the powerful Senator from New York. But Conkling was jealous
of all the other able men in the Republican Party in his own
State. He could--

Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.

The spirits of good and evil politics have striven with one
another in New York from the beginning of her history as
Jacob and Esau strove together in the womb. In general the
former has prevailed in western New York and along the lakes.
In the city of New York sometimes one has carried the day,
and sometimes the other. When the bad element was in power,
the noble State has reminded me of Tennyson's eagle caught
by the talons in carrion, unable to fly or soar.

Oliver Wolcott, who had been one of Washington's Cabinet,
afterward Governor of Connecticut, dwelt in New York for some
time. He gives this account of New York politics.

"After living a dozen years in that State, I don't pretend
to comprehend their politics. It is a labyrinth of wheels
within wheels, and it is understood only by the managers.
Why, these leaders of the opposite parties, who--in the papers
and before the world--seem ready to tear each other's eyes
out, will meet some rainy night in a dark entry, and agree,
whichever way the election goes, they will share the spoils
together!"

John G. Palfrey, in his wonderful "Papers on the Slave Power,"
was led by his natural impatience with the conduct of the
great State, which seemed to him such an obstacle in the path
of Liberty, to utter the following invective:

"Pour soulless giant, her honorable history is yet to begin.
From her colonial times, when, patching up a dastardly truce,
she helped the French and Indians down from the Berkshire
hills against the shield which brave Massachusetts held over
the New England settlements, through the time of her traitors
of the Revolutionary age, down to the time of her Butlers
and her Marcys, her Van Burens and Hoyts, poltroonery and
corruption have with her ruled the hour. Nature has her freaks,
and in one of them she gave a great man, John Jay, to New
York. Hamilton was a waif from the West Indies on her spirit-
barren strand, and Rufus King from Massachusetts. No doubt,
among her millions, she has many wise and good, but the day
when they begin to impress any fit influence of theirs upon
her counsels, will open a new chapter in the annals of New
York."

I am tempted to quote this powerful invective for its literary
excellence, and not for its justice.