died I was at my home, Natchez, Mississippi, where a
memorial meeting was held in honor of his memory, participated in by
both races and both parties. I had the honor of being one of the
speakers on that occasion. That part of my remarks which seemed to
attract most attention and made the deepest impression was the
declaration that it was my good fortune, as a member of the National
House of Representatives, to sit within the sound of his eloquent voice
on a certain memorable occasion when he declared that there could never
be a permanent peace and union between the North and the South until the
South would admit that, in the controversy that brought on the War the
North was right and the South was wrong. Notwithstanding that
declaration, in which he was unquestionably right, I ventured the
opinion that, had he been spared to serve out the term for which he had
been elected, those who had voted for him would have been proud of the
fact that they had done so, while those who had voted against him would
have had no occasion to regret that he had been elected.

Upon the death of President Garfield Vice-President Arthur,--who had
been named for that office by Mr. Conkling,--became President; but he,
too, soon incurred the displeasure of Mr. Conkling. Mr. Conkling had
occasion to make a request of the President which the latter could not
see his way clear to grant. For this Mr. Conkling never forgave him. The
President tried hard afterwards to regain Mr. Conkling's friendship, but
in vain. He even went so far, it is said, as to tender Mr. Conkling a
seat on the bench of the Supreme Court; but the tender was
contemptuously declined.

President Arthur aspired to succeed himself as President. As a whole he
gave the country a splendid administration, for which he merited a
renomination and election as his own successor. While there was a strong
and well-organized effort to secure for him a renomination, the
probabilities are that the attitude of Mr. Conkling towards him
contributed largely to his defeat; although the ex-Senator took no
active part in the contest. But, as in the case of Mr. Blaine, his
silence, no doubt, was fatal to Mr. Arthur's renomination.

CHAPTER XXII

THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN OF 1884

When the Forty-seventh Congress expired March 4th, 1883, I returned to
my home at Natchez, Mississippi. 1884 was the year of the Presidential
election. Early in the year it was made clear that there was to be a
bi