Biography

Civil War US Congressman, US Senator. Among Radical Republicans he was known as one of the most vigorous partisans. His career is most often associated with the post Civil War period, but during the war years he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1859 to 1863 and was a close ally of Thaddeus Stevens, one of the most prominent Radical Republicans. The son of Alfred Conkling, (Congressman, Judge, and Minister to Mexico) and brother of Frederick Augustus Conkling, (Congressman), he was born and raised in Albany, New York, lived most of his life in Utica, New York, served as Mayor briefly and represented Utica in Congress. He also served as district attorney in Albany for a time. The sentiments of the district he represented in Congress were strongly pro war, reflecting his own feelings, and he took the hardest Republican line on the conduct of the war and on the treatment of slave states conquered by Union armies. His extreme stance brought him into conflict with Congressman James G. Blaine, a conciliatory Republican, beginning a feud that lasted for most of the rest of the century. During Reconstruction, he became the leader of New York State Radical Republicans opposed to President Andrew Johnson's lenient policies toward the conquered South. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1867, tried for the Republican nomination for President in 1876, but failed, remaining in the Senate until 1881, after which he pursued a profitable law career until his death in New York City. He also was the brother-in-law of Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, 1868 Democratic presidential candidate.