.

This appeal has been called one of Conkling's "most remarkable
speeches."[1318] Unlike the Senator's usual efforts laboured
preparation did not precede it. The striking passage and the
impressive phrase are entirely wanting. Epigrammatic utterances are
the supreme test of a great orator or poet, but Conkling's speech of
September 27 added nothing to that vocabulary. It may be said to lack
every element of a well-ordered oration. As preserved in the
newspapers of the day[1319] it is hard, if not impossible, to find
sufficient rhetorical merit to entitle it to a place in any volume of
ordinary addresses. It wanted the persuasive power that allures by an
exquisite choice of words, or charms by noble and sympathetic
elocution. Even the style of his appeal for harmony was too
self-assured and his faith in his own superiority too evident.
Nevertheless, of the living who heard his explosive exclamation, "Not
yet the question, Mr. President," and the flaming sentences arraigning
the Greeley Republicans as partners of Tammany, it lingers in the
memory as a forceful philippic, full of pose and gesture and dramatic
action. Its influence, however, is not so clear. The power of
patronage had already twice carried the convention, and that this
incentive would have done so again had Conkling simply whispered to
his lieutenants, must be evident to all who read the story. Ward's
motion was lost by 154 to 194, the Conkling vote being eight less than
on the preceding roll-call.[1320]

[Footnote 1318: "Such a speech, in its terms, its forcible eloquence,
its overwhelming results, was perhaps never heard in a similar
assemblage. Many of Senator Conkling's friends insist that this was
one of his most remarkable speeches."--Alfred R. Conkling, _Life of
Roscoe Conkling_, p. 341.]

[Footnote 1319: Syracuse _Standard_, New York _Times_, September 28,
1871.]

[Footnote 1320: "Just as the whole convention had agreed upon the
compromise, Conkling arose and ordered his office-holders to reject
it."--New York _Evening Post_, September 29.]

Conkling desired a solid delegation at the next Republican National
Convention, and the recognition of the organisation established by the
State committee assured it, whereas the Ward amendment, by including
the Greeley constituency, inspired the fear of a divided one.[1321]
Perhaps the failure of his friends to appreciate this fear justified
Conkling's interference, but a single word of dissent was suff