The Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Representative Men of Chicago, Milwaukee and the World's Columbian Exposition

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BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Still later, in the same administration, the Secretary of State, William H. Seward, appointed Mr. Depew United States Minister to Japan, and for a time he was disposed to accept; but after hold¬ ing his commission for four weeks Mr. Depew declined the office, with the determination to withdraw from political life.
In 1866 Mr. Depew was appointed the attorney for the New York & Harlem Railroad Company, and in 1869, when this company was consolidated with the New York Central, and became the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company, with Commodore Vanderbilt at its head, Mr. Depew was made the attorney of the new organ¬ ization, and was afterward elected a member of its Board of Directors. As the influence of the Vanderbilts extended, and one road after another was brought under their management, the range of Mr. Depew's official jurisdiction became corre¬ spondingly wider, and in 1875 he was promoted to be general counsel for the entire Vanderbilt system, and elected to a directorship in each of the lines comprising it, in which, in addition to the New York Central & Hudson River, are included the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, • Michigan Central, Chicago & North-western, St. Paul & Omaha, West Shore and Nickel Plate Railroads. In 1872 he permitted the use of his name as a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor on the Liberal-Republican, or Greely, ticket; but his party was unsuccessful, and he shared its fate. In 1874 he w^as the choice of the Legislature for Re¬ gent of the State. University, and was also ap¬ pointed one of the commissioners to build the Capitol at Albany.
On the 4th of March, 1881, James A. Garfield was inaugurated President of the United States, and on the i6th of May following, the Hon. Roscoe Conkling and the Hon. Thos. C. Piatt, United States Senators from New York, resigned their seats in the Senate ; the former for the term to expire March 3, 1885, and the latter to close March 3, 1887. Soon after the organization of the Cabinet it became evident that there was to be trouble between the President and the senior Senator from New York ; and as time passed the President's attitude toward Mr. Conkling became intolerable to the Senator, while on the other hand Mr. Conkling's bearing toward the President was not even remotely suggestive  of submission
or concession. Mr. Piatt shared in the feelings and convictions of his colleague and the resigna¬ tion of both was the outcome of this disagree¬ ment. Mr. Conkling had long been the leader of the Republican party in the Senate and in the State he had so ably represented; and the an¬ nouncement of his withdrawal from the Senate had a bewildering effect upon the party through¬ out the whole country. Governor Cornell advised the Legislature of the resignation of the Senators, and on the 31st of May the two houses balloted separately for their successors. The Republicans had a majority in each House, and after the first ballot went into joint convention. Mr. Depew was pressed into the lists by many of the most influential men in the Republican party, and yielded reluctant assent to the use of his name. He was regarded by his friends as the man above all others worthy to succeed Mr. Conkling, if Mr. Conkling could not be his own successor; and it was deemed practicable to present him for Mr. Piatt's unexpired term, which had two years longer to run. The first ballot for a Senator to succeed Mr. Piatt was distributed amongst eighteen candidates. In the ballot under consid¬ eration, Mr. Depew divided the honors with Mr. Piatt, who had been elected by this same Legisla¬ ture, and led Governor Cornell handsomely. The Republicans had held no caucus, and now went into joint convention without formal consultation or agreement. On the second joint ballot, Mr. Depew tied Mr. Piatt; on the third, he led him by two ; on the seventh, he forged gallantly ahead to the tune of sixteen; on the tenth, he led him by twenty-six, and on the fourteenth he moved readily away from his strongest competitor by twenty-nine, leaving all the others to bring up the rear with but a feeble showing of speed or strength. On the nineteenth ballot Mr. Depew only lacked ten votes of an election, and on the thirty-fourth this record was repeated ; other ballots carried him very near to the goal. His friends stood by him with unflagging loyalty, and in such numbers as to demonstrate beyond all question that he was the man for the occasion, and the choice of a majority of his party's representatives. On the ninth ballot he had a majority of three over all the other candidates; on the tenth, seven ; and, finally, when a caucus was held and a candidate nominated,   the   entire   caucus   only   numbered