touched he improved. Whether quartermaster, naval officer, or
surveyor, he attended rigorously to duty, enforcing the law fairly and
without favour, and disciplining his force into a high state of
efficiency, so that revenues increased, expenses diminished, and
corruption talk ceased. In selecting him for collector, therefore, the
President had secured the right type of man.

Nevertheless, Hayes's action roiled the political waters. Conkling's
friends accused the President of violating his own principles, of
endeavouring to set up a new machine, and of grossly insulting the
Senator. On the other hand, Administration supporters maintained that
the law authorising removals was as obligatory as that empowering a
senator to advise and consent to appointments, and that in removing
Arthur the President did not insult Conkling any more than Conkling
insulted the President by rejecting the nomination of Roosevelt. This
renewal of an ugly quarrel was auguring ill for the Republicans, when
the organisation of the National Greenback-Labour-Reform party,
suddenly presenting a question which involved the integrity and
welfare of the country, put factional quarrels and personal politics
into eclipse.

Conkling had exhibited both tact and skill in that campaign. He did
not lead the gold column. In fact, it was not until the last moment
that the Saratoga committee on resolutions which he dominated,
substituted "the fixed monetary standard of the commercial world" for
the word "coin." But after the guide-boards pointed the way he became
a powerful champion of hard money. Besides, the moderation and good
temper with which he discussed the doctrine of the inflationists did
much to hold dissenters within the party and justly entitled him to
high praise. His unanimous re-election to the Senate followed as a
matter of course. Not that unanimity of action implied unanimity of
feeling. It was rather, perhaps, a yielding to the necessity of the
situation.[1635]

[Footnote 1635: The strength of the anti-Conkling sentiment was clearly
shown in the contest for speaker of the Assembly. Thomas G. Alvord
received 52 votes to 43 for George B. Sloan of Oswego. Although Sloan
and his supporters declared for Conkling, Alvord was confessedly the
Conkling candidate.]

Nevertheless, to all appearances Conkling had recovered the prestige
lost at Rochester. His conduct at the convention and in the campaign
excited the hope, also, that he would drop his o