ence and
attractive personality. As an orator he had few equals and no superiors.
As in the case of Senator Sumner he spoke and voted as a Senator not
merely for his State, but for his country; not for any particular
section or locality, but for the United States. He was too great a man,
and his services were too important and valuable for his country to be
deprived of them merely on account of a misunderstanding between the
President and himself about Federal patronage in New York. He and his
colleague should have retained their seats in the Senate and trusted to
the judgment of their fellow-citizens for a vindication of their course
and action in that as in other matters. They not only made a mistake in
resigning their seats in the Senate, but consummated it when they went
before the Legislature of their State, which was then in session, and
asked for a vindication through the medium of reelection. This was
subjecting their friends to a test to which they were not willing to
submit. Their friends, both in the Legislature and out of it, were loyal
to them, and this loyalty would have been demonstrated at the proper
time and in the right way had the two Senators remained in a position
which would have enabled their adherents to do so without serious injury
to the party organization. But when these men were asked, as the price
of their loyalty, to place the party organization in the State in open
opposition to the National Administration for no other reason than a
misunderstanding about Federal patronage in the city of New York, they
did not think that the controversy was worth the price; hence the
request was denied. The result was the defeat of Conkling and Platt, and
the election of two Administration Republicans, Warner Miller and E.G.
Lapham.

This foolhardy act of Conkling's had the unfortunate effect of
eliminating him from public life, at least so far as an active
participation in public affairs was concerned. But this was not true of
Mr. Platt. He was determined to come to the front again, and in this he
was successful. At the very next National Convention (1884) he turned up
as one of the Blaine delegates from New York, and was one of the
speakers that seconded Mr. Blaine's nomination. That was something Mr.
Conkling never could have been induced to do. He was proud, haughty and
dictatorial. He would never forget a friend, nor forgive an enemy. To
his friends he was loyal and true. To his enemies he was bitter