roHw^ III 'mmmfHismBimf'.'f'^ii^'f^- m-— -B.€Wt. Author Title Imprint. 16 — 47372-2 OPO i w i mm mm mm If M^' 'Mm IP IP i|i ■ LIVES OF BLAINE K^p LOGAN JAMES G. BLAINE. JOHN A. LOGAN. THE PEOPLE'S EDITION— BOOK OF REFERENOE. JAMES G. BLAINE — HIS BIRTHPLACE AT WEST BROWNSVILLE, PA. — BOYHOOD COLLEGE LIFE TWO YEARS AT THE PHILADELPHIA BLIND INSTITUTION — EDITOR IN MAINE — THE HOMESTEAD AT AUGUSTA, ME. RELIGION — CAREER IN CONGRESS — SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE INGERSOLL'S SPEECH NOMINATING HIM FOR PRESIDENT IN 1S76 — ORIGIN OF THE TERM "PLUMED KNIGHX" WASHINGTON RESIDENCE SENATOR FROM MAINE — SECRETARY OF STATE — GAR- FIELD'S FRIEND EULOGY ON THE DEATH OF GARFIELD AS AN HISTORIAN "TWENTY YEARS OF CONGRESS" — THE ^ CONVENTION OF 1 884 — BALLOTS IN DETAIL — THE ELECTORAL VOTES — JUDGE WEST'S SPEECH — NO- TIFICATION BY CHAIRMAN HENDERSON ETC. JOHN A. LOGAN — WAR RECORD — PUBLIC ■ IIFE GRANT ON LOGAN — SKETCH OF MRS. LOGAN THE REPUB- LICAN PLATFORM OF 1 884. /3^^J COPYRIGHT, E. T. HAINES & CO., Publishers, 712 SANSOM ST., PHILADELPHIA. 1884. LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. HIS BOYHOOD. JAMES G. BLAINE was born on the old Indian Hill Farm, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1S30. On this farm his great grandfather, the elder Neal Gillespie, had settled before the outbreak of the Revolution. The paternal great-grandfather of Mr. Blaine was a Penn-i sylvania colonel in the revolution. His home was in that set- tlement of the Scotch-Irish people — the Cumberland "Valley. It followed that the Blaines were all Presbyterians. It is told of Colonel Blaine that he was a friend of General Washington, who attributed the preservation of the ragged continentals from starving while at Valley Forge to the generous act of Colonel Blaine, while commissary-general of the Northern department of the army, in contributing and collecting large sums of money for the purchase of supplies. Ephraim L. Blaine, the grand- son of the revolutionary hero, lived in Washington County before 1842, at West Brownsville. In that year, as a Whig, he was elected to the office of prothonotary of the courts, and moved to Washington. Tradition says he lived in good style, held his head rather high, was much respected, and was loved more for a generosity and hospitality from which no one but himself felt any ill effects. The son of the prothonotary, now the Republican candidate for President of the United States, a few years ago, after a long absence, paid a visit to his birthplace, recognized the house at a glance, and promptly answered the salutations of his old friends — calling by their names or nick- names persons whom he had not seen for many years In his youth Blaine was tall and thin, and, on account of his shyness and reticence in their society, was not a general favorite with the village belles. He was quick, intelligent, read a good deal, and was fond of fun. A gentleman who recently visited Blaine's birthplace at West Brownsville, thus writes of it : — "See how the ivy climbs and expands Over this humble hermitage. And seems to cover with its httle hands The rough gray stones, as a child that stands Caressing the wrinkled cheeks of age." Longfellow wrote these lines in his charming description of quaint "Old Saint Davids at Radnor," but how well do they apply to the ancient church in this village ; the little limestone, pile among the graves that hold so many of those who make the town worth writing about. It is the same "image of peace and rest" that the poet so well describes, and its sur- roundings are as striking and lonely as the poetical imagination could desire. I stood beside two old graves to-day in this village that are in the shadow of the little church that so quickly recalled to me Longfellow's beautiful lines. The marble that marked them was much newer than the mounds, and the surroundings impressed me with the thought that a dutiful and reverent son had years after, when means and opportunity came that were wanting when death called father and mother, placed a fitting monument to mark the spot where they slept. It is a plain, un- pretentious stone that marks these graves^ and it was the names only that attracted my attention. They were those of Ephraim L. Blaine and Maria Gillespie Blaine. "Who were these two people in life?" I asked of an old gentleman, who had wandered along with me to this quiet city where the dead sleep. "Why, they were the father and mother of James G. Blaine. 1 knew them both well. Eph Blaine and I went to school together. He was one of the founders of this town, and was 'squire here for many a year. He was elected prothonotary of the county in 1S42, and moved to Washington, the county seat. He married Maria, a daughter of old Neal Gillespie, the smartest man in this whole section, and from his people James Gillespie Blaine derives his middle name. The Gillespies were among the most prominent families in the State. The seal of nature's nobility was stamped upon them, one and all. The men were brave and stalwart; as strong in character, too, as they were stout of limb. The women were very handsome, and carried themselves as proudly as though the blood of a hundred earls were coursing through their veins. The beauty of old Mrs. Blaine, James' mother, passed into a proverb. Even In her decrepit age she preserved much of her early attract- iveness, and her eye was like a hawk's, as clear and flashing then as in the days of her budding womanhood. This was a pecu- liarity of her family, and she transmitted it to all her children. Neal Gillespie owned a good deal of land about here, and Eph Blaine built the brick house you see yonder on a portion of it after his marriage with Miss Gillespie. There their first child' James, was born in 1830. I remember him very well when he was a lad and used to jiaddle about on the river and make mud pies along its banks. He was a bright lad. NEVER TURNED HIS BACK ON FRIEND OR FOE. "I remember one little story about him, which I often heard in those days, and which is interesting as showing how truly, in his case, the child was father to the man. When he was but a little toddler, so to speak, some laborers were engaged digging a well on his father's premises. The future statesman was caught one morning peering down into the excavation, and one of the men, with the idea of frightening him and thus preventing him from again putting himself in danger, thrust his shovel toward him, and made all sorts of ugly faces. Jim ran away, but only to nurse his anger and await an opportunity for revenge. Venturing to the well a day or two after he had been driven away, he found the men working away at the bot- tom. Improving the opportunity, he seized a clod of earth and hurled it with all his little might full at the head of his unsus- pecting enemy, with the consolatory remark, 'There, take that.' Clod followed clod in fast succession, with accompanying exple- tives, until the men were fairly beside themselves with rage and the fear that the desperate child might take it into his head to use some of the stones lying about him as messengers of wrath more effective than mere lumps of earth. Their shouts, how- ever, brought his mother to the scene, and the little avenger was unceremoniously hustled off to the house. That was the old blood asserting itself. A Gillespie or a Blaine never turned his back upon friend or foe." MEMORIES. "Do the Blaines or any of the relatives own the old home- stead?" "No, indeed. It's long since passed into strange hands. There was little of either the Blaine or the Gillespie estate left when the settlement day came. The children all had to begin new. None of either family live about here now." There is much that is strange in the story that the old man told me, and much more that is interesting. We finished the talk beside the restless waters of the Monongahela, near which Mr. Blaine was born and his family lived for years. The little brick house doesn't stand more than forty rods from the river, and the old path which leads from the doorway that Blaine helped to make in childhood, is still there. The best boat on the river now bears his name, and the plain people love to talk of his having been born in their midst. It is a queer section of coun- try in which to have found the homes of two such families as the Blaines and the Gillespies. Both strong houses — both fond of the best things of this life. Both educated and brainy. Blaine sprang from Revolutionary stock. His great-grandfather was a distinguished officer in the Revolution. He was a rich man, and lived in Cumberland County, above Carlisle. He left James Blaine, the grandfather, and Ephraim Blaine, the father of the man of whom I am now writing, rich. The story goes that both spent their money in having a good time. The grand- faiher spent many years in Europe, and returned to this country only when he had become penniless. The first history he made in this country began early in the present century. After he was poor he left the rich and populous section of Carlisle, and moved into the then wilderness of the Youghiogheny region, and established a country store at the mouth of Ten Mile Run, in Gjcene County. He lived here but a short time when he came to Brownsville, with his wagon load of goods, and established a store, which he kept the remainder of his life. The Gillespie f:imily was then a rich and powerful family in the region. The strength of mind and character for which all the family were noted, is still a proverb in the region. The Monongahela river at this point separates the two counties of Fayette and Washing- ton. Brownsville is on the Fayette side and West Brownsville is on the Washington side. They are both quaint old towns, and wear the mark of many years. I don't suppose there are fifteen hundred people in both, and the houses straggle along the banks of the river on the lowlands, which are just high enough to keep them out of the reach of the overflow. This country was new — I might say wild — when the Blaines and the Gillespies came here. The rich treasures of the Youghiogheny region were floated down the Ohio river in rude keel boats, and the untold wealth in the rugged mountains was then unknown. Albert Gallatin usL'd to live in this country then, and his residence was but a few miles up the river from this point. But mighty changes have taken place since those days, when he so left his impress upon the finances and credit of this country that it can never be effaced. TWO STRONG FAMILIES. There seems to have been good feeling from the first between the Blaine and Gillespie families, and there seems to have been a special care to intermingle the family names as each son was born. The old man, whom I encountered in the first part of this story, told me that nearly every son in the Blaine family, as in the Gillespies, wore the family name or some part of his auto- graph. The Gillespie family .eemed to run more to girls than boys, and it seemed to be their good fortune to link their for- tunes with strong men. The daughter who was next in age to Maria, who married Ephraim L. Blaine, was wedded to the famous Tom Ewing, of