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AMERICAN STATESMEN
SECOND SERIES

JAMES GILLESPIE
BLAINE

BY

EDWARD STANWOOD
LITT. D. (BOWDOIN)

BOSTON AND NEW TORE
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
<ffl>e tttoetfibe $te*f* Cambri&Be

COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY EDWARD STANWOOD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published October^ TQ05

CONTENTS
I. Introductory  1
II. Lineage, Education, and Early Man
hood  6
III. Editor and Political Leader ... 29
IV. Six Years in Congress  61
V. Speaker  105
VI. Minority Leader — The Mulligan
Letters  130
VII. The Check in 1876 — Senator . . 177
VIII. In Garfield's Cabinet  216
IX. Candidate for the Presidency . . 258
X. Again Secretary of State .... 296
XI. The Last Years  334
XII. The Man and the Statesman . . . 349
Index  367

JAMES G. BLAINE

INTRODUCTORY
No man who has borne a conspicuous part in
the political history of the United States had a
personality more interesting than that of James G.
Blaine. He possessed all the qualities that draw
men to a political leader: a keen, active mind,
well-trained by early education and ripened by
long experience; a strong and comprehensive
grasp of public questions; unwavering devotion
to principles espoused in boyhood and held to the
last ; great skill in the selection of points of attack
and defence in political controversy, and in the
management of a canvass; remarkable facility in
putting in popular form his arguments upon a
question at issue, supplemented by extraordinary
readiness in off-hand debate.
The traits enumerated excite admiration for
him who possesses them, and inspire confidence
in him. They do not account for the intense devo
tion of Mr. Blaine's supporters, not merely to the
cause which he might be upholding, nor even to
his political and personal fortunes, but to the

2 JAMES G. BLAINE
man himself. There have been two or three men
in the higher ranks of American politics who have
won the affection as well as the admiration of a
vast army of followers, but surely no one to a
greater degree or in larger numbers than Mr.
Blaine. His fine bodily presence, his charming
personal manners, his marvellous memory of
names and faces, and his power to make friends
of almost all whom he met, — even those who
disagreed with him radically, — these things may
be assigned as a sufficient explanation of his won
derful popularity with his close associates; and
this personal magnetism was communicated indi
rectly by a force and through a medium which
students of psychology must explain, to men who
never met, who never even saw him. Moreover,
there was a dash and a fire in his bearing and in
his conduct of a controversy that captivated his
countrymen, and that gave appropriateness to
the designation "a plumed knight."
It may be questioned if the career of any
American public man is more worthy than his to
be studied, either for the bare interest of the nar
rative or for the light which the study may cast
upon the political life of the time. It was a career
of singular contrasts, — of brilliant successes, and
of failures which were almost as striking because
they came so near to success; of extraordinary
popularity, and of opposition both in kind and

INTRODUCTORY 3
in degree such as no other public man in this
country has encountered. It was a career which
is aptly and truly described by the word dra
matic. Consider the many and startling fluctua
tions in his fortunes, the sudden changes pro
duced by occurrences seemingly trivial, and the
numerous occasions in his life when he appeared
as the central figure in a scene which the whole
country watched with breathless attention, and
one is reminded irresistibly of the development of
the plot of a powerful drama. Hostile or super
ficial critics might plausibly add to the many
accusations against him, a charge that these inci
dents, some of them almost sensational in their
character, were carefully planned by him and
studied in advance, were it not true that each one
of them was a result of occurrences that could not
have been anticipated long enough before the
scene itself to enable the* most ingenious play
wright to contrive it.
To the student of political history the career of
Mr. Blaine offers many interesting problems,
some of which must be left for the historians
of another generation. That which will engage
the most attention is the question as to the truth
or falsity of the charges against his personal
character which formed the basis of implacable
hostility to him on the part of many estimable
and high-minded men. It is a question upon

4 JAMES G. BLAINE
which full agreement is never reached in the
case of any man who has been the object of
violent controversy, because it is difficult to
approach the subject without a strong prejudice
on one side or the other. The opinion of the
present writer will undoubtedly be regarded as
too much biassed by personal friendship to be
accepted. That, however, is not a sufficient rea
son why the opinion should be withheld. It is,
that by exaggeration, distortion, and misplace
ment of facts, one series of acts, in which Mr.
Blaine was not wholly free from blame, was
made to seem the conduct of a person destitute
of moral character; and thereafter, upon the
principle ab uno disce omnes, every subsequent
act was interpreted as springing from the base
motives which alone such a person could harbor.
On the contrary, thousands upon thousands of
men who knew him, and hundreds at least who
knew him intimately, are sure that the judgment
is harsh and untrue, that throughout his career
he was actuated by high motives, that he was
inspired by a lofty patriotism, and that both in
his public and his private life he was obedient
to the promptings of a sensitive conscience.
The grievous opposition which he met in con
sequence of the misconception of his character
by a small minority of his own party was not the
sole cause, but it was one of the causes, of his

INTRODUCTORY 5
defeat in the one contest that would probably
have enabled an unprejudiced biographer, could
such be found, to pass a final and conclusive
judgment upon his quality as a man and as a
statesman. Not that it is necessary that every
politician shall have filled the office of President
before one can know what manner of man he is.
But Mr. Blaine was so great a man, so prominent
as a leader, so prolific of ideas, so broad-minded
and far-seeing, that no place except the highest
offered an opportunity for the free play of all his
powers. Men may differ, they do differ, upon the
questions whether his ideas were wise, whether
his purposes were expedient, whether his methods
were safe; but millions of his countrymen regret
that he was not allowed the opportunity to prove
that their judgment upon him was correct.

II
LINEAGE, EDUCATION, AND EARLY
MANHOOD
James Gillespie Blaine was born at West
Brownsville, Washington County, Pennsylvania,
on Sunday morning, January 31, 1830. He was
the second son of Maria Louise (Gillespie), and
Ephraim I^yon Blaine, — one of a numerous
family of sons and daughters, some of whom died
in infancy.
His ancestors on both his father's and his
mother's side came to this country from Ireland.
His great-great-grandfather, James Blaine, one
of the sturdy Presbyterian Scotch-Irish race,
emigrated from Londonderry in 1745, and set
tled first at Donegal, in Westmoreland County.
He afterward removed to Toboyne, then in
Cumberland, now in Perry County, where he
had a fine estate on the banks of the Juniata.
Ephraim, the eldest of his nine children, was
born in 1741, before the removal to America. In
his early manhood he served in Pontiac's war.
In 1771 he became sheriff of Cumberland
County. When the relations between England
and its colonies warned the people to prepare for

EARLY MANHOOD 7
defence, Ephraim Blaine, as well as his father,
was strongly on the side of the colonists. He was,
in December, 1775, designated as colonel of a
battalion of Cumberland County militia. But his
business ability, which had already made him
one of the wealthiest men in western Pennsyl
vania, led to his appointment successively as
commissary of provisions, deputy commissary
general, and finally, on the direct recommenda
tion of General Washington, commissary general
of purchases for the northern department. He
held this position until the end of the war. His
services were of incalculable value to the cause
of independence. For a great part of the time
his duties included the raising of money to pay
for the goods which nominally it was his business
only to buy. He advanced largely from his own
means to promote the cause. To his energy and
persuasive power Washington's army owed it
that the distress at Valley Forge was not even
greater than it was.
Colonel Blaine removed to Carlisle in 1764,
and in June of the next year married Rebecca
Galbraith, who was like himself of Scotch-Irish
descent. Their married life extended over thirty-
one years. Two years after the death of Mrs.
Blaine in 1795, he married a second wife, a widow,
Mrs. Duncan, who lived until 1850. Colonel
Blaine himself died in 1804.

8 JAMES G. BLAINE
The eldest child of Colonel Ephraim and
Rebecca was named James after his grand
father. He was born in 1766. His first wife, Jane
Hoge, died in childbirth in 1793. In 1795 he mar
ried Margaret Lyon, — again a daughter of the
north of Ireland. Like his father he engaged
largely in mercantile pursuits, and had an
especial fondness for trading in land. He had the
advantage in his youth of a somewhat prolonged
residence in France, and, later, of a tour in
Europe. He gained a wide knowledge of his own
country by several trading trips to New Orleans,
a long and tedious journey down the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers, when as yet the steamboat had
not been invented. It is a singular fact that from
the first James Blaine who emigrated from Ire
land to the latest, the son of the subject of this
biography, every member in this line has changed
his permanent residence. James, the son of
Ephraim, removed from Carlisle, first to Browns
ville, and then to Sewickley, in Allegheny County,
on the Ohio River, about ten miles below Pitts
burg. Ephraim Lyon, son of James Blaine, and
father of James Gillespie Blaine, was educated
at Washington College. That the foregoing
phrase means much less than it signifies when
written of a young man of the present generation
is evident from the fact that the first term-bill of

EARLY MANHOOD 9
Ephraim Blaine was rendered at a time when he
was but eleven years old. Nevertheless he was
well educated, for that time, as is shown by his
ability years afterward to direct bis son's studies
in preparation for college, and to help him in
languages and mathematics. After leaving col
lege he studied law and was admitted to the bar.
He seems never to have engaged actively in the
practice of his profession, partly perhaps, in the
earlier years, because of the absence of necessity
so to do. He did, however, hold a commission
as justice of the peace. His expensive tastes,
large hospitality, lack of economy, and the de
mands of a growing family, encroached greatly
upon the family fortune. He had an inherited
inclination to business operations in land, which
he transmitted to his eminent son. His own trans
actions were the reverse of fortunate. In his son
the trait, although subordinate to other things,
was combined with much business sagacity, and
to it he owed not only the foundation, but much
of the superstructure of his fortune.
In 1820 Ephraim Lyon Blaine married Maria
Louise Gillespie. Once more the family alliance
was with a descendant of an Irish immigrant.
But in this case, although the Gillespies also were
Scotch-Irish, they were Roman Catholics. The
marriage ceremony was performed by a priest of
that church at the Gillespie homestead, " Indian-

10 JAMES G. BLAINE
hill," in Brownsville, and the young couple took
up their residence at Sewickley. Mrs. Blaine
lived until her distinguished son had completed
his first term as Speaker of the United States
House of Representatives. Between the two
there always subsisted the tenderest relations of
mutual love and respect. The mother was a
devout Catholic, but her character was devoid
of religious intolerance. Although according to
the usual practice in the case of the marriage of
a Catholic and a Protestant her other children
were baptized as Catholics, James was brought
up as a Presbyterian. She recommended her
own religion by her large-hearted charitableness
and kindness. Long after her death Mr. Blaine
wrote of her to a friend : " It seems to me here and
now that I would give worlds could I have had a
single parting word. The last message my
mother left in her conscious moments was to me.
The last word she ever uttered audibly was my
name, after her intellect was clouded with the
shadow of the dark valley. She was the most
loving, devoted, and affectionate of mothers,
and my love for her was very great." x
Ephraim Blaine removed from Sewickley to
Brownsville not long before the birth of his son
James, and there the boyhood of the future
statesman was passed. Brownsville was situated
1 Biography of James G. Blaine, by Gail Hamilton, p. 235.

EARLY MANHOOD 11
on both banks of the Monongahela River. At
that time Washington County, already reduced
from its original proportions,1 was still much
larger than it is now. The home of the Blaines
was in West Brownsville, which is still in Wash
ington County, whereas Brownsville proper is
in Fayette County. Brownsville, at the crossing
of the Monongahela, was an important station
on the Cumberland road, the national turnpike
between the Potomac and the Ohio rivers, the
subject of many a Congressional debate on the
constitutionality of internal improvements, and
the cause of the most voluminous veto message
ever written by a president of the United States.
In the years between 1830 and 1840, when the
western country was filling up rapidly, and when
as yet the railway did not penetrate that region,
the national road was the busiest of thorough
fares. Tradition tells of twenty-five loaded
coaches starting at the same time from each end
of the road, Cumberland on the east and Wheel
ing on the west. It was virtually the only line of
communication from the seaboard to the Ohio
River, upon which passengers and freight were
transported to southern Ohio, Kentucky, Tennes
see, and all the middle west. Thus, although
1 " The county of Washington, as it anciently was, taking
in all the state south and west of the Monongahela.'' — Letter
from Mr. Blaine to John D. McKennan, Sept. 5, 1881.

12 JAMES G. BLAINE
Brownsville was a country town, its young in
habitants had frequent opportunities to see the
great men of the land as the coaches conveying
them to and from the capital stopped for change
of horses and for meals. ' Jackson, Clay, and
Polk were among those who made use of the
national road for this journey. It is not only pos
sible but probable that youthful glimpses of these
and other great men may have turned the
thoughts of the boy Blaine toward a political
career. When James was about ten years old he made
a long visit to his cousins in Lancaster, Ohio.
The wife of Thomas Ewing was a cousin of his
mother, and during nearly a year, in 1839 and
1840, he lived in the Ewing home, and, with two
of his cousins, was under the instruction, in pre
paration for college, of a Mr. Lyons, an uncle of
Lord Lyoiis, afterward EngHsh minister at
Washington. When Mr. Ewing, in 1841, jour
neyed from Lancaster to Washington to take the
Treasury portfolio, in the cabinet of General
Harrison, he took his son Thomas with him, and
as they passed through Brownsville over the
Cumberland road, left him there to continue his
preparatory studies for college with young
Blaine. In 1842 Ephraim Blaine was elected protho-
notary of Washington County, then an office of

EARLY MANHOOD 13
not a little importance. He was an earnest Whig
and a strong partisan of Henry Clay. The can
vass that year was exceedingly warm. General
Harrison was dead, and the Whigs in Congress
were engaged in their struggle with Tyler.
Neither party neglected, in the local elections,
any weapon that gave promise of helping them to
victory. The Democrats bethought themselves
of Mr. Blaine's Roman CathoUc wife, and they
brought against him, as political enemies after
ward brought against his son, the accusation that
he himself was a Catholic. Neither father nor son
ever repudiated the charge in such a way as to
imply that he regarded it as injurious.1 Ephraim
Blaine's method was characteristic. He called
upon his friend, Father Murphy, the priest in
1 In a private letter, dated in 1876, James G. Blaine wrote:
" My ancestors on my father's side were, as you know, always
identified with the Presbyterian Church, and they were promi
nent and honored in the old colony of Pennsylvania. But I
will never consent to make any public declaration on the
subject, and for two reasons : First, because I abhor the intro
duction of anything that looks like a religious test or qualifica
tion for office in a republic where perfect freedom of con
science is the birthright of every citizen; and, second, because
my mother was a devoted Catholic. I would not for a thou
sand presidencies speak a disrespectful word of my mother's
religion, and no pressure will draw me into any avowal of
hostility or unfriendliness to Catholics, though I have never
received, and do not expect, any political support from them."
— Quoted in James G. Blaine, by Charles Wolcott Balestier,
p. 6.

14 JAMES G. BLAINE
charge of the church which his wife attended,
and obtained from him this novel certificate,
which settled the question, and contributed a
touch of humor to the canvass, whether or not
it helped Mr. Blaine at the polls : —
" This is to certify that Ephraim L. Blaine is
not now and never was a member of the Catholic
church; and furthermore, in my opinion he is not
fit to be a member of any church."
Upon being elected prothonotary Ephraim
Blaine removed once more to Washington, the
county seat, also a station on the Cumberland
road. Both the county and the town were the
first to bear the name of the Father of his Coun
try, — with good reason, too, for Washington
had been the owner of a large tract of land in this
region, granted to him for his public services, and
had given to Washington College, named in his
honor, a part of the land on which the college
buildings stand.
Young Blaine was a bright and precocious
scholar. He entered Washington College at the
age of thirteen, the youngest member of a class
that numbered thirty-three, and was graduated
in due course four years later, in 1847. The first
honors of the class were divided among three
members, of whom Blaine was one. When he was
teaching in Kentucky the next year he sent a
catalogue of the institution to one of his class-

EARLY MANHOOD 15
mates, and in a long letter to him explained how
it came about that in the fist of teachers he was
credited with having been at the head of his col
lege class. It was inserted, he said, without his
knowledge, and if he had been aware that it was
to be placed there he " would have objected to it,
for in fact it is not strictly true. I no more gradu
ated No. 1 than did Tom Porter or John Hervey,
nor did they any more than I, so that in that sense
I might be said to have graduated No. 1, for no
body was above me." Having explained how it
happened, he concluded with the following sen
tences, in which is introduced a pretty piece of
slang : " I have been thus tedious in my explana
tion of this matter, because I did not wish you
to think that I was fool enough to have such a
thing printed concerning myself. My classmates
who may happen to see it will think that I am
taking a great stiff out here in Kentucky, just
because I happened to get a share of the first
honor." The requirements of admission to college at the
present day are so much more severe than they
were sixty years ago, that the average age of those
who now enter such institutions is greater than
that at which Mr. Blaine ended his course. It
might Be thought to be a necessary consequence
of this fact that his classical training did not
much exceed that which is now given in the pre-

16 JAMES G. BLAINE
paratory schools. But those who knew him in
after life are aware how false a conclusion this
would be. His mind had received the disciphne
which is characteristic of those who have had the
benefit of the old-fashioned classical curriculum,
and who have profited by their opportunities.
His spoken and written language, in his early
manhood, even in his familiar conversation and
in unstudied correspondence, was that of a
scholar, — not merely correct and devoid of the
gaueherie of the half taught, but elegant and
precise, clear and terse. His familiarity with the
works of the ancient classical writers seems to
have had an important influence upon his own
literary style, which was not an imitation of that
of any other, but is suggestive of having been
formed on the best models. His acquaintance
with those works enabled him on occasion to
enrich his own thoughts and words with apposite
references to them, and with apt quotations. He
had, too, acquired a taste for the best literature
of all times, which he never ceased to gratify by
reading omnivorously, avoiding only that which
was trashy and sensational. Above all the college
had imparted to him that thirst for knowledge,
embracing all branches, all principles, all details,
which is the trait of the true scholar. *
Yet as a college student Blaine did not leave
upon his classmates the impression that he was

EARLY MANHOOD 17
destined for a great career. He was to them sim
ply a bright scholar, — one of three at the head
of the class, as we have seen, a youth full of fun
and ready to join in the harmless pranks of col
lege fife, yet, as the professor of languages wrote
to him at the end of his course, " one of the few
who have passed through their collegiate course
without a fault or a stain." There was a debating
society, and Blaine was a member of it ; but he
never took an active part in the debates. As a
public man his personal appearance and bearing
were most impressive, but his college mates
remembered him as a loose- jointed and awkward
young fellow.
His instructors discerned more in him than
was revealed to his fellow students. The family
fortunes were low, and his father was unable to
help him to the further education which he de
sired — a preparation for the bar. He was
obliged to postpone the gratification of that wish
and resort to teaching for a time, in order to earn
his living and provide means for future study.
With this in view he obtained from the faculty
and from the individual members of it the recom
mendations which would enable him to make a
start in life. They all signed a statement that
" during the whole period of his connection with
the college" he had been "a very punctual,
orderly, diligent, and successful student," and

18 JAMES G. BLAINE
that if he should become an instructor in any
institution, "his talents, literary acquirements,
dignity, decision, and prudence will not fail to
merit the confidence and approbation of those
who may obtain his services." These are strong
terms to be applied to a youth who had not com
pleted his eighteenth year, but they were evi
dently chosen with care, and as they are closely
descriptive of the man in his maturity, their
truthfulness will not be suspected. Each of the
professors gave young Blaine a separate recom
mendation. The head of the mathematics depart
ment testified to his "peculiar fondness" for
mathematical studies, and the "clearness, accu
racy, and precision " of his demonstrations. His
"sound and thorough EngHsh education" was
attested by the professor of EngHsh Hterature.
The professor of languages, in the course of a
strong and comprehensive certificate, remarked:
"Your knowledge of the languages especially,
being critical beyond what is often attained at
college, fits you in a special manner for the office
of instructor in this department."
Provided with these testimonials to his fitness
he turned his face westward in search of em
ployment as a teacher. His venture into the
world seems not to have had the full approval of
his father, and yet not to have encountered seri
ous opposition. In less than two months after

EARLY MANHOOD 19
graduation he was on his way over the Cumber
land road, and thence down the Ohio River.
What more natural than that the young admirer
of Henry Clay should be attracted to Lexington,
the home of the great Kentuckian ? At all events,
to Lexington he went, and made that place his
headquarters until he found occupation as a
teacher. A fortnight after his arrival he heard
Clay speak in the market-place on the subject of
the Mexican War. Long afterward he wrote to a
friend that he stood " close up to the great com
moner," with note-book and pencil in hand, and
reported the speech as well as he could. In the
same letter he writes that afterward he went to
Louisville, Maysville, and Cincinnati, "and the
morning he left the last-named place, December 4,
he heard that Robert C. Winthrop was just
elected speaker of the United States House of
Representatives. He immediately notified his
friends that he was a candidate for the succession,
and in the incredibly brief space of twenty-two
years he attained the place — a remarkable in
stance of faith, patience, and despatch harmoni
ously combined." x
While he was staying at Lexington he heard
that a situation was vacant in the Western Mili
tary Institute, at Georgetown, about twelve miles
from Lexington. He drove to Georgetown, offered
1 Gail Hamilton's Biography, p. 85.

20 JAMES G. BLAINE
himself for the place, was told that he should have
an answer in a day or two, and the next day
received a letter accepting him. He entered upon
his duties in January, 1848, and for the next two
or three years taught Latin, Greek, and elemen
tary geometry in the institute. It was a congenial
occupation, if it was not that which he had — not
definitely — determined should be his Hfe-occu-
pation. He was " Professor Blaine " from the
start. His associates in teaching were interesting
and agreeable men. Three of them were gradu
ates of West Point, and one was a graduate of
the Virginia Mifitary Institute, the model of that
at Georgetown. In spite of his youth he received
deference from them, and inspired respect in the
boys whom he taught.
The few gHmpses we get of him at this period
of his Hfe not only suggest the future poHtician;
they show in something Hke maturity the traits
for which he was afterward famous. He knew
every boy in school, by his name. Perhaps there
was no accompHshment which more endeared
him to casual acquaintances than his marvellous
memory of names and faces, and his ability to
recall the circumstances of the first meeting. His
reputation in this respect sometimes led people
to expect too much. He himself related that he
was accosted at a town in Ohio, after one of his
meetings in the travelling canvass of 1884, by a

EARLY MANHOOD 21
man who referred to his memory for faces, and
asked if Mr. Blaine remembered him. Evidently
Mr. Blaine did not, but before his tongue made
the confession already apparent on his face, the
man said, with unconcealed disappointment,
" Why, I was in the crowd at the station when you
passed through here in 1876, and stood right
before you." Professor Blaine was a great favor
ite with the four or five hundred young students
in the institution, although he was an exacting
teacher and a severe, if tactful, disciphnarian.
In all these things he displayed in youth the traits
of his mature manhood.
But in nothing else did he show forth the man
he was to be so clearly as in his acquaintance
with pubhc affairs. Letters which he wrote while
at Georgetown, some of which are printed in
Gail Hamilton's " Biography," exhibit him with
poHtical principles already formed, and convic
tions already adopted, from which he never -after
ward departed. They reveal not merely an aston
ishingly thorough acquaintance with the men and
the events of the previous poHtical history of the
country, but also an insight into the significance
and probable consequences of current events
most remarkable in one of his years. Are we
reading the words of a boy under eighteen, and
not those of an experienced poHtician ?
"I am surprised to hear that Henry Clay's

22 JAMES G. BLAINE
speech 1 does not take in Pennsylvania; it was
made just for the purpose of conciHating the
furor of the North, but I am afraid it is going to
play the devil in the South; it is tinctured too
much with Abolitionism to go well there. Henry
has made another mistake which will be apt to
defeat him again. . . . This state will be very
nearly balanced between him and Taylor when
they hold their convention at Frankfort in Feb
ruary. ... If you [he was writing to a Demo
crat] nominate Cass, Buchanan, Van Buren, or
any of those men, I think the Whigs stand a very
good chance." 2
Again, in October, 1848, he wrote: —
"Are you not perfectly aghast at the late re
sult ? [The October elections.] Pennsylvania elect
a Whig governor! The most astonishing thing I
ever heard of. I do not think the most sanguine
Whig ever dreamed of such a thing. It must be
confessed we have not 'done so well in Ohio
as we wish, but then you must remember that
there existed a good many elements of discord
among the Whigs, which can all be smoothed
over before the 7th of November. Besides, Weller
1 At Lexington, November 13, 1847.
2 This letter, Gail Hamilton's Biography, p. 93, is printed
without its date, but was evidently written in December, 1847.
In it he remarks that he has read President Polk's message
"very attentively," and considers it on the whole a "clever
document."

EARLY MANHOOD 23
got the Free-soil vote, which will all be cast for
Van Buren, thereby securing Taylor a pluraHty.
But to tell the truth, I am very much afraid we will
lose Ohio, but then Pennsylvania will more than
make up."
His forecast of the result was met exactly when
the election took place, for Pennsylvania was car
ried and Ohio was lost by the Whigs. One is
reminded, by bis boyish prediction, covering
defeat as well as victory, of the prescience with
which in after years he used to await the returns
from three or four towns, in the early evening
after an election in Maine, and thereupon tele
graph to the President a confident statement of
the RepubHcan majority. Rarely did the official
count vary from his prediction by more than a
few hundred votes.
But at Georgetown he was merely an observer
of poHtics, not an active participant. His duties as
a teacher occupied him to the exclusion of other
things in which he would have taken a deeper in
terest. He proposed to himself to begin the study
of the law at Lexington, in the summer of 1849,
but apparently did not carry out the purpose.
The superintendent of the Institute was
Colonel Thornton F. Johnson. Twenty miles
from Georgetown, at Millersburg, was a young
ladies' seminary, at the head of which was the
wife of Colonel Johnson. It was quite natural

24 JAMES G. BLAINE
that there should be a friendly acquaintance
between the teachers of the two institutions.
Young Blaine visited Millersburg and met there
Miss Harriet Stanwood, of Augusta, Maine, who
was a teacher in the seminary, as was also her
older sister Caroline. They were strongly attract
ed to each other from the first meeting, and after
a short engagement were married, on June 30,
1850. Harriet (Stanwood) Blaine was a 'descendant,
in the sixth generation, from PhiHp Stainwood,
whose name first appears on the records of
Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1652. Her ances
tors without a single exception, both paternal
and maternal, — Caldwells, Appletons, Dodges,
Hodgkinses, Hoveys, Treadwells, Willcombs,
and many others, — were resident in Essex
County, Massachusetts, long before the end of
the seventeenth century. There is no trace of the
admixture of the blood of any immigrant more
recent than the year 1675. One branch of the
family removed to Ipswich, in Essex County, in
1723, and there Harriet Stanwood's father was
born, in 1785. He removed to Augusta, Maine,
in 1822, two years after the admission of the
state to the Union. Mr. Stanwood was twice
married. Of his ten children Harriet was the
ninth, — the seventh by bis second wife, and the
fifth of six daughters.

EARLY MANHOOD 25
The married life of Mr. Blaine, which was
terminated by bis own death, — Mrs. Blaine
died in 1903, — was one of uninterrupted har
mony and deHght. No man ever had better rea
son than he to enjoy his own family, and no man
was ever happier in the companionship of wife
and children. Mrs. Blaine was a woman of
brilHant mind and of keen wit, a fitting mate of
her husband in mental quaHty. More than this,
she was able to enter to the fullest extent into the
subjects which interested him. Her Hterary
tastes were in strict agreement with his. To
gether they read and enjoyed the works of the
great writers of fiction, poetry and history. She
not only sympathized with her husband in poH
tics, and shared and incited his ambitions, but
she brought so good a judgment to the considera
tion of pubHc questions that Mr. Blaine habitu
ally talked over poHtical questions with her, and
frequently sought her advice. AU these state
ments are true of her from the early years of their
married Hfe. One of her Augusta cousins, who
like the most of his family had been a Whig, did
not pass over the easy path into the RepubHcan
party, but continued to be a "straight Whig."
It was soon after the great reHgious " revival " of
1857 that Mrs. Blaine who, together with her
husband, was a convert of that time, remarked
to a friend that she was afraid that  (naming

26 JAMES G. BLAINE
her errant Whig cousin) had fallen from grace.
Her zeal and earnestness in all things pertaining
to Mr. Blaine occasionally imparted to her utter
ances a pungency of phrase which — amiable
fault as it was — caused some injury to her own
popularity. Seven children were the issue of this marriage.
The first-born, Stanwood, died in infancy.
Death did not again invade the family until
1890; when, within the space of three weeks,
Walker, the oldest son, and AHce, the oldest
daughter were taken away. From their earHest
years Mr. Blaine was the friend and companion
of his children. His inexhaustible store of in
formation upon a thousand subjects was always
at their command. He stimulated their minds
by questions designed to test their knowledge,
and to lead them on to inquiries which gave
him the opportunity to instruct them by lessons
of their own seeking. A famiHar picture of him
in such companionship is in the mind of one
who was accustomed freely to enter the Augusta
home unannounced; Mr. Blaine and Emmons
stretched at full length upon the carpet in the
Ubrary, above an open atlas upon which the
father was pointing out on the map interesting
places, and giving his young son of eight or nine
years a lesson in geography, physiography, and
history, all at once. It need not be said that

EARLY MANHOOD 27
the children had an admiration for and a con
fidence in him that knew no bounds.
Mr. Blaine remained at the Georgetown
Institute until the close of the school year in 1851.
Then, partly perhaps in consequence of the
death of his father, which took place in June,
1850, and partly by reason of the retirement of
Colonel Johnson from the institution, he closed
his connection with the. school. There were other
and weighty reasons for the change. He was
already married, and felt that it was time for him
to begin the study of law. He therefore went to
Philadelphia and began his studies. His wife
went, for the time, to her mother's home in
Augusta. In the summer of 1852 he answered
in person an advertisement for a teacher in the
Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind, and was at
once accepted in preference to a considerable
number of earHer candidates. He continued to
be a teacher in the school a Httle more than two
years, from August, 1852, until November, 1854.
The arrangement was an excellent one for his
purposes. He had a home to which he could bring
his wife and his infant son Stanwood; and his
duties were sufficiently light, and his salary was
large enough to enable him to continue his studies
for the bar.
As in Kentucky, he won respect and esteem as
a teacher in Philadelphia. He taught mathe-

28 JAMES G. BLAINE
matics and the higher branches to the bHnd
pupils, and left behind him a reputation which
lasted many a year as one who contributed
greatly to the social as well as the inteUectual Hfe
of the institution. His pupils used to tell of the
spirit and appreciation with which he and Mrs.
Blaine read aloud to them from the works of
Dickens and from the humorous writings of the
time, and of the fun which they had in the speU-
ing-bees, especially when they tried to speU the
teacher down.

Ill
EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER
Neab the close of the year 1854 there was an
abrupt change in the Hfe of Mr. Blaine, and in
all his plans and purposes. His career as a
teacher of youth came to an end; he abandoned
his intention to become a lawyer; he laid aside
his cherished longing to pass his days in his
native Pennsylvania. He entered a new profes
sion in a new home, and took up an occupation
which opened before him an unobstructed path
to the most conspicuous and honorable place in
pubHc affairs.
Since his marriage he had made more than
one visit at Augusta, Maine, the birthplace of his
wife, where two of her sisters still resided in the
family homestead. The sad occasion of one of
these visits was the death of his firstborn, who
was taken to Augusta for burial. He used to say
afterward that he was attracted and charmed
from the beginning by the alertness and thrift of
the New England people, whom he was then
meeting for the first time, and that he contrasted
it not only with the indolence and improvidence
which characterized Kentucky in slavery times,

30 JAMES G. BLAINE
but also with the lavishness that had prevailed
in his own home in Pennsylvania. In Augusta he
met and became acquainted with many of the
leading men of the city, and made a deep impres
sion upon them by his thorough famiHarity with
the public questions of the day, by the depth and
sincerity of his convictions, by the briUiancy of
his conversation, and by his easy and distin
guished manners.
Among his new friends was Mr. John Dorr,
who for ten years had been associated with the
Hon. Luther Severance in the conduct of the
"Kennebec Journal," a weekly Whig newspaper
pubHshed at the state capital. Mr. Severance
was the editor of the paper from the time of its
foundation in 1825 until President Taylor, in
1850, appointed him the first Commissioner of
the United States to the Hawaiian Islands.
Meanwhile he had served frequently in the
Maine Legislature, in both branches, and in
Congress, from 1843 to 1847. He took a distin
guished position in the National House of Repre
sentatives. His speech against the Tariff of 1846
was one of the keenest and most effective made
by a Whig in either House. His analysis of
Secretary Walker's report, on which that act
was based, and his skiUful use of statistics in
refutation of some of its arguments, won for him
a high place among his colleagues. But, after all,

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 31
it was as editor of the " Kennebec Journal " that
he performed his greatest and most lasting work.
During the middle period of the last century
the country newspaper exerted great power in the
formation of pubUc opinion. Yet even in the
cities there was then nothing that could properly
be termed a profession of journaHsm. Men be
came editors by accident, not by education and
premeditation. Hezekiah Niles, Horace Greeley,
James Watson Webb, James Gordon Bennett,
Nathan Hale, Joseph T. Buckingham, Francis P.
Blair, Thomas Ritchie, George D. Prentice,
Thurlow Weed, — not one of them came to his
position at the head of an influential newspaper as
a result of preliminary training and apprentice
ship. Many of them began Hfe as printers "at
the case," and acquired their first knowledge of
pubUc affairs, in large part, from the "copy"
which they put in type, and studied while they
worked. In most cases they founded each his
own newspaper, and gained influence for it by
the force and lucidity with which they discussed
the poUtical issues of the day. In the country the
process of evolution of editors was quite similar
to that in the cities. It was not unusual for law
yers who had not been too successful at the bar
to become, first occasional contributors to the
weekly newspaper, and afterward, -as a separa
tion of business and Uterary duties became neces-

32 JAMES G. BLAINE
sary, the regular editors of country newspapers.
They did not all turn out to be good editors, nor
powerful and luminous writers; but here and
there, more frequently than one would have
expected, a real leader of pubUc opinion was
developed. His articles upon the questions of the
time would be widely copied, and his reputation
would reach to the Umits of his state, sometimes
beyond them.
In a time when books were few, when money
was scarce, when newspapers were expensive,
before the present elaborate system of distribut
ing city daiUes at daybreak scores of miles from
the place of pubHcation had even a beginning,
the country newspaper, the county weekly news
paper, was the great source of poUtical and gen
eral intelligence for a large majority of the people
of the land. They expected the editor to furnish
them with comprehensive views of passing events
in the political world, and to interpret those events
for them. The editor recognized it as his duty to
meet this expectation, and performed it to the
best of his ability. He did not assume that his
readers desired merely opinions,- and that they
would turn impatiently from an article which
they could not read in five minutes. He knew
that they would give their evenings to a careful
and studious-perusal of his editorial articles. Ac
cordingly he gave them not merely the result of

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 33
his own thinking, but a statement of the mental
process by which he had reached that result. The
editors of that time did not attempt to "cover"
all the news of the world in each issue; but the
few things they did treat they explained and ex
pounded, and set forth their poUtical faith and
the reasons for it with patient iteration.
The country newspaper thus became an oracle,
and the editor was its mouthpiece and inter
preter. Farmers pored over its closely printed
columns. Leading articles were discussed around
the stove in the country store by the neighbors
who gathered there for conversation. The editor
might have taken no special course of training to
quaUfy him to be a leader of pubUc opinion, but
his duties forced him, and his opportunities in
vited him, to become the one man in the com
munity who studied poUtics deeply. He was
made a leader by the mere force of the position
he occupied. What more natural than that he
should be deemed the fittest person to set forth
his views 'in spoken debate in the halls of legisla
tion, state and national, or to carry out his prin
ciples in executive station?
Luther Severance himself was dhe of the best
products of the system, if system it may be called.
He was a graduate of the printers' case, and Uke
many other editors of the time, frequently put his
articles in type without having previously written

34 JAMES G. BLAINE
them. He made the "Kennebec Journal" the
most influential leader of pubUc thought in the
state. His constituency was an intelHgent com
munity, ninety-seven per cent, native, and almost
exclusively of New England origin. Maine usu
ally gave a Democratic majority at national and
state elections, but, largely no doubt in conse
quence of Mr. Severance's efforts, Kennebec
County, one of the largest in the state, was con
sistently Whig. Augusta, as the capital, was
naturally a place of much poHtical importance.
Commercially it was the head of navigation on
the Kennebec River, and was the market for the
country trade of a large and prosperous region.
On the appointment of Mr. Severance as Com
missioner to Hawaii, he and his partner, Mr.
Dorr, sold the " Journal " to WilUam H. Simpson
and WilUam H. Wheeler, who conducted it until
1854. Mr. Wheeler meantime sold his interest in
the paper to his partner, but continued to act as
editor until the spring of 1854, when he retired,
and Joseph Baker, a leading lawyer of Augusta,
was employed as editor. It is not a matter for
wonder that with an editor wholly without expe
rience, who was moreover actively carrying on a
lucrative law business, the paper sometimes suf
fered. It was this circumstance that led to the
entrance of Mr. Blaine into the profession iD
which he also was without experience.

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 35
The idea was first suggested to him by Mr.
Dorr, who, although no longer pecuniarily inter
ested in the paper, was concerned as to its future.
He had a pride> in its past, and both personally
and poHtically desired that it should retain its
standing and influence. He saw quaUties in Mr.
Blaine which were most desirable in an editor, —
wide information, strong convictions, and feUcity
of expression. The suggestion took a strong hold
upon the young man. It was on a railroad train
by which Mr. Blaine was returning to Philadel
phia to resume his work as teacher in the Insti
tute for the BHnd, that the proposition was first
made. Upon considering it with his wife after
reaching Philadelphia, he determined to under
take the duty, if the necessary arrangements
could be made. As he lacked the necessary capi
tal he appUed for assistance to his two brothers-
in-law, Jacob and Eben C. Stanwood, both
prosperous merchants in Boston, who approved
the plan and furnished the means to carry it into
execution. Accordingly he resigned his position
and returned to Augusta ; a partnership with the
editor was formed, and the issue of the " Journal "
for November 16, 1854, announced that the paper
would in future be conducted by Messrs. Baker
and Blaine. It may be said here that Mr. Baker's
business as a lawyer soon compelled him to retire.
Only two months after the change just noted he

36 JAMES G. BLAINE
sold his half interest to John L. Stevens, and
during the whole of the remaining time of Mr.
Blaine's active connection with the paper it was
conducted by Messrs. Stevens and Blaine. Be
tween these men there was a Hfelong personal
and poHtical friendship. Mr. Stevens, after his
retirement from the editorship, was United States
minister to three countries, — to Paraguay, to
Sweden and Norway, and to Hawaii. It was he
who at Honolulu, at the time of the revolution in
1893, took the measures that were afterward so
severely criticised by his poHtical opponents.
The position which Mr. Blaine now under
took to fill was exactly suited to his tastes and
talents. From boyhood he had shown a leaning
toward poHtical discussion, and whether or not
we suppose him to have been already stirred with
ambition to enter pubUc Hfe, he had certainly
stored his mind with such information regard
ing men and events, issues and poUcies, as was
Ukely to be most useful in conducting a party
paper. He had the ardent nature which develops
a strong party man, and had already formed con
victions and contracted associations to which a
young man adheres more tenaciously than does
one who, in mature age, has acquired the mental
poise that enables him to revise his own opinions.
He was able to adapt himself easily to the modes
of Ufe and of thought of the new community into

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 37
which he was entering, but, young as he was, he
opened before that community a wider horizon,
and gave it a more extended vision than it had
before. A facile pen, a wonderful memory, a
tendency to intellectual combativeness, and a
social disposition so fascinating that it made his
poUtical antagonists his personal friends, — all
combined to make him an ideal editor, for the
time and the place. He plunged into work at
once. Broad national questions were absorbing
pubUc attention. To these he addressed himself;
but he devoted his spare time to a careful study
of the poHtical history of Maine, in order to fit
himself for all the duties of his position.
Mr. Blaine occupied himself at one time by
marking carefully, in the office file of the first
volume or two of the " Kennebec Journal " under
his own editorship, his own contributions. It is
an amusing incident that the first issue contains
a review from his pen of a work on the Epistle to
the Romans, by Abiel A. Livermore. Mr. Blaine
was not then what was known as a "professing
Christian," but he was a convinced beUever in
the Presbyterian creed, and a stout defender of
it. Mr. Livermore's doubts and criticisms seemed
to the young reviewer weak and illogical. Two
passages, somewhat similar to each other, show
his method of deaUng with the semi-heretic.
" The election of some to eternal salvation is here

38 JAMES G. BLAINE
[in the Epistle to the Romans] taught, or it is
not. If it is, admit it honestly. If it is not,
deny it boldly. ... Is the Bible the Word of
God, or not ? If it is, say so; if it is not, say so
Uke a man, and take the responsibiHty." Mr.
Blaine was all his Hfe incHned to theological spec
ulation, and often held long and earnest discus
sions on the points of creeds, not only with his
own ministers, but with visitors at his home, and
with members of bis family.
Never in the history of the country was there
a more favorable time for a young editor to push
his way to the front. Old poUtical associations
were dissolving, new associations were forming.
The authority of party "war-horses" could not
prevail to hold men to their allegiance. Henry
Clay was dead, and the issues with which he had
been most prominently connected, except those
arising out of the institution of slavery, were laid
aside and forgotten. A variety of circumstances,
chiefly the lavish supply of gold from California,
made the low Tariff of 1846 so successful that it
was impossible to carry on an effective protection
ist propaganda. No one regarded internal im
provements, or French spoUation claims, or the
land question, or the Bank, — questions that had
disturbed poUticians during the preceding twen
ty years, — as being still Uving issues. Slavery,
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, Kansas

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 39
and Nebraska, " squatter sovereignty," — these
were the subjects that engrossed attention. The
Whig party had gone to pieces after the crushing
reverse of 1852. Both at the North and at the
South a large fraction of that party had been car
ried as by a whirlwind into the "American,"
more popularly known as the " Know-Nothing,"
movement. Although it did not so appear at the
time, the disruption of the Whig organization
and the springing-up of a passionate opposition
to members of one reHgious faith, — as un-
American as it was certain to be transitory, —
was a potent agency in unifying sectional feeUng
on both sides of Mason and Dixon's Hne. Hos-
tiHty to Roman CathoHcs was too slender a basis
for a national party, particularly when it was
necessary for that party, in order to remain whole,
to refrain from expressing any opinion on the
subject which all men, the members of that party
included, were discussing hotly, on every street
corner. So it came about that in the South all
the old Whigs except a few "Union-savers"
drifted into the Democratic party. At the North
old animosities between Whigs and Democrats
were forgotten, if they agreed in thinking the
Kansas-Nebraska Act an infamous surrender to
the slave-holding South". But all the Whigs did
not allow themselves to be swept unresistingly
into what they regarded as an aboHtionist move-

40 JAMES G. BLAINE
ment. Conservatively they alHed themselves with
the Democrats, mostly led by the official class,
who either did not credit the Southern poUticians
with a determination to make slavery dominant,
or who were wilUng, for party purposes, that the
South should rule the country.
In New England, in Maine especiaUy, another
issue, also a moral issue, helped in breaking down
old party Unes, so that men could pass easily
from either side to the other, — the question of
"temperance," and the "Maine law." Two or
three years before the RepubUcan party was
formed, and took its name, the advocates of pro
hibition in Maine had become accustomed to act
together in local contests, and even in state elec
tions. The " temperance men " were almost to a
man RepubHcans when the new party came into
existence. Just before Mr. Blaine removed to Maine, at
the state election in September, 1854, Anson P.
Morrill was elected governor. A "fusion" was
opposed to a " coaUtion." The Democrats and
the " Straight Whigs " had each their candidate
for governor, but they combined forces in some
of the counties in the support of candidates for
the legislature. Mr. Morrill was the candidate
of the Temperance, Know-Nothing and anti-
Nebraska poHtical elements, then just combining
under the RepubUcan name. The "Kennebec

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 41
Journal, " after the election, classified as Repub
Hcans all the supporters of Mr. Morrill who had
been elected to the legislature. In a long article,
justifying the use of this designation, then a
novelty, it said:
" We did not certainly know the exact poHtical
stripe of many of them, whether they were Exclu
sive Whigs, National Whigs, Reed Whigs, Mor
rill Whigs, Morrill Democrats, Free Soil Whigs,
or Free Soil Democrats, Coalition Whigs, or
CoaUtion Democrats, or Know-Nothings, and it
would have been folly in the state of information
which we then had to divide them off into
stripes. But the term RepubUcan has come to
have a well-defined meaning, and informs every
one that the person thus designated sympathizes
with and belongs to the new fusion movement, or
People's party that is springing up throughout
the free states to resist the encroachments of
slavery and maintain the rights of the North."
Mr. Blaine's readers, then, were men who had
divested themselves of their old party prejudices,
who were not merely wilUng, but eager to have
their conduct in breaking away from their former
poHtical associations justified by any one who
could set forth the history of past encroachments
of slavery, and characterize fitly the misdeeds of
the administration of Franklin Pierce. He was
at his best in writing of that sort. One finds in his

42 JAMES G. BLAINE
poUtical articles Uttle that suggests a constructive
statesman in embryo. His strong point as an
editor was the attack. As a leader in opposition,
as the spokesman of a party without a history,
there was nothing for him to defend. His eye was
always seeking the joints in the enemy's harness,
into which to thrust his sharp-pointed sword.
There was a Democratic weekly newspaper in
Augusta, the "Age," which, soon after Mr.
Blaine's removal to Maine, came under the edit
orship of Messrs. Fuller and Fuller, uncle and
nephew. The junior editor is now the Chief
Justice of the United States. The two rival news
papers were naturally at perpetual war. Neither
of them was polite or respectful to the other. The
interchange of vituperative epithets by the editors
of the New York newspapers set a fashion which
was almost universally followed wherever the
conductor of a poHtical journal found one of the
opposite faith who would bandy words with him.
In their attacks Upon pubUc men the writers of
that time did not greatly surpass those of to-day
in coarseness and brutaHty.
In January, 1855, the RepubHcan legislature
designated the "Journal" as the "State paper"
in which all official advertisements were to be
inserted, instead of the " Age," which had enjoyed
the state patronage for thirteen years. It also
made a contract with the proprietors of the

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 43
" Journal " to do the state printing. The " Jour
nal" was a paying property by itself; the two
favors by the legislature made it highly profitable.
Years afterward Mr. Blaine wrote: "Was I not
then State printer, making $4000 a year and
spending $600, a ratio between outlay and in
come which I have never since been able to estab
lish and maintain?" Besides being frugal in
expenditure, he was wise in investment, for he
devoted his savings to the purchase of coal lands
in Pennsylvania, which yielded him a handsome
return, and which increased greatly in value as
the region was developed.
Politics did not occupy the young editor's
attention to the exclusion of other important
matters. He discussed the Crimean War, some
times at great length, and examined other foreign
topics. At the beginning of 1855, he prepared a
long historical sketch of the important world
events of each year of the Christian era ending
with the figures 55. He wrote an extended
memoir of Mr. Severance, which filled fourteen
of the long columns of the " Journal." During
each winter there was a course of lectures before
the Augusta Lyceum. Mr. Blaine wrote each
week a summary of the lecturer's views upon the
subject discussed, and expressed his own opinion.
These are examples of his work that show his
many-sidedness.

44 JAMES G. BLAINE
From the editorial chair Mr. Blaine moved
easily into pubUc Hfe. His first step in that direc
tion was taken when he was chosen one of the
three district delegates to the RepubUcan Na
tional Convention of 1856, which nominated
John C. Fremont as a candidate for president.
He was one of the secretaries of that convention.
His own preference in the matter of candidates
was Judge McLean of the Supreme Court, who
was "mentioned" for the presidency at almost
every election from 1832 until 1860, and who
seemed a somewhat formidable contestant for the
nomination in four or five Whig and RepubUcan
conventions. Mr. Blaine had no difficulty in ac
cepting the choice of Fremont as a wise one, and
worked heartily and hopefully for his election.
In the canvass in Maine, in 1856, he made his
first appearance on the stump. He distrusted
his own power as a pubUc speaker, until he
found, after several meetings, that his audience
was attentive and interested, and that he could
think clearly and express himself easily, while
on his feet. He introduced one of his early
speeches with a story. Gail Hamilton narrates
that he went to Farmington to hear Senator
William Pitt Fessenden speak, and with no inten
tion to speak himself. But Mr. Fessenden did
not arrive in time, and some of his Augusta
friends put him forward to take the platform. .

