hout precedent, of
doubtful constitutionality, and morally imperfect.[817]

[Footnote 816: Spaulding, _History of the Legal Tender_, p. 18.]

[Footnote 817: The bill escaped from the committee by one majority.]

It was in this debate that Conkling, adroitly choosing the right time
and the proper subject, impressed the country with his power as an
orator and his ability as a brilliant, resourceful debater, although,
perhaps, a destructive rather than constructive legislator. Nature had
lavished upon him superb gifts of mind and person. He was of
commanding, even magnificent presence, six feet three inches tall,
with regular features, lofty forehead, and piercing eyes,--blond and
gigantic as a viking. It was difficult, indeed, for a man so
superlatively handsome not to be vain, and the endeavour upon his part
to conceal the defect was not in evidence. Although an unpopular and
unruly schoolboy, who refused to go to college, he had received a good
education, learning much from a scholarly father, a college-bred man,
and an ornament to the United States District Court for more than a
quarter of a century. Moreover, from early youth Conkling had studied
elocution, training a strong, slightly musical voice, and learning the
use of secondary accents, the choice of words, the value of deliberate
speech, and the assumption of an impressive earnestness. In this
debate, too, he discovered the talent for ridicule and sarcasm that
distinguished him in later life, when he had grown less considerate of
the feelings of opponents, and indicated something of the
imperiousness and vanity which clouded an otherwise attractive manner.

As he stubbornly and eloquently contested the progress of the
legal-tender measure with forceful argument and a wealth of
information, Conkling seemed likely to deprive Spaulding of the title
of "father of the greenback" until the Secretary of the Treasury,
driven to desperation for want of money, reluctantly came to the
Congressman's rescue and forced the bill through Congress.[818] By
midsummer, however, gold had jumped to seventeen per cent., while the
cost of the war, augmented by a call for 300,000 three years' men and
by a draft of 300,000 nine months' militia, rested more heavily than
ever upon the country. Moreover, by September 1 McClellan had been
deprived of his command, the Army of the Potomac had suffered defeat
at the second battle of Bull Run, and Lee and Longstreet, with a
victorious army,