^^^r >^^? fl\f 4^\r •■ ( w gi»*qwwp?:^*y^ j i :'.i»M i Vl B RAR.Y OF THL UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS B B633C Til. Hist. Survey ^% /,/ y ^'ii TO The Lo^al ^epuHican If oter? of IIib Dqited fhk^ WHOSE GALLANT FIGHT AT THE POLLS IN NOVEMBER, 1880. PLACED AT THE HEAD OF OUR GOVERNMENT A SELF- MADE MAN AND NOBLE PATRIOT, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED, IN THE HOPE AND WITH THE EARNEST CONVICTION THAT IN NOVEMBER, 1884, THEY WILL AGAIN STORM THE ENEMY'S WORKS, AND MOUNTING THE RAMPARTS, SHOUT FOR BLAINE, LOGAN AND VICTORY! liii) The Best is always the Cheapest — Beware of Worthless Catch-penny Bmiks. ^S A MAN, THE NOBLEST OF HIS TIMES. AS A CITIZEN, THE GRANDEST OF HIS NATION. AS A STATESMAN, THE IDOL OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF OUR GREATEST LIVING STATESMAN. Hon. James G. Blaine, "THE PLUMED KNIGHT." EMBRACING A FULL ACCOUNT OK HIS EARLY LIFE; AND EFFORTS TO OHTAIN AN EDUCATION; HIS CAREER AS A TEACHER; HIS BRILLIANT SERVICES AS A CONGRESSMAN ; HIS ABLE AND PATRIOTIC RECORD IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES AND AS SECRETARY OF STATE DURING GARFIELD'S ADMINISTRATION; HIS MANFUL BATTLES WITH RINGS AND CORRUPTION IN HIGH PLACES. BY VINCENT S. COOKE, OF THE " PHILADKLPHIA PRESS," THE DISTINGUISHED AM) PlilTLAK WKITEK. TO WHICH IS ADDED The Life of Gen'l John A. Logan. With a Full Account of his Services as a General and Record as a Statesman. The work also contains an account of the election and administration of every Picsi- dent from Washington to Arthur, and fine portraits of all of them, with a complete HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, and a large amount of valuable statistical matter, giving the returns of the votes cast at all our Presidential elections. Embellished with Fine Steel Portraits of Blaine and Logan and Numerous Illustrations on Wood. NATIONAL PUBLISHING CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA., CHICAGO, ILLS., ST. LOUIS, MO Copyrighted, 1884. ^ JU''^ PREFACE. IT is the pride and boast of Americans that this is a coun- try of self-made men. However humble may be the position of a man, it is within his power, in this land of Hr equality and Republican institutions, to attain the highest honors within the gift of his fellow-citizens. Our history is full of the names of men who, without friends or fortune to aid them, have risen by the force of their own abilities to the proudest position in the Republic — Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Garfield, and their glorious compeers, were all self-made men, and carved out their great suc- cesses by their own unaided efforts. Their examples shine out brightly to encourage and cheer others who are strug- gling onward in the road by which they climbed to great- ness. No career in all our history furnishes a more brilliant example of this than that of Hon. James G. Blaine. Starting as a poor country boy, without money, position, or influence, compelled to struggle against poverty, he has V raised himself by his own unaided efforts to the highest <^ pinnacle of fame. The poor boy of forty years ago is now the leader of the Republican party in one of its most criti- cal struggles, and is destined to be the next President of the United States. Thanks to the glorious institutions founded by our fathers, it has become possible for the gen- (V) <-z SCENE AT A I'Ol.ll K ' \l. MI-.l.llNi; IN LOUISIANA WHEN HAYES WAS KI.ECTKD PRESIDENT. ,.,iiiimi^!|^v:7^;T 5i!nH';i!^;"3i3ni!ti!?!iii«ni'!!!i,i.; : " SCENE AT A POLITICAL Ml'.l .I'lNi; IN muiSLWA WHEN HAYES WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT. IJLAINE'S UlRTlirLACE. IN WASHINGTON CO., PA. THE ^'PLUMED KNIGHT." LIFE-STORY OF HON JAMES G. BLAINE, STATESMAN AND SCHOLAR. THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF THE AMERICAN GLADSTONE. e3ibracing a full account of his early llfe— his First Ambitious Efforts as a Teacher— Laboring in the editorial fleld— his brilliant congres- signal Career— His Commanding Presence in the United States Senate— Selected by our Martyred Garfield as Secretary of State— Nominated Amidst the Wildest Enthusiasm for the Highest Office IN THE Gift of the American Feople. James Gillespie Blaine, the nominee of the Republican party for President of the United States, was born January 31, 1830, in Union Township, Washington county, Pennsylvania. He comes from noted Scotch-Irish stock, his ancestors having been among the pioneers who a century and a half ago ascended the great lime-stone valley in which Carlisle is situated, and founded that thriving town. The stone Presbyterian B (17) 18 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. church, which the second generation built, is still standing, and near by is the old-fashioned house where Mr. Blaine's great-grandfather. Colonel Eph- raim Blaine, lived for many years. This officer was originally a colonel of the Pennsylvania line, but during the last four years of the Revolutionary war he was Commissary-General of the Northern Department, and during the terrible winter at Valley Forge did his best to keep the wolf of famine and destitution from the American camp, vColonel Ephraim Blaine's son, James Blaine, emi- •grated from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, into the then wilderness of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and established a country store at the mouth of Ten Mile Run, in Greene county. He remained there but a short time, and then moved to Browns- ville with his wagon-load of goods, and opened a store which he kept for the rest of his life. James Blaine's son, " Squire Blaine," as he was known in the community, was married to Mi.ss Gillespie, a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church, but their seven children — five boys and two girls — adhered to the traditional faith of the Blaines. The eldest of these five sons, James Gillespie Blaine, is the subject of this sketch. Concerning the religious faith of his family and his own attitude in religious matters, Mr, Blaine wrote in later life — March 10, 1876 — as follows : My ancestors on my father's side were, as you LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 19 know, alwaj's identified with the Presbyterian church, and they were prominent and honored in the old colony of Pennsylvania. But I will never consent to make any public declaration upon the subject, and for two reasons: first, because I abhor the introduction of anything that looks like a re- ligious test or qualification for office in a republic where perfect freedom of conscience is the birth- right of every citizen ; and, second, because my mother was a devoted Catholic. I would not for a thousand 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. The Kennehec Journal (Augusta, Maine), about this time, said on the same subject that " Mr. Blaine has been for nearly twenty years a con- sistent member of the Orthodox Congregational Church in this, the city of his home. Orthodox Congregationalism in Maine is precisely the same creed as Presbyterian ism in Pennsylvania." blaine's boyhood. Speaking of Blaine's boyhood the well-known journalist. Colonel Frank A. Burr, thus wrote of a visit to his early home in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in 1882 : " I stood beside two old graves to-day in this village, that are in the shadow of the little church that so quickly recalled to me Longfellow's beau- 20 LIFE OF HON^. JAMES G. BLAINE. tiful lines. * The marble that marked them was much newer than the mounds, and the surround- ings impressed me with the thought that a dutiful and reverent son had 3^ears after, when means and opportunity came that were wanting when death called father and mother away, placed a fitting monument to mark the spot where they slept. It is a plain, unpretentious stone that marks these graves, and it was the names only that attracted my attention. They were those of EPHRAIM L. BLAINE AND* MARIA GILLESPIE BLAINE. " ^ Who were these two people in life ? ' I asked of an old gentleman, who had wandered along with me to this quiet city where the dead sleep. " ' Why, they were the father and mother of James G. Blaine. I knew them both well. Eph Blaine and I went to school together. He was one of the founders of this town, and was squire here for many a year. He wg-s elected prothono- tary of the county in 1842, and moved to Wash- ington, the county-seat. He married Maria, a daughter of old Neal Gillespie, the smartest man in this whole section, and from his people James Gillespie Blaine derives his middle name. The Gillespies were among the most prominent families in the State. The seal of nature's nobility was LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 21 stamped upon them, one and all. The men were brave and stalwart ; as strong in character, too, as they were stout of limb. The women were very handsome, and carried themselves as proudly as though the blood of a hundred earls were coursing through their veins. The beauty of old Mrs. Blaine, James' mother, passed into a proverb. Even in her decrepit age she preserved much of her early attractiveness, and