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 45
He Ukened his situation to that of a farmer who
had a horse for which he ' asked five hundred
dollars. A horse trader offered him seventy-five
dollars for the animal. " It 's a devil of a drop,"
said the farmer, "but I'll take it." The story
and the speech that followed greatly pleased his
hearers. Nevertheless, at that time Mr. Blaine
was not a good story-teller. The art of employ
ing humor as an aid to oratory was so neces
sary that he practised it diHgently, and ultimately
made it one of the chief features of his conversa
tion and public discussion.
In the autumn of 1857 Mr. Blaine was per
suaded by an offer of the then munificent salary
of two thousand dollars a year to become the
editor of the " Portland Advertiser," the leading
daily RepubHcan newspaper of the state.- He
continued to reside in Augusta but, by the terms
of his contract with the pubHsher, was in Port
land five days in the week. This arrangement
continued for something less than three years.
It was terminated in 1860, when the new pub-
Ushers of the "Advertiser" decided that they
must have an editor who would reside in Port
land and identify himself with the interests of
the city as well as with those of the paper. Mr.
Blaine was not wilUng to leave Augusta. He
had already, as a member of the legislature,
opposed one of the dearest wishes of the Portland

46 JAMES G. BLAINE
people, that the state capital be removed to that
city. Accordingly he resigned his position, and,
save that he edited the " Kennebec Journal " for
a short time in 1860, his career as an editor came
to an end.
Mr. Blaine's first official service was rendered
in a matter which gave him an opportunity to
display some of his most characteristic quaUties
as a pubUc man. The state prison was a burden
on the treasury of Maine. There was as yet no
objection to the competition of prison labor with
free labor. The convicts were set to work at gain
ful occupations, and in spite of the fact that the
prison was badly located, far from a- railroad
and even at some distance from a good harbor,
there seemed to be no good reason why it should
not be self-supporting. The legislature passed
a resolve in 1858, directing the appointment of a
commissioner to investigate the prison, to ascer
tain why it was a losing enterprise, and to propose
remedies. Governor Anson P. MorriU ap
pointed Mr. Blaine as the commissioner. His
report made a most interesting exposure of bad
management, wastefulness, and "cooked" ac
counts. He showed that, when the annual inven
tory of stock and materials was made in the
spring, one set of values was entered, but quite
another when the annual balance sheet was made
up for the report to the legislature. A horse at

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 47
one time was appraised at two hundred dollars,
a few months later at seventy-five doUars, and
when the whole year had elapsed he would have
recovered the lost value. Mr. Blaine showed that
this practice had been going on for years, and
that the system of diverse appraisement extended
to everything, — farm tools, flour, material for
manufacture, and manufactured goods. He also
took the bill of fare of the prisoners and humor
ously calculated the enormous amount of flour,
beans, meat, and other things which the cost of
feeding them would procure for each prisoner.
The report was accompanied by a large amount
of information regarding the management and
the cost of other prisons. It made a sensation in
the state, and led to a change of wardens and a
reform in the management of the prison.
In 1858, less than four years after his removal
to Maine, Mr. Blaine was chosen one of the two.
members of the legislature from Augusta. He
took no very active part in the proceedings dur
ing the first year; but in his second term, in the
legislature of 1860, he was one of the most promi
nent members. The state treasurer was a de
faulter. He was a former minister of the gospel
who, having been extremely active in the prohibi
tion movement, was elected to the office of treas
urer as a reward of his poHtical services. He
became entangled in land and lumber specula-

48 JAMES G. BLAINE
tions, and was an easy tool of men much worse
than himself. Mr. Blaine was the chairman on
the part of the House of Representatives of the
joint committee which investigated the case. The
downfall of the treasurer was deplorable; but the
inquiry into the origin and history of the embez
zlement, and into the connection therewith of
his associates in the speculation, was work in
which Mr. Blaine revelled. He was too young
and too strongly gifted with a sense of humor
not to be amused, as well as amazed, at the
audacity with which the treasurer's partners
avowed acts which made them morally partici
pants in the embezzlement, yet not punishable.
It was Mr. Blaine's singular good fortune,
during his whole pubUc Hfe up to the time when
he was a candidate before a national convention,
never to have had a contest for a nomination,
and never to have been in serious danger of defeat
at the polls. He was elected four times to the
legislature of Maine, and on each occasion was
nominated by acclamation and elected by a large
majority. In 1861, beginning his third term, he
was chosen Speaker, and had no competitor for
the nomination either then or in the foUowing
year. In the chair he showed the quick grasp of
pubUc measures, the familiarity with parHamen-
tary law, and the abiUty to despatch business
rapidly, which he afterwards displayed so con-

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 49
spicuously in the office of Speaker at Washing
ton. Even in a legislature consisting largely of
farmers,. parUamentary tangles will occur. Mr.
Blaine was particularly happy in explaining the
situation so clearly that no one could make the
excuse that he had voted under a misapprehen
sion as to the effect of his vote.
From almost the earUest days of the RepubU
can party Mr. John L. Stevens, Mr. Blaine's
partner in the " Kennebec Journal," was chair
man of the RepubUcan State Committee of
Maine. In 1859 he retired from that position,
and Mr. Blaine succeeded him, both as represen
tative of Kennebec County on the committee and
as chairman. From that time until he was ap
pointed Secretary of State, in 1881, he continued
to be chairman, and was at the head of affairs
for his party as no other man in Maine ever was.
During more than twenty years he was usually
the prevaiUng force in the RepubUcan state con
ventions. He dictated platforms; the candidates
were, with some exceptions, those whom he
favored. He conducted the annual canvass
almost autocratically. To him were left, almost
without the advice and consent of the rest of the
committee, the collection of campaign funds,
the character of the canvass, the selection of
speakers, the times and places of ralHes; and
his plans were rarely or never modified or criti-

50 JAMES G. BLAINE
cised. All reports were made to him, and he
issued the orders, which his local Heutenants
obeyed, promptly and unquestioningly. During
the greater part of the same period it feU to him
to designate many of the federal office-holders in
Maine, and to find places in the departments at
Washington and at foreign posts for many hun
dreds of his constituents.
The reader of the foregoing sentences may be
pardoned if he exclaims that they describe the
functions and the methods of the poHtical " boss."
There is, nevertheless, a radical difference be
tween a true political leader and a boss. The es
sential characteristic of the boss is self-seeking.
He may desire to use his poUtical power to enrich
himself; or he may appropriate to himself the
best offices in the gift of his party; or he may
exercise the influence he has obtained simply for
the pleasure of exercising it, defend it by strik
ing down all who dispute his supremacy, and let
the party go to defeat whenever for the moment
he loses control. No one ever suspected or
intimated that Mr. Blaine used his ascendancy
in the RepubHcan party of Maine for purposes
of pecuniary profit. He sought no office which
that party could give him, save his seat in Con
gress, and for that he was indebted to the people
of his district only. Moreover, he never had a
competitor for it. Undeniably he enjoyed leader-

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 51
ship, as every true leader does. But he neither
attained his position nor kept it by the use of
terror and threats, the chief weapons in the
armory of the boss. Mr Blaine was too wise a
politician not to see that such a poHcy results in
evitably in faction. He was too earnest a party
man to desire anything less than a perfectly
harmonious party, united in victory, united in
defeat, harboring no jealousies, reserving no
punishments for mutineers. He was large-minded
enough to have sympathy for, as well as to under
stand, the momentary hostiUty toward himself
of some politician whose ambition he had not
been able to promote. But he was the last man
to cherish animosities or to take vengeance upon
an enemy. His method was to molHfy the mal
contents, to draw back into cordial relations
those who were temporarily aUenated from him.
Not aU of them were amenable to this poHcy, and
the number of discontented increased as time
went on. Moreover, there are always those who
go into opposition for no better reason than that
they grow tired of hearing Aristides called "the
Just." Men of that stamp grew tired of the con
summate political generalship of Mr. Blaine,
which gathered around his standard most of
those who did not hold themselves apart on ac
count of envy or disappointment. But all those
who chafed under his supremacy never consti-

52 JAMES G. BLAINE
tuted more than a pitiful minority of the Repub
licans of Maine.
In another most important particular he dif
fered widely from the typical poHtical boss.
Sometimes he did not carry his plans, but defeat
or success made no difference in the energy
which he put into the ensuing campaign. Nor
was it, as in the case of some leaders, a mere pre
tence of energy, for he won for candidates whom
he had not selected victories as notable as for
those who were his original choice. Neither as
a poUtical chieftain in Maine nor in a national
canvass was he ever known to sulk in his tent,
however greatly his plans might have been dis
arranged, no matter how grievous his personal
disappointment might have been. It is easy to
ascribe his conduct in this respect to poHcy, but
does it not mark the essential difference between
a party leader and a leader who has degenerated
into a boss ? In the one case and not in the other,
success of the party, and an opportunity to carry
into effect the principles of the party, are the
chief, the only controlHng motives, and personal
triumph is secondary. How few poUticians there
are who can feign a deep interest in the fortunes
of a candidate to whom they have been warmly
opposed, or who can refrain from exultation if re
jection of their plans has been followed by party
defeat! After all it is not the acts of a leader,

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 53
so much as his motives and purposes, so much
as his inaction after being thwarted, that distin
guish one who is a boss from one who is not.
Mr. Blaine was not a delegate to the RepubU
can. National Convention in 1860. Mr. Stevens,
his former partner, who was a delegate, was an
earnest partisan of Mr. Seward. Mr. Blaine
"went to Chicago as an interested spectator of the
proceedings. He also was an admirer of Seward,
but he not only favored the nomination of Mr.
Lincoln, but exerted himself zealously to bring it
about. In one of his letters he tells of his constant
effort during the journey to Chicago to persuade
Governor Lot M. MorriU, one of the Maine dele
gates, that Lincoln was the man for the time.
Mr. Morrill was not convinced until he reached
the convention city. After the nomination had
been made, Mr. Blaine accompanied to Spring
field the committee appointed to give to Mr.
Lincoln formal notice of the action of the con
vention. On his return to Augusta he found Mr.
Stevens in a state of great disappointment over
the defeat of Seward, and at his request resumed
for a few weeks his old position as editor of the
" Kennebec Journal." The summer and autumn
months of 1860 were a season of great activity
and hard work. Mr. Blaine managed the. Repub
Ucan canvass, and was himself constantly on the
stump. The Democratic candidate for governor

54 JAMES G. BLAINE
that year was the Hon. Ephraim K. Smart, a
poUtician with whom Mr. Blaine had had many
a passage at arms in the legislature, and one
whose record as a former member of Congress
and as a poUtical editor was not marked by
absolute consistency. Mr. Blaine discussed Mr.
Smart in none too poUte terms. He usually began
his remarks by taking the text from the Prophet'
Hosea, " Ephraim is a cake not turned," to which
he added, " I propose to turn him."
The election of Mr. Lincoln and the outbreak
of the Civil War threw upon men in the position
of Mr. Blaine new and onerous duties. It was
necessary, for the time, to forget poHtics and to
devote energy to the work of recruiting and organ
izing miUtary forces. Mr. Blaine became the
constant unofficial adviser of Governor Israel
Washburn, Jr. He gave his help to the cause in
every possible way except that of actual miUtary
service.1 By voice and pen he urged enHstments;
1 He was drafted as one of the quota of Augusta, and paid
for a substitute. He was obliged to listen to many a jeer after
ward for having, as was alleged, evaded the duty to which
he urged others. But no. one can doubt that he was much
more useful in the actual field of his endeavor than he would
have been with a musket on his shoulder. He always took the
sneers of Democrats in good part, and was accustomed to say
with a laugh that his only mistake was in taking a substitute
bearing the surname  [a well known Democratic name]
for the fellow deserted at the first opportunity.

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 55
his advice was sought and followed in the selec
tion of the officers of Maine regiments ; frequent
visits to Washington and personal appUcations
to the Secretary of War faciUtated the mustering,
arming, clothing, and movement of the troops of
the state. Later on he was accustomed to visit
hospitals, ascertain what was needed to ameUo-
rate the condition of the sick and wounded, and
take steps for their reUef .
His whole soul was enUsted in the effort to
"put down the rebellion." At an extra session
of the legislature in 1861, and still more at the
regular session in 1862, he used all the power
he could exert as Speaker of the House to secure
the adoption of measures to strengthen the hands
of the national administration. At this period he
was in favor of the most radical poHcy. He urged
emancipation, confiscation, and the employment
of negroes as soldiers for the Union army, in
order as quickly as possible to destroy the power
of the Confederates. During the session of 1862,
he left the chair to make an elaborate defence of
a series of resolutions in favor of these measures,
and to reply to the leader of the Democrats on
the floor. His speech on this occasion is printed
in his volume of " PoUtical Discussions," * and is
a fine example of the best political reasoning of
1 Norwich, Conn.: The Henry Bill Publishing Company.
1887.

56 JAMES G. BLAINE
that time, fortified by abundant citations of au
thorities, and expressed with feUcity and lucidity.
He read his own views into the President's mes
sage sent to Congress three months before, and
he foretold with characteristic prescience the
adoption of the measures advocated in the reso
lutions. " I read, sir, in that message, something more
than a great proposition for compensated eman
cipation. I read in it a declaration as plain as
language can make, that whatever measures may
be deemed necessary to crush out this rebelHon
speedily and effectually wiU be unhesitatingly
adopted. What else does the President mean
when he says that ' all indispensable means must
be employed for the preservation of the Union,'
that ' the war must continue ' as long as resistance
continues, without regard to the ruin which must
attend it ? What does the President mean by this
language ? Still more, what does he mean when
he declares that ' such measures as may obviously
promise great efficiency towards ending the
struggle must and wiU come ? ' I ask the gentle
man what the President means by that, and he
refuses to answer me. It means the adoption of
precisely such measures as we are discussing
here to-day, and these resolutions are but sus
taining the already foreshadowed poHcy of the
President, whenever the necessity for their en-

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 57
forcement arises, or whenever they may, in his
own language, 'promise great efficiency towards
ending the struggle.' "
The canvass of 1862 was one of great impor
tance. The disasters to the Union cause and the
unusual and arbitrary acts of the Executive,
necessary as they may have been in the circum
stances, gave a fresh opportunity to those who,
from any cause, were opposed to the adminis
tration of Mr. Lincoln. The Democratic conven
tions in most of the leading states of the Union
made much of the steps that had already been
taken in the direction of rendering the institution
of slavery useless as a support of the cause of the
South. They condemned such action as uncon
stitutional, predicted that the consequence would
be to fill the Northern states with a degraded
population, and did all that was possible to
arouse race prejudice.
Mr. Blaine foresaw, early in the season, that
there was to be a fierce political contest. Weeks
before the meeting of the Democratic convention
in New York he predicted the nomination of
Horatio Seymour for governor, and expressed
his fear that the RepubUcans would be defeated.
He was to bear a double burden that year, for
not only was the conduct of the state canvass
intrusted to him, as usual, but it was fully under
stood that he was to be the RepubUcan candidate

58 JAMES G. BLAINE
for Congress from the third district, and he would
be obUged to look especially after his own poHti
cal fortunes. At the district convention held at
Waterville on July 8, 1862, he received the first
of seven consecutive unanimous nominations as a
Representative in Congress. In his speech
accepting the nomination he indicated that there
was but one plank in his platform.
" I deem it my duty to say that if I am caned
to a seat in Congress, I shall go there with a de
termination to stand heartily and unreservedly
by the administration of Abraham Lincoln. In
the success of that administration, under the
good Providence of God, rests, I solemnly beHeve,
the fate of the American Union. If we cannot
subdue the RebelHon through the agency of the
administration, there is no other power given
under Heaven among men to which we can
appeal. Hence I repeat that I shall conceive it to
be my duty, as your representative, to be the
unswerving adherent of the poHcy and measures
which the President in his wisdom may adopt.
The case is one, in the present exigency, where
men loyal to the Union cannot divide."
The result of the elections throughout the
country came perilously near being a poHtical
disaster. In many of the states, notably in New
York, Ohio, and HHnois, the RepubUcans were
defeated. The administration majority in the

EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER 59
House of Representatives was reduced to about
twenty. Mr. Blaine was elected ; but for the first
time in ten years one of the Maine districts
returned a Democrat. The RepubUcan candi
date for governor, Abner Coburn, sUpped in by
the abnormally small majority of four thousand.
He was an exceUent man, but an extremely weak
candidate, and was in office but a single year.
Mr. Blaine had an opportunity, before he began
his service in Congress, to render important assis
tance to the administration by organizing a great
victory at the state election of 1863. By his
advice the RepubUcan name was dropped for a
time. All who favored the preservation of the
Union by the exercise of miUtary power were
invited to the annual state convention. Mr.
Blaine selected as the candidate for governor
Samuel Cony of Augusta, an old Democrat, but
one whose loyalty was above party. He easily
secured the nomination for Mr. Cony, and fol
lowed the action of the convention by organizing
the most systematic and thorough canvass Maine
had ever known. PoUtical ralHes were held in
every town and hamlet. Speeches and other
documents to be read at home were sent out in
sufficient numbers to reach every voter, not once
but many times. A considerable part of the funds
necessary to defray the expenses of the campaign
was obtained by assessment of office-holders, a

60 JAMES G. BLAINE
practice against which no objection was then
raised in any quarter. These measures were suc
cessful in increasing by many thousand the
majority for the Union candidate. Even so far
back as 1840, the result of the September election
in Maine was regarded as an indication of the
tendency of poUtical movements. The Harrison
men sang, —
Hare you heard the news from Maine,
How she went, how she went ?
She went,
Hell bent,
For Governor Kent,
For Tippecanoe, and Tyler too.
In war times and subsequently, even to the pre
sent day, to a certain extent, the result in Maine
both affords some indication of the results at the
ensuing general election, and exerts some influ
ence upon those who wish to be on the winning
side; and in 1863 Governor Cony's majority was
a great encouragement to Union men through
out the North.

IV
SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS
The Thirty-eighth Congress assembled on
December 7, 1863, and on that day Mr. Blaine
began a service in Congress of seventeen years,
four of which were in the Senate. His first com
mittee appointments were not to prominent
places, and the part which he took in the pro
ceedings was modest, but by no means obscure.
He came forward in April, 1864, with a measure
for the assumption by the general government of
the war debts of the loyal states, which he advo
cated in a carefuUy prepared speech. He fortified
bis position by a historical study of the poUcy of
Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury under
Washington. He also proposed and urged with
much earnestness an amendment to the Constitu
tion, to strike from it the prohibition of a duty
on exports. The object of his proposition was
temporary, — to enable Congress to impose a
duty on cotton exported, but his argument was a
general one. Neither he nor any one else would
favor a systematic taxation of exports, but emer
gencies in respect of certain articles of production
do arise when the power to tax exports would be

62 JAMES G. BLAINE
useful. It is a fact to be remembered that this is
the only power inherent in sovereignty which is
expressly renounced in the Constitution, and is
therefore the only one which does not exist, either
in the national government or in the states.
Mr. Blaine occasionaUy engaged in debate,
properly so called, and acquitted himself with
credit. When the bill organizing the National
Bank system was under discussion he attacked a
provision aUowing the banks to charge and col
lect seven per cent, on their loans. He disclaimed
beHef in usury laws, but insisted that so long as
some of the states forbade the taking of interest
beyond six per cent., the national banks in those
states, which would not be amenable to state
laws, should not be permitted to take more than
private lenders and state banks. He fought
vaHantly for an amendment to prevent this injus
tice, but was opposed by Thaddeus Stevens, who
virtually controlled the House, and was unsuccess
ful. But subsequently he brought the measure
forward again, in a sHghtly different form, and
carried his point, on a yea and nay vote. It is
perhaps significant that Mr. Stevens did not
answer to his name on this amendment, although
he is recorded as having voted on the roU-call
immediately before, and on that immediately
afterward. At the beginning of the second session of the

SDI YEARS IN CONGRESS 63
first Congress of which he was a member, Mr.
Blaine won a notable victory over Mr. Stevens.
On the second day of the session, December
6, 1864, Stevens introduced a biU the aim of
which was to force equaUty between the gold
dollar and the paper dollar by imposing pen
alties of both fine and imprisonment upon per
sons who should in business transactions make
a discrimination against the legal tender paper
money. It also declared that a contract made
payable in coin might be satisfied with paper
money. The bill was referred to the Committee
of Ways and Means. The fact of the introduction
of the bill was not known in Wall Street until after
the close of business; but the next morning there
was a great advance in the premium on gold.
Directly after the reading of the journal at the
opening of the session on the 7th, Mr. Blaine
rose, moved a reconsideration of the vote referring
the bill to the committee, and supported the
motion in a terse, compact, and lucid speech in
which he pointed out the futiUty of all attempts
to regulate the value of money by punishing those
who would not give the better sort for the poorer,
and dwelt upon the mischief already done by the
mere introduction of Mr. Stevens's bill. The
author of the measure defended it, although he
admitted that some of its provisions might be
found too harsh. Mr. Blaine's motion was car-

64 JAMES G. BLAINE
ried, by a good majority, and was followed by a
motion, which also was adopted, that the bill be
laid on the table, which, in the practice of the
House of Representatives, is a vote finally to re
ject a measure. Naturally, in this attack upon
the leader of the House, Mr. Blaine had the sup
port of all the Democrats. It is an interesting fact
that the minority who voted with Mr. Stevens
included such prominent and authoritative
names as General Robert C. Schenck, Henry
Winter Davis, Rufus P. Spalding, Justin S.
Morrill, Samuel Hooper, James A. Garfield, and
others of high standing.
Mr. Stevens, in his reply to Mr. Blaine, em
ployed that power of sarcasm which he was
accustomed to bring into service, whether he was
deaHng with a poUtical enemy or a friend. He
sneered at Mr. Blaine's " intuitive way of getting
at a great national question," a phrase which was
strictly appUcable to him, although it was used
satirically. A month later, on January 5, 1865,
Stevens brought the subject up again, inci
dentally, and in giving his own account of the
affair said that "the House, partaking of the
magnetic manner of my friend from Maine," had
thrown out his bill. This was perhaps the first
time that the word "magnetic" was used in a
characterization of Mr. Blaine.
No more momentous political contest has

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 65
occurred in the history of the country than the
presidential canvass of 1864. What change in
the course of events would have been effected by
the defeat of Lincoln and the election of Mc-
Clellan is a suggestion that opens a wide field
of conjecture. Yet no one at the present day will
doubt that the supporters of the administration
were right in their apprehension that such an
event would render the restoration of the Union
more difficult, perhaps impossible. The utmost
efforts were put forth to make the victory over
whelming. Nowhere was the importance of the
result more fully recognized than in Maine. That
state led off in September with a magnificent
Republican majority, and the triumph through
out the country was complete in November. The
House of Representatives elected at the same
time was RepubUcan in the proportion of nearly
four to one, for at the election of Speaker Mr.
Colfax received 139 to 36 for James Brooks.
New England sent an unbroken delegation of
RepubUcans from each one of the six states.
Mr. Blaine was apparently not favored in com
mittee assignments, for he was placed next to the
last on the Committee on MiUtary Affairs. But
it is probable that he had an understanding with
the Speaker that he would be assisted in carrying
a resolution providing for the appointment of a
select committee on the assumption of the war

66 JAMES G. BLAINE
debts of the loyal states. At all events the resolu
tion was passed and Mr. Blaine was appointed
chairman. His membership of the Committee on MiUtary
Affairs brought about one of the most sensational
and regrettable incidents of his pubUc Hfe. His
defeat of Mr. Stevens on the gold biU, a bold and
successful defiance of the leader of the House by
a member in his first term, was the first in a long
series of dramatic events. His encounter with
Mr. ConkUng was the second. The biU for the
reorganization of the regular army was under
consideration. Mr. Blaine was not in charge of
the bill, but as a member of the miUtary commit
tee he was thoroughly informed as to the details
of the measure, and as to the reasons for each of
its provisions. The trouble between him and
the New York member had been brewing nearly
a fortnight before the 30th of April, 1866, when
the final breach occurred. On one or two occa
sions Mr. Conkling had replied to Mr. Blaine, or
had referred to what he had said, in a tone of
assumed superiority which must have been offen
sive; but Mr. Blaine took no pubUc notice of it.
On the other hand he opposed strongly, and
with perhaps too much heat, an amendment to
the army bill, proposed by Mr. ConkUng, with
reference to the Veteran Reserve Corps. He de
clared that Mr. ConkUng could not have read

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 67
the bill, since his remarks were based upon a
misapprehension of what was proposed with
reference to the corps.
When the section of the bill providing for the
organization of the Provost Marshal General's
office was reached, Mr. ConkUng moved to strike
it out altogether, because "it creates an unneces
sary office for an undeserving public servant."
He proceeded to make a violent attack upon
Provost Marshal General James B. Fry, and
insinuated, if he did not charge expHcitly, that
that officer had winked at bounty frauds and
other scandalous irregularities. In support of his
point that the office was unnecessary he read a
letter from General Grant, who expressed the
opinion that bureaus should not be multipHed,
and that there was no necessity for a Provost
Marshal General.
Mr. Blaine made a stout defence of General
Fry as "a most efficient officer, a high-toned
gentleman, whose character is without a spot or
blemish." He broke the force of General Grant's
letter produced by Mr. ConkUng, by reading
another letter from Grant in which he advised
that the entire army business relating to deserters
and desertion be placed in the hands of General
Fry, as "the officer best fitted for that position."
He thus made it to appear that General Grant
opposed merely the formation of another bureau,

68 JAMES G. BLAINE
and that he esteemed General Fry highly and
recommended that the whole duty which was, by
the bill, to be laid on the Provost Marshal Gen
eral, should be intrusted to him. Mr. Blaine
went further, and expressly attributed the oppo
sition of Mr. Conkling to General Fry to "the
quarrels of the gentleman from New York with
General Fry, in which quarrels it is generaUy
understood the gentleman came out second best
at the War Department." Mr. ConkUng pro
nounced the last assertion to be false, and denied
that he had had any quarrel with General Fry.
A heated colloquy between the two members
ensued. The next morning Mr. Blaine rose to a
personal explanation and called the attention of
the House to the fact that Mr. ConkUng had so
edited his own remarks on the previous day, for
insertion in the "Congressional Globe," as to
render meaningless a part of his, Mr. Blaine's,
rejoinder. Mr. ConkUng had said, " I am respon
sible, not only here, but elsewhere, for what I
have said and what I will say of the Provost
Marshal General." Mr. Blaine commented on
the phrase "not only here, but elsewhere" as a
duelUst's expression. Mr. ConkUng amended the
sentence to read, " I have stated facts for which I
am wilUng to be held responsible at all times and
places." He treated the matter with lofty con
tempt, declared that the change made no differ-

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 69
ence, and having "thrown back" the imputa
tion, closed his remarks thus: "and I say to
him that the time will be far hence when it will
become necessary for him to dispense to me any
information or instruction with regard to those
rules which ought to govern the conduct of
gentlemen." A Httle later in the course of the
debate he pronounced a statement of Mr.
Blaine's "without any shadow of foundation in
truth." This encounter took place on the 25th of April.
On the 30th Mr. Blaine caused to be read to the
House a letter from General Fry in which he set
forth in detail the circumstances of the several
differences between Mr. ConkUng and himself,
fully confirming Mr. Blaine's original statement
that the two men had quarrelled and that Mr.
ConkUng had been "worsted." It further ap
peared from copies of official papers accompany
ing General Fry's letter, that Mr. ConkUng had
been employed by order of Charles A. Dana,
Assistant Secretary of War, to investigate cases
of fraud in enUstments in Western New York,
and that for this purpose a commission as special
Judge Advocate was to be issued to him. While
Mr. ConkUng was explaining his relations with
General Fry, a Democratic member by persistent
questioning brought out the fact that Mr. Conk
ling received payment for his services, under Mr.

70 JAMES G. BLAINE
Dana's order, but he denied that he ever received
a commission as judge advocate, and asserted
that his compensation, which he admitted that
he had received while drawing pay as a member
of Congress, was merely a " counsel fee."
Mr. Blaine made what, it must be conceded,
was an irritating speech, when he obtained the
floor. He said that Mr. ConkUng had taken
thirty minutes the other day to explain that an
alteration of the reporter's notes was no altera
tion. Now he had taken an hour to show that,
although -he had been at swords' points with
General Fry for a year, there was no difficulty be
tween them. He, Mr. Blaine, read from the law
forbidding any person holding office under the
government, the compensation of which amounted
to $2250 a year, to receive compensation " for dis
charging the duties of any other office," and
added, " he cannot deny that he discharged the
duties of judge advocate under the special com
mission which I have read, and he was paid for
the discharge of those duties."
Mr. ConkUng again denied that he had received
any commission, said that he acted only as coun
sel, and then, changing his tone as he changed the
subject, turned upon Mr. Blaine thus: "Now,
Mr. Speaker, one thing further: if the member
from Maine had the least idea how profoundly
indifferent I am to his opinion upon the subject

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 71
he has been discussing, or upon any other subject
personal to me, I think he would hardly take the
trouble to rise here and express his opinion;"
and after a few more sentences to the same pur
port, he apologized for having been " drawn into
explanations originally, by an interruption which
I pronounced the other day ungentlemanly and
impertinent, and having nothing whatever to do
with the question."
It is well not to reproduce the reply of Mr.
Blaine, one of the most picturesque passages of
sarcasm in Uterature, and all the more remarka
ble for having been uttered on the spur of the
moment. It was impossible for him to have pre
pared it in advance, for nothing had occurred
before Mr. ConkUng's final remarks were made
to suggest that an occasion for it might arise.
Yet the speech ought to be forgotten except as a
classic in sarcasm. It has been necessary to nar
rate the circumstances of the encounter, inas
much as it was followed by consequences detri
mental to the fortunes of one of the two men,
perhaps of both, if not by consequences important
to the course of the history of the country. The
quarrel was between two men whose memory
their countrymen should honor. It led to the one
lasting estrangement of Mr. Blaine's pubUc Hfe,
one moreover which many a time he would have
been glad to bring to an end. He often said to the

72 JAMES G. BLAINE
friends of Mr. ConkUng that he never doubted
that gentleman's probity or bis sense of honor.
But Mr. ConkUng, whenever he was approached
on the subject of a reconciUation, was implacable,
and the two statesmen never again held personal
relations of any sort with each other.
Although Mr. Blaine was not a member of the
joint Committee on Reconstruction, he took a
most conspicuous part in suggesting the form of
the measures which were ultimately adopted by
Congress. The fagots were already laid for a
great poHtical conflagration when the Thirty-
ninth Congress met in December, 1865. The
President had taken into his own hands the task
of restoring the states lately in rebelHon. His
hostile and vengeful attitude toward them had
quickly given place to one of excessive leniency.
Under his poHcy the States would have come back
into the Union with those in absolute control of
their affairs who had been waging war against
the Union for four years. They would have
returned to that control almost without condi
tions, and with increased poUtical power in Con
gress. For the aboUtion of slavery made each one
of the former slaves a unit of the population to be
counted in the apportionment of representatives,
instead of three-fifths of a unit as under "the
Constitution as it was." Indeed, President John
son's provisional governments were quite devoid

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 73
of any element that could make a pretence of
loyalty to the Union during the war, or that now
made a pretence of accepting frankly the results
of the war.
The indignation of the Northern people over
such an unconditional surrender to those who
had been compelled to surrender uncondition
ally on the field of battle, grew daily more intense
in the months that intervened between the assas
sination of the President and the meeting of
Congress. Hardly had the formal business of
choosing a Speaker been completed, when Thad-
deus Stevens appUed the torch to the combusti
bles by introducing a resolution providing for the
appointment of a joint committee to consider the
relation to the Union of the states lately in rebel
Hon, and declaring that no member from any of
those states should be admitted to a seat in either
House of Congress until that relation should have
been determined. Then began the great debate
on Reconstruction, which soon developed, in
speech and Act of Congress, into the long war
between the President and the party to which
he owed his office; reached a dramatic climax in
the very closing hour of the Thirty-ninth Con
gress; and was followed by the still more sensa
tional impeachment proceedings.
Mr. Stevens's position, which he held con
sistently from the beginning of the poUtical war

74 JAMES G. BLAINE
until the end of his Ufe, was that the states had
taken themselves out of the Union, that their
citizens were aHen enemies who had been con
quered, and that the states themselves could
regain their rights only by readmission as foreign
territory. To this theory Mr. Blaine never gave
his assent. He usually, but not invariably, sup
ported by his vote the measures brought forward
by the Reconstruction Committee, but his words,
his propositions, and his votes tended to an
ameHoration of the harsh provisions favored by
the radical members who controlled the action
of the House. He was as strenuous as the most
radical in opposition to President Johnson's
poUcy, and in upholding the principle that the
Southern states should not be permitted to faU
under the domination of the men who had been
in arms against, or who had been otherwise hos
tile to, the Union. He insisted upon effective
guaranties against a repetition of their offence,
and upon ample protection to the race which the
fortunes of war left helpless in the South. To
this extent he was a radical of the radicals. But
he was strongly opposed to measures which im
posed conditions on the South, and yet held out
to the South no hope that, when the conditions
had been met, the states would be welcomed back
to their old place in the Union.
Mr. Blaine's first important intervention in

SLX YEARS IN CONGRESS 75
the momentous work of Reconstruction took
place when the amendment to the Constitution
now known as the Fourteenth was under dis
cussion. Measures took their form slowly, by
a process of selection from an abundance of
suggestions. The gross injustice and inequaHty
that would result from that provision in the
unamended Constitution which would give the
South increased representation in Congress as a
consequence of emancipation, was universally
recognized by Republicans. No one supposed
that any Southern state would voluntarily confer
the right of suffrage upon the negroes. Early in
the Reconstruction conflict a small minority
only of the RepubUcans would have favored
forcing negro suffrage upon the South. Yet
unless some change were made, the white men
who, before the war, cast votes for themselves
and three-fifths of the black population, would
thenceforth vote for themselves and all the blacks ;
and one white man of the South who had borne
arms against the government would be nearly
equal in poUtical power to two loyal men of the
North. All the early propositions so to amend the Con
stitution as to eHminate this injustice made the
number of voters in each state the basis of ap
portionment. Mr. Blaine was the first to propose
the principle that was ultimately adopted, namely,

76 JAMES G. BLAINE
that the basis should continue to be the gross
population, which, nevertheless, should be di
minished proportionately for purposes of appor
tionment, should the elective franchise be denied
to any class of citizens. His plan was to deduct
from the whole number of persons in any state
" those to whom civil or poUtical rights or privi
leges are denied by the Constitution or laws of
such state, on account of race or color." His
chief argument in support of the measure was
that the basis of voting strength would introduce
great inequality in the representation of the
states of the North. He cited as an extreme case
CaUfornia and Vermont, the population of which
states was nearly equal. Owing to the prepon
derance of men in CaUfornia at that time, an
apportionment based on the number of voters,
which would give three members to Vermont,
would allow eight members to CaUfornia. Al
though the suggestion thus originally made by
Mr. Blaine was incorporated, nearly in his own
words, in the amendment of the Constitution
reported by the Reconstruction Committee, it
encountered many perils in its passage through
the two Houses, — the history of which it is not
necessary to narrate; but it was finally adopted
both by Congress and by the states, and is to-day
the most ineffective and the most openly violated
provision in the Constitution of the United States.

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 77
One may question now, as few men questioned
then, if the proposition first brought forward by
General Schenck, to base representation upon
the number of voters, would not have been the
wiser plan, Mr. Blaine's powerful objection to
the contrary notwithstanding. The Southern
people and the Democratic party of the North
opposed the amendment stoutly. Every one of
the former Confederate states, except Tennessee,
once rejected it with contempt. Yet in the presi
dential canvass of 1872 the Democratic party in
national convention assembled registered a
pledge " to oppose any reopening of the questions
settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fif
teenth Amendments of the Constitution." So
late as 1880, it was the professed purpose of •
leading Southern statesmen to leave undisturbed
the status of the negro as a citizen, as it was.
fixed by the constitutional amendment.
A " symposium " — a series of articles in an
swer to the questions whether the negro ought
to be disfranchised, and whether he ought to
have been enfranchised — appeared in the
March number, 1880, of the " North American
Review." It was opened by Mr. Blaine, whose
article was commented upon by Senator L. Q. C.
Lamar, General Wade Hampton, Alexander H.
Stephens, Thomas A. Hendricks, Montgomery
Blair, James A, Garfield, and Wendell PhilUps.

78 JAMES G. BLAINE
Mr. Blaine closed the discussion with a sum
ming up of conclusions and a general commen
tary upon the opinions advanced by the other
writers. In view of later events the articles merit
careful reading and study by men of aU parties
and all parts of the country. Mr. Blair alone
expressed the view that enfranchisement of the
negroes was inexpedient and that the right should
be withdrawn from them. Mr. Blaine points
significantly to the fact that Mr. Blair was a
member of Lincoln's cabinet when the Emanci
pation Proclamation was issued. All the Demo
crats who participated in the discussion did,
nevertheless, justify more or less expHcitly the
partial or total suppression of the negro vote, not
as a permanent poHcy, but as a defensive make
shift while the negro was fitting himself for the
great duties of a citizen. They agreed with Mr.
Blaine, not only in holding that the constitutional
guaranties were so strong that it would be im
possible legally to take away the right of suffrage,
but also in maintaining that it would be inex
pedient so to do. They further assured the coun
try that there was no disposition on the part of
any considerable body of Southern men to at
tempt a reversal of the conditions imposed by
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
Evidently there has been a great change in the
temper of the Southern people. In several of the

SDI YEARS IN CONGRESS 79
Southern states negro suffrage has been practi
cally aboHshed by constitutional amendments
which make no reference to race, color, or servi
tude. It has been aboHshed permanently. Pre
cisely the situation which it was the one purpose
of the RepubUcans, in 1866, to avoid, now exists.
The white voters alone exercise all the poHtical
power which is allotted to a population consist
ing of whites and blacks. If the proposition to
base representation upon the number of voters
had then been adopted, no doubt it would, as
Mr. Blaine pointed out, have increased unduly
the number of members from certain states.
But those states were all in the North, and the
proportionate power of the " loyal states " would
have been thereby increased, as the Republicans
of the time desired. In Reconstruction times the
measure would have served as an incentive to the
Southern states to give the franchise to the black
men. In all probabiUty it would have rendered
impossible the scandal of the " carpet bag " state
governments. It would certainly have left the
history of our country unstained by the horrors
of the Ku-Klux Klan. So far as the plan of re
presentation on the basis of voters introduced
negro suffrage, it would have acted as a deterrent
* to disfranchisement, since it would have operated
automatically to reduce representation whenever
for any reason the elective franchise might be

80 JAMES G. BLAINE
restricted. This is wisdom after the event. In
1866 Mr. Blaine's coUeagues were no wiser than
he was.
The Reconstruction act was passed at the
second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress.
Mr. Blaine's part in that legislation was most
important, although he intervened but infre
quently in the debate. Only a week after the
assembHng of Congress, on the 10th of Decem
ber, 1866, he took occasion to make a speech
upon the significance of the then recent elections.
The purport of it all was that the people of the
North had pronounced in favor of a requirement
of negro suffrage — of manhood suffrage — in
the Southern states, as a prerequisite to their
readmission to representation in Congress. He
held then, and he adhered to the opinion when
he wrote bis " Twenty Years of Congress," ' that
if the states of the South had promptly and with
good grace accepted the Fourteenth Amendment,
there was not in Congress a body of radicals
strong enough to have excluded their senators and
representatives from their seats. Tennessee
accepted the amendment and was readmitted.
The other states showed a disposition which
intensified the radicaUsm of the North. In Mr.
Blaine's view the requirement of negro suffrage, *
originally unpopular throughout the North,
' Begun 1882; finished 1885.

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 81
gained ground rapidly; and although when
Congress met the poUtical leaders were still op
posed, he beHeved that the people at large were
heartily in favor of it.
Events were rapidly converting the leaders to
the same way of thinking. Elections in the South
were all carried by the Democrats, except in the
States of West Virginia and Missouri. The men
elected to the legislatures were almost all former
officers of the Confederate army, and attended
the sessions in their old uniforms. The legisla
tures passed laws which, had they been enforced,
would have made the freedom of the colored
people worse than a mockery. One by one the
states rejected the Fourteenth Amendment. In
all the ten legislatures only thirty-three votes
were given for ratification.1 Considering the tem
per of the Northern people, and their not unnatu
ral feeHng that they, and not the Southern people,
had the right to prescribe the terms of recon
struction, it is not surprising that when the offer
impHed by the readmission of Tennessee was re
jected, the hearts of the victors were hardened.
At all events such was the result. The Recon
struction Committee first reported a bill quite
1 "The last one of the sinful ten has at last, with contempt
and scorn, flung back in our teeth the magnanimous offer of a
generous nation." — Speech of James A. Garfield, Congres
sional Globe, 39th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 1104.

82 JAMES G. BLAINE
in accordance with Mr. Blaine's view as to the
prevaiUng disposition of the RepubUcan majority.
It was discussed in set speeches by several mem
bers at the first session of the Thirty-ninth Con
gress, in the summer of 1866. The consideration
of it was resumed at the second session after the
hoUday season, in 1867. Many members had coun
ter-propositions, Mr. Stevens in particular, with
a radical measure based upon his pecuHar theory
as to the constitutional result of the war. Against
his strong opposition the bill was recommitted to
the Committee on Reconstruction, which soon
reported back a bill providing for the miUtary
government of the states then lately in rebellion.
It declared null and void any and all legislative
and judicial proceedings intended to interfere with
or impede the officers placed in charge of those
states. It held out no promise whatever that
civil government should ever be restored, and
offered no opportunity to the people of the states
to take steps to organize such a -government.
After the debate upon this bill had proceeded
several days, Mr. Blaine took the floor, called
attention to the absence of all assurance to the
people of the South that they might resume their
old relations to the Union on any conditions, and
appealed to Mr. Stevens to permit the House to
vote upon an amendment which he had pre
pared. The new section which he proposed vir-

SDI YEARS IN CONGRESS 83
tually asserted that the Fourteenth Amendment
would be effectively ratified by the legislatures
of three fourths of the states represented in
Congress. It provided that when a state had
ratified the amendment, had conformed its con
stitution and laws thereto, had estabHshed
impartial manhood suffrage*, had ratified the
amended state constitution by popular vote, and
had obtained the approval of the constitution
by Congress, it should become entitled to repre
sentation. Mr. Stevens would not consent to
admit the amendment. Mr. Blaine was strongly
supported in his movement by General Schenck
and Judge Bingham of Ohio, and finally con
trived to get a vote upon his proposition by mak
ing a motion to commit the bill to the Committee
on the Judiciary with instructions to incorporate
in it the section setting forth the conditions of
reconstruction. Nearly a half of the RepubUcans
and a third of the Democrats supported the
motion, but Mr. Stevens was too strong in his
leadership, and the proposition was rejected.
In the Senate the principle of the Blaine
amendment was incorporated in the substitute
of Senator Sherman, which was adopted by that
body; and after an attempt to reconcile the dif
ferences between the two houses by a committee
of conference, which was abandoned through
fear of a " pocket veto " of the biU, an agreement

84 JAMES G. BLAINE
was patched up, and the bill went to the President
just early enough to force him either to sign it or
to return it to the House with his objections. The
bill reached the House with the veto message on
the last day of the session, and it was by a piece
of parUamentary strategy conceived by Mr.
Blaine that Congress was enabled to pass the biU
over the veto. Before the beginning of the daily
session he consulted Mr. Speaker Colfax and
inquired what would be his ruUng as to the effect
of a motion " that the rules be suspended, so that
the House shall immediately proceed to vote on
the question, as required by the Constitution,"
whether the biU should be passed over the veto.
The Speaker's answer was satisfactory, and ac
cordingly, when Mr. Blaine made the motion, the
ruUng was that the motion was not debatable
and that while it was pending no other motion
could be interposed to prevent a decision upon
it. An appeal from the Speaker's decision was
supported by four members only. Every dilatory
motion was thus ruled. out of order, the bill was
passed by the constitutional majority of two
thirds, and became a law when, a few hours later,
the Senate also passed it over the President's veto.
The fall of the gavel in the hand of the Speaker
announcing the close of the Thirty-ninth Con
gress was followed, with scarcely a pause, by the
sound of the same instrument in the hand of the

SDI YEARS IN CONGRESS 85
clerk, calUng to order the members-elect of the
House of Representatives in the Fortieth Con
gress. So profound was the distrust of the Presi
dent on the part of the RepubUcans that they did
not deem it safe to relax, save for brief intervals,
the close watch of Congress upon his proceed
ings. Intending to make the session practically
continuous from March until the usual time of
meeting in December, they passed an act fixing
the 4th of March as the day for the beginning
of the first session of each Congress. PoHtical
excitement was hardly ever, in the history of the
country, more intense than it was on the 4th
of March, 1867, the fateful day of the passage
of the Reconstruction Act over President John
son's veto. The opposition had almost disap
peared from both houses of Congress. Prior to
the admission of senators from the reconstructed
states, the "loyal" states and Tennessee were
represented by forty-two RepubUcans, nine
Democrats, and three administration Republi
cans; and the number of opposition senators
was not increased when the South was again
represented. In the House, on the election of
Speaker, Mr. Colfax received more than four
fifths of all the votes given. Moreover, the radical
element of the RepubHcan party was apparently
in control, and, as the event proved, was actually
so. Impeachment was in the air.

86 JAMES G. BLAINE
Mr. Blaine was not in favor of impeachment.
Although he ultimately yielded his judgment, as
did every other RepubUcan in the House who op
posed the step, yet his course at the time and his
comments upon the matter in his " Twenty Years
of Congress" show that he did so most reluc
tantly. Immediately after the passage of the
supplementary Reconstruction Act, .on the 23d of
March, Mr. Blaine offered a privileged resolution
providing for the adjournment of the House, with
the consent of the Senate, from March 26 until
November 11. The idea was that the Senate
should remain in continuous session, in order to
prevent the President from making wholesale
removals of officers and from filUng the places
with persons of his own appointment. Under the
Constitution neither branch of Congress can
adjourn for more than three days without the
consent of the other.
It was quickly seen that the decision of the
question on Mr. Blaine's resolution involved a
contest between the radicals and the conserva
tives, between the impeachers and those who
were opposed to the movement. General Butler
led off in opposition to the resolution, and inti
mated plainly his belief that the President should
be impeached. Mr. Blaine repUed vigorously,
denied that there was any strong movement out
side of Congress in favor of impeachment, and

SDI YEARS IN CONGRESS 87
challenged General Butler to name twenty-five
of the nearly two thousand RepubUcan papers in
the country which regarded "the impeachment
movement as one seriously to be undertaken on
the part of Congress at this time." Thaddeus
Stevens tried to break the force of Mr. Blaine's
argument by intimating, on the strength of a
statement which he said he had heard Mr. Blaine
make, to the effect that there ought to be no im
peachment which would result in making Senator
Wade, of Ohio, the acting President, that Mr.
Blaine would have taken a different position if
Senator Fessenden, of Maine, instead of Senator
Wade, had been chosen president pro tempore
of the Senate, and thus placed next in succes
sion to the presidency.
Mr. Blaine, supported by all the Democrats
and by a considerable minority of RepubUcans,
was successful in the preUminary votes upon his
resolution; but the radicals fiUbustered, suc
ceeded in postponing the final vote, and ulti
mately defeated the measure. Nevertheless Con
gress took two long recesses during the summer
and autumn, and the issue of impeachment was
not fairly encountered until the second session,
which began in December. On the fourth day of
that session the report made by Mr. Boutwell,
of Massachusetts, toward the close of the first
session, was taken up. Mr. Blaine did not partici-

88 JAMES G. BLAINE
pate in the debate, but when the vote was taken
he was one of the 108 voting no. The affirmative
consisted of 57 RepubUcans, the negative of 66
RepubUcans and 42 Democrats. But during the
ensuing session the President affronted the Re
pubUcans deeply by bis attempt to remove Secre
tary Stanton. The radicals took advantage of the
resentment which this act occasioned, and the
conservatives were swept off their feet. The
House acted in hot haste, and, by a strict party
vote, committed itself irrevocably to the trial of
the President. No RepubUcan and no Demo
crat separated himself from his party on the final
issue. Moreover, the same, or nearly the same,
strictness was observed in all the subsequent
proceedings on the part of the House — in the
choice of managers and in the adoption of the
articles of impeachment. Mr. Blaine at no time
during any of these proceedings spoke a word in
the House on the general subject of impeach
ment. He voted, as did the rest, with his party. If
he even then regarded the movement as a poUtical
mistake, as is more than probable, he did not
deem it wise to introduce an element of discord
in the party ranks, when he was powerless to per
suade his fellow RepubUcans to retreat from the
position they had taken.
But in his " Twenty Years of Congress "he has
given the deUberate judgment of his later years

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 89
in a passage of characteristic terseness, force,
and feHcity of expression. He recapitulates the
acts of a poHtical nature which justly stirred the
resentment of those who had made Johnson next
in succession to the presidency, all of which
tended to restore to those who had been in arms
against the government, and even to increase,
their poUtical control over the states which had
declared their secession from the Union; and
which would have abandoned the freedmen to
the operation of laws that would have made their
nominal freedom a mockery. Mr. Blaine says
that if the President could have been legally and
constitutionally impeached for these offences he
should not have been allowed to hold his office
for an hour beyond the time required for a fair
trial. Since this was impossible, a series of accu
sations was made against him in none of which
was there even a hint of the real ground of hos-
tiUty to him. Thus the President "was im
peached for one series of misdemeanors and
tried for another series." The chief accusation
was a violation of the Tenure of Office Act J in
the attempted removal of Secretary Stanton.
1 "A statute that never ought to have been enacted, as was
practically confessed by its framers when, within less than a
year after the impeachment trial had closed, they modified
its provisions by taking away their most offensive features." —
Twenty Years of Congress, vol. ii. p. 378.

90 JAMES G. BLAINE
Mr. Blaine indicates clearly that he regards as of
great force the point made by Judge Curtis, of
the President's counsel, that Secretary Stanton
was not protected from removal by the Tenure
of Office Act. The language of that act provided
that the cabinet officers should hold their offices
"for and during the term of the President by
whom they may have been appointed and for
one month thereafter, subject to removal by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate." In
asmuch as Mr. Stanton had been appointed by
Mr. Lincoln during his first term, Judge Curtis
held that he might, under the law, have been
removed by Mr. Lincoln after the 4th of April,
1865. He was never appointed by Mr. John
son at all. Mr. Blaine further asks, with keen
analysis of the situation, if any candid man sup
poses that President Johnson's course with re
spect to the Secretary of War, if pursued by Mr.
Lincoln, General Grant, or any other president
in harmony with his party in Congress, " would
have been followed by impeachment, or by cen
sure, or even by dissent." Furthermore he takes
pains to defend the integrity and the purity of
motive of those RepubUcan senators who sepa
rated themselves from their party associates and
declared the President not guilty.
The impeachment campaign, from the original
motion of Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, at the beginning

SDI YEARS IN CONGRESS 91
of the first session of the Fortieth Congress, to the
final adjournment of the Senate sitting as a court
of impeachment, extended over more than a
year. As has been remarked already, Mr. Blaine's
share in it was of the slightest character. But he
found ample opportunity for activity in debate
upon other questions. At the beginning of the
Congress he was made by the Speaker a member
of the Committee on Rules, of which the Speaker
himself is chairman, one of the most select and
.important committees of the House. It was a
distinct recognition of his skill as a parHamen-
tarian. He was also placed fourth upon another
important committee, Appropriations, of which
Thaddeus Stevens was chairman, — a committee
which at that time reported and had charge of
all appropriation bills.
Soon after the first recess of Congress began, in
the spring of 1867, Mr. Blaine sailed for Europe,
in company with Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont,
who had just completed a service of twelve years
in the House, and had begun his long term of
more than thirty years in the Senate. The two
men were congenial, and each of them after their
return testified warmly to the companionable
quaUties of the other. By carefully planning
their itinerary they were able to see hastily
much more than tourists can usually see; and
the letters which they took with them and their

92 JAMES G. BLAINE
own standing in the pubUc Ufe of the country, not
only secured their introduction to persons of high
position in England and on the Continent, but
procured them entree to places not open to all.
Upon their visit to the British House of Com
mons they were admitted to seats in the Peers'
gallery. They saw both Houses of ParUament
under pecuHarly favorable conditions, and were
highly honored when they visited the French
Corps Legislatif ; thus they had an admirable
opportunity to study parUamentary proceedings,
abroad, and to compare home and foreign meth
ods. Save for such favoring circumstances in a
few of the places they visited, the European trip
did not differ from that of thousands of other
Americans. The tour ended about the first of
September. The summer session of Congress
had been held in their absence, and the Senate
and House did not reassemble until November 21.
Hardly less perplexing than the problems
which are classed under the general head of
Reconstruction were those of Finance. From the
close of the Civil War until the reestabHshment
of the gold standard by the act of 1898, there was
agitation, frequently renewed, for the adoption
of measures supposedly in the interest of debtors,
and particularly in the interest of the greatest
debtor, the government of the United States.
Payment of the bonds in greenbacks, an inflation

SDI YEARS IN CONGRESS 93
of the irredeemable paper money, and free coin
age of silver, were the chief measures which
were urged by pubUc men of great prominence
and which attracted a large measure of pubUc
support. President Johnson himself made the
amazing suggestion s that in view of the large
returns the bondholders had already received
upon their capital, "it would seem but just and
equitable that the six per cent, interest now paid
by the Government should be appUed to the
reduction of the principal in semiannual install
ments, which in sixteen years and eight months
would liquidate the entire national debt." Judge
Kelley's proposition for the issue of interconverti
ble bonds, — bonds " payable " in greenbacks
and greenbacks convertible into bonds, but
neither bonds nor greenbacks redeemable in
coin; the opposition to the resumption of specie
payments; the campaign waged for the remone-
tization of the silver dollar; prolonged efforts
to sanction the free coinage of silver at the ratio
of sixteen to one ; and the resistance to the estab-
Ushment of the gold standard, — all these were
episodes in the grand struggle. In all of them
except the last, in all so long as he Hved, Mr.
Blaine bore a conspicuous part; and in all but
one of the contests in which he was engaged he
stood firmly and immovably on the side of what
1 Fourth Annual Message, December 9, 1868.

94 JAMES G. BLAINE
may be termed, for want of a better phrase, hard
money. In the autumn of 1867 George H. Pendleton,
of Ohio, and Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachu
setts, — two men who stood in positions of large
political authority in their respective parties, —
startled the country by advocating a proposition,
not then made for the first time, that the five-
twenty bonds of the United States were legaUy
redeemable in paper money, The suggestion
was a plausible one, inasmuch as the payment of
the interest upon those bonds in coin was stipu
lated in the act for their issue, whereas there was
no mention therein of the medium in which the
principal was to be paid. The fact that the sub
sequent act, under which the ten-forty bonds
were issued, specifically provided for the payment
of both principal and interest in coin, lent color
to the proposition that Congress intended, by its
silence on the point, to leave the question open as
to the discharge of the principal of the five-twen
ties. These and other arguments were skillfuUy
presented by General Butler, to the great disturb
ance of business and the distress of most of his
party friends. Mr. Pendleton's attitude upon the
question was less important than General But
ler's, simply because it was assumed that the
Democratic party would be unable to reach a posi
tion where it could carry its poUcies into execution.

