It was currently rumored in the clubs, and even found expression in the public prints, that Mrs. Sprague, a daughter of Chief-Justice Chase, was influential in preventing Mr. Conkling from taking a stand in the Senate against the findings and decision of the electoral tribunal in favor of Mr. Hayes. As the report savored of scandal, it was, of course, rapidly circulated and heedlessly credited, though out of respect to all parties interested, the stories slumbered for many years until the means by which Mr. Hayes was inaugurated as President could be more dispassionately discussed than on the eve of the distribution of the patronage of a new administration. Fourteen years after Hayes' inauguration the scandal was revived for partisan purposes in part, and in part, presumably, in the interest of historic justice. A phase of the discussion at that time in the New York Evening Post provoked the foregoing letter from Hon. George Hoadley, ex-Governor of Ohio, which probably gives the most authentic information the country can ever expect to have of the mysterious and vacillating conduct of Mr. Conkling. My attention was called to it by the Hon. Smith Ely, formerly Mayor of New York, to whom I sent the following acknowledgment:
JOHN BIGELOW TO HON. SMITH ELY
"Highland-Falls-on-Hudson, June 19, 1904.
"My dear Mr. Ely,—I am extremely obliged to you for the clipping you sent me from the Evening Post. Though familiar with rumors of that nature, it is the first statement with any semblance of authenticity I have met with of the reasons why Conkling did not keep faith with our friends. I am not sure that Conkling himself did not weaken at the pinch as much as the recalcitrant Senator. Had he stood up on that occasion, as he should have done, he would have established for himself a reputation for virtues which no biographer can now claim for him.
"I do not remember the name of the Senator alluded to, because I never knew the fact. Was it Kernan?
"Yours truly.
"P. S.—Cannot you give us a candidate for the Presidency without making prostitutes of the judiciary?[18] When we made judges elective we went as far in that direction as was safe, and farther than was prudent. It was a perversion of the representative system when we submitted the choice of experts, like judges and district attorneys, to the popular vote. If we encourage judges to aspire to the Presidency the suitors for justice will have to take their check-books to court, and their cases will be argued, as they are said to be, before Turkish cadis.
"Yours Truly,
"John Bigelow."
About the middle of January, 1877, and before the Electoral Commission had given its decision, I received a telegram from Washington that a friend of the Honorable S. S. Cox, then a representative in Congress from New York city, wished to confer with me in reference to the Presidential contest pending in Washington. Cox's friend proved to be Mr. Corbin, a brother-in-law of President Grant. I replied to my correspondent that he might arrange for an interview with me anywhere in New York city except in Mr. Corbin's house, Corbin at that time having a residence in New York city.