her eye was like a hawk's, as clear and flashing then as in the days of her budding womanhood. This was a peculiarity of her family, and she transmitted it to all her children. The Gillespies were ardent, intense Catholics, and made their religion the leading feature of their lives. Neal Gillespie owned a good deal of land about here, and Eph Blaine built the brick house you see yonder on a portion of it, after his marriage with Miss Gillespie. There their first child, James, was born in 1830. I remember him very well when he was a lad and used to paddle about on the river and make mud pies along its banks. He was a bright lad. NEVER TURNED HIS BACK ON FRIEND OR FOE. " ' I remember one little story about him, which I often heard in those days, and which is inter- esting as showing how truly, in his case, the child was father to the man. When he was but a little toddler, so to speak, some laborers were engaged digging a well on his fiither's premises. The future 22 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. statesman was caught one morning peering down into the excavation, and one of the men, with the idea of frightening him and thus preventing him from again putting himself in danger, thrust his shovel toward him, and made all sorts of ugly faces. Jim ran away, but only to nurse his anger and await an opportunity for revenge. Venturing to the well a day or two after he had been driven away, he found the men working away at the bot- tom. Improving the opportunity, he seized a clod of earth and hurled it with all his little might full at the head of his unsuspecting enemy, with the consolatory remark, " There, take that." Clod fol- lowed clod in fast succession, with accompanying expletives, until the men were fairly beside them- selves with rage and with the fear that the desperate child might take it into his head to use some of the stones lying about him as messengers of wrath more effective than mere lumps of earth. Their shouts, however, brought his mother to the scene, and the little avenger was unceremoniously hustled off to the house. That was the old blood asserting itselt. A Gillespie or a Blaine never turned his back upon friend or foe. A century's memories. '' ' That's the new packet " James G. Blaine " that runs from here to Pittsburgh. The two peo- ple who sleep in this graveyard little thought when they died that they'd have a son big enough LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 23 to have a packet named for him. They died when Jim was young, and they didn't leave anything for him to start with either. Eph BLaine was a rich man once. His grandfather left him some fifty thousand dollars, but he spent it having a good time. He was not a money-saver, but be- lieved in enjoying the world as he lived. He used to drive fine horses, and drove 'em tandem, too. Old Neal Gillespie used to call him "My gig-and- tandem son-in-law." The Gillespies wasn't so slow, either, but Eph Blaine led 'em all in this country. It's no wonder Jim Blaine is smart. He comes of good stock on both sides. All the Gillespies were smart. Neal Gillespie was the biggest brained man in all this country.' " ' Do the Blaines or any of the relatives own the old homestead?' " ' No, indeed. It's long since passed into strange hands. There was little of either the Blaine or the Gillespie estate left when the se*"tlement day came. The children all had to begin new. None of either family live about here now.' "There is much that is strange in the story that the old man told me, and much more that is inter- esting. We finished the talk beside the restless waters of the Monongahela, near which Mr. Blaine was born, and his family lived for years. The little brick house doesn't stand more than forty rods from the river, and the old path which leads from the doorway that Blaine helped to make in 24 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. childhood, is still there. The best boat on the river now bears his name, and the plain people love to talk of his having been born in their midst. It is a queer section of country in which to have found the homes of two such families as the Blaines and the Gillespies. Both strong houses — both fond of the best things of this life. Both educated and brainy. Blaine sprung from Revolutionary stock. His great-grandfather was a distinguished officer in the Revolution. He was a rich man and lived in Cumberland county, above Carlisle. He left James Blaine, the grandfather, and Ephraim Blaine, the father of the man of whom I am now writing, rich. The story goes that both spent their money in having a good time. The grandfather spent many years in Europe, and returned to this country only when he had become penniless. The first history he made in this country began early in the present century. After he was poor he left the rich and popular section of Carlisle, and moved into the then wilderness of the Youghiogheny region, and estab- lished a country store at the mouth of Ten Mile Run, in Greene county. He lived here but a short time when he came to Brownsville, with his wagon load of goods, and established a store, which he kept the remainder of his life. The Gillespie family was then a rich and powerful family in the region. The strensrth of mind and character for which all the family were noted is still a proverb in the region. The Monongahela river at this LIFE or HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 25 point separates the two counties of Fayette and Washington. Brownsville is on the Fayette side and West Brownsville on the Washington side. They are both quaint old towns, and wear the mark of many years. I don't suppose there are 5000 people in both, and the houses straggle along the banks of the river on the lowlands, which are just high enough to keep them out of the reach of the overflow. This country was new — I might say wald — when the Blaines and the Gillespies came here. The rich treasures of the Youghiogheny region were floated down the Ohio river in rude keel boats, and the untold wealth in the rugged mountains was then unknown. Albert Gallatin used to live in this country then, and his residence was but a few miles up the river from this point. But mighty changes have taken place since those days, when he left his impress upon the finances and credit of this country so that it can never be effaced. TWO STRONG FAMILIES. "There seems to have been good feeling from the first between the Blaine and Gillespie families, and there seems to have been a special care to inter- mingle the family names as each son was born. The old man whom I encountered in the first part of this story told me that nearly every son in the Blaine family, as in the Gillespies, wore the family name or some part of his autograph. The Gillespie family seemed to run more to girls than boys, and 26 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. it seemed to be their good fortune to link their for- tunes with strong men. The daughter who was next in age to Maria, who married Ephraim A. Blaine, was wedded to the famous Tom Ewing, of Ohio, when he was a poor lawyer in Lancaster, Pa. That's how he became an uncle of James G. Blaine, and the names of Blaine and Ewing became joined. " There is a tradition here that when old Tom Ewing was Secretary of the Interior, Blaine ap- plied to him for a clerkship and the old man sent him to Kentucky to earn an honest living teaching school. This association of the name of Ewing with that of Blaine has given rise to the story that the Ewing family of Ohio helped James G. Blaine to an education. I might as well destroy this fiction by telling the f\icts. "A short drive brought me to Washington, the county-seat of this county, and one of the first men I met was Major John H. Ewing, an old veteran now past fourscore years. " ' I married the sister of Ephraim L. Blaine. He and I went to school together over in yonder col- lege, and I knew him nearly all his life. He was a leader in the mischief of the school, and fond of all the good things of this life. He was the hand- somest man I ever saw, and he had a wife that was a match for him. She was one of the noblest women I ever knew. She inherited all the sterling traits of character and strength of mind for which LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 27 the Gillespies were noted. So, you see, Blaine sprang from the best of stock on both sides. His father was Justice of the Peace over in West Brownsville for a number of years, and afterwards Prothonotary of the County. He was elected in 1842, and came here to live. James G. was only about twelve years old then, and almost every middle- aged man you meet on the streets here remembers all about him.' ON THE ROAD TO FAME. " Mr. Gow, the editor of one of the papers in Washington, Pa., who was Blaine's classmate, speaks thus of his school-days : "'Yes; Blaine graduated in the class of '47, when he was only seventeen years old. I gradu- ated in the same class. We were thrown a great deal together, not only in school, but in society. He was a great favorite in the best social circles in the town. He was not noted as a leader in his class. He