SDI YEARS IN CONGRESS 95
To Mr. Blaine belongs the credit of having
made in Congress the earHest and the most thor
ough answer to General Butler's thesis. At the
autumn session in 1867 he took the floor, and in
a masterly speech covered the whole ground of
the argument in favor of an honest discharge of
the obUgations of the government. In a historical
review of the acts providing for the creation of
the funded debt during the Civil War, he showed
that the proceeds of the duties on imports, for
which gold only was receivable, were specifically
appropriated to the payment of interest on the
bonds and to the purchase or payment of the
principal, through the machinery of a sinking
fund; that in aU the debates, in both houses of
Congress, it was assumed and stated repeatedly
that the principal was payable in coin; that the
only reason for the omission of a clause in the
bill so providing, was that it had been the uniform
practice of the government from the beginning
to pay in coin; that the clause in the ten-forty
act was inserted because Mr. Thaddeus Stevens,
who asserted when the five-twenty act was pend
ing that the bonds to be issued were payable in
gold, had changed his mind and intimated that
they might be redeemed with legal tender notes ;
and that every Secretary of the Treasury had
taken the view that gold alone was available for
the payment, which view, although frequently,

96 JAMES G. BLAINE
plainly, and pubUcly expressed, had never been
repudiated by Congress.
Mr. Blaine then turned to the practical side of
the question. The five-twenty bonds could not
be paid in greenbacks without an almost Umitless
issue of paper money, constantly depreciating
as the amount increased. He ridiculed the idea
that funds to pay the bonds could be obtained
by a new issue of currency bonds. Government
" would be placed in an awkward attitude when
it should enter the money market to negotiate a
loan the avails of which were to be devoted to
breaking faith with those who already held its
most sacred obHgations." He urged that the true
remedy for the existing financial situation was
to adopt measures for a steady approach to specie
payments, and for that purpose to effect an im
mediate and a large reduction of expenditure,
by reducing the army by one half, by a corre
sponding curtailment of the navy, and by stop
ping "innumerable leaks and gaps and loose
ends." With a readjusted revenue system, a con
siderable sum could be made available for the
reduction of the debt. He pleaded for a poUcy
devoid of " repudiation in any form, either open
or covert, avowed or indirect, but with every
obHgation of the government fulfilled and dis
charged in its exact letter and in its generous
spirit. ... I am sure," he said in conclusion,

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 97
"that in the peace which our arms have con
quered we shall not dishonor ourselves by with
holding from any pubUc creditor a dollar that we
promised to pay him, nor seek by cunning con
struction and clever afterthought to evade or
escape the full responsibiUty of our national in
debtedness. It will doubtless cost us a vast sum
to pay that indebtedness, but it would cost us
incalculably more not to pay it."
Later in the session, on the 7th of March, 1868,
Mr. Blaine delivered a second speech upon the
same subject, in which he elaborated some of his
earUer points, answered arguments brought for
ward by advocates of payment in greenbacks,
and again urged the adoption of measures to
make the greenbacks equal in value to gold,
when the motive to pay in paper and the objec
tion to doing so would equally disappear. These
were not his only contributions during that ses
sion to "the cause of honorable and sane finance,
for on June 23 he made a third speech in which
he examined with merciless analysis the kindred
proposition to tax the bonds of the United States,
showed the dishonorable character of the sug
gestion, and pointed out the disastrous results
that would be certain to follow its adoption. He
urged an adherence "to the steady, straightfor
ward course dictated aUke by good poHcy and
good faith." From both these schemes, which

98 JAMES G. BLAINE
would have been ruinous to the credit of the
government, the country was saved by the reso
lute action of the RepubUcans, and by the first
act signed by President Grant, " to protect the
credit of the United States."
As a member of the Committee on Appropria
tions Mr. Blaine took charge of some of the most
important appropriation bills, notably those for
the army and navy. He was an ardent advocate
of retrenchment, as he said in a passage which
has already been quoted ; and in these bills he had
an opportunity to defend the poUcy of economy
against attack from two distinct quarters. The
former volunteer officers of the Union army, of
whom there were several in the House of Repre
sentatives, were, if not hostile, at least not over
friendly to the regular army and to West Point.
They were led by General Logan. The Demo
crats felt bound, naturally, to fulfil the function
of an opposition, to oppose, and they joined with
General Logan to defeat Mr. Blaine and the
Committee on Appropriations. The combination
was so far successful that Mr. Blaine was forced
to yield to a compromise favorable to the promo
tion of men from the ranks, and less favorable
to the graduates of the MiUtary Academy. But
the poHcy of economy was triumphant.
The most important pubUc utterance of Mr.
Blaine during the third and last session of the

SLX YEARS IN CONGRESS 99
Fortieth Congress — for during that session he
rarely was heard save upon questions arising
when appropriation biUs which he was manag
ing were under discussion — was a speech on
national affairs, deHvered on December 10, 1868,
on the fourth day of the session, a month after
the election of General Grant. It was a broad
and comprehensive review of the consequences
to be anticipated from the RepubUcan victory.
His conclusions as to some points have been so
amply vindicated that readers of the speech, who
did not pass through the poUtical perils of the
time, might almost reasonably regard them as
commonplaces. In other respects he was alto
gether too optimistic. A battle had been won, and
final victory was presaged; but the war was not
over; as to some of the issues it is not over yet.
For example : " The election of 1868 is the last in
which the lately rebelUous section, even if it could
be wholly controUed by rebels, wiU have sufficient
power in the electoral vote of the country to make
it the object either of hope or of fear on the part
of poHtical organizations striving for the govern
ment of the nation." He could not have foreseen
that only eight years thereafter, in the election
of General Grant's immediate successor, the vote
of the soHd South was to be the object of both
hope and fear; that the party to which he be
longed was to be saved from defeat by an extra-

100 JAMES G. BLAINE
constitutional measure to which he, as a senator,
would not agree; and that the united electoral
vote of the South was to be, to the end of the cen
tury and beyond it, the hope and reHance of one
of the great political organizations. We wiU not
quote Mr. Blaine's exact language, for " rebel "
and " loyal" and other words in use at that time
have been dropped from the vocabulary of poU-
tics ; but his hopeful prophecy that the ten States
of the Confederacy, "viewed as one compact
power," would no longer be strong enough to
tempt any party to an alUance with them, has,
in its essence, been conspicuously falsified.
So, too, his judgment that "it is too late to
discuss negro suffrage; for having been granted
it is impossible to recaU it ; " and his confidence
that "the election of General Grant has settled
the financial question." The first of these ques
tions is still an open one. As for the other it
was not settled until more " than thirty years
had elapsed, if it is settled now. Who can tell ?
But it was true, and has become increasingly
evident as the years have passed, that beginning
with that era there has come " a higher standard
of American citizenship — with more dignity
and character to the name abroad and more
assured liberty and security attaching to it at
home;" that our diplomacy has been "rescued
from the subservient tone by which we have so

SLX YEARS IN CONGRESS 101
often been humiUated in our own eyes, and in the
eyes of Europe." In the concluding sentence of
this fine speech, fine in spite of its too confident
optimism, occurs a passage which shows that
he looked forward without misgiving to one class
of events that were then anticipated as probabili
ties by no one, but that have since come to pass.
" Whatever, therefore," he said, " may Ue before
us in the untrodden and often beclouded path
of the future, — whether it be financial embar
rassment, or domestic trouble of another and
more serious type, or misunderstandings with
foreign nations, or the extension of our flag and
our sovereignty over insular or continental pos
sessions, North or South, that fate or fortune
may peacefully offer to our ambition, — let us
beheve with aU confidence that General Grant's
administration wiU meet every exigency with the
courage, the abiHty, and the conscience which
American nationaUty and Christian civiUzation
demand." In all probabiUty Mr. Blaine had in
mind both Hawaii and Cuba when he spoke of
insular possessions. But whether his intention
was specific or merely general, the utterance was
a remarkable one for that time. It was only a
short time before the question was to be pre
sented to the American people in a form that
concerned neither the island kingdom in the Pa
cific, nor the Pearl of the Antilles at the mouth

102 JAMES G. BLAINE
of the Gulf of Mexico — when President Grant
developed his Santo Domingo poUcy.
The Fortieth Congress was the last in which
Mr. Blaine sat as a member of the majority
party, on the floor. When next he was to take an
active part in debate, it was to be as the bold and
dashing leader of the opposition. It may be weU
therefore to consider briefly the quaUty of his
service as a private member. The illustrations
already given will have exhibited his poUtical
sagacity, and to a certain extent the independ
ence of his action. Numerous examples could
be given of his fairness as a poUtical opponent.
When the Democrats wished to enter upon the
journal of the House their protest against the
articles of the impeachment of the President,
couched in excessively offensive language, Mr.
Blaine alone of the RepubUcans voted to yield to
their demand. On one occasion his tongue be
trayed him into the use of the term "copper
head," then a vituperative epithet appHed to
Northern sympathizers with the South. When
the word was objected to as unparHamentary,
Mr. Blaine quickly withdrew it. The Speaker
having ruled that the word was permissible, not
having been appHed to a member of the House,
Mr. Blaine insisted on recalHng it. "I did not
withdraw the word as a question of order," he
said. " I could have told the gentleman that he

SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 103
had made no point of order. As a question of taste
I confess that I have transgressed. It was in bad
taste, as it always is, to use offensive poHtical
epithets in debate." He opposed the consider
ation of the bill making land grants to Southern
railroads until the senators and representatives
from those states should have taken their seats.
He refused to vote to seat the RepubUcan con
testant of a seat in the House whose case rested
upon the fact that the person elected had been
" disloyal." He declared that he was " not going
to turn around and, with this House, elect a man
to represent that district. ... If there were any
thing decided by the election in that district of
Kentucky it is that they did not want Mr. Smith
to represent them." Again, when a pending bill
proposed to exclude the Southern States from the
privilege of sending cadets to West Point, he op
posed the measure warmly. He said that he did
not beUeve in punishing children in the rebel
states. It is much easier to cite such examples of his
fairness than it is to illustrate his readiness and
resourcefulness in debate. In hundreds of cases
in the course of his parUamentary Ufe, when he
was pitted against poHtical opponents, or against
his seniors in his own party, he rarely came off
second best. His manner, whether in exposition
of a measure which he had in charge, or in de-

104 JAMES G. BLAINE
fending its provisions against attack, or in an
swering the questions of friendly inquirers, was
clear, terse, and impressive. In those times mem
bers were not required to pass a long novitiate
before they were suffered to become leaders. In
six years Mr. Blaine had acquired a position of
prominence enjoyed by few of his fellow mem
bers, even of those much older in the service.
To be sure, real leaders of men are not restricted
by the rules which keep back those who come to
the front by a system of regular promotion, and
undoubtedly Mr. Blaine would have been a leader
in any period of our poUtical history.

SPEAKER
Mr. Speaker Colfax was elected Vice-President
on the ticket with General Grant, in 1868. His
prospective retirement from the chair of the
House of Representatives gave opportunity to
Mr. Blaine to aspire to a position for which both
his natural faculties and his parUamentary train
ing fitted him. He became openly a candidate
for the speakership. His only rival was Mr.
Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts, a man of
very different talents and disposition, who had
won a most honorable reputation during his ser
vice of twelve years in the House. Mr. Blaine,
however, was much the more energetic and ex
perienced canvasser of the two, and his success
was so definitely assured before the close of the
Fortieth Congress that Mr. Dawes withdrew,
and himself made the motion in the RepubUcan
caucus that Mr. Blaine be nominated by accla
mation. On the first day of the meeting of the
Forty-first Congress, March 4, 1869, Mr. Blaine
was chosen Speaker, by a strict party vote. He
was also unanimously nominated to preside over
the House in the Forty-second and Forty-third

106 JAMES G. BLAINE
Congresses, and at each election received the
votes of all his party associates. Thus he com
pleted a term of service — as he remarked in
his valedictory address in 1875 — surpassed
in length by but two of his predecessors, Henry
Clay and Andrew Stevenson, and equalled by
only two others, Nathaniel Macon and Schuyler
Colfax. Had Mr. Blaine been asked at the close of his
poUtical career to designate the period of his Ufe
which he recalled as the happiest, he would un
doubtedly have declared that the six years of his
speakership constituted that period. Perhaps no
man ever experiences a prolonged season of unin
terrupted and unclouded happiness. But cer
tainly at no other time in Mr. Blaine's Hfe were
his tastes and wishes and aspirations so nearly
satisfied as they were then. He had reached the
height of his early ambition, and occupied a sta
tion absolutely congenial to him. If he had a
hope, however vague, of attaining a higher place,
it caused him not the least anxious thought at
that time, and affected his Hfe, whether pubUc or
private, in no degree. He could not help being
conscious that he discharged the duties of his
office with distinction, to the universal accepta
tion of poHtical friends and foes, and with an easy
mastery of the difficulties of the position. His
faculty of making friends and of enUsting their

SPEAKER 107
services in his behalf had turned the scale in his
favor when the speakership was sought by two
men of conspicuous ability; the place itself en
larged his opportunity to extend his acquaintance
and to increase his influence over men and upon
pubUc affairs. Leadership was a passion with
him; the consciousness of power gave him the
keenest pleasure; and he was wise enough to
retain his power by not abusing it.
Not only as a pubUc man did he have ample
reason to be contented with his situation. His
home was always a deUght to him, and at no
time were his home and his family life more de-
Ughtful to him than then. At Augusta he had
transferred his residence from the contracted
quarters in which he Uved at first to a large old-
fashioned mansion, with ample grounds, under
the shadow of the State House. Upon his election
as Speaker he bought a house in Washington.
He was thus enabled to have his family always
with him, and no pubUc cares were permitted to
interrupt his close and affectionate companion
ship with his wife and his large and interesting
family of growing sons and daughters. Nor did
he allow those cares to interfere with his abun
dant hospitaUty. He knew how to choose guests
and to constitute parties made up of persons
mutually congenial. He knew how to draw the
Hne between such elaborate entertainment as

108 JAMES G. BLAINE
puts constraint upon both host and guest, and the
careless take-us-as-you-find-us indifference which
sends the diner away with a feeUng that he has
been only half -fed but wholly bored. His aptness
at finding precisely the subject that most inter
ested his guests, a wonderfully varied stock of
information that could be brought effectively into
use in the discussions and conversations, com
plete command of a fund of apt anecdote, and
unusual skill as a raconteur, — all these faculties
combined made him a charming host. His house
was a resort of the brilHant men and women of
whom so many are attracted to Washington dur
ing the sessions of Congress. He enjoyed his
social success, but he enjoyed stiU more entertain
ment for its own sake, and the society of those
whom he could assemble under his roof. He
became one of the most popular pubUc men in
Washington, and manifestations of the esteem,
the admiration, and the affection he inspired, of
which he was conscious, yet at which he often
modestly expressed his wonder, rounded out the
happiness and contentment that marked this
period of his Ufe above all others. For at that
time jealousy and poUtical maUgnity had had no
reason to scrutinize the minutest acts of his Ufe
in an effort to find something to his discredit. It
is true that even then he was more than once
forced to defend himself against assaults upon his

SPEAKER 109
honor, but in each of the contests he succeeded
in repelUng the assault absolutely. The one
most serious accusation against him — the one
Ughtning bolt of the storm that beat upon him in
his later years — had its origin during his term
as Speaker, but neither that nor the more easily
turned charges disturbed his serenity or detracted
from his happiness at that time.
Mr. Blaine was master of his position from the
day when he first took the gavel in his hand. He
had the look and the bearing of a leader and
commander. His strong and handsome features,
his well-shaped person, his easy and graceful atti
tude, his penetrating voice, his thorough acquain
tance with the rules of the sometimes turbulent
body over which he presided, the quickness and
keenness of his mind in perceiving the relation of
a point of order to the particular rule that was
invoked, and finally a personal magnetism that
won for him the unavowed affection even of po
Htical opponents against whom he decided such
points,1 — all these characteristics made him a
1 His private secretary, Mr. Sherman, informs the author
that on one occasion, after a heated session at which Mr.
Blaine had ruled steadily against Democratic filibustering,
and had helped his own party to carry its point, he (Mr. Sher
man) on leaving the Capitol in the dusk of early evening, passed
two Southern Democratic members whom he recognized by
their forms. As he passed he heard one of them remark to the
other, "Now there 's Blaine — but damn him, I do love him."

110 JAMES G. BLAINE
model Speaker, one of three or four great occu
pants of the chair, hardly second to any one. No
doubt the popularity of Mr. Clay was equal to
that of Mr. Blaine. It is not easy to beHeve that it
was superior. When we consider that the task
set before a Speaker presents ever increasing
difficulties as the number of members increases
and as the volume of business is enlarged, it is
evident that popularity was more easily won in
Henry Clay's time than in Blaine's. At aU events
nothing could exceed the cordiaHty of Mr.
Blaine's associates of both parties, when he laid
down the gavel at the close of his service in
1875.1 Yet Blaine was a strong partisan, and used the
power of his position more than did any of his
predecessors, not merely to assist his own party
to carry its measures and to defeat the obstruct
ive tactics of the opposition, but also to promote
or to hinder measures according as they did or
1 In the House there was a most gratifying demonstration
in favor of Speaker Blaine. As he spoke the last words of his
valedictory and stepped down from the desk, the House rose
in unison and every man joined with equal heartiness in a
round of applause such as never was heard before in the Capi
tol. It had hardly died away when it swelled again into a per
fect storm, accompanied by cheers, and soon for a third time
the applause swept through the hall as the Speaker stood at
the clerk's desk, bowing his thanks and shaking the hands
of members who thronged about him. — Boston Daily
Advertiser, March 5, 1875.

SPEAKER 111
did not commend themselves to his individual
judgment. In other words he constituted him
self a poUtical leader. True, Clay himself was a
leader, while Speaker of the House, more than
half a century before, but not as Speaker. When
he had a point to make he addressed the House
from the floor, in Committee of the Whole, sim
ply as a member from Kentucky. Students of
comparative government are aware, however,
that the theory of the speakership differs in this
country from that in nearly, if not quite, every
other country. In almost all parHaments the pre
siding officer, although chosen by and himself a
member of the ruling party, is expected to abjure
partisanship altogether on assuming the chair.
But in those parHaments the government is repre
sented by the highest officers of state, who are the
recognized leaders of the majority. In American
representative assembUes there is no recognized
leader, nor even a chosen body or committee
which directs the course of pubUc business and
places an authoritative seal of approval or of dis
approval upon measures brought before it. In
such circumstances it is natural that the person
elected by the majority to preside and to interpret
the rules should assume, with the tacit consent
of his fellows, as much authority over the pro
ceedings as the inborn American jealousy of
leadership will allow. The strong man goes a

112 JAMES G. BLAINE
Uttle beyond his weaker predecessor; his own
weak successor claims aU that has been gained
for the position ; and so there is a steady develop
ment, and an evolution of power. Mr. CarHsle,
the next strong Speaker after Mr. Blaine, added
largely to the authority of the Chair. Mr. Reed,
who was in some respects the most powerful per-
sonaHty ever placed in the position, carried his
authority to an extreme; yet neither have his
successors surrendered any of it, nor has the
House expected, or intimated a desire for, such a
surrender. One of the most conspicuous instances of Mr.
Blaine's use of his position to restrain his party
associates occurred near the close of his first term
as Speaker. He was one of the most conservative
members of his party and strongly disapproved
the radical poHcy toward the Southern States
which was pressed upon the House by a group
of RepubUcans of whom General Butler was the
leader. On February 16, 1871, a bill was re
ported from the Reconstruction Committee in
pursuance of that poHcy. Appropriation bills
were occupying the attention of the House, since
barely a fortnight of the short session remained.
On February 28 General Butler obtained the
floor and called up the bill. Not being a skilful
parHamentarian, he neglected to move a suspen
sion of the rules, but called for the reading of the

SPEAKER 113
bill. While the clerk was reading it, Mr. Fer
nando Wood, of New York, moved a suspension
of the rules to take up and pass a resolution abro
gating the duty on coal. The Speaker allowed
Mr. Wood to take the floor and entertained the
motion, — which was adopted, — on the ground
that General Butler surrendered the floor for the
reading of the biU, that no member had the floor
during the reading, and that Mr. Wood's motion
was in order.
Apparently it was a new and undecided point
of parUamentary law, and it is easy to see that a
fairly strong argument might be made on either
side. Moreover it is almost safe to say that Mr.
Blaine's decision would have been against Mr.
Wood if he had been strongly in favor of General
Butler's bill and opposed to Mr. Wood's resolu
tion. No appeal from the decision was taken,
and no discussion of the point of order took place.
After the coal duty question was decided, General
Butler moved to suspend the rules and proceed
to the consideration of the bill; but it was too
late. The necessary two-thirds vote was not
forthcoming, and the bill failed. Beyond a doubt
it would have been passed if General Butler had
not lost the floor through the ruUng of the
Speaker, who thus took the responsibiHty of
thwarting the will of the House. Beyond a doubt
also the RepubUcans themselves were glad after-

114 JAMES G. BLAINE
ward that the Speaker had saved them from
making a grave poUtical mistake.
His defeat rankled in General Butler's breast.
The Forty-first Congress reached its constitu
tional term four days after the events just nar
rated; a new Congress assembled on the 4th of
March; Mr. Blaine was again elected Speaker;
and General Butler again offered his biU. Butler
also secured the calUng of a caucus of RepubH
can members to consider the bill. The caucus
was not generally attended, but those who were
present voted that the bill should be passed at
that session. Many members who were opposed
to it withdrew before the vote was taken, seeing
that they would be outvoted, and the decision of
those who remained was unanimous. In order to
head off the movement, Mr. Blaine drew a reso
lution providing for the appointment of a select
committee to sit during the recess to investigate
the condition of the Southern States. He took
the resolution to General Butler, who suggested
an amendment, but who promptly and hotly de-
cHned the chairmanship of the committee, for
he saw that the purpose was to defeat his own
scheme. The resolution was presented by Mr. Blaine's
colleague, Judge Peters, of Maine, and was
adopted. Just before the close of the day's ses
sion, the Speaker appointed the committee for

SPEAKER 115
which the resolution provided, with General
Butler as chairman, and declared the House ad
journed before any one had an opportunity to
decUne service. General Butler took the appoint
ment, after he had refused to have anything to
do with the committee,1 as an affront, and pre
pared a long letter to his RepubHcan associates,
giving bis reasons for his refusal, had the docu
ment printed and distributed through the House,
and caused it to be telegraphed over the country.
The General was skilled in the art of conveying
insinuations without making direct charges, and
in making most violent personal attacks in lan
guage which the person assailed could not resent
without finding himself caught in a cunningly
laid verbal trap.
Soon after the House met on the day after the
resolution was passed, an occasion presented itself
to General Butler to say on the floor, in more
detail and with greater offensiveness, what he
had said in his letter. His speech abounded in
accusations of treachery and bad faith on the
part of the RepubUcans who had voted for the
resolution, and he was especially maUgnant
toward the Speaker, whom he accused again and
again of having played a trick on the House. Mr.
Blaine called Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, to the
1 He told the House that his reply to the Speaker's request
that he serve as chairman was, "I'll be damned if I will."

116 JAMES G. BLAINE
chair, took the floor, and paid his respects to
General Butler in terms which had not been ap
proached for plainness of speech since his own
famous retort upon Mr. ConkUng. It was not
dignified. Neither Mr. Blaine in his sharp de
fence of himself, nor General Butler in his rejoin
der, was careful to choose words approved by
parUamentary law and custom. Moreover it must
be admitted that greater circumspection of speech
is expected and is due from the Speaker than
from any private member, — vastly more than
was expected from General Butler, who carried
to Congress the manners and the vocabulary of
a poHce-court lawyer. The provocation to Mr.
Blaine was great, for he was attacked for doing
what, as a member of the House, he had a right
to do; he was accused of springing a surprise
when he had fully discussed the matter with the
very person who brought the accusation; he was
charged with party treachery in that he went
against the decision of a caucus which he did not
attend, although the fact that the party was, on
the whole, on his side appeared in the vote on the
resolution, which was supported by a majority
of RepubUcans. Nevertheless, richly deserved as
was his chastisement of Butler's arrogance, one
cannot help regretting the whole incident. It is
a striking commentary upon the General's lack of
serious conviction, notwithstanding the violence

SPEAKER 117
of his language, that on the very next day he went
in a most amiable mood to the Speaker's desk
and invited Mr. Blaine and members of his family
to accompany him on an excursion to Fortress
Monroe and Norfolk.
Upon another occasion, when also he had
General Butler for an antagonist, Mr. Blaine
exhibited the best quaUties of his remarkable
best. The Forty-third Congress was just expiring,
the Democrats had already elected a large ma
jority of the members of the next House of Re
presentatives, and the unHmited power over
legislation which the RepubUcans had exercised
since 1861 was about to pass from them for a
period of six years. It was the last month of Mr.
Blaine's service as Speaker. The radicals among
the RepubUcans were extremely anxious to place
on the statute book a law regulating elections in
the South, in order to prevent the whites from
terrorizing the negroes and so capturing the state
governments. However strongly Mr. Blaine may
have sympathized with the purposes of the radi
cals, and certainly his sympathies were then and
always on the side of the fullest poHtical rights for
the freedmen, he was not in favor of the drastic
measure proposed for accompUshing the object.
The " force biU " was reported by Mr. Coburn, of
Indiana, February 18, 1875. On the 24th, at the
beginning of the session of the House, there was

118 JAMES G. BLAINE
a contest between Mr. Coburn and General Gar
field. Mr. Coburn wished the House to take up
his bill; General Garfield, who was opposed to
the force bill, asked for the consideration of the
sundry civil appropriation bill. The House sus
tained Garfield by a vote of 147 to 101, the Dem
ocrats and conservative RepubUcans voting in
the affirmative, the radical RepubUcans in the
negative. After several hours' consideration of the
appropriation bill, the House took a recess until
evening, General Garfield, who made the motion,
remarking, in explanation, "to enable me to go on
with the sundry civil bill." Mr. Coburn moved
to amend the motion so that the evening session
should be devoted to the consideration of his biU,
which bore the title, " a bill to provide against
the invasion of States, to prevent the subversion
of their authority, and to maintain the security of
elections." The Speaker said that " that could not
be done except by general consent." Mr. Ran
dall objected on the ground that "we want to
finish these appropriation bills."
The general understanding, then, was that the
House would go into committee of the whole and
continue its work upon the appropriation bill.
Mr. Blaine designated a member to serve as
Speaker pro tempore until the House went into
committee, and attended a dinner party, intend
ing to absent himself during the evening. Gen-

SPEAKER 119
eral Butler quietly passed around word among
his followers that by attending the evening session
in force they could reverse the morning decision
and secure consideration of the force bill. Ac
cordingly, when General Garfield moved that the
House go into committee of the whole, General
Butler opposed the motion, and upon a call of the
yeas and nays General Garfield was defeated.
Thereupon the Democrats began filibustering,
by the usual devices of motions to adjourn, and
of breaking the quorum by withholding their
votes. Mr. Blaine was hastily sent for. He appeared
suddenly in his place, during a roll-call, and as
sumed the gavel. He was in full evening dress,
having gone directly from the dinner-table to the
Capitol. That was a memorable session of the
House. It began at half-past seven in the evening,
and ended at four o'clock the next afternoon.
During all that time Mr. Blaine remained at his
post without rest. Refreshments were brought to
him at the desk, and he did not leave the House
for a moment save during the calUng of the roll,
which could not be interrupted by any member.
At the close of the long contest he was " weary but
alert," as one of the newspaper correspondents
remarked. Seldom has a presiding officer been
called upon to perform a more perplexing and
thankless task. A large majority of the Repub-

120 JAMES G. BLAINE
lican members desired to bring the bill before the
House. Some of them went to him and urged
him to make ruHngs favorable to them. He re
fused emphatically to stretch the rules for their
benefit. On the other hand, he decided many
questions adversely to the Democrats. In short
he presided with absolute impartiaUty. As soon
as dilatory motions had been exhausted and the
RepubUcans mustered a quorum of their own
members, the contest was at an end, and Mr.
Blaine firmly put down the filibustering which
the Democrats endeavored to continue. His emi
nent fairness throughout the long session was
generally recognized, and no doubt the members
on both sides of the House remembered it when,
a week later, they joined in the remarkable de
monstration in his honor at the close of his
service as Speaker.1
1 Never during his whole service as Speaker of the House
has Mr. Blaine displayed to better advantage his exceptional
ability as a parliamentarian and presiding officer, or his
power to dispose instantly of the most perplexing questions.
His rulings invariably were approved by both sides of the
House, and if the Democrats appealed from them, it was gen
erally for the purpose of delay, and not because of any doubt
as to the correctness of his decisions. — New York Tribune,
February 26, 1875.
Notwithstanding the persuasion, blustering, and covert
threats, Speaker Blaine discharged his duty with a consist
ency and impartiality for which the Republicans in the House
may find reason to congratulate themselves. — Boston Daily
Advertiser, same date.

SPEAKER 121
In the important matter of committee appoint
ments Mr. Blaine displayed excellent judgment
and exercised great fairness. Many years after he
had ceased to be Speaker the charge was brought
against him, vaguely, that he had made corrupt
appointments, by choosing members who would
promote his own selfish interests. The two facts
that no specific cases were ever mentioned, and
that the charge was not brought against him
during his incumbency of the office, by the most
virulent poHtical opponent, constitute a sufficient
reason for rejecting the accusation as unworthy
of beUef . At the same time its vagueness renders
a formal refutation of it impossible. But it may
be added that no measure was before Congress
during Mr. Blaine's Speakership, the passage or
defeat of which would affect his personal inter
est. Again, the accusation is an attack upon the
personal honor of every member of Congress who
may have been supposed to accept a committee
appointment under an obHgation to favor the
Speaker's private interests.
In one important case Mr. Blaine's appoint
ment of a committee was greatly criticised. There
was a strong tariff-reform movement within the
RepubUcan party in 1871. The sentiment was
especially rife in the West. In appointing the
• Committee of Ways and Means of the Forty-
second Congress Mr. Blaine designated one tariff-

122 JAMES G. BLAINE
reform RepubUcan, who, with the Democrats,
constituted a majority of the committee. Al
though Mr. Dawes, a stout protectionist, was
made chairman, he was virtually without author
ity, and was outvoted. This action by a Speaker
who was a Ufe-long protectionist many Repub
licans deemed strange and somewhat disloyal.
And perhaps their indignation was justified.
Whatever may be said on that point, in the end
it led to a moderate and judicious reduction
of the tariff, and to the defeat of extremists on
both sides of the question.
It has already been remarked that Mr. Blaine's
pubUc Hfe was marked by many dramatic and
spectacular events and scenes. The ConkUng
incident, and the encounter with General Butler
which has just been described, were two such
occurrences. Another such occurrence belongs
to the speakership period. Several assaults were
made upon him during his pubUc Hfe on the
ground that he had been pecuniarily concerned
in the stock and bonds of railroads which had
been favored by Congress, and had received such
bonds either as a gratuity or at a price below the
market, in consideration of his services as a mem
ber of Congress. The first of these accusations
represented him as having received large amounts
of the stock of the Union Pacific Railroad Com
pany. It was made in 1872, in the New York

SPEAKER 123
"Tribune," then still under the editorship of
Horace Greeley, who was the Democratic candi
date for President in that year. Mr. Blaine not
only denied the charge in the most emphatic and
sweeping terms, in a pubUc speech at Cleveland,
but asserted that he had never been interested
directly or indirectly, to the amount of a single
dollar, in the stock of the company; and he fur
ther called attention to the fact 'that the favors
— loan of credit and land grant — of Congress
to the company had been bestowed before he
was even a candidate for Congress. The assault
upon Mr. Blaine failed absolutely; and not long
after his speech the " Tribune " frankly and fully
withdrew its accusation.
At about the same time the famous Credit
MobiUer charges were made against him and
many other members of both Houses of Congress.
The Credit MobiUer was a company organized
to construct the Union Pacific Railroad. The
railroad company itself could not, or at least did
not, raise the funds necessary to build the Une.
The construction was a vast undertaking and
required financial courage and responsibiHty
many times as great as would be called for at the
present day. Oakes Ames, a member of the
House of Representatives from Massachusetts,
was at the head of the railroad company, and also
of the Credit MobiUer. The construction com-

124 JAMES G. BLAINE
pany carried out its contract and made a large
profit upon it, — a detail which loomed much
larger before the eyes of the generation which
witnessed the occurrences than its logical impor
tance -justified. For if Mr. Ames had lost money
instead of adding as he did to a previously large
fortune, he would have had the sympathy of the
people as one who had courageously engaged in
a great and patriotic enterprise, when others
turned from it, and who had been ruined when
he should have reaped a rich reward.
The basis of the accusation against members
of Congress was a note-book of Mr. Ames, in
which were entered the initials of such members,
and opposite each the amount of dividend on
Credit MobiUer stock which he was supposed to
have received. Mr. Blaine's initials were in the
list. The theory of the accusers, which was to a
certain extent correct, was that Mr. Ames repre
sented to members that the enterprise would be
profitable, that he offered to each a certain amount
of stock, that the shares were never paid for, but
that Mr. Ames, having nominally sold the shares
to them, paid the dividend upon the fictitious
investment. Some of those who were accused
acknowledged boldly that the above account of
what took place was true as to themselves, and
declared that the transaction was honorable,
certainly not dishonorable. Others, who had

SPEAKER 125
really received Mr. Ames's money, denied that
they had been concerned in the business. It is
a singular circumstance that the poHtical career
of every man who denied falsely his participation
in the proceeds of Credit MobiUer stock, was
brought to an abrupt close; but that all who
openly avowed that the accusation was true, and
maintained that no wrong had been done,
remained in pubUc Hfe and were in no wise
injured by the affair.
On the first day of the third session of the
Forty-second Congress Mr. Blaine called to the
chair Mr. S. S. Cox, of New York, one of the
most prominent Democrats in the House, and,
after reciting the accusation of bribery and the
Ust of the accused, offered a resolution for the
appointment of a select committee to investigate
the whole' matter. The result of the inquiry,
which was prosecuted mercilessly, so far as Mr.
Blaine was concerned, was a complete exonera
tion of the Speaker from any interest or participa
tion in the affair. As has been intimated, many
honorable reputations were wrecked when the
evidence taken was made pubUc. Yet Oakes
Ames was incapable of bribing or attempting to
bribe a fellow member, and he was far too shrewd
a man to purchase support of an enterprise which
was unanimously approved by the whole country,
and which had no favors to ask of Congress. But

126 JAMES G. BLAINE
pubUc sentiment, illogically ignoring these facts,
demanded scapegoats, and the House of Repre
sentatives furnished them from its own member
ship. Mr. Ames went speedily to his grave in
unmerited disgrace, and the juster and truer view
of his conduct came too late.1
One incident of Mr. Blaine's career as Speaker,
in which his character as a man as weU as his
conduct as a presiding officer appears in a strik
ing manner, should not be omitted. In the Forty-
second Congress a persistent movement was made
for a general increase of salaries. The proposition
encountered determined opposition, and the bill
to carry it into effect narrowly escaped defeat on
several occasions. The strength of the measure
lay largely in the evident propriety of increasing
the salary of the President, which had not been
changed in amount since it was originaUy estab
lished in the time of Washington. The salaries
of the justices of the Supreme Court were also
extremely low. Those who managed the affair
were resolved that the manifest justice of in
creasing these salaries should cover also an
increase of the compensation of senators and
1 In 1880 an attempt was made to revive the odium of the
Credit Mobilier revelations for the purpose of defeating
General Garfield for the presidency. The number "329"
was posted on walls and chalked upon pavements all over the
country, to imply that General Garfield had sold his honor to
Mr. Ames for the paltry sum of !

SPEAKER 127
representatives. If they had been content with
making the increase of the pay of members be
gin at the same time that the President's enlarged
salary was to go into effect, there would undoubt
edly have been less popular indignation than
was actually aroused. They were not so con
tent, but provided in the bill that the congres
sional salary should be retroactive, and that
senators and members of the existing Congress
should be paid at the rate of seven thousand five
hundred dollars from the 4th of March, 1871.
This was an increase of fifty per cent., and was
virtually a vote of a gratuity of five thousand dol
lars to each member, who had already served
within a month of the two years' term.
When the bill was pending in the House, Mr.
Blaine, who was strongly opposed to the " salary
grab," as it was universally called, asked unani
mous consent to put the word " hereafter " after
the words " shall receive " in fixing the salary of the
Speaker at ten thousand dollars. Without that
change the Speaker would, for two years, have
received higher compensation than the Vice-
President or the members of the Cabinet. " The
Chair hears no objection," said the Speaker. It
was a case of wilful deafness, for two members
sprang to their feet to object. Mr. Blaine calmly
wrote the word "hereafter" in the bill, and the
amendment was made without a vote of the

128 JAMES G. BLAINE
House. In the Senate the phraseology was
changed, but it still had the effect of excepting
the Speaker from the retroactive feature of the
increase. When, therefore, the popular outcry
against the " grab " resounded through the coun
try, and members who had taken the extra pay
were hastily returning it, to be covered into the
Treasury, Mr. Blaine had no apologies to make
and no excess of compensation to be returned.
The country fell upon bad times during the recess
of Congress, for the terrible financial disaster of
1873 occurred in September, wrecked fortunes,
and prostrated business. The new Congress
made haste to repeal the whole of the salary act of
March 4, 1873, except so much as related to the
President and the justices of the Supreme Court,
who are protected by express provisions of the
Constitution from a diminution of their salaries
during their continuance in office.
Astute politician as Mr. Blaine was, he did not
foresee the RepubHcan reverse of 1874. For once
the indication of the election in Maine, in Sep
tember, was misleading. That state returned all
the members of Congress by the usual majorities,
and in the vote for governor and legislature seemed
to forecast a general RepubUcan victory in No
vember. But a complete poHtical revolution was
impending, and the new House of Represent
atives was controlled by the Democrats by a ma-

SPEAKER . 129
jority of almost two thirds. There were few
RepubUcan survivors of the " carpet-baggers,"
" scallawags," and colored men who had repre
sented Southern States, and the Democrats
made serious inroads upon the delegations of the
strongest RepubUcan states of the North. For
the first time since he entered pubUc Ufe Mr.
Blaine found himself in opposition.

VI

MINORITY LEADER — THE MULLIGAN
LETTERS
Whatever may have been the causes of the
overwhelming reverse which the RepubUcans
suffered in 1874, not one of them can justly be
charged in any degree upon Mr. Blaine. The
rigorous poUcy of Congress toward the South
brought about a revulsion of feeUng in the
Northern States which contributed much to the
result, but Mr. Blaine was universally recognized
as one of the leaders of the faction which opposed
that policy. Although a most earnest sup
porter of the system of protection, he had gone
even to the point of exposing himself to the
charge of treachery to the cause, in an effort to
satisfy the tariff-reformers without yielding the
principle. If his judgment had prevailed, the free
trade sentiment would have had far less influence
than it actually exercised in assisting the poUtical
revolution. Popular indignation was aroused by
the large expenditures sanctioned by Congress,
which were regarded as reckless and extravagant,
and were suspected to be tainted with corruption.
As a private member and as Speaker, Mr. Blaine

' MINORITY LEADER 131
always stood on the side of economy, and in the
closing hours of each session, when schemers
found members for the most part careless and
indulgent, he was the "watch-dog" who pre
vented plunder of the Treasury, not by an audible
objection which is to-be found in the pubUshed
proceedings, but by the more effectual method of
refusing recognition to members who wished to
secure consideration of measures that would not
survive the ordeal of debate.
There were several other causes of the poHtical
disaster, chargeable neither upon Mr. Blaine nor
upon Congress as a whole. The scandal of the
whiskey frauds involved persons so near to the
President that a part of the odium fell unjustly
upon him and threw discredit upon the adminis
tration. Worst of all, the terrible financial panic
of 1873 left the country in precisely that condi
tion of business depression and despair which is
always most favorable for an opposition party.
Against this formidable combination of adverse
circumstances the RepubUcan party was unable
to stand, and it fell.
The Forty-fourth Congress assembled on the
6th of December, 1875. The state of parties
in the House of Representatives was indicated
nearly accurately by the vote for Speaker. Mr.
Kerr of Indiana received the support of 173
members, Mr. Blaine of 106. But before the

132 JAMES G. BLAINE •
House had been in session three hours, Mr. Blaine
had confronted the Democratic majority and had
won a parUamentary victory. The question was
upon the admission of a member-elect from
Louisiana as having prima facie a right to the
seat. Louisiana was for a long time one of the
chief storm-centres during the disturbances of
the Civil War and the reconstruction period. A
year or two before the meeting of the new Con
gress a state of affairs developed in Louisiana not
wholly unUke that of a revolution in one of the
Spanish republics on the other side of the Gulf of
Mexico. Two persons claimed the governorship
and there were rival legislatures. After an investi
gation had been made, a compromise was effected
to which many of the Democrats in Congress con
sented. William P. Kellogg, RepubUcan, was
recognized as governor, and the Democrats were
permitted to organize and control the legislature.
Louisiana was entitled to six members of the
House. Four of the members elect presented
credentials signed by both claimants of the gov
ernorship. One, whose seat was uncontested,
offered credentials signed by Governor KeUogg
alone. For the seat for the fifth district Frank
Morey offered credentials authenticated by Gov
ernor Kellogg; WilUam B. Spencer presented a
certificate of election attested by John McEnery,
the Democratic candidate for governor. When

MINORITY LEADER 133
the members elect were being sworn in, Mr.
Fernando Wood of New York asked that Mr.
Morey stand aside, and accordingly he was not
permitted to take the oath with the other members
of the delegation. After the rest of the members
had been sworn in, Mr. Wood offered a resolution
referring both certificates to the Committee on
Elections, with instructions to report as speedily
as possible which of the claimants should be ad
mitted to the seat.
Mr. Blaine antagonized the resolution on the
ground that it impHed that the question who was
governor of Louisiana was still open to doubt.
He said that no department of the national gov
ernment had recognized Mr. McEnery as gov
ernor. Furthermore he called the attention of the
House to the significance of the fact that one
member had already been sworn in on the
strength of a certificate from Governor Kellogg
only; and to the remark of Mr. Wood that "it
was unchallenged," he retorted, "but if the gov
ernor of Louisiana is not competent to give a cer
tificate,' why should not it have been challenged ? "
A warm debate ensued, which was participated
in by leading members on both sides of the
House. In deference to strong objections to the
original form of the resolution, it was modified,
and provided simply for the reference of Mr.
Morey's credentials, with instructions to the

134 JAMES G. BLAINE
committee to report on his prima jade right to
a seat. On the first test vote the Democrats had
a majority of one only, but they could not pass the
resolution. Mr. Blaine then took charge of the
matter and offered a resolution that Mr. Morey
be sworn in as a member of the House, which
was passed without a division.
This was but one of several occasions on which
Blaine displayed a remarkable adroitness of
parliamentary strategy that enabled him to carry
his point on a party question in a body poUticaUy
opposed to him. In accompUshing this feat he
was aided greatly by the weakness — attributable
solely to the inexperience — of his opponents.
They had been in a minority so long, most of
them during their whole pubUc Uves, that they
had learned only the tactics of opposition. They
knew how to obstruct and to defeat a measure,
not how to carry it. Mr. Blaine, on the other
hand, was equally versed in both arts. Indeed
his first training in public affairs, as a journaHst,
was as a stout opponent of the administrations
of Pierce and Buchanan, and aU his Ufe he was
never a more redoubtable antagonist than when
he could recur to the language of denunciation
and ridicule.
It was but a few days after this that Mr. Blaine
involved the House in a bitter poHtical contro
versy which must have had a great influence upon

MINORITY LEADER 135
his personal fortunes as a pubUc man. In the
management of the affair he displayed high par
Uamentary strategy and carried his point in an
assembly in which his party was in a minority.
The fact that Mr. Blaine has included his prin
cipal speech on that occasion in his collected
volume of "PoHtical Discussions" is doubtless
sufficient evidence that upon mature reflection he
did not see reason to regret his course. But not
at that time nor afterward have Blaine's friends
been all of the opinion that his action was well
for him or well for the country. They did and do
admire the cleverness with which he threw his
political enemies into confusion, the eloquence
with which he advocated his cause, and the skill
with whichhe used the rules of the House to ac-
compHsh his purpose. The poUtical expediency
of his course, and the usefulness of the object
which he had in view, are open to doubt.
Mr. Randall of Pennsylvania introduced a bill
removing the disabiUty to hold office, imposed by
the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution,
from all those upon whom the disabiUty still
rested. Mr. Blaine wished to offer an amend
ment excepting Jefferson Davis from the opera
tion of the bill, and making it a condition as to all
other persons that they should be reUeved of the
disabiUty upon appearing in a court of record
and taking an oath of allegiance to the United

136 JAMES G. BLAINE
States. Mr. Randall refused to allow the amend
ment to be offered, but demanded "the previous
question," which would cut off the right to
amend. He then claimed the floor for an hour,
but was nonplussed when he was reminded that
the mover of the previous question was entitled
to the hour only as to bills reported from a com
mittee, and this was a bill which no committee
had considered. The House was therefore
brought without debate to a vote on the passage
of the bill. A two-thirds vote was required by
the provisions of the Constitution, and that, of
course, the Democrats were unable to obtain.
The vote was 175 ayes, 97 noes.
Under the usage of the House the leader of
the prevaiUng side succeeded to the management
of the measure. Mr. Blaine moved a reconsider
ation of the vote rejecting the biU and took the
floor to debate the question. He gave notice of
his intention, in case the vote should be recon
sidered, to offer his amendment as a substitute. It
was upon this question that the discussion pre
sently to be mentioned took place. It was evi
dently a discussion which the Democrats would
gladly have avoided and which they desired to
bring to an end as speedily as possible. This is
not to imply that they felt that their argumenta
tive defence was weak. They were too well aware
of the persistence of Northern sentiment, of the

MINORITY LEADER 137
ease with which the passions of the civil war
could be revived, and of Mr. Blaine's abiUty as
a debater, to reHsh the discussion at aU. Accord
ingly Mr. Randall gave notice that he was about
to caU the previous question on Mr. Blaine's
motion to reconsider the rejection of the bill. Mr.
Blaine resisted the move as displacing him from
the management of the question and therefore
contrary to usage; but the Speaker decided
against him. After the previous question had
been agreed to, Mr. Randall gave the floor to
Mr. Banks of Massachusetts, who proposed to
offer an amendment to the original bill embody
ing one part of Mr. Blaine's amendment, — that
which made amnesty conditional upon the tak
ing of an oath, in court, to support and defend
the Constitution. The admission of the Banks
amendment required unanimous consent, and
Mr. Blaine objected. Mr. RandaU then moved
to refer the bill to the Committee on the Judi
ciary with instructions to report the bill with
the Banks amendment, and to this the House
agreed. When the bill was reported back, the next day,
in accordance with the instructions, the previous
question was called upon it at once, and again it
was rejected, ayes 184, noes 97, — not two thirds.
Again the management of the question fell to
Mr. Blaine, who at once moved a reconsideration

138 JAMES G. BLAINE
of the vote rejecting the bill, and asked unani
mous consent to present his own amendment.
Mr. Randall objected, and a brief but interesting
debate took pl^ce, in which Mr. Blaine said that
he was in favor of an amnesty biU that could
be passed, and Mr. Randall retorted that the gen
tleman from Maine was not sincere in the least
degree. When Mr. Randall persisted in his
objection, Mr. Blaine withdrew the motion to
reconsider, and the contest was at an end. No
amnesty bill was passed.
Such is the parUamentary history of the inci
dent. The speech of Mr. Blaine, with which
the debate began, was a terrible arraignment of
Jefferson Davis as "the author, knowingly, de
liberately, guiltily, and wilfully, of the gigantic
murders and crimes at Andersonville." This is
not the place to set forth even in brief the state
ments and arguments by which he sustained this
thesis, nor to give the denials, the counter-state
ments and the counter-accusations with which he
was met by the Democrats, North and South.
The questions then discussed are either closed
forever or mercifully suffered to remain unan
swered. It is much easier at the present time
than it was in 1875, in weighing the considera
tions for and against Mr. Blaine's cause, to decide
that his action was unwise and that it tended to
reopen sores that should have been poulticed and

MINORITY LEADER 139
bandaged. No doubt it was galUng to him and to
thousands of men who had conducted pubUc
affairs during the civil war, to see more than one
fifth of the seats in the House occupied by men
who had been in arms against the government.
No doubt it was in their view a travesty of justice
that the few hundred men still left under the
disabiUties imposed by the fourteenth amend
ment, upon whom those disabiUties rested solely
because they had not asked to be relieved, and
that he in particular who was to the Union army
the head and front of offending, should have
pardon thrust upon them. Moreover, it is to be
remembered that a presidential election was ap
proaching. Those who had carried the country
through the war, and had estabUshed its policy
after the conflict ceased, were warned by the
election of 1874 that there was serious danger
that the poHcy would be reversed. It seemed to
Mr. Blaine the surest way to avert that which
they regarded as a great calamity, to recall to the
minds of the Northern people the sufferings of
their sons on Southern battlefields and in South
ern prison camps. Mr. Blaine himself was
already regarded as the most probable candidate
of the RepubHcan party for President. Moreover,
as the leader of the minority in the House, it was
for him, if for any one, to revive the sentiments
which would, it was hoped, restore Republican

140 JAMES G. BLAINE
ascendancy and prevent the results of the war
from being. prematurely put in peril.
On the other hand the country needed peace
and speedy extinction of the passions that for
a half-century and more had smouldered, gUm-
mered, and burst into a blaze, that had been hid
den behind a screen of compromise, that had
burned more fiercely when the screen was torn
away, that had threatened the whole land with
destruction, and that now, from exhaustion of
fuel, might die out if no one fanned the embers. It
was asking much to propose that the President
of the Confederate States, who had not asked
for amnesty, whether or not he desired it, should
be restored to the full enjoyment of every right of
citizenship, so that he might have returned, with
out apology or regret for the part he had taken in
the civil war, to the seat which he had quitted
formally, as a self-declared aHen, fourteen years
before. Nevertheless, he would probably have
scorned to accept amnesty, and would almost cer
tainly have refused to reenter pubUc Hfe. In any
event, the election of Mr. Davis to the Senate
would have aroused again the war-time senti
ments of the Northern people far more effectually
than Mr. Blaine's eloquent recital of the terrible
accusation brought against him could do it.
If Mr. Blaine's opposition to absolute, gen
eral, and unconditional amnesty was purely

MINORITY LEADER 141
poUtical, we must not forget that the proposal of
it was equally so. One man only of all those who
had asked Congress for a removal of his disabil
ities had been refused, and in every case the per
son amnestied had himself petitioned for the
reHef . The same way of reUef was open to those,
much less than a thousand in number, upon
whom the disabiUty stiU rested. Consequently
the advocates of a measure which reversed the
previous poHcy cannot be exonerated from a
share of the unpleasantness which resulted from
their act. But in fact both those who approved
and those who disapproved the raising of the
controversy held Mr. Blaine solely responsible
for it. Most of the RepubHcan newspapers — all
those of radical tendencies — shouted with glee
at the success of the former Speaker in defeating
"the southern brigadiers." On the other hand,
all the Democrats, and not a few RepubUcans who
wished the thoughts of the people to be turned
away from the Southern question and toward
other great topics of national poUcy, deprecated
a course which soon came to be characterized by
the expressive phrase "waving the bloody shirt."
It is difficult to determine the ultimate effect
upon his own poHtical fortunes of Mr. Blaine's
speech on Jefferson Davis. On the whole, the
effect seems to have been harmful. Prior to that
incident he was justly classed among conserva-

142 JAMES G. BLAINE
tive RepubUcans, and as one who had more than
once stood between the conquered Southern
whites and those who wished to keep them in sub
jection. By his speech he imperiUed if he did not
forfeit that reputation, and in the ensuing con
tests he found his most determined opponents in
his own party, among those with whom he had
been accustomed to cooperate. Moreover, before
that time there was a not unkindly feeHng toward
him on the part of many influential Democrats. It
is certain that the relentlessness with which they
attacked and pursued him a few months later
was intensified by the recollection of his imperi
ous bearing on that occasion. On the other hand,
it must be said that his course gained him immense
popularity in his own party, — great and lasting,
but not universal popularity. From the moment
when he deHvered the speech until the time of his
death he was the most conspicuous RepubUcan
in all the land, the man whose partisans were
more ardent, devoted, and numerous than were
those of any other man. But he was also the man
of all others upon whom the whole party could
not unite, and the man whom his poHtical oppo
nents would take the greatest deHght in defeating.
In short, before that time he had hardly a poUtical
enemy ; after it he had no respite from conflict with
enemies more numerous and more implacable
than those of any other pubUc man of our time.

MINORITY LEADER 143
It has been remarked that Mr. Blaine was
already looked upon as a promising candidate for
the RepubUcan nomination for President at the
election of 1876. General Grant was completing
his second term, and although there was some
talk of a third term for him, the movement was
not strong. The way seemed open for a new man.
A resolution offered by Mr. Springer of HUnois,
early in the session, placed Mr. Blaine in a pe-
cuUar position. The resolution expressed the
opinion of the House that any departure from
the time-honored custom by which presidents
retired from office after a second term "would
be unwise, unpatriotic, and fraught with peril
to our free institutions." Mr. Blaine was in the
House, but did not answer to his name; the reso
lution was passed, ayes 233, noes 18. A member
asked, during the roll-call, for a reading of the
rule which requires members who are present to
vote. He raised a laugh at Mr. Blaine's expense,
but Mr. Cox, who was in the chair, decided that
there was no way to enforce the rule. In fact, no
one was more strongly opposed than was Mr.
Blaine to a third term, but to vote for the reso
lution might have been regarded as helping to
remove an obstacle in his own path.
Early in this same session of Congress an invi
tation was extended, on behalf of the managers
of the Centennial Exhibition, to the President,

144 JAMES G. BLAINE
his Cabinet, and all the members of both Houses
of Congress, to visit Philadelphia and inspect
the progress made in preparing the grounds
and buildings of the exhibition. They were con
veyed to Philadelphia in special trains and were
entertained with the most lavish hospitaUty.
After a great banquet in one of the fair build
ings, there was speaking. The reception accorded
to Mr. Blaine, as he rose before the great as
sembly to respond to the caU upon him, was
one of extraordinary cordiaUty and enthusiasm,
and was regarded as an incident of great sig
nificance. All at once he met a check in his triumphant
progress. He was thrown upon the defensive by
the most serious accusation that was ever brought
against him. Wholly disproved in one form, it was
revived in another, and led to fresh charges that
were made, reiterated, and ampHfied by poHtical
and personal enemies. A volume would be
needed to present and discuss adequately the
facts and insinuations regarding such of Mr.
Blaine's private affairs as were deemed of pubUc
importance in the spring of 1876, and in 1884,
when he was a candidate for the presidency.
Any summary, however full, of the matters in
controversy will seem to the most candid and
thorough student, still more to the earnest ad-

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 145
herents and opponents of Mr. Blaine, to omit
things essential to a just judgment; and any con
clusion which holds Mr. Blaine neither wholly
blameless nor deserving of the harsh epithets
showered upon him by his enemies, is sure to be
unsatisfactory to every man who has engaged in
the controversy.
In the early spring of 1876 rumors began to be
circulated among poUticians that revelations
were soon to be made that would ruin forever
the prospects of a prominent candidate for
President, and it soon became known that Mr.
Blaine was to be the victim. When the pubUc
mind had been sufficiently impressed with the
idea that the disclosures were to be of the most
damaging character, the accusation was made
pubUc. It was stated on the authority of a gov
ernment director of the Union Pacific Railroad
Company, that the company had purchased
$75,000 of the bonds of the Little Rock and Fort
Smith Railroad Company belonging to Mr.
Blaine, and had paid for them the sum of $64,000.
No one would deny that it would be an act of
great impropriety, to use no stronger word, for
the Speaker of the House of Representatives to
dispose of bonds at much beyond their market
value — for the interest on the bonds had not
been paid for several years — to a company so
often favored by congressional action as was the

146 JAMES G. BLAINE
Union Pacific. Mr. Blaine took the most effectual
means to disprove his connection with the trans
action. He obtained letters from Thomas A.
Scott, who -was President of the Union Pacific
in 1871, when, it was admitted, the company
bought the bonds ; from Sidney Dillon, his suc
cessor in the presidency of the road, who was a
director and a member of the executive commit
tee in 1871 ; from E. H. RolHns, the treasurer; and
from Morton, BUss & Co., the bankers through
whom the draft for the purchase money was nego
tiated. With one accord, in the most compre
hensive and sweeping manner, they denied that
the transaction was with Mr. Blaine or that he
had any interest in it or in the proceeds of it.
Armed with these letters Mr. Blaine rose to a
personal explanation, in the House of Represent
atives, on April 24, recited the accusation against
himself, and read the testimony of these men, aU
honorable and truthful gentlemen, who were con
versant with the whole business. It cannot be
disputed that, unless they were all guilty of plain
and deliberate falsehood, this, the main and
original accusation against Mr. Blaine, stands
absolutely disproved. Nevertheless it was revived
eight years later, elaborate calculations were
made, in political pamphlets scattered broadcast
through the country, of the amount of Little
Rock bonds originally held by Mr. Blaine, and

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 147
of his disposition of them, to show that he had
seventy-five bonds that could not be accounted
for — that is to say, bonds that his critics could
not account for. To sustain the charge it was
necessary to impeach the veracity of Colonel
Scott,1 who testified under oath that the bonds
were his own, purchased of Josiah Caldwell
before he had anything to do with the Union
Pacific road, and that the company took them off
his hands at more than the market price as a way
of remunerating him for his services as president.
Certainly, only those who can beUeve nothing
good of Mr. Blaine will maintain that he was not
entitled to a verdiot of absolute innocence as to
this transaction.
In his statement to the House Mr. Blaine gave
so much of an account as he deemed necessary of
his connection with the Little Rock and Fort
Smith enterprise. He did not tell the whole story.
No one at that time, and he least of all, could
have anticipated that his personal affairs would
be investigated, that his correspondence would
be analyzed, that his spoken words would be
studied and discussed, in the spirit of a prose
cuting attorney endeavoring to convict an ac-
1 "Is the statement of a man who admits that he was guilty
of such a transaction entitled to confidence ? " — Mr. Blaine's
Record, published by the Boston Committee of One Hun
dred, 1884, p. 4.

