Roscoe Conkling: Difference between revisions

Roscoe Conkling (October 30 1829–April 18 1888) was a United States politician from New York. He served both as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and as a U.S. Senator. He was the leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican party (GOP).

He was born in Albany, New York the son of Alfred Conkling who served as a Federal judge and brother of Frederick Augustus Conkling who also served in the House of Representatives.

He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1850. He began a practice in Utica, New York. He served as the district attorney for Oneida County in 1850; mayor of Utica in 1858; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1859-March 3, 1863); chairman, Committee on District of Columbia (Thirty-seventh Congress); unsuccessful candidate in 1862 for reelection; elected to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses and served from March 4, 1865, until he resigned to become Senator, effective March 4, 1867; elected in 1867 as a Republican to the United States Senate; reelected in 1873 and again in 1879 and served from March 4, 1867, until May 16, 1881, when he resigned as a protest against the federal appointments made in New York State; was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by his own resignation; chairman, Committee on Revision of the Laws of the United States (Fortieth through Forty-third Congresses), Committee on Commerce (Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, and Forty-seventh Congresses), Committee on Engrossed Bills (Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses); resumed the practice of law in New York City; declined to accept a nomination to the United States Supreme Court in 1882; died in New York City, on April 18, 1888; interment in Forest Hill Cemetery, Utica, N.Y.

• He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Lincoln administration and its conduct of the War of the Rebellion.
• He was active in framing and pushing through Congress the Reconstruction legislation, and was instrumental in the passage of the second Civil Rights Act in 1875.
• In the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati in 1876, Conkling first appeared as a presidential candidate, receiving 93 votes.
• He was one of the framers of the bill creating the Electoral Commission to decide the disputed election of 1876.
• Early in 1880, Senator Conkling became the leader of the movement for the nomination of General Grant for a third term in the presidency.

• U. S. Senator Thomas C. Platt of New York.

• Morgan, H. Wayne. From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877-1896 (1969)

• A. R. Conkling (editor), The Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling: Orator, Statesman, Advocate (1889)

• Mr. Lincoln and New York: Roscoe Conkling
• Find-A-Grave profile for Roscoe Conkling

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress