Evening journal., 1914-02-20
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
ThurIOW Weeds Opinion Of
Roscoe COnkling'S OratOry
By Holland.

A few days after the Republican
State convention Of 1877 was held at
Rochester, n. Y, called upon Thur
low Weed at his home in New York
city, for the purpose of getting from
him an explanation of the meaning
of that now traditional gathering and
forecast of what the Republican
leaders of New York State would be
likely to do in the way of presiden-
tial politics which would have the
Presidential nomination Of 1880 in
consideration.
Mr.. Weed was almost blind. He
could see dimly, but he told me that
while he perceived my figure he could
not make our my face.
Since my eyesight has become i'm
paired" he said, 81 find that ! am
able to get a pretty good idea Of the
character of men who call upon me
from the infections of their voices.
| cannot read their faces. but I can
interpret their thoughts and this is
a new gift for me.
so ! am satisfied from what you
have just been saying to me that you
want to find out from me who the
Republicans will nominate in 1880
for President"
Yes replied, that is one Of the
purposes of nay call"
"Well." said Mr.. Weed, Il have had
the published report of the Roches-
ter convention read to me. Roscoe
/ Conkling's speech had more meaning
in it than any one who does not
know Conkling as well as 7 do would
discover.
"By the way, ] want to say this
of Conkling's speech: I think he
/ made a mistake in attacking George
/ William Curtis as be did Nnthng
Is gained by an attack of that kind
/ do not think he made mistake
from his point of view i'm setting
forth his opposition TO President
Hayes I have been persuaded all
along that the President made q
( grievous blunder. from the political
/ point of view, when he removed Gen
eral Arthur Naval Officer Cornell
and Surveyor Sharp from the New
| York custom house.
Politically speaking, It was done
too early in his administration. II
revealed a purpose to destroy the
! present Republican organization OF
/ New York, the intention being, I have
no doubt, to build up another organ
! ization which will be able TO swing
/ New York Republicans to the sup.
/ port of John Sherman for the presi-
Dental nomination. Sherman is un-
! doubtedly Hayes candidate for the
succession, and It was poor polite.
for Hayes or Sherman or both Of
them to show their hands at this
time. For that reason, Roscoe Conk-
ling. who is the leader of the New
York Republican organization, was
perfectly justified in attacking Presi.
dent Hayes as he did. l am satisfied
that II Is Conkling's purpose to Sc
cure the nomination of General Gram
in $780, Now / have answered yot
frankly, but / want to add another
thing. You should read COnkling'i
speech over and over again. IL Is ;
masterpiece of its kind. Conking'i
command of the English language Il
superb, and his rhetorical artihcel
were never better displayed than II
this speech.
II heard only this morning tina
although Conkling spoke without an.
notes before him. and seemed to bl
speaking extemporaneously, he hat
given all of his time for several day
TO writing that speech and then hat
committed it TO memory word TO
word. My friend, Thomas l.. James
told me this morning that Conklini
read that speech 10 him from tn
manuscript the evening before it wa
delivered
Copyright. 1914. by +. ]. Edwards
All rights reserved.
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tel
how Il was when Chester A. Arthu
Presided over the Senate"