148 JAMES G. BLAINE
cused person by circumstantial evidence. It was
for him an unfortunate fact that the transaction,
which was strictly honorable on his part, which,
indeed, reflected great credit upon his sense of
honor, was also one which for more than one
reason he preferred not to tell in all its details.
For one thing, his pride forbade that he should
reveal the humiUation he had suffered at the
hands of one who professed to be his friend, and
the " agony " — it was his own word — he had
endured in his efforts to hold harmless those
whom he had led into the enterprise. Moreover,
he was far from wishing that those friends should
know that he had a contract by the terms of
which he was to receive a handsome commission
for disposing of the securities of the Little Rock
road. To be sure, he offered them securities
which, if the road had been successful, would
have made a highly profitable investment of the
money they paid for them, and he agreed to, and
afterward did, assume the loss which might
result if the road failed. Nevertheless, it could not
be agreeable to him to have his poUtical friends
made aware that he had been acting as a paid
agent for the sale of the bonds. Such blame as
must attach to him in connection with the affair
arises from his so acting as an agent — a matter,
it will be seen, concerning solely his relations with
his friends in Maine, and in no wise his integrity as

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 149
t
a pubUc man — and from his efforts, unavaiUng
in the end, to conceal the fact.
From the testimony given before the Com
mittee on the Judiciary on the investigation
ordered by the House of Representatives, May 2,
1876, and from the pubUshed correspondence on
the subject, a chronological account of the whole
affair may be made.
Two of Mrs. Blaine's brothers were merchants
in Boston, Jacob and Eben C. Stanwood. It was
by the financial assistance afforded by one or
both of them that Mr. Blaine had been able to
purchase his interest in the " Kennebec Journal "
when he removed to Maine. James MulUgan
was the confidential clerk of Jacob Stanwood;
Warren Fisher, Jr., was the business partner of
Eben. Mr. Blaine and Mr. Fisher were friends
and were closely associated in some business
enterprises. Among other things Mr. Blaine
became interested with Fisher, in 1861, before he
was even a candidate for Congress, in the Spencer
Rifle Company, which had a contract for the sale
of arms to the government. In 1863 he gave a
note to Fisher for the stock he had purchased.
In 1864 he wrote a letter to Fisher explaining the
meaning of a proposed amendment to a bill
pending in Congress, to the effect that " where the
government had contracted for the deUvery of a
specific article of manufacture, and after the con-

150 JAMES G. BLAINE
tract was made with the government, an addi
tional tax was levied on that article, the govern
ment should stand the loss, and not the seller," 1
— surely a reasonable and just provision. The
provision was of advantage to the Spencer Rifle
Company, which was thus subjected to increased
.taxation on rifles which it had contracted to make
for the army. Mr. Blaine's connection with the
Spencer Rifle Company was never made the basis
of any direct accusation against him, but it was
used insinuatingly as cumulative evidence of his
alleged use of his pubUc position to promote his
private fortunes. But there was nothing in his con
nection with that company that would tarnish the
reputation of the most scrupulous statesman.
In June, 1869, Mr. Blaine received from Mr.
Fisher a proposition to engage in another enter
prise, the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad.
Nearly ten years before the Civil War Congress
passed an act granting pubUc lands in some of the
states to the states themselves, to aid in the con
struction of railroads, and giving the right of way
over the public land to such roads as should be
built under the terms of the act. Arkansas incor
porated the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad
Company, and granted a part of the lands received
from Congress; conditioned upon the building of
1 Mr. Blaine's explanation. — Congressional Record, 1st
Sess., 44th Cong., p. 3605.

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 151
the road. Nothing was done under the act of
incorporation. After the war closed, in 1865-66,
Congress regranted the lands to the Southern
States. Again the Arkansas Legislature incorpor
ated the company and granted a land subsidy. It
was not until 1868, after local attempts had failed,
that the charter came into the hands of a group
of Boston men, at the head of whom was Josiah
Caldwell; and associated with him was Warren
Fisher, Jr. A certain amount of capital was
raised, and the work of constructing the road
began. The act of 1866 required, as a condition
of the free right of way over the pubUc land, that
twenty miles of the road should be constructed
within three years. The time Hmit would expire
on July 28, 1869. The promoters of the road
went to Congress and asked that the time Hmit
be extended to three years from the filing of the
certificate of incorporation, the date of which
was May 13, 1867, which would give them nine
and a half months more.
A bill having this provision, and this only, was
introduced in the Senate, at the first session of the
Forty -first Congress, was reported favorably, and
passed on April 6, 1869, without a word of oppo
sition. "It will not take half a minute," said
Senator Rice of Arkansas in urging the Senate
to take up the bill. On being sent to the House of
Representatives it went to " the Speaker's table,"

152 JAMES G. BLAINE
in other words to a calendar from which, upon
the adoption of a motion to proceed to the busi
ness on the Speaker's table, biUs were taken up
and disposed of .strictly in the order in which
they were placed on the calendar. Three days
later, April 9, only one day before the final ad
journment, the House took up this calendar.
The Little Rock bill was the fifth item of business.
When it was reached Mr. JuHan of Indiana
moved an amendment requiring the railroad
company to sell the lands to actual settlers only,
at a maximum price per acre. Mr. Holman of
the same state moved to refer the biU to a com
mittee, which motion, if carried, would defeat the
bill, inasmuch as the time Umit would expire
before the beginning of the next session. The
House showed that it was in favor of the bill by
rejecting Holman's motion, ayes 40, noes 78.
Mr. JuHan then made another motion to amend
by incorporating in the bill a provision granting
a right of way also to the Memphis, El Paso &
Pacific Railroad. This also would have been
fatal to the bill, for the Memphis enterprise had
been before the Senate and had encountered op
position there.
At this juncture the friends of the bill went to
the Speaker for assistance, as it was natural and
proper for them to do; and it was also proper
for him to give his help. In the closing hours of

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 153
a session business must be transacted quickly
if at all, and every Speaker does all that is in
his power to faciHtate the passage of unobjec
tionable measures. The Speaker informed the
anxious friends of the bill that Julian's second
amendment was not in order. When Mr. Roots
of Arkansas hesitated to make the point of order,
as he was not famiHar with the rules, Mr. Blaine
sent word to General Logan of IlUnois to raise
the point. He did so, and the Speaker promptly
ruled out the amendment on two grounds, the
first of which was all-sufficient: that "it is ex
pressly prohibited by the rule, that where a land
grant is under consideration another grant to a
different company shall be entertained." In
order to save time, the first amendment proposed
by JuHan was allowed to be made, without a
division, as it would meet with no opposition in
the Senate; and the bill was passed by a vote of
79 to 28. *
Nearly three months afterward, toward the
end of June, negotiations were begun between
1 An act was subsequently passed repealing the proviso
relating to the sale of public lands. Mr. Blaine in referring to
this second act said that it was to correct a mistake — a phrase
which his persistent critics declared to be a falsehood. Yet it
was strictly true. The company received its land grant from
the State of Arkansas, not from the United States, and Con
gress had no right to prescribe the terms on which the land
should be sold.

154 JAMES G. BLAINE
Blaine and Fisher, which were referred to in a
letter from Mr. Blaine as "your offer to admit
me to a participation in the new railroad enter
prise," which he deemed "in every respect as
generous as I could expect or desire;" and he
remarked in closing his letter, " I do not feel that
I shall prove a dead-head in the enterprise, if I
once embark in it. I see various channels in
which I know I can be useful." These sentences
were often quoted, with abundant sneers, in the
discussion of the "MulUgan letters," as if they
conveyed a suggestion that Mr. Blaine was con
templating the commission of " various " im
proprieties in order not to be a "dead-head."
The natural, obvious, and, in view of what took
place afterward, the only possible interpretation
to be put upon his words, was that he was confi
dent that he could dispose of the securities of the
road to many investors, and his services in that
direction, not his services as a pubUc man, were
the consideration for his being admitted to a
share in the enterprise.
Fisher had evidently intimated to Blaine that
Caldwell might do more than make a favorable
contract for the sale of the railroad bonds. It
was a common if not a universal custom at that
time for those who controlled a charter for the
building of a railroad which was aided by a
government subsidy in land or bonds, to divide

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 155
the whole interest into a certain number of
shares, and, as owners of the franchise, to com
pensate themselves by a system which had the
practical effect of taking a commission on all
the securities sold. No one at the present day
would defend the practice; but in the time of
extensive railroad construction, when great risks
were incurred in building Unes into uninhab
ited wildernesses and across barren plains, no
one objected to it or regarded it as dishonorable.
The shares of the owners of franchises were often
subdivided in order to bring new elements of fin
ancial strength to an undertaking. In Blaine's
letter to Fisher he referred to a suggestion that
Caldwell might turn over to him a part of one
of the " bed-rock " shares, and expressed a hope
that Caldwell " would make the proposition defi
nite." He feared that if the proposition were
postponed until the success of the enterprise
was assured, Caldwell " might grow reluctant to
part with the share."
Mr. Blaine began at once to work in the " vari
ous channels" he had foreseen, without waiting
to make a formal contract with Fisher. By Sep
tember he had disposed of securities that would
bring to the company $130,000 in money; and
on September 5 Fisher made a contract by
which, upon the payment of the money he was to
deliver to those to whom Blaine had disposed

156 JAMES G. BLAINE
of the securities $1000 in the first mortgage
bonds of the company, ten shares of preferred
stock, and ten shares of common stock for each
$1000 paid, and Blaine was himself to receive,
upon the fulfilment of the contract, $130,000 of
land grant mortgage bonds, and $32,500 of first
mortgage bonds. One of the subscribers with
drew after making a single payment, and the
actual amount of money paid under the contract
was $125,000. There were afterward four other
contracts, covering $35,000 of first mortgage
bonds, $28,000 of land bonds, and both preferred
and common stock, for disposing of which Mr.
Blaine was to receive compensation in money.
Many letters passed between Fisher and
Blaine while these transactions were in progress.
The only ones which it is necessary to notice here
are those which relate to the charge most fre
quently brought against Blaine. The definite
proposition which Caldwell was expected to make
was not made, In order to "jog his memory"
Blaine wrote to Fisher, in October, 1869, an ac
count of the incident in the House at the close
of the preceding session. He wrote that he
"could not do otherwise than sustain it," —
the point of order against JuHan's amendment ;
and "at that time I had never seen Mr. Cald
well ; but you can tell him that without knowing
it I did him a great favor." In another letter he

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 157
enclosed a cUpping from the "Congressional
Globe" containing the official account of the
affair, and again he said, " Of course it was my
plain duty to make the ruUng when the point
was thus raised." This second letter was in
tended for Caldwell's eye, "if you think it ex
pedient," as he wrote to Fisher by the same
mail. " I have endeavored in writing it* not to be
indelicate." There is no evidence on the point
whether Fisher ever showed the letters or the
cUpping from the " Globe " to Mr. Caldwell. At
all events Caldwell did not turn over any share
of the franchise-owners' "bed-rock" privileges.
It is difficult for one who is not previously con
vinced that Blaine was guilty of impropriety in
the whole transaction to see in this incident of
it anything reprehensible. Undoubtedly he was
anxious to bring Caldwell to terms, and greatly
desired a share in the profits of the franchise.
He said so, in these letters to Fisher. One has
either to suppose this man to have been so reck
less in his wickedness as to expose his wish to
traffic his official position in a letter written in
black and white, or to conclude that he had no
thought of so base a nature. Surely, if he had
intended or expected to use the favor he had
done to Caldwell to extort payment from him,
he would not have been careful to say twice that
he could not help taking the course he did. More-

158 JAMES G. BLAINE
over, he even left it to Fisher to decide whether it .
was expedient to mention the matter to CaldweU
at all. On the whole, the worst that can justly be
said of his reference to the proceedings in Con
gress, is well expressed by his own word, "indeH-
cate." About a year after the Little Rock contracts
were made, there was the beginning of another
transaction, never consummated, which played a
large part in the subsequent relations between
Fisher and Blaine. The Northern Pacific Rail
road was being financed by Jay Cooke and his
associates. Blaine wrote to Fisher in November,
1870, that he was able to control the assignment
of one one-hundred-and-ninety-second part of
the franchise of the company. He said: "The
chance is a very rare one. I can't touch it, but
I obey my first and best impulse in offering it to
you." The price of the interest was $25,000, but
the holder came under "obHgation to take a
large amount of the bonds at ninety, and hold
them not less than three years." It appears from
the subsequent correspondence that the offer was
accepted by Fisher, and the sum of $25,000 was
paid to Blaine, who for some reason was not
able to obtain the share from the concession-
naires, and consequently could not deHver it to
Fisher. Ultimately the money was returned to
Blaine and by him restored to Fisher.

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 159
In December of the same year the Little Rock
road was already in financial straits. Mr. Blaine
had to explain to those to whom he had disposed
of bonds that the January coupon was not to be
paid, and " promised them individually to make
it right in the future." He added in a letter to
Fisher that he did not use the name of the com
pany, and committed himself only. In January,
1871, at the urgent soUcitation of Fisher, he
raised $25,000 on his own credit, and gave his
own notes, for the benefit of the company. That
was the beginning of woe for him. It is unneces
sary to follow the business through to the end,
in detail. From that time the correspondence
between Fisher and Blaine indicates that there
was constant friction between them. In April,
1871, Blaine wrote to Caldwell imploring him
to provide the means for the payment of his
notes for the $25,000 raised for the company.
Caldwell merely turned the letter over to Fisher
with " I hope you can help him. I would, if it
were in my power. Blaine is an important man for
us to have feel all right toward us." This last
sentence was used afterward by Blaine's ene
mies as an additional proof that he could be
depended upon to sell his official influence. But
aside from the fact that it was not written by him,
the circumstance that he had raised for the com
pany not far from a quarter of a milUon dollars

160 JAMES G. BL4INE
is sufficient to account for his being regarded
as " an important man for us." In June Blaine
again wrote to Fisher setting forth his financial
troubles. His notes had not been provided for,
the bonds due him under his contracts had not
been deUvered, and he had not received a dollar
of money under the contracts which provided
that kind of compensation for disposing of the
railroad company's bonds. Moreover, he was
responsible to his friends, by verbal agreement,
for $10,000, the amount of coupons not paid on
their bonds. He made a proposition in the nature
of a compromise, to get himself out of his pressing
difficulties. Nothing seems to have come of that,
but in September Fisher was demanding the
Northern Pacific securities for which the money
had been paid, and reminded Blaine that Cald
well had paid back the $25,000 borrowed in Jan
uary. Blaine repHed the next day that he had
been unable to get the Northern Pacific securities,
and that it was a great mistake to say that Mr.
Caldwell had paid him, for he had received only
$6000 of the $25,000.
So the correspondence went on for a year
longer. Each was complaining of the other. Both
were desirous of a settlement, but while Fisher
was demanding a settlement of the matters that
would extricate himself from difficulty, Blaine
insisted that his own claims should be considered

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 161
at the same time. Ultimately some sort of an
agreement was reached, Fisher received the
$25,000 for the Northern Pacific interest, Blaine
obtained the bonds due him, and with the pro
ceeds he partially made good the losses of his
friends. For the rest of the obUgation incurred
toward them he drew upon his own means, and
his connection with the financing of the little
Rock road came to an end. His own losses by the
transaction were large.
There was one other letter in connection with
the affair, which was not — as several of those
already mentioned were not — among the " Mul-
Hgan letters" proper, but was made pubUc in
1884, when Mr. Blaine was a candidate for Presi
dent. Of course it was furnished by Fisher. In
April, 1876, when he was preparing for his first
defence against the Union Pacific charge, he
wrote to Fisher a letter which was marked " con
fidential," asking him to write and send to him
self a letter, a draft of which he enclosed, giving
an account of his, Blaine's, connection with the
Little Rock ^enterprise. It was not a full account,
for it made no mention of the sale of securities
to Maine investors, nor of many of the circum
stances which have just been narrated. As has
already been remarked, Mr. Blaine had no idea
at the time that the affair would be pursued to the
extent of investigating the Little Rock matter,

162 JAMES G. BLATNE
which was only indirectly connected with the
accusation brought against him; and, as was
previously remarked, he had strong reasons for
wishing that the whole story should not be told.
But he could write to Fisher of the draft letter
which he enclosed, " The letter is strictly true, is
honorable to you and to me, and will stop the
mouths of slanderers at once." That is not the
language of one who writes confidentially to an
honorable man asking him to put his name to a
He. Mr. Blaine added a postscript, "Burn this
letter," — also a phrase which his enemies fre
quently repeated in print and on the stump as
proof that he was asking for a falsehood. In
reaHty it is no more than an emphatic repetition
of the word "confidential" at the top of the
letter.1 Undoubtedly Blaine did not wish the
fact to be known that he was the author of the
1 It may be added that it was almost a habit with Blaine
to emphasize "confidential" by some such phrase. A good
example may be found on a later page of this book, in the
letter to General Sherman written just before the RepubU
can convention of 1884. The present writer has a letter from
Mr. Blaine upon a personal business matter in which a similar
phrase is used. Mr. Andrew Devine, long a confidential sten
ographer for Blaine, reports that when this letter to Fisher was
first published in facsimile he called Blaine's attention to the
handwriting of the sentence, "Burn this letter," and insisted
that it was a forgery. Blaine was not wholly convinced, and
remarked that it did n't matter one way or the other, for it
would have been just like him to write it.

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 163
letter he expected from Fisher. To ask Fisher
to give his own account of the Little Rock busi
ness would probably have brought a letter con
taining some of the facts which Blaine wished
withheld. His sending a draft letter and his re
quest that the communication enclosing it should
be destroyed is not inconsistent with absolute
innocence of wrong-doing, and can therefore not
be used even as cumulative proof that he was
guilty of wrong-doing. It will be observed that
Fisher neither wrote the letter, nor burned that
which he received, but turned the double com
munication over to Blaine's enemies at a time
when a misconstruction would do him the most
harm. From the beginning of the investigation by
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives, ordered May 2, 1876, it was
evident that it was an investigation of Blaine,
and of him alone, although his name was not
mentioned in the resolution. He was himself a
witness and made oath to the truth of his denial
of any ownership of or interest in the seventy-five
bonds sold to the Union Pacific Railroad Com
pany. Scott, Dillon, and others, directors in the
company, testified either to positive knowledge
that Blaine's statement was true, or to ignorance
as to the ownership of the bonds. Then it be
came noised abroad that Warren Fisher, Jr.

164 JAMES G. BLAINE
and James Mulligan were coming from Boston to
testify before the committee against Mr. Blaine.
Enough has been said to indicate that Fisher
would be a hostile witness. Blaine had also the
best of reasons for expecting that MuUigan would
do him all the injury that was in his power.
It has been mentioned that MulUgan was for a
long time the confidential clerk of Jacob Stan
wood, a brother of Mrs. Blaine. He was so com
petent and trustworthy that Stanwood gave him
an interest in some of his ventures. But a quar
rel arose between them, and they separated.
Mulligan made a large claim, some $30,000,
on Stanwood, which Stanwood deemed exces
sive. In the course of the controversy between
them, Mr. Blaine, at the request of both, put
in writing the points upon which they agreed,
but a clause which he inserted in the paper, to the
effect that the settlement was to be final, put
Mulligan in a rage, and when, later, the actual
settlement was made on the basis of an allow
ance of about half the claim, he unjustly laid his
failure to obtain more at Mr. Blaine's door, and
vowed vengeance. This was several years before
the investigation, for Mr. Stanwood died in 1873.
Mulligan became a clerk for Warren Fisher, and
was of course conversant with all the business
transactions between him and Blaine. The time
had come to execute his threat, and he and

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 165
Fisher were in accord as to object and method of
accompHshing it.
On the day when MulUgan began his testi
mony it became known that he had in his posses
sion and intended to lay before the committee a
large number of letters from Blaine to Fisher.
They had been turned over to MulUgan for that
purpose. Blaine determined, if possible, to pre:
vent the pubUcation of them — letters covering
many and compHcated business matters, writ
ten years before, often in haste and in confi
dence, having only the most remote bearing upon
the subject under investigation, which were about
to be read by a hostile witness, with his own
explanation, before a committee of poUtical ene
mies of the person who wrote them, bent on
destroying his future. In the evening Blaine
called upon MulUgan at his hotel, and when he
returned home he carried the. letters with him.
MulUgan gave a highly fanciful account of the
interview, which differed widely from Blaine's
version. It would serve no good purpose to give
either story in detail. Those who are disposed
to hold Blaine guilty of every sort of dupUcity
and breach of faith will accept MulUgan's ima
ginative statements. But Blaine asserted that
he violated no promise, that he urged MulU
gan to return the letters to Fisher, a request
which Fisher repeated, and that it was only

166 JAMES G. BLAINE
when Mulligan asserted his intention to pubUsh
the letters if any one impugned his motives that
he decided to retain them. For MulUgan had
permitted him to take them for examination. Of
course MulUgan had no right to have and pubUsh
private letters written neither by nor to him.
Either Fisher or Blaine, and no other person,
was entitled to possess them.
When Mr. Blaine returned to his home, he
entered the Hbrary and tossed the package on
the table, remarking, with a laugh, " Well, there
are the letters." The next day the committee
demanded the production of the letters, but
Blaine decUned " at this time " to produce them.
He consulted the Hon. Jeremiah S. Black and
the Hon. Matt. H. Carpenter, who after examin
ing the letters declared "that the letters and
papers aforesaid have no relevancy whatever to
the matter under inquiry," — a statement which,
notwithstanding all that was said then, and that
has been said since, was strictly true, — and they
advised him to resist to the last extremity any
demand for their surrender, as being " most un
just, tyrannical, as well as iUegal." Acting on
this advice, Mr. Blaine again and persistently
refused to give up the papers.
But having vindicated his right to maintain
the privacy of his own correspondence relating to
transactions which not only had no reference

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 167
to the matter under investigation by the com
mittee, but were not even a proper subject of
inquiry by the House of Representatives, he fore
saw that to withhold them from the pubUc would
confirm the suspicions of his enemies and give
rise to doubts among his friends. He therefore
determined to read them to the House. There
have been few more dramatic scenes in the his
tory of Congress than that when, on the 5th of
June, 1876, Mr. Blaine rose to a personal expla
nation, in the course of which he read the famous
MulUgan letters.
He first recited at some length the fact that
under three different resolutions adopted at that
session, in neither of which his name was men
tioned, his conduct and his alone was under
investigation. Having referred to the fact of Mul-
Hgan's going to Washington with his package of
letters, to his own act in obtaining them, and to
the demand for them and his refusal to surrender
them, he asked," Would any gentleman stand up
here and tell me that he is wilUng and ready to
have his private correspondence scanned over
and made pubUc for the last eight or ten years ?
Does it imply guilt ? Does it imply wrong-doing ?
Does it imply any sense of weakness that a man
will protect his private correspondence ? No, sir;
it is the first instinct to do it, and it is the last
outrage upon any man to violate it." But al-

168 JAMES G. BLAINE
though he was ready to maintain his right and
to defy the power of the House to compel him to
produce the letters, " I am not afraid to show the
letters. Thank God Almighty, I am not ashamed
to show them. There they are [holding up a
package of letters]. There is the very original
package. And with some sense of humiUation,
with a mortification I do not pretend to conceal,
with a sense of outrage which I think any man in
my position would feel,. I invite the confidence of
44,000,000 of my countrymen while I read those
letters from this desk."
This sensational announcement was received
with hot applause on the RepubHcan side of the
House, and the Speaker and Mr. Blaine himself
urged that there should be "no manifestation."
Blaine then read all the letters, with comments
and explanations. Mulligan's memorandum was
also read by the clerk, at his request. Blaine
then recapitulated briefly, with reference to the
specific charge against him, that aU the per
sons who could have any knowledge of the sale
of seventy-five Little Rock bonds to the Union
Pacific Railroad Company had testified under
oath that he, Blaine, had nothing to do with it.
There was not in any one of the MuUigan letters,
and is not in any of the supplementary letters
made pubUc in 1884, any reference to a sale
of bonds to or for the Union Pacific Railroad

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 169
Company.1 Then ensued a scene which those
who witnessed it foUowed with breathless atten-
1 Lest it be said that there is here a suppression of a part of
the truth, the following facts and citations are necessary.
Mulligan's memorandum contained this reference to one of
the letters: —
"No. 1-J. Aprl 18, 1S7S, admits the $64,000 sale bonds,
and paid the money over in forty-eight hours to Maine
parties." Mr. Blaine commented, when this was read by the clerk,
'There is not a word said about it in the letter."
The purchase of the seventy-five bonds by the Union Pa
cific Railroad Company was voted by the directors on De
cember 16, 1871. On the 16th of April, 1ST*. Fisher wrote
a highly offensive letter to Blaine in the course of which he
said: —
"Of all the parties connected with the Little Rock and
Fort Smith Railroad no one has been so fortunate as yourself
in obtaining money out of it. You obtained subscriptions
from your friends in Maine for the building of the Little Rock
and Fort Smith Railroad. Out of their subscriptions you ob
tained a large amount both of bonds and money, free of cost
to you. I have your own figures, and know the amount.
Owing to your political position, you were able to work off all
your bonds at a very high price; and the fact is well known
to others as well as myself. Would your friends in Maine be
satisfied if they knew the facts ? "
It was in answer to this letter that Blaine, doubtless with
a sense of humiliation at being thus addressed, with an
implied threat that his Maine friends should be made aware
of the facts, wrote on the 18th: —
"You have been for some time laboring under a totally
erroneous impression in regard to my results in the Fort
Smith matter. Thesales of bonds which you spoke of my mak
ing, and which you seem to have thought were for my own

170 JAMES G. BLAINE
tion. Mr. Blaine referred to the fact that there
was one witness whom he could not have, to
whom the Judiciary Committee was asked to
send a cable despatch, — to Josiah Caldwell, —
and he asked the chairman, Mr. Knott of Ken
tucky, if that despatch was sent.
Mr. Knott repUed that "Judge Hunton and
myself have both endeavored to get Mr. Cald
well's address and have not yet got it." Then
ensued this colloquy, as reported in the " Con
gressional Record : " —
Mr. Blaine. Has the gentleman from Ken
tucky received a despatch from CaldweU ?
Mr. Knott. I will explain that directly.
Mr. Blaine. I want a categorical answer.
Mr. Knott. I have received a despatch pur
porting to be from Mr. Caldwell.
benefit, were quite otherwise. I did not have the money in my
possession forty-eight hours, but paid it over directly to the
parties whom I tried by every means in my power to protect
from loss. I am very sure that you have little idea of the
labors, the losses, the efforts, and the sacrifices I have made
within the past year to save those innocent persons who in
vested on my request, from personal loss. And I say to you
to-night, solemnly, that I am immeasurably worse off than
if I had never touched the Fort Smith matter."
There is, it will be seen, merely a general statement on
Fisher's part that Blaine had sold bonds; on Blaine's part
an explanation of the purpose of selling and of the disposition
he had made of the proceeds.

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 171
Mr. Blaine. You did?
Mr. Knott. How did you know I got it ?
Mr. Blaine. When did you get it ? I want the
gentleman from Kentucky to answer when he
got it.
Mr. Knott. Answer my question first.
Mr. Blaine. I never heard of it until yester
day. Mr. Knott. How did you hear it ?
Mr. Blaine. I heard you got a despatch last
Thursday morning at eight o'clock from Josiah
Caldwell completely and absolutely exonerating
me from this charge, and you have suppressed
it. [Protracted applause upon the floor and in
the galleries.] I want the gentleman to answer.
[After a pause.] Does the gentleman from Ken
tucky decline to answer ?
Of course there was a long and heated debate,
exceedingly interesting, which it is impossible to
summarize. For the time being the accusers,
or, if another term be preferred, the court, were
on trial. Mr. Blaine in the course of his speech
had made many charges of unfairness toward
himself on the part of the committee, and these
charges were taken up in turn, denied and ex
plained by Judge Hunton of Virginia. Then
Mr. Knott gave his own account of the incident
relating to the cable despatch. He had not " sup-

172 JAMES G. BLAINE
pressed " it, for he had shown it to several of his
friends, but to no Republican. He even said that
"to tell the truth about it, after the day that I
received it I gave but little, if any, thought to it
until the subject was brought up here." He in
timated a doubt if the despatch came from Cald
well. It was dated simply "London," and he
did not know or try to find out whether it was
authentic or not. Mr. Knott refused to read the
despatch. Nothing further was developed in the investi
gation by the Committee on the Judiciary. In
deed the inquiry was virtually dropped. There
was a protracted wrangle, which consumed much
of the time during the sessions of the House on
the 8th and 9th of June, over a motion by Mr.
Blaine to reconsider a vote ordering the printing
of testimony taken in the case, in order to in
clude the whole of it, and also the Caldwell
despatch. The presiding officer — Mr. Speaker
Kerr was not in the chair — ruled steadily
against Blaine, and the majority upheld him and
defeated Blaine's motion. There was constant
disorder; Blaine was unable to obtain a hear
ing, and was repeatedly ordered to take his seat.
The 9th of June was the last day on which he
ever appeared in the House as a member. On
the 11th, the Sunday before the meeting of the
Cincinnati convention, he was prostrated by a

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 173
sunstroke. The Judiciary Committee postponed
the hearing from time to time owing to his Al
ness, and when Congress met again Blaine had
been transferred to the Senate. The inquiry
therefore came to an end.
Although this series of events, which had the
most important effects upon Mr. Blaine's polit
ical career, has been told at such great length,
and with a sincere effort to omit or suppress
nothing essential to a correct understanding of
the whole affair, the writer cannot flatter him
self that he will escape the criticisms either of
Blaine's most ardent partisans or of his persist
ent detractors. Nor, probably, will the writer's
judgment upon the whole case be fully accepted
in any quarter. That judgment is that on the
main, in fact upon the only, charge made against
his integrity and independence as a pubUc man,
Mr. Blaine was, in the words of the late Senator
Hoar, "triumphantly acquitted."1 There was
not a tittle of evidence which rose above the
1 Mr. Hoar always held this opinion. In his pamphlet
published in 1884, entitled "Good Advice to Young Voters,"
— no publisher is named, — he says that " Mr. Schurz's adroit
and skilful speech has failed to change the opinion I then
[1876] formed that the charge against Mr. Blaine wholly fails."
Hoar was a member of the Judiciary Committee which was
charged with the investigation. He repeats this judgment in
his volume of reminiscences published only a year or two be
fore his death.

174 JAMES G. BLAINE
grade of second-hand hearsay that connected
him in the remotest degree with the sale of Little
Rock bonds to the Union Pacific Railroad Com
pany. On the other hand there was direct and
positive evidence that the bonds were not his;
and it is necessary, in order to believe hiin guilty,
to hold that several gentlemen of otherwise
honorable character and standing perjured
themselves to support Mr. Blaine in his own
perjury. Moreover there was nothing morally or poHt
ically wrong in his engaging in the Little Rock
enterprise; and his relations to and deaHngs
with Warren Fisher were a private matter which
should never have been made pubUc and which
Blaine should never have been forced to ex
plain. Nevertheless, one cannot wholly acquit
him of blame in his transactions with his Maine
friends. Whether or not all of them supposed
that in offering them Little Rock securities he
was disinterested, — that he gave them all that
the company allowed him for the amount in
vested, — is not and cannot be known. It is
certain that some of them did so suppose, and
that when they ascertained the facts, friendly re
lations with him were disturbed or broken, not
withstanding his reparation, making good their
losses at great expense of money, anxiety, and
labor on his own part.

THE MULLIGAN LETTERS 175
Aside from his natural unwilUngness to have
his private affairs and his confidential corre
spondence made public through the length and
breadth of the land, the consciousness that his
receipt of a large nominal commission for pla
cing the bonds was not capable of effective de
fence seems to have emphasized that unwilling
ness, and to have caused him to put forth all his
efforts to prevent publicity. No serious criticism
can be made upon his action in repossessing
himself of the letters which Mulligan had, with
out any right to them. But in his explanations
prior to the time when the whole story had to be
told he withheld a part of the truth. Two views
may be and have been taken of his course in
this respect. The harsh view is that he was
guilty of a succession of falsehoods. In the
pamphlets rained against him in 1884 these
alleged falsehoods were catalogued and num
bered; his partial and in some respects mis
leading statements were ranged in parallel
columns with the facts afterward brought to
light. The other view, charitable, reasonable,
and easily admitted by any one who is as much
disposed to think well as to think evil, is that
since his Little Rock affairs were in no way re
lated to the charge against him that was under
investigation, and since his personal pride and
his personal friendships might suffer if a full

176 JAMES G. BLAINE
revelation were made, he determined to tell only
so much as could have any possible bearing on
the pending investigation.
No matter which of these views be taken, there
will be none to dispute the fact that both the
immediate and the remote consequences of his
connection with the Little Rock enterprise were
terribly out of proportion to any benefit he might
have derived from it, had it been successful.
But, at the worst, nothing in the history of the
affair justifies the malignity with which he was
pursued to the end of his career.

VII
THE CHECK EST 1876 — SENATOR
The presidential canvass of 1876 will always be
deemed one of the most remarkable and sensa
tional passages in the poHtical life of the coun
try. The extraordinary closeness of the result,
the unprecedented method adopted to ascertain
what the result really was, and the unexpected
issue of the reference of the dispute to the Elect
oral Commission, have a tendency to draw at
tention away from the early incidents of the can
vass, which are nevertheless unusually worthy
of study by all who are interested in American
poUtics. The prospective retirement of General Grant
brought into the field a large number of candi
dates for the Republican nomination. Each of
the three states which led the others in respect
of population presented a "favorite son." New
York was for Senator ConkUng, Pennsylvania
for Governor Hartranft, and Ohio for Governor
Hayes. Indiana, also, supported Senator Mor
ton, and Connecticut brought forward Governor
Jewell. These five candidates had, from purely
local support, 214 votes, — more than one fourth

178 JAMES G. BLAINE
of the full national convention, consisting of 756
members, But most of them had also adherents
from other states than their own. Mr. Morton,
for example, had nearly half the delegates from
the "reconstructed" states.
Beside the candidates already mentioned,
there were two, also " favorite sons " to be sure,
whose candidacy represented something broader
and upon a distinctly higher plane than local
pride and skill in gathering in delegates from
states under negro and " carpet-bag " rule: Ben
jamin H. Bristow of Kentucky, and James G.
Blaine of Maine.
The movement in favor of General Bristow
was noble in purpose and was supported by a
body of earnest, patriotic men. Bristow's course
as Secretary of the Treasury gave them good
reason to believe not only that he would tolerate
no corruption or wrong-doing on the part of
public officers, but also that he would find out
offences before they became scandals, and secure
the punishment of the offenders. Too Httle de
tection, or initiative of any sort in the prosecu
tion of corrupt officials and their hangers-on,
could be placed to the credit of General Grant's
administration. No one doubted either the
President's own integrity or his abhorrence of
the evils that were brought to Ught. But those
evils became known accidentally, or through

THE CHECK IN 1876 179
the agency of private persons ; and General
Grant would not dismiss an officer "under
fire." The Bristow candidacy was to a certain
extent a remnant of the "Liberal Republican"
movement of 1872. It was supported eagerly
by those Republicans who were already strongly
opposed to Blaine as offering the best chance
of defeating him. By no means all of those who
advocated the nomination of General Bristow
were of this class, but the movement was es
sentially anti-Blaine. The selection either of
Morton or of Conkling would have been ex
ceedingly distasteful to them, but they did not
greatly fear that either could be successful.
Blaine was the leading candidate. It will
doubtless be difficult if not impossible for those
who know what an adroit and resourceful polit
ical manager he was, whether one be a partisan
or an opponent of the man, to believe that the
canvass in his favor was in no sense or degree
guided or promoted by him. Yet it is the simple
truth. Mr. Blaine declared to the present writer
in December, 1875, that he " had not the presiden
tial bee in his bonnet," and his course during the
ensuing six months proves that the statement
was sincere and truthful. An illustration of his
— we cannot, perhaps, say — indifference, but at
least his unwillingness to exert himself to secure
the nomination, is given on the authority of Mr.

180 JAMES G. BLAINE
Sherman, his confidential secretary. During
that period hundreds of letters were received by
Blaine from persons in every part of the coun
try, pledging support, offering service, and ask
ing for advice as to the best means of accom
plishing the nomination. Many, perhaps most,
of these letters were from men who were leaders
of the party in the state, county, or city from
which they were written. Mr. Blaine did not
answer one of the letters. They accumulated
upon his desk in great piles. Mr. Sherman ex
postulated with Mr. Blaine on the subject and
urged that courtesy to the writers as weU as good
policy suggested that he should devote time to
the disposal of this important correspondence.
The appeal was unsuccessful; but at last Sher
man obtained permission to employ assistance
and answer the letters himself. Accordingly he
classified them according to the reply to be
made, prepared blank forms, and he and his
assistants cleared the desk. The most important
letters only were reserved for Blaine's personal
signature. No doubt many of the supporters who went to
Washington to see him and obtain verbal ad
vice were successful in their mission. But Mr.
Blaine was inaccessible to all but a very few
callers, he invited no poHtical managers to visit
him, he had not even one lieutenant in aU the

THE CHECK IN 1876 181
country, chosen by himself and reporting to him,
to secure convention delegates in one or more
states. Indeed, it was not until the Saturday
before the meeting of the national convention,
so Sherman reports, that upon being assured
by despatches from his friends, Messrs. Hale and
Frye of Maine, that his nomination seemed sure,
he became noticeably interested in the contest.1
It might be urged that during the two or three
months prior to the Cincinnati convention Mr.
Blaine was too fully occupied in repelling the
assaults made upon his character to leave much
time for personal attention to his canvass. On
the other hand it is equally reasonable to argue
that such attacks would naturally cause him to
put forth every energy he possessed to counter
act their effect by a watchful effort to control
the party primaries and the district and state
conventions. The fact that he had taken no part
in the canvass before he was forced to defend
himself is conclusive. His abstention was not
due to preoccupation with the Union Pacific —
Little Rock affair, but was a policy which he
would have followed in any event.
1 His light and half incredulous way of looking at his own
prospects ia illustrated by an incident of the time. One day
he waved a telegram just received, laughingly, with the
remark, "Oregon has elected delegates for me, and as Maine
also is for me, it only remains for my friends to fill up the
little gap between them."

182 JAMES G. BLAINE
Yet he was under great mental strain. His
reputation was of far more importance to him
than the presidency. He was in the hands of his
enemies. The Democratic majority in the
House of Representatives treated his denials
and explanations as unsatisfactory, misleading,
or false; and on his final appearance in that
body the Speaker pro tempore, Mr. Cox of New
York, supported by all the members on the
Democratic side, had taken a course which he
deemed a denial of justice, beside being disre
spectful and discourteous. True, practically all
of Mr. Blaine's party friends on the floor stood
by him; and most of the leading Republican
newspapers throughout the country maintained
that he had fully exonerated himself. But there
were exceptions, and they were influential ex
ceptions. The tone of the Chicago Tribune, and
of both the great RepubHcan daiUes of Cincin
nati, where the convention was to be held, was
distinctly hostile. Their reception of Mr. Blaine's
answer to the charges made against him was as
cool and suspicious as was that of the Democratic
press. It even suggested a doubt whether these
important journals would support the nomina
tion, should it be made, and it certainly caused
many delegates who did not themselves question
Mr. Blaine's integrity to withhold their votes
from him, lest the absolute union of the party,

THE CHECK IN 1876 183
which all knew to be essential, should be put
in peril.1
On Sunday morning, June 11, three days be
fore the meeting of the Cincinnati convention,
Mr. Blaine and his family made ready to go to
church, as was their custom. As it was an op
pressively warm day Mrs. Blaine suggested that
they should go in a carriage, but Mr. Blaine de
clared that he felt unusually well that morning
and preferred to walk. The party had just
reached the steps of the church when Mr. Blaine
was suddenly prostrated, and sank into the
arms of his wife. He murmured something
about a pain in his head, and then became un
conscious. Help was summoned quickly, and
he was taken to his home, which was soon sur
rounded by friends anxious for him, and able to
express their sympathy only by their mute pre
sence. Many men prominent in public Hfe called
to obtain intelligence. Physicians thronged to
the house to offer their services. It was late in
the afternoon before he showed the least sign of
consciousness, but from that time his recovery
1 It is an interesting fact that two of the editors who were
largely responsible for Mr. Blaine's defeat at Cincinnati,
Mr. Joseph Medill and Mr. Murat Halstead, afterward
became most ardent partisans; and it is perhaps the most
conspicuous example of Mr. Blaine's lifelong willingness to
be friends with those who had been his enemies, that terms
of close intimacy and friendship were established with them.

184 JAMES G. BLAINE
was rapid. He was able to take a drive on Tues
day, and although he had recovered Httle of his
strength, he was able to follow with interest the
proceedings of the convention as they were
telegraphed by his friends direct from the con
vention hall to his house. The attack seems
not to have been technically a sunstroke, but
was undoubtedly the combined effect of the
great mental strain and the intense heat. It
was some time before he was again physicaUy
well, but mentally his restoration was complete
on the day after his seizure.
It was a new argument against his nomina
tion. Many a man would hesitate to choose as a
candidate for the presidency one who had been
prostrated by an attack which might have per
manent consequences, affecting his power to dis
charge intelligently the duties of the office. As
much as possible was made of this point, and
incredulity as to the recovery of Mr. Blaine was
encouraged. No doubt it was one of several
causes of his defeat.
Yet not only was Mr. Blaine the leading can
didate in six of the seven votes necessary to
effect a nomination, but he had at the beginning
more supporters than any other two candidates,
and on the sixth vote he had as many delegates
in his favor, lacking one, as the next three can
didates. On the final vote Governor Hayes had

THE CHECK IN 1876 185
only thirty-three more than Mr. Blaine, and but
five more than were necessary for a choice.
Moreover Mr. Blaine's support was by far the
most general, geographically considered, for on
the first vote he received support from thirty-five
states and territories of the forty-seven repre
sented, and on the second vote from thirty-nine.
This fact is the more remarkable when it is con
sidered that New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, In
diana, Kentucky, and Connecticut were "solid"
for their own candidates, and that Mr. Blaine
had extremely weak support from all the New
England states except Maine.
When the sixth vote was in progress, Mr.
Blaine, seated near the telegraph instrument
in his own house, expressed the opinion that
Governor Hayes would be nominated. His own
vote was increasing; he received twelve more
than on any previous trial, and Mr. Hayes's
increase was only nine. But he called attention
to the fact that Hayes was the only one of all
the candidates who had increased his vote at
each successive trial. When the returns began
to come from the states, called in alphabetical
order, on the seventh and final vote, his opinion
was confirmed. Upon the announcement that
New York transferred its support from Mr.
ConkUng to Mr. Hayes, he remarked, "That
settles it," and began to write a despatch con-

186 JAMES G. BLAINE
gratulating the successful candidate upon his
nomination. "It will be alike my highest plea
sure," he wrote, "as well as my first poHtical
duty to do the utmost in my power to promote
your election. The earliest moments of my re
turning and confirmed health will be devoted to
securing you as large a vote in Maine as she
would have given for myself." The pledge was
kept; and although the undertaking could not
be fully carried out, Maine did give a comfort
able majority of nearly seventeen thousand to
the Republican ticket. Nor did Mr. Blaine con
fine his efforts in behalf of Hayes and Wheeler
to his own state. He was at the service of the
national committee, and made a long and ardu
ous campaign in many states, east and west.
Wherever he went he was greeted by large and
enthusiastic crowds, and received most gratify
ing manifestations of the admiration and devo
tion of his Republican friends.
In his earnest and zealous campaigning in
behalf of Governor Hayes, Mr. Blaine exhibited
one of the finest traits of his character as a pubUc
man, — a negative trait, to be sure, — the com
plete absence of anything Hke sulkiness in defeat,
or spitefulness toward those who had compassed
his defeat. His conduct under disappointment
is no doubt partly to be explained by a certain
personal self-respect which forbade him to ex-

THE CHECK IN 1876 187
hibit to the world the wounds he had received.
On one occasion when he had received a serious re
buff he said to his secretary, who expressed sur
prise at bis apparent indifference, " Why should
I show people my sore toes ? "
But there is the best authority for saying that
Mr. Blaine was really not seriously disappointed
at being rejected by the Cincinnati convention,
and not nearly so sorry over the result as were
most of his friends. If his own assertions on this
point are dismissed as insincere, his conduct and
bearing, in pubUc and in private, among those so
near him constantly that they could not be de
ceived, affirm it in the most positive manner. It is
scarcely too much to say that he enjoyed his cam
paigning at home and in other states during the
autumn of 1876 quite as much as if it had been
undertaken to promote his own election.
Almost immediately after the close of the Cin
cinnati convention General Bristow retired from
the cabinet. Senator Lot M. Morrill, of Maine,
was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and
entered upon the duties of that office on the 6th
of July. Governor Connor appointed Mr. Blaine
to fill the vacancy in the Senate, and his creden
tials were presented on the 12th. But his health
did not permit him then to take his seat in the
Senate, and he went to Maine for his conva
lescence. The appointment met the almost uni-

188 JAMES G. BLAINE
versal approval of the people of Maine. His
persistent opponents, in the hope of defeating the
ratification of Governor Connor's selection by
the legislature, flooded the members of that body
with the literature of the Little Rock affair. Yet
Mr. Blaine was so popular at home, and enjoyed
to such a degree the confidence of those who knew
him, that when the election took place he received
the votes, not only of all the RepubUcan members
of the legislature, but of all the Democrats also.
He was chosen unanimously, both to fill the va
cancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Morrill,
and for the full term of six years from the 4th of
March, 1877.
He took his seat in the Senate, under the gov
ernor's appointment, at the beginning of the next
session, December, 1876. He engaged but Uttle
in the debates at that session, and only once went
much beyond the point of incidental remarks.
Although intensely interested in the controversy
over the count of the electoral votes and the
determination of the result, he confined himself
for the most part to a private expression of his
views. During the protracted session of the Sen
ate at the close of which that body passed the
Electoral Commission bill, he spoke for about
five minutes in earnest opposition to the measure.
His point was that such a commission as was
proposed was extra-constitutional. He did not

THE CHECK IN 1876 189
beHeve that Congress had the power which it was
proposed to confer on fifteen men, and still less
the power to transfer it to the commission.
Notwithstanding all that was said at that criti
cal juncture, probably no person whose opinion
carries weight would now dissent from Mr.
Blaine's contention on the constitutional ques
tion. Yet in all probabiUty, were a similar
crisis to arise, there would be Uttle opposition
to that or some equally unauthorized device for
solving an otherwise insoluble problem. The
alternative was, and again would be, anarchy.
Congress had, first in 1864, and afterward at the
two intervening elections, counted the electoral
votes under the operation of a joint rule which
involved the exclusion of any electoral votes to
which either House objected. The object was not
to pass upon the vahdity of contesting electoral
colleges in any state, but to prevent the counting
of votes from any state that had passed an ordi
nance of secession and had not been restored to
all its rights under the Constitution. Under this
rule, should the House reject the vote of any one
of the states in dispute, — Louisiana, South Caro
lina, and Florida, — Mr. Tilden would be elected.
The RepubUcans asserted, and in this they were
certainly correct, that a joint rule expires with the
Congress which adopts it, and is of no force unless
renewed. They also maintained that, in the ab-

190 JAMES G. BLAINE
sence of any rule governing the count of electoral
votes, it is the duty of the presiding officer of the
Senate to count those votes and to declare the
result. In such a situation, with a RepubHcan Senate
and a Democratic House of Representatives, it is
easy to see, not merely that there was danger of a
most regrettable conflict, but that, unless some
plan were agreed to by both parties and both .
Houses, each House and each party would declare
its own candidate elected. Inasmuch as no one
then, or since that time, has suggested a less ob
jectionable measure than the Electoral Commis
sion, and inasmuch as without some measure of
the sort the country would have been in danger of
civil war, we may concede that Mr. Blaine's
point was well taken, and yet hold that it was a
wise and patriotic act to pass the bill to which he
objected. Moreover, it may be urged with force
that, if it is unconstitutional to provide that an
electoral vote shall not be rejected without the
concurrence of both Houses of Congress — it must
surely also be unconstitutional to allow one of the
two Houses to secure the rejection of a vote.
The decisions of the Electoral Commission,
which could not be reversed, because the Senate
would not reverse them, resulted in the declara
tion that Mr. Hayes was elected. He was in
stalled in the office of President, and immediately

THE CHECK IN 1876 191
changed the poUcy maintained by General
Grant. The few state governments under Re
pubUcan control, which had b#en upheld by the
general government against the attempts of the
white people to overthrow them, were abandoned
to their fate. Although Mr. Blaine was never in
favor of "bayonet rule," the desertion by the
President of the cause of the very governments
whose validity was essential to his own claim to
the office he occupied, seemed to Mr. Blaine a
surrender of the only tenable argument the Presi
dent possessed and a betrayal of his friends. The
fact that in making up his cabinet Mr. Hayes
not only did not invite Mr. Blaine to become a
member of it, but, in offering a place to one of
Mr. Blaine's leading supporters, disregarded his
wishes in the selection, and that he made choice
for another department of a persistent and life
long enemy of the senator, gave opportunity to
the ever-vigilant critics to ascribe his objection to
the new Southern policy to personal disappoint
ment.1 But Mr. Blaine, even if he had been
' He was asked soon after the beginning of Mr. Hayes's
administration how he liked the new cabinet. He replied by
telling a story of a party of young fellows who went on a
camping tour. They chose one of their number as cook, and
he consented to accept the position on condition that the first
person who complained of the food should take his place.
The first man who set his teeth into a biscuit the next morn
ing exclaimed, "Whew ! how salt this bread is!" And then
he added quickly, " but I like biscuit a little salty."

