Downer remarked of this party: 'They are very clever fellows. I have great respect for the way they use either side for their purposes with absolute impartiality'. For most of the period until 1899 Downer led the Opposition. Downer was a strong federalist and had represented South Australia at the 1883 and 1891 conventions. At the latter meeting, he took an important part in protecting the interests of the smaller states, and was a member of the constitutional committee. He was elected one of the 10 representatives of South Australia at the Australasian Federal Convention of 1897-8, and sat, again, on the constitutional committee. He was the most senior and significant representative of the conservative portion of the Convention's ideological spectrum. In this period he formed a close personal bond with several leading Federationists. Robert Garran, an eminence grise of the Federalist cause, was the best man at Downer's wedding in 1898. Richard O'Connor and Edmund Barton were among the attendees. The bride and groom had first met at Barton's house, and in these years Barton would stay at Downer's house when in Adelaide. Federal politician and return to state politics In the inaugural election of the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Downer stood for the Senate, without party label, but campaigning closely with fellow candidate and conservative, Sir Richard Baker. On the hustings he declared he "was not a Free Trader, and not a Protectionist", but "a Fair Trader". He won one of the six vacancies, but, badly disappointed in not being appointed to the High Court, he did not seek re-election in 1903. He entered the South Australian Legislative Council as a National Defence League (Liberal Union from 1910) representative of the southern district in 1905, and continued to be re-elected until his death on 2 August 1915. Character Alfred Deakin assessed Downer in the following terms: 'bull-headed, and rather thick-necked, ... with the dogged set of the mouth of a prize fighter' and 'smallish eyes'. Downer was regarded a first-rate barrister, and some of his speeches to juries were singled out by contemporaries as laudable examples of forensic art. He was equally successful in parliamentary debate; one of his colleagues called him the best debater in a house that contained Charles Kingston, Frederick Holder, John Cockburn, and John Jenkins. In politics Downer tended to be conservative without being obstinate. He described himself as a Tory, and