The Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling Author:Alfred Ronald Conkling Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 1850-1853. CHAPTER III. THE YOUNG LAWYER. T IKE that Revolutionary patriot, Gouverneur Morris, Roscoe Conkling was in the practice of law before he was ... more »of age. He was admitted to the bar in the early part of 1850, when in his twenty-first year. It is worthy of remark that his first law-suit was argued before Judge Conkling in the United States District Court at Utica. Although the Judge was a very Brutus in his utter want of partiality toward his son under such circumstances, young Conkling won his case. Soon after his admission to the bar Mr. Conkling went with a party of citizens to Albany, and appeared before the Governor as their spokesman concerning a public measure. The office of District- Attorney then became vacant by the resignation of Calvert Comstock. Governor Fish appointed Roscoe Conkling April 22, 1850, to fill the place. The latter held the position throughout the year. The following letter, which was lately written by ex-Governor Fish to the author, thus explains the appointment of Roscoe Conkling : New York, March 2, 1889. 251 East Seventeenth Street. Dear Sir— I have but slight recollection of the circumstances (beyond the general fact) of the appointment of your uncle as District-Attorney of Oneida County. I remember his presence in Albany—it was the first time I had met him—and that I was struck with his youthful appearance and the force of his manner. My present impression is that a vacancy had arisen in the office, and that the Whigs (we were Whigs at that time) and the bar and bench of the county, and a public concurrence of preference and recommendation, indicated Roscoe Conkling as the person to fill the vacancy. However perfunctory may have been my agency in this regard, I shall be pleased to think that I had some participation in the...« less