192 JAMES G. BLAINE
asked to become one of President Hayes's ad
visers, would never have consented to a course
which would have been inconsistent with aU that
he had said in the House and on the stump, since
the political overturn of 1874 had shown what
the Southern white men intended to do, and what
they had already nearly accompHshed.
Indeed, Mr. Blaine had indicated his own
opinion, and had taken a course different from
that which the President was about to adopt, be
fore the new poHcy was even foreshadowed. The
Senate met in special session on the day of the
inauguration. It was closely divided poUticaUy,
and there were several persons claiming seats
from Southern states to whose admission there
were objections. Most of them were Democrats,
but the Democrats themselves objected to the
admission of Governor KeUogg, of Louisiana,
whose claim rested upon the authority of the
famous " returning board " of that state. It is a
tradition of the Senate that a new member shall
keep himself modestly in the background. The
older senators are disposed to resent as an act
of presumption even a sHght and occasional par
ticipation in the debates by a novice. No doubt
Mr. Blaine was fully aware of this custom of the
Senate, yet on the second day of the session he
offered a resolution that Mr. Kellogg be sworn
in as a senator. One or two only of the RepubH-

THE CHECK IN 1876 193
cans came to his support, and he was forced to
sustain his side of the question almost alone. The
Democrats opposed him, and proposed that the
case be postponed until the committees should
be appointed and the matter examined. Queerly
enough they were allowed to have their way. Six
of the Republicans voted with them, — two or
three new senators among them, who explained
their votes by saying frankly that they did not
understand the Louisiana question. Mr. Conk
ling was one of the six, and he did not explain
his vote. He certainly needed no additional Ught
on the controversy. The proposition to admit
Mr. Kellogg was defeated, 29 to 35, and it was
not until the regular session that he was allowed
to take his seat.
Mr. Blaine showed no hesitation in taking
ground in opposition to the abandonment of the
enfranchised, and now to be disfranchised, freed-
.men. When a despatch was received from Gov
ernor Chamberlain, of South Carolina, giving
information that he was advised — apparently by
the chief member of the Cabinet, Mr. Evarts, —
that he ought to yield, for the good of the coun
try, Mr. Blaine read the despatch to the Senate,
and exclaimed : —
"Is there a senator on this floor who desires
to stand sponsor for that despatch, or for the
poUcy that it covers ? Is there a senator here who

194 JAMES G. BLAINE
proposes to abandon the remnant that is left of
the RepubUcan party between the Potomac and
the Rio Grande, and that it shaU go down for the
pubUc good ? . . . I propose for myself, so long
as I shall be entrusted with a seat on this floor,
that, whoever else shall halt or grow weak in
maintaining it, so long as I have the strength I
will stand for southern Union men of both colors;
and when I cease to do that before any presence,
North or South, in official bodies or before pubHc
assembUes, may my tongue cleave to the roof of
my mouth and my right hand forget its cunning."
It is too early, even yet, after the lapse of more
than a quarter of a century since those words
were spoken, to pronounce Mr. Hayes's poHcy
right and Mr. Blaine's judgment wrong. In view
of questions regarding suffrage in the Southern
States which are still undecided, or have been
decided arbitrarily, it may be that, even if Re
publican reconstruction must be regarded as.
unduly harsh in its operation, the RepubUcan
surrender was premature.
During the session of 1877-78 Mr. Blaine made
a speech in the Senate which was one of the few
utterances from his Ups that may justly be criti
cized as showing a lack of tact and even of good
taste. Maine sent to the national statuary gal
lery a statue of WilUam King, the first governor
of the State. The exercises of presentation took

THE CHECK IN 1876 195
place in the Senate on January 22, 1878. Sena
tor Hannibal HamUn was the first speaker, and
was followed by Mr. Blaine, who took occasion
to contrast the active loyalty'of the people of the
District of Maine with the official and private
aloofness of old Massachusetts, during the war
of 1812, and to represent in rather a strong Ught
the difficulties and opposition that Maine encoun
tered from the government and the leading men
of the Commonwealth in obtaining consent to
the separation, which took place in 1820. He
had given notice to the senators from Massachu
setts that he was about to refer to these matters,
and after he had concluded, Mr. Dawes and Mr.
Hoar, although not calling in question any of the
specific facts alleged by Mr. Blaine, resented his
attack upon the state as uncalled for, and as giv
ing an incorrect idea both of the general attitude
of Massachusetts toward the second war with
Great Britain, and of its course in the matter of
the erection of the new State of Maine. The dis
cussion became quite warm and somewhat acri
monious. No one can read it without a feeUng
that whatever Mr. Blaine's motive was in intro
ducing the subject, his speech resulted in an un
pleasant discordance which was quite out of place
on such an occasion. It gave an opportunity to
his RepubUcan opponents, who were rather nu
merous in Massachusetts, to insinuate that his

196 JAMES G. BLAINE
purpose was to pay off an old score — the hostiUty
to him on the part of some of the delegates from
that state to the convention of 1876. Although
there was undoubtedly nothing in this charge,
yet it is undeniable that his assault on Massa
chusetts intensified whatever feeUng against him
already existed, and that his speech on WilUam
King was not forgotten in 1884.
The great event of that session was the passage
of the act restoring the silver, dollar to the coinage,
against which the veto of President Hayes was
unavailing. Mr. Blaine indicated his position on
the question briefly in the debate on the resolution
of Senator Stanley Matthews, of Ohio, which de
clared that it would not be a violation of the pub
lic faith to pay the principal and interest of the
public debt in silver dollars. He argued the mat
ter more at length when the bill admitting silver to
free coinage on the same terms as gold came from
the House of Representatives, and was before the
Senate in the form of a substitute providing for
coinage of silver dollars on government account.
Mr. Blaine occupied ground between the two
extremes. Like a great many advocates of the
most scrupulous good faith toward pubUc credit
ors, he was a firm beHever in bimetalUsm — a
word not then invented. Moreover, he held that
it was unconstitutional to demonetize gold or sil
ver, either or both, and quoted a remark by Daniel

THE CHECK IN 1876 197
Webster to sustain his point on the constitutional
question. But he was inflexible in holding that the
bulUori value of the silver dollar must be equal to
that of the gold dollar, and that a remonetization
of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, — 4 12 J grains of
standard silver to the dollar, — when that amount
of silver was worth only ninety-two cents in the
market, would be a fraud upon all creditors. He
expected that a remonetization of silver by the
United States would be followed by similar action
on the part of Germany and the countries of the
Latin Union. His own proposition was to in
crease the weight of the silver dollar to 425 grains,
beHeving that the act of remonetization, which
would lead to a largely increased use of silver,
would also cause a sufficient rise in the value of
the metal to make the new dollar intrinsically
worth the gold dollar. At the current price of sil
ver bulHon his proposed dollar would be worth a
Uttle less than ninety-five cents.
Every student of the Uterature of the silver
controversy, which lasted almost exactly twenty
years, and which was at its beginning in the win
ter of 1877-78, is aware of the almost infinite
variety of opinions advanced. The gold standard
had to make its way against many logical and
theoretical obstacles. Among those who were
earnestly in favor of "good money" as distin
guished from " cheap money," who placed abso-

198 JAMES G. BLAINE
lute justice to creditors before favor to debtors,
who were opposed to inflation for the purpose of
bringing about good times, who did not beHeve
that the stamp of the government mint could
create value or increase value, — among this
class of men who always resisted the devices for
lowering the standard of value, from the earHest
greenback to the latest silver scheme, were a great
many strong and able thinkers who were more or
less attracted by the idea of bimetalUsm and
alarmed by the fancied dangers of monometal
lism. They doubted, as did Mr. Blaine, the con
stitutional power of Congress to estabUsh the
standard in one metal ; or they feared, as he did,
that a general adoption of the gold standard
would cause a scarcity of money and a great rise
of prices ; or they beHeved that a general return
to the dual standard by the countries which had
abandoned it would restore silver to its former
price, and would not merely make the American
silver dollar coined at the ratio with gold of six
teen to one actually worth the gold doUar, but
would make it worth so much more that the
United States would be forced, in order to retain
its silver, to adopt the Latin Union ratio of fifteen
to one.
It is not necessary to cite all the reasons which
led many advocates of " honest money," as they
called themselves, to concede one point after an-

THE CHECK IN 1876 199
other to those who urged the immediate and
unconditional free coinage of the silver dollar.
Those who erred in this way erred in good com
pany. Bimetallism had great and able champions,
both in this country and abroad, among men
who would never have advocated it if they had
believed that in its operation it would impair the
value of property or do injustice to creditors.
Mr. Blaine was on this point as firm as a rock.
He was entitled to his beHef on the subject of the
unconstitutionaUty of monometallism, and to his
faith that a heavier dollar than that of "the fa
thers" would become worth a gold dollar and
retain that value. But every proposition which
savored of injury to creditors and impairment of
the value of contracts he opposed steadily and
consistently. He resisted, for example, the argu
ment that because, when some of the bonds were
issued, silver and gold were by law equally a
standard of value, therefore it was equitable for
the government to discharge those obHgations in
silver. He said that the phrase " nominated in the
bond " is " not an honored phrase in this world's
history." " Let the pubHc creditor come face to face with
you," he said in a debate in the Senate, "and he
can say to you 'Silver and gold were equally
meant in the bond;' I so hold; but he can say to
you that you, representing the Congress of the

200 JAMES G. BLAINE
United States, have destroyed the value of silver
in the markets of the world. It was your demone
tization that discredited it. It was your act."
Mr. Howe, of Wisconsin, interrupted: "We
put it back." Mr. Blaine repUed : "Ah, but you
cannot put back the same thing. You have done
what you cannot undo. The pubHc creditor can
come face to face with you and say that when you,
with your power, by your act, discredited silver,
it was more valuable than what you agreed to
give him, but that by your sovereign power, over
which he had no control whatever, you destroyed
the money value of that article; and after you
had destroyed it, after you had taken out its pay
ing and its purchasing power, you turn around
and say, ' We will restore it because it is below
what it was, and we wiU force it upon you be
cause it is nominated in the bond.' "
The above is a good illustration of his attitude ;
and all his votes on the numerous amendments
offered to the silver bill, save only those relating
to the amount of silver the dollar was to contain,
were in accordance therewith. He voted against
the bill on its final passage, and again, when it
was returned by the house with the veto of the
President, he was recorded in the negative.
From the time of the silver debate onward Mr.
Blaine took a prominent part in the debates in the
Senate. Not many of the older members of that

THE CHECK IN 1876 201
body were on their feet so often as he, to express
opinions, to ask questions of the senator occupy
ing the floor, or to engage in the thrust and parry
of debate. Some of the questions of the day inter
ested him greatly, and he entered earnestly into
them. The now-forgotten controversy as to the
appointment of the third arbitrator on the subject
of the fisheries, under the Treaty of Washington,
was raised by him. The points he made were
never refuted; they were hardly questioned.
Great Britain was to appoint one arbitrator, the
United States one, and the two governments were
to agree on a third ; upon their failure to do so
within a certain time, the third was to be des
ignated by the Emperor of Austria-Hungary.
There were objections to the appointment of a
Belgian, which were first suggested and officially
admitted by Lord Ripon, based on the close
relations between Great Britain and Belgium.
Yet when the State Department submitted a
Ust of acceptable persons, ministers from many
European and American countries at Washing
ton, they were all rejected on the ground that
Canada objected to the choice of any minister
accredited to this country, and the British min
ister proposed instead the name of the Belgian
minister at Washington. The British govern
ment adhered to this grossly, almost absurdly, in
consistent nomination, would Usten to no other

202 JAMES G. BLAINE
name, and dragged out the consideration of the
question until the time for an agreement had
expired. The Emperor of Austria-Hungary there
upon appointed the one gentleman to whom the
United States had objected. The arbitration re
sulted in a decision, assented to by the British and
Belgian members, that the United States should
pay the sum of five and a half milHon doUars
for the privileges granted under the Treaty of
Washington. It was held then, and has always been held
by every one who enjoyed those privileges, and
practically by every American, that the advan
tages secured to Canada — the chief of which
was the free admission of all fresh fish into the
great market of this country — were far more
valuable than the rights granted to Americans,
to buy bait, to fish within the three-mile Umit,
and to land and cure their fish. Mr. Blaine pre
sented the case very strongly, showed how com
pletely Great Britain had overreached this coun
try by practically selecting a majority of the
commission, and urged that, although it would be
on every account good poUcy to pay the amount
awarded, that should not be done without letting
it be known that in the opinion of Congress the
arbitration had not been a fair one. The money
was paid, and Great Britain took no notice of the
objection.

THE CHECK IN 1876 203
This was Mr. Blaine's first essay in interna
tional affairs. But in the same session — that of
1877-78 — at which he took the lead in this
matter, he began bis service in the direction of
enlarging the trade of the country with Spanish-
America, in which region afterward, as Secretary
of State, he developed a national poUcy that
should always be associated with his name. He
urged with eloquence and great abiUty the estab-
Ushment of subsidized Unes of steamships to
South America, particularly to Brazil, and em
phasized the folly of allowing Great Britain and
Germany to seize and hold the trade of that
continent, without adopting measures to secure
commerce that might be had. The last speech
he made in the Senate, on January 27, 1881, a
few weeks before entering President Garfield's
cabinet, was on a subject closely allied to this.
Senator Beck, of Kentucky, introduced a reso
lution declaring that all laws which prevented
Americans from purchasing and registering under
the flag of the United States ships built abroad,
ought to be repealed. He spoke at great length
in favor of the poHcy of " free ships."
Mr. Blaine repUed at once, "without prepara
tion, and with no data except such as I recall from
memory." It was, nevertheless, an able speech,
in which the neglect of the shipping interest by
Congress was dwelt upon with almost as much

204 JAMES G. BLAINE
earnestness as was the discouragement of ship
building in this country that would be the conse
quence of Mr. Beck's poUcy. He called attention
in a striking passage to the fact that in the previ
ous twenty years Congress had given two hun
dred million acres of land and seventy milUon
dollars in cash in aid of internal transportation by
rail, but had devoted hardly a single dollar to
building up the foreign commerce of the country.
He cited the case of Brazil, which offered an
American company a subsidy of one hundred
thousand dollars a year to maintain a steamship
Une between New York and Rio de Janeiro, on
condition that the United States would grant an
equal sum. The offer was not accepted by Con
gress, the line was about to be discontinued, and
Americans would be reduced to the humiUation
of sending their letters to South America by way
of Liverpool. For a British company would bring
the coffee and india rubber of Brazil to New
York, would carry American produce to England,
and would complete the triangular voyage by
transporting British manufactures to Brazil.
He urged strongly the point that Mr. Beck
expressly conceded that the poUcy of free ships in
volved the dependence of this country on Great
Britain for ships for an indefinite period, and
contrasted the poHcy proposed with the actual
poUcy of Great Britain itself, which was paying

THE CHECK IN 1876 205
millions of dollars annually to maintain its own
steamship Unes, in the form of payment for the
carriage of the mails. He also referred to the
absolute dependence of a country which has a
navy upon a mercantile marine. The navy had
been starved, and would-be merchants were de
terred from engaging in ocean commerce by the
indifference of Congress. Mr. Beck's poUcy
would take away the last hope of creating at
home a business of shipbuilding.
A careful reading of Mr. Blaine's speeches —
this and others — on topics connected with busi
ness, particularly with the foreign trade, is neces
sary to show how far he was in advance of his
time, how fully he anticipated conditions and
arguments, and how definitely he set forth a
poUcy which has since been adopted and ex
tended by the party to which he was all his Ufe
attached. The government was practically at war with
itself during the administration of Mr. Hayes.
The House of Representatives was controlled by
the Democrats during his whole term ; and from
1879 to 1881 both branches of Congress were in
their hands. While the overthrow of RepubUcan-
ism and the suppression of the negro vote were
nearing accompHshment in the Southern States,
the Democratic party in Congress was bending
aU its energy to expunge the legislation by means

206 JAMES G. BLAINE
of which a stand had been made against those
political schemes. The history of the long contest
is extremely interesting, but is so familiar in its
general outHnes that it need not be rehearsed.
Congress held the purse strings. For the purpose
had in view, either House held the purse strings.
The President might veto appropriation bills
bearing " riders " that repealed laws deemed by
the South obnoxious, but so long as the House of
Representatives refused to vote suppUes save on
condition that the poHtical legislation be accepted
with the grant of money for civil and miUtary pur
poses, that body dominated the situation. It was
inevitable that in the end the executive depart
ment should yield to the legislative, or the govern
ment would die of starvation.
Mr. Blaine did not intervene often in the de
bates on the issues raised in this conflict, but his
words when he did take part were weighty and —
to the members of his own party at least — con
vincing. His most important speeches on the
Southern question were deUvered, the one on
December 11, 1878, at the third and concluding
session of the Forty-fifth Congress, the other on
April 4, 1879, at the first session of the Forty-
sixth Congress, called by President Hayes in
consequence of the failure of appropriation bills.
On the first of these occasions Mr. Blaine spoke
on a resolution introduced by himself, providing

THE CHECK IN 1876 207
for an investigation of the denial and abridg
ment of the right of suffrage " in any of the States
of the Union," but really of the means by which
the negro vote of the South had been suppressed.
He brought out in a most striking way the fact
that the Southern white men enjoyed, man for
man, vastly more political power than an equal
number of men at the North. For example, South
CaroHna, Mississippi and Louisiana had as
many representatives in Congress as Iowa and
Wisconsin; but in those Southern states the votes
of colored men were not allowed to be cast, or if
cast not allowed to be counted, and thus sixty
thousand men in those states exercised as great
power as one hundred and thirty-two thousand
men in Wisconsin and Iowa. The speech was by
no means confined to this point, but the numerical
exposition of the inequity of the condition which
the Southern people had brought about was the
most prominent feature of it. Mr. Blaine's resolu
tion, modified with his consent, was adopted
by the Senate, and the investigation and report
by the Teller committee were the result, — an ar
gumentative result only, for the RepubUcan party
has never ventured unitedly to take up the pro
blem of the over-representation of the South.
The use of statistics to carry conviction to the
minds of his hearers was one of Mr. Blaine's fa
vorite methods in argument. On the occasion of

208 JAMES G. BLAINE
the second speech mentioned above he made such
use with great effect. The Southern Democrats
and their Northern alHes were making a persistent
effort to repeal the clause in an act of Congress
. passed in 1865, which by impHcation aUowed the
presence of a miUtary force to preserve the peace
at the polls. They made much of the intimida
tion practised by the army and urged the repeal
in the name of liberty. Mr. Blaine, in the course
of his speech, challenged any senator to specify
the time and place of such intimidation, or of
the presence of soldiers at a voting-place while
an election was taking place. Only one such case
since the close of the Civil War could be, or at aU
events was, cited. Mr. Blaine turned the whole
affair into ridicule by showing that in the entire
South there were only eleven hundred and fifty-
five soldiers. He said there were twelve hundred
and three counties in those states, and therefore
there was less than one soldier to a county "to
intimidate, overrun, oppress, and destroy the
Uberties of fifteen milUon people, and rob them
of freedom at the polls." Also, he remarked, there
was one soldier for every seven hundred square
miles. He characterized the agitation and pre
tended alarm over miUtary intimidation as "a
prodigious and absolute farce, a miserably manu
factured false issue, a pretence without the least
foundation in the world."

THE CHECK IN 1876 209
The Southern question was so much on his
mind, and his sense of the injustice that was in
danger of becoming permanent, because it was
neither checked nor rebuked, was so strong, that
in 1880 he contributed the remarkable paper to
the " North American Review," March issue, on
the questions : " Ought the negro to be disfran
chised ? Ought he to have been enfranchised ? "
to which brief reference has already been made.1
If Mr. Blaine's views are obsolete at the pre
sent day, that is no more than can be said of the
views of all the other contributors to the sym
posium. Mr. Blaine held, not only that the negro
ought not to be disfranchised, but that he could
not be legally deprived of the right of suffrage.
One vote more than one third in either branch of
Congress would prevent the annulment of the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and "if
these securities and safeguards should give way,
then the disfranchisement could not be effected
so long as a majority in one branch in the legis
latures of one state more than one fourth of all
the states should refuse to assent to it, and re
fuse to assent to a convention to which it might
be referred. No human right on this continent
is more completely guaranteed than the right
against disfranchisement on account of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude, as em-
1 P. 77.

210 JAMES G. BLAINE
bodied in the Fifteenth Amendment to the Con
stitution of the United States."
He was equally emphatic in answering the
second question. "If the question were again
submitted to the judgment of Congress I would
vote for suffrage in the Hght of experience with
more confidence than I voted for it in the Ught of
an experiment."
On both these points pubUc opinion at the
North has undergone a change. Where it has not
gone to the extent of regarding the enfranchise
ment of the negro as a poUtical blunder, and of
explicit approval of the steps taken in most of the
Southern states to nulHfy the two amendments,
it has become indifferent and tolerant. Mr.
Blaine's argument was powerful and logicaUy
unanswerable, but he counted too Uttle upon the
determination of the Southern white men to
resume the absolute poHtical power which they
exercised before the Civil War, too much upon
the restraining power of the letter of the Consti
tution, unsupported by legislative and executive
measures to enforce it, and too much upon a con
tinuing pubUc sentiment in the old "free States"
in favor of upholding the rights of those whom the
issue of the war had freed from bondage. But it
is a singular fact that Messrs. Lamar, Stephens,
Hampton, and Hendricks were almost as em
phatic in declaring against disfranchisement as

THE CHECK IN 1876 211
was Mr. Blaine himself. If the first three of these
eminent Democrats represented the opinion of
the white men in their respective states of Missis
sippi, Georgia, and South CaroUna, it foUows
that pubUc sentiment in the South as well as at
the North has undergone a complete change dur
ing the last quarter-century.
Mr. Blaine became much interested in the
movement against Chinese immigration. In Feb
ruary, 1879, he deUvered two speeches on the
subject in the Senate, and wrote a long letter to
the New York "Tribune" in answer to objec
tions raised to his position. At that time the
agitation against the coming of the Chinese,
which had originated on the "sand lots" of
San Francisco, was greatly deprecated by a
large number of men who regarded it as con
trary to the spirit of American institutions and
as catering to a base prejudice. The position
taken by Mr. Blaine seemed to them a yield
ing to the demands of a class of men who put
self interest and race hatred above the gener
ous hospitaUty which the country had always
extended to all the peoples of the world. On this
question also opinion has changed greatly and
has come around to Mr. Blaine's position. His
arguments, prepared in 1879, would be accepted
to-day by a vast majority of those who then criti
cized and rejected them.

212 JAMES G. BLAINE
After Garfield's tender of the Secretaryship of
State had been accepted by Mr. Blaine, he ceased
to be regular in bis attendance at the sessions
of the Senate, and early in February, 1881, his
name was recorded for the last time among those
voting. His service in the Senate, therefore,
lasted but Uttle more than four years. That is not
long enough to determine how well quaUfied a
man is to achieve a position of the highest influ
ence in that body. Some of Mr. Blaine's natural
and acquired faculties were disadvantageous to
him at the beginning of his senatorial career, and
had not wholly ceased to be so when he retired
from the chamber. The Senate is a" continuous
body, and always contains a large number of
members who have seen many years of service.
It is natural for them, not only to assume as of
right leadership in all the functions of the Senate,
but also to discourage anything which seems Hke
forwardness on the part of new members. Mr.
Blaine was not one who could be repressed by
unwritten laws prescribing the conduct of juniors.
If any one should have been permitted to take
full part in the activities of the Senate immedi
ately upon his admission to a seat, he was surely
such a man. His long experience in Congress had
given him a familiarity with all the pubUc ques
tions of the time as profound as that enjoyed by
any senator. His standing as a poHtical leader in

THE CHECK IN 1876 213
the country at large entitled his opinions to great
weight. No one in either branch of Congress was
more ready than he in debate.
Nevertheless the rule tacitly laid down and
rigidly enforced by the seniors made no exception
in his case. So far as the proverbial senatorial
courtesy permitted, the veterans of the Senate
made evident their feeUng that Mr. Blaine's ac
tive intervention in debate was an unwarranted
intrusion. Specific examples might be, but of
course wiU not be, given by the score, illustrat
ing the cool, supercilious tone in which his re
marks in debate were received and his pungent
questions answered. Those who care to examine
one illustration will find it in the debate on the
distribution of the Alabama Claims money in the
Senate, on April 19, 1880. l Not that Mr. Blaine
greatly minded the chilly courtesy or the some
times almost undisguised hostiHty of his inter
locutors, or that he repaid them in their own coin.
He was accustomed to receive as well as to give
blows; he was too conscious of his own powers
to be vanquished on the floor by anything except
argument; he was too skilful a debater to be
forced to lose his temper; he had too much per
sonal pride to show that he felt it if the antagonist
in his prodding touched the quick.
1 Congressional Record, 46th Congress, 2d Sess., part 2,
p. 2515, et seg.

214 JAMES G. BLAINE
In a few years more he would have ceased to
be guilty of the atrocious crime of being a young
man in the Senate. But he would never have out
grown the habit of frequent interruption of the
speeches of other senators. The custom of the
Senate in debate is different from that of the
House of Representatives, and although inter
ruptions are tolerated, there is a Umit beyond
which they are resented. Mr. Blaine was noted
for his frequent and persistent interjection of
little speeches into the speeches of his colleagues,
corrections of their statements made in a dog
matic tone, and questions intended by their very
form to expose what seemed to him the faUacies
the senator on the floor was uttering. It is Uttle to
the purpose that his interruptions almost always
served to throw Hght on the question under dis
cussion. It was an importation into the Senate
debates of a method widely different from that to
which the body was accustomed, and one which
the senators did not Uke.
Aside from this pecuHarity, which was, in
deed, a part of his nature, and which had been
intensified by his long training in the more stir
ring and turbulent atmosphere of the other branch
of Congress, Mr. Blaine had all the quafifica-
tions of an ideal senator — wide knowledge,
cool judgment, patience in investigation, and the
abiHty to express himself vigorously and feUcit-

THE CHECK IN 1876 215
ously in convincing argument, on the spur of
the moment as well as after careful preparation.
That he had not, in the four years of his service in
the Senate, acquired over his fellow members any
thing Hke the influence he had possessed in the
House, nor even an approach to the reputation
he enjoyed among the people of the country, is
due to the rigid law of etiquette that prevails in
the Senate, under which a member must pass
through a novitiate before he is allowed to speak
with authority, and to be heard with respect.

VIII
IN GARFIELD'S CABINET
During practically the whole period of Mr.
Blaine's service in Congress the conduct of the
RepubHcan canvass in Maine at every election
was entrusted to him. In all that time — almost
twenty years — no contests were more difficult,
none called more imperatively for the exercise
of cool judgment and for sturdy adherence to
political principle, than the last three in which
he was engaged.
The "greenback idea" did not at the outset
make much progress in Maine. At all events it
did not manifest itself in a breaking of party ties
so early as it did elsewhere. In 1876, when the
National, or Greenback, party was fully organ
ized, there were but a few hundred votes in Maine
for Weaver, the party candidate for president.
But in 1877 the number rose to more than five
thousand, and in the spring and summer months
of 1878 the inroads which the new organization
was making in the RepubUcan party were cause
for serious alarm, and led to earnest discussion
as to the best way to meet and quell the revolt.
The timid were in favor of making, in the state

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 217
platform of the party, such a declaration of prin
ciple, or lack of principle, that desertion would
cease and some at least of the deserters would be
drawn back into the ranks. That was not Mr.
Blaine's view of poUtical duty. " The Republican
party may be doomed this year to general defeat,"
he wrote to one of the timorous souls, " but you
will pardon me for saying that if it should attempt
to assume the ground indicated by you, it would
be covered with ridicule and could not escape
ignominy. There are to be two parties in this
country on the question of the finances : the one
for ' honest money,' the other for ' wild inflation,'
— the one for maintaining the national honor,
the other leading to the verge and possibly leap
ing over the precipice of repudiation."
The RepubUcans of Maine stood by their
record in favor of "honest money," and were de
feated. At that time an actual majority of votes
was required to elect a governor. The combined
vote of the Democrats and the Greenbackers
exceeded that of the RepubUcans by some ten
thousand. By fusion upon candidates they car
ried the legislature; and in accordance with the
constitutional system the legislature elected as
governor the Democratic candidate, and divided
the other state offices between them. For the first
time in sixteen years the Republicans did not elect
a full delegation of members of Congress. A

218 JAMES G. BLAINE
Democrat and a Greenbacker were chosen in two
of the five districts. In not one of the five did the
RepubUcan candidate receive a clear majority.
After the Maine election had resulted in an
honorable defeat, Mr. Blaine responded to the
loud calls that had been coming to him from other
states, and entered upon a notable campaigning
tour in the West. It might rather be called a tri
umphal progress, for he was everywhere received
with an enthusiasm which indicated the highest
popularity. The RepubHcan newspapers of the
cities in which he was announced to speak began
days in advance of his arrival to sound his praise
and to call the attention of their readers to the
poHtical feast that was in store for them. His
movements were chronicled as though he were a
prince. His admirers assembled in great throngs
at the railway stations through which he was to
pass, crowds of men greeted him on his arrival in
the cities where he was to speak, the surrounding
country poured out its thousands to swell his
audience* His reception in Iowa was particularly
noteworthy, and the newspapers of that state
could find no words too extravagant to apply to
him. A remarkable situation developed in Maine
after the state election in September, 1879. The
entire state government was in the hands of the
Fusionists — Democrats and Greenbackers. After

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 219
an earnest contest the RepubUcans regained
most of the ground they had lost the year before.
Their candidate for governor received a sub
stantial pluraHty of the votes, although not the
majority necessary to elect him; and both
branches of the legislature were recovered. Not
long after the election, when it was supposed that
the result was known beyond all doubt, rumors
began to fly about in Democratic circles that the
governor and council had discovered grave errors
in the returns and that a majority of Fusionists
had been elected to the legislature. In Repub
Ucan circles the version of the affair was that
the governor and council were plotting to reverse
the actual result of the election, and to " count
out " the RepubUcan majority. Ultimately it was
proved beyond question or dispute that the Re
pubUcan version was correct. The official returns
were, under the law, in the custody of the gover
nor and his council, all of whom were Fusionists,
elected by the legislature in January, 1879. It
was never proved, — indeed the matter was never
fuUy investigated, — who actuaUy committed the
frauds, but it is wholly impossible that they
should have been committed without the guilty
connivance of many of the chief men in the state
government. The names of RepubHcan candi
dates were changed on many of the returns, as,
for example, by crossing a T, the middle initial of

220 JAMES G. BLAINE
a candidate's name, thus changing it to an F,
in the official return of a town, and thus making
the votes for the RepubHcan candidate in that
town " scattering." A great variety of such alter
ations were made, in every case to the loss of
RepubUcan candidates for the legislature. Some
real errors were discovered in returns favorable
to Fusionists, and these were returned to Fusion
ist town clerks for correction. No RepubUcan
was permitted to see the returns, and as it was not
known in which cities and towns the pretended
errors had been found, no corrected returns
could be obtained to substitute for those which
had been tampered with and falsified.
Every change cost the RepubUcans a member;
no Democrat or Greenbacker lost his seat. The
alterations were just sufficient to return a Fusion
majority to each House. The governor and coun
cil issued certificates to those thus counted in.
Of course a fraud of this sort, if successful so
far as the organization of the legislature was con
cerned, could not be overthrown. No RepubHcan
contestant would be admitted, and the legisla
ture, which would continue to be Fusionist to the
end, would elect a Fusionist governor, council,
and all state officers, — for in Maine no state
officer except the governor is elected by the people.
Mr. Blaine was again campaigning in the West
when this plot was hatched, but on learning what

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 221
was doing he hurried home, and from first to last
managed the rescue of the state from the hands
of the conspirators. The situation was most dif
ficult. A majority of those who held certificates
of election to the Senate and House of Repre
sentatives were Fusionists, and there was not one
among all those who had been counted in and
who knew that they had not been elected, who
had sufficient poUtical honor and self-respect to
decline his certificate or even to absent himself
from the meeting of the legislature. Those who
held these certificates had the advantage of regu
larity. The State House was in possession of the
Fusionist governor and council. Moreover, not
merely were threats made that the Fusion legis
lature should be installed by force, if necessary,
but the adherents of the state government assem
bled at Augusta prepared and equipped them
selves to carry out the threats. As the time for
the meeting of the legislature drew near, the State
House was made ready to resist a siege, and
armed men were quartered and fed within it.
The RepubUcans were resolved that the fraud
should not be consummated, and many of them
were in favor of meeting force with force. Mr.
Blaine, to whose opinion all the cooler men de
ferred, and whose plan of operation they adopted,
would have no violence. He had a better way in
mind. It would occupy too much space to tell the

222 JAMES G. BLAINE
whole story of the conflict. Fortunately the
major-general of the militia of Maine was ex-
Governor Joshua L. Chamberlain, a prominent
general of the Civil War, and he placed himself
on the side of fairness and honesty. Although
there were rival legislatures for a time, the Re
publicans managed, under the guidance of Blaine,
to get the whole question before the Supreme
Court of the state, which decided unanimously
that the legislature, consisting of the RepubUcans
who held certificates and those who had been
counted out, constituted the legal legislature. The
Fusionists yielded at last with bad grace, the Re
publican candidate for governor was declared
elected, the other state officers were chosen and
installed in office, and the danger of violence
came to an end. Subsequently a joint committee
investigated the alteration of the returns and is
sued a report in which specimens of the altera
tions and forgeries were printed in facsimile. A
minority of the committee reported briefly that
"though they cannot deny that the recital of
facts in the [majority] report is substantiaUy
in accordance with the evidence," they could
not "give their assent to all of the arguments
and conclusions of such majority report." They
abstained from specifying to which of the con
clusions they did not agree. But they did ex
press their regret that not one of the members

IN GARFffiLD'S CABINET 223
of the council had attempted "to explain the
irregularities which seem to exist." Only one
member of the council had responded to the re
quest to appear before the committee, and "he
failed to explain the irregularities which had been
proved." The daring attempt to steal the state govern
ment is thus practically admitted by the two high-
minded Fusionists who served on the committee.
The credit of thwarting the plot was universally
ascribed to Blaine alone, although, of course,
much of his success was due to the cordial and
courageous cooperation of General Chamberlain.
It is not generally known, though it was always
suspected, that Mr. Blaine was in danger of his
Ufe during those stirring days in January, 1880.
But it is a fact. Not long ago a visitor at the
State House informed the state Ubrarian that he
and another Fusionist were stationed in the
cupola of the State House, and that one day they
saw Blaine walking up and down in his back
yard, only a few hundred yards away. His com
panion raised his rifle and aimed at Blaine, but
he — the Hbrarian's informant, — compelled the
man to lower his arm, and the shot was not fired.
It was now the year of the presidential election.
Congress had been more than a month in session,
and president-making was, much more than leg
islation, the occupation of the minds of pubUc

224 JAMES G. BLAINE
men. The movement to make Blaine the Re
pubUcan candidate had lost none of its force
since 1876, had, indeed, rather increased in mo
mentum. Yet he could not be induced to do any
thing to promote his own candidacy; he could
not even be persuaded to leave Augusta and go
to the scene of action until the " count-out " had
been defeated by the judgment of the Supreme
Court. Nor after he returned to Washington did
he adopt a course differing in any respect from
that which he had pursued in 1876. Those who
busied themselves to promote his candidacy did
so in their own way without instructions or guid
ance from him. He would not have been the man
he was if he had been indifferent, or if he had not
been touched by the ardent devotion of his friends.
But, past master in the arts of poUtics and of elec
tioneering though he was, he had no personal
part in the work of obtaining delegates to the
convention. The poUtical situation at that time was pecu
liar. In 1876 the influence of General Grant's
administration had been hostile to Blaine, and
had been divided between Morton and Conk
Ung. Grant himself had taken offence at some
thing said or done by Blaine, and the two men
were not on speaking terms. Conkling's Ufe-
long hostiUty was well known. Some of Blaine's
friends attributed his defeat in 1876 to Conk-

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 225
Ung's management, and it is certain that the
transfer of the New York vote to Hayes at Cin
cinnati decided that contest. In 1880 Grant had
returned from his grand tour around the world,
during which he was feted and honored as few
men have been who wore crowns, and the idea
was broached that, although a third term for a
president immediately foUowing two continuous
terms was contrary to American tradition and
to good poUcy, a third term after an interim of
four years was not objectionable. Mr. Conkling
was the prime mover in the attempt to nominate
General Grant, for at that time his own candi
dacy was hopeless. The idea of a third term
for the general was exceedingly attractive to a
large number of RepubUcans and the movement
had surprising success.
So far as the list of candidates for the nomina
tion was concerned, the condition was analogous
to that in 1876. The Grant forces, if they may be
so denominated, which had been divided between
Senators Morton and ConkUng, were now united
in favor of Grant himself, and they were aug
mented by a majority of the votes of Pennsyl
vania, which, under the guiding hand of Mr.
J. Donald Cameron, had been brought to the
support of the third term, together with more
than one half of those of IlUnois, which were se
cured by the influence of General John A. Logan.

226 JAMES G. BLAINE
All combined they made General Grant the lead
ing candidate. Senator John Sherman succeeded
to the vote of Ohio, given four years before to
Governor Hayes, who was not a candidate for
reelection, and he also had a part of the anti-
Blaine vote cast for Bristow in 1876, the rest of
which was bestowed upon Senator George F.
Edmunds, of Vermont and upon Mr. EHhu B.
Washburne, of Illinois. Mr. Windom, of Minne
sota, took the place as a minor candidate held
four years before by Governor JeweU, of Con
necticut. The fundamental difference between the situa
tion in the two conventions was that in 1876 there
was but one candidate against whom the friends
of all the others were ready, for various reasons,
to combine, although not ready to combine to
support any one man ; whereas in 1880 there
were two candidates, nearly equally matched in
the number of their supporters, and having more
than three fourths of all the delegates, to both of
whom most of the other delegates were strongly
opposed. Had not the friends of Grant and of
Blaine been also mutually antagonistic, one or the
other of them would have been nominated. But
Mr. Conkling, who led the Grant contingent
with force and skill, was as earnest in his effort to
defeat Blaine as he was to carry the nomination
for his own candidate. Blaine, too, who watched

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 227
the contest from his Ubrary in Washington, and
was in constant consultation with his representa
tives at Chicago, aside from his personal interest
in his own fortunes, and his opposition on prin
ciple to a third term, had both his own grievance
against General Grant, and more than one old
score against Mr. ConkUng, as motives to deter
him from consenting that any of his own sup
porters should go over to Grant. The outcome of
these several antagonisms, when it developed,
seemed not only natural, but inevitable. Yet it
was not reached until it was evident that neither
of the two leading candidates could be nominated.
It was a long contest. The roll of states was
not called the first time for the nomination of a
candidate for President until the fifth day of the
convention. General Grant had 304 votes and
Mr. Blaine had 284, just one vote less than he
received on the first trial of strength in the con
vention of 1876. The roll was called again and
again, until on that day the delegates had recorded
themselves twenty-eight times. Not once did
General Grant receive more than 309 votes or
less than 302. Mr. Blaine's vote varied between
285 and 276. On the next day eight votes more
were taken. Grant's supporters held firm, and on
the thirty-fifth vote increased to 3 13. A diversion
in favor of Senator John Sherman took place,
chiefly to the disadvantage of Mr. Blaine, who had

228 JAMES G. BLAINE
but 270 on the thirty-second vote. The impos
sibility of nominating either of the leading candi
dates, as well as the disincUnation of the conven
tion to unite on Mr. Sherman, being now mani
fest, a movement in favor of General Garfield
was begun. Garfield was a member of the
convention, was the recognized leader and man
ager of Sherman's candidacy, and had been con
spicuously and agreeably prominent in the pro
ceedings. There is no doubt that Blaine himself
sanctioned and encouraged the break in General
Garfield's favor, and on the thirty-sixth vote he
was nominated. Grant held firmly his 306 votes,
two more than he had at the beginning.
Although Blaine was defeated, the dogged per
sistence of his adherents was, as it was also in
the case of General Grant, a great personal tri
umph. As in 1876, his support was far more gen
eral than was that of any other candidate. First
and last there were only six of the forty-seven
States and territories which did not give him a
single vote, — Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri,
North Carolina, Vermont, — and Massachu
setts. The attack upon the Commonwealth when
the statue of Governor King was presented was
not forgotten. General Grant had votes from
only twenty-nine states and territories when his
support was at its maximum, and on the final vote
from only twenty-five. Moreover, no less than 120

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 229
of Grant's votes, on the first roll-call, were given
by delegates from the twelve states of the Con
federacy, not one of which would give a single
electoral vote for the Republican candidate,
against twenty-six votes from the same states for
Blaine. As has been already remarked, Conkling was
held answerable, by many of Blaine's friends,
for the defeat of his nomination in 1876. Un
doubtedly it was due to the same gentleman
that he was not nominated in 1880. The Hon.
Charles Emory Smith has made an exceedingly
interesting contribution to poHtical history in
connection with this convention.1 He says that
Senator John P. Jones, of Nevada, a close friend
of ConkUng, took frequent occasion before the
convention met to urge upon him and other
Grant leaders that they should make Blaine the
candidate if they could not nominate the gen
eral. There is reason to believe that the idea
was favorably received by ConkUng, for his bio
grapher quotes him as having declared "that
either Grant or Blaine should be nominated;
there must be no dark horse." 2 Mr. Smith re
ports that after the nomination was made Conk
ling said to him " that he would far rather have
had Blaine nominated than Garfield."
1 Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, June 8, 1901.
2 P. 660.

230 JAMES G. BLAINE
On the other hand Blaine was not strongly
opposed at that time to the nomination of Conk
ling. Mr. Smith says that Senator Henry W.
Blair, of New Hampshire, suggested to Blaine
that if he could not be nominated it would be
well to take Conkling, and Blaine agreed that
Conkling was a strong man and that he could
carry the necessary state of New York. "Yes,"
he said, " nominate Conkling if you think best."
Mr. Blaine's words were reported through a third
person to Conkling, who received the sugges
tion with surprise, but expressed his irrevoca
ble determination to bring about the nomination
of Grant if possible. On the second day of the
voting for a candidate the symptoms of a break
in favor of General Garfield appeared on the
thirty-fifth roll-call. When, on the thirty-sixth
trial, Maine itself transferred its votes to Gar
field, Senator Jones went to ConkUng and urged
him to stop the stampede by casting the whole
vote of the state for Blaine. ConkUng repUed
that there, was not time to poll the delegation.
"Cast the vote and poll the delegation after
ward," replied Jones. ConkUng hesitated, but
could not bring himself to follow the course
proposed. Again New York gave fifty votes to
Grant, and the other twenty to Garfield. The
stampede continued, and Garfield was chosen.
There was probably never afterward an occa-

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 231
sion so favorable as was this for a reconciliation
between the long estranged statesmen, a recon-
ciUation which, if it could have been hearty and
sincere, might have changed greatly the poHtical
history of the country, perhaps even the entire
history of the countries of the two American
continents. No nomination could have been more agree
able and satisfactory to Mr. Blaine personally
than that of General Garfield. They had been
not merely friendly, but intimate, from the day
in December, 1863, when they each for the first
time took a seat in the House of Representatives.
They did not always agree on pubHc questions,
but their principles and poHtical ideals were
substantially identical.
Mr. Blaine entered the poHtical canvass with
enthusiasm, and devoted more than usual atten
tion to the election in Maine. The constitution
of that state had just been changed, so that now
a pluraHty was sufficient for the election of a
governor. The Fusionists united on one candi
date and carried the state by a majority of two
or three hundred, but this was changed to a plu
raHty of about 9000 for Garfield in November.
Mr. Blaine gave the last two months of the cam
paign to a stumping tour in the West, where, as
always, he was greatly in demand.
During the whole canvass he was in constant

232 JAMES G. BLAINE
correspondence with Garfield, who even con
sulted with him in the preparation of his letter of
acceptance. He asked advice specifically on four
points, and as to two of them, the Chinese ques
tion and the civil service plank, he requested
Blaine to draft the necessary paragraphs.1 Mr.
Blaine complied only so far as to suggest the
proper stand, in his opinion, to be taken on the
Chinese question. He assured the general that he
needed help from no man on the financial ques
tion; and "you will find it easy to treat it [the
Southern question] in a manner that wiU satisfy
all shades of RepubUcan opinion."
General Garfield was triumphantly elected in
November, and before the month closed he had
tendered to Blaine the office of Secretary of
State. The offer was not immediately accepted,
for notwithstanding the honor which the position
impHed, it was not at once clear that duties so
radically different from those that had occupied
him during the eighteen years of his pubUc Hfe in
Washington would be as congenial as those aris
ing from a membership in the Senate, from which
only a poHtical revolution could remove him. But
while he was considering the matter, he was not
sparing of his advice to the President-elect as to
the other portfolios, and as to the general course
1 Garfield to Blaine, June 29, 1880. Gail Hamilton's
Life of Blaine, p. 486.

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 233
of his administration. In a remarkable letter to
Garfield, written on December 10, 1880,1 he
analyzes the three forces in the RepubUcan con
vention and comments upon them singly. Grant
had the delegates from only thirty-two sure Re
pubHcan districts in the country; Sherman,
Edmunds, and Washburne had thirty-six; he,
Blaine, had ninety-nine. This situation sug
gested to him the threefold division of the party :
" first, the great body of the North, with congres
sional representation and electoral strength be
hind it, is with the section which for convenience
of ^designation I will call the Blaine section, — I
mean the strength behind me in two national
conventions. . . . Now this Blaine section is aU
yours, with some additional strength that Blaine
could not get, and represents the reHable strong
background of preference, friendship, and love
on which your administration must rest for suc
cess. I use the designation ' Blaine ' only for con
venience to identify the class. They are now aU
Garfield without rebate or reserve, ' waiving de
mand and notice.' "
The second class was "the Grant section, tak
ing all the South practically, with the machine in
New York, Pennsylvania, and IlUnois — and hav
ing the aid of rule or ruin leaders." The third
section consisted of "the reformers by profes-
1 Gail Hamilton's Life of Blaine, p. 490.

234 JAMES G. BLAINE
sion " whom Mr. Blaine never esteemed highly as
poUtical guides, and of whom, in this letter, he
speaks in derogatory terms. "They are to be
treated with respect, but they are the worst pos
sible poUtical advisers."
All this was preUminary to the proposition,
" You are to have a second term or to be over
thrown." He advised Garfield that his true
friends were to be found in the first section; that
the second section would " accept your adminis
tration because they cannot help it," but would
always be on the watch for an opening for "a
restoration of Grant;" that "the third secijon
can be made to cooperate harmoniously with the
first, but never with the second, — you can see
that at a glance," and that "they can be easily
dealt with and can be hitched to your adminis
tration with ease." The letter was not specific
in advice as to methods, but its general purport
was clearly that great skill would be required in
handHng the three sections so as to keep the party
harmonious. Garfield in reply asked Blaine's
views as to the best method of recognizing the
Grant section, " so as not to be shackled and yet
to do fair justice." There was evidently further
correspondence on the subject, for Blaine in one
letter expressed an opinion that the "second sec
tion " would take a proposed cabinet appointment
favorably.

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 235
On the 20th of December Mr. Blaine accepted
the tender of the State department. It is a
pleasant evidence of the cordial personal rela
tions between the famiUes of the two men that the
letter of acceptance was sent under cover to Mrs.
Garfield, in order that she might be the first to
receive it. The letter itself is one of the most
striking productions of Mr. Blaine's pen, and is
such a manifestation of friendship, loyalty, and
self-abnegation as has rarely been made by one
statesman toward another who might be regarded
as, in a certain sense, a successful rival. Having
expressed his gratitude for the offer and his
acceptance of it, Mr. Blaine proceeded : —
" It is proper for me to add that I make this
decision, not for the honor of the promotion it
gives me in the pubUc service, but because I be-
Ueve I can be useful to the country and the party,
— useful to you as the responsible leader of the
party and the great head of the government. . . .
" In accepting this important post I shall give
all that I am and all that I can hope to be freely
and joyfully to your service. You need no pledge
of my loyalty both in heart and in act. I should
be false to myself did I not prove true to the great
trust you confide to me, and to your own personal
and poUtical fortunes in the present and in the
future. "Your administration must be made bril-

236 JAMES G. BLAINE
Hantly successful and strong in the confidence
and pride of the people ; not obviously directing
its energies to reelection, but compelUng that
result by the logic of events and by the imperious
necessities of the situation.
"To that, most desirable consummation I feel
that, next to yourself, I can contribute more in
fluence than any other man. I say this, not from
egotism or vainglory, but merely as a deduction
from an analysis of the poHtical forces which
have been at work in the country for five years
past, and which will be operative for many years
to come.
" I hail it as one of the happiest circumstances
connected with this important affair that in ally
ing my political fortunes with yours — or rather
merging mine in yours — my heart goes with my
head, and that I carry to you not only poUtical
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
ambitions, should never, for a single moment, in
eighteen years, have a misunderstanding or a
coolness, and that their friendship has steadily
strengthened with their strength.
"It is this fact which has led me to the mo
mentous conclusion embodied in this letter, —
for however much I might admire you as a states-

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 237
man, I would not enter your cabinet if I did not
beHeve in you as a man and love you as a friend."
The most malignant of Blaine's enemies has
never insinuated that in his conduct he failed in
the slightest degree to fulfil his pledge of abso
lute loyalty and devotion to the President. His
ambition was not to promote his own fortunes,
but to contribute all that he could toward making
the reelection of Garfield inevitable " by the logic
of events and by the imperious necessities of the
situation." He took the most eager interest in the
choice of the other secretaries, and was most free
with his advice both as to the principles that
should govern the selection and as to the persons
to whom portfoHos should be offered. Inasmuch
as the Garfield Cabinet was not, on the whole, a
strong one, it has sometimes been charged that
Blaine purposely induced the President to select
men whom he could dominate, and that he did in
fact wield an influence in the Cabinet which over
shadowed that of the President himself, as well
as that of his colleagues.
The accusation is not well founded. Mr.
Blaine urged the choice of Senator Allison for the
Treasury department from the beginning, and
in the strongest terms he could command.1 Gen
eral Garfield agreed to the choice, but Mr.
1 He was accused, by enemies who did not know, of having
kept Mr. Allison out of the cabinet.

238 JAMES G. BLAINE "
AlUson could not be induced to leave the Senate.
Blaine also assented in the most hearty way to
the appointment of Mr. Wayne McVeagh as
Attorney General, and suppUed the President
elect with an additional reason for choosing
him, although McVeagh was a strong man, and
was then and afterward most unfriendly to the
Secretary of State. The truth is, and was then,
that a President can rarely persuade a man of the
first rank to relinquish an assured position in
either branch of Congress and exchange for it a
brief tenure of an executive department. An ex
amination of the recent lists of cabinet officers
shows a steadily increasing number of men who
have never previously held any office or position
whatever under the national government.
It is true that the President leaned heavily and
confidently upon his Secretary of State, con
sulted him at all times, and probably followed
his advice almost invariably. But the same fact
might almost certainly be stated with equal cor
rectness another way: that the two men con
sulted together and were almost invariably agreed
upon the course to be pursued, no matter which
was the first to suggest it. For Garfield himself
was a man of wide experience in pubHc affairs,
of strong opinions, and of sturdy principles, to
which on more than one occasion he adhered
obstinately when to do so seemed to ensure his

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 239
extinction as a pubUc man. In whatever form
the statement may be made, it is true that there
were ties of the closest personal friendship and re
lations of the most unbounded mutual confidence
between them.
The early days of the administration were
marked by the unhappy episode of the New York
collectorship and the breach with Senator Conk
ling. Once again Blaine and ConkUng clashed,
for rightly or wrongly the senator attributed the
selection of Judge Robertson to the influence of
the Secretary of State. It may be said of the inci
dent that it was not an example of the skill which
Blaine had a few months before declared to be
required in handUng the " second section " of the
party, at the same time that it proved the truth
of his remark in the same connection that the sec
tion contained " rule or ruin leaders."
But this little cloud would surely soon have
disappeared from the sky, for the administration
was winning its way to the hearts of the people
when, on that fatal day in July, the President was
laid low by the bullet of the assassin. Blaine was
by his side, raised his head, and stood by him
until he was removed to the White House, whence
but a short hour before he had gone with the
buoyant spirits of a college lad starting on his
summer vacation. Then followed weary months
of anxiety, brief flashes of hope alternating with

240 JAMES G. BLAINE
long periods of despairing soHcitude, until the
end came, in September. During the long weeks
of the President's gradual decUne, Mr. Blaine's
task was one of extreme difficulty. He was at
once the faithful friend, watching with fearful
apprehension by the bedside of the suffering
President; the trusted Ueutenant, carrying on
the business of his own department, and repre
senting to a certain extent his chief in the over
sight of the whole; and the agent of the people,
through whom they obtained exact and truthful
statements of the condition of the President from
day to day. If we except the members of General
Garfield's family, the mental strain endured by
Mr. Blaine during these summer months was
greater than that to which any other person was
subjected; and when the President died, his per
sonal grief and the probability, which soon became
a certainty, that the great plans he had laid out for
the future could not be consummated by him, com
bined to make the blow as severe as any states
man could receive. It is not too much to say that
Blaine was never quite the same after the death
of Garfield as he was before. The flow of animal
spirits was not quite so free. The element of
tragedy had entered into his Ufe.1 Less frequent
1 Writing to his friend; the Hon. S. B. Elkins, September 30,
he said, "The death of Garfield is a fresh grief to me. My
enjoyment of public life seems gone."

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 241
became the occasions when he abandoned him
self to his natural joviality, — when he gave the
impression to those about him that he had the
happy, care-free air of his early manhood. Per
haps the tone of greater seriousness which distin
guished him from this time onward was not wholly
the result of his grief and disappointment, but
was due also in large measure to the fact that
he was beginning more than ever to think great
thoughts, to extend his vision beyond even the
broad oceans that separated his country from the
rest of the world, and to dream of the greatness
and glory that now seem to be in store for it.
For in one important respect Blaine was dif
ferent from every Secretary of State who pre
ceded him in the office. He entered upon his
duties with a distinct and definite purpose, to be
carried into effect by the use of specific means to
an end. A study of the diplomatic history of the
United States will convince any candid mind
that the policy of every Secretary of State before
Blaine may be truly described as a waiting policy.
It was so almost as a necessary consequence of
the voluntary isolation of the country. Foreign
enterprise was unknown to our diplomacy. The
State department took up, discussed, and settled
the questions brought before it, as they arose,
whether the matter were a grievance of the gov
ernment, or a claim against it, a boundary dis-

242 JAMES G. BLAINE
pute, or a proposition looking toward improved
commercial relations. Every such question was
dealt with individually, in accordance with the
well-established and traditional poUcy. Unless
a situation developed which required the gov
ernment to assert its rights as against some
other government which it held to be encroach
ing upon them, there was almost nothing of
self-assertion and initiative upon the part of the
United States. Even the Monroe Doctrine, the
one distinctive principle of American diplomacy,
which may be cited as an exception to the fore
going statements, was originally almost as much
the act of Great Britain as of the United States,
and the subsequent extensions of that doctrine
have come about accidentally, in deaUng with
situations created by others than Americans.
The explanation of the absence of general ini
tiative on the part of Secretaries of State from
Jefferson to Evarts — a roll of great men — is
not that they lacked power, energy, and boldness,
or breadth of conception, or patriotism. The
country of set purpose chose to hold itself aloof
from world-politics, engaged in warmly-worded
diplomatic controversies only when its interests
were directly at stake, suppressed its opinion
upon the internal and international difficulties of
other nations save only when it observed a people
endeavoring to overthrow an " effete monarchy."

