Conkling was confident that the legislature at Albany would reelect them both. However, on the last day of May, the same day that Lucretia’s doctors finally pronounced her well—telling Garfield, “with emphasis, it is ended”—both men were soundly defeated. Conkling received just a third of the Republican votes, and Platt six fewer than Conkling. “Stung with mortification at his inability to control the President, and believing that the people of this State shared his disappointment,” wrote the New York Times, Conkling “has thrown away his power, destroyed his own influence.”
