Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/749

Rh beginning of its first session, in December, 1859 &mdash; a session noted for its long and bitter contest over the speakership. He was re-elected in 1860, but in 1862 was defeated by Francis Kernan, over whom, however, he was elected in 1864. His first committee was that on the District of Columbia, of which he was afterward chairman. He was also a member of the committee of ways and means and of the special reconstruction committee of fifteen. Mr. Conkling's first important speech was in support of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution. He vigorously attacked the generalship of McClellan, opposed Spaulding's legal-tender act, and firmly upheld the government in the prosecution of the war. Mr. Conkling was re-elected in the autumn of 1866, but in January, 1867, before he took his seat, was chosen U. S. senator to succeed Ira Harris, and re-elected in 1873 and 1879. In the senate he was from the first a member of the judiciary committee, and connected with nearly all the leading committees, holding the chairs of those on commerce and revision of the laws. Senator Conkling was a zealous supporter of President Grant's administration and largely directed its general policy toward the south, advocating it in public and by his personal influence. He was also instrumental in the passage of the civil-rights bill, and favored the resumption of specie payments. He took a prominent part in framing the electoral-commission bill in 1877, and supported it by an able speech, arguing that the question of the commission's jurisdiction should be left to that body itself. Mr. Conkling received 93 votes for the Republican nomination for president in the Cincinnati convention of 1876. In the Chicago convention of 1880 he advocated the nomination of Gen. Grant for a third term. In 1881 he became hostile to President Garfield's administration on a question of patronage, claiming, with his colleague, Thomas C. Platt, the right to control federal appointments in his state. The president having appointed a political opponent of Mr. Conkling's to the collectorship of the port of New York, the latter opposed his confirmation, claiming that he should have been consulted in the matter, and that the nomination was a violation of the pledges given to him by the president. Mr. Garfield, as soon as Mr. Conkling had declared his opposition, withdrew all other nominations to New York offices, leaving the ob- jectionable one to be acted on by itself. Finding that he could not prevent the confirmation, Mr. Conkling, on 16 May, resigned his senatorship, as did also his colleague, and returned home to seek a vindication in the form of a re-election. In this, however, after an exciting canvass, they failed; two other republicans were chosen to fill the vacant places, and Mr. Conkling returned to his law practice in New York city. In 1885-'6 he was counsel of the State senate investigating committee, appointed for the purpose of disclosing the fraud and bribery in the grant of the Broadway horse-railroad franchise by the board of aldermen in 1884. After the taking of testimony, lasting about three months, Mr. Conkling, together with Clarence A. Seward, made an argument which resulted in the repeal of the Broadway railroad charter. &mdash; Alfred's daughter, Margaret Cockburn (Mrs. Steele), b. 27 Jan., 1814, d. 1890, has published &ldquo;Memoirs of the Mother and Wife of Washington&rdquo; (Auburn, N. Y., 1851-'3); &ldquo;Isabel; or, Trials of the Heart&rdquo;; a translation of Florian's &ldquo;History of the Moors of Spain,&rdquo; and has contributed to current literature. &mdash; Alfred Conkling's grandson, Alfred Ronald, b. in New York city, 28 Sept., 1850, was

graduated at Yale in 1870, pursued his studies at Harvard and in Berlin, Germany, and on his return to this country was employed on the U. S. geological survey. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1879, and became assistant U. S. attorney in 1881-'2. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for congress in 1884, and made many addresses in favor of the election of James G. Blaine during the presidential campaign of that year. He is the author of &ldquo;Appletons' Guide to Mexico&rdquo; (New York, 1884).

CONLEY, John Dikeman, scientist, b. in Brockport, Mom-oe co., N. Y., 14 Sept., 1843. He was graduated at the State normal school, Albany, in 1863, and at Hamilton college in 1869. During the same year he was elected to the chair of chem- istry and natural sciences in Blackburn university, Carlinville, 111. He has published a series of geo- logical charts of all the ages and epochs, illustrated with two Inuidred figures of characteristic fossils.

CONNELLY, John, R. C. bishop, b. in Droghe- da, Ireland, in 1750; d. in New York in 1825. He was educated hi Belgium, where he became a member of the Dominican order, and afterward went to Rome and was elected prior of St. Clem- ent's and appointed agent for the Irish bishops. During the French occupation of that city he gained much credit for his success in securing the property of the English and Irish religious insti- tutions from confiscation. On the return of Pius VII. to Rome in 1814, Father Connelly was chosen bishop of New York, and consecrated the same year. He visited Ireland with the object of ob- taining priests, but secured only one. At this time the diocese of New York embraced the entire state and part of New Jersey, and contained a Catholic population of 17,000. Bishop Connelly foimd only four priests to receive him on his arrival, and had to perform missionary duties in addition to his episcopal functions. He founded churches in Utica and Rochester, and erected an orphan asy- lum in New York, which he confided to the care of the Sisters of Charity. His labors during the yellow-fever epidemics of 1822 and 1823 greatly impaired his strength.

CONNELLY, Pierce Francis, sculptor, b. in a southern city about 1840. Pie was taken to Eng- land when a child, received a good education, and studied painting in Paris, and afterward in Rome. At the age of twenty he determined to become a sculptor, established "himself at Florence, and exe- cuted, among other works, " Thetis," in the New York museum of fine arts ; " St. Martin and the Beggar," an equestrian group ; " Ophelia " ; " Horror arresting the Trium{)]i of Death"; "Queen Philip- pa"; "Diana transforming Acta>on," and other pieces exhibited at the Philadelphia centennial ex- hibition, and several portrait busts. In 1876 he visited the United States, and went from there to New Zealand, where he became known as an ex- plorer of mountains, made sketches of craters, glaciers, and lakes, and painted pictures of the scenery of the country that were exhibited in Auckbind in 1877.

CONNER, David, naval officer. b. in Harrisburg, Pa., in 1792 ; d. in Philadelphia, 20 March, 1856. He entered a counting-house in Philadelphia in 1806, became a midshipman in the navy, 16 Jan., 1809, and, as acting lieutenant, took part in the action between the " Hornet " and the " Peacock," 24 Feb., 1813. Charged with the duty of removing the prisoners, Lieut. Coinier was among the last to leave the sinking vessel. On 24 July, 1813, he became a lieutenant, and remained in the " Hornet" under Capt. Biddlc. In the action with the