the distinguished New Yorker extended
over the civilized globe. 1t was said a
few years ago that the three
monster minds of the world
the three statesmen of Christendom,
were Bismarck, Beaconsfeld and Conk-
ling. Two,of these have gone, and it
must be confessed that their places
have not been filed, that they are with
out successors; and when the third
shall go, as he is fast going, who is there
to succeed him?
From tbs day that Roscoe Conking.
a comparatively young man, entered
the councils of the nation as Repre-
sentative to the Thirty-sixth Congress
from the great State of New York.
until he resigned his seat in the Senate
in the spring OF 1881, he was recognized
rs leader of leading zen, giant
among great ones; and big as he was at
the beginning he did not cease to grow,
but kept on until he fairly
lowered above those around him.
For long years he wss recognized
as the bTainiest man il the Senate, If not
in the nation, Presidents Cabinet
Ministers and Congressman all bowling
TO him as their superior, and all proud
and content when he was their friend
Had it not been for his one weak spot
the greatest are weak somewhere-we
believe that ere this Conkling would
have been President of the nation. His
haughtiness, which knew no bounds
and brooked no snub, led him into the
great error of his life and checked q
career which otherwise would have
been brilliant and majestic from
beginning to end. Annoyed to
think that pigmy in COM
.parison to him should not bend to his
will and comply with his wishes IS
greater ones had cheerfully done
Conkling resigned his seat in the
Senate. People have called his act
hasty and impetuous, but it was not; it
was cool and deliberate, and was care
fally taken. The case was desperate;
the stakes large; to succeed was to
achieve such victory as no man ever
won in American politics; it was to
make him absolute master of the Presi-
dent or to drive that President outside
his own party while Conkiing remained
in and thedictator of his party; to lose
was to escape the triumph over him of
his inferior in every respect; to not put
fourth the effort was to humble his
own pride and confess q want
of faith in his own strength.
His resignation was the deliberate
act OF great man in a desperate stu
alton; it was heroic, and it is doubted
that he ever regretted it, however much
he may have regretted the circum-
stances which compelled him to meas
ure his strength. He expected to be
sent back to the Senate in triumph, IN
which event the administration would
have been made ignominious. lie
failed, but failure in that way wac bet
ter than the defeat which would have
attended him lad he remained and
submitted as he must have done. 1t
was that resignation which checked his
political growth, though it did not
make him less the great man and Raas-
ter mind. He retained his dignity
and self-respect, and in private lie
was the leader commanding respect and
exciting admiration that he had been es
q public character.
Roscoe Conkiirg wac anatiVe OF New
York, the State which was always his
home and which was ever proud OF her
distinguished son. He was born in
Albany, on October so, 1929, hence he
was in his fifty ninth year; receiving
an academic education and being ad-
mitted to the bar before he had attained
his majority, he removed to Utica in
1915, which has since been his home.
In 1850 he was District Attorney of his
county, in 1858 Mayor of the City, and
began his national career as Repre-
sentative in the Thirty sixth Congress,
being reelected to the Thirty-seVenth
Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congress,
but was Immediately elected to The
Senate as a Union Republican taking
his seat in March, 1867. He was
twice reelected to the Senate, and his
third term would have expired in 1885.
He resigned in 1881. and has since taken
40 open part in politics, devoting him
self to his profession, which is said to
have yielded him an income of 100000
a year.