Conkling and Platt resigned during an ongoing dispute over federal patronage privileges in the state with President James A. Garfield, particularly the lucrative office of Collector of the Port of New York. Their resignations were intended to trigger the reelection of each Senator to affirm their support in the New York Legislature as a show of either popularity or political force. Instead, the legislature demurred for 52 days before electing Warner Miller and Elbridge Lapham. During the election, Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, a Conkling supporter and office-seeker angered over his failure to receive a federal appointment; Garfield died two months after balloting concluded.
On July 1, Platt withdrew after 41 inconclusive joint ballots. On July 2, Garfield was shot by Guiteau, who declared his support for Conkling's Stalwart faction immediately after the shooting. With no consensus candidate emerging for either seat, a Republican caucus met on July 8 to nominate replacement candidates and settled on Warner Miller and Elbridge Lapham after Depew withdrew. Two weeks later, Warner Miller was elected to Platt's seat. Conkling's supporters held out for another week before acquiescing to the unanimous nomination of Lapham on July 22, ending the election.
President Garfield died on September 19. With the Stalwart faction effectively eliminated by Conkling's removal from office, Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which was signed into law by Chester A. Arthur, a former Conkling protégé.
Background
The Republican boss, and leader of the Stalwart faction, Roscoe Conkling had been elected to a third term (Class 3) in January 1879. Thomas C. Platt had been elected on Conkling's advice in January 1881 and had just taken his seat (Class 1) on March 4.
On May 16, 1881, both U.S. senators from New York resigned in protest against the distribution of federal patronage in New York by President James A. Garfield without being consulted. The confrontation arose when the leader of the New Yorker Half-Breeds, President pro tempore of the State Senate William H. Robertson, was appointed Collector of the Port of New York, the highest paying federal office in New York. Conkling preferred that Collector Edwin Merritt continue on the post until his term would expire in 1882, and then give it to one of his Stalwart friends, but Garfield was set on showing his gratitude to Robertson who had been instrumental in Garfield's nomination at the 1880 Republican National Convention. On March 28, Conkling, Platt, Vice President Chester A. Arthur and Postmaster General Thomas L. James sent a letter to Garfield urging him to withdraw the nomination. Garfield resented this intrusion and did not budge. Conkling and Platt took exception to the fact that Robertson and the New York delegates to the National Convention had been pledged by the State Convention to vote for the nomination of former President Ulysses S. Grant, but had broken his pledge and orchestrated the nomination of another candidate.
Conkling and Platt then stood for re-election thus trying to rebuke the President and be vindicated by the State Legislature.
When the first surprise about the resignations subsided, a majority of the Republican State legislators were determined to be rid of Conkling. Intense canvassing followed, many names were speculated about as candidates, but it proved difficult to call a caucus, since no majority of legislators or of the caucus committee agreed.
A caucus of Republican State legislators was finally called by Speaker of the Assembly George H. Sharpe for May 30. Assemblyman Andrew S. Draper presided, and secretaries were appointed. Only 8 State senators and 27 assemblymen were present, and the caucus adjourned for lack of quorum until the next day, but nobody was nominated.
Democratic caucus
The caucus of the Democratic State legislators met on May 30, Assemblyman Michael C. Murphy, of New York City, presided. They nominated Ex-U.S. Senator Francis Kernan and State Senator John C. Jacobs, both on the first ballot.
May 1881 Democratic caucus for United States Senator result
On May 31, the legally prescribed day for the election, the Assembly and the State Senate took a ballot, but no candidate received a majority. On June 1, both Houses met in joint session, compared the result of the ballot, and finding that nobody had received a majority in either House, proceeded to a joint ballot[2] in which nobody received a majority either. Afterwards, Stalwarts and Administration men met in separate conferences. The Stalwarts hung on to Conkling and Platt. At the Administration men's conference 61 State legislators were present and Chauncey M. Depew was the frontrunner for the long term (Class 1), but the anti-Conkling men were split into a handful of factions, unable to compromise. From June 2 on, joint ballots were taken every day, Monday through Saturday at noon.
After almost three weeks of deadlock, it was believed that Governor Cornell would consider the votes cast for State Senator Jacobs as void,[3] and to accept as elected any Republican candidate who would receive a simple majority of a quorum, meaning that if at least 81 votes were cast for all candidates except Jacobs, the frontrunner would be elected with 42. On this day, 155 legislators present, and 52 voting for Jacobs, somebody could claim to be elected with a vote of 52, and get his credentials issued by the governor. Thus, when Ex-Vice President Wheeler had received 50 votes in the 23rd ballot, State Senator Charles A. Fowler (Dem., 14th D.) withdrew Jacobs's name before the end of the roll call, and the Democratic members who had voted already (the roll was called in alphabetical order of surnames, first Senate, then Assembly) asked to change their votes, which was granted by Lt. Gov. George G. Hoskins.