could learn his lessons too easily. He had the most remarkable memory of any boy in school, and could commit and retain his lessons without difficulty. He never demonstrated in his youth, except by his wonderful memory, any of the great powers as a debater and thinker that he has since given evidence of. "When a man has filled so large a place in the pul> lie eye as Mr. Blaine has, his early life seems a great way off. When you get where every other man 28 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. you meet can tell you all about it, then you seem to see it in a different light, and it leaves a far different impression upon your mind. Here, what seem to be to you, when awa}^ traditions far in the distant past, appear like the recollections of yesterday. People cannot only tell you of his father and his grandfather, but of almost every phase of his life from boyhood up. The stories of his early struggles and triumphs are as vivid as those of his later years, and his name is closely as- sociated with the lore of the country side. He left here soon after he graduated, but how little did he then think that his home would be made in the Northland, and his fame and fortune won many miles away from the quaint old town where he grew up. It is a nice place for peace and rest. The people are contented and happy with their splendid educational institutions, their rich acres, and plenty of money. He had close alliances here then that were likely to bring him back to stay. Almost his first occupation after graduating was as a teacher in the Deaf and Dumb Asylum in Phil- adelphia. Why he went from there to Kentucky to teach school has been a question often asked but never answered. There is a tradition here that there is but one being who knows. Like other boys he had his friendships and his loves, and it would be strange if he had grown up — for he is said to have been as handsome a boy as he is a man — without leaving some impression upon the LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 29 hearts of the maidens of the neighborhood. If there is one person living who can tell, and there is, it has been and doubtless will be forever kept as a sealed book, so far as the details are concerned. It was one of those youthful misunderstandings that often come to two people who hope to start out on the voyage of life together, and are sepa- rated by an angry sea before they meet. There is not even a suggestion as to which of the two was at fault for the parting of the ways that led their life's journeys into different paths." STUDENT AND TEACHER. James entered Washington College in 1843, being then thirteen years of age, and became at once prominent as a scholar among the two or three hundred other lads from all parts of the country, and because of his splendid physique he was also a leader in all manly athletic sports. He was not a bookworm, or a burner of midnight oil, but he was a close student, and possessed the happy faculty of assimilating knowledge from books and tutors far more easily and quickly than most of his fellows. In debating societies he held his own well, and was conspicuous by his ability to control and direct others. In his classes he was always foremost as a scholar, and personally very popular. To the new scholars who entered in succeeding classes he was a hero — uniformly kind to them, ready to give as- 30 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. sistance and advice, and eager to make pleasant their path in college life. His handsome person and neat attire ; his ready sympathy and prompt assistance ; his frank, generous nature, and his brave, manly bearing, made him the best known, the best loved, and the most popular boy at col- lege. He was the arbiter among younger boys in all their disputes, and the authority with those of his own age on all questions. He was always for the " under dog in the fight." And at the end of the usual four years' course at college he was grad- uated, in 1847, with the most distinguished honors of his class, and went forth into practical life well fitted in acquirements and training to deal with its problems, and bearing as a crown of youthful honor the affection and esteem of all his asso- ciates. From his alma mater young Blaine went to Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky, and became a pro- fessor in the Western Military Institute, in which there were about 450 boys. A retired officer, who was a student there at the time, relates that Pro- fessor Blaine was a thin, handsome, earnest young man, with the same fascinating manners he has now. He was popular with the boys, who trusted him and made friends with him from the first. He knew the given names of every one, and he knew their shortcomings and their strong points. He was a man of great personal courage, and during a fight between the faculty of the school and the LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 31 owners of the springs, involving some questions about the removal of the school, he behaved in the bravest manner, fighting hard but keeping cool. Revolvers and knives were freely used, but Blaine only used his well-disciplined muscle. Colonel Thornton F. Johnson was the principal of the school, and his wife had a young ladies' school at Millersburg, twenty miles distant. It was at this phace that Mr. Blaine met Miss St an wood, who be- longed to an excellent fjimily, and she afterwards became his wife. BLAINE TEACHING THE BLIND. " Yes, I remember young James G. Blaine dis- tinctly," said William Chapin, the principal of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind in Philadelphia. " He was principal teacher here on the boys' side for two years, and when he departed he left behind him not only universal re- gret at a serious loss to the institution, but an im- pression of his personal force upon the work and its methods, which survives the lapse of twenty years." The Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruc- tion of the Blind, at Twentieth and Race Streets, is the second place in which Mr. Blaine taught after his graduation from Washington College. He rang the bell at the front door of the building one summer afternoon in 1852, in answer to an adver- tisement for a teacher. " There were thirty or 32 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. forty other applicants," said Mr. Chapin, " but Ins manner was so winning and he possessed so many manifestly valuable qualities that I closed an en- gagement with him at once. He was married, and his wife and little son Walker came here with him. His qualities, which impressed me most deeply, were his culture, the thoroughness of his education and his unfailing self-possession. He was also a man of very decided will, and was very much dis- posed to argument. He was young then — only twenty-two — and was rather impulsive, leaping to a conclusion very quickly. But he was always ready to defend his conclusions, however suddenly he seemed to have reached them. We had many a familiar discussion in this very room, and his arguments always astonished me by the knowledge they displayed of ficts in history and politics. His memory was remarkable, and seemed to retain details which ordinary men would forget. Blaine's first book. " Now, I will show you something that illus- trates how thoroughly Mr. Blaine mastered any- thing he took hold of,"' said Mr. Chapin, as he took from a desk in the corner of the room a thick quarto manuscript book, bound in dark, brown leather, and lettered "Journal" on the corner. " This book Mr. Blaine compiled with great labor from the minute books of the Board of Managers. It gives an historical view of the institution from LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 33 the time of its foundation up to the time of Mr. Blaine's departure. He did all the work in his own room, telling no one of it until he left. Then he presented it, through me, to the Board of Man- agers, who were both surprised and gratified. I believe they made him a present of $100 as a thank-offering for an invaluable work." Indeed, this book, the first historical work of Mr. Blaine, is a model of its kind. On the title- page, in ornamental pen-work, executed at that time by Mr. Chapin, is the inscription : Journal of the Pennsylvania Institution for the INSTRUCTION OF THE BLIND, from its foundation. Compiled from official records by James G. Blaine, 1854. The methodical character of the work is most remarkable. On the first page every abbreviation used in the book is entered alphabetically. The first entry reads: *' On this and the four following pages will be found some notes in regard to the origin of the Pennsylvania Institution for the In- struction of the Blind, furnished by I. Francis C 34 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. Fislier, Esq." From this page to the 188th, in which is the last entry made by Mr. Blaine, every line is a model of neatness and accuracy. On every page is a wide margin. At the top of the margin is the year, in ornamental figures. Below it is a brief statement of what the text contains opposite that portion of the marginal entry. Every year's record closes