Ohio, when he was a poor lawyer in Lancaster, Pa. Tiiat's how lie became an uncle of James G. Blaine, and the names of Blaine aud Ewing became joined. There is a tradition here that when old Tom Ewing was Secretary of the Interior, Blaine applied to him for a clerkship, and the old man sent him to Kentucky to earn an honest living teaching school. This association of the name of Ewing with that of Blaine has given rise to the story that the Ewing family of Ohio helped James G. Blaine to an education. I might as well destroy this fiction by telling the facts. A short drive brought me to Washington, the county seat of this county, and one of the first men I met was Major John H. Ewing, an old veteran now past four-score years. "I married the sister of Ephraim L. Blaine. He and I went to school together over in yonder college, and I knew him nearly all his life. He was a leader in the mischief of the school, and fo id of all the good things of this life. He was the hand- somest man I ever saw, and he had a wife that was a match for him. She was one of the noblest women I ever knew. She in- herited all the sterling traits of character and strength of mind for which the Gillespies were noted. So, you see, Blaine sprang from the best of stock on both sides. His father was justice of the peace over in West Brownville for a number of years, and afterwards prothonotary of the county. He was elected in 1842 and came here to live. James G. was only about twelve years old then, and almost every middle aged man you meet on the streets here remembers all about him." blaine's college career. Young Blaine was thirteen when, in 1843, ^^ entered Wash- ington College. His college mates say he was easily leader of the three hundred students from all parts of the country. He became active in athletic sports, and, with exercise, his figure gained fullness and firmness. He was kind to the new boys and the youngsters, considerate of their freshness, and generous in giving them assistance and smoothing the rough places in their path. He became the arbiter of their disputes, and before the close of his college days he was universally looked up to and loved. During the campaign of 1844, when the Whigs had a "log cabin" near the college for headquarters, he was especially aggressive in his defense of Whig policy, and in active work. He was a brilliant student, and excelled alike in the sciences and mathematics. He was alwnys looked upon as very smart. The leading and preponderating quality of his mind was a remarkable memory. In this he far excelled every other member of his class. He was a great reader of history, and was so methodical in his arrangement of facts that he could in an instant present an array of them that would overwhelm any opponent. An 8 incident illustrating strongly this power is told of him when a little boy. His sister challenged him to a contest in naming the counties of the State of Pennsylvania. She named thern all, and he immediately named them and every county seat besides. ON THE ROAD TO FAME. Mr. A. M. Gow, of Washington, Pa., who was Blaine's classmate, speaks thus of his school-days : — "Yes, Blaine graduated in the class of '47, when he was only seventeen years old. I graduated in the same class. We were thrown a great deal together, not only in school, but in society. He was a great favorite in the best social circles in the town. He was not noted as a leader in his class. He could learn his lessons too easily. He had the most remarkable memory of any boy in school, and could commit and retain his lessons without difficulty. He never demonstrated in his youth, except by his wonderful memory, any of the great powers as a debater and thinker that he has since given evidence of." Dr. J. C. Cooper, of Philadelphia, another graduate of Washington College, in the class of '47, speaks of his classmate James G. Blaine, in terms of the highest praise. Dr. Cooper states that "in his college-days, young Blaine was a careful, thorough and conscientious student, though he had a gift of ac- quiring knowledge without much effort. He was ambitious, and there was one place where he could always be found, that was, at the head of his class." When a man has filled so large a place in the public eye as Mr. Blaine has, his early life seems a great way off. When you get where every other man you meet can tell you all about it, then you seem to see it in a different light and it leaves a far different impression upon your mind. Here, what seems to be to you when away traditions far in the distant past, appears like the recollections of yesterday. People cannot only tell you of his father and his grandfather, but of almost every phase of his life from boyhood up. The stories of his early struggles and triumphs are as vivid as those of his later years, and his name is closely associated with the lore of the country side. He left here soon after he graduated, but how little did he then think that his home would be made in the Northland and his fame and fortune won many miles away from the quaint old town where he grew up. It is a nice place for peace and rest. The people are contented and happy with their splendid educational institu- tions, their rich acres and plenty of money. He had close alliances here then that were likely to bring him back to stay. 9 1 HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF YOUTH. In 1847, at the age of seventeen, he graduated at the head of a large class, many of whose members have also acquired wide renown. Mr. Blaine has always retained a warm affection for his alma mater and his native county. He has said that his pride and affection for both increase with years and reflection, and he recalls with pleasure the memory of the hardy pioneers of the county, their zealous celebrations on the Fourth of July and Washington's Birthday, and, speaking of one Fourth of July celebration in Brownsville in 1840, which was attended by 200 Revolutionary veterans, Mr. Blaine has said that the modern cant and criticism which we sometimes hear about Washington not being a very great man would have been dangerous talk on that day and in that assemblage. Of this college he has said: "During my service of eighteen years in Congress I met a larger number of the alumni of Washington and Jefferson than of any single college in the Union." With Blaine's col- lege life his immediate connection with Pennsylvania, except for a short time spent as a teacher in Philadelphia, and a few years devoted to the study of Law, was ended, but his affection for his native State did not grow less with distance or time. After his graduation, Mr. Blaine went to B^ue Lick Springs, Ky., as a professor in the Western Military Institute. Nothing tests a man's back-bone more than the control of 450 half-grown boys. If he can maintain discipline and the regard and respect of his pupils, combine the instructor and the friend, he has succeeded as few beside the master at Rugby have done. Mr. Blaine even yet knows the boys of the Western Military Institute — their given names, their shortcomings and strong points. An officer of the Confederate service has narrated how coolly and bravely Mr. Blaine behaved during a bloody con- flict between the faculty of the school and the owners of Blue Lick Springs — when knives and revolvers were drawn. At Millersburg, twenty-nine miles away, was a young ladies' school, and here Blaine met Miss Harriet Stanwood, who belonged to an excellent Massachusetts family, and subsequently she became Mrs. Blaine. Miss Stanwood, for some romantic reason, refused to tell her future husband anything about her parentage or circumstances. When the school broke up she returned to her home in Maine. Mr. Blaine followed her; they were married, and the husband, to oblige his wife, became "Blaine, of Maine," though a more correct title would be Blaine, of Maine and of Pennsylvania. BLAINE AND THE BLIND. After leaving Blue Lick Springs, Mr. Blaine spent two years in the City of Philadelphia, teaching at The Pennsylvania Insti- 10 tution for the Instruction of the Blind. Mr. William Chapin, a genial old gentleman of over four score years, and the prm- cipal of the institution since 1849, when recently interrogated as to his recollection of Mr. Blaine, replied: "Yes, I remember young James G. Blame distinctly. He was principal teacher here on the boys' side for two years, and when he departed he left behind him not only universal regret at a serious loss to the institution, but an impression of his personal force upon the work and metnods, which survives the lapse of twenty years." The Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, at Twentieth and Race Streets, is the second place in which Mr. Blaine taught aftg: his graduation from Washington College. He rang the bell at the front door of the building one summer afternoon, in 1852, in answer to an advertisement for a teacher. "There were thirty or forty other applicants," said Mr. Chapin, "but his manner was so winning, and he possessed so many manifestly valuable qualities that I closed an engagement with him at once. He was married, and his wife and little son Walker came here with him. His qualities, which impressed me most deeply, were his culture, the thoroughness of his education and his unfailing self-possession. He was also a man of very decWled will, and was very much disposed to argu- ment. He was young then — only twenty-two — and was rather impulsive, leaping to a conclusion very quickly. But he was always ready to defend his conclusions, however suddenly he seemed to have reached them. We had many a familiar dis- cussion in this very room, and his arguments always astonished me by the knowledge they displayed of facts in history and politics. His memory was remarkable, and seemed to retain details which ordinary men would forget. Blaine's first book. "Now I will show you something that illustrates how thoroughly Mr. Blaine mastered anything he took hold of," said Mr. Chapin, as he took from a desk in the corner of the room a thick quarto manuscript book, bound in dark, brown leather, and lettered "Journal" on the corner. "This book Mr. Blaine compiled with great labor from the minute books of the Board of Managers. It gives an historical view of the institution from the time of its foundation up to the time of Mr. Blaine's departure. He did all the work in his own room, telling no one ot it till he left. Then he presented it, through me, to the Board of Managers, who were both surprised and gratified. I believe they made him a present of ^100 as a thank-offering for an invaluable work." 1 ^ ^ £. 12 Indeed, this book, the first historical work of Mr. Blaine, is a model of its kind. On the title page, in ornamental pen- work, executed at that time by Mr. Chapm, is the inscription : Journal OF THE Pennsylvania Institution FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE BLIND, FROM ITS FOUNDATION. COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL RECORDS BY James G. Blaine. 