After Jacobs's withdrawal during the 23rd ballot, a Democratic caucus was held in the afternoon of June 22, Assemblyman Michael C. Murphy presided. Ex-Congressman Clarkson N. Potter was nominated after an informal ballot, in which votes were scattered about 11 candidates, and a formal ballot in which Potter received a majority.
President James A. Garfield, on whom Conkling's opposition was centered, was shot in Washington on July 2; news arrived in Albany just after Platt withdrew and just before the 33rd ballot.
After a month of deadlock and 31 ballots, Thomas C. Platt withdrew from the contest on July 1, and most of the Platt men then switched to Richard Crowley. On the morning of the next day, President Garfield was shot and the news arrived in Albany just before the State Legislature met for the 33rd ballot.
On July 6, after the 37th ballot, the Anti-Conkling men met in conference. 59 legislators attended, and State Senator Dennis McCarthy presided. No agreement was reached, and a call was issued for a new conference to be held the next day. On July 7, after the 39th ballot, the Anti-Conkling conference was attended by 65 legislators, and a call for a regular Republican caucus was signed by 59 of them. On July 8, after the 41st ballot, a regular Republican caucus finally met. 64 legislators answered to the first roll call, and Thomas G. Alvord was chosen chairman. Since the Stalwarts were not attending, it was agreed that nominations were to be made with a minimum vote of 54, a majority of the total 106 Republican legislators. The frontrunner to succeed Platt (Class 1 seat), Chauncey M. Depew, withdrew from the contest for the sake of party unity, and the caucus instead nominated Congressman Warner Miller on the fifth ballot (First ballot: Miller 27, William A. Wheeler 22, Sherman S. Rogers 9, Noah Davis 2, Alonzo B. Cornell 2, William M. Evarts 2, Richard Crowley 1, Roscoe Conkling 1, Henry E. Temain 1; Second ballot: Miller 28, Wheeler 28, Rogers 10; Third ballot: similar to second; Fourth ballot: Miller 32 then withdrawal of Rogers, then many changes, then withdrawal of Wheeler; Fifth ballot: Miller unanimously). Then they nominated on the second ballot Congressman Elbridge G. Lapham to succeed Conkling (First ballot: Lapham 38, Cornell 12, Tremain 10, Crowley 5, James W. Wadsworth 1; Second ballot: Most votes for Lapham, then some changes, then a re-call of the roll, and finally unanimously). The Conkling men however refused to accept the caucus nominations and continued to vote for Conkling, and now for Wheeler instead of Crowley to succeed Platt. On July 11, after the 43rd ballot, the Stalwarts demanded a new caucus but the Chairman of the State Senate Caucus Committee Dennis McCarthy refused to issue a call.
On July 16, after seven weeks of deadlock, Warner Miller was elected on the 48th ballot to succeed Platt. Conkling held out for another week. On July 22, after the 55th ballot, the Republican legislators met in conference. 76 legislators attended, State Senator Dennis McCarthy presided, and this conference issued the call for a caucus to meet at 3p.m. The caucus was attended by Stalwarts and Administration men, all Republican legislators who had voted on the previous ballot being present. They nominated Elbridge G. Lapham on the first ballot (vote: Lapham 61, Conkling 28, Stewart L. Woodford 1, William M. Evarts 1), and the nomination was then "made unanimous." At 5p.m. another ballot, the 56th and last, was taken by the State Legislature, and Lapham was elected to succeed Conkling.
Class 1 summary
1881 United States Senator (Class 1) special election result
Lapham and Miller took their seats on October 11, 1881, and served single terms. Lapham remained in office until March 3, 1885; Miller until March 3, 1887.
Conkling's political career effectively ended after this episode, the longest deadlock in New York State legislative history until 1911.[8]
Platt returned to the U.S. Senate in 1897, and served two terms until 1909.
↑ The U.S. Constitution, referring to the Senate elections, had been amended since the last time when no candidate had a majority in either House, in United States Senate election in New York, 1839/1839; previously in case of no choice by either House no joint ballot could be taken.
William Almon Wheeler was an American politician and attorney who served as the 19th vice president of the United States from 1877 to 1881 under President Rutherford B. Hayes. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a United States representative from New York from 1861 to 1863 and 1869 to 1877.
Roscoe Conkling was an American lawyer and Republican politician who represented New York in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. He was a leader of the Republican Stalwart faction and a dominant figure in the United States Senate during the 1870s. As senator, his control of patronage at the New York Customs House, one of the busiest commercial ports in the world, made him very powerful. His comity with President Ulysses S. Grant and conflict with Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield were defining features of American politics of the 1870s and 1880s. He also participated, as a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, in the drafting of the landmark Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Thomas Collier Platt, also known as Tom Platt and Easy Boss, was an American politician who was a two-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1873–1877) and a three-term U.S. Senator from New York in 1881 and 1897 to 1909. He is best known as the "political boss" of the Republican Party in New York State in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Upon his death, the New York Times stated that "no man ever exercised less influence in the Senate or the House of Representatives than he," but "no man ever exercised more power as a political leader." He considered himself the "political godfather" of many Republican governors of the state, including Theodore Roosevelt.
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