Roscoe Conkling
American politician (1829-1888) · United States · On the map · Politicians · Died at 58
Roscoe Conkling was an American lawyer and Republican politician who represented New York in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. He was a leader of the Republican Stalwart faction and a dominant figure in the United States Senate during the 1870s.
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Conkling's father Alfred was a United States representative and ambassador to Mexico.
Daguerreotype of a young Roscoe Conkling, c. 1855
Chester A. Arthur, as a young lawyer. Conkling nurtured Arthur's career and relentlessly promoted him.
Conkling began a long feud with James G. Blaine, future secretary of state and Republican presidential candidate, during the 39th Congress.
From 1869 to 1871, Conkling was locked in a power struggle with his Senate colleague Reuben Fenton, the former Governor of New York. Conkling defeated Fenton by winning an alliance with President Grant that effectively solidified his control of the New York party for the next decade.
An 1880 political cartoon depicts Conkling working at a "presidential puzzle." Conkling's control of the New York delegation at the 1876 and 1880 Republican National Conventions made him a presidential kingmaker.
President Chester A. Arthur's 1882 nomination of Conkling to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Conkling was confirmed, but declined to serveAbout this person
As senator, his control of patronage at the New York Customs House, one of the busiest commercial ports in the world, made him very powerful. His comity with President Ulysses S. Grant and conflict with Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield were defining features of American politics of the 1870s and 1880s. He also participated, as a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, in the drafting of the landmark Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
