The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-12-11

throw down the gauntlet to Conkllns
was James @. Blaine. 1t was In tne
spring of 1866, when Provost Marshal
Fry, of Blaine's state of Maine, was
under fire. The consensus of opinion
at the time was that Blaine got decid-
edly the better of the scrimmage, buL
granting that, IL was a victory dearly
won-unquestionabl it cost Blaine the
presidency. 1t cost him the nomination
in 1876, when that nomination meant
election; and 1t cost him the election
in 1884. Cleveland's slender majority,
only 1000, in the state Of New York,
was beyond question due to the aid of
Roscoe Conkling. Never was a drub-
bing more significantly revenged
Conkling and Blaine, although for
years serving together in one or the
other branch of congress, never were
reconciled-never again spoke as they
passed.
The most signal triumphs won by
Roscoe Conkling were in the subduing
of opposition and trampling out revolt
within the ranks of his own party. En-
joying to the full the confidence of
President Grant and backed by all the
federal patronage falling to the share
of the Empire state, Conkllng was
relentless boss. One of his most notable
victories was the driving of his sena
toral colleague. Ex-Governor Reuben
E. Fenton, out of the Republican state
convention in the Wieting opera house
in September, 1871. 1t left Conklngs
supremacy in the party councils atso-
lutte for years. In the chair of the
Nf vnt,ti Tor, II 4I,,,N
president of Cornell university and
now ambassador to Berlin. Conkling
occupied an end seat next to the aisle
in about the middle of the hall and
personally directed every movement
against the enemy. In the end Fenton
and his crowd, having been routed
foot, horse and dragoon, retreated
from the hall and, going elsewhere,
formed a rump convention, which
proved the nucleus of the Liberal Re-
publican" movement and the nomina-
tion of Horace Greeley for president
in 1872.
TRIUMPH IN ROCHESTER,.
Six wears later. in 1877 when Grant
had been succeeded by Hayes and he
had no longer the backing of the fed
| eral administration, Roscoe Conking
| repeated in Rochester the role he had
enacted in Syracuse. This time it was
not Fenton, but George William Curtis
whom he pounded to a jelly His tri-
| umDh was the greater because it was
| won, not by the aid Of but in spite of,
| the federal administration. A past
grand master in invective and satire,
never shone he more brilliantly than
on that occasion. Conkling had in
directly been the cause of Hayes ele-
| vation to the presidency, first in the
Republican national convention, where
| COnkling's opposition to Blaine had
| made Hayes possibility, and again in
| congress, where Conkling by helping
| to frame the electoral commission law
| paved the way to the seating of Hayes.
| The reward Conkling asked of Hayes
was a seat in the cabinet for Thomas
| G. Plat. Hayes treated the New York
| senator with sCorn. Hence these tears.
Which was the greater. Conkling's s
hatred for Blaine, or his contempt for
| Hayes because of his Willingness to aC-
| Cept a seat to which another had been
| elected, would be a nice question for
| the historian. President HAYES rejec-
ton of Platt was coupled with his ac-
| ceptance. as member of his cabinet, of
two of Conkling's opponents, William
| NJ. EvartS and Carl SChur2. Lord ROs-
: GOES cup of wrath was full not only to
! the brim, but running over. He spent
| the first summer of the Hayes admin
| istration in Europe, in search of health
| His arrival home was the signal Cor
the rally of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
forces, the objective point being the
! capture of the Republican state con-
vention, then about to be held in
Rochester. Conkling went to the con
Vention with his war paint on toma-
hawk in hand. and placed himself at
the head of his followers.
HOW PLATT BECAME CHAIRMAN
Alonzo Is. Cornell, later governor
who owed all he was, politically, tc
! COnkling, but who in the days of his
| power forgot his creator, was chair
| man of the state committee. AS the
reddest rag he could flaunt in the race
of the Hayes administration, Conklinr
had selected Thomas c. Platt for tbs
! conventions temporary chairman
| Platt's speech, on taking the chair
was, for the administration, gall and
wormwood. 1t abOunded in filings a