little respect.

[Footnote 1577: "He [Conkling] never linked his name with any important
principle or policy."--_Political Recollections_, George W. Julian, p.
359.

"Strictly speaking Senator Conkling was not an originator of
legislative measures. He introduced few bills which became laws. He
was not an originator, but a moulder of legislation.... It may be said
that during his last seven years in the Senate, no other member of
that body has, since the time of Webster and Clay, exercised so much
influence on legislation."--Alfred R. Conkling, _Life of Conkling_,
pp. 645-649.]

Nor was this all. The part Greeley took at Chicago to defeat Seward,
Curtis played at Cincinnati to defeat Conkling. He declared him the
especial representative of methods which the best sentiment of the
party repudiated, and asserted that his nomination would chill
enthusiasm, convince men of the hopelessness of reform within the
party, and lose the vote indispensable for the election of the
Republican candidate. If his words were parliamentary, they were not
less offensive. Once only did he strike below the belt. In the event
of the Senator's nomination he said "a searching light would be turned
upon Mr. Conkling's professional relations to causes in which he was
opposed to attorneys virtually named by himself, before judges whose
selection was due to his favour."[1578]

[Footnote 1578: _Harper's Weekly_, March 11, 1876. For other editorials
referred to, see February 5; April 8, 15, 29; May 20; June 3, 17,
1876; March 24; April 21; July 21; August 11; September 22, 1877.]

This thrust penetrated the realm of personal integrity, a
characteristic in which Conkling took great pride. Perhaps the hostile
insinuation attracted more attention because it prompted the public,
already familiar with the occult influences that persuaded Tweed's
judges, to ask why men who become United States judges upon the
request of a political boss should not be tempted into favourable
decisions for the benefactor who practises in their courts? Curtis
implied that something of the kind had happened in Conkling's
professional career. Disappointment at Cincinnati may have made the
presidential candidate sore, but this innuendo rankled, and when he
rose to oppose Curtis's resolution his powerful frame seemed in a
thrill of delight as he began the speech which had been laboriously
wrought out in the stillness of his study.

The contrast in the appearance of the two