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 243
That was a wise and proper poUcy — for the
times — of non-interference and non-participa
tion in the intrigues and disputes of the Old
World. But in Mr. Blaine's opinion the time had
come when the logic of the Monroe Doctrine
should be enforced by the adoption of an Ameri
can continental system. From the very beginning
of the Garfield administration he undertook,
with the President's full sanction, to carry out the
plan which he had conceived on a grand scale.
There were two general principles underlying his
poUcy. The first, desirable in itself and necessary
to the appHcation of the other, was that wars
between the independent countries of the two
Americas must be made to cease. The other was
that, as Providence had made of these countries
neighbors in a peculiar sense, they should be
mutually helpful to one another in trade and
commerce. It was an essential part of the scheme
that the United States, the leader in wealth,
power, international standing, and governmental
stabiUty, should be the friend and adviser of all
the rest, that it should ever be ready to arbitrate
between any two American countries, but never
to intervene forcibly to compose their quarrel. By
making itself, under the Monroe Doctrine, an
effective protector of all the countries against
European attack, and by the great moral forces
of precept and example an agent of universal

244 JAMES G. BLAINE
peace on the two continents, this country would
win the cordial good will of all the governments
and their people. By natural consequence it
would thus prepare the way for a vast extension
of trade, which would be aU the greater when
internal and external peace should take the place
of the traditional turbulence and disorder of the
Spanish-American repubHcs.
The Secretary was to have a fuller opportunity
to carry this poUcy into effect than he had in
1881, but he entered upon it without any appre
hension of the obstacles which the death of the
President would create. He found a war in pro
gress between Chile on the one side and Peru and
BoHvia on the other, which ended shortly after
the beginning of the administration in a com
plete victory for Chile. He undertook to mitigate
the hardship of the conditions of peace imposed
by the victor. There was imminent danger of an
outbreak of war between Mexico and Guate
mala. As early as the middle of June, 1881,
Blaine was urging the government of Mexico " to
avert a conflict with Guatemala, by diplomatic
means or, these faiHng, by arbitration." There
was a long-standing boundary dispute between
Chile and Argentina. Mr. Blaine took an early
opportunity to impress upon the ministers to the
two countries the wish of the President that the
question be submitted to arbitration. Fortu-

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 245
nately, negotiations to that end were almost com
pleted before Mr. Blaine's despatch was written,
although the fact was not known in Washington
until long afterward.
The new poUcy involved two great projects.
The French company organized by M. de Les-
seps was preparing to construct the Panama
Canal. A situation of pecuUar difficulty was
thereby created. Although private enterprise and
private capital alone would be enUsted, yet
vested interests of overwhelming importance to
French citizens might, and almost certainly
would, at some time in the future, bring about
conditions that would involve the government of
France in a colUsion with the government of
Colombia. In that event the principles of the
Monroe Doctrine might be invoked to protect
Colombia against an invasion and a permanent
occupation of its territory, and thus endanger
the relations with France itself. There was a
treaty, made in 1846, between the United States
and New Grenada, now Colombia, which. gave
the United States important rights. Among them
was that of free transit over the isthmus of Pan
ama, and by impUcation the right to secure freedom
of transit by the use of force when imperilled by
the lawlessness of Colombian citizens. But there
was also the Clayton-Bulwer treaty between the
United States and Great Britain, by the terms of

246 JAMES G. BLAINE
which the two countries united in a guaranty of
the neutrality of any canal that might be cut
through the isthmus. For a variety of reasons
this treaty complicated the situation, and Blaine
lost no time in undertaking to secure a modifica
tion which would leave the United States free
to deal with the isthmian question untrammelled
fey foreign engagements. He wrote a powerful
despatch on the subject, to be submitted to the
British Foreign Secretary, which, if his tenure
of office had been longer, he would have fol
lowed up; and perhaps he would have brought
about negotiations for the abrogation of the
treaty. He was savagely criticised for stirring up
this question, and was accused of taking a course
that would imbroil this country with Great
Britain. But the present generation, which has
seen his undertaking brought to successful ac
complishment by Secretary Hay, knows that his
effort was wise, even necessary.
The grandest and most comprehensive mea
sure in this general policy was an assemblage of
representatives of all the independent govern
ments of the western hemisphere for the express
purpose of ensuring permanent peace, and of
promoting enterprises that would bind all the
countries together in friendship. It was a more
far-reaching scheme than Henry Clay's Panama
congress, because the lapse of more than half a

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 247
century had indicated clearly the evils to be
cured, and because the danger of foreign aggres
sion had ceased and left the way open for the
adoption of measures that could not have been
deemed even possible in the time of the second
Adams. President Garfield had already given his ap
proval of the plan to summon a Pan-American
Congress, when he received the assassin's bullet.
Mr. Blaine's despatch to Mr. Lowell, the min
ister to England, opening the question of the
Clayton-Bulwer treaty, was dated June 24, 1881,
a week before that day of calamity. Conse
quently both these acts may be regarded as acts
of the Garfield administration. The death of the
President and the succession of Mr. Arthur
changed the entire situation. Mr. Blaine had,
and could have had, no expectation of retaining
his portfoHo under the new regime. Three days
after the death of Garfield, September 22, he
tendered his resignation, as is usual in such cases.
President Arthur requested all the members of
the Cabinet to remain in office until the regular
meeting of Congress in December. On Octo
ber 13, Blaine again offered to resign; he was
again asked to hold his portfolio until December,
and he did so.
President Arthur seemed to be in full accord
with Mr. Blaine's plans and purposes. Ineffi-

248 JAMES G. BLAINE
ciency or something worse on the part of the
diplomatic representatives of the government in
Chile and Peru made their efforts to bring about
peace between these countries on reasonable
terms quite futile. Mr. Blaine proposed to send
a special mission to South America to deal with
that matter only. The President agreed to the
plan. The person chosen to head the mission
was Mr. William H. Trescott, a diplomatist of
experience and good judgment, and with him
was associated Mr. Walker Blaine, the eldest son
of the Secretary, whom President Garfield, on
the morning after his inauguration, had ap
pointed Third Assistant Secretary of State, in
which capacity he practically occupied the posi
tion of private secretary to his father. The two
gentlemen started on their journey southward
at the beginning of December.
The President acceded also to Mr. Blaine's
proposition that the American countries should
be invited to meet in general conference, and on
the 29th of November an invitation was sent to
all those countries except the three which had not
yet come to terms, to send representatives to
Washington, to meet on November 24, 1882. The
invitation was sent in the name of the President,
and the purpose of the Congress was declared to
be that of "considering and discussing the
methods of preventing war between the nations

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 249
of America." The President desired, wrote Mr.
Blaine, "that the attention of the Congress shall
be strictly confined to this one great object ; that
its sole aim shall be to seek a way of permanently
averting the horrors of cruel and bloody combat
between countries, oftenest of one blood and
speech, or the even worse calamity of internal
commotion and civil strife ; that it shall consider
the burdensome and far-reaching consequences of
such struggles, the legacies of exhausted finances,
of oppressive debt, of onerous taxation, of ruined
cities, of paralyzed industries, of devastated fields,
of ruthless conscription, of the slaughter of men,
of the grief of the widow and the orphan, of
embittered resentments that long survive those
who provoked them and heavily afflict the inno
cent generations that come after."
Mr. Blaine took especial pains in advance to
disabuse the invited nations of the idea that the
United States was to prejudge the issues to be
presented to the Congress, or that it would ap
pear " as, in any sense, the protector of its neigh
bors or the predestined and necessary arbiter of
their disputes." The country was to enter into
the deHberations of the Congress " on the same
footing as the other powers represented," with
no intention of asserting its own power, " but as
a single member among many coordinate and co
equal states." The time for the meeting of the

250 JAMES G. BLAINE
Congress was purposely set at a day so distant
that there would be a good prospect that peace
would be wholly restored between the countries
still nominally at war; and meantime, in view of
the circumstances, the invitation to those coun
tries was withheld.
The invitation was dated November 29, 1881.
A fortnight later, on December 12, the President
nominated Senator Frederick T. FreUnghuysen,
of New Jersey, to be Secretary of State, and on
the 19th Mr. Blaine retired from the office. For
the first time since the 4th of March, 1863, he was
not in pubHc Hfe. He went into retirement with
the best of feeHng toward the President and
toward his successor. He had set in motion a
great enterprise, and although he was not to have
the satisfaction of carrying it through, the initia
tive was his, and if the project succeeded he
could feUcitate himself on having done a bene
ficent work for his country, for aU the peoples
of the two Americas, and for mankind. He was
in high spirits, and enjoyed the freedom from
pubHc cares. His hope that his poHcy was to
be continued was strengthened by Freling-
huysen's voluntary assurance that he desired
Blaine's son Walker to remain in the pubHc
service. But FreUnghuysen was a Secretary of
State of the type of those who had preceded
Blaine. He was able, patriotic, and conserv-

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 251
ative. He was not disposed to pursue a general
poHcy such as had been planned for him. It is
not suggested that anything of personal feeling
or of jealousy entered into the case. Mr. Arthur
also was conservative. It is not quite easy to see
why the President, having approved Blaine's pro
ject of sending a mission to South America, and
his grand scheme of a Congress of American re-
pubUcs, should have reversed the poHcy in both
matters, or should have agreed to a reversal if
suggested by his new Secretary. But reversed
the poUcy was, and in such a way as to be most
annoying and even humiliating to Mr. Blaine.
True, there was an outburst of iU-tempered criti
cism of Blaine's action. A maUcious insinuation
was spread abroad that his mission to Chile and
Peru covered a scheme for money-making in
certain guano-beds in the territory which Chile
proposed to take from its conquered enemy.
That matter was investigated, and the absolute
baselessness of the accusation was abundantly
proved. The idea was industriously circulated by
newspapers always hostile to Blaine, that his
poHcy was meddlesome, sensational, dangerous,
that he was taking steps that would involve the
country in war, or at least in compUcations not
compatible with the traditional poUcy against
" entangUng affiances." He was blamed, as has
been remarked already, for reopening the ques-

252 JAMES G. BLAINE
tion of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and stirring
up bad blood between this country and Great
Britain. But it is difficult to see how these attacks
could have had any influence with the President,
who was far from being sympathetic toward the
particular wing of the RepubHcan party with
which the assault upon Mr. Blaine originated.
He belonged to the "second, section" of the
party, and abhorred the third section — a senti
ment which was reciprocated. The summary of
the discarded poHcy, which has been given for
the most part in the words of the official de
spatches, will show how absurd was the clamor
that was raised against it. The key- word of the
whole plan was Peace. Unless it can be main
tained that a meeting of statesmen summoned
for the sole purpose of making peace perpetual,
by devising a scheme of general arbitration, is in
itself a disturbance of peace and provocative of
war, the criticism of Blaine's great measure is
unjust. Yet practically that position was taken
by the new administration.
Mr. FreUnghuysen, in the name of the Presi
dent, practically withdrew the invitation on Jan
uary 9, 1882, six weeks after it was sent out, when
some of the governments invited had already sig
nified their acceptance of it. The Secretary of
State wrote that the President wished " hereafter
to determine whether it will conduce to the general

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 253
peace, which he would cherish and promote, for
this government to enter into negotiations and
consultation for the promotion of peace with se
lected friendly nationaHties, without extending
the Une of confidence to other people with whom
the United States is on equally friendly terms. If
such partial confidence would create jealousy
and ill will, peace, the object sought by such con
sultation, would not be promoted." Mr. Blaine,
on the 3d of February, addressed a letter to the
President, in which he dealt sharply with the sug
gestion that it was necessary for the United States
to secure the approval of European powers for
any plan this government might form to secure
peace on the American continents, or that there
was any reason to apprehend that they would be
jealous or hostile if they were not admitted to the
conference. Nor could they be moved by ill will,
" unless indeed it be the interest of the European
powers that the American nations should at in
tervals fall into war and bring reproach on re
publican institutions."
"Impudent" was the adjective which the
carping enemies of Mr. Blaine appHed to this
letter. They fancied him posing as the poHtical
legatee of Garfield, declared that his public ca
reer was ended, and congratulated the country
that it had been deUvered from a belHcose and
swaggering Secretary. Certainly his position at

254 JAMES G. BLAINE
that time was not promising, for none of his friends
could come out openly in defence of his poUcy
without to that extent deserting the administra
tion. Blaine himself would not have wished
them to do that, great as was his exasperation.
Indeed, at that time foreign questions interested
the people but mildly. The President waited
until April, and then sent a message to Congress
transmitting a copy of Blaine's circular invita
tion, and asking the opinion of the Senate and
House of Representatives as to the expediency
of holding the proposed Congress of nations.
He probably expected no response to his request,
at any rate he received none, and the invitation
was subsequently formally withdrawn.
Not less humiHating to Mr. Blaine, although
far less important than the reversal of his poUcy
just mentioned, was the course pursued with
reference to the special mission of Trescott
and Walker Blaine. On the 24th of January,
1882, the House of Representatives passed a
resolution asking for the correspondence be
tween the representatives of the United States
and the governments of Chile and Peru relative
to the negotiation of peace between the South
American repubHcs. Instead of replying that it
was not compatible with the pubHc interest to
communicate the despatches, the Secretary of
State sent them all to the House and they were at

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 255
once pubUshed. The despatches included even
the instructions under which Messrs. Trescott
and Blaine were acting. The cable carried them
immediately to the government of Chile. Tres
cott had arranged a meeting to take place on
the 31st of January with Senor Balmaceda, the
Chilean Secretary of State, at which Walker
Blaine was to be present and to deUver the in
vitation to the Peace Congress. When the three
gentlemen met and Trescott explained the object
of Blaine's presence, Balmaceda exclaimed, "It
is useless. Your government has withdrawn the
invitation." Trescott's account of the interview •
proceeds : —
"Seeing, I suppose, an expression of aston
ishment which I did not pretend to conceal, he
added, 'Your own instructions have been
changed. Your instructions from Mr. Blaine
have been published, and others are on their
way to you modifying your original instructions
in very important particulars. The whole ques
tion about Calderon [the Calderon government
of Peru] is out of the way and you are told to
be entirely neutral.' "
So it was. The envoys of the United States
received the first intimation that their instruc
tions were modified, and learned the nature of
1 Foreign Relations, 2d Sess. 57th Congress, Mr. Trescott
to Mr. FreUnghuysen, p. 67.

256 JAMES G. BLAINE
the modification, from one .of the parties with
whom they were to negotiate. No means could
have been devised better calculated than this
to render the mission futile. Mr. Trescott after
ward expressed the opinion that under his ori
ginal instructions he would have succeeded in
bringing about a peace treaty, speedily, and
on better terms for the conquered countries,
than were the terms of the treaty which was
ultimately made. It is needless to dwell upon
the weakness and vacillation of the State de
partment, or upon the loss of national prestige
that followed inevitably.
In February, 1882, Mr. Blaine made his last
pubUc appearance in the hall of the House of
Representatives, the scene of his longest service
and of his most brilHant triumphs. He had been
invited to deUver a eulogy upon President Gar
field. At first he decUned the duty, in the beUef
that his motive in accepting it would be mis
understood, certainly misrepresented. But the
committee of the House would not accept his
declination, and at last he consented. He spent
a great deal of time upon the preparation of the
eulogy, revised it with the utmost care, and asked
for the judgment of many of his friends upon
phrases and passages before its form was finally
determined. It was deUvered before an im
mense concourse of eminent men on the 27th

IN GARFIELD'S CABINET 257
of February, 1882. In Uterary style, in dignity
of tone, in keenness of analytical insight into
the character of his subject, above all in that
subtile quaUty of tender sympathy which touches
the hearts of men, the eulogy upon Garfield is
not excelled by any similar production, and will
always be a classic. What more tender and
feUcitously worded passage can be cited than
that with which he closed ?
"Gently, silently, the love of a great people
bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing
of the sea, to Uve or to die as God should will,
within sight of its heaving billows, within sound
of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face
tenderly Hfted to the cooling breeze, he looked
out wistfully upon the ocean's changing won
ders; on its far sails whitening in the morning
light; on its restless waves rolUng shoreward
to break and die beneath the noonday sun; on
the red clouds of evening, arching low to the
horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of
the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read
a mystic meaning which only, the rapt and part
ing soul may know. Let us believe that in the
silence of the receding world he heard the great
waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt
already upon his wasted brow the breath of the
eternal morning."

IX
CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY
Whether or not Mr. Blaine's pubHc career was
ended, it was interrupted. But he could not be
idle, and he turned his attention to new things
with zest. He had already begun the erection of
a large house for his own occupation, fronting on
one of the beautiful open spaces in Washington,
and spent much time in watching apd oversee
ing the work. There were many propositions as
to his future course which he had to consider.
His old constituency in Maine wished him to
resume his seat in the House of Representatives ;
but, with gratitude to those who made the sug
gestion, he decHned to reenter public Hfe by that
avenue. He was urged to prepare and deUver
lectures, but the suggestion was not attractive to
him. PubHshers sought him with plans for books
which he was to write. Work of that sort was to
his taste, and after hesitating some time between
several schemes which he considered, he deter
mined upon a work combining poUtical history,
poUtics, and personal reminiscence. The result
was his " Twenty Years of Congress." Although
the second volume of this work was not pubUshed

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 259
until 1886, nearly or quite four years after he
began the first volume, it will be most convenient
not to recur to the subject, but to speak of it in
this place.
The work covers the period between 1861 and
1881, but almost one half of the first volume —
more than two hundred and fifty pages — is
occupied with a comprehensive and masterly
review of the events which led up to the forma
tion of the RepubHcan party, the election of Lin
coln, and the secession of the Southern States.
The rest of the work consists of statements of the
great issues that arose during the Civil War and
the period of Reconstruction, the management of
those questions by the party in power, the atti
tude of the opposition, and the part taken in the
struggles by the chief actors in poUtical Ufe at the
time. The whole is interspersed with brief char
acterization of the prominent men of the epoch
under treatment, most of whom Mr. Blaine
knew personally, all of whom he knew by their
acts and words. He not only entered upon the
work con amore, but continued to the end to
keep his interest in the task. His labor upon it
was interrupted by the campaign of 1884, but
after his defeat for the presidency he resumed it
with unabated zeal.
His method was characteristic of him. He had
a wonderful memory, which was not speciaUzed

260 JAMES G. BLAINE
but extended over the whole range of his know
ledge. Faces, names, dates, statistics, poHtical
events and the actors in them, in short every
thing that pertained to the history of his country,
was always at his tongue's end. Gail Hamilton
narrates1 that on the occasion of the visit of
Robert C. Winthrop to Washington to be present
at the dedication of the Washington monument,
Mr. Blaine invited Mr. Winthrop and Hannibal
Hamlin to luncheon. In the course of the con
versation the question came up who were the
senators from the several States in the Congress
of 1849-51, when Mr. Winthrop was a member
of the Senate. Blaine repeated the whole Ust
without a mistake.
Nevertheless he subjected the intimations of
such an accurate memory to rigid verification,
much of which was performed under his direc
tion by his secretary, Mr. Sherman. He never
acquired the art of dictating with faciUty, but
wrote the manuscript with his own hand. Then
a fair copy of it was made by another, — for the
type-writer was not then in general use, — and
Mr. Blaine afterward revised his work with pains
taking industry. Moreover, when the proofs came
to him from the printing-office, he corrected and
revised again and again, to the despair of the
publisher, since the corrections added greatly
1 Life of Blaine, p. 571.

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 261
to the cost of production and delayed the pubU-
cation. Some parts of the second volume, pas
sages not requiring the most careful thought in
preparation, were dictated to an amanuensis, but
like all the rest were afterward edited most care-
fully. The work is eminently worthy of the author.
No other book covering any period of American
poUtical history is so full and comprehensive or
displays such intimate knowledge of men and
events. The only work that can be compared
with it is Benton's "Thirty Years' View," and
that is inferior to Blaine's "Twenty Years"
because the author of it was too violent a parti
san to see the other side of any question, and
too egotistical to yield more than half the space
to others than himself. Blaine, on the other
hand, rarely refers to himself as taking any part
in public affairs, quotes none of his own speeches,
and refrains from paying off old scores. Instead
of representing his party and himself as having
been always in the right, he writes with the
utmost frankness in criticism of acts in which
he had participated, and of votes to which he
had responded with an " ay." He is at his best
in his characterization of statesmen of his own
time and of an earlier era. Particularly in deal
ing with those from whom he had differed po
UticaUy his language is respectful, appreciative,

262 JAMES G. BLAINE
and sweet. He had occasion many times to refer
to Mr. Conkling, but he did not write a word to
intimate that he had ever been on other than
amicable terms with that gentleman, nor a word
that might not have been penned by an admirer.
Two exceptions must be noted, for upon two of
his contemporaries he did pour vials of scorn.
His provocation was great in both cases, but it
is a pity that his self-restraint gave way even
once. It is needless to say that Mr. Blaine's narra
tive of events contains the essential facts and
omits the unimportant, that his analysis of con
ditions is keen and philosophical and calmly
judicial, and that the whole work is dignified
in tone and in good temper. There is not a
wrong-minded sentence in it, not a sentence
which is offensively partisan, or malevolent,
or derogatory to the motives of others. In aU
these respects it was characteristic of the author,
who never cherished animosities, or took un
charitable views of the conduct even of those
who opposed him. Finally, the " Twenty Years "
is written in a most lucid and feUcitous style,
and with a literary poHsh that was habitual in
all his speeches and writings.
The interval between Mr. Blaine's retirement
from the State department and the beginning of
the stirring campaign of 1884 was to him a

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 263
period of unusual enjoyment and satisfaction.
In a certain coterie of journaUsm he was looked
upon as such a complete embodiment of the
spirit of evil that, even in his retirement, he was
watched lest haply some malign plot against
the happiness and welfare of his country should
be hatched by him and carried into execution
before the vigilant sentinels could warn the
nation of its peril. They fancied that behind the
screen of apparent absorption in Hterary work
and in the enjoyment of his home he was en
gaged in constant intrigue to restore himself to
his former position of leadership. In fact, he
was employed in a most congenial Uterary task,
which promised and eventually gave him a rich
pecuniary reward. It was work at home which
enabled him to be constantly with those whom
he loved best, bis devoted wife and his dearly
loved children, — two sons and a daughter, and
then, after a long interval, two other daughters
and a son. The oldest son, Walker, who resigned
his position in the State department after his
return from South America, had been appointed
assistant counsel for the distribution of the
Geneva Award. The second son, Emmons, had
begun an apprenticeship to the railway business,
and resided near at hand in Baltimore. The
oldest daughter, AUce, was happily married to
Colonel Coppinger of the regular army. The

264 JAMES G. BLAINE
three younger children, Margaret, Harriet, and
James, were growing up, healthy and happy,
companions of their father as the elder children
had been. But Margaret was at this time mak
ing the tour of Europe. The family was never
complete without Miss Abby Dodge, "Gail
Hamilton," who made her home with the
Blaines in Washington every winter, from the
early days of Mr. Blaine's speakership until his
death. Her brilHant and sparkHng wit, that
dropped from her tongue as feUcitously as it
flowed from her pen, made her one of the most
attractive personages in the social Ufe of Wash
ington. She was always a helpful entertainer at
the table and in the drawing-room of Mrs.
Blaine, her own cousin, and was the dauntless
champion of Mr. Blaine. In the summer, when
the Washington house was closed, the family,
the secretaries, and servants returned to the old
homestead at Augusta, where they led a joyous
country Ufe, and Miss Dodge went to her own
home in Hamilton, Massachusetts.
As the time for president -making drew near,
the leaders of the three sections of the RepubU
can party began laying their plans. Mr. Arthur
had made a safe President. UnUke the two
earUer vice-presidents who had succeeded to the
position on. the death of the elected President, he
had not betrayed his party. His poUcy was al-

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 265
ways cautious, and his administration was not
marked by any great measure, any stirring poUti
cal contest, or any grave scandal. Consequently
he was a far more formidable candidate for the
nomination than seemed probable at the be
ginning of his service as President. The "third
section," the independents, represented roughly
by those who opposed General Grant in 1872,
who supported Bristow in 1876, and who were
against both Grant and Blaine in 1880, were
not now seriously hostile to Arthur, but they
eventuaUy concentrated their forces in favor of
Senator Edmunds of Vermont.
What were the members of the " first section "
to do, — those who had supported Blaine in two
conventions ? Mr. Blaine himself made no secret
of his opinion that the administration wasted
large opportunities, and that in its foreign policy
it was weak and nerveless. But he followed his
invariable practice and said nothing to encour
age the idea that he desired again to be a candi
date before the convention. Indeed, as the time
for the meeting of the convention drew near, he
became positively disincUned to have his name
used. In the winter of 1883-84 there was a notable
gathering in New York of friends and supporters
of Blaine, — Whitelaw Reid, WilUam Walter
Phelps, Charles Emory Smith, and others'. The

266 JAMES G. BLAINE
expediency of starting a movement in favor of
Mr. Blaine was warmly discussed, — not as to
the movement itself but as to the appropriate
time for it. Mr. Smith finally declared to those
who were present that, whatever they might de
cide, he intended to go home and place the name
of Mr. Blaine as a candidate for the presi
dency at the head of the columns of the Phila
delphia Press at once. He did so. The move
ment was started, and the idea was quickly taken
up with enthusiasm in every part of the country
where the RepubUcans hoped for success at the
polls. To the period of the preUminary canvass
belongs the story of a personal reconciUation
between General Grant and Mr. Blaine. Refer
ence has been made already to the fact that rela
tions between them were broken off some time
before. Mr. Blaine's own feeHngs were ex
pressed by him in a letter to Mr. Elkins in
November, 1881. Having asked Mr. Elkins to
disabuse the mind of another person as to his,
Blaine's, agency in procuring the publication of
a certain newspaper article, he added, "I do
not care to make the sHghtest correction in
General Grant's mind, for he is in the habit of
speaking of me in a manner that renders me
entirely careless of what he may think." In 1883
some'of the friends of both men undertook to

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 267
restore the friendship between them. With refer
ence to this effort Mr. Blaine wrote to Mr.
Elkins : " I note what you say in regard to Gen
eral Grant. Do not in any talk put me in the at
titude of soliciting or actively desiring any re-
conciUation with him. He broke with me, not I
with him. You see I cannot ask Grant to forgive
me for what he alone has done. But, as you well
know, I have no malice or grudge against him,
never injured him in word or act, never said a
thing against him that I would not say to him;
have never spoken an abusive nor disrespectful
word of him. I have therefore nothing to explain,
nothing to retract, nothing to apologize for. My
difference with him was on a pubUc issue on
which I had a right to my own course. I leave
it all to you." A month later, August 20, he
wrote another letter to Elkins, who had evidently
reported to him the progress of the negotiation.
He expressed himself as "deeply interested in
your letter." "You will always find it difficult to
reconcile a difference that is all on one side. I
never gave General Grant the sHghtest cause of
personal offence, but he assumed that I did, and
it is easier to remove ten facts than one assump
tion. . . . My dignity and self respect are as
safe in your hands as in mine, and that is the
only point I wish guarded."
It is pleasant to learn that the effort to bring

268 JAMES G. BLAINE
about personal harmony was successful. When
calamity overtook the general in the following
year, Mr. Blaine wrote again to his friend El
kins, " I am profoundly sorry for the Grant dis
aster, for disaster it really is. It is a great shame
that a man who has done so much for his country
should be subjected to reverses so humiHating
and to trials so embarrassing. Congress should
reHeve the General by putting him promptly on
the retired list, with full pay of the rank from
which he was taken sixteen years ago."
The proposition to make Mr. Blaine the Re
pubUcan candidate for President, in 1884, found
him in quite a different mood from that of
1876 and 1880. Perhaps he was not less ambi
tious of the great distinction than he had been,
but the two defeats in convention had made him
distrustful of himself in respect of his abiHty to
be elected. He had serious doubts if any Re
publican could be successful. Moreover, he was
fully aware of the opposition to himself on the
part of a great many members of his own party.
Apparently he was not so sure as he was in 1880
that he could make himself acceptable to the
independents. A passage from his letter of De
cember 10, 1880, to General Garfield, omitted
from the quotation on page 234, is significant.
Having assured the President elect that the in
dependents " can be hitched to your administra-

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 269
tion with ease," he added, " I could handle them
myself without trouble." Now he had doubts,
which proved to be too well grounded. Nor, it
seems, was he sure of the cordial support of the
Grant section, and of the "machine" in New
York and other states.
Nevertheless the movement in his favor gained
impetus in almost every part of the country
where the RepubUcan party was strong. The
surface indications were that the hostiUty to him
within the party had greatly abated, at the same
time that the enthusiasm over his candidacy had
increased. Mr. Blaine began to say that he was
afraid he should be nominated, and to those who
showed surprise at such a statement he explained
his reasons. Of course he made no pubUc utter
ance to this effect, but to his family, who had un
bounded faith in him and in his fortunes, and to
his most intimate friends and associates, he was
outspoken. Indeed, as he afterward confessed,
he had all the time a presentiment that the can
vass was to bring him disaster. But he could not,
perhaps did not try, to persuade himself to for
bid the use of his name; and if he had done so
his friends would not have conformed to his
wish. But upon one point he was firm and unshaken.
On the 8th of May, 1884, he wrote to Mr. Elkins,
who was the volunteer campaign manager for

270 JAMES G. BLAINE
him, "My first, last, constant injunction is,
spend no money. I never want it [the nomination]
unless it be the unbought, unbiased will of the
nominating power. J enjoin this upon you with
special emphasis." Again, on May 30, — the
convention was to meet on June 3, — he wrote :
" I wish to renew my request that you will not in
any event, by direction or indirection, engage in
the purchase of votes. I do not wish the nomina
tion on any other basis than that which has made
me a candidate, the unbiased, unbought judg
ment of the people. This is not merely a question
of conscience and principle with me, but has
become almost a superstition. Nomination pro
cured by objectionable means would not merely
be unwelcome to me, but would prove disastrous.
I beg therefore that you will accept my judg
ment on this point as absolute and conclusive,
irreversible, no matter what may be the degree
of temptation or the specious- justification which
is suggested by the practice of our opponents."
It was doubtless the experience of 1880, when,
as in the approaching canvass, two strong can
didates not unequally matched divided between
them a large majority of the delegates to the
convention, that suggested to him that the event
of 1880 might be repeated, and that a "dark
horse " would win. At all events the attitude of
his mind toward the candidacy which seemed

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 271
already more nearly certain than ever before,
which led hirn on the 25th of May to write a
remarkable letter to General Sherman, is most
difficult to describe in words. The letter itself
was marked "Confidential. Strictly and abso
lutely so." General Sherman himself pubUshed
it in an article in the " North American Review "
for December, 1888, with the remark that he
did not violate confidence in doing so. It bears
evidence in abundance that the writer intended
it for the eye of General Sherman alone. It was
as follows : —
My dear General, — This letter requires
no answer. After reading it carefully file it away
in your most secret drawer, or give it to the
flames.1 At the approaching convention in Chicago
it is more than possible — it is indeed not im
probable — that you may be nominated for the
presidency. If so you must stand your hand, ac
cept the responsibiUty, and assume the duties of
the place to which you will surely be chosen if
a candidate. You must not look upon it as the
work of the politicians. If it comes to you it will
come as the ground-swell of popular demand —
and you can no more refuse than you could have
refused to obey an order when you were a lieu-
1 "Burn this letter."

272 JAMES G. BLAINE
tenant in the army. If it comes to you at all it
will come as a call of patriotism. It would, in
such an event, injure your great fame as much
to decUne it as it would for you to seek it.
Your historic record, full as it is, would be ren
dered still more glorious by such an adminis
tration as you would be able to give the coun
try. Do not say a word in advance of the
convention, no matter who may ask you. You
are with your friends who will jealously guard
your honor.
Do not answer this.
Nevertheless General Sherman did answer it
in a most characteristic letter. He promised to
construe the letter as absolutely confidential,
even as regarded the members of his own family,
but he combatted Mr. Blaine's position at every
point. One sentence wiH show the vigor and
emphasis with which he decUned the career. " I
owe no man a cent, have no expensive habits or
tastes, envy no man his wealth or power, have no
compUcations or indirect UabiUties, and would
account myself a fool, a madman, an ass, to
embark anew, at sixty-five years of age, in a
career that may at any moment become tempest-
tossed by the perfidy, the defalcation, the dis
honesty or neglect of any one of a hundred
thousand subordinates utterly unknown to the

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 273
President of the United States, not to say the
eternal worriment by a vast host of inpecunious
friends and old military subordinates."
But our concern is with the question, what
prompted Mr. Blaine to write the letter. It is
certain that the idea that General Sherman
might be nominated was in the minds of others
at the time. General Henderson, on taking the
chair as permanent president of the Republican
national convention, referred to it openly. " And
now, gentlemen," he said, in conclusion, "if
because of personal disagreements among us,
or the emergencies of the occasion, another
name is sought, there yet remains that grand
old hero of Kenesaw Mountain and Atlanta."
The simplest answer to the question as to Mr.
Blaine's motive is the true one. On every ac
count he approved the selection of General
Sherman as the candidate. Sherman was his
close personal friend, a wise man who would
make a good President, and "available" to an
extreme degree. Blaine himself had serious mis
givings as to his own abiHty to be elected if
nominated, looked with something of dread on
the prospect of a canvass wherein he was to be
the leader, and was even at that time prescribing
the conditions upon which alone he would con
sent to accept the leadership. It cannot be
doubted that he would have welcomed the nomi-

274 JAMES G. BLAINE
nation of General Sherman as a reUef from a
situation almost as repellent as it was attractive,
a position in the forefront of the battle, most
honorable in itself, yet involving exposure to all
the missiles of the enemy.
Mr. Blaine's misgivings were only too well
justified, although neither he nor any one else
could have foreseen the character and the power
of the several influences that combined to defeat
him. There were few indications before the con
vention, and almost no open threats, of a revolt
within the party if he should be the candidate, —
that is to say, no threats by persons usually cred
ited with much influence in poHtical affairs. An
examination of the official verbatim report of the
proceedings justifies the statement that not one
word was uttered during the sessions of the con
vention that impHed hostility to Mr. Blaine, or in
derogation of his character, or premonitory of a
bolt if he should be nominated.
The convention met at Chicago on the 3d of
June. At the outset there was a contest over the
choice of a temporary presiding officer. Mr.
Blaine's friends ranged themselves generally on
one side and those of all the other candidates on
the other side; and although the vote was, not
strictly a test it was regarded as a rough indica
tion of what might be expected when the first
vote for a candidate was taken. The nominee

CANDIDATE FQR THE PRESIDENCY 275
supported by the Blaine contingent was defeated
by a majority of only forty.
No unusual incident marked the proceedings.
The report of the committee on credentials was
accepted unanimously without debate, and the
platform also was adopted with equal unanimity.
The several candidates for the nomination were
proposed in eloquent speeches, and the nomina
tions were seconded in speeches admirable in
temper. There was the usual noisy and prolonged
enthusiasm on the part of the friends of the candi
dates as their names were uttered. Naturally
the demonstration was most obstreperous when
the name of Mr. Blaine was pronounced by the
blind orator of Ohio, Judge William H. West,
but Mr. Arthur, Senator Edmunds, General
Logan, John Sherman, and General Hawley had
many ardent advocates and were vigorously ap
plauded by delegates who did not intend to vote
for them. The roll was called four times. On the
first trial Mr. Blaine had 334^ votestof the 411
necessary to nominate him. He had some votes
from all but five of the States and from five of
the nine territories. Four of the states that cast
no votes for him were New England States, and a
fifth, Massachusetts, afforded him but a soHtary
supporter. The Blaine vote increased to 349 on
the second roll-call, to 375 on the third, and to
541 on the fourth, when he had 130 more than

276 JAMES G. BLAINE
were necessary for a nomination. Even on this
conclusive roll-caU Connecticut continued to
vote for Hawley, and Vermont and a majority
of the Massachusetts delegates for Edmunds.
Outside of Maine Mr. Blaine had only thirteen
New England votes, and there were fifty-one
votes from the five states against him.
A scene of almost unexampled enthusiasm
ensued upon the announcement of Mr. Blaine's
nomination, and a motion to make the choice
unanimous was carried, amid renewed cheering,
no one objecting. Yet there was a group of men
in the convention who did not accept the result
cheerfully if they accepted it at all. They were
not ready to bolt at once. They had not decided
what course they would pursue. In the end
most of them gave a more or less active support
to the ticket, but some of the delegates, after
reflecting upon the matter, joined in the revolt
which constituted one of the chief features of the
canvass that ensued.
Mr. Blaine had retired to his Augusta home
before the convention, and there received intelH-
gence of the proceedings. His neighbors, aU his
friends, were excited and enthusiastic over the
result. A special train was made up at Bangor
and quickly crowded with men, who journeyed
to Augusta to congratulate the candidate in
person. The CaUfornia delegation in the con-

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 277
vention, one and all his supporters at every roll-
call, did better, for they travelled the whole dis
tance from Chicago to Augusta, nearly fifteen
hundred miles, for the same purpose. From one
end of the country to the other RepubUcans and
RepubHcan newspapers expressed the Hveliest
satisfaction that the choice had fallen upon a real
poUtical leader whom they had learned to love
for his personal traits and to admire for his bril-
Uant and dashing quaUties as a pubHc man.
" Like a plumed knight," a phrase employed by
Robert G. Ingersoll in presenting his name to the
convention of 1876, suggested a party emblem
for the campaign, which was used by friends and
foes, for the cartoonists of the opposition de
lighted to make the plumed helmet a means of
ridicule. But the rank and file of the RepubUcan
party were proud of their candidate, and mani
fested their devotion to him and their confidence
in him in ways that showed that he had a stronger
hold upon their affection than any former candi
date of the party could boast.
The campaign was opened in the usual way.
Blaine clubs were organized, ratification meet
ings were held, and an aggressive canvass was
planned. A committee of the convention desig
nated for the purpose, with General Henderson,
the president of the convention, at its head, visited
Augusta and communicated verbaUy to the can-

278 JAMES G. BLAINE
didate the fact of his nomination, and Ustened
to a brief response by Mr. Blaine, expressing his
sense of the honor conferred upon him, and ac
cepting the nomination. This ceremony, which
took place on the 21st of June, was followed three
weeks later by a formal letter of acceptance. By
far the largest consideration was given in this
paper to the question of the tariff, to the increase
of trade and wealth under the protective system,
to the importance to the farmer of a home market
for his produce, and to the benefit which labor
derived from a policy which enabled employers
to pay good wages. A strong plea was made for
the cultivation of more intimate relations with
the countries of the Western Hemisphere, as well
as for the promotion of measures to ensure peace
between them by means of arbitration. Two or
three hopeful paragraphs dealt with the Southern
question: the rapidly disappearing mutual an
tagonism between North and South; the pros
pect of industrial development in the Southern
States; the hostility to Southern prosperity
which was chargeable upon the Democratic party
in its "effort to unite the Southern States upon
issues that grow out of memories of the war."
Mr. Blaine was emphatic in his commendation
of measures to take the civil service out of poU
tics. " ImpartiaUty in the mode of appointment
to be based on qualification, and security of

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 279
tenure to be based on faithful discharge of duty,
are the two ends to be accompUshed." He as
serted that he had always favored both these
objects, and made a special point that consuls
of the United States, who " should be commer
cial sentinels, encircling the globe with watch
fulness for their country's interests," should be
chosen upon this system. A word against poly
gamy; an expression in favor of bimetalUsm,
upon a basis of relative values of gold and silver
to be fixed by international agreement; a brief
argument in favor of a liberal poHcy in respect of
the pubUc land; an approval of every measure
calculated to restore the ocean-carrying trade:
and a vigorous assertion of the importance of
honest elections, brought the letter of acceptance
to a close. It is a terse and powerful setting forth
of the principles then and always held by the
Republican party, put in such a way as to show
that the writer, now the leader of that party, was
ready to take an advanced position in every
effort to carry those principles into effect.
Meantime an opposition to Mr. Blaine of an ex
traordinary character was in process of organiza
tion. Some influential RepubUcan newspapers,
some most respected and honorable men, Ufe-
long members of the party, declared pubUcly,
with unfeigned reluctance, that they could not
and would not support the ticket, if Governor

280 JAMES G. BLAINE
Cleveland, of New York, in whom they had con
fidence, should be the nominee of the Demo
cratic party. Their hope was reaHzed early in
July, and from that time they worked with energy
and zeal to defeat Blaine and to elect Cleveland.
The basis of their action was a contention that
Mr. Blaine was an unfit person to be chosen
President of the United States, or even to be
tolerated in pubUc Hfe. They held that the accu
sations against him in connection with the Little
Rock and Fort Smith transactions, as weU as
other charges affecting his personal integrity,
were proved. They maintained also that his
course when Secretary of State stamped him as
an adventurous and unsafe statesman, who
would surely embroil his country in a foreign war
if he had the opportunity. In short, they con
demned him as a man and as a pubUc man.
The opposition born of this feeling existed,
no doubt, in many parts of the country. It ex
isted as an organized movement in a few of the
eastern states only, it was strong nowhere save
in Massachusetts, and the headquarters of the
revolt was Boston. A Committee of One Hun
dred was constituted to undertake an active
propaganda with the sole purpose of defeating
Blaine in November. Pledges of opposition to
him were circulated in Boston and the sur
rounding cities and received thousands of sig-

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 981
natures. Pamphlets were prepared, printed,
and circulated in large numbers, in which the
story of the "MulUgan letters" was told in a
form to represent the case against Blaine in
the most unfavorable light. Any one who had
only these pubUcations to guide him in forming
an opinion would have been justified in regard
ing the RepubUcan candidate as a person dis
honest, untruthful, unfaithful to his friends,
tricky, greedy of money, unscrupulous in pri
vate and pubUc Ufe, — in short a pretentious,
worthless, and altogether detestable character.
It is not intended here to imply that aU those
who prepared and fathered these attacks upon
Mr. Blaine were insincere or maUcious. It is a
charitable view, but one not easy to hold, that
none of them aUowed a feeUng of personal an
tipathy to influence their judgment until they
could see nothing honorable or admirable in
him. Some of the "independent" newspapers
in particular so abounded in sneer, innuendo,
and vituperation, that it is difficult to ascribe
their course wholly to a high sense of public
duty. But in the main the leaders of the group
of "Mugwumps," as they proudly style*! them
selves, were men of too high character and re
putation to be actuated by other than public
motives. There is no reason to think that they
incited or approved the coarser assaults upon

282 JAMES G. BLAINE
Mr. Blaine, or that they entertained so mean
an opinion of him as was professed by those
who seem to have been — whether they were '¦
so or not — malignant. They were the " re
formers by profession, the unco' good," as they
were described by Mr. Blaine himself in the
already twice quoted letter to Garfield, and men
of the best intentions. It is a singular character
istic of those who constitute this class that they
are much too ready to judge men of their own
party by the worst their enemies say of them,
too ready to overlook or to discredit accusations
equally bad or worse brought against poUticians
of the other party with which they are tempora
rily in alliance. .
The Mugwump leaders were themselves men
of so high character that they carried with them
in their political excursion a throng of other
Republicans as capable, perhaps, as they of form
ing an opinion upon the matter in hand, but hav
ing too little independence to stand against the
onrush of the leaders. It became the fashion
able thing in and around Boston to be a Mug
wump; and the former Republican, in the clubs
and in certain social circles, who did not join in
the movement was looked upon as morally ob
tuse if not completely lacking in moral principle.
Although the origin of the Mugwump move
ment is involved in no mystery, its persistence

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 283
requires explanation. It was primarily a revolt
against the candidacy of one man, and was to
end with the defeat of that man. Those who en
gaged in it professed that it was pride in their
party and devotion to its principles that led them
on to a course of action which they regarded as
a defence of party and principles that would be
imperilled were they entrusted to an unworthy
leader., Their purpose was accomplished, yet few
of those who were prominent in the movement
returned to their old party allegiance. Many of
them became permanently attached to the Demo
cratic party, but many more have continued ever
since to call themselves Mugwumps, still usually
supporting Democratic candidates, but occa
sionally vindicating their profession of independ
ence in poUtics by voting for a Republican. At
the beginning of the revolt some of the more par
tisan of the Republican newspapers insisted that
the movement was one in favor of free trade, and
it is true that the most earnest and energetic
Mugwumps were low-tariff men; but it would
be grossly unjust to men of such character to
suppose them capable of attempting to deceive
by representing moral scruples to be the motive
of acts to which they were really impelled merely
by dislike of Mr. Blaine 's tariff views. It is never
theless also true that the journalists and public
men who then permanently withdrew from the

284 JAMES G. BLAINE
RepubUcan party were and are, perhaps without
an exception, free traders. Attachment to the
fortunes of Mr. Cleveland, particularly after he
took a position on the tariff question satisfactory
to them, and increasing devotion to the protec
tive principle on the part of the RepubUcans.
form a sufficient explanation of their poUtical
course. By far the largest number of those who
at first followed them returned long ago to the
Republican party.
Besides the compHcation caused by the Mug
wump movement there were two other impor
tant causes of uncertainty and insecurity in the
RepubHcan canvass. No one knew or could as
certain Whether Mr. ConkUng would use what
influence he still possessed, to help or to hurt the
ticket. Moreover General Benjamin F. Butler
was a candidate for President, with nominations
by the " anti-monopoly " party, and also by the
National, or Greenback party. He had a large
personal following, and was certain to draw
many voters to his support. His poUtical career
in Massachusetts showed that he could attract
voters of a certain class who were to be found in
both parties and were a credit to neither. It was
an interesting question which party would gain
and which would lose, on the whole, by his con
tinuing in the field as a candidate. Among many
letters written by Mr. Blaine to Mr. Elkins in the

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 285
course of the campaign, is the following, dated
July 27, in which the uncertainties in New York
and the question about Butler are touched upon :
" Can ConkUng be induced to speak for us ?
It would be an immense thing for us. How can
he be induced to do it ? What do you know about
Johnny O'Brien and the rest of Arthur's friends ?
Are they playing fair ? The Butler problem is
difficult. It is difficult to tell what the gains and
losses would be by his staying out or his going in.
One course would hurt in some states and help
in others, and vice versa. The whole problem is
this, viz: if Butler runs he will get 250,000 votes,
more or less, — less, probably. If he does not
run who will get a majority of those votes ? I
think I would, and hence would gain by his
staying out."
The importance of this expression of opinion
aside from its guess as to the effect of the Butler
candidacy, lies in the conclusive proof it affords
that Butler's course was not regarded as helpful
to Mr. Blaine, and that he did not, as his virulent
enemies charged, promote the candidacy.
On the other hand the RepubUcans built not
a Uttle hope upon Mr. Blaine's popularity among
voters of Irish blood. It was a popularity that was
quite unsolicited, for he had always been op
posed poHtically to the party to which most
Irishmen attach themselves, he had never made

286 JAMES G. BLAINE
an appeal addressed to Irishmen in any state
campaign he had conducted in Maine, and
never until long afterward made speeches on the
wrongs suffered by Ireland. To be sure he was
of Irish descent on both sides of his house, but
his ancestors came from the north of Ireland,
and most of them were Presbyterians, as he him
self was. Yet he was greatly admired by hosts of
Irishmen; and Tammany Hall, in New York,
was opposed to Mr. Cleveland and was brought
over to his support late in the canvass. A great
many Irishmen in New York State declared
themselves in favor of Blaine.
At the Maine State election in September the
Republican candidate received twenty thousand
plurality, far more than the average during
the long period of RepubUcan ascendancy. But,
contrary to the usual rule, the result could not
be taken as an indication of the poHtical situa
tion in the country as a whole. It was merely a
proof of the strong hold Mr. Blaine had upon
the affection of the people of Maine. The
Republican managers urgently advised their
leader to make a speaking tour through the
West. Ohio and West Virginia were the last
states to abandon the practice of holding their
state elections in October, and it was deemed
good policy to play the best card in the hand of
the party by sending Blaine into Ohio. With

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 287
some reluctance he acceded to the plan, and
accordingly left Augusta on the 17th of Septem
ber and did not return to his home until the day
of the November election.
After a day or two in Boston, where he was
magnificently received, and having delivered an
address at Worcester, he proceeded to New York,
where again, as well as in Philadelphia, to which
he made a short visit, he was greeted by throngs
of enthusiastic supporters. The brief stay in
New York was made notable by his receiving a
call from General Grant, with whom he had a
pleasant interview that lasted more than an hour.
When he left the city for his western tour his
progress through New York State was a continu
ous ovation. Ajf every stopping place there was
a crowd of shouting men, and to each gather
ing Mr. Blaine made a short speech. Upon
reaching Ohio, he began a stumping canvass
differing from those in which he had previ
ously participated only in the number and en
thusiasm of those who Ustened to him. The
topics upon which he addressed the voters were
chiefly the tariff and the danger of a "solid
South." He appreciated most keenly the ex
treme importance of the Ohio election, as numer
ous letters to Mr. Elkins, scrawled hastily on any
scrap of paper that came to hand, abundantly
prove. The National Committee was urged in

288 JAMES G. BLAINE
almost frantic language not to rely too much on
him but to exert itself to the utmost to make
sure of that one great state. He breathed more
freely when Ohio gave its verdict, — a plurahty
of eleven thousand for the Republican candidate
for Secretary of State, larger pluralities for the
other state officers, and a gain of several Repub
Ucan Congressmen.
Mr. Blaine had already given a few days, of
his time to West Virginia. On the 15th of Octo
ber he began a brief campaign in Michigan,
went from that state to Indiana for a week,
passed into Illinois, and thence returned to New
York City. He had been informed some time
previous to his homeward journey that some
most influential men,- many of them possessors
of great wealth, planned to give a banquet in
his honor. Blaine's judgment was most decid
edly against the scheme. In several letters he
declared that it would be a great mistake for him
to accede to the plan. He scented disaster. He
believed that he ought by all means to avoid New
York. He was right, but could not stand out
against the urgency of his friends, and to New
York he went. The banquet was highly success
ful, and the speeches made after it, to Blaine
and by him, contained nothing to which the most
critical could take exception. But the mere fact
that he was so strongly supported by the repre-

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 289
sentatives of capital was used skilfully against
him in appeals to those less favored by fortune,
and no doubt worked to his injury.
But a still more untoward incident was to
mark this visit to New York. On the 29th of
October a large number of clergymen assembled
to meet Mr. Blaine and assure him of their sup
port. Their spokesman was the Rev. Mr. Burch-
ard, who made a brief address which closed with
these sentences: "We are Republicans, and
don't propose to leave our party and identify
ourselves with the party whose antecedents have
been rum, Romanism, and rebellion. We are
loyal to our flag, we are loyal to you." Mr.
Blaine apparently did not notice the alliterative
clause, but it would have been difficult to rebuke
the attempt to introduce a sectarian issue into
the canvass, if he had been aware of it, without
giving offence. His political adversaries at once
took advantage of the unfortunate remark to
detach from his support all whom they could
persuade that the election of Blaine would be
a blow at the Roman Catholic Church. Some
of the most unscrupulous of his opponents repre
sented the words as those of Blaine himself. It
is said that leaflets ascribing the sentiment to
him were distributed at the doors of Roman
CathoUc churches on the foUowing Sunday.
There is no doubt that the heedless remark

290 JAMES G. BLAINE
caused him the loss of more than enough votes
to have changed the result in New York and
thus to have elected him President.
Mr. Blaine stopped in Boston on his way home,
and on the night before election reviewed an im
mense and enthusiastic procession of torch bear
ers. He arrived in Augusta in time to cast his own
vote, and returned to his house to await the ver
dict of the people. Time and again, after his
great canvass in the West closed, he was assured
in the most confident manner that his election
was certain. But he entertained doubts even
then, and did not hesitate to express them to
the friends about him.
The early returns from most of the states were
favorable, but those from New York indicated a
close vote. The electors of that state were not*
absolutely essential to RepubUcan success.
There were to be 401 electors, and 201 were
necessary for a choice. The Democrats were sure
of the 153 votes of the "soHd South ;" the Re
publicans could count upon aU the Northern
States except Connecticut, New York, New
Jersey, and Indiana, and would thus have 182
votes. Mr. Blaine could win if he carried New
York and its 36 electors, or with Indiana and
either Connecticut or New Jersey. The news
from New York was discouraging, and Mr.
Blaine remarked to the friends assembled in his

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 291
Ubrary that if he had not at least five thousand
pluraUty in New York he would be cheated out
of the state. Weary with his long campaign
and the strain of the election, he retired early,
and slept soundly, leaving his secretary and his
anxious friends to receive the later and more
decisive returns. When he came down the
next morning he received calmly the intelli
gence that he was probably defeated, and said
to his friends that they were much less recon
ciled to the result than he was. He did not
care half so much for himself, he assured
them, as he did for the > party that had suffered
defeat under his leadership, and for the hosts
of his friends who would be grievously disap
pointed. Although all four of the "doubtful" Northern
States gave their electoral votes to Mr. Cleveland,
the result in all was unprecedentedly close. In
diana gave him a plurahty of 6527 in a vote but
6000 short of half a milHon for aU the candidates.
In New Jersey Cleveland's pluraUty was 4358;
in Connecticut, 1276; in New York, as the result
was finally declared, 1149. In the four states
Cleveland had 1,003,141 votes; Blaine, 989,831;
and the Democratic pluraUty of 13,310, in a total
for both candidates of almost two miUion, was
but Uttle more than a half of one per cent. New
York was counted for Cleveland, but there were

292 JAMES G. BLAINE
then and are now few Republicans cognizant of
the facts who doubt that a pluraUty of votes
was actually cast in that state for Mr. Blaine.
It was openly charged at the time, and com
monly believed by RepubUcans, although Demo
crats warmly denied it, that in many precincts
of New York City the votes for Butler were
counted for Cleveland. The conviction, a few
years later, of the unscrupulous boss of a town
near New York, on a charge of falsifying election
returns, confirmed in their opinion those who
held the view that Blaine was really elected.
But whether it was true or false that the returns
were manipulated in the interest of the Demo
cratic candidates, there was no way to prove the
accusation, and aU concerned acquiesced in the
result as it was officially declared.
Mr. Blaine shared with three others the experi
ence of missing the presidency by an extremely
narrow margin. Burr was tied with Jefferson in
the electoral vote of 1801. Clay lost the vote of
New York and the election, in 1844, by a small
plurality, owing to the defection of the Free
Soilers. Tilden's claim to the office was defeated
in 1877 by the judgment of the Electoral Com
mission, but even then a single additional elec
toral vote would have given him a majority.
"The whole campaign," wrote Blaine to one
of his most intimate friends, a month or two

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 293
after the election, " was a disaster to me — per
sonally, poHtically, and pecuniarily. I ought to
have obeyed what was really my strong instinct
against running. My regrets do not in the least
take the form of mourning over defeat in the
election, but over my blunder in ever consent
ing to run. It was the wrong year — and gave
to my enemies their coveted opportunity." Once
in the campaign, Mr. Blaine had bent aU his en
ergies and had given aU his time and large con
tributions in money to the cause. His corre
spondence at this time deals much with money
matters and with arrangements to enable him
to tide over a temporary embarrassment until
he could recover himself. In one letter he re
marks upon the reputation his political enemies
had given him of being exceedingly wealthy, and
of the contrast his actual situation formed with
that reputation.
Many causes combined to bring about Blaine's
defeat, which was so narrow that but for any
one of them he would have been chosen Presi
dent. The Mugwump defection was of course
the chief cause, for in so great a state as New
York, where some of the most intense oppo
sition of this sort found expressidn in influential
pubUcations, there must have been many times
enough RepubUcans who voted for Cleveland
to have given Blaine the electoral vote of the

294 JAMES G. BLAINE
state. The Prohibition vote may also be men
tioned, but that is a feature of every election,
and except that a certain number of RepubUcans
who could not bring themselves to vote the Demo
cratic ticket cast their ballots for St. John, the
fact that this particular independent ticket was
in the field had no appreciable effect upon the re
sult. In all probability Mr. Blaine was right, in
a letter already quoted, in the opinion that the
candidacy of Butler drew more votes from him
than from his opponent. It did, according to
affidavits made at the time, enable the Tammany
managers to count for Cleveland ballots actually
given to Butler. How many votes were so counted
could not be ascertained, but, with a large supply
to draw upon, a number exceeding the official
plurality of Cleveland is not a high estimate.
Again, the success of the " rum, Romanism, and
rebellion " phrase in turning Irishmen away from
Mr. Blaine was obvious at once, and might
surely be credited with turning victory into de
feat, were all the other causes of the result to be
eliminated.1 Finally, the cool and non-committal
1 Mr. Blaine himself referred to the causes of his defeat in
a letter to Mr. Murat Halstead, dated November 16, 1884.
in which he makes an amusing reference to the Burchard
incident. Mr. Halstead published a facsimile of the letter
in an article in McClure's Magazine for January, 1896. "I
feel quite serene over the result," he wrote. "As the Lord
sent upon us an Ass in the shape of a Preacher and a rain-

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 295
attitude of Mr. ConkUng, although without effect
upon a vast majority of RepubUcans in New
York, must have been taken by the most ardent
partisans of that gentleman as an indication that
his apparent indifference masked a secret wish
for the defeat of his old antagonist. An " inter
view," published in December, 1884, represented
Mr. Blaine as having ascribed his defeat to Conk
ling ; but aside from the fact that an " interview "
in a newspaper, particularly an interview with
Blaine, needs authentication to entitle it to be-
Uef, we have seen that he attributed the loss of
New York to Mr. Burchardjs indiscretion and
to the weather. The concluding remark in the
interview may nevertheless have been spoken,
since Blaine practicably said the same thing on
other occasions : " My election was not to be ; "
and there we may leave it.
storm to lessen our vote in New York, I am disposed to feel
resigned to the dispensation of defeat which flowed directly
from those agencies.
"In missing a great honor I escaped a great and oppressive
responsibility. " You know — perhaps better than any one — how much I
did n't want the nomination — but perhaps in view of all
things I have not made a loss by the canvass. At least I try
to think not — the other candidate would have fared hard in
Maine, and would have been utterly broken in Ohio."