1834. A MODEL OF METHOD. The methodical character of the work is most remarkable. On the first page every abbreviation used in the book is entered alphabetically. The first entry reads: "On this and the four following pages will be found some notes in regard to the origin of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, furnished by I. Francis Fisher, Esq." From this page to the i88th, in which is the last entry made by Mr. Blaine, every line is a model of neatness and accuracy. On every page is a wide margin. At the top of the margin is the year, in ornamental figures. Below it is a brief statement of what the text contains opposite that portion of the marginal entry. Every year's record closes with an elaborate table, giving the attendance of mem- bers of the board. The last pages of the book are filled with alphabetical lists of officers of the institution and statistical tables, compiled by the same patient and untiring hand. One of the lists is that of the "principal teachers," No. 13 is fol- lowed by the signature "James G. Blaine, from August 5, 1852, to" — and then, in an other hand, the record is completed with the date November 23, 1854. "I think that the book," remarked Mr. Chapin, "illustrates the character of the man in accurate mastery of facts and orderly presentation of details. We still use it for reference, and Mr. Frank Battles, the assistant principal, is bringing the record down to the present time." 13 "I recall one incident," Mr. Chapin continued, "which indicates Mr. Blaine's mode of discipline, and shows, too, that he was in those days somewhat impulsive. It was one of his duties to take charge of the boys at breakfast, and sometimes there would be a few sleepy laggards. One morning a whole room full of boys, five or six of them, failed to appear. Mr. Blaine quietly walked up stairs and locked them in. The boys had a screw-driver and they unfastened the lock ; but by the time they reached the breakfast room the tables had been cleared. 'You can have no breakfast,' was the teacher's annotincement. The boys thereupon declared that they wouldn't go into Mr. Blaine's classes. He reported them to me. Although I thought it perhaps a little severe to deprive them of breakfast, I felt obliged to sustain Mr. Blaine, and told them to go to their class rooms as usual. They still refused, and I suspended them for the day. The next morning they rose in time for breakfast, at- tended classes, and the little rebellion was over. "Mr. Blaine taught mathematics, in which he excelled, and the higher branches. His wife was universally beloved, and often read aloud to the pupils. When he went away to become editor of the Y^tnnthtc Journal, we felt that we had lost a man of large parts and we watched his upward career with great interest. Yes, indeed, we're all for Blaine here. He has called here a number of times when he stopped in the city on his way to and from Washington. The last time he was here he heard with great interest of the progress of D. D. Wood, the blind organist at St. Stephen's Church, who was one of his pupils, and recalled Mr. Wood's proficiency in mathematics." A pupil's recollections. Three persons now holding positions in the institution, Michael M. Williams, William McMillan and Miss Maria Cor- many, were pupils under Mr. Blaine. Mr. Williams said: "Everybody loved Mr. Blaine and his wife. Both were always ready to do anything for our amusement in leisure hours, and we had a great deal of fun, into which they entered heartily. I think that Mrs. Blaine read nearly all of Dicken's works aloud to us, and Mr. Blaine used to make us roar with laughter by reading out of a book entitled 'Charcoal Sketches.'" Mr. Williams led the visitor to a large room at the right of the main entrance to the building, separated by folding doors from an- other room, and added: "In the evenings he used to throw those doors open and sit there under the gaslight, reading aloud to both the boys and girls. Then we would wind up with a spelling bee. Sometimes Mr. Blaine would give out the words aud sometimes one of the big boys would do it, while Mr. Blaine stood up among the boys. Then we would have great fun trying to 'spell the teacher down.' " W~"!iim-'f , 15 THE MAINE EDITOR AND POLITICIAN. It was in 1853 that Mr. Blaine went to Portland, Me., and became editor of the Portland Advertiser and the Kennebec Journal. A great journalist was lost when he entered public life. He has himself said that he never hoped to attain in his writing anything like the excellence of style reached by him in the in- tense excitement of public speaking. The truth is, he is a master of both arts. His first reputation as a public speaker was ac- quired in the Fremont campaign of 1856. In 1858 he was elected a member of the Maine Legislature. He was re-elected three times, and in 1861 and 1862 he was chosen speaker of the House. In 1863, at the height of the civil war, he was elected to Congress, beginning a service in the National House of Rep- resentatives which lasted fourteen years. He became the leader of the Republican side of the House as he became the leader of men wherever he went. It was in the beginning of his second term that he began to make himself felt. None of the younger members had been on more cordial or confidential terms with Mr. Lincoln than the new member from Maine. Towards the expiration of Mr. Lincoln's first term, Mr. Blaine was the person with whom the President constantly conferred in regard to political movements in Maine. Ward H. Lamon, Lincoln's law partner, was present at a conference when Mr. Lincoln requested Mr. Blaine to go to Maine and watch the movements of the President's opponents. The acquaintance between Lincoln and Blaine had begun in Illinois, during the Douglas campaign in 1858, and at that early time the Maine editor had predicted in the columns of his paper that Lincoln would be defeated for senator by Douglas, but that he would beat Douglas for president in i860. A copy of this prophecy Mr. Lincoln carried in his memorandum book long after he had been inaugurated as presi- dent. In i860, as delegate to the Chicago Convention, Mr. Blaine had been almost the only New England man who had supported Mr. Lincoln from the start, and it is not too much to say that it was Mr. Blaine's early and firm stand for Lincoln which opened the way to the first nomination of the first martyr President. HIS CONGRESSIONAL CAREER. Mr. Blaine had been a representative hardly three years be- fore he had won an equal rank with the ablest of the members. It was a body strong in strong men — Thad. Stevens, Ben. Butler, Bingham, Boutwell, Conkling, Dawes, George N. Julian, R. B. Hayes and others made the Republican delegation a tower of strength. In the National House of Representatives Mr. Blaine followed the same even and upward path of progress which he 16 had trodden from his entrance in college to his last day of service in the Maine Legislature. He was a member of the Thirty- eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-second, Forty- third and Forty-fourth Congresses. He was Speaker of the House during the Forty-first, Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses. Upon assuming the chair as Speaker of the House in 1S69, Mr. Blaine made the following address : Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : I thank you profoundly for the great honor which you have just conferred upon me. The graiifica- lion which this signal mark of your confidence brings to me finds its only drawback in the diffidence with which I assume the weighty duties devolved upon me. Succeeding to a chair made illustrious by the services of such eminent statesmen and skilled parliamentarians as Clay, and Stevenson, and Polk, and Winthrop, and Banks, and Grow, and Colfax, I may well distrust my ability to meet the just expectations of those who have shown me such marked partiality. But relying, gentlemen, on my honest purpose to perform all my duties faithfully and fearlessly, and trusting in a large measnre to the indulgence which I am sure you will always extend to me, I shall hope to retain, as I have secured your confidence, your kindly regard and your gener- ous support. The Forty-first Congress assembles at an auspicious period in the history of our Government. The splendid and impressive ceremonial which we have just witnessed in another part of the Capitol appropriately symbolizes the triumphs of the past and the hopes of the future. A great chieftain, whose sword at the head of gallant and victorious armies saved the repul^lic from dismemberment and ruin, has been fitly called to the highest civic honor which a grateful people can bestow. Sustained by a Congress that so ably represents the loyalty, the patriotism, and the personal worth of the nation, the President this day inaugurated will assure to the country an administra- tion of purity, fidelity and prosperity ; an era of liberty regulated by law, and of law thoroughly inspired with liberty. Congratulating you, gentlemen, upon the happy auguries of the day, and invoking the gracious blessing of Almighty God on the arduous and respon- sible duties before you, I am now ready to take the oath of office and enter upon the discharge of the duties to which you have called me. For the speakership he had nearly every requirement that can be demanded. Before he took up the gavel he had long parliamentary experience, and, before experience, he had quickness, firmness, knowledge of the rules, of men and affairs. His assumption of the office was merely another trial of the powers which had been equal to every occasion, and they did not fail him now. On July 10, 1876, Mr. Blaine was ap- pointed United States Senator from Maine, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Lott M. Morrill, who had been api)ointed Secretary of the Treasury, and he was subsequently elected for the unexpired term, and for the ensuing term which expired March 3, 1883. His congressional career embraced the most trying period of his country's history, the sombre years of the rebellion, the reconstruction period and the perilous time when the election 17 of President Hayes aroused an apparently triumphant Democratic party almost to the verge of madness. A good example of Mr. Blaine's powers as a debater is found in a speech delivered in the Senate, April 14, 1879, when an effort was made by the Demo- crats to strike out the words from a section of the Revised Stat- utes, which provided for the use of soldiers to keep peace at the polls. In reply to the charge that the soldiers were used to in- timidate Southern voters, Mr. Blaine said: " Ai.d the entire South has one thousand one hundred and fifty-five soldiers to intimidate, overrun, oppress and destroy the liberties of fifteen million people ! In the Southern States there are one thousand two hundred and three counties. If you dis- tribute the soldiers there is not quite one for each county. If you distribute them territorially there is one for every seven hun- dred square miles of territory, so that if you make a territorial distribution I would remind the honorable Senator from Dela- ware, if I saw him in his seat, that the quota for his state would be three, 'One ragged sergeant and two abreast,' as the old song has it. That is the force ready to destroy the liberties of