Garfield's supporters wanted to heal the rift caused by Garfield's nomination by offering the vice presidency to a Stalwart. They first approached Levi P. Morton, who sought Conkling's advice. Unhappy over the outcome of the presidential nomination fight and believing Garfield was likely to lose, Conkling counseled Morton to decline, which he did. Garfield's supporters then approached another prominent Stalwart, Chester A. Arthur. Conkling advised Arthur to decline, as he had advised Morton. Arthur decided to accept, and Garfield and he narrowly won the November election. Immediately after Garfield's inauguration, Conkling presented to the President a list of men whom he desired to have appointed to the federal offices in New York. Garfield's nomination and successful Senate confirmation of Blaine as Secretary of State, and of William Windom as Secretary of the Treasury, instead of Levi P. Morton, whose appointment Conkling had urged, angered Conkling and made him unwilling to agree to any compromise with Garfield on the New York appointments. Without consulting Conkling, the President nominated for Collector of the Port of New York William H. Robertson, the leader of the opposing Half-Breed faction. Robertson's nomination was confirmed by the Senate, in spite of the opposition of Conkling, who claimed the right of Senators to control federal patronage in their home states. In protest, Conkling resigned with his fellow Senator Thomas C. Platt, confident that he could be re-elected by the New York legislature (at that time, senators were chosen by their states' legislatures). However, he was defeated in the resulting legislature's vote, losing to the Half-Breed faction in the vote, after an almost two-month-long struggle between the opposing factions of the Republican Party. Afterward he resumed the practice of law in New York City. He was nominated and confirmed as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1882, but declined to serve. Conkling, a machine Republican, led the Stalwart (pro-Grant) faction of the GOP, in opposition to the "Half-Breeds" led by James G. Blaine. Conkling served as a mentor to Chester A. Arthur, beginning in the late 1860s. Arthur received from Conkling a tax commission post (along with a salary of $10,000), and was later appointed Collector of the Port of New York. However, in 1878 Conkling lost a key battle against Rutherford B. Hayes's civil service reform.