with an elaborate table, giving the attendance of members of the board. The last pages of the book are filled with alphabetical lists of officers of the institution and statistical tables, compiled by the same patient and untiring hnnd. One of the lists is tliat of the "principal teachers." No. 13 is followed by the signature, " Jas. G. Blaine, from x\ugust 5, 1852, to" — and then, in another hand, the record is completed with date November 23, 1854. " I think that the book," remarked Mr. Chapin, "illustrates the character of the man in accurate mastery of facts and orderly presentation of details. We still use it for reference, and Mr. Frank Bat- tles, the assistant principal, is bringing the record down to the present time. "I recall one incident," Mr. Chapin continued, " which indicates Mr. Blaine's mode of discipline, and shows, too, that he was in those days some- what impulsive. It was one of his duties to take charge of the bovs at breakfast, and sometimes there would be a few sleepy laggards. One morn- ing a whole room-full of boys, five or six of them, LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. oD failed to appear. Mr. Blaine quietly walked up- stairs and locked them in. The boys had a screw- driver and they unfastened the lock ; but by the time they reached the breakfast-room the tables had been cleared. ' You can have no breakfast/ was the teacher's announcement. The boys there- upon declared that they wouldn't go into Mr. Blaine's classes. He reported them to me. Al- thougli I thought it perhaps a little severe to de- prive the^i of breakfiist, I felt obliged to sustain Mr. Blaine, and told them to go to their class- rooms as usual. They still refused, and I suspended them for the day. The next morning they rose in time for breakfast, attended classes, and the little rebellion was over. " Mr. Blaine taught mathematics, in which he excelled, and the higher branches. His wife was universally beloved, and often read aloud to the pupils. When he went away to become editor of the Kennehec Journal, we felt that we had lost a man of large parts, and we have watched his up- ward career with great interest. Yes, indeed; we are all for Blaine here. He has called here a number of times when he stopped in the city on his way to and from Washington. The last time he was here he heard with great interest of the progress of D. D. Wood, the blind organist at St. Stephen's Church, who was one of his pupils, and recalled Mr. Wood's proficiency in mathematics." 36 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. A pupil's RECOLLECTIONS. Three persons now holding positions in the in- stitution, Michael M. Williams, William McMillan, and Miss Maria Cormanj were pupils under Mr. Blaine. Mr. Williams said yesterday : " Every- body loved Mr. Blaine and his wife. Both were always ready to do anything for our amusement in leisure hours, and we had a great deal of fun, into which they entered heartily. I think that Mrs. Blaine read nearly all of Dickens' works aloud to us, and Mr. Blaine used to make us roar with laughter by reading out of a book entitled ' Char- coal Sketches.' " Mr. Williams led the visitor to a large room at the right of the main entrance to the building, separated by folding doors from another room, and added : " In the evenings he used to throw those doors open, and sit there under the gaslight, reading aloud to both the boys and girls. Then we would wind up with a spelling- bee. Sometimes Mr. Blaine woujd give out the words, and sometimes one of the big boys would do it, while Mr. Blaine stood up among the boys. Then we would have great fun trying to ' spell the teacher down.' " After a few years' work as teacher Mr. Blaine returned to Pennsylvania and began studying law. He read law carefully, and obtained a thorough knowledge of its principles, but never presented himself as a candidate for admission to the bar. LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. Oi EDITOR AND POLITICAL LEADER. Miss Stanwood was a native of Maine, and after her marriage to Mr. Blaine was anxious for him to make that State his home. This he deter- mined to do, and in 1853 the young couple removed to Augusta, where they have ever since made their home. In the following year Mr. Blaine en- tered into partnership with Joseph Baker, a promi- nent lawyer of that town, and the two purchased The Kennehec Journal, of which Mr. Blaine at once became editor. The Journal was a weekly paper, one of the organs of the Whig party, and exercised considerable political influence. In 1857 Mr. Blaine disposed of his interest in this paper, and became editor of The Portland Daily Adver- tiser. In the campaign of 1860 he returned tem- porarily to his old post on The Kennehec Journal on account of the illness of its editor. His career in journalism lasted six years, and was marked throughout by ability and success. It served to give him a good introduction to the world of poli- tics and statesmanship. In everything he wrote Mr. Blaine was vigorous and fearless. He con- tended always for a principle. No amount of ad- verse opinion could make him change his course. He was not obstinate nor illogical, but after once forming an opinion, after carefully reviewing the causes that led to it, he could not be swerved by persuasion nor intimidation. When the old Whig party went to pieces Mr. 38 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. Blaine joined hands with Govej^nor Anson P. Mor- rill in organizing the Republican party in the Pine Tree State. His vigorous attacks upon the Bu- chanan Administration made him a power in the new organization. In 1858, when he was in his twenty-ninth year, he was elected to the Legisla- ture. He served two years on the floor of the Lower House and two years in the chair, where he dis- played the qualities of parliamentary leadership and control that afterward gave him such renown in the National Legislature at Washington. It is also worthy of mention that he took an active part as a public speaker in the Fremont campaign of 1856. REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. In 1862 Mr. Blaine was nominated for Cono:ress o in the Kennebec District, and was elected by a majority of 3,000 votes. To this position he was successively elected, in each succeeding Congress, until his promotion to the United States Senate. During the first term of his long career as Repre- sentative he had for colleagues such men as Elihu B. Washburne, Owen Lovejoy, George W. Julian, Godlove S. Orth, Schuyler Colfax, James F. Wil- son. William B. Allison, John A. Kasson, Alex- ander H. Rice, Henry L. Dawes, William Windom, F. P. Blair, Jr., James Brooks, Erastus Corning, Reuben E. Fenton, Francis Kernan, George H. Pendleton, Robert C. Schenck, James A. Garfield, Samuel J. Randall, William D. Kelley, Thaddeus LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 39 Stevens, G. W. Schofiekl, and many other distin- guished men. Among these he soon .was recog- nized as a man whose influence was sure to be felt and to increase with time. His first reputation in the Lower House of Con- gress was that of an exceedingly industrious com- mitteeman. He was a member of the Post Office and Military Committees, and of the Committees on Appropriations and Rules. He paid close at- tention to the business of the committees, and took an active part in the debates of the House, mani- festing practical ability and genius for details. The first remarkable speech which he made in Congress was on the subject of the assumption by the Gen- eral Government of the war debts of the States, in the course of which he urged that the North was abundantly able to carry on the war to a successful issue. This vigorous speech attracted so much at- tention that 200,000 copies of it were circulated in 1864 as a campaign document by the Eepublican party. In January, 1868, he introduced a resolu- tion in relation to Congressional representation, which was referred to the Reconstruction Commit- tee, and was subsequently made the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment. In December, 1867, he made an elaborate speech on the finances, in which he analyzed Mr. Pendleton's greenback theory. " The remedy for our financial troubles," said he, " will not be found in a superabundance of depreci- ated paper currency. It lies in the opposite direc- 40 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. tion, and the sooner the Nation finds itself on a specie basis the sooner will the public treasury be freed from embarrassment and private business be relieved from discouragement. Instead, therefore, of entering upon a reckless and boundless issue of legal-tenders, with their constant depreciation, if not destruction, of value, let us set resolutely to work and make those already in circulation equal to so many gold dollars." At the opening of the first session of the 41st Congress the Republican caucus nominated Mr. Blaine for Speaker b}^ acclamation, and he was elected by a vote of 136 to 57 for Mr. Kerr. He was re-elected, without opposition in his own party, Speaker of the 42d and 43d Congresses. In that position his quickness of