Delaware." « BLAINE, THE STATESMAN. An examination of the Congressional Record v^'WX show how far astray is the popular idea of Mr. Blaine's congressional career and how much greater he was as a statesman than as a politician. His debates covered a wide range of the most complicated sub- jects, and show him to have been sound in his financial views, practical always and liberal in his political views. When, in December, 1864, Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, introduced a bill in the House to determine the value of legal tender notes, and to compel all persons to take the notes at their face value, Mr. Blaine was the member to expose the absurdity of the at- tempt. "The bill," he said, "aims at the impossible. You cannot make a gold dollar worth less than it is by congressional declaration." Mr. Blaine invented the word "Stalwart," but no one was quicker than he to advise keeping hands off the South after the close of the war. In a speech upon the financial condition of the country, de- livered in the House, in March, 1868, Mr. Blaine said: "Nor do I see how any gentleman can consistently propose an inflation of the currency in the face of an express and solemn pledge to the contrary by Congress. * * * If we were ever so eager to pay off our five-twenty's in greenbacks we are actually stopped by the four hundred million dollars pledge. If we dis- regard that pledge we might just as well trample upon others and 18 take a short cut at once to repudiation and national bankruptcy. The policy which I advocate is to bring our entire currency in due season, without haste, without rashness, without contraction, without financial convulsion, up to the specie standard. June 23 1868, Mr. Blaine made an elaborate argument in opposition to the proposition to impose a tax upon Government bonds He was one of the most conspicuous- and able ot the opponents of the importation of Chinese labor. His ablest speeches in the Senate were, probably, those made during the Geneva award debate, when he successfully crossed arms with the great legal athletes of the Senate Chamber. In the meantime, Mr. Blaine's popularity and prominence had made him a formidable candidate for the presidency. At the Republican National Convention, held at Cincinnati in 1876, he was by far the most popular candidate, but, as is so often the case, under such circumstances, the combinations effected by the opposition were too strong to be withstood, and Rutherford B. Hayes received the nomination on the seventh ballot. The following is Col. Ingersoll's speech, nominating Mr. Blaine: The Republicans of the United States demand, as their leader in the great contest of 1876, a man of intelligence, a man of integrity, a man of well known and approved political opinions. They demand a statesman. They demand a reformer after, as well as before, the election. They demand a politician in the highest, broadest, best sense — a man of superb moral courage. They demand a man acquainted with public affairs; with the wants of the people; with not only the requirements of the hour, but with the demands of the future. They demand a man broad enough to comprehend the relations of this Government to the other nations of the earth. They demand a man well versed in the powers, duties and prerogatives of each and every depart- ment of this Government. They demand a man who will sacredly preserve the financial honor of the United States; one who knows enough to know that the national debt must be paid through the prosperity of its people; one who knows enough to know that all the financial theories in the world connot redeem a single dollar; one who knows enough to know that all the money must be made, not by law, but by labor; one who knows enough to know that the people of the United States have the industry to make the money and have the honor to pay it over just as fast as they make it. The Republicans of the United States demand a man who knows that prosperity and resumption, when they come, must come together; that when they come, they will come hand in hand through the golden harvest fields; hand in hand by the whirling spindles and the turning wheel; hand in hand past the open furnace doors; hand in hand by the flaming forges; hand in hand by the chimneys filled with eager fire ; greeted and grasped by the countless sons of toil. This money has to be dug out of the earth. You cannot make it by passing resolutions in a political convention. The Republicans of the United States want a man who knows that this Government should protect every citizen at home and abroad ; who knows that any Government that will not defend its defenders, and protect its protectors is a disgrace to the map of the world. They demand a man who believes in the eternal separation and divorcement 19 of church and school. They demand a man whose political reputation is spot- less as a star ; but they do not demand that their candidate shall have a certifi- cate of moral character signed by a Confederate Congress. The man who has, in full, heaped, and rounded measure, all these splendid qualifications, is the present grand and gallant leader of the Republican party — James G. Blaine. Our countr\', crowned with the vast and marvelous achievements of its first century, asks for a man worthy of the past and prophetic of the future; asks for a man who has the audacity of genius; asks for a man who has the grandest combination of heart, conscience and brain beneath her flag — such a man is James G. Blaine. For the Republican host led by this intrepid man, there can" be no defeat. This is a grand year — a year filled with the recollec- tions of the Revolution; filled with proud and tender memories of the past — with the sacred legends of Liberty — a year in which the sons of Freedom will drink from the fountains of enthusiasm — a year in which the people call for a man who has preserved in Congress what our soldiers won upon the field — a year in which they call for the man who has torn from the throat of treason the tongue of slander ; for the man who has snatched the mask of Democracy from the hideous face of Rebellion ; for the man who, like an intellectunl athlete, has stood in the arena of debate and challenged all comers, and who is still a total stranger to defeat. Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen foreheads of the defamers of his country and the maligners of his honor. For the Re- publican party to desert this gallant leader now is as though an army should desert their general upon the field of battle. James G. Blaine is now and has been for years the bearer of the sacred standard of the Republican party. I call it sacred, because no human being can stand beneath its folds without becoming and without remaining free. Gentlemen of the Convention : In the name of the great Republic, the only Republic that ever existed upon this earth ; in the name of all her de- fenders and of all her supporters; in the name of all her soldiers living ; in the name of all her soldiers dead upon the field of battle, and in the name of those who perished in the skeleton clutch of famine at Andersonville and Libby, whose sufferings he so vividly remembers, Illinois— Illinois nominates for the next President of this Country, that prince of parliamentarians, that leader of leaders, James G. Blaine. THE BALLOTS IN DETAIL IN 1 876. Candidates. ISt Ballot. 2d Ballot. 3d Ballot. 4th B.llot. Sth Ballot. 6th Ballot. 7th Ballot. 298 114 93 111 63 64 U 3 1 296 113 99 124 58 (1 11 3 1 293 121 90 113 68 67 2 1 292 126 84 108 71 68 2 3 286 114 82 95 69 104 2 3 308 111 81 85 50 113 2 4 351 21 Conkling Hayes 384 Washburne Aeain, in the National Republican Convention of iSSo, James G. Blaine was one of the popular candidates, ranking 20 second to General Grant in the first thirty-five ballots of the convention ; in the thirty-sixth the Blaine votes were transferred to James A. Garfield, who received at that ballot 399 votes, and was declared the candidate of his party. THE BALLOTS IN DETAIL IN 1880. Ballots. O n o f 1st.... I 2d..., I 31.... 4th... oth.. Glh.. 7th... 8th... 9th.. 10th. 11th. ]2lh. 13th. 14th. loth. 16th. 17th. L 18th. , • r 19th. 20th. 2M . 22d.. 23d.. 24. h. 25lh. 26th. 27th. 28th., f 29th. 30th. 1 31st.. I 32d.. '! 33d.. 34th. I 35th. t 36th. 304 305 305 305 305 305 305 306 308 305 305 304 305 305 309 306 303 305 305 308 305 305 304 305 302 303 306 307 305 306 308 309 309 312 313 306 284 282 282 281 281 280 281 284 282 282 281 283 285 285 281 283 284 283 279 276 276 275 275 279 281 280 277 279 278 279 276 270 276 275 257 42 90 91 96 93 96 97 97 93 94 93 93 91 116 120 118 117 110 107 99 3 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 17 50 399 21 HIS RELATIONS WITH GARFIELD. Again Mr. Blaine was to perform the second martyr Presi- dent a service greater in degree than that which he had done for Lincoln at the second National Convention of the Republican party, but similar to it. In Lincoln's case, he opened the way to the nomination. He made the nomination of Garfield pos- sible by throwing his strength to him at the proper moment. And his relations with Garfield were to be closer than his rela- tions with Lincoln, confidential as they had been, in proportion as his services to Garfield in iSSowere made greater than his services to Lincoln in i860 by his increased influence and promi- nence. It remained for Mr. Blaine to do almost as much to elect Garfield as he had done to nominate him by his apprecia- tion of the importance of the tariff question, and by exposing » upon the stump the dangers of Free Trade at a moment in the campaign when the Republican horizon was darkest with clouds. Mr. Garfield was elected in November. Before the first of De- cember he had invited Mr. Blaine to enter his Cabinet as Sec- retary of State. Mr. Blaine, after due consideration, signified his acceptance. He wrote that he accepted not for the honor of the promotion, but because he might be useful to the country, the party and to the President, the responsible leader of the party and the great head of the Government. "Your adminis- tration," he said, "must be made brilliantly successful and strong in the confidence and pride of the people," and he concluded as follows: " I accept it as one of the happiest circumstances connected with this affair that in allying my political fortunes with yours — or rather, for the time, merging mine in yours — my heart goes with my head, and that I carry to you not only political support, but personal and devoted friendship. I can but regard it as somewhat remarkable that two men of the same age, entering Congress at the same time, influenced by the same aims and cherishing the same ambitions, should never for a single moment in eighteen years of close intimacy have had a misunderstanding or a coolness, and that our friendship has steadily grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength. "It is this fact which has led me to the conclusion embodied in this letter, for, however much, my dear Garfield, I might ad- vise you as a statesman, I would not enter your Cabinet if I did not believe in you as a man and love you as a friend." BLAINE, SECRETARY