r Conkling, the name of Judge
Robertson for Collector of the port at New York, was sent to the Senate.
Senator Conkling, joined by his colleague, Senator Platt, at first made
an effort to have the nomination rejected, but the other Republican
Senators were not willing to place themselves in open opposition to the
administration. When the fact was developed that the nomination would be
confirmed, Senators Conkling and Platt immediately tendered their
resignations.

This in my opinion was a grave blunder on their part, as subsequent
events more than proved. They had before them the example of Senator
Sumner, by which they should have profited. Senator Sumner was greatly
humiliated, when, through the influence of the administration, he was
supplanted by Senator Cameron as Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations on account of a misunderstanding with President Grant,
growing out of the effort on the part of the administration to bring
about the annexation of Santo Domingo, to which Senator Sumner was
bitterly opposed. Yet he did not,--because he was thus, as he felt,
unjustly humiliated,--resign his seat in the Senate. He realized that
while he was commissioned to speak for his own State, his great power
and immense influence were not confined solely to that particular State.
He appreciated the fact that when he spoke and voted as a Senator, he
did so, not merely as a Senator from the State of Massachusetts, but as
a Senator of the United States. He belonged to no one State, but to the
United States. He had,--on account of his great intellect, power,
influence, and ability,--long since ceased to be the spokesman and
representative of any particular State or section; he was a
representative of his country--recognized as such throughout the
civilized world. Knowing these things to be true Sumner did not feel
that he should deprive the people of his valuable services simply
because he was not in harmony with the administration upon some one
matter, however important that matter might be. In this Senator Sumner
was unquestionably right.

What, then, was true of Senator Sumner was equally true of Senators
Conkling and Platt in their misunderstanding with President Garfield
about the Collectorship of the port of New York.

Mr. Conkling was one of the greatest men our country had ever produced.
He was a man of much influence and great power. He was not only an
intellectual giant, but he was a man of commanding pres