perception, decision of manner, thorough knowledge of parliamentary law and usages, and impartial and judicial mind, added to his clear voice and impressive presence, made him a truly great presiding officer. The Democratic " tidal wave " of 1874 returned a Democratic majority to the House, and Mr. Blaine returned to the floor. There his parlia- mentary skill and self-possession, together with his audacity of manner and versatility of talent, made him one of the most adroit and aggressive leaders ever enjoyed by a political party. UNITED STATES SENATOR. Mr. Blaine was appointed by the Governor of LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 41 Maine, July 10, 1876, to be United States Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Morrill, who then became Secretary of the Treasury. He was subsequently elected for the unexpired term and for the ensuing term expiring in 1883. On his appointment he wrote to the people of his Congressional District a farewell ad dress, in which he said : Beginning with 1862 you have by continuous elections sent me as your representative to the Conarress of the United States, For such marked confidence I have endeavored to return the most zealous and devoted service in my power, and it is certainly not without a feeling of pain that I now surrender a trust by which I have always felt so signally honored. It has been my boast in public and in private that no man on the floor of Con- gress ever represented a constituency more distin- guished for intelligence, for patriotism, for public and personal virtue. The cordial support you have so uniformly given me through these fourteen eventful years is the chief honor of my life. In closing the intimate relations I have so long held with the people of this district it is a great satis- faction to me to know that with returnins; health I shall enter upon a field of duty in which I can still serve them in common with the larger con- stituency of which they form a part. Commenting upon his elevation to the Upper House, The Kennebec Journal, well representing the sentiment of the public in the State, said : 42 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAIXE. Fourteen vears aao, standinor in the convention at which he was first nominated, Mr. Blaine pledged himself to use his best services for the district, and to support to the best of his ability the policy of Abraham Lincoln to subdue the re- bellion, and then and there expressed plainly the idea that slavery must and ought to be abolished to save the Union. That he has kept his pledge faithfully his constituents know and feel, and the records of Congress attest. To this district his abilities were freely given, and as he rose in honor in the House, and in the public estimation, he re- flected honor and gave strength to the constituency that supported him. Every step he made in ad- vance was a gain for them. It was a grand thing for this district to have as its representative in Congress for six years the Speaker of the House, filling the place next in importance to that of Pres- ident of the United States, with matchless ability. It was a grander thing when he took the lead of the minoritv in the House last December, routed the Democratic majority, and drove back in dismay the ex-Confederates who were intending and ex- pecting through the advantage they had already gained to grasp the supreme power in the nation, and wield it in the interest of the cause of seces- sion and rebellion revived. For what he has done as their representative in Congress, never will this Third District of Maine forget to honor the name of James G. Blaine. It will live in the hearts of this people even as the name of Henry Clay is still loved by the people of his old district in Kentucky. His great prominence in national affairs made Mr. Blaine a conspicuous figure in the Senate at once, LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 43 and he often broke over the tradition of the body, which requires the new members to allow their elders to monopolize the debates. He made a strong speech in favor of restricting Chinese im- migration, which was much censured and much praised, according to the point of view of his critics. He voted against the Electoral Commission bill. He opposed the Bland Silver bill in a vig- orous speech, and favored the coinage of an honest silver dollar. The question of the restoration of the American carrying trade upon the seas has re- ceived a gr6at deal of attention from him, and his speeches and letters on this subject have attracted much attention. One of these speeches was made at a New York Chamber of Commerce dinner, and was accepted as a masterly presentation of the subject. Mr. Blaine's sagacity, coolness, and wisdom as a party leader were conspicuously demonstrated in the measures he took to circumvent the Democratic plot for stealing the State government of Maine in 1879 by fraudulently counting out Republican members of the Legislature. All the advantages, save that of being in the right, were with his op- ponents at the start. His supporters were eager to resort to arms as the only means of obtaining justice, but they were restrained by him. His plan was first to arouse public sentiment by expos- ing the enormity of the plot, next to tangle up his antagonists in a web of contradictions, and then. 44 LIFE OF HON. JAxMES G. BLAINE. after obtaining the judgment of the Supreme Court, to seize and hold the legislative halls. It was completely successful, and the conspiracy be- came impotent and ridiculous. BEFORE TWO NATIONAL CONVENTIONS. Mr. Blaine was a candidate for the Presidential nomination in 1876, and came within 27 votes of being successful. His vote increased from 291 on the first ballot to 351 on the seventh, but he was beaten by a combination against him of the dele- gates supporting Morton, Conkling, Hartranft, Bristow, and Hayes, who united upon Hayes and made him the nominee. Senator Blaine was one of the leading candidates for the Presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, in June, 1880. Out of a total of 755 he received on the first bal- lot 284 votes. On the thirteenth and fourteenth ballots he received his highest vote, 285, which very gradually declined to 257 on the thirty-fifth ballot. On the thirty-sixth ballot General Gar- field was nominated by a combination of the ele- ments opposed to General Grant and a third term. Throughout the exciting campaign that followed Senator Blaine worked and spoke for the success of the Republican ticket, and aided largely in bringing about the victory of the following No- vember. The following table exhibits Mr. Blaine's vote in LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 45 the Cincinnati Convention of 1876, and in the Chicago Convention of 1880 by States. It is specially valuable for reference at this time : 1876. 1880. Alabama, 17 1 Nebraska, 6 6 Arkansas, 11 Nevada, , , 6 California, 6 12 New Hampshire, 7 10 Colorado, 6 New Jersey, 12 16 Connecticut, 2 3 New York, 9 17 Delaware, 6 6 North Carolina, , , Florida, 8 . . Ohio, , 9 Georgia, 14 8 Oregon, 6 6 Illinois, 85 10 Pennsylvania, 30 23 Indiana, , , 26 Rhode Island, 2 8 Iowa, 22 22 South Carolina, 7 , ^ Kansas, 10 6 Tennessee, 6 6 Kentucky, . , 1 Texas, 1 2 Louisiana, 14 2 Vermont, , , , , Maine, 14 14 Virginia, 14 3 Mar3'land, 16 7 West Virginia, 6 8 Massachusetts, 5 ^ , Wisconsin, 16 7 Michigan, 21 Territories, 14 14 Minnesota, '9 Mississippi, , , 4 Total, 351 284 Missouri, 20 AT THE HEAD OF GARFIELD S CABINET. When in November of 1880 — after the election — General Garfield decided upon a visit to "Wash- ington, Mr. Blaine was in Bangor, Maine, where he received a note from General Garfield appoint- ing an interview in Washington about November 24. He reached the capital on the 26th, and on the afternoon of that day called upon the Presi- dent-elect at the latter's private residence. For 46 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. two hours they were closeted without interruption from a single person. At this conference, General Garfield, without reservation, tended the State De- partment to Mr. Blaine. When Mr. Blaine had recovered from his surprise he replied : " General, I was hardly prepared for this tender on your part. I do not know how to make answer. I would like some time for reflection and consultation, and in the meantime I will advise you." General Gar- field then and there urged Mr. Blaine to accept, but he made no binding answer at the time. Sub- sequently Mr. Blaine had a conference with his closest friends, and the weight of their testimony was that he should accept the place. Said he : "Gentlemen, I am inclined to accept General Gar- field's offer; but meanwhile I will for a very short period still further hold it under advisement." After this conference with his friends the fact that General Garfield had offered the Senator the Sec- retaryship of State was communicated to one or two of Senator Blaine's confidential friends, and he said : " If the sentiment of the country indorses the selection General Garfield has made, I will ac- cept the office. Otherwise not." Early in Decem- ber the announcement