OF STATE. The brief administration of President Garfield was remark- able for its promise of broad statesmanship. For many years Congress and the entire Government had been busy in making 22 war, in restoring peace, and in paying the immense war debt. I It was all the United States could do to preserve the Union, and other nations were profiting by the neglect of this country to properly cultivate its foreign relations. England had absorbed our commerce and directed into her own coffers the trade of the South American countries. And now, under the auspices of the French Republic, under the direction of a citizen of France and backed by continental capitalists, active preparations had been made to construct an interoceanic canal across the Isthmus of Panama, while, under the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850, the United States was practically powerless to take any steps for the protection of her own interests. At the same time at home a more sagacious Southern policy was demanded — a policy which would promote the material reconstruction of the bouth, there- tofore neglected for the sake of pulitical reconstruction. For some of the acts of Garfield's adminstration his Sec- retary of State has been unjustly held accountable. Mr. Murat Halstead narrates that President Garfield told him Blaine had remained scrupulously within the line of his duties as Secretary of State ; that he, the President, was responsible for the appoint- ment of Judge Robertson as collector of New York. But with the hearty co-operation and support of the President, Mr. Blaine outlined that "spirited foreign pojicy" which was to be cut short by the President's death. The Southern policy of the Administration would have been to cultivate cordial relations between the different sections of the country, and, by thus pro- moting the flow southward of Northern capital, to assist the development of the Southern States. Mr. Blaine had great faith in the future of the South. On one occasion he said: " In reconstructing the South we made the same mistake the British Government is making with the Irish. If we had made a Government donation of fifty million dollars for the purpose of constructing a railway from Charleston to the southern end of California, and spent every dollar of it between Charleston and the Mississippi River in the first three years following the war, the problem of reconstruction would have solved itself; the people would have had business interests, instead of politics, to occupy their attention. I believe that within ten years the ma- terial increase in the Southern States, east of the Mississippi, will equal, if it does not surpass, that of the Northwestern States, west of tiie Mississippi." In Virginia Mr. Blaine has invested twenty-eight thousand dollars in one railway, and inside of one year sold his interest for one hundred thousand dollars, and besides he owned coal and lumber lands in Georgia and Alabama. 23 THE SPIRITED FOREIGN POLICY. Mr. Blaine has defined the intent of the foreign policy ol President Garfield's administration to be, first, to bring about peace and prevent future wars in North and South America; second, to cultivate such friendly commercial relations with all American countries as would lead to a large increase in the ex- port trade (jf the United States by supplying those fabrics in which we are abundantly able to compete wiih the manufactur- ing nations of Europe. It was for the purpose of promoting peace on the Western Hemisphere that it was determined to in- vite all the independent governments of North and South America to meet in a peace conference at Washington on March 15, 1882. The project' met with cordial approval in South America, and, had it been carried out, would have raised the standard of civilization, and possibly, by opening South Ameri- can markets to our manufactures, would have wiped out one hun- dred and twenty million dollars balance of trade which Spanish America brings against us every year. The invitations to this important conference were subsequently sent out by President Arthur, but in a short time they were recalled, after some of the countries had actually accepted them. It was to pave the way toward a peace conference that Wm. Henry Trescott was sent as a special envoy to Peru, and, under instructions approved by President Arthur in the hope of obtaining an amicable settle- ment of the differences between the belligerents. Secretary Blaine's instructions to General Hurlbut, United States Minister to Peru, specially cautioned the minister against committing his government to any line of action in regard to the Cochet and Landreau claims against the Peruvian Government by the citizens of this country, and, again he wro e warning Mr. Hurlbut against lending his legation's influence to the Credit Industriel of France, the Peruvian Company of New York or any other schemes for reorganizing the finances of Peru. In Secretary Blaine's cor- respondence with Lord Granville in the early Summer of 1881, he set forth the position of the United States as holding the right to feel and express deep interest in the distressed condition of Peru, with which this country had maintained cordial rela- tions for many years, and while with equal friendliness to Chili, the United States would not interpose to deprive her of fair ad- vantages of military success, this country could not regard with unconcern the destruction of Peruvian nationality, a movement which threatened the liberal civilization of all America. Of equal importance with the cultivation of friendly and commercial relations with the South American coi^ntries was and still is the necessity of taking some steps toward protecting the interests of the United States involved in the construction of a 24 canal across the Isthmus of Panama. In Secretary Blaine's in- structions to Mr. James Russell Lowell, Minister to England, is the following summary of the changes in the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1S50 necessary to meet the views of the United States Government: tt • j ''First. Every part of the treaty which forbids the United States fortifying the canal and holding the political control of it in conjunction with the country in which it is located to be cancelled. ''Second. Every part of the treaty in which Great Britain and the United States agree to make no acquisition of territory in Central America to remain in full force." The admirable and forcible chain of reasoning by which Mr. Blaine led to these conclusions forced the English news- papers to admit that he had made out a good case upon British precedents, and that the right of the United States to control the Panama Canal was stronger and the necessity of such control greater than the right and necessity of England to control the Suez Canal. The shooting of President Garfield interrupted the plans of his administration. His death put an end to them for the time. The succession of President Arthur was followed by the retire- ment of Mr. Blaine and other members of the Garfield Cabinet, Mr. Blaine retired to Augusta, to devote himself to the prepara- tion of "Twenty Years of Congress," the first volume of which has since been given to the public, and evidences the fairness, justness and impartiality of his mind, his vast and profound ac- quaintance with men and affairs and his ability as a master of the English language. His great eulogy upon President Garfield, delivered in the hall of the House of Representatives at Wash- ington, March i, 18S2, has already taken its proper place in American literature. The Arthur administration proceeded quietly and slowly to undo the work of its predecessor and re- verse the policy which it first adopted, and the necessity of a spirited foreign policy, which only means a policy that will pro- tect the interests of the United States, still exists. EULOGY ON GARFIELD. Mr. Blaine's oration on the death of President Garfield was delivered on the twenty-seventh day of February, 18S2, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, at Washington, before President Arthur, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the members of the House and Senate, and many distinguished guests. Our limited space will permit us to give but a brief extract : Mr. President: For the second time in this generation the great de- partments of tlTe Government of the United States are assembled in the Hall of Representatives to do honor to the memory of a murdered President. 25 Lincoln fell at the close of a might) struggle in which the passions of men hail been deeply stirred. The tragical termination of his great life added but another to the lengtliened succession of horrors which had marked so many lintels with the blood of the first born. Garfield was slain in a day of peace, when brother had been reconciled to brother, and when anger and hate had been banished from the land. Whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it as as it has been exhibited where such example was last to have been looked for, let him not give it the grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by revenge, the face black with settled hate. Let him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; not so much an example of human nature in its depravity and m its paroxysms of crime, as an infernal bemg, a fiend in the ordinary display and development of his character. On the morning of Saturday, July second, the President was a con- tented and happy man — not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boy- ishly happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulalory vein. He felt that after four months of trial his administration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor and destined to grow Stronger; that grave difficulties confronting him at his inauguration had been safely passed; that trouble lay behind him and not before him ; that he was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately disquieted and at times almost unnerved him ; that he was going to his alma mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greetmgs with those whose deepening interests had followed every step of his upward progress from the day he entered upon his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen. Surely if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him ; no slightest premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching peace- fully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave. Great in life, he was surpassingly great in deaths For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspira- tions, its victories, into the visible presence of death — and he did not quail. Not alone for the one short momept in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell — what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, manhood's friendships, what bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair, young daughter ; the sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day and every day rewarding a father's love and care ; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation and great dark- 26 ness ! And his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy. , .. , , Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nation s love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wme-press alone. With unfalteiin.