Feud's End

Loudest and most lasting of all political feuds in the last half of the 19th Century was that between Republicans James Gillespie ("The Man from Maine") Elaine and New York's dandified, witty Roscoe Conkling. It started in 1866 when Representative Elaine accused Representative Conkling of having unfairly edited his remarks in the Congressional Globe, forerunner of the Congressional Record. It continued unabated when both graduated from the House to the Senate. It became nationally significant with the formation of Conkling's clique known as the "Stalwarts" which bitterly opposed every move of Elaine's following, the "Half Breeds, twice prevented Elaine from receiving the Republican nomination for President. This celebrated personal feud officially ended when Conkling, aged 59, died as a result of overexertion while making his way up Manhattan's Broadway during the Great Blizzard of March 12-14, 1888.

By last week the Elaines and the Conklings had forgotten their family squabble. In Manhattan Colonel Roscoe Conkling, descendant of the late Senator, and Mrs. Helen Walker Roman, niece of "The Man From Maine," announced that they were chairman and vice chairman respectively of a new organization calling itself the Progressive Republican Committee which will stump, not for Republican Nominee Landon, but for Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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