was made in one or two newspapers, directly and absolutely, that Senator Blaine had been invited by General Garfield to take the State Department. It soon became ac- cepted as a fact. The universal expression of newspaper opinion was that the selection was a LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 47 good one. Thereupon Senator Blaine wrote the following letter of acceptance : Washington, December 20, 1880. My Dear Garfield: — Your generous invitation to enter your Cabinet as Secretary of State has been under consideration for more than three weeks. The thought had really never occurred to my mind until at our late conference you presented it with such cogent arguments in its favor, and with sucli warmth of personal friendship in aid of your kind offer. I know that an early answer is desirable, and I have waited only long enough to consider the sub- ject in all its bearings, and to make up my mind definitely and conclusively. I now saj' to you, in the same cordial spirit in which you have invited me, that I accept the position. It is no affectation for me to add that I make this decision, not for the honor of the promotion it gives me in the public service, but because I think I can be useful to the country and to the party ; useful to you as the responsible leader of the party and the great head of the government. I am influenced somewhat, perhaps, by the shower of letters I have received urging me to ac- cept, written to me in consequence of the mere unauthorized newspaper report that you had been pleased to offer me the place. While I have re- ceived these letters from all sections of the Union, I have been especially pleased and even surprised at the cordial and widely extended feeling in my favor throughout New^ England, where I had ex- pected to encounter local jealousy and perhaps rival aspiration. 48 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. In our new relation 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 in heart and in act. I should be false to myself did I not prove true both to the great trust you confide to me and to your own personal and politi- cal fortunes in the present and in the future. Your administration must be made brilliantly successful and strong in the confidence and pride of the people, not at all directing its energies for re-elec- tion, and yet compelling that result by the logic of events and by the imperious necessities of the sit- uation. To that most desirable consummation I feel that, next to yourself, I can possibly contribute as much influence as any other one man. I say this not from egotism or vain glory, but merely as a deduc- tion from a plain analysis of the political forces which have been at work in the country for five years past, and which have been significantly shown in two great National Conventions. I ac- cept it as one of the happiest circumstances con- nected with this affair that in allying my political fortunes with yours — or rather for the time merg- ing mine in yours — my heart goes with my head, and that I carry to you not only political support, but personal and devoted friendship. I can but regard it as somewhat remarkable that two men of the same age, entering Congress at the same time, influenced by the same aims and cherishing the same ambitions, should never, for a single moment in eighteen years of close intimacy, have had a misunderstanding or a coolness, and that our friend- ship has steadily grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength. LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 49 It is this fact which has led me to the conclusion embodied in this letter; for however much, my dear Garfield, I might admire you as a statesman, I would not enter your Cabinet if I did not believe in you as a man and love you as a friend. Always faithfully yours, James G. Blaine. MR. Blaine's foreign policy. Mr. Blaine's diplomatic career began with his appointment as Secretary of State on March 5, 1881, and ended with his resignation on December 19, three months after President Garfield's death. The two principal objects of his foreign policy, as defined by himself, were these : first, to bring about peace and prevent future wars in North and South America; and, secondly, to cultivate such friendly commercial relations with all American countries as would lead to a large increase in the export trade of the United States. It was a pacific policy, and was wholly in accord with the Monroe Doctrine and the characteristic traditions of Amer- ican diplomacy. President Garfield in his inaugural address had repeated the declaration of his predecessor that it was " the right and duty of the United States to assert and maintain such supervision and authority over any inter-oceanic canal across the isthmus that connects North and South America as will protect our national interests." This policy, which had received the direct approval of Congress, was D 50 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. vigorously upheld by Secretary Blaine. The Col- ombian Republic had proposed to the Europe/in powers to join in a guarantee of the neutrality of the proposed Panama Canal. One of President Garfield's first acts under the advice of Secretary Blaine was to remind the European governments of the exclusive rights which the United States had secured with the country to be traversed by the interoceanic waterway. These exclusive rights a'endered the prior guarantee of the United States government indispensable, and the Powers were in- formed that any foreign guarantee would be not only an unnecessary but unfriendly act.- As the United States had made in the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 a special agreement with Great Britain on this subject, Secretary Blaine supplemented his memo- randum to the Powers by a formal proposal for the abrogation of all provisions of that convention which were not in accord with the guarantees and privileges covenanted for in the compact with the Colombian Republic. In this State paper, the most elaborate of the series receivino; his signature as Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine contended that the operation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty prac- tically conceded to Great Britain the control of any canal which might be constructed in the isthmus, as that Power was required by its insular position and colonial possessions to maintain a naval es- tablishment with which the United States could not compete. As the American government had LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 51 bound itself by its engagements in the Clajton- Buhver Treaty not to fight in the isthmus, nor to fortify the mouths of any waterway that might be constructed, the Secretary argued that if any struggle for the control of the canal were to arise England would have an advantage at the outset which would prove decisive. " The treaty," he remarked, " commands this government not to use a single regiment of troops to protect its interests in connection with the interoceanic canal, but to sur- render the transit to the guardianship and control of the British Navy." The logic of this paper was un- answerable from an American point of view. If the Monroe Doctrine be anything more than a tra- dition, the control of the Panama Canal must not be allowed to pass out of American hands; and since the country having the most powerful navy is the real guardian of the freedom of an inter- oceanic canal under any system of international guarantees, or in the absence of treaty law, the Panama Canal, as Mr. Blaine said, under the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty would be surrendered, if not in form yet in effect, to the control of Great Britain. The war between Chili and Peru had virtually ended with the capture of Lima on January 17, 1881. Pierola, the President, had succeeded in rallying a few followers in the north, and Calderon, assuming the provisional Presidency, had convoked a Congress in the vicinity of Lima. The State 52 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. Department made strenuous exertions to bring about the conclusion of an early peace between Chili and the two prostrate States which had been crushed in war. The influence of the government was brought to bear upon victorious Chili in the interest of peace and magnanimity ; but owing to an unfortunate misapprehension of Mr. Blaine's instructions, the United States ministers did not promote the ends of peace. Special envoys were accordingly sent to South America, accredited to the three governments, with general instructions which should enable them to bring those belligerent Powers into friendly relations. These envoys were Mr. Trescot and Mr. Walker Blaine, and their mission was to perform a most delicate and important diplomatic duty in the interest of peace. After they had set out from New York Mr. Blaine resigned, and Mr. Frelinghuysen reversed the dip- lomatic policy with such precipitate haste that the envoys on arriving at their destination were in- formed by tlie Chilian Minister of Foreign Affairs that their instructions had been countermanded and that their