sident, and
he would be true to his friends; and surely he should not be expected
to serve another man's purpose by humiliating himself.

Conkling had taken part in the campaign at last, but that was his duty
at first. It is needless to refer to questions of veracity--to what
practical politicians call "promises." A polite phrase is twisted,
by the many seized with fury to be officers, to mean what is desired,
though it may be but a mere civility--the more marked probably because
the President knows he has only good words to give! There are always
such issues when there is patronage to be distributed, for, of course,
there is dissatisfaction. Everybody cannot be made happy, with or
without civil service reform; and it is no effort, when the President
says "Good morning," and seems to be obliging, and says he will take a
recommendation into consideration and if possible read the papers,
and adds, "I shall be glad to see you again," to say, when he appoints
another to the coveted place, that he has falsified.

Mr. Conkling's friends relate that he was about to go to the White
House and hold a consultation in which Mr. Arthur and Mr. Platt were
to participate, when he received a telegram in cipher from Governor
Cornell which, when translated, turned out to be an urgent request
that the Senator should vote to confirm Robertson; and that this was
regarded as insulting, and Mr. Conkling refused to go to the White
House, with a burst of scorn about the dispensation of offices! This
is not consistent with the accusations that Garfield was influenced to
be perfidious. There are those who think there would have been peace
if it had not been for that Cornell telegram; but they are of the
manner of mind of the peacemakers of 1861, who thought another
conference would heal all wounded susceptibilities. The source
of discordance was not near the surface; it was in the system of
"patronage" and "recognition," and deep in the characteristics of the
individuals.

It is not true that Mr. Blaine was fierce for war upon Conkling; he
thought a fight was inevitable, and that the time for the President
to assert himself was at the beginning; and said so. "Fight now if at
all," said Blaine then to Garfield, "for your administration tapers!"
As to his personal wishes, he was often overruled in the cabinet,
and took it complacently. But he was warlike on the point that the
President was entitled to be friendly with his friends, and must not