Roscoe Conkling was an American lawyer and Republican politician who represented New York in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
Senator Conkling, c. 1866-68
Conkling's father Alfred was a United States Representative and Ambassador to Mexico.
Daguerreotype of a young Roscoe Conkling, c. 1855
Conkling began a long feud with James G. Blaine, future Secretary of State and Republican presidential candidate, during the 39th Congress.
The Stalwarts were a faction of the Republican Party that existed briefly in the United States during and after Reconstruction and the Gilded Age during the 1870s and 1880s. Led by U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling—also known as "Lord Roscoe"—Stalwarts were sometimes called Conklingites. Other notable Stalwarts included Benjamin Wade, Charles J. Folger, George C. Gorham, Chester A. Arthur, Thomas C. Platt, and Leonidas C. Houk. The faction favored Ulysses S. Grant, the eighteenth President of the United States (1869–1877), running for a third term in the 1880 United States presidential election.
Senator Roscoe Conkling, leader of the Stalwarts.
Ulysses S. Grant, who Stalwarts supported in 1880.