Principal Office of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company

Washington, D.C. May 23, 1874

Senator ConklingConkling, Roscoe

Roscoe Conkling (1829-88), Republican politician, was born in Albany, New York. He trained for the law in Utica, was admitted to the bar in 1850, and served as district attorney for Oneida County from 1850 until he was elected mayor of Utica in 1858. The following year he entered the U.S. House of Representatives, serving until an 1862 defeat, but returning in 1865 for one term. Serving in the Senate from 1867 until 1881, Conkling ardently advocated Ulysses Grant's Reconstruction policies. A champion of the political spoils system, Conkling opposed the civil service reforms advocated by Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield. During Garfield's administration Conkling and a colleague, Thomas C. Platt, resigned from the Senate to protest Garfield's appointment of a former Liberal Republican to a key patronage job in the New York City customs house. Platt and Conkling were chagrined when they lost their anticipated reelections. Conkling resumed law practice in New York City. Jordan, Roscoe Conkling of New York; Chidsey, Gentleman from New York; ACAB, 1:706-07. :

My dear Sir:

I want to thank you and Senator EdmundsEdmunds, George Franklin

George Franklin Edmunds (1828-1919) was a Vermont lawyer, state representative, 1854-1859; state senator, 1861-1862; and U.S. senator, 1866-1891. for steering the Civil Rights Bill, safely through the flinty rocks of judicial decisions and Constitutional Law.

You do not need my thanks, but feeling gratified you will allow me the utterance