Everybody cannot be made happy, with or
without civil service reform; and it is no effort, when the President
says "Good morning," and seems to be obliging, and says he will take a
recommendation into consideration and if possible read the papers,
and adds, "I shall be glad to see you again," to say, when he appoints
another to the coveted place, that he has falsified.
Mr. Conkling's friends relate that he was about to go to the White
House and hold a consultation in which Mr. Arthur and Mr. Platt were
to participate, when he received a telegram in cipher from Governor
Cornell which, when translated, turned out to be an urgent request
that the Senator should vote to confirm Robertson; and that this was
regarded as insulting, and Mr. Conkling refused to go to the White
House, with a burst of scorn about the dispensation of offices! This
is not consistent with the accusations that Garfield was influenced to
be perfidious. There are those who think there would have been peace
if it had not been for that Cornell telegram; but they are of the
manner of mind of the peacemakers of 1861, who thought another
conference would heal all wounded susceptibilities.
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