In 1847 the Wilmot Proviso struck the keynote of popular sentiment, and the Barnburners, leaving the convention the instant the friends of the South repudiated the principle, sought to stay the aggressiveness of slavery.

Conkling's sudden silence as to the danger threatening free elections, of which he declaimed so warmly in April, seemed to indicate undue satisfaction with existing conditions.

Very cautiously started on the ground of necessity because of the attitude of the Southerners in Congress, the third-term idea continued to strengthen until the widespread and deep interest in the great soldier's home-coming was used to…

The question of discrediting the traditions quickly became a serious one, and its discussion, stimulated by other aspirants for the Presidency, took a wide range.

The opponents of a third term did not yield to any in their grateful remembrance and recognition of what Grant had done for the country, but they deemed it impolitic upon both public and party grounds.

If the tradition of two terms be overthrown because of his distinguished service, they argued, his election for a fourth term, to which the Constitution offered no bar, could be urged for the same reason with still more cogency.

Never before had so much attention been given to a political question by persons ordinarily indifferent to such speculation.

Such acrimonious antagonism quickly uncovered the purpose of the Stalwarts, who now sought to control the nomination regardless of opposition.

In a few years his clear, incisive English, always forcible, often eloquent, had advanced him to the editorship of the Evening Journal.

Indeed, the beauty and strength of his character, coupled with the esteem in which Republican leaders held him as a counsellor, gave him in the seventies a position in the politics of the State somewhat akin to that held by Henry J.

But Smith's admirable temper, his sweet disposition, and his rare faculty for saying things without offence, kept him, like Raymond, on friendly terms with all.

Leaders changed and new issues appeared, yet his pen, though sometimes crafty, was never dipped in gall.

Is it a man to go to a convention representing others, and then determine as he individually prefers what he will do?

If the Harrisburg convention punctured the assumption that the people demanded Grant's nomination, the Utica assembly destroyed it, since the majority of thirty-three indicated an entire absence of spontaneity.

He may not have been an organiser of the machine type, but he was a born ruler of men.

It was rather the proud self-confidence of a rugged character which obstacles roused to a higher combative energy.

Besides, he possessed the incomparable gift of reserved power.

During his career of ten years in the State Senate he was unquestionably the strongest man in the Legislature and the designated as well as the real leader for more than half a decade.

He was not intolerant, seldom disclosing his powers of sarcasm, or being betrayed, even when excited, into angry or bitter words.

All the art of which he was master found expression in every sentence, polished and balanced with rhetorical skill, and delivered with the emphasis and inflection of a great orator.

One critic thought it a revelation to find a man who could be eloquent with studied composure, who could be fervid without wildness, and who could hold imagery and metaphor to the steady place of relentless logic without detracting from…

Without patronage, without telegraph wires running from his house to this convention, without election contrivances, his name is on the country's lips.

Conkling bitterly resented Garfield's nomination, predicted his defeat at the polls, and did not hesitate to dissuade friends from accepting the nomination for Vice-President.

Now, the question is, whom shall we place upon the altar as a vicarious sacrifice?

He possessed, too, an inherited instinct for keeping faith with men.