■ At last the supreme moment came. When Judge West for- mally put Blaine in nomination a scene followed of a description never equalled and utterly indescribable. Compared to the first outburst, the second ovation to Blaine was as the full burst of a storm after the grumblings of early thunder have passed The audience rose to its feet, impelled by an irresistible impulse to testify their admiration for the great Republican can- didate. Grave men acted as though mad. Newspapers were torn into bits, and scattered high in the air, active boys clam- bered along the high rafters over the hall, and, detaching the flags, passed them down to men in the front row of the galleries, who waved them frantically over the heads of those below, and the bands three times essayed to drown the noise by playing their loudest air. A CYCLONE OF ENTHUSIASM. It was futile. Men drew off their coats and shook them in the air. Umbrellas were hoisted and waved over the heads of their owners. Again handkerchiefs were brought forth and swung to and fro like snowflakes in a hurricane. Those too tired to shout gave shrill whistles, and pandemonium universal and all-pervading seemed to have broken forth. In the violent and intense excitement of the hour, men forgot appearances and all sense of decorum and dignity. In spite of the sultriness of the atmosphere and the deafening sounds from the bands of music, each trying to out-tire the other in 37 their mutual contributions to the common din, the California delegation, which has done some of Blaine's best work here, was on its feet cheering as loudly as Rocky Mountain throats could swell. Congressman Tom Bayne, of Pennsylvania, another of the Blaine managers, formed one of the loudest crowd of shouters. George William Curtis sat in his seat at the head of the New York delegation, blushing and paling by turns, astounded by the demonstration and unable to quell it. A faint smile overspread his genial countenance as the uproar continued, but it was not a smile of satisfaction. Young Roosevelt, of New York, and Lodge, of Massachusetts, sat in their places uneasy and disconsolate. Not so Senator Hoar. The excitement was too much for him, and he mounted his chair and looked over, the thousands of people who were shouting and screaming like madmen. The negroes from the South joined in the furor, and were the noisiest of the delegates. THE HELMET OF NAVARRE. When at last there seemed a prospect that the cheering would end, some enthusiastic friend of Blaine brought into tlic hall, before the Chairman's desk, a huge American flag and placed on the top of the staff a helmet of flowers, surmounted by a long white plume, the helmet of Navarre. Again did the audience cheer, until it seemed as though the throats of men would burst. The flag and helmet were raised to the stage, and again a deeper, longer, louder cheer arose. Ladies took flowers from their belts and threw them in the air. The atmosphere was fanned by the waving of innumerable banners. The decorations were stripped from the wall by the excited audience and shaken madly in the air. Full fifteen minutes, that seemed like hours, were consumed in this unprecedented demonstration, •'James G. Blaine," closed Judge West, and another great roar went up like the noise of many waters, sweeping in great waves of sound around the hall, and the crowd without, by this time aware of what was under way, answered in a mufiied roar, which echoed within. The old man ceased, with the echo of his eloquence still filling all the air, ten thousand people swaying like reeds in the wind under his voice, and feebly groped to leave the platform. A friend was at his side in an instant, and Edward McPherson laid about the old man's shoulders his long blue, old-fashioned cloak, and, drawing it closer to him, its folds falling straight, the speaker took a seat behind. By contrast with the wild tempest of sound just before, the rustling move- ment and stir and talk which fill this great house of sounds with 88 perpetual murmurs, seemed silence itself as Governor Davis, of Minnesota, a full, round man, with a bulging frock coat, strong face and black mustache, arose. For once, and for the first time in the three times in which James G. Blaine has been put before a national convention in nomination, the work had been well and skillfully planned, and performed as well. The voice of Governor Davis is none of the best by contrast with the resonant tones with which Judge West had filled the great house of sounds. Judge West's speech in full was as follows : As a delegate in the Chicago Convention in lS6o, the proudest service of my life was performed by voting for the nomination of that inspired emancipator, the 6rst Republican President of the United States. [Applause.] Four and twenty years of the grandest history of recorded times has distin- guished the ascendency of the Republican party. The skies have lowered and reverses threatened; but our old flag is still there, waving above the mansion of the presidency ; not a stain on its folds, not a cloud on its glory. Whether it shall maintain that grand ascendency depends upon the action of this great council. With bated breath a nation awaits the result. On it are fixed the eyes of twenty millions of Republican freemen in the North. On it, or to it, rather, are stretched forth the imploring hands of ten millions of political bondmen of the South [applause], while above, from the portals of light, is looking down the spirit of the immortal martyr who first bore it to victory, bidding to us hail and God speed ! [Applause.] Six times, in six campaigns, has that banner triumphed ; that symbol of Union, freedom, humanity and progress ; some time by that silent man of destiny, the Wellington of American arms [wild applause]; last by him at whose untimely taking off a nation swelled the funeral cries and wept above great Garfield's grave. [Cheers and applause.] • THE nation's chief. Shall that banner triumph again ? Commit it to the bearing of that chief [a voice: "James G. Blaine, of Maine." Cheers.] — commit it to the bearing of that chief, the inspiration of whose illustrious character and great rume will fire the hearts of our young men, stir the blood of our manhood, and redouble the fervor of the veteran, and the closing of the seventh cam- paign will see that holy ensign spanning the sky like a bow of promise. [Cheers.] Political conditions have changed since the accession of the Republican party to power. The mighty issues of struggling freedom and bleeding humanity which convulsed the continent and aroused the republie, rallied, united and inspired the forces of patriotism and the forces of humanity in one consolidated phalanx — these great issues have ceased their contentions. The subordinate issues resulting therefrom are settled and buried away with the dead issues of the past. The arms of the solid South are against us ; not an electoral gain can be expected from that section. If triumph comes, the Republican States of the North must furnish the conquering battalions from the farm, the anvil, the loom, from the mines, the workshop and the desk, from the hut of the trapper on the snowy Sierras, from the hut of the fisherman on the banks of the Hudson. The Republican States must furnish these conquering battalions of triumph. Come ! Does not sound political wisdom declare and demand that a leader shall be given to them whom our people will follow, not as conscripts advancing by funeral marches to certain defeat, but a grand civic hero whom the souls of the people desire and whom they will follow with all the enthu- siasm of volunteers as they sweep on and onward to certain victory. 39 A representati\ e of American manhood, a representative of that living RepuV>licanism that demands the amplest industrial protection and oppor- tunity whereby labor shall be enabled to earn and eat the bread of independent employment, relieved of mendicant competition with pauper Europe or Pagan China. [Loud applause.] In this contention of forces, to whose candidate shall be entrusted our battle flag, citizens? I am not here to do it, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do abate one tithe from the just fame, integrity and public honor of Chester A. Arthur, our president. [Applause.] I abate not one tithe from the just fame and public integrity of George F. Edmunds [applause], of Joseph K. Hawley [applause], of John Sherman [applause], of that grand old black eagle of Illinois, and I am proud to know that these distinguished senators whom I have named have borne like testimony to the public life, the public character and public integ- rity of him whose confirmation brought him to the highest office — second in dignity to the office of the President himself — the first premiership in the administration of James A, Garfield — a man for whom the senators and rivals will vote. SECRETARY OF STATE. The Secretary of State of the United States is good enough for a plain flesh and blood, God's people to vote for, for President. Who shall be our candidate? [Cries of Blaine.] Not the representative of a particular interest or a particular class. Send the great proclamation to the country labeled "the Doctors' candidate," the " Lawyers' candidate," the " Wall Street can- didate," and the hand of resurrection would not fathom his November grave. Gentlemen, he must be a representative of the Republicanism that demands the absolute political as well as personal emancipation and enfranchisement of mankind. A representative of that Republicanism which recognizes the stamp of American citizenship as the passport to every right, privilege and consideration at home or abroad, whether under the sky of Bismarck under the palmetto, under the pelican or the banks of the Mohawk — that Republi- canism that regards with dissatisfaction a despotism which, under the sic semper /yrannis of the old Dominion, emulates By slaughter popular majorities in the name of democracy and state, a Republicanism as embodied in the platform of principles this day adopted by your Convention. Gentlemen, such a representative Republican is James G. Blaine, of Maine. It has been averred that in makmg this nomination, every other consideration should merge, every other interest be sacrificed, in order and with a view exclusively to secure the Republican vote and carry the State of New York. A STRONG MAN WANTED. Gentlemen, the Republican party demands of this Convention a nominee whose inspiration and glorious prestige shall carry the presidency, with or without the State of New York; that will carry the legislatures of the several States and avert the sacrifice of the United States Senate ; that shall sweep into the tide the congressional districts to recover the House of Representa- tives and restore it to the Republican party. Three millions of Republicans believe that the man, who from the baptism of blood on the plains of Kansas to the fall of the immortal Garfield, in all