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE
There was consolation in defeat. Friends and
intimate associates poured their grief into Mr.
Blaine's ears. Disappointed supporters in all
parts of the country in thousands of letters gave
vent to their feeling of indignation at the treat
ment he had received, and at the vile aspersions
upon his character. Eminent men in poUtics and
in the professions — men of quite as keen percep
tion and of quite as high moral tone as those
who assailed him — wrote to assure him of their
unwavering confidence in him. Even poHtical
opponents of high standing in their party, who
knew the man and knew that the portrait of him
drawn by his virulent enemies was not and could
not be true, were among those who testified their
personal respect and friendship.
Blaine lost no time in useless mourning over
the result of the election, but turned again to
the work which the canvass had interrupted.
He resumed and finished the " Twenty Years of
Congress," and then made a coUection of his own
speeches, articles, and diplomatic correspondence,
under the title of " Political Discussions : Legis-

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 297
lative, Diplomatic and Popular," which was
published in 1887. It is a fresh illustration of the
extraordinary persecution to which he was sub
jected that some of the newspapers most violently
opposed to him sent correspondents to Augusta
to spy upon him, to coUect gossip from slanderous
tongues or to invent tales injurious to him and
his family. For the detractors did not spare Mrs.
Blaine nor the sons. Any one who is sufficiently
curious to examine the files of the several New
York papers for the issue of December 8, 1885,
may find an illustration of the depth to which
personal journalism can go. Undoubtedly such
assaults, to which it is unnecessary to attach a
descriptive adjective, wounded him deeply, but
he gave no sign and left the truth to right him in
due time.
One of the ways in which the representatives
of hostile papers had discerned, long before, that
they were capable of causing Mr. Blaine extreme
annoyance, was by representing him as breaking
down or as already broken down in health. They
had found the most characteristic weakness in
his make-up. From early manhood he was, in
respect of his own health, " notional." Upon the
sUghtest indisposition he took to his bed and sum
moned a physician. He was apprehensive to an
equal degree when any member of his family was
iU. It gave a dash to his spirits whenever any

298 JAMES G. BLAINE
one suggested that he was not looking well. His
intimates did not have many opportunities to
amuse themselves at his expense, but they did
quietly tell among themselves stories to illustrate
his possession of at least one very human weak
ness. On his great tour of the West in the cam
paign of 1884 a cinder got in his eye on a rail
way trip in Ohio. The eye pained him, probably
not more than is usually the case, and as he
walked the floor at his hotel, he called to one of
his companions and directed him to make plans
for an immediate return home. To Augusta?
Yes, he was afraid he should lose the sight of that
eye, and he must give up the rest of his stump
ing tour and put himself under the care of a
skilful surgeon. There was a hasty consultation
among those who were accompanying Mr. Blaine;
local surgical aid was caUed in; expostulation
against an abandonment of the campaign, and
relief from pain, led him to change his mind; and
the next day he delivered the poUtical speech
which was on his "schedule of appointments.
Among the hundreds of newspaper clippings
consulted in the preparation of this biography
are a score or two scattered along in point of time
from 1876 to the period when mortal illness had
really attacked Mr. Blaine, in which he is repre
sented as " a very sick man," as having lost his
old-time physical vigor, as exhibiting an ominous

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 299
pallor of countenance, and in other phrases
intimating or saying plainly that the end of his
Ufe could not be distant. Even the newspapers
most given to personaUties rarely show them
selves so inconsiderate as to pubUsh such state
ments about any man. It was cruelty to print
them about Mr. Blaine, but that cruelty was
persistent during many years.
Only two events in the Ufe of Mr. Blaine,
aside from his Uterary work, during almost three
years after his defeat for the presidency, need
even a passing reference. In 1886 he built for
himself a summer residence at Bar Harbor, in
a beautiful and commanding position on a hill
side, and gave it the name of "Stanwood,"
doubly appropriate, because it was the maiden
name of Mrs. Blaine, and because the house
stood upon land long owned by a direct descend
ant of the first Stanwood in America, from
whom Mrs. Blaine also was descended by a dif
ferent branch.
In the same year he made a tour through
Pennsylvania, and visited his birthplace and the
other scenes of his early Ufe. His reception at
the several places he visited was extraordinarily
enthusiastic, nowhere more so than at the coUege
where he received his education, and where he
was greeted as the most illustrious graduate of
the institution.

300 JAMES G. BLAINE
In the summer of 1887 he sailed for Europe,
accompanied by his wife and his unmarried
daughters, and by Miss Dodge. His objects were
rest and sightseeing, but incidentally he met
many of the prominent men and women in the
countries visited. It was also his purpose, as he
made known in due time, to escape from the
compHcations of the coming presidential can
vass, for he had even then resolved not again to
be a candidate for the nomination. He sailed
from New York on the 20th of June, and reached
London in time for the Queen's jubilee. He
found an invitation awaiting him to be a guest
at the Lord Mayor's dinner, and to a party the
same evening at the Duchess of St. Albans's.
"After the first half hour at the Duchess of St.
Albans's party," wrote Mr. George W. SmaUey,
in an article in the New York " Tribune," after
Mr. Blaine's death, " everybody wanted to know
him. It rained introductions." He was invited,
with his family, to the Queen's garden party, and
had a long and interesting conversation with the
Prince of Wales, now King Edward. It seems
to have rained invitations as well as introductions.
Mr. SmaUey reports that Mr. Blaine decUned an
invitation to the Foreign Office, on the ground
that he had, in his diplomatic correspondence,
attacked the Marquis of SaUsbury, the Foreign
Secretary; that he also declined another in vita-

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 301
tion from Lord Rosebery, for an unassigned
reason; and that he expressed himself as un
willing to be presented to Lord Hartington, now
the Duke of Devonshire. Such acts of discrimi
nation among members of the highest social
class in England show at least that he was no
Uon-hunter. In July Mr. Blaine went to Scotland, to be the
guest of Mr. Andrew Carnegie at Kilgrastow, a
few miles from Perth. After a visit to Ireland, to
the family of his son-in-law Colonel Coppinger,
he crossed the Channel and went to Homburg,
for the waters, thence to Vienna, Buda-Pesth,
and Paris. In France again he received great
social attention from public men. President
Carnot, M. Tirard, the prime minister of the
time, M. Floquet, Speaker of the House of
Deputies, and others, sought his acquaintance
and did him honor.
It was while he was in Paris that President
Cleveland astonished the country and the world
by sending to Congress his remarkable mes
sage on the tariff, in December, 1887. With
that quick perception in political matters which
always distinguished him, Mr. Blaine instantly
saw his opportunity to speak a word that would
close the breach in the Republican party and give
it a rallying cry in the canvass soon to begin. Mr.
Cleveland had summoned his own party to an

302 JAMES G. BLAINE
undertaking in accordance with its avowed prin
ciples, in which that party had been previously
too timid to engage, because of the division in its
own ranks. His message was a splendid exhibition
of political courage, and it gave the Democrats
an issue upon which to appeal to the country.
But it gave an issue to the Repulicans also. Mr.
SmaUey, the London correspondent of the New
York, "Tribune," called upon Mr. Blaine for
an expression of his views on the message, a ste
nographer was called in, and an " interview " was
dictated and cabled to New York.
Mr. Blaine spoke precisely the word that was
needed to inspirit his party, and that formed the
basis of the arguments which the RepubUcans, in
the press and on the stump, ampUfied in the en
suing canvass. He maintained that the poUcy
enunciated by Presdent Cleveland would sacri
fice the control of the home market for an iUusive
opportunity to compete with other nations in
foreign markets of less extent and value; that a
large part of the loss would fall upon the farmers
in consequence of the diminished prosperity of
the industrial communities which gave them
the best of their customers; that the South in
particular needed protection; that, in fact, the
farmers of the country, with their wool and other
products, were all interested, both indirectly and
directly, in the maintenance and extension of the

AGAIN . SECRETARY OF STATE 303
system. For the reduction of the unnecessarily
large surplus he recommended the entire abolition
of the tax on tobacco, as the poor man's luxury.
He would maintain the duty on whiskey, partly
for temperance reasons, but would devote the
proceeds of that tax to the fortification and de
fence of th*e country.
It was at once denominated "Blaine's Paris
Message," and it gave to his friends and sup
porters heart for the coming political contest.
On all hands it was supposed that the man who
had with a word rallied a party that had been
thrown into momentary confusion by the start-
Ung message of the President, would again be
the actual leader, as he had been in 1884. But,
as has been said already, he had long before this
time determined that he would not again permit
his name to be used. In January, 1888, he wrote
from Florence several letters to intimate friends
and political associates announcing his decision.
To Mr. Jones, the chairman of the RepubHcan
National Committee, he communicated it for
mally, saying that he was "constrained in this
decision by considerations entirely personal to
myself," and referring to the fact that he had
mentioned to him these considerations a year
previous. But to his closest friends he explained
in more detail. In a letter to the Hon. Charles
Emory Smith, dated January 26, having said

304 JAMES G. BLAINE
that his mind was made up, he added, " Indeed,
ever since the last election I have felt that I
would not run again unless I should be called
upon by the practically unanimous judgment and
wish of the party. I did not expect to receive
that unanimity and therefore feel no disappoint
ment that other candidates are in the field. Should
I permit my name to go into the convention I
would certainly meet Sherman from Ohio, Har
rison from Indiana, and Hawley from Connecti
cut. Now, Indiana and Connecticut are two of
the States which we must have to succeed. I
would not run again except upon a cordial
unanimous demand of those States." Having
mentioned other probable candidates, he said,
"I do not doubt that I could be nominated,
and if I had not been defeated in 1884 I would
undoubtedly go into the convention, but having
had my chance and lost I do not wish to appear
as a claimant with the demand ' Try me again.' "
Such letters, written to intimate friends who
were devoted to his fortunes, and there were
many such letters, would have put a stop to the
"boom" for any other candidate than Blaine.
But curiously enough those enemies of the man
who fancied that he could never say what he
meant, nor mean what he said, took the ground
that the letters were " a bid for the nomination "
instead of a refusal of it; and many of his most

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 305
earnest friends unwittingly gave support to this
remarkable theory by refusing to accept his
decision. They saw in his letters an apparent
wilUngness to stand again if the wish for his
nomination should be practically unanimous,
and undertook to secure unanimity. Their ex
pectation undoubtedly was that, in a' contest
where so many candidates were to appear, no
one of them could obtain a majority, and that
at the last the desired unanimity would be ob
tained. That, however, was not at all Mr.
Blaine's idea. He meant what he said. At no
moment until the convention had made a choice
did he swerve in the slightest degree from his
original purpose. It was not the unanimity on
a "dark horse" that he required to change his
mind, but original unanimity; and that he
knew he could not have. In many forms and to
many friends he repeated and reiterated that his
purpose was unchangeable, and that events since
his first letter to Mr. Jones made it even a matter
of honor not to retract, nor to suffer his name to
be used. The strongest and most emphatic
expression of this idea was conveyed in a letter
to the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, dated May 17, 1888.
" If," he wrote, " I should now, by speech or
by silence, by commission or omission, permit my
name in any event to come before the convention,
I should incur the reproach of being uncandid

306 JAMES G. BLAINE
with those who have always been candid with
me. ... I am not wilUng to be the cause of
misleading a single man among the milUons
who have given "me their suffrage and their con
fidence. I am not willing that even one of my
faithful supporters in the past should think me
capable' of paltering in a double sense with my
words. Assuming that the presidential nomina
tion could by any possible chance be offered to
me, I could not accept it without leaving in the
minds of thousands of these men the impression
that I had not been free from indirection, and
therefore I could not accept it at all. The mis
representations of malice have no weight, but
the just displeasure of my friends I could not
patiently endure."
Even this explicit declaration did not satisfy
some of Blaine's too devoted friends. The most
of those who were nearest to him by intimate
association and long friendship did accept it
and refrained from attempts to bring about his
nomination. Yet it may be questioned if they
did not still cherish a vague hope that without
activity on their part events would turn out so
that an irresistible call to him to be the candi
date would break down his opposition.'1 The
1 An amusing account is given, in a letter from William
Walter Phelps to Mr. Elkins, of the manner in which some
of Blaine's friends considered the question of the nomina-

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 307
pressure upon him continued, and the attempts
to stampede the convention were persisted in to
the very last, in spite of his protests. In a de
spatch from Scotland to two of his closest political
tion before the convention met. It would be improper to
print the names of the persons discussed as candidates or
those of the persons who made the comments reported by
Mr. Phelps; but with such suppression the important part
of the letter is as follows : —
"You ought to have been at the Friday night conference.
The others were all there and we talked many hours. There
were most interesting scenes, for it became a question as to
which should take the palm for distributing the plainest
truths among his friends.
"  was ruled out, because he admitted he had been a
Know-nothing; only  averse.
"  was ruled out, because he could n't be elected; no
one opposing.
"  , after such talks! about ruled out, final ruling out
left for Friday night of this week, when we meet again. 
[the same person] willing to be ruled out last Friday, but not
unwilling to wait and see what he would see for himself West,
where he is to-day. He was ruled out, or is to be, simply
because Kansas, Michigan, and Iowa won't vote for any
Granger. "When we parted it was Harrison or  ;  stronger
for  .  stronger for Harrison.
"The only ill-feeling was on  V demand for,  for
Vice President.  was bitter. It would weaken the ticket;
it would be greeted with laughter, etc. So that was postponed
— and all questions of Vice Pres't.
"There, that is the summary of last Friday. But the details
were rich. I knew they would be, and was sorry when Reid
handed me your card that you were off."

308 JAMES G. BLAINE
friends in the Maine delegation he earnestly be
sought them to respect his wishes, and he sent
a second despatch on the same day in which
he reiterated the request in language almost of
reproach that the repeated demands were un
heeded. Although Blaine had often privately ex
pressed the opinion that General Harrison was
the best and strongest candidate, he did not until
the last moment indicate formally his wish that
that gentleman should be chosen. A code had
been agreed upon between his friends in the
United States and himself, and when a deadlock
or a long contest seemed inevitable, the following
despatch was sent from Mr. Carnegie's estate in
Scotland, where Blaine was staying, to a promir
nent RepubUcan leader: —
June 25. Too late victor immovable take
trump and star. Whip.
Two roll-calls in the convention on Friday,
June 22, and three on Saturday, had resulted
in no choice. On every trial John Sherman, of
Ohio, was the leader. The above despatch was
sent on Monday and received before the Con
vention assembled. Interpreted, it reads : —
Too late. Blaine immovable. Take Harrison
and Phelps. Carnegie.

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 309
The Blaine forces were turned to the support
of General Harrison, and he was nominated.
Mr. Blaine's advice to nominate William Walter
Phelps for Vice-President was not followed. The
convention chose Mr. Levi P. Morton for the
place. An incident of Mr. Blaine's stay at Mr. Carne
gie's castle, narrated by Mr. T. C. Crawford, will
illustrate the character of the espionage to which
he was subjected during most of his European
tour. Mr. Crawford — a journalist who was in
many ways associated with Mr. Blaine, and who
has written a biography of him which the pre
sent writer has found useful — says that when
Blaine was on the continent a reporter for a
New York newspaper dogged his footsteps, way
laid servants and questioned them, and carried
his system of personal annoyance to such a de
gree that Blaine was forced to take measures
even to protect his private correspondence from
being violated. This man followed Blaine to
Scotland, and on one occasion disguised him
self as a servant, secured Blaine's mail from
the postman, opened his letters and read them,
and left them on the ground.
After the nomination there was no need of
further persecution, and the last weeks of the
stay in Europe were free from annoyance. The
family party sailed for home in August, after an

310 JAMES G. BLAINE
absence from America of more than a year.
Hosts of friends met him in New York on the
arrival of the steamship, and gave him a royal
welcome. He entered at once into the campaign,
was in demand in every State, spoke to vast
throngs of people, and contributed greatly to
the success of the Republican candidates.
Immediately upon receiving news of General
Harrison's nomination, Mr, Blaine had sent to
the new RepubHcan "standard-bearer" a de
spatch of congratulation, as he had done to
Hayes in 1876 and to Garfield in 1880. General
Harrison, in acknowledging it, referred to it
as "so prompt, so generous, and so stirring;"
and he also practically recognized Blaine's own
agency in bringing about the nomination. " From
your most intimate and trusted friends I had the
assurance that in a possible contingency you and
they might regard my nomination with favor.
It was only such assurances that made my In
diana friends hopeful of success, and only the
help of friends made success possible." In a
letter written on the eve of Mr. Blaine's return
to this country, he again gave expression to his
cordial sentiments. No doubt he appreciated
and was grateful for the efficient service of Blaine
on the stump.
Public opinion of every shade took it for granted
that the President-elect would offer to him the

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 311
position of Secretary of State. No intimation has
ever been made, pubUcly at least, that General
.Harrison considered any other person for the
chief portfoHo in his cabinet. Nevertheless it
was not until the 17th of January, 1889, more
than two months after the election, that the offer
of the portfoHo was made. Many of Blaine's
friends, possibly he himself, thought the delay
strange, and suspected that it portended the
choice of another person as Secretary. There
was probably no reason for such a suspicion.
The tender of the cabinet position was not so
prompt as it had been when Garfield made the
offer, but it was made in most cordial terms. The
difference in temperament between the two
Presidents, and the fact of a friendly intimacy
between Garfield and Blaine, which had never
existed to so great a degree between Harrison
and Blaine, furnish a sufficient explanation of
the two months' delay, if any explanation be
needed. A personal note accompanied the formal offer
of the State Department. General Harrison
expressed himself as " especially interested in the
improvement of our relations with the Central
and South American States." He remarked that
three distinct questions with three several Euro
pean powers called for "early and discreet at
tention." He also expressed his desire to con-

312 JAMES G. BLAINE
duct affairs so as "to preserve harmony in our
party," and was "very soHcitous to avoid any
thing that would promote dissensions, and very
desirous that the civil service shall be placed
and conducted on that high plane which wiU
recommend our party to the confidence of all the
people." Mr. Blaine repUed on January 21, accepting
the office, and reciprocating in the fullest mea
sure "the cordiality and confidence which mark
every line of it " [the letter]. He was " in heartiest -
accord with the principles and poHcies which
you briefly outHne for your administration,"
and was "especially pleased with what you say
in regard to foreign affairs." His expression of
loyalty to his new chief was not put in the same
terms as those in which he effaced himself to
serve General Garfield, but it was equally sig
nificant. "In becoming a member of your
cabinet I can have no motive, near or remote,
inconsistent with the greatest strength and high
est interests of your administration, and of your
self as its personal and official head."
So Mr. Blaine became Secretary of State a
second time, and reentered the public service
after an interval of a Uttle more than seven
years. He took up duties much more congenial
than those of the higher office in which the people
had failed to place him. He had reached the

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 313
age of fifty-eight years and was at a period of life
when a man of such robust constitution as he
enjoyed should be at the height of physical as
weU as of mental power. But the last twelve of
those years had been passed, either in strife with
those who were determined to break him down,
or in silent endurance of attacks which he was
too proud to resent. Hard work and the mental
strain and distress caused by the unrelenting
opposition he encountered had to a certain ex
tent undermined his health. But his opportunity
had come — the opportunity interrupted by the
death of Garfield — to deUght his friends and to
confound his enemies, by a brilliant conduct of
foreign affairs. As before, his two watchwords
were peace and a firm assertion of American
rights. He entered promptly upon the work before
him. Most of the questions with which he had
to deal were inherited from the preceding ad
ministration. Upon the whole, savagely as his
treatment of those matters has been criticised,
his course was not markedly different from that
of Mr. Bayard. He reversed nothing that his
predecessor had done. If he was more urgent,
more positive,1 more pungent in his correspond
ence than Mr. Bayard, it was because he was
more forceful in speech, in acts, in temperament
generally. The first matter to receive particular

314 JAMES G. BLAINE
attention was the situation in Samoa. The Ger
man government took an irritating attitude, for
it put forth a claim to paramount influence on
the ground of superior financial and commer
cial interests in the Samoan group of islands ; and
fostered a revolution and the deposition of the
recognized king. Mr. Blaine insisted upon the
equality of the three powers which had estab
lished the governmental status of the islands, —
Great Britain, the German Empire, and the
United States. The correspondence was volu
minous, but in the end Mr. Blaine carried every
point on which he insisted. There was a resump
tion of the conference between the three powers,
at Berlin, and a treaty was made under the terms
of which a chief justice of the islands was ap
pointed by the sovereign of a neutral and dis
interested power, the king of Sweden and Nor
way. With the subsequent events — the attempt
of the pretender Mataaf a to seize the throne, the
despatch of a warship of the United States to Apia
to assist in enforcing the provisions of the treaty,
which President Cleveland declared1 " signally il
lustrate the impolicy of entangling affiances with
foreign powers," and the partition of Samoa
between Germany and the United States — with
these matters we have nothing to do.
On May 24, 1888, President Cleveland ap-
1 Annual Message, December 4, 1893.

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 315
proved a resolution of Congress authorizing and
requesting the President to invite the inde
pendent powers of the two American continents,
and Haiti and Santo Domingo, to send delegates
to a conference to be held in Washington, sub
stantially for the purposes mentioned in the in
vitation issued in 1881 by Mr. Blaine in the
name of President Arthur. It could not have
been anticipated that the whirligig of politics
would restore to the originator of the measure
the duty of carrying it into execution. But
the invitations were transmitted, were accepted
by all the governments to which they were ad
dressed, and when the delegates met at Wash
ington on the 2d of October, 1889, it was James
G. Blaine who welcomed them to the country,
and, in a speech eloquent and noble in its sen
timents, set before them the duties they were
undertaking and the spirit in which those duties
were to be performed. He may be said to have
summed it aU up in the following passage,
in which he characterized the assembly: "an
honorable, peaceful conference of seventeen in
dependent American powers, in which all shall
meet together on terms of absolute equaUty; a
conference in which there can be no attempt to
coerce a single delegate against his own concep
tion of the interests of his nation; a conference
which will permit no secret understanding on

316 JAMES G. BLAINE
any subject, but will frankly pubUsh to the world
all its conclusions; a conference which will tol
erate no spirit of conquest, but will aim to culti
vate an American sympathy as broad as both
continents; a conference which will form no
selfish alliance against the older nations from
which we are proud to claim inheritance, — a
conference, in fine, which will seek nothing, pro
pose nothing, endure nothing that is not, in the
general sense of all the delegates, timely, wise, and
peaceful." Mr. Blaine was chosen president of the confer
ence, which held seventy sessions and did not
complete its labors until the middle of April,
1890. Some measures of great importance were
decided upon; upon others an agreement could
not be reached. But no one can. read the debates
in the conference without being impressed by the
conciliatory attitude of all the delegates, and in
particular by the friendUness displayed toward
the United States. Mr. Blaine was fuUy justified
in saying, in his speech just before declaring the
conference at an end : " If, in this closing hour,
the conference had but one deed to celebrate,
we should 'dare to call the world's attention
to the deliberate, confident, solemn dedication
of two great continents to peace and to the
prosperity which has peace for its foundation.
We hold up this new magna charta which abol-

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 317
ishes war and substitutes arbitration between the
American republics, as the first and great fruit
of the International American Conference."
Optimism is required on such an occasion.
Probably Mr. Blaine did not feel great confi
dence that war between the American republics
had been abolished, save in theory. There is no
doubt whatever that the conference has ever
since been influential in the direction of peace,
nor that wars have been less frequent among the
Spanish American nations in the last fifteen
years than formerly. Nevertheless, only nine
weeks after the conference adjourned finally
there was a revolution in Salvador; Guatemala
refused to recognize the new Salvadorean govern
ment and began hostilities against it; and there
was a brief but bloody war. The government of
Guatemala trespassed upon the rights of the
United States by seizing arms from the Pacific
mail steamship CoHma, and by intercepting
telegrams addressed to the United States minis
ter to Central America. General Ezeta, com
manding the forces of Salvador, attacked the
United States consulate in the city of San Sal
vador, tore down the flag, and damaged the pro
perty. The correspondence relative to these out
rages and to reparation and apology for them,
was quite different in tone from the gentle, peace
ful and reciprocally complimentary language

318 JAMES G. BLAINE
used in the conference. Moreover, the positive
refusal of the authorities of Salvador for a long
time to accept the good offices of the United
States in reestablishing peace with Guatemala,
was anything but a confirmation of the hopeful
assurance by Mr. Blaine, a few months before,
that arbitration was thenceforth to settle all na
tional differences on these continents. But hu
man nature, and particularly Spanish-American
nature, cannot be made peaceable by treaty.
The next year, 1891, there was another occur
rence, this time in the city of Valparaiso, grossly
injurious to the United States, almost humor
ously inconsistent with the sentiments expressed
at Washington in 1890. There was a revolution
in Chile, also. The minister to that country was
Mr. Patrick Egan, a great friend and ardent
supporter of Mr. Blaine, but most obnoxious to
Englishmen on account of his connection with
Irish revolutionary movements. The particular
enemies of Mr. Blaine pronounced the appoint
ment of Egan scandalous, and lost no oppor
tunity to throw discredit upon his conduct in the
extremely difficult situation in which he was
placed. Nevertheless, his course seems to have
been correct and discreet, and he refuted suc
cessfully all the charges brought against him.
Before the Chilean revolution was accom-
pUshed, Mr. Egan properly maintained good re-

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 319
lations with the existing government. When the
revolutionists obtained possession of Valparaiso
some of the defeated government officials took
refuge in the American legation, and Mr. Egan
gave them asylum, as it was his duty to do. But
this course was offensive to the revolutionary
leaders, and to their supporters in Valparaiso.
The United States cruiser Baltimore, under the
command of Captain Winfield S. Schley, visited
the port at this time, and one evening when
about one hundred and fifty men of the war
vessel were on shore leave, a slight affray in a
drinking saloon between an American sailor and
a Chilean led to the gathering of a mob of about
five thousand Chileans, who attacked the Ameri
cans. One sailor of the Baltimore was killed, —
by a policeman according to the statement of
some of his fellows, — and many were injured.
It would require pages to narrate in detail the
delays, the denials, the obstacles thrown in the
way of investigation, the haughty insolence of
the provisional minister of foreign relations, of
the intendente of Valparaiso, and of the judge
of the criminal court. The climax was reached
in a despatch from the foreign minister to Senor
Montt, the Chilean minister in Washington, in
which he declared that the statements in the
message of the President and in the report of
the Secretary of the Navy were either "errone-

320 JAMES G. BLAINE
ous or deliberately incorrect," and that "more
over there is neither exactness nor sincerity in
what is said at Washington." No satisfaction of
any sort could be obtained from the provisional
government ; but after an election had been held
a new administration was inaugurated, by which
ample apologies were made and the insulting
references to the President and the Secretary of
the Navy were frankly withdrawn. The affair
itself, rather than the diplomatic correspondence,
is interesting. The situation called for firmness
and peremptoriness, but not for the exercise of
any unusual intellectual force. In the end the
Secretary of State gained his point without even
the most distant suggestion of coercion to secure
it. To that extent this government observed the
humane rules adopted by the conference, if
Chile did not.
To return from these digressions, the confer
ence of 1889-90 was far from fruitless. From
it came directly the establishment of the Bureau
of American RepubHcs, which has done much
in a quiet way to promote commercial relations
between the several countries. It has not made
them all friends, each to all the rest, nor has it
dissipated wholly a certain cloud of vague sus
picion that arises from time to time, in this coun
try and that, as to the ultimate purposes of the
United States. But it will hardly be denied that

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 321
it has to an appreciable extent ameliorated con
ditions. The settlement of two or three boundary
disputes of long standing between South Ameri
can governments, in particular that between
Chile and the Argentine Republic, and the agree
ment, which has been carried out, to dispose of
their navies, may be attributed almost directly
to the conference. But even if the conference
had resulted in nothing save peaceful profes
sions, meaning nothing in the minds of those
who uttered them, the purpose of Mr. Blaine in
originating the movement, and his agency in con
ducting it, can have nothing but the heartiest
praise from every lover of peace. To no one in
this country can be attributed more earnest,
zealous, and prolonged effort in the cause of in
ternational arbitration.
One of the most important matters that en
gaged Mr. Blaine's attention during his incum
bency of the State department was the question
of the seal fishery in the Bering Sea, — a subject
of extraordinary difficulty. Prior to the cession
of Alaska to the United States Russia enjoyed,
unmolested and unquestioned, , a monopoly of
that industry. When the peninsula and the
outlying islands were acquired by the United
States, in 1867, a monopoly was granted to the
Alaska Commercial Company in consideration
of a yearly rental, and a fixed sum for each seal

322 JAMES G. BLAINE
killed, upon certain stringent conditions. Male
seals only were to be killed, on the Pribilof
Islands only, and not to exceed a certain number
annually, which was eventually fixed at one hun
dred thousand. Pelagic sealing, that is, kilHng
seals in the open ocean, was absolutely pro
hibited, as was also the slaughter of females.
The company undertook to provide the island
ers employed in the kilHng with food, medical
attendance, and other necessaries. Under the
regulations estabUshed, which were strictly en
forced, the seal herd increased and the business
promised to be permanent. Almost all the skins
were sent to England to be dressed, so that the
people of that country had an interest in the
maintenance of the herd, the last of many, aU of
which in both oceans, south as weU as north of
the equator, had been exterminated by reckless
and unrestrained pelagic kilHng.
Until about the year 1886 there was no at
tempt on the part of any one to engage in sealing
in violation of any rights granted to the company.
Then a few sealers were fitted out in British
Columbia, which entered Bering Sea and kiUed
seals in the open ocean, of course without any
discrimination as to sex. They were killed by the
use of firearms, and many of them — some ex
perts said a large proportion of them — sank
and did not rise again. Mr. Bayard caUed the

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 323
attention of Lord SaUsbury to the wanton de
struction, and to the interest of Great Britain
and the world in the preservation of this, the last
important herd of fur-bearing seals. He received
a sympathetic reply, and there seemed a good
prospect of an arrangement by which the de
structive practice should be prohibited. The
government, Mr. Cleveland being then President,
sent revenue cutters into Bering Sea to enforce
what were assumed to be American rights, and
some British sealers were captured, sent to
American ports, and condemned, together with
the sealskins taken by them. This was the sit
uation at the time that the administration was
changed and Mr. Blaine became Secretary of
State. It would be impossible, within reasonable
limits, to give an adequate summary of the dip
lomatic correspondence on this subject in the
years 1890 and 1891, between Mr. Blaine on the
one side, and Lord SaUsbury and Sir JuHan
Pauncefote on the other. It must be admitted,
first, that on the exact technicaUties of inter
national law and usage the case of the United
States was not perfect; secondly, that, even if
there were no flaw in the reasoning, Great Bri
tain could not be compeUed to yield to the force
of logic. It was a case in which, if Lord SaUsbury
should stand by the rights claimed by Cana-

324 JAMES G. BLAINE
dians, and should disregard the argument that
the good of mankind required that the United
States should continue to protect the seal herd
from extermination, this country would ulti
mately fail to carry its point. The Marquis of
Salisbury was himself at first incUned to agree
to the American view of the matter. The opera
tions of United States revenue cutters were, of
course, irritating, but that difficulty was easily
surmountable. Canada, however, was obdurate;
and when Mr. Blaine argued for American
rights, Lord Salisbury argued back, and the main
point, that, whether there were or were not
rights, good policy required a concession on the
part of the British government, was too fre
quently forgotten.
It was a fine contest of wits. Mr. Blaine made
the point that the destruction of the seal herd
was contra bonos mores, and that Great Britain
was interested directly in putting a stop to it.
He urged that by the possession of the Pribilof
Islands, where the seals resorted in countless
numbers to bring forth and rear their young,
the United States was virtually in possession of
the herd. He held that the undisturbed monopoly
enjoyed by Russia, which had ceded all its rights
to the United States, gave this country a title to
the monopoly akin to the title which in law is
known as prescription. Lord Salisbury disputed

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 325
all these positions. He took the ground with re
ference to the last point that it was essentially
a claim that the Bering Sea was mare clausum, a
position which Mr. Blaine over and over again
declared that he did not advance and did not
hold. He admitted the absolute right of the mari
time powers of the world to sail that sea for pur
poses of commerce or fishing. He claimed no
more than a right which the United States equally
with Great Britain had tacitly conceded to Russia
so long as that country owned Alaska.
Lord Salisbury called attention to a protest
by John Quincy Adams, when Secretary of State,
against a ukase of the Tsar claiming jurisdic
tion over the Pacific Ocean to a distance of one
hundred miles from the coast. Mr. Blaine in
sisted, and maintained that he proved absolutely,
that the protest had no reference to Bering Sea,
which was known as the North Sea, whereas the
Pacific was called the South Sea, Long argu
ments ensued on this point, and neither contes
tant was convinced. Lord SaUsbury made much
of the rule of international law that the jurisdic
tion of a country ceases at a distance of three
miles from the coast. Mr. Blaine retorted that
Great Britain disregarded that rule at its own
convenience, as in its assertion of control over
the Ceylon pearl fishery, and by its prohibition
of trawling in the North Sea between two points

326 JAMES G. BLAINE
of the Scottish coast, over an area twenty-seven
hundred miles in extent. He could ehcit no reply
to this home thrust. The reply would doubtless
be that Great Britain has always claimed that
the line of jurisdiction does not foUow the sinu
osities of the coast but is drawn from headland
to headland. But inasmuch as no other govern
ment has conceded that method of ascertaining
the extent of jurisdiction, the claim is even less
supported than that of Russia over the Bering
Sea, which other powers did at least respect by
refraining from trespass.
So far as Mr. Blaine's object in the correspond
ence was to convince the British foreign secre
tary that this government had a right to exclude
unlicensed sealers, and by a police power over
Bering Sea to capture and condemn them as
poachers, his effort failed. But a modus vivendi
was patched up, which was wholly ineffective
during the single season it was in force, for
there were more British sealers in the protected
waters than ever before. Great Britain refused
to renew the arrangement. Then a treaty was
made under which the questions at issue were
submitted to arbitration. The decision of the
tribunal was adverse to the contentions of the
United States; and an award of damages for
the seizure of British sealers by American reve
nue cutters completed the defeat of the United

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 327
States in the diplomatic controversy. The depre
dations — if the word may be used to describe
acts that were thus practicaUy declared lawful —
have continued, and the seal herd is so nearly
extinct as hardly to be worth hunting.
Mr. Blaine did not confine his activities while
Secretary of State strictly to the matters con
cerning his own department. One of those dra
matic incidents of which so many marked his
pubHc career occurred during the consideration
of the tariff biU of 1890. He intervened almost
directly to prevent the sacrifice of the only weapon
the - government possessed to compel the coun
tries of the American continents to open their
markets on more favorable terms to the pro
ducts of the United States. Already coffee, hides,
and crude india rubber were free of duty. It was
proposed in the McKinley bill as it was origin-
aUy drawn, and as it passed the House of Repre
sentatives, to place sugar also on the free Ust.
If that were to be done, substantiaUy aU the pro
ducts of tropical America, except tobacco, would
be admitted to the United States without the
payment of duty, whereas the tariffs of aU the
countries of Central and South America were
so drawn as to be highly disadvantageous to the
United States. This country would then be
placed in the same position with respect to them
that Great Britain has accepted with respect to

328 JAMES G. BLAINE
the whole world, — a situation which led Mr.
Chamberlain to propound his fiscal poHcy, in
1903, and to advise that the British govern
ment should resume the weapon of tariff retaUa-
tion. Mr. Blaine alone of the pubHc men of the
time discerned the essential weakness of this
poUcy. He saw that Congress was about to
throw away a great opportunity to extend the
export trade of the country. PubHc criticism of
measures before Congress by officers of the exec
utive branch of the government, and specific ad
vice as to the amendment of such measures, are
almost unknown in American poUtical history,
and are regarded as highly improper. No one
knew this better than did Mr. Blaine, yet so earn
est was he in his purpose to secure an entrance
into the markets of Latin America that he ven
tured to do the unusual and the improper thing.
Early in June he sent to the President a report
of the International American Conference, which
recommended the negotiation of reciprocal com
mercial treaties between the United States and
the other repubUcs of America. Mr. Blaine ac
companied the report with some extremely sug
gestive statistics, showing the insignificant amount
of American produce taken by the countries of
Latin America, and urged that the trade might
be greatly increased by judicious amendment of

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 329
the pending tariff bill.1 The President sent the
paper of the Secretary of State to Congress with
a special message, in which he commended gen
erally the idea of using the special favors to be
granted to the sister republics to secure favors
from them in return, but did not echo Mr.
Blaine's suggestion of amendment to the tariff
biU. He did, in fact, go as far as it was proper
for him to go in seconding Mr. Blaine's motion.2
As soon as the message of the President had
been read to the Senate, Mr. Hale, of Maine,
introduced an amendment to the tariff bill em
bodying Mr. Blaine's views. It provided that
the ports of the United States should be free
" to all the products of any nation of the Ameri
can hemisphere" which should levy no export
duties on those products, and which should ad
mit free of duty a specified list of American pro
ducts. This plan ultimately proved impractic
able, because it would have established free
trade with Canada, and also because it would
have made wool free of duty, neither of which
measures was desired by the protectionists, or,
probably, by Mr. Blaine himself.
The proposition in its general purpose, as weU
1 The bill had already been passed by the House of Repre
sentatives, on May 21.
' See his message of June 19, 1890. Messages and Papers
of tlie Presidents, vol. ix, p. 74.

330 JAMES G. BLAINE
as in the form in which it was brought before
the Senate, was not favorably received by sena
tors. But Mr. Blaine was greatly in earnest, and
practically appealed from the Senate to the peo
ple. In July he addressed a letter to his friend
Senator Frye, of Maine, in which he expressed
himself in the most vigorous manner upon what
seemed to him the f ooUsh neglect of a great op
portunity. He made the point that the most
effective because the most plausible argument
against the protective system was " that its bene
fits go whoUy to the manufacturer and the capi
talist and not at all to the farmer." Then he
proceeded: "Here is an opportunity where the
farmer may be benefited — primarily, undeniably,
richly benefited. Here is an opportunity for a
Republican Congress to open the markets of
forty millions of people to the products of Ameri
can farms. ShaU we seize the opportunity, or
shall we throw it away ? I do not doubt that in
many respects the tariff bill pending in the Sen
ate is a just measure, and that most of its pro
visions are in accordance with the wise poUcy
of protection. But there is not a section or a Une
in the entire bill that will open the market for
another bushel of wheat or another barrel of
pork." The letter was intended to be read by people
throughout the country, and it was read by them.

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 331
The idea pleased the farmers everywhere. It
soon became evident that the scheme was too
popular to be rejected, and ultimately the " re
ciprocity" section of the McKinley act was
adopted. It provided that although sugar, coffee,
tea, and hides were to be free of duty, a duty
should be imposed upon such articles when en
tering an American port from any country which
maintained a tariff upon American goods which,
in the opinion of the President, was "unequal
and unreasonable." A story crept into the news
papers and is even repeated by Gail Hamilton,
that Mr. Blaine appeared before the Finance
Committee of the Senate and urged his reci
procity measure with such vehemence that he
smashed his hat in making one of his vigorous
gestures. There is the best of authority for say
ing that Mr. Blaine did not address the Finance
Committee on the subject at any time. On one
occasion he did express himself informally —
but energetically — to some senators in the room
of the Appropriations Committee, when the
committee was not in session, and accidentally
struck his hat; and the newspaper correspond
ents invented the rest of the story.
Many agreements were made with foreign
governments under the reciprocity provisions
of the McKinley act. Perhaps it would be more
accurate to say that many such governments

332 JAMES G. BLAINE
greatly reduced their tariffs on American goods
in order to avoid the penalty of a duty on their
own produce. In some cases their imports from'
the United States were increased largely. In
other cases little or no benefit to this country
ensued. But in truth the scheme was not fairly
tried. Less than a year after the conclusion of
the second of the so-called reciprocity treaties,
the success of the Democrats at the presidential
election of 1892 sealed the doom of the poHcy.
They had denounced the system as a "sham,"
were expected to discontinue it, and did so.
Statistics, often and often adduced to show the
failure of the poHcy, prove nothing. The ar
rangements with the countries of Central and
South America made many agricultural and
manufactured goods free of duty, and reduced
the duty on many other such goods from one
quarter to one half. It surely requires more than
an exhibit of commercial tables showing that
in many, even in most, cases American exports
to those countries did not increase during the
two or three years the arrangements were in
force, to demonstrate that the poUcy would not
have been of great advantage to the trade of
this country. Who, for example, would venture
to maintain that an agreement by Brazil to ad
mit American cotton goods at seventy-five per
cent, of the duty charged on EngHsh, French,

AGAIN SECRETARY OF STATE 333
and German piece goods, would be worthless
to American manufacturers, and to their em
ployes ?
The opposition to the "treaties" was purely
poUtical, and had no other basis than the fact
that the arrangement for an increase of the ex
port trade interfered in no way whatever with
the protection to American industry which it
was one of the avowed purposes of the McKinley
act to secure.

XI
THE LAST YEARS
In the conduct of the foreign affairs of the coun
try, both in the matters mentioned and in other
less important and less perplexing business, the
Secretary of State seems to have had the fuU
support of the President. If any differences of
opinion between them occurred, the grave has
closed over them and they will never be revealed.
But it is necessary to consider, in a spirit of char
ity to both, their personal relations to each other,
which ended in alienation, and in the abrupt
termination of Mr. Blaine's pubHc Hfe.
The position of Mr. Blaine in the cabinet of
General Harrison was from the beginning quite
different from that which he had occupied under
President Garfield. In the one case the two men,
President and Secretary, were bosom friends.
Blaine was free — if the relations between them
had not been what they were, one would almost
say too free — with his advice. Garfield reHed
much on his Secretary of State, saw questions
with his eyes, adopted his measures, appointed
to office the men whom he selected. Harrison
was built upon a different model. It is not neces-

THE LAST YEARS 335
sary to suppose, and it would not be reasonable
to suppose, that his attitude toward Blaine was
ever such that the word jealousy describes it.
Nor would it be fair even to suggest that in any
of his acts or omissions anything like a purpose
to let Blaine "know his place" actuated him.
The mention of these suggestions here is made
simply because they have been put forward by
some of the too sensitive friends of Blaine, and
because they were used during the whole of
Harrison's administration by mischief-makers
who were endeavoring to embroil the two men
and to drive Blaine from the cabinet..
It is certain that Blaine never expected to
wield in Harrison's official family the influence
he had exerted in Garfield's. Yet in all proba
biUty he did expect more than he received.
Harrison evidently meant to be President and
to have the decision in all matters which he de
sired to decide. In a great many cases he re
jected Blaine's selections for offices in his own
department. The most conspicuous example,
although by no means the most important, was
the rejection of Blaine's heart's desire, the ap
pointment of his son Walker as Assistant Secre
tary of State. Nevertheless the President did
make the young man Solicitor for the Depart
ment of State, and thus Walker was enabled to
be at his father's right hand.

336 JAMES G. BLAINE
No complaint came from Mr. Blaine that he
was unfairly treated or that his position was hu
miliating. He was forced to tell those who soH-
cited his influence to obtain positions, that he did
not possess such influence, and in many cases he
defended the action of the President. For he ex
plained that, owing to his own long prominence
in pubHc life and the devotion of his friends,
hosts of persons felt that they had claims upon
him; but that it was not reasonable to expect
that President Harrison would pay Secretary
Blaine's poHtical debts. In short, the situation
was accepted by both,, without apology on the
part of the one, without grievance on the part of
the other. Such a condition of affairs might have
continued to the end of the administration but
for certain untoward events.
In the summer of 1889 the President visited
Maine and was the guest of Mr. Blaine at Bar
Harbor. Their personal relations were most
cordial, but the busybodies of the hostile press,
whose omniscience usually presents itself in the
form of mind-reading, had already begun to re
present the case otherwise. The President was
jealous, some of them intimated, of Blaine's
prominence as a leader, and was incHned to
snub him. Blaine chafed, reported others, under
the humiUation put upon him. The truth was
suggested by Mr. Blaine himself, to the present ¦

THE LAST YEARS 337
writer, who visited him a few days afterward,
when he said that those who told such tales
should have seen the President and himself in
their famiHar intercourse, during those days of
General Harrison's visit.
A few months later two exceedingly heavy
blows feU upon Mr. Blaine in quick succession,
and wounded him in the tenderest spot. On the
15th of January, 1890, his oldest and his beloved
son Walker died, after an illness of five days.
Precisely a fortnight later his oldest daughter
AHce, Mrs. Coppinger, was stricken, and she
too died on the 2d of February. Those only who
knew the height and depth of the father's love
for his children, and his pride in the young man
who gave promise of a brilHant public career
can measure his grief. He sought reUef in hard
work, but the world was greatly changed. He
had known defeat and disappointment; now
tragedy entered into his Ufe.
It is impossible — it would be improper even if
it were possible — to trace to causes and to par
ticular incidents the gradual change in the atti
tude of the President and the Secretary toward
each other. But it may not be unfair to Mr.
Blaine's memory to suggest that he became less
and less the confidential friend and ready ad
viser of the President, and more and more the
cool and distant official, as his bodily powers

338 JAMES G. BLAINE
failed, and that the two changes stood to each
other in the relation of effect and cause. It may
not be unfair to the President to suggest that the
alteration of his Secretary's demeanor seemed a
confirmation of the maHgn insinuations of men
who were really friendly to neither but were per
sistently hostile to Blaine, that the Secretary was
at heart disloyal to his chief. Much was made
at the time of an incident — a request for a cer
tain appointment which General Harrison posi
tively refused to make — as the true cause of
the final breach between the two men. Into the
circumstances of that affair it is not necessary
or expedient to enter. It may be said that the
request was one that might properly be made,
and that the President had strong, and, to himself,
sufficient reasons for his refusal to grant it. Al
though it did constitute a personal, a family
grievance, the alienation had begun before the
incident occurred, and the breaking off of official
and personal relations did not take place until
some time afterward. Therefore it is evident
that too great importance has been attached to
it as a cause of the breach.
Mr. Blaine's health was undermined. His
long years of hard work and of harassing con
flict had told upon him. The erect form was
bowed, the once full face and brilUant eye showed
signs of premature age. His intellectual powers

THE LAST YEARS 339
exhibited no symptoms of declining, but there
was an indefinable change in him which more
and more affected his judgment. It now became
unfortunate that he had all his Ufe been accus
tomed to resolve upon his own course of conduct
and to act upon his resolution, sure that he was
right although his friends might advise him to
adopt a different course. As his power to fore
cast results gradually diminished, the results
of error became more injurious. Had he been
the man he was even at the beginning of his
second term as Secretary of State, the melan
choly events of the last year of his Ufe could not
have occurred.
Another presidential canvass approached.
Many influential Republicans besought him to
become a candidate once more. Whatever may
afterward have been his wish, his purpose in the
winter and spring of 1892 was inflexibly against
accepting a nomination. As early as February 6
in that year he wrote to the chairman of the Re
pubUcan National Committee that he was not a
candidate and that his name would not go be
fore the convention. Several months later, within
a month of his abrupt resignation of his office,
he said to the present writer, in the privacy of
his own home, — not to a poHtician but to a per
sonal friend, "The truth is, I do not want that
office. When the American people choose a

340 JAMES G. BLAINE
President they require him to remain awake
four years. I have come to a time of life when I
need my sleep. Now," he added, "I Hke my
present office. I enjoy it and would Hke to con
tinue in it."
An incident which occurred about this time
shows both his deplorable physical state and
the way in which that condition affected his
mind. At a cabinet meeting he rose suddenly
from his seat and left the room. The President
and Blaine's colleagues, who had half antici
pated a breach, fancied that Blaine had taken
sudden offence or a sudden resolution, and
looked at one another a moment in silence. Then
Mr. Elkins, the Secretary of War, a Hfelong
friend of Blaine, followed him to ascertain the
cause of his abrupt departure. He found that
Blaine was taken iU and was on the point of
collapse. He took him home in his carriage.
On the way Blaine, who thought he was at
the point of death, requested Elkins to assure
the President of his confidence, and of his wish
that he should be nominated for another term.
But he recovered, and unfortunately, in his weak
state, he fell, so far as a man of his stamp could
fall, under the influence of others than the old
friends and staunch supporters who had stood
by him in prosperity and adversity, when he
was assailed by calumny as well as when he re-

THE LAST YEARS 341
ceived the adulations of great throngs of ad
mirers. On the 4th of June, 1892, James G. Blaine
sent to the President a brief note, couched in
the most formal language, resigning the office
of Secretary of State. There was not in it a word
of explanation, nor a word of regret, nor a word
of aUusion to past or present personal relations
between himself and the President. The reply of
General Harrison, in which he accepted the resig
nation, was equally cold and formal. The most
ardent friend of Mr. Blaine ^vould find it difficult
to assign a reason why it should have been other
wise, why the President should have been in the
least degree effusive when Mr. Blaine was not.
It must be that both men were conscious that
these two curt notes marked the end of a long
and most brilliant career. We have all seen upon
the stage plays in which the most stirring pas
sions of the human heart were represented in
strong action and in excited, even violent lan
guage; but when the curtain falls on the last act
it hides from view the soUtary, silent, motionless
figure of the hero of the drama. May we not
Uken the close of Mr. Blaine's public Hfe, marked
by many a startling and spectacular scene, to the
end of such a play, where silence adds intensity
to the dramatic power of the situation ? No other
pubUc man in American history quitted the stage

342 JAMES G. BLAINE
as he did. There have, been cabinet ministers
who were abruptly dismissed; and scores of
others have resigned for one cause or another.
In no other case, when questions of pubUc poUcy
were in no wise involved, has a secretary offered
his resignation with such curtness of phrase or
seen his retirement acquiesced in without a word
of personal or official regret.
The 4th of June fell on Saturday. The Repub
lican National Convention was to meet on Tues
day, the 7th. Mr. Blaine left Washington at
once for Maine, but did not proceed there di
rectly. He made a stop in Boston and there, at a
hotel, watched the proceedings of the conven
tion with the utmost eagerness. So far as is
known, no communication whatever passed be
tween him and any of those who at any time had
been his confidential political managers. His
son Emmons, who was present at MinneapoUs
as an interested observer of events, was unable
to ascertain what were his father's wishes. In
fact, no one knew then or will ever know the ex
planation of his conduct. His resignation, his
excited observation of the proceedings, and his
silence when he knew that, in spite of his pro
hibition, his name was to be presented, all sug
gest that he had changed his mind and desired
the nomination. On the other hand his principle
that he would not run again unless the sponta-

THE LAST YEARS 343
neous, unanimous choice of the convention; his
repugnance for the office, so frankly and fre
quently expressed not long before, and his con
sciousness — for he must have been conscious
of it — of the failure of his powers, — all these
indicate that his overpowering interest in what
was going on at MinneapoUs did not imply such
a change of purpose. For the first time in his
Ufe, in such a crisis, he did not declare his pur
pose, and what he thought and wished will never
be known.
' We shall not be far out of the way if we attrib
ute his vagaries to the same cause that led to
bis aUenation from the President, his physical
condition. One who was a close associate of Mr.
Blaine during more than fifteen years of his pub
Hc life assures the writer that at this period he
was subject to temporary delusions. On more
than one occasion Mr. Blaine described to him
scenes in which the President and himself were
supposed to have been the actors, which could
never have occurred, and which the Blaine of
former times could never even have imagined.
It was on this subject only that his mind was
affected by delusions. In regard to everything
else his intellect was as keen as ever. Indeed, no
one save a few confidential friends, perhaps no
member of his own family, was aware of this
manifestation of the progress of mortal disease.

