Francis Kernan, two of the leading lawyers in the state. He integrated himself into Utica society and spoke publicly on a variety of issues, especially in support of human rights and the abolition of slavery. At eighteen, he spoke at various venues in Central New York in sympathy for the sufferers of the Great Famine in Ireland. He displayed deep abhorrence for slavery, which he described as "man's inhumanity to man," and referred to himself as a "Seward Whig," stumping the county for Taylor and Fillmore in 1848. On one occasion, he is said to have transcribed a Henry Clay speech from memory with such accuracy that Clay himself remarked on its quality. He also practiced his oratory by reciting passages from the Bible, Shakespeare, and British Whigs including Thomas Babington Macaulay, Edmund Burke, and Charles James Fox. In 1849, Conkling gained his first exposure to political campaigning when he was elected as a delegate to his New York State Assembly district's Whig nominating convention, then to the state judicial nominating convention as a supporter Joshua Spencer for the New York Court of Appeals. Conkling was admitted to the bar in 1850. Almost immediately, Governor Hamilton Fish appointed him as interim District Attorney of Oneida County. He was still only twenty-one, and set about prosecuting cases without the aid of more senior co-counsel. He was nominated for re-election that fall but was defeated along with the rest of the Whig ticket. Opposition mainly centered on Conkling's youth. In 1852, Conkling opened a legal partnership with former Mayor of Utica Thomas R. Walker; the partnership continued until 1855. He became famous throughout central New York after his defense of Sylvester Hadcock for forgery; Joshua Spencer was the prosecutor, but Conkling won acquittal by proving Hadcock's illiteracy. In 1854, he won a case for slander against a priest who had accused a young woman of "want of chastity." In 1855, he partnered with his former classmate Montgomery Throop; their partnership continued until 1862. He became one of the highest-paid attorneys in the region, often charging over $100 per trial. Through 1853, Conkling remained an orthodox Whig. In 1852, he stumped New York state for General Winfield Scott, denouncing Franklin Pierce as a British tool committed to upholding slavery and free trade to fuel the cotton mills of England. In 1853, Conkling was a leading candidate for Attorney General of New York; he