mission was an idle farce. By this extraordinary reversal of diplomatic methods and purposes, the influence of the United States gov- ernment on the South American coast was reduced to so low a point as to become insignificant. Mr. Blaine's policy had been at once strong and pacific. It was followed by a period of no-policy which en- abled Chili to make a conqueror's terms with the LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 53 conquered, and to seize as much territory as pleased its rapacious generals. The most conspicuous act of Mr. Blaine's ad- ministration of the State Department was his invi- tation to the Peace Congress. This plan had been decided upon before the assassination of President Garfield. The proposition was to invite all the independent governments of North and South America to meet in a Peace Congress at Washing- ton on March 15, 1882. The representatives of all the minor governments on this continent were to agree, if possible, upon some comprehensive plan for averting war by means of arbitration, and for resisting the intrigues of European diplomacy. Invitations were sent on November 22, with the limitations and restrictions originally designed. Mr. Frelinghuysen lost no time in undermining this Diplomatic Congress, and the meeting never took place. It cannot be doubted that the pro- posed Congress would have had a most important effect, not only in promoting the ends of peace, but in stimulating American trade with the Spanish- American States. It was a brilliant conception — a most useful project. Mr. Blaine has described the Congress as " an important and impressive step on the part of the United States toward closer relationship with our continental neighbors. In no event could harm have resulted in the assembling of the Peace Con- gress. Failure was next to impossible. Success 54 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. might be regarded as certain. The subject to be discussed was peace, and how it can be permanently preserved in North and Soutli America. The Labors of the Congress would have probably ended in a well-digested system of arbitration, under which all troubles between American States could be quickly, effectually, and satisfactorily adjusted. Such a consummation would have been worth a great struggle and a great sacrifice. It could have been reached without any struggle, and would have involved no sacrifice. It was within our grasp. It was ours for the asking. It would have been a signal victory of philanthropy over the selfishness of human ambition; a complete triumph of Chris- tian principles as applied to the affairs of nations. It would have reflected enduring honor on our new country, and would have imparted a new spirit and a new brotherhood to all America. Nor would its influence beyond the sea have been small. The example of seventeen independent nations sol- emnly agreeing to abolish the arbitrament of the sword, and to settle every dispute by peaceful methods of adjudication, would have exerted an influence to the utmost confines of civilization, and upon the generations of men yet to come." HIS LOVE FOR GARFIELD. On the morning of Saturday, July 2, President Garfield was to start from Washington by the morning limited express for New York, en route \ LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 5t> for New England and a reunion with his old col- lege-mates at the Williams College Commencement. His Secretary of State accompanied him to the train, and has recorded the great, almost boyish, delight, with which the President anticipated his holiday — a state of mind in which, it may well be believed, Mr. Blaine joyously sympathized. They entered the waiting-room at the station, and a moment later Guiteau's revolver had done its work. The country still vividly remembers the devotion with which the head of the Cabinet watched at the President's bedside; the calm dignity with which, during those long weeks of suspense, he discharged the painful duties of his position ; the admirable precision of the bulletins which he issued to the press and through Minister Lowell to the foreign legations ; and the perfection of the replies which he dictated to official expressions of sympathy at home and abroad. On September 6 the President was removed from Washington to Elberon, whither he was fol- lowed the same day by Mr. Blaine and the rest of the Cabinet. The apparent improvement in the President's condition warranted the belief that he would continue to gain, and Mr. Blaine went for a short rest to his home in Augusta. He was on his way back to Elberon when the fatal moment came, and reached there the next morning. It is the universal testimony of press and people that, dur- ing the weary weeks which intervened between 56 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. the President's injury and death, Mr. Blaine's every action and constant demeanor were abso- lutely faultless. Selected by Congress to pronounce a formal eu- logy upon President Garfield, Mr. Blaine on Feb- ruary 19, 1882, before President Arthur and his Cabinet, both Houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, the foreign legations, and an audience of ladies and gentlemen which crowded the Hall of Representatives, delivered a most just, comprehen- sive, and admirable address upon the martyr's great career and character. The orator, with en- tire self-abnegation and reserve, but with a firm touch and in a style which rose at times to easy eloquence, assigned to President Garfield his true place in history. Blaine's eulogy will be found in another part of this work. BLAINE AS A HISTORIAN. In April last Mr. Bhiine presented to the public the first volume of his " Twenty Years of Con- gress," a work that is to cover, when completed, the period from Lincoln to Garfield, with a review of the events which led to the political revolution of 1860. This work is in fact a biography of the American people, everything — abstract questions and individuals — being subordinated in the effort to produce a clear and strong picture of the life of the nation. The thoughts of the people, as they varied from year to year, their times of indecision and darkness, of swift insight and heroic resolu^ LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 57 tion ; their days of timidity and weak compromis- ing with wrong, and their grand endurance and unflinching fidelity when the crisis at last brought duty clearly before them ; their singular sagacity in decisions of vital moment — all these are por- trayed in Mr. Blaine's narrative with clearness and power. The story he tells in his first volume is given with the simplicity and compactness of a trained journalist, and yet with sufficient fullness to make the picture distinct and clear in almost every detail. The arrangement of the first volume favors the compact and intelligent treatment of a many-sided subject. Chapters I. — VIII. review the main question from which grew the Civil War, and the political revolution of 1860. Many of the ques- tions with which Congress afterward had to deal could not have been treated wisely by lawgivers, nor intelligently by the historian, except in the light of the double conflict between the slave power and anti-slavery hostile political forces. By careful tracing of the causes which had made slavery what it was, and public opinion in regard to slavery what it was, the history of the war is rendered far more compact and clear. Closely al- lied with the main cause of war, the tariff ques- tion is reviewed in Chapter IX. Chapter X. opens with the election of 1860. Chapters XVIII. to XIX. are devoted to the financial history of the war, the levying of taxes, and the creation of legal' 58 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. tender notes. The admission of West Virginia is considered in Chapter XXL, and in the last chap- ter, XXIY., the relations between the United States and foreign Powers during the war. An appendix of forty-four pages embraces statistics of interest and value. OLD CHARGES REVIVED AND ANSWERED. Early in April, when Mr Blaine's acknowledged strength throughout the country had grown to large proportions, there appeared in The Evening Post, of New York, formal charges against him in connection with the land grant to the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad of Arkansas. These charges had been made and met eight years before, but their revival at a time when everything except the original misstatements had been forgotten by many people attracted some attention. The sub- stance of the charges — which are too recent to need extended reference here — was that Mr. Blaine had used his power as Speaker of the House to se- cure a renewal of the land grant to the railroad, and had been rewarded for his services by being made an agent for the selling of the bonds of the road, receiving as his commission a number of bonds. To these charges Mr. William Walter Phelps replied at length in a letter to The Post, which was printed in The Tribune of April 27. Mr. Phelps, having had a close personal knowledge of Mr. Blaine's business affairs for many ^ears, LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 