ROSCOE CONKLING.
CONKLING.

ROSCOE CONKLING was born at Albany, New York,

on the 30th of October, 1829. He was the youngest son of Alfred Conkling, who was not only an eminent practitioner and writer in the legal profession, but also a Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York from the years 1825 to 1852.

Roscoe Conkling did not have the advantages of a collegiate education. He studied at the Auburn Academy, where his schoolmates recognized, without jealousy, his superiority both in the class-room and on the play ground. His father was a graduate of Union College, and the son would probably have studied there if he had desired a university education, but his eagerness to begin the battle of life prevented him from entering college.

At the age of sixteen, he left his father's home at Auburn, went to Utica and became a student in the well known law office of Spencer & Kernan. There were no paid clerks in this office and young Conkling was without means and much embarrassed for funds with which to support himself, but he borrowed from his brother a sum sufficient to complete his legal studies, which he repaid out of the first money he earned at the Bar.

Joshua A. Spencer was too active a lawyer to give special instruction to his students, but he did give to Roscoe Conkling many useful suggestions, which he always remembered and often referred to in after life.

Messrs. Spencer and Conkling were both members of the old Whig party and it was during his term of study

in the office of Spencer & Kernan, that young Conkling made his debut as a campaign speaker.

In the spring of 1850, the office of District Attorney for Oneida county became vacant by the resignation of the incumbent, and Governor Hamilton Fish appointed Roscoe Conkling to the vacancy. Mr. Conkling was not quite twenty-one years of age, but he assumed at once the duties of the office and tried causes without retaining counsel to assist him. In 1852, he returned to private practice at Utica and soon became a partner of the Honorable Thomas R. Walker. Young advocates are sometimes employed to oppose those who have been their preceptors in the law, and within three years after Conkling's admission to the Bar, he was retained to appear against Mr. Joshua A. Spencer and Francis Kernan, as well as Philo Gridley, Timothy Jenkins and other leading lawyers in central New York.

The older generation of lawyers will remember that the Bar of Oneida county has produced many eminent judges and advocates. While Mr. Conkling was District Attorney, he had opportunities for more practice in court than a young lawyer generally has, and he soon won an enviable reputation as an advocate. His natural talent for oratory, which he had cultivated in his boyhood, and his gift for repartee were of great service when in the court room. He often said in after life, that the proper sphere for him was to address twelve men in the jury box. He early acquired the habit of making his client's cause his own. He studied his cases with great care, and in the evening when many of his contemporaries were engaged in amusement, he was generally to be found preparing himself for an argument on the morrow. He was very skillful in the preparation of causes requiring technical knowledge; he made himself a chemist, a physician or a priest with a readiness that disconcerted his adversaries. He had a wonderful memory and in citing a case, often