344 JAMES G. BLAINE
General Harrison was nominated for reelec
tion on the first roll-call. He had almost three
times as many votes as were given for Blaine,
who received barely one sixth of a vote more
than did Major McKinley. Blaine dictated a
brief but stirring appeal to RepubUcans to close
up the ranks and unite in an earnest support of
the ticket, and resumed his journey to Bar Har
bor. He did not telegraph congratulations to
Harrison, The omission was noted as evidence
of his deep dissatisfaction with the action of the
convention. Hardly had he reached his summer home when
another crushing blow fell upon him. His son
Emmons, the only survivor of his older children,
who had been prominent in the proceedings at
MinneapoUs, full of life and vigor, was taken
suddenly ill,, and died on the 18th of June, only
a week after the close of the convention. The
first intelHgence his parents had of his illness
was contained in the telegram announcing his
death. Mr. Blaine's life was bound up in his two
manly sons. The death of Walker was Hke cut
ting off his right hand ; but Emmons did his best
to fill the place of two sons. He was one of the
most lovable of men, and his untimely death
bereaved not only his parents but a young wife
also, and left his infant son an orphan. In the
face of such a grievous affliction partisan ani-

THE LAST YEARS 345
mosity was forgotten. The Democratic National
Convention, which was in session at the time of
Emmons Blaine's death, paused in its proceed
ings to pass a resolution of sympathy with the
old antagonist of the party.
The summer and autumn of 1892 were passed
for the most part at Bar Harbor. Mr. Blaine's
share in the canvass of that year was not con
spicuous, but he did all that his growing feeble
ness permitted. He wrote a strong letter for
pubUcation, setting forth the three great issues,
as he regarded them, of the campaign, — tariff,
reciprocity, and a sound currency. On the 14th
of October he made his only speech during the
campaign, and the last pubHc speech he ever
delivered, at Ophir Farm, in Westchester County,
New York, the country residence of the Hon.
Whitelaw Reid, the RepubHcan candidate for
Vice President. There was a great outpouring
of the people from all the surrounding country,
including many uniformed political clubs. After
a dinner given in his honor by Mr. Reid, with a
notable gathering of prominent men as his fellow
guests, there was a serenade, and then a speech
by Blaine. It was brief, but the applause of the
assembled company at his appearance, and dur
ing and after his address, proved how strong a
hold he had upon the affections of the people of
that neighborhood, — an experience which would

346 JAMES G. BLAINE
have been repeated in almost any county of any
state in the Union. The only other act of partici
pation in the canvass was the preparation of an
article on the poHtical situation for the " North
American Review," for November, 1892. In
letter, speech, and magazine article the method
was the method of the Blaine who had been
editor, congressman, speaker, senator, campaign
orator, presidential candidate, and Secretary of
State. If one detects a lack of the terse vigor of
his utterances in the days of his greatest mental
power, let us not forget with what desperate
earnestness, with what effort to overcome physi
cal weakness, with what anguish of personal be
reavement, he was striving to fill his old place,
and to drive away the dread enemy who was
soon to conquer, as he conquers us all.
Back to Washington, and for the last time.
A winter to be passed in southern California was
planned, but the plan was not to be reaHzed.
Mr. Blaine was very feeble, but he did not, as
in the days of his strength, succumb to sUght
ailments. On the Sunday before election he
attended the Church of the Covenant, partook
of the communion, and walked home in com
pany with President Harrison. If there had been
antagonism between them it had disappeared,
and they were again on the friendUest terms
with each other. Soon afterward Mr. Blaine

THE LAST YEARS 347
caught a severe cold, took to his bed, and from
that time until the end came, the complication
of disorders that had previously been sapping
his vitality slowly made rapid progress. The
nation was an interested watcher by the bedside
of the sufferer. A corps of newspaper corre
spondents kept vigil night and day within sight
of his residence on Lafayette Square, to catch
the sHghtest intelligence regarding his condition.
Those last days were days of quiet, peaceful,
cheerful resignation. He had several attacks of
great weakness from which he rallied each time
with diminishing vitaUty. He breathed his last,
surrounded by all the members of his family, in
the forenoon of January 27, 1893, within four
days of completing his sixty-third year.
His death was recognized as a national event.
The President issued a proclamation announ
cing it, in which he said that Mr. Blaine's " devo
tion to the public interests, his marked ability,
and his exalted patriotism have won for him the
gratitude and affection of his countrymen and
the admiration of the world. In the various pur
suits of legislation, diplomacy, and literature his
genius has added new lustre to American citi
zenship." He directed that all the departments
of the executive branch of the government should
be closed on the day of the funeral. The cere
mony was private, in the sense that it was con-

348 JAMES G. BLAINE
ducted wholly by friends of the family, that no
official or other delegations were present, and
that there was a complete absence of pomp or
display. But the Church of the Covenant, where
the exercises took place, was thronged by a dis
tinguished company of Mr. Blaine's friends and
poUtical associates, including the President, aU
the members of his cabinet, and many members
of both Houses of Congress. The open space in
front of the church was filled by thousands of men
and women who waited, silent and respectful,
during the ceremonies, watched the procession
as it took its slow way to the burial, and then
mournfully dispersed. The body of the dead
statesman was laid to rest, beside those of
his son Walker and his daughter AHce, in the
family burial lot in Oak HiU Cemetery on
Georgetown Heights.

XII
THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN
Distance in time is needed to give such per
spective as will enable the biographer to assign
to a public man his true place in history, and to
represent him in correct proportions and magni
tude as compared with other men, his predeces
sors and contemporaries. Whatever, therefore,
may be said here as to Mr. Blaine's influence
upon the politics of his time and the history of
his country — its extent, its quality, and its dura
bility — must be read with all allowance for the
fact that at the time it is written little more than
a decade has elapsed since his death.
But a man himself may be pictured even dur
ing his lifetime, truly in respect of his outward
form and appearance, less accurately in respect
of his mental traits, his character, aims, motives,
and methods. When one has to deal with a per
sonage over whom controversy raged as it did
over Blaine, almost every man's view will be
distorted. His adherents exaggerate his virtues
and powers no less than those who take another
view of his character magnify every fault, and
even discover some faults that others cannot per-

350 JAMES G. BLAINE
ceive. Death does not close the controversies
regarding such a man. Nevertheless, the mate
rial facts upon which a sure judgment may be
based are more abundant and accessible as soon
as the life has ended than they are afterward ;
and consequently a truer estimate of the man,
apart from his service and achievement, may
then be made by one who is able to divest him
self of partisanship, than at any subsequent
period. It would be uncandid on the part of the
present writer were he to pretend that he pos
sesses the impartiality and the passionless judg
ment that qualify him to make the final estimate
of this man and of his career. Such bias as a
lifelong friendship, sometimes amounting to in
timacy, necessarily gives, must be frankly ad
mitted. There are, nevertheless, many things to
be said of him before we begin to reach any sub
jects of controversy.
First of all as to the man himself, apart from
his pubHc life. By no means puritanical or aus
tere in his habits, his private Hfe was not merely
free from blame but was conspicuously pure
and clean. Neither the great nor the Uttle vices
to which public men too often succumb in the
whirl and excitement of Washington society,
offered any temptation to him. His house was
his home not less at the national capital than it
was at Augusta. He was not a club man; he had

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 351
no taste for what is known as conviviality. He
never used tobacco. Until the later years of his
Hfe he rarely tasted wine, and even then he tasted
rather than drank it. These facts are mentioned
not as implying self-denial and self-control, for
his abstinence implied nothing of the sort. But
they do exhibit a man who never sought in nar
cotics or intoxicants relief from the tremendous
strain to which for many years he was sub
jected. He was domestic in his habits to an extraordi
nary degree, was never so happy or so exuberant
in his spirits as when he was with his family, of
which he was the adored and the adoring head,
and was attached to all of his own and Mrs.
Blaine's relatives, from the grandfathers to the
infants in arms. In the other relations in which
one judges of a man as a member of a social
community he was not less irreproachable. No
man was a kinder neighbor than he, or more
helpful and sympathetic toward all with whom
he was brought in contact. He was a liberal
giver to charities, a generous supporter of the
churches he attended, a buyer who did not bar
gain, a prompt payer of his debts. In early man
hood he became a member of the Congrega
tional Church in Augusta, and his name was
borne on its rolls as of one in good standing, to
the end of his life. His religion was not flaunted

352 JAMES G. BLAINE
in the faces of those who conversed with him,
but it was deep and sincere.
As to the charm of his personaHty there is no
dispute. Physically stalwart and well propor
tioned, having a large head set upon broad shoul
ders, and prominent features dominated by
brilHant and piercing eyes, he had a presence
that could never fail to attract attention to him
self in any company. The "magnetism" about'
which so much has been said, and which was
felt as soon as one took his hand or heard his
voice, is indefinable, and comes no one knows
whence. Many a man who Could never have been
persuaded to vote for him fell under the spell of
it at the first meeting. It was not the acquired
art of the politician, estabUshing a bond between
himself and those who might be useful to him,
great as was the accession of popularity which
he owed to his singular power over men. For it
was his nature to be drawn toward every man
and woman whom he met, and to make friends
with them. He would enter into the interests of
a boy, hold him by the hand, and question him
about his school and his studies, as readily as he
would attach a poHtical magnate to his fortunes,
and with as much or as Uttle afterthought as to
the consequences in the one case as in the other.
It was simply his habit to be friendly with every
body, and his hunger for friendship was satis-

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 353
fied by his wonderful faculty for making friends.
There are two or three instances — hardly more
— of his having cherished animosity. In each
case he had received injuries that the most ami
able man could not forgive. But there were many
other instances of his having overlooked offences
that to an ordinary observer seem quite as great
as those, and of his having come to terms of in
timate friendship with the offenders. It would
be difficult to name the pubUc man of whom so
much evil has been spoken who spoke so Uttle
evil of others.
It is not so easy to account for the affection he
inspired in persons who never even saw him, as it
is to understand his power over those who knew
him. His magnetic field extended far beyond his
personal acquaintance, beyond those whom the
sound of his voice could reach. To those who
never were affected by it, still more to the genera
tions that are to come, the language that might
be used to describe his almost magical influence
will seem extravagant and fanciful. But how
can any one explain the frenzy of the enthusiasm
manifested on many occasions, when the name of
Blaine was shouted by thousands of men who
had never seen him ? There was in their accla
mation a note of personal affection and devotion
that is missing from the chord when one is greeted
who is merely an admired poUtical leader.

354 JAMES G. BLAINE
But he was also a trusted as well as a beloved
leader, and had many and rare gifts for such
a station : a thorough groundwork of education
in the broad sense; an intimate acquaintance
with the history of the government of his coun
try, perhaps unsurpassed by that of any man of
his time; a memory stored with aU the material
necessary to a statesman, — minute, accurate, and
ever ready to yield its treasures; and a quick
and sure perception as to the effect of a measure
not only upon pubHc opinion but in its larger
and remoter consequences. These furnished him
his stock in trade; and a faciHty and feHcity of
utterance, and resourcefulness in debate, most
unusual even among the practised orators who
were his associates in pubUc Hfe, made him,
whether on the stump or in any body of which he
was a member, a speaker to whom it was impos
sible not to Hsten, a leader who was sure of a
multitude of followers.
His quickness at repartee and his aptness at
finding and exposing the weak point in an ad
versary's argument gave intellectual pleasure to
those who heard him in debate. His detractors
used to say that Blaine was "too smart," which
was a compliment to his skill as a dialectician,
although they did not so intend it. For whereas,
in urging a measure which he wished to promote,
he was accustomed to rest his argument on broad,

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 355
fundamental principles, when opposing mea
sures he was frequently able to divert discussion
to collateral and unimportant issues. Thus, par
ticularly when contending with a majority sure
to outvote him, he could disconcert his oppo
nents by a bold attack upon a point not strictly
relevant, and thus score a personal victory.
Blaine's ability to feel the public pulse did not
tempt him to be shifty and uncertain in his po
litical course. In all essential matters he was
consistent from the beginning to the end of his
career. Slavery was the grand issue before the
country when he came upon the political stage.
He opposed slavery and the system associated
with the institution, to the last. After emancipa
tion he espoused and upheld the policies which
the extinction of slavery seemed to him logically
to demand. Mistaken or not, he approved the
military reconstruction of the seceded states,
and the grant of the right of suffrage to the freed
men. He disapproved and condemned the aban
donment of the Southern Republicans, white and
black. He held and never ceased to hold that the
rights conferred upon the emancipated negroes
should be maintained by the power which gave
them. Yet he was never a hater of the South.
He withstood Thaddeus Stevens, who wished to
punish the "rebels," and who proposed to drag
them back into the Union and to keep them out

356 JAMES G. BLAINE
at the same time. Not at any time a radical, he
always insisted that loyalty and an acceptance
of the principles and poUcies resulting from the
civil war were an essential condition, if the South
was to be "let alone."
Again, Blaine was a tariff man, — a follower
of Henry Clay and a behever in the "American
system " from boyhood. From that faith he never
wavered. Here also, although consistent to the
last, he was no radical. He beHeved that excessive
protection was unreasonable and harmful, and
that it weakened the defensive position of the
adherents of the system. Once, when he was
Speaker, he abandoned the tariff to its enemies,
temporarily, by appointing a majority of tariff
reformers to the Committee of Ways and Means.
It was a perilous act, and drew upon Blaine the
denunciation of the extremists. But it probably
resulted in a postponement for many years of the
revulsion which finally manifested itself in the
elections of 1890 and 1892. In hundreds of
speeches in political campaigns, and at every
period of his life when the occasion presented
itself, he showed himself to be a stanch protec
tionist. His name would be included among the
most conspicuous of the defenders of the system
were there no other service to his credit than his
"Paris message" of 1887; and his devotion to
the twin policy of reciprocity was strikingly ex-

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 357
hibited in his vigorous intervention in behalf of
it when the McKinley bill was pending.
No question was more important during the
whole of Mr. Blaine's pubHc life than that of the
currency. It arose in various forms out of the
financial demoralization of the civil war period.
Here again, from first to last, he favored a rigid
observance of the obligations of the government
to its creditors and the maintenance of an un
impaired standard of value. His was the first
voice raised in Congress against the heresy that
the five-twenty bonds might be paid with green
backs, — that an interest-bearing debt might be
discharged by tendering to the holders of it irre
deemable, non-interest-bearing promises to pay.
He opposed inflation of the paper currency,
stood by the law for the resumption of specie
payments, and contended against the remone
tization of the "dollar of the fathers." It is true
he favored, even in 1878, the free coinage of
silver at a ratio with gold which he thought would
bring to parity with each other the bullion value
of the gold and the silver dollar. He was troubled
by a constitutional objection to the disuse of
either gold or silver as money. That objection
does not count for much to-day. Indeed, one
finds it not easy to follow the reasoning which
converts a prohibition upon the states to make
anything but gold and silver a legal tender, into

358 JAMES G. BLAINE
a compulsory precept upon the general govern
ment to coin both metals. Nevertheless, many
men who believed themselves to be unflinching
advocates of "honest money" then held the
opinion that neither metal could be constitu
tionally demonetized. If Mr. Blaine faltered
when that question of silver was pending, in the
hope of finding a compromise that would satisfy
both parties and injure neither debtors nor credit
ors, it was the only occasion when his attitude
was inconsistent with that which he assumed
when he first attacked the five-twenty bond
theory of Stevens, Butler, and Pendleton.
The catalogue of political and economic ques
tions on which Blaine's course was consistent
throughout might be greatly extended. It would
include many topics on which, as on the tariff,
and to a less extent on the currency, he found
strong opponents in his own party. To mention
one only, he always favored building up a mer
cantile marine by means of subsidies to Ameri
can-built ships. To do so seemed to him a neces
sary part of any system for extending the com
merce of the United States. His attitude upon
this question is referred to as an illustration of
the fact that whenever there was an opportunity
to manifest national selfishness, which is the es
sential quality of patriotism, he showed himself a
firm believer in his own country and a stout de-

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 359
fender of it. In saying this there is not the least
intention to imply that those who took another
view of this or any other question were less pa
triotic than he, or that they were less ready to
defend the country. Their minds worked dif
ferently. They favored different policies.
Two or three examples of his activity in behalf
of an expansion of American influence in the
world, where he did not enjoy the united sup
port even of his own party, will show the differ
ence here indicated. As Secretary of State,
Blaine endeavored to free the country from the
entanglement of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty with
England; he tried to vindicate the right of the
United States to a monopoly of the Bering Sea
seal fishery; he was strongly in favor of an
American continental system, of which the
United States should be the benevolent and
pacific leader; from early manhood he favored
the acquisition of Hawaii. No one would urge
that dissent from either of these propositions
was unpatriotic. Indeed indifference to them all
was in accordance with the traditional attitude
of American patriots, who held that this country
should concern itself with the affairs of other
nations only when compelled to do so. Mr.
Blaine's position on these questions was based
upon a different theory. It was that which is
now denominated imperiaUst by those who call

360 JAMES G. BLAINE
themselves anti-imperialists. EarUer than most
American public men he felt, and more boldly
than others he expressed the opinion, that the
time had come to abandon the isolation, and the
hermit-like apathy to what was going on in the
world outside, which had from the beginning
been the poHcy of the government. The great
change that has taken place since the close of
Blaine's public Ufe will be seen, if we suggest
that what he said and wrote tending in the di
rection of national expansion, national self-as
sertion, national participation in world-poUtics,
vigorous as it was, and greatly as it was in ad
vance of the time, if said or written by a pubHc
man to-day, would hardly draw upon him de
nunciation as a "jingo." So Hamilton was far
in advance of his time in his measures for con
solidating the Union; to-day there is no school
of political thought in America that does not go
far beyond Hamilton in acceptance of the na
tional idea.
It would be unfair to those who criticised and
opposed Blaine to create the impression that
their objection was in all cases to the poUcies
and measures which he advocated. Many of
them found fault with his methods, and with
the manner in which as Secretary of State he
handled subjects, when he was the official spokes
man of the government. There was not a Uttle

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 361
justice in their criticisms. It cannot be denied
that Blaine was irritating as a controversialist,
and sometimes lacking in good judgment. In
diplomacy, patience, and courtesy both of tone
and of language, are usual and expedient. The
sharp, biting phrases that are used in poUtical
discussion and in parUamentary debate, when
the speaker neither hopes nor fears for the re
sult of the vote that is to follow, effect little in a
diplomatic despatch. One who reads the Bering
Sea correspondence must admire the dialectic
skiU of Mr. Blaine, and yet feel all the while
that he was hurting his cause by being, in the
phrase of his critics, "too smart." The object
to be aimed at was not to convince Lord Salis
bury that he was wrong in his interpretation of
international law, and ignorant of the history of
the seal fishery, but to persuade him that the
interests of his own country and the world would
be advanced by the conclusion of an agreement
that would result in the protection of the seal
herd from extermination. This was perhaps the
most conspicuous instance of Blaine's failure
in tact as a diplomatist, although it was not that
which brought upon him the most violent criti
cism. Mr. Blaine was prominent in pubHc affairs
during almost a generation. For fully half that
time he was the most prominent member of his

362 JAMES G. BLAINE
own party, and exercised a greater power over
the minds and thoughts of his countrymen than
was wielded by any other person. Was his in
fluence permanent or transitory ? Is his name
to be enrolled among the demigods of American
history, or was his power of such a nature that
it will become evanescent as the memory of his
personal magnetism fades away ?
To answer these questions we must look fur
ther and deeper than at the facts that Ue upan the
surface: on the one hand, beyond his brilHant
qualities of mind, beyond his long service in
conspicuous positions, beyond the circumstance
of his extraordinary reputation during his life
time and the enthusiastic admiration that was
felt for him; on the other' hand, beyond the ad
mitted fact that, although every great poUtical
question at issue between parties during his
public life has been settled, save only the peren
nial question of the tariff, his name is insepa
rably connected with not one of them.
It is true that his enduring fame is not to be
sought in the domain of legislation. Although
he served in both branches of Congress nearly
eighteen years in all, he was never in a position
to exert a strong influence as a leader in affirma
tive legislation. He had barely ceased to be re
garded as a junior member of the House of
Representatives when he was chosen Speaker.

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 363
In that capacity he exercised great power in
defeating unwise measures, but was virtually
precluded from devising and initiating legisla
tion. As a member of the minority, after his
term as Speaker closed, he was hardly more
nearly powerless as a constructive statesman
than he was as a newcomer in the Senate, where
seniority counts for much. But after all, the test
of greatness and of poUtical immortality which
is suggested by these considerations is essen
tially superficial. Judged by it alone, even so
illustrious a name as that of Webster would be
struck from the roll.
Blaine's influence during his lifetime, and
that which remains, was of a broader and more
far-reaching 'character than can be measured
by a consideration of the public acts in which
he bore a part. It was an influence upon the
general tendency of the poHtical thought of his
countrymen. It easily escapes observation be
cause, when the tendency has once been estab
lished, the movement is progressive, and men are
too busy to stop and inquire whence came the
impulse in the new direction. His real work in
poUtics began when he took the office of Secre
tary of State. He had won the respect and ad
miration of millions in his own party, and was
accepted as a leader and an oracle. Conse
quently when he led the way in the movement

364 JAMES G. BLAINE
which has changed completely the relation of
the United States to the rest of the world, he
had an army of followers. They took up with
his ideas, developed them, and followed them
to their logical conclusion.
Let us remember that from early manhood
he was a firm and outspoken beUever in the
great destiny of his country. So, to be sure, were
many others, most, indeed, of the patriots of aU
times. But he was also, as has been pointed out,
the first Secretary of State to form and carry out
a definite general forward poUcy which impHed
the right of the United States to a position of
leadership among nations. We may say, to il
lustrate his position, that he was the first Secre
tary to adopt actively the principle that the Mon
roe Doctrine confers privileges upon the United
States, as much as it imposes obHgations. That
his departure from the traditional poHcy was
deemed rash and unwise by many most esti
mable men, that a RepubUcan administration
reversed and cancelled his policy, that when,
having had another opportunity, he returned to
it, he thereby exposed himself to criticism and
obloquy as having needlessly ventured upon a
course that might embroil the United States
with other powers — all this may be admitted.
Yet the very opposition which he encountered
and the savage assaults upon his management

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 365
of the foreign affairs only served to strengthen
him with those who followed because he led, and
to make more intense the national sentiment
of which he was the champion. When he retired
from office, the work of moulding public opinion
had proceeded so far that it has never been un
done. The confidence which his leadership in
spired, and the enlarged view which his policy
gave to the people of the land, prepared them for
the radical departure from the ways of the fa
thers which resulted from the war to make Cuba
free in 1898.
No one would venture to assert that the peo
ple of the United States would not have con
sented to the expansion beyond seas and to a
colonial system if James G. Blaine had never
been Secretary of State. Nor could it be safely
asserted that there would not have been a great
popular uprising in the North in defence of the
Union in 1861, if Webster had never pronounced
his great reply to Hayne. The philosophical his
torian long ago recognized the irresistible effect
of Webster's sonorous periods, declaimed from
every school platform, instilling into the minds
of successive generations the conviction that
this is an enduring, indestructible nation, and
not a loosely-bound federation of semi-sovereign
states. When the time is ripe for the inquiry
how the public sentiment of the American peo-

366 JAMES G. BLAINE
pie was led to accept joyfully and enthusias
tically the functions, duties, and obUgations re
sulting from expansion beyond the continental
limits, it will be found that the first and strongest
impulse in that direction was due to the national
self-assertion contained in Mr. Blaine's diplo
matic correspondence and action.

INDEX

INDEX

Adams, John Quincy, on
Russian jurisdiction oyer
the Pacific Ocean, 325.
Allison, William B., 237.
American continental system,
Blaine's agency in forming,
243,315,327,359.
American Republics, Bureau
of, 320.
Ames, Oakes, 123, 124, 125,
126.
Amnesty to Jefferson Davis,
Blaine's victory over the
majority, 135-138.
Arbitration of international
disputes, Blaine's policy,
244, 278.
Arthur, Chester A., succeeds
to the presidency, 247; re
verses Blaine's policy, 250-
256 ; in the canvass of 1884,
264, 275.
Augusta, Maine, residence of
Mr. Blaine, 24, 35, 47, 107,
276, 290.
Baker, Joseph, partner of
Blaine as editor and pub
lisher, 34, 35.
Baltimore, U. S. cruiser, sail
ors of, attacked in Valpa
raiso, 319.
Banks, Nathaniel P., 137.
Banquet to Blaine in New
York, before the election of
1884, 288.
Bayard, Thomas F., 313, 322.
Beale, Harriet (Blaine),
daughter of James G.
Blaine, 264.

Beck, James B., 203, 204, 205.
Benton's " Thirty Years'
View " and Blaine's
"Twenty Years of Con
gress," compared, 261.
Bering Sea seal fishery,
Blaine's conduct of the
question, 321-327, 359, 361.
Blaine, Emmons, third son of
James G., 26, 263, 342 ; his
death, 344.
Blaine, Ephraim, great grand
father of James G., 6; his
services during the Revolu
tion, 7.
Blaine, Ephraim Lyon, father
of James G., 6, 8, 9, 10, 12,
13, 14.
Blaine, Harriet (Stanwood),
wife of James G., 24, 25.
Blaine, James, great great
grandfather of James G. , 6.
Blaine, James, grandfather of
James G., 8.
Blaine, James Gillespie, birth
and ancestry, 6-9; educa
tion, 12-18 ; becomes a
teacher in Kentucky, 18;
early political sagacity, 21 ;
marriage, 24; teacher in
Philadelphia, 27 ; removal
to Maine, 85 ; his charac
teristics as an editor, 36, 41,
42 ; theological criticisms,
37 ; becomes State printer,
43 ; first entry into politics,
44; editor of the Portland
" Advertiser," 45 ; investi
gates the Maine state prison,
46; elected to the Maine

370

INDEX

legislature, 47; Speaker of
the Maine House of Repre
sentatives, 48 ; chairman of
the Republican State Com
mittee and poHtical leader
of Maine, 49; attends the
Chicago convention of 1860,
53 ; resumes temporarily the
editorship of the " Kennebec
Journal," 53 ; political cam
paign of 1860, 53 ; services
during the civil war, 54 ;
manages the successful po
litical canvass in Maine,
1862, 57 ; nominated for
Congress, 58; elected, 59;
withstands Thaddeus Ste
vens, 62, 63; encounter
with Conkling, 66-72; his
part in the Reconstruction
legislation, 72, 74, 80, 82, 83,
84 ; his later views on negro
suffrage, 77; attitude and
votes on the impeachment
of the President, 86-90;
first European tour, 91 ; op
poses the greenback move
ment, 95-97 ; advocates
economy in military ex
penditure, 98 ; interprets
the election of General
Grant, 99; elected Speaker
of the national House of
Representatives, 105 ; buys
a house in Washington, 107 ;
his qualities as Speaker, and
incidents of his service, 109-
122 ; the first Union Paci
fic Railroad charges, 122 ;
Credit MobiUer, 123; the
" salary grab," 126 ; de
feated for the speakership,
131 ; overcomes the demo
cratic majority, 132 ; the
Jefferson Davis amnesty in
cident, 135-142 ; Little Rock
and Forth Smith Railroad,

and the " Mulligan letters,"
144-176 ; the pre-convention
canvass of 1876, 177-186;
sunstroke on the eve of the
convention, 183 ; appointed
senator from Maine, 187 ;
elected unanimously by the
legislature, 188 ; his career
in the Senate, 183-215 ; the
" count-out " in Maine, 218-
223; the canvass of 1880,
223-232 ; his analysis of the
political situation, 233 ; ac
cepts the State portfolio,
235 ; relations with General
Garfield, 237, 238; 239; after
the assassination, 240 ; char
acteristics as Secretary of
State, 241 ; his conception
of the Monroe doctrine,
243 ; his policy and career
as Secretary of State, 244-
250 ; resigns from the Cab
inet, 247 ; bis policy re
versed, 250-256 ; his eulogy
upon Garfield, 256 ; writes
"Twenty Years of Con
gress," 258-262; the can
vass of 1884, 264-295 ; nom
inated for the presidency,
276 ; letter of acceptance,
278 ; the " Mugwump " op
position, 279; campaigning
tour of the West, 286 ; the
election results in defeat,
290 ; causes of the defeat,
293 ; second European tour,
300 ; the " Paris message,"
302 ; declines to be a candi
date in .1888, 303-308 ; ac
cepts portfolio of State in
Harrison's cabinet, 311, 312 ;
his conduct of the depart
ment, 313-340 ; changed re
lations with the President,
334-342 ; death of Walker
and Mrs. Coppinger, 337 ;

INDEX

371

failure of his health, 338 ;
his course in the canvass of
1892, 339-344 ; his resigna
tion, 341 ; last public speech,
345; his death, 347 ; funeral,
348 ; estimate of his charac
ter and services, 349-366.
Personal traits : his physical
appearance, 2, 109, 352 ; his
personal habits, 350; his
domestic disposition, 25, 26,
107, 263 ; qualities as a host,
107 ; religious associations
and convictions, 13, 351.
As a public man : his popu
larity, 51 ; among the Irish,
285 ; on his second Euro
pean tour, 300 ; among peo
ple of all parties, 353 ; his
personal " magnetism " first
signalized by Thaddeus Ste
vens, 64 ; its comprehensive
field, 353 ; his conciliatory
disposition, 52, 261 ; charges
against his character, 3, 121-
123, 144-176, 188, 251, 280.
As a statesman : his political
leadership, 1, 49, 107, 132,
353, 354, 363; political
methods, 50 ; effectiveness
as a speaker, 354 ; fairness
in debate, 102 ; his command
of parliamentary strategy.
132, 134 ; his consistency,
355 ; his place in history, 1,
349-366.
Blaine, James G., Jr., 264.
Blaine, Jane (Hoge), 8.
Blaine, Margaret (Lyon),
grandmother of James G., 8.
Blaine, Marie Louise (Gilles
pie), mother of James G., 6,
9 ; her religious and personal
character, 10.
Blaine, Rebecca (Galbraith),
great grandmother of James
G,7.

Blaine, Stanwood, eldest child
of James G., died in infancy,
26.
Blaine, Walker, son of James
G., 26 ; appointed Assistant
Secretary of State and Com
missioner to Chile and Peru,
248 ; the mission discredited
by President Arthur, 254 ;
appointed counsel for dis
tribution of the Geneva
Award, 263 ; appointed So
licitor of the Department of
State, 335 ; his death, 337.
Blair, Henry W., 230.
"Boss," the political, as dis
tinguished from a real
leader, 50.
Bristow, Benjamin H., 178,
187, 226.
Brownsville, West, Pennsyl
vania, birthplace of James
G. Blaine, 6, 10.
Bureau of American Repub
lics, 320.
Butler, Benjamin F., proposes
payment of five-twenty
bonds with greebacks, 94 ;
encounters with Blaine, 112-
120; effect of his candi
dacy in 1884, 284, 285, 292,
294.
Caldwell, Josiah, 147, 154, 155,
156, 157, 159, 160, 170.
California delegation journeys
to Augusta to visit Blaine,
276.
Cameron, J. Donald, 225.
Carlisle, John G., 112.
Carnegie, Andrew, 301, 308,
309.
Centennial Exhibition at Phil
adelphia, 143.
Chamberlain, Daniel H., 193.
Chamberlain, Joshua L., 222,
223.

372

INDEX

Chicago Convention of 1880,
227 ; of 1884, 274.
Chile, revolution in, and
Blaine's diplomatic corre
spondence, 318.
Chinese immigration, Blaine's
views on, 211, 232.
Cincinnati Convention of 1876,
183.
Civil Service Reform, Blaine's
views on, 278.
Clay, Henry, young Blaine's
reference to, 19, 21 ; as
Speaker, 110, 111.
Clayton - Bulwer treaty, the,
Blaine's effort to abrogate
or modif v, 245, 252, 359.
Cleveland, "Grover, 280, 284,
286 ; elected President, 291 ;
his message on the tariff,
301 ; views on the question
of Samoa, 314 ; invites the
republics to a pan-American
conference, 315 ; sends rev
enue cutters to Bering Sea,
323.
Coburn, Abner, 59.
Colfax, Schuyler, 65, 84, 85,
105, 106.
Commerce, foreign. See Pan-
American Congress ; Spanish
America; Shipping, Ameri
can.
Conkling, Roscoe, encounter
with Blaine, 66-72 ; candi
date for the Republican
nomination in 1876, 177, 179,
186 ; his course in the case
of Governor Kellogg, 193;
in the canvass of 1880, 224,
225 ; his agency in the de
feat of Blaine, 229, 230;
Blaine's treatment of him in
" Twenty Years of Con
gress," 262 ; his course in
the canvass of 1884, 284,
295.

Consistency of Blaine in pol
itics, 355.
Constitution, Blaine's part in
framing the fourteenth
amendment, 75.
Cony, Samuel, 59, 60.
Coppinger, Alice (Blaine),
daughter of James G. Blaine,
26, 263 ; her death, 337.
" Count-out," in Maine, Blaine's
management thwarts the
scheme, 218.
Cox, Samuel S., 125, 143, 182.
Crawford, T. C, incident men
tioned by, 309.
Credit Mobilier, the charges
against Blaine, 123 ; his ex
oneration, 125.
Cuba, 101.
Cumberland road, 11, 12.
Curtis, Justice Benjamin R.,
his argument on the im
peachment of the President,
90.
Damrosch, Margaret (Blaine),
daughter of James G. Blaine .
264.
Davis, Jefferson, amnesty to,
Blaine's action concerning,
135-142.
Dawes, Henry L., 105, 122,
195.
Dodge, Mary Abby (" Gail
Hamilton "), her biography
of Blaine cited, 10, 21, 22,
233, 260, 331 ; long a mem
ber of the Blaine household,
264 ; accompanies the fam
ily on the European tour,
300.
Dorr, John, 30, 35.
Doubtful states in the elec
tion of 1884, 291.
Dramatic events and contrasts
in the Ufe of Blaine, 2, 3, 66,
122, 169, 327, 341.

INDEX

373

Editors of great newspapers,
their training and influence,
31.
Edmunds, George F., 226 ; in
the canvass of 1884, 265,
275, 276.
Egan, Patrick, 318.
Electoral commission, 177 >
Blaine's opposition to the
plan, 188.
Elkins, Stephen B., 240 (note),
266, 269, 284, 287, 340.
Emancipation urged by Blaine,
55.
Evarts, William M., 193, 242.
Ewing, Thomas, 12.
"Expansion," national, Blaine 's
significant speech in 1868,
101 ; his agency in making
extra-continental expansion
possible, 360-366.
Export duties, position of
Blaine, 61.
Financial questions, Blaine's
attitude on, 63, 92, 196, 216,
217, 357. See also Greenback
Movement, Silver Question.
Fisher, Warren, Jr., 149, 154,
155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 162,
163, 164, 165.
Fisheries arbitration under the
treaty of Washington, 201.
Five-twenty bonds, proposed
payment of, with green
backs, 93.
" Force-biU," Blaine's action
as Speaker, 117.
Fourteenth amendment to the
Constitution, 75-77, 80, 81,
83.
FreUnghuysen, Frederick T.,
250, 252.
Fremont campaign in 1856,
Blaine's part in, 44.
Frye, William P., 181, 330.
Fuller, MelviUe W., 42.

" Gail Hamilton." See Dodge,
Mary Abby.
Garfield, James A., 64, 77, 81
(note), 118, 119, 126 (note),
203, 212 ; nominated for the
presidency, 228, 230; his
friendship with Blaine, 231 ;
elected, and offers the port
folio of State to Blaine, 232 ;
his relations with the Secre
tary, 237, 238 ; is assassi
nated, 239 ; Blaine's eulogy,
256.
Gold, Thaddeus Stevens's bill
defeated by Blaine, 63.
Grant, Ulysses S., Blaine's in
terpretation of his election
as President," 99 ; close of
his second term, 177 ; his
southern policy reversed,
191 ; the third term move
ment in 1880, 225 ; his rela
tions with Blaine in 1881,
266 ; in 1884, 287.
Greeley, Horace, 123.
Greenback movement, 93; in
Maine, 216.
Hale, Eugene, 181, 329.
Halstead, Murat, 183, 294
(note).
Harrison, Benjamin, 304, 308 ;
nominated for the presi
dency, 309 ; offers Blaine
the portfolio of State, 311 ;
his relations with the Sec
retary, 334-342 ; accepts
Blaine's resignation, 341 ;
friendly relations restored,
346 ; his proclamation of
Blaine's death, 347.
Hartranft, John F., 177.
Hawaii, annexation of, 101,
359.
Hawley, Joseph R., 275, 276,
304.
Hay, John, 246.

374

INDEX

Hayes, Rutherford B., 177,
185; nominated for the
presidency, 186 ; declared
elected, 191 ; reverses
Grant's southern policy,
191, 194 ; veto of the silver
biU, 196.
Health, Blaine's anxiety about
his, 297.
Hoar, George F., his opinion
on the " MuUigan letters "
charges, 173; the statue of
Governor King, 195.
Holman, WiUiam S., 152, 153.
Howe, Timothy O., 200.
Impeachment of President
Johnson, 73, 85-91.
"Imperialism," Blaine's atti
tude, 359.
International American Con
ference. See Pan-American
Congress.
Intimidation of voters in the
South ; Blaine ridicules the
fear, 208.
JeweU, MarshaU, 177, 226.
Johnson, Andrew, 72, 73, 85,
93
Jones, John P., 229, 230.
Julian, George W., 152, 153.
Kansas and Nebraska, 38,
39.
Kelley, William D, 93.
Kellogg, William P., 132 ; his
claim to a seat in the Senate,
192.
" Kennebec Journal," 30, 34 ;
Blaine becomes editor, 35 ;
resumes editorship tempo
rarily, in 1860, 53.
Kerr, Michael C, 131, 172.
King, WiUiam, statue of,
Blaine's speech in the Sen
ate, 195.

Knott, J. Proctor, 170, 171.
" Know-Nothing " movement,

Latin-America. See Pan-
American ; Spanish Amer
ica.
Lincoln, Abraham, 53, 54, 57,
58.
Little Rock and Fort Smith
Railroad, Blaine's connec
tion with the, 145-176 ; his
tory of the enterprise, 150 ;
Blaine's contract with Fish
er, 155.
Logan, John A., 153, 225, 275.
Louisiana question, the, in
Congress ; Blaine defeats the
Democratic majority, 132;
the case of Governor Kel
logg, 192.
McKinley tariff act. See Re
ciprocity.
McVeagh, Wayne, 238.
Maine, Blaine removes to, 35 ;
the "fusion " poUtical move
ment in 1854, 40; state
prison management investi
gated by Blaine, 46 ; defalca
tion of the state treasurer,
47 ; poUtical canvasses con
ducted by Blaine, 50; im
portance of its state elec
tions, 57; in 1874, 128;
separation from Massachu
setts discussed by Blaine,
195; the greenback move
ment, 216 ; the " count-out,"
218 ; gives its electoral vote
to Garfield, 231.
Massachusetts, attitude of, to
ward Blaine, 196, 275, 276 ;
headquarters of the "Mug
wump " movement, 280.
Matthews, Stanley, 196.
MediU, Joseph, 183.

INDEX

375

Minneapolis convention of
1892, 342.
Missouri compromise, 39.
Monroe doctrine, Blaine's con
ception of the duties and
opportunities it imposes, 243,
364.
MorriU, Anson P., 41, 47.
MorriU, Justin S., 91.
MorriU, Lot M., 53, 187.
Morton, Levi P., 309.
Morton, Oliver P., 177, 178,
179, 226.
"Mugwump" movement, 279;
the leaders and their ob
jects, 282 ; agency of, in
Blaine's defeat, 2,93.
MulUgan, James, 149, 163, 164,
165, 166.
" MuUigan Letters," see Little
Rock and Fort Smith Rail
road ; origin of, 149 ; sum
mary of and extracts from,
153-163 ; Blaine obtains pos
session of them, 167 ; reads
them to the House, 167 ; the
charges based on them re
vived in 1884, 281.
National banks and usury laws,
62.
Negro suffrage, Blaine's posi
tion on, 75 ; " symposium "
in the " North American
Review,'' 77, 209 ; signifi
cance of the elections in
1866, 80 ; Blaine's interpre
tation of Grant's election,
100; speeches in the Sen
ate, 206; his consistency,
355.
New England, its meagre sup
port of Blaine, 185, 228, 275,
276.
Newspapers, country, their in
fluence half » century ago,
31.

New York election returns in
1884, 290, 291, 294.
" North American Review,"
" symposium " on negro suf
frage, 77, 209.
Northern Pacific Railroad, in
"Mulligan Letters," 158,
160, 161.
Panama Canal, 245.
Pan-American Congress, pro
posed by Blaine, 247 ; the
invitations sent, 248 ; Blaine's
summary of its purposes,
249; the invitations with
drawn, 252; a conference
called in 1888, 315 ; Blaine
opens it and presides, 315 ;
its objects, 315 ; conclusions,
316 ; results, 320 ; report on
reciprocal trade, 328.
" Paris Message," Blaine's, on
the tariff, 302, 356.
Pauncefote, Sir Julian (Lord
Pauncefote), 323.
Pendleton, George H, 94.
Peters, John A., 114.
Phelps, WUUam Walter, 265,
306 (note), 308, 309.
" Plumed Knight," term ap
plied to Blaine, 277.
PoUtical campaigning, Blaine's
tours, 186, 218, 220, 231,
286, 310.
" PoUtical Discussions," by
Blaine, 56,134,296.
Portland " Advertiser," Blaine
becomes editor, 45.
Presidential candidate, Blaine
already suggested, in 1875,
139, 143 ; the canvass of
1876, 177-186 ; the canvass
of 1880, 224-232 ; the can
vass of 1884, 264-295 ; de
clines to be a candidate in
1888, 303-308 ; declines
again in 1892, 339.

376

INDEX

Protective policy. See Tar
iff.
Randall, Samuel J., 118, 135,
136, 137, 138.
Reciprocity in the tariff act of
1890, Blaine's agency, 327 ;
his original plan, 329 ; his
vigorous promotion of the
movement, 330; results of
reciprocity, 331.
Reconstruction, Blaine's part
in, 72, 74, 75, 80, 82, 83, 84 ;
act passed over the veto of
the President, 84.
Reed, Thomas B., 112.
Reid, Whitelaw, 265, 305, 307
(note), 345.
Republican party, formation
of, 38-41 ; component parts
in Maine, 41.
" Rum, Romanism, and Rebel
lion," 289, 294.
St. John, John P., 294.
" Salary grab," Blaine's action
on the, 126, 127.
Salisbury, Marquis of, 300,
323, 324, 325.
Samoan question, the situation
and Blaine's action, 314.
Schenck, Robert C, 64, 77.
Schurz, Carl, 173.
Scott, Thomas A., 146, 147.
Secretary of State, Biaine, in
Garfield's cabinet, 235-240 ;
in Arthur's, 247-250; in
Harrison's, 311-341 ; his in
fluence as, 363.
Senate, importance of seniority
in, 212, 363.
Severance, Luther, 30, 33, 34.
Seward, William H., 53.
Sherman, General William T.,
Blaine's remarkable letter
to, in 1884, 271 ; Sherman's
reply, 272 ; suggested in

convention as candidate for
the presidency, 273.
Sherman, John, 85, 226, 227,
275, 308.
Sherman, Thomas H., Secre
tary of Mr. Blaine, 109, 180,
181, 260.
Shipping, American, Blaine's
advocacy of its claims, 203-
206, 358.
SUver question, Blaine's course
on the act of 1878, 196, 279,
357.
Slavery question, 38, 355.
SmaUey, George W., 300, 302.
Smart, Ephraim K., 53.
Smith, Charles Emory, 229,
230, 265, 303.
Southern questions. See Am
nesty; Emancipation; Negro
Suffrage ; Reconstruction ;
Slavery.
Spanish America, trade with,
Blaine's activity to promote,
203, 244, 320, 327 ; wars and
arbitration, see Pan-Ameri
can Congress ; Blaine's pol
icy and conduct, 244, 278 ;
difficulties during Harrison's
administration, 317-320.
Speaker, Blaine as, 109.
Speakership, the, in American
and other assemblies, 111.
Spencer Rifle Company,
Blaine's connection with,
149, 150.
Stanwood, Eben C, 35, 149.
Stanwood, family name of Mrs.
James G. Blaine, 24 ; name
of his cottage at Bar Harbor,
299.
Stanwood, Jacob, 35, 149, 164.
Stevens, John L., partner and
poUtical associate of Blaine,
36, 49, 53.
Stevens, Thaddeus, opposed by
Blaine on the gold biU, 62,

INDEX

377

63, 64; his position on re
construction, 73, 82, 83, 355 ;
on impeachment of the
President, 87; on payment
of the bonded debt, 95.
Tariff, Blaine's opinions and
actions on the, 121, 130, 278,
301, 356.
Third term for President
Grant, 143, 225.
Trescott, WUliam H., commis
sioner to Chile and Peru,
248 ; his mission discred
ited by President Arthur,
254.
" Twenty Years of Congress,"
88 ; preparation of the work,
258, 296.

Union Pacific Railroad, first
accusation against Blaine in
connection with, 122; the
Little Rock and Fort Smith
bonds, see Little Rock and
Fort Smith Railroad.
War debts of loyal states,
Blaine advocates assump
tion of, 61, 65.
Washburn, Israel, Jr., 54.
Washburne, Elihu B., 226.
Washington College, 14, 299.
Washington, Pennsylvania,
boyhood home of Blaine, 14.
Western Military Institute, 19.
Whiskey frauds, 151.
Windom, William, 226.
Wood, Fernando, 113, 133.

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MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI. By T. W. Higginson.
EDGAR ALLAN POE. By George E. Woodberry.
GEORGE RIPLEY. By O. B. Frothingham.
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS. By William P. Trent.
BAYARD TAYLOR. By Albert H. Smyth.
HENRY D. THOREAU. By Frank B. Sanborn.
NOAH WEBSTER. By Horace E. Scudder.
NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. By Henry A. Beers.
The following, each, $1.10, net ; postage, 10 cents
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. By George E. Woodberry.
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. By T. W. Higginson.
FRANCIS PARKMAN. By H. D. Sedgwick.
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. By Rollo Ogden.
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. By Geo. R. Carpenter
The set, 19 volumes, $23.00 ; half polished morocco, $50.50.
In preparation
BRET HARTE. By Henry C. Merwin.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. By S. M. Crothers.
Other titles to be added.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

AMERICAN COMMONWEALTHS
Volumes devoted to such States of the Union as have a striking
political, social, or economic history. Each volume, with Map
and Index, i6mo, gilt top, $1.25, net ; postage 12 cents. The set,
19 vols., $23.75 ; half polished morocco, $52.25.
The books which form this series are scholarly and readable individually ;
collectively, the series, when completed, will present a history of the nation, setting
forth in lucid and vigorous style the varieties of government and of social life to
be found in the various commonwealths included in the federal union.
CALIFORNIA. By Josiah Royce.
CONNECTICUT. By Alexander Johnston. (Revised Ed.)
INDIANA. By J. P. Dunn, Jr. (Revised Edition.)
KANSAS. By Leverett W. Spring. (Revised Edition.)
KENTUCKY. By Nathaniel Southgate Shaler.
LOUISIANA. By Albert Phelps.
MARYLAND. By William Hand Browne. (Revised Ed.)
MICHIGAN. By Thomas M. Cooley. (Revised Edition.)
MINNESOTA. By Wm. W. Folwell.
MISSOURI, By Lucien Carr.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. By Frank B. Sanborn.
NEW YORK. By Ellis H. Roberts. 2 vols. (Revised Ed.)
OHIO. By Rufus King. (Revised Edition.)
RHODE ISLAND. By Irving B. Richman.
TEXAS. By George P. Garrison.
VERMONT. By Rowland E. Robinson.
VIRGINIA. By John Esten Cooke. (Revised Edition.)
WISCONSIN. By Reuben Gold Thwaites.
In preparation
GEORGIA. By Ulrich B. Phillips.
ILLINOIS. By John H. Finley.
IOWA. By Albert Shaw.
MASSACHUSETTS. By Edward Channing.
NEW JERSEY. By Austin Scott.
OREGON. By F. H. Hodder.
PENNSYLVANIA, By Talcott Williams.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

AMERICAN STATESMEN
Biographies of Men famous in the Political History of the United
States. Edited by John T. Morse, Jr. Each volume, with por
trait, i6mo, gilt top, $1.25. The set, 31 volumes, $38.75 ; half
morocco, $85.25.
Separately they are interesting and entertaining biographies of our most emi
nent public men ; as a series they are especially remarkable as constituting a
history of A merican politics and policies more complete and more useful for in
struction and reference than any that I am aware of. — Hon John W. Griggs,
Ex-United States Attorney-General.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By John T. Morse, Jr.
SAMUEL ADAMS. By James K. Hosmer.
PATRICK HENRY. By Moses Coit Tyler.
GEORGE WASHINGTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 2 volumes
JOHN ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. By Theodore Roosevelt.
JOHN JAY. By George Pellew.
JOHN MARSHALL. By Allan B. Magruder.
THOMAS JEFFERSON. By John T. Morse, Jr.
JAMES MADISON. By Sydney Howard Gay.
ALBERT GALLATIN. By John Austin Stevens.
JAMES MONROE. By D . C Gilm an.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr.
JOHN RANDOLPH. By Henry Adams.
ANDREW JACKSON. By W. G. Sumner
MARTIN VAN BUREN. By Edward W. Shefard.
HENRY CLAY. By Carl Schurz. 2 volumes.
DANIEL WEBSTER. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
JOHN C. CALHOUN. By Dr. H. Von Holst.
THOMAS H. BENTON. By Theodore Roosevelt.
LEWIS CASS. By Andrew C. McLaughlin.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By John T. Morse, Jr. 2 volumes.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD. By Thornton K. Lothrop.
SALMON P CHASE. By Albert Bushnell Hart.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. By C. F. Adams, Jr.
CHARLES SUMNER. By Moorfield Storey.
THADDEUS STEVENS. By Samuel W. McCall.
SECOND SERIES
Biographies of men particularly influential in the recent Political History of the
Nation. Each volume, with Portrait, i2mo, $1.25 net ; postage 12 cents.
Tkis second series is intended to supplement the original list of American
Statesmen by the addition of the names of men who have helped to make the his
tory of the United States since the Civil War.
JAMES G. BLAINE. By Edward Stanwood.
JOHN SHERMAN. By Theodore E. Burton.
WILLIAM McKINLEY. By T. C. Dawson
ULYSSES S. GRANT. By Samuel W. McCall, In preparation
Other interesting additions to the list to he made in the future.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

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