He ran for re-election to his seat in an attempt to display his support from the New York political machine and his power, but lost the special election, during which Garfield was assassinated.

[5] Roscoe's maternal grandfather James Cockburn was Scottish by birth, but emigrated to the Bahamas and later to the Mohawk Valley, where he married Margaret Frey, the daughter of a feudal lord.

A childhood friend said young Roscoe "was as large and massive in his mind as he was in his frame, and accomplished in his studies precisely what he did in his social life — a mastery and command which his companions yielded to him as due.

Since his father was a leading member of the upstate Whig Party, Roscoe became acquainted with some of the most prominent men of the era, such as Presidents Martin Van Buren and John Quincy Adams, Governor Enos Throop, Supreme Court Justice Smith Thompson, James Kent, and Thurlow Weed.

He also practiced his oratory by reciting passages from the Bible, Shakespeare, and British Whigs including Thomas Babington Macaulay, Edmund Burke, and Charles James Fox.

In 1852, he stumped New York state for General Winfield Scott, denouncing Franklin Pierce as a British tool committed to upholding slavery and free trade to fuel the cotton mills of England.

[23][24] Almost immediately after his nomination for mayor, Conkling prepared to mount a run for Congress; incumbent Representative Orsamus B. Matteson had chosen to retire after his censure for corruption.

He introduced a bill to "establish an auxiliary watch for the protection of public and private property in the city of Washington" and another instituting a committee to report on the subject of a general bankruptcy law.

[33] When Congress reconvened on December 3, 1861, Conkling introduced a resolution calling for the War Department to investigate the humiliating Union defeat at the Battle of Ball's Bluff.

[34] When George McClellan responded that an investigation would be incompatible with the public service, Conkling delivered a speech calling the battle "the most atrocious military murder ever committed in our history as a people," gaining national attention.

[34] Conkling was a consistent opponent of issuing paper currency to pay for the war effort, unsuccessfully voting against the Legal Tender Act of 1862 and proposing bond issuances redeemable in gold as substitutes.

[43] Returning to Congress in December 1865, Conkling was appointed to the powerful Committee on Ways and Means, serving alongside future Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield.

Within the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Conkling was a relatively conservative member of the Republican majority, in sympathy with chairman William Pitt Fessenden and in contrast to radicals George S. Boutwell and Jacob Howard.

In April 1865, in connection with his work for the War Department, Conkling had been selected as a special prosecutor in the case of Major John A. Haddock, who as provost marshal was responsible for administering the draft in western New York and accused of flagrant corruption.

[49] Confident of his victory in advance, Conkling spent the fall campaign working on behalf of other Republicans in an effort to actively, privately seek the United States Senate seat of Ira Harris, whose term expired in the coming March.

[51] Conkling was endorsed in the caucus by Andrew Dickson White, a signal that his candidacy was backed by George William Curtis, and was nominated on the fifth ballot after the small minority of Harris men chose him over Davis.

[54] In Johnson's impeachment trial for the removal of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Conkling did not serve as a manager or make any public speech but was active in the prosecution of the case.

Conkling fell ill while the Senate remained in recess, but declared that if he were unable to walk or speak, he would still be carried to the chamber with the word "Guilty" pinned to his coat.

[60] In the 43rd United States Congress, Conkling opposed federal relief for the Boston Fire of 1872, efforts to establish a uniform national system of bankruptcy law, and an increase in congressional salaries.

His new junior colleague, former governor Reuben Fenton, quickly gained President Grant's ear and claimed to have control over presidential appointments in New York.

Hamilton Ward Sr. suggested that each organization be given half the vote of New York County, but Conkling successfully prevented this move, delivering an extemporaneous speech:[78] A horde of ballot-box pirates and robbers have clutched by the throat the greatest city of the Western world.

A horde of pirates, whose firm-name is Tammany Hall… is presenting in its own organization the most hideous spectacle in modern history, has disbanded, tampered with, and to a large part controlled that glorious organization which is the brightest in the annals of political parties…[78]The delegates voted to seat the Conkling delegation, and the party platform included an endorsement of President Grant and condemnation of "astounding revelations of fraud and corruption in the city of New York.

He and Platt were openly critical of the Hayes administration at the state convention, passing a number of resolutions endorsing Grant over the objection of reformer George William Curtis.

[83] The Conkling-Hayes conflict peaked in December 1877, when Hayes nominated Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and L. Bradford Prince to replace Chester Arthur and Alonzo Cornell as the Collector and Naval Officer, respectively, of the Port.

[103] The other candidates named were Marshall Jewell, Oliver P. Morton, Benjamin Bristow, John Hartranft, Hayes, and Conkling's personal rival James G. Blaine.

Acting on the advice of President Grant, he helped write and pass the bill establishing the Electoral Commission of 1877, tasked with resolving the dispute between Hayes and Samuel Tilden.

[114] Garfield's supporters then offered the nomination to Chester A. Arthur, who they knew had close ties to Conkling, but who had impressed delegates with his work to broker a compromise on the selection of a permanent chairman at the start of the convention.

Both were "hard money" men, arguing that the only legal tender could be precious metals (gold and silver) and that the war could be won without extending the Union's line of credit.

Howard Jay Graham, a Stanford University historian considered the pre-eminent scholar on the Fourteenth Amendment, named this case the "conspiracy theory" and concluded that Conkling probably perjured himself for the benefit of his railroad friends.

He adorned his walls with photos of Lord Byron, Daniel Webster, William W. Eaton, and Antonio López de Santa Anna (presented to Conkling's father during his time as Minister to Mexico).