that struggle of humanity and pro- gress, wherever humanity desired succor, where love for freedom called for protection, wherever the country called for a defender, wherever blows fell thickest and fastest, there, in the forefront of the battle, were seen to wave the white plumes of James G. Blaine, our Henry of Navarre. Nominate him, and the_ shouts of September victory in Maine will be re-echoed back by the thunders of the October victory in Ohio. Nominate him, and the camp fires and beacon lights will illuminate the continent from 40 the Golden Gate to Cleopatra's needle. Nominate him, and the millions who are now in waiting will rally to swell the column of victory that is sweeping on. In the name of the majority of the delegates from the Republican States and of our glorious constituency which must constitute this battle, 1 nominate James G. Blaine, of Maine. FEATURES OF THE SESSION. It did not take later than the hour of meeting for the anti- Blaine men to find out that the Blaine managers had not fought off a ballot the night before because they feared it. Another recess had been spent in hopeless attempts to make a winning combination, and morning found Arthur making no headway, Edmunds supported by a forlorn hope, Sherman surely shrinking, and nobody else within the longest range of the nominating lightning. The inevitable ballot was approached by the Blaine men hopefully and by the opposition sullenly. It was a surprise in that it showed Blaine to have a larger first ballot strength than his managers. had claimed, and Arthur less than anybody, even the most enthusiastic of his opponents, had suspected. The weakness of the Administration cause being thus exposed, the nomination of Blaine might have been effected without further delay, but the Convention resolved itself into a mob, and the Edmunds and Arthur people made up in noise what they lacked in numbers, so that it was really economic of time to stick to the prearranged Blaine schedule of four ballots. On the second and third Blaine sped along as rapidly as was consistent with other engagements made by the delegates, and when the fourth began it was understood all around that the end was at hand. As a matter of fact it was there. Senator Logan's prompt telegram, asking his friends to turn for the evident choice of the people, was the finishing stroke. Before this announcement was made it was wliispered about, and, anticipa- ting the slow process of a roll call, the news was flashed over the country that Blaine was the nominee. The third ballot began. The tired reading-clerk gave way to a fresh man. Poor Henderson, who buffeted in vain the great surf of Blaine applause which periodically swept the Conven- tion, called Governor Long to the chair, and his vigor and pow- erful voice showed that something might be done, even in a national convention, to preserve order and maintain dignity. The aisles were cleared, men were forced back to their seats, open spaces for a moment showed themselves in the rush of men which makes the narrow passageways like the crowded streets of a city. Everywhere the lines were drawn and tightened The man- aging centre of the Blaine boom gathered on the platform, and 41 on its very edge Elkins sat down — big-framed, bulky, thin-haired, of the type of full, smooth-skinned men. The luckless Arthur managers gathered for a last conference, and then spread out to see to the wavering Southern delegations, Burleigh and Butcher threading the seats and aisles, whispering to one colored delegate and another. Nine States pass in monotonous succession without a change. Such tremor as the shouts for Blaine had raised passes away. The Convention stills down to a comparative calm. The uproar has filled the air with dust, and, as it is now nearly two o'clock, the standing sun throws great beams across the broad hall. Kansas and Kentucky bring changes for Blaine, and the Conven- tion is astir. Four States damp the interest with the monotonous recurrence of earlier votes. New York adds a single tally to Arthur's vote, and half the delegation is on its feet with a cheer brought up by Arthur's Southern supporters. Two or three of Blaine's managers gather in the aisle for an instant. Butcher, with his hand to his mouth, shouts an angry charge of lobbying. Anson McCook rises on the instant and pounces on Burleigh doing rapid missionary work in the Alabama delegation. Burleigh retorts. Barney Biglin yells at McCook. The two men lean toward each other and shout in dumb show until some peace returns and Burleigh goes to his seat. Penn- sylvania is to make its change on this ballot. The alteration is so managed, first when Stewart, his arm extended and his dark face all aglow, gives the added number, and next, when a call of the roll raises it to a round fifty, and the Convention is again swept away in the rising tide. Over and over in the remaining States the noise of the shouting turns the Convention into a swaying mass of sound, until at last, a pause renewed by infinite pains, the ballot is announced. THE FINAL FIGURES. When the vote was officially declared the uproar was so great that the figures were not caught. The audience only heard the words "five hundred" after the name of the favorite, and shouted itself hoarse, as it had done half a dozen times before, the band meanwhile playing and artillery on the lake shore firing The figures were: Blaine, 541; Arthur, 207; Edmunds, 41; Logan, 7; Hawley, 15; Lincoln, 2. THE SECOND PLACE. It was thought best not to be in a hurry about the nomina- tion for Vice-President. Mistakes have been made in that way. 42 and conventions have at last learned that the tail of the ticket deserves some attention. A recess was taken until eight o'clock in the evening. Meanwhile there was an active and considerate canvass of names. Logan, Lincoln, Foraker and Gresham were most talked about, but the drift all the while was toward Logan, the only question being whether the black eagle of Illinois, as he was called by his nominator last night, would consent to the use of his name for the second place on the ticket. He was plied with importuning telegrams, and at last it was posted on the bulletins at the hotels, where the delegates most congregate, that he placed himself in the hands of his friends. That settled it. The Convention was an army of his friends, largely under the leadership of men who had served with him in the late war. Those who were not already convinced of the propriety of the nomination had been brought to it by the argu- ment that, for the first time since the war, a civilian had been nominated for President, and that the soldier element must have a place on the ticket. The other candidates disappeared from the field as if by magic, and when the Convention assembled again the name of John A. Logan was the only one presented. It was seconded by men from every section of the country, the only trouble being to put an end to the speech-making. But the really notable speech was that of General Robinson, of Ohio, who is the head of the Rej)ublican ticket to be voted for in that State in October. With Blaine and Logan, he said that State was secure. It was moved that the nomination be made by acclamation, but, on the appeal of the Illinois delegation, there was a call of the roll, and, except a few dissenters in New York and Massa- chusetts, the whole Convention voted for Logan. SCENES IN THE CONVENTION. In utter weariness the convention separated at 2 o'clock on the morning of the 6th. Eight hours later the great hall was crowded, and by 11 o'clock the convention was in its place. The air was full of the sense of rapid work and swift action. The audience sat, rank on rank, in the stir and confusion of this tremendous claque, which leaves so little of the stage to piece or players. The groups upon whom the work pivots hurried to their places. George William Curtis came in with Carl Shurz, and the sinister German and benignant American separated, one to watch defeat from the stage, and the other to endure it on the floor. Roosevelt, Curtis and Lodge stood together for a moment to talk over the last failure at combination. Burleigh and Dutcher, Arthur's delegate hunters, one thin and nervous and 43 the other full and phlegmatic, passed from point to point among the dark cloud of Southern delegates which ran from Alabama to Louisiana on the left of the convention. In this frame and setting of constant, assiduous conference, the work went on for awhile. Debate, there is none in these convulsive political tempests. The convention is in stir and motion each moment, with men conferring by groups and passing from point to point in this swaying line of battle, this mad wrestle between opposing parties, in whom applause and yell and shout has set every nerve tingling, and left no drop of blood at rest. Through the long hours in which the tall reading^lerk stood, the tally sheet in his hand, and shouted over the roll of States, to one sitting just at the front of the convention, facing its long ranks, there was perpetual sight of the swift work by which these battles are decided. Now it was John Stewart and McKinley who stood, their arms locked about each other, as they whispered; now sturdy, wholesome-faced John Long, of Massachusetts, was closeted, in the silence which this tempest of sound gives men who talk side by side within its tumult, with Roosevelt, Curtis and Lodge. And now the group of New Yorkers who stand for Arthur gathered, and again the two men on whose shoulders this great work has chiefly rested, Stephen B. Elkins and Thomas Donald- son, stood together and watched the storm shape to the harvest the fruit for which they had planned and labored. The scene was not then merely rows upon rows of seated delegates, shouting their votes in the din of the galleries. The real picture is such a ranked concourse of circling, seated thou- sands as only one imperial republic has ever gathered, and as our Republican party only now gathers. Sitting about the narrow arena, half the size of a small church, in which eight hundred men are seething and surging with excitement, rushing here and there, knotting in groups and tangling in long lines, shouting message and warning and advice as men shout upon a ship's deck when a gale is at its height, and the uttered voice is blown away from the very lips — through all this, to save it from the mere madness of a mob, there is sense and presence of the arch- ing fact that history is making here, and the world's greatest civic prize is set in the list. Across the rustle the band played "Dixie," and the first shrill shout of the day came at its note, but the audience, back at its work with the short gap of a few hours, was utterly weary, and the contest this year has brought none of the tension which calls out applause at the appearance of a familiar face. Tally sheets were in every hand, and the strained, expectant watchful- ness for every vote laid silence on the listening thousands. 