CONKLING, Roscoe, American legislator : b. Albany, N. Y., 30 Oct. 1829; d. New York, 18 April 1888. He removed to Utica in 1846, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1850. He was mayor of Utica in 1858, and sat in Congress as a Republican (1858-62 and 1865 67). During the Civil War he was an active supporter of the administration, ap pearing constantly in debates and on commit tees. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1867, 1873 and 1879, and as senator he supported die reconstruction policy, actively opposed President Johnson and was a staunch supporter of President Grant. He was active in almost every move of importance made by his party. He was one of the foremost advo cates of the Second Civil Rights Act, in 1875; of the bill creating the Electoral Commission to settle the disputed election of 1876; and of the act calling for the resumption of specie payment (1875). He became an extremely in
fluential member of his party; in 1876 receiving 93 votes for the presidential nomination, and in 1880, by his support of Grant and his personal opposition to Blaine, dividing the Republicans into two sections. In May 1881, he and his colleague, Thomas C. Platt, suddenly resigned from the Senate, owing to a dispute with Presi dent Garfield on a question of patronage, and sought re-election; but after a warm canvass, both were rejected, though vigorously supported by Vice-President Arthur. Conkling afterward practis'ed law in New York He was appointed associate chief justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1882, but declined the posi tion. Conkling was a thorough believer in the system of political patronage and he and Platt attempted to say where this patronage should go and to whom in the State of New York.