Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/105



REMINISCENCES 97

When Conkling and Platt were the Senators from New York, just before I left Washington, Conkling became so enraged at Blaine for interfering in the appointment of col- lector of customs at New York City, that he and Platt both resigned. That quarrel perhaps caused the assassination of President Garfield by Guiteau, who in his muddled brain imagined that the President had committed a great wrong in allowing Blaine, Secretary of State, to dictate a New York appointment. Conkling was a very handsome, tall, aristocratic man. Governor William Sprague of Rhode Island raised the first regiment to fight for the Union in the war of the rebellion. He commanded them as General. After the war he was a Senator from Rhode Island for many years. He married Kate Chase, a very beautiful woman, daughter of Chief Justice Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under President Lincoln. Sprague became jealous of his wife, and left her because she was unusually bright and attracted the attention of public men. Shje held brilliant receptions at the Chief Justice's house when he was trying to get the nomination for President in place of Grant. The gossips had Conkling's name mixed up with this affair. They also said he lived mostly on milk and crackers. After Conkling resigned his seat in the Senate he practiced law in New York City. He got out in a deep snow in the streets and took cold and died.

When Fenton was elected Senator to succeed Senator Mor- gan, who had been the "war governor" of New York, the same as Senator Morton had been the "war governor" of Indiana, I was in the gallery of the State House of New York at Albany, and saw and heard the voting when Fenton was elected. When Fenton came into the Senate Conkling and the other administration Senators looked upon him about the same as they did on Sumner.



Russell Sage was the projector and builder of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad. He was when a young man a member of Congress from the State of New York. After-