44 The figures have been known for moments. There has been active rushing to and fro. Men have been passing between New York, Ohio and Massachusetts. Barely forty votes separate Blaine from victory. Whatever is done needs instant action. The gavel gains a quiet moment at last and the vote, climbing from the lesser numbers, and passing through Logan's fifty-three, Edmunds' sixty-nine and Arthur's two hundred and seventy-four, reaches Blaine's three hundred and seventy-five. Then comes a crash that ends all comparison with what has gone before. Seats empty, aisles fill, the air is one shaking mass of handkerchiefs, canes and umbrellas. The entire Blaine vote is on its feet shouting, cheering, yelling in all forms and shapes — whistles, cat-calls and hurrahs. By word and inarticulate yell, the human voice of ten thousand people empties itself into the air. The moustached reading clerk stepped to the edge of the platform and, stiffening his broad tally sheet, shouted in a long cadence Ala-a-bam-ma. The tap of Henderson's gavel, the sh! sh! of the whole audience, stilled the morning air, yet free from dust, as a dark man with graying, reddish beard, sliouted, syllable by syllable : "Alabama casts seventeen votes for Chester A. Arthur, one vote for James G. Blaine and one vote for John A. Logan." A New York " Hi ! hi ! hi ! " sprang in among the boys, and was straightway strangled in hisses. The vote went on, State by State. The first Blaine storm of the day breaks when Maine is called, and then seated thousands spring to their feet and the hall blossoms white with waving handkerchiefs and fills with shouting. The roll is over at last. The clerks bend over the tally sheets, innumerable pencils pass up and down the thousands of tally sheets, which carry through the convention the advertisement of a Philadelphia paper, and then, as Henderson rises to give the result, there is a wild sway and raid of telegraph boys about the correspondents' desk. All over the land men are putting up before listening thousands the tally: Blaine, 334^^; Arthur, 278; Edmunds, 93; Logan, 63^ ; John Sherman, 30; Hawley, 13; Lincoln, 3 ; General Sherman, 2, The first ballot ends in an- other Blaine storm, checked as the second ballot opens. THE SECOND BALLOT. Changes begin. Arkansas adds three votes to Blaine. A dozen states pass, and the vote stands unchanged. The second ballot goes on and Blaine is gaining. Every vote is watched with breathless interest followed by tumults of applause. The Blaine men feel that they are gaining ground. The Arthur men 45 know that they are losing. The Edmunds men are disconsolate. The ballot ends, and Blaine is further to the front. Votes must nominate. Enthusiasm, yell and cry will not. Again and again the votes of states for Blaine unlooije the up- roar, and again and again it dies av/ay to leave the result to go on in its steady, unchanging fashion. The air is tremulous with excitement. There is abroad the shadow of sudden changes, the certainty that the steadily growing pressure must end in some outburst of utter disorder, but when the scenes of last night are repeated, when the whole place goes wild in delirious cries of Blaine, and hats dot the air and shaking handkerchiefs fill it, the convention gets to its feet and looks on, like one too often under fire to take more than the interest of spectators in the firing. With Blaine at 349 and Arthur at 276, however, the gap was widened past repair between the candidates, and it was plain when order came again, such order as this restless mob gives, that the next ballot must make or mar all the plans of the past or assure all the hopes of the future. A FRUITLESS RECESS EFFORT. In the midst of it, his lips vainly forming sentence after sentence, stands Foraker, slender, well-built, his face shining with the effort, and his voice carried away by the Blaine gale. Minute by minute passes before a lull comes, and then it becomes known, rather by men passing the word along than by any hear- ing of his words, that he moves a recess until 7.30 o'clock. It was the last uncertain chance to defeat Blaine, the bare possibility that five hours of cabal might bring the candidate, in place of Blaine, whom five months of popular agitation and dis- cussion had not evolved. Straightway Stewart, steadying himself, shouts in the storm that breaks on Foraker' s motion that the opposing forces have passed the skirmish line and the battle must join. For the first time in the frequent popular calls for Blaine his cause has had good management before the convention. For the first time it had now a leader in the convention. There is in the stress and storm of these conflicts the shock, if not the danger, of battle, and Stewart, by voice and manner, by look and gesture, stand- ing erect, his face aflame and his arm extended, threw into his manner all that a leader in the forefront needed. This may not be the best way to decide momentous issues; but, given these conditions, by such leadership is victory won, and won it was. For twenty long, shouting, swaying, struggling minutes these words of Stewart, this call to battle were the last articulate sounds men heard. The deliberative body, in the heat of its 46 excitement, dissolved into an utter mob. Within twenty square feet stood the dozen men at work trying to carry to some issue the work before them, and about were ten thousand howling human beings. The unfortunate chairman, with a brain bigger at the top than the base, utterly unfitted by experience for the stormy work, passed utterly out of all influence, and nervously handled his gavel, while the Sergeant-at-Arms feebly waved a gilt baton at the surging crowd. He had begun, McPherson at his shoulder, by putting the motion to take a recess. The mo- tion of his lips and the turns of his hands had given a hint of his act, and the thousands before him bellowed together a long "No," in whose echoing thunders Dutcher, of New York, was vainly endeavoring to secure a roll-call by states — breathing time for the broken anti-Blaine line to form. Foraker, at every pause in the storm, which rose and fell as tempests will, was shouting the same demand. Meanwhile the chairman, shut off from these men by the great wall of sound raised by the Blaine cheers, declared the question lost, and di- rected the roll-call to begin on the next ballot. In any case, it proved that this meant Blaine's nomination, with no chance for the opposition to act together. It could mean nothing else. Foraker, Dutcher, Roosevelt, a distant man in North Carolina and a score more stood shouting. By their sides were Stewart, Phelps, of New Jersey; Burrows, Bayne, Sheard and Husted, of New York, calling for the exact right Henderson's weak act gave them. Of the technical accuracy of their position no possible doubt could exist. Parliamentary right was all on their side. One of those dangerous crises had come on which turn the fortunes of great events. It would have been easy (for this tur- moil began in nothing and continued in the inefficiency of the presiding officer) to soil the fairness of Blaine's nomination. William McKinley, of Ohio, had been known as the Blaine leader in Ohio, and when he mounted his chair there was pause on both sides. The issue which had worked to the surface through twenty yeasting moments was whether the demand for a roll call had been made in technical season before the chairman announced the result on the motion to adjourn. "Let us raise no technical objections," said McKinley. "As a friend of Mr. Blaine, I in- sist on having the roll-call and then vote the motion down." Air and manner, voice and attitude in the strong-featured, dark- faced, full-voiced man whosppke for fair play and justice carried both parties with him. THE TEST VOTE OF THE DAY. The first pause came over Illinois. There was an instant's question, and then Logan remained in the fi^ld. The state voted for the recess. The last great shout of the opposition went 47 up over the result. On down through New York and Ohio the roll passed with minor changes, both states holding their old vote. The Pennsylvanians added two more to the Blaine column. Virginia brought in a handful, and long before the territories were reached the motion was lost by almost loo majority — 364 yeas to 450 nays. The vote nominated Blaine. The rest was mere surplusage of cheer and shout. The fourth ballot gave him all but a third of the votes cast, placing his total on the deciding ballot at 554 to 207 for Arthur, whose champion, Burleigh, took the stage and pledged New York to the candidate, while the convention rocked with the last great cheer of the day. For ten minutes together one long, continuous shout filled the air, and shut in each man to silence as far as his own voice was concerned. A FOREGONE CONCLUSION. The result was now so far a foregone conclusion that Fora- ker moved to make it unanimous, but the New York Indepen- dents, led by Roosevelt, the Arthur men led by Butcher, and Massachusetts, led by Long, objected. Dutcher could do no less. Not half an hour before he had been passing about badges marked "Arthur, if it takes all Summer," and they were already hanging limp and chilly on every New York Arthur man. So the vote started, Edward McPherson, who began eight years ago in the struggle which ended to-day, standing on the front of the platform and calling the roll. Behind him was Warner Miller, of New York, aglow with satisfaction, and the little circle which three weeks ago organized in Washington to do the work here. Now, the greatest of these in all his beam- ing presence, was Tom Donaldson. WITHDRAWING LOGAN. The roll-call was a long, triumphal progress for Blaine, of Maine. When Shelby M. Collum mounted his chair and with a slip of paper in his hand, withdrew Logan, the result was certain, and the great total of votes ended in another dissolution of all order. Kansas came down the aisle with a great banner spread with corn and grain and decked with Blaine's picture. Colorado's eagle was carried up and down the aisle, and the banner which has accompanied the California delegation in its trip from Cal- ifornia to Maine, "Through Iowa All for Blaine," triumphantly paraded the convention. The remnants of the Arthur support clung to their sinking ship, and men have rarely put more of heroism into their parting words than did the Edmunds men in their last vote. It was over at last. The gavel rose, and when it fell James G. Blaine had been declared the candidate of the party to which he has given the labors of a lifetime. 48] THE BALLOTS IN FULL. FIRST BALLOT. SECOND BALLOT States. Alabama Arkansas California , Colorado Connecticut*... Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas* Kentucky! Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts. Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire.. New Jerseyf J.. New Yorkf North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania... Rhode Island.. South Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia West Virginia.. Wisconsin Arizona Dakota Idaho Montana New Mexico... Utah ! Washington j Wyoming Dist. of Columbia' °.o lO 7 8 3 6 3 4 12 22 15 13 9 13 8 6 8 14 13 7 9 i6 5 3 4 9 36 II 23 3 30 4 9 12 13 4 12 6 II 24 44 30 26 I 26 16 12 16 28 26 14 18 32 10 6 8 18 72 22 46 6 60 8 18 24 26 8 24 12 22 2 2 3 18 26 12 5^ 2 12 10 I 15 7 I 5 8 6 p4 Q S Z X U) H S OS