59 was well fitted to reply to these old charges. In its comments upon Mr. Phelps' letter, The Tribune said : " Mr. Phelps arrays the facts with crushing force, as if the country had forgotten as completely as Mr. Blaine's defamers have ignored them. He not only states, upon the honor of a man of the highest standing, but proves, that the charges made are false. He proves that Mr. Blaine had not the slightest interest, present or prospective, in the Little Rock road at the time Congress acted on it ; that he then did not know the parties inter- ested, and that his friends came into the enterprise at a later date. He proves anew, as if it had not been proved before, that Mr. Blaine acquired an interest on precisely the same terms that were open to others. He proves that Mr. Blaine regarded him- self as the responsible owner, and not as a mere agent, because he honorably took back the bonds which he had sold. He proves that Mr. Blaine had no interest in the Northern Pacific, but only recommended it to a friend. He shows that there was no proof that the purchase of bonds by the Union Pacific was for Mr. Blaine's interest. But all this had been proved before, again and again." Mr. Phelps closed his letter by showing that Mr. Blaine was by no means possessed of the wealth his enemies asserted he had acquired during his public career. " I personally know," he said, " that he was never the possessor of the half of one million." GO LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. HIS DOMESTIC CIRCLE. Mr. Blaine is now in his jfifty-fifth year. Although above medium height, he is so compactly and powerfully built that he scarcely seems tall. His features are large and expressive ; he is slightly bald, and his neatly-trimmed beard is prematurely gray; his brows are lowering — his eyes keen. On the floor of Congress he manifested marvellous power and nerve. His voice is rich and melodious ; his delivery is fluent and vigorous; his gestures are full of grace and force ; his self-possession is never lost. He has appeared on the stump in al- most every Northern State, and is an exceedingly popular and effective campaign orator. His facul- ties have a keen edge ; his memory is remarkably retentive ; and his practical knowledge of men and affairs has a broad range. This comprehensive knowledge, broad rather than deep, is one of the secrets of his popularity. He knows men from one end of the country to the other, and he knows what they are thinking about. He has kept abreast with the average thought of his time — not above it or below it. HIS VIGOROUS MANHOOD. Mr. Blaine is now in the prime of a vigorous manhood. He is fifty-four years of age. His once shattered health is completely restored. His eyes are now as keen and clear as when he was an im- pulsive, mischievous boy, while his voice is as LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 61 ringing, deep, and strong as in his palmiest days as an orator. Retired from active politics now for over two years, he has gained by the change. In- stead of dropping into the obscurity where falls the average public man relegated to private life, he has held his own in the public mind as no states- man ever has before without the artificial aid of official position. Instead of resting in his privacy Mr. Blaine has, with the energy of genius, immed- iately discovered a new field to conquer. In the hard and untried path of literature he has accom- plished in the brief period of one year as brilliant a success as has ever fallen to his lot in active politics. His political history, the first volume of which is now completed, will do more to make his name memorable than all other acts of his public career. Relegated to private life through no fault of his own, through the calamity of Garfield's as- sassination, Mr. Blaine has shown such courage, such pluck in subduing the despair that would have overwhelmed an ordinary man, as to com- mend him to the faint-hearted forever as the very embodiment of courage which acknowledges no defeat. Think of what has been Mr. Blaine's loss. In the winter of 1876 he had taken a seat in the United States Senate, where he could have re- mained as long as he lived. He had been elected in the face of an accumulation of every charge that had ever been brought to bear against him. The G2 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. New York Times and Sun filled their wide columns with all the charges that had ever been brought against him. He was stigmatized as the worst and most venal of all public men. These papers were sent into Maine by the bale upon the eve of the Senatorial election. What was the result? The Maine Legislature carefully considered every charge, revised every story, and then elected Mr. Blaine unanimously. Stirred up to the depth of indignation at what they considered the malig- nity of these remorseless slanderers, the members of the Maine Legislature gave Mr. Blaine the seal of their unanimous approval. That should put an end forever to any discussion of Mr. Blaine's record. A man is never a prophet in his own country. It is there that his faults' are always magnified, and his virtues underestimated. If the members of the Maine Legislature could find nothing in all that was said at that time, when the record of the charges was fresh in the mind of every one, what point is there now in a wearisome rub-adub of dreadful things that can be brought up against Mr, Blaine if he should be nominated ? One would think that the men who are the most agitated about Mr. Blaine and his record were themselves recording angels sitting aloft, above every temptation of this earth. STRONGLY OPPOSED TO TRICKERY. Mr. Blaine certainly needs no defence from the LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 63 hands of any one. Everything that has been used against him is so much burned powder. But in order to arrive at a correct estimate of him one sliould take his entire life as a basis for judgment. No man is perfect. Mr. BLaine has undoubtedly made mistakes, and he has been severely punished. But there is no reason why the mistakes should be dwelt upon as the true indications of his character. He has shown him- self to be as independent in spirit as any great party leader could have been. It should be re- membered of him that he voted against the jug- gling Electoral Commission bill, which was de- manded by the rigid partisans of that day. Both Blaine and Conkling, two of the highest types of the Republicans of that period, opposed that bill. It was through Mr. Blaine's influence that the Force bill, a measure of his party, was defeated in the House. While he has been always loyal to his party when it was right, he has never hesitated to assert his independence when it claimed his allegiance in a course which he could not ap- prove. The best thing about Mr. Blaine — and it is one that should not be forgotten — is the fact that he is an American. He is a Republican in the best sense of the word. He is as much opposed to orthodox forms in politics for form's sake as Inger- soll is in religion. There is nothing for which he has so sincere a contempt as for affectation of any 64 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. kind. A great many people have said that his removal from the State Department was the onl}- thing which saved this country from becoming involved in a war. There is nothing in this talk. It is certain that if he had continued at the head of the department he would have caused the American Nation to be respected in foreign coun- tries. For a number of years the State Depart- ment has been dominated by toadies and tuft-hun- ters. The prime object of the State Department has been to see how mild and inoffensive it could be in the discussion of all international questions. According to Col. IngersoU, Blaine substituted the eagle for the owl in the management of the depart- ment. Mr. Blaine would not have involved this country in any war, for, notwithstanding his brill- iancy and dash, he is at heart as conservative as need be. People who are ready to assert them- selves rarely have quarrels. The schoolboy who is ready to fight at the first word rarely has that first word offered him. Mr. Blaine's idea of having a commercial union of all the nations upon this conti- nent merely began what is certain to be a part of the statesmanship of the future. This country is suffer- ing to-day from overproduction and the absence of foreign markets. The close union of the nations on this continent with reciprocity treaties between them as against the Old World would have given a powerful stimulus to our depressed trade. Mr. Blaine's American policy is so well thought of LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAIXE. 65 that it will be one of the great issues of the cam- paign. THE CHOICE OF THE PEOPLE. There never was in the history of any canvass for a Presidential nomination such an absence of personal effort upon the part of any candidate as; there has been upon the part of Mr. Blaine. It i* a fact that even his enemies here have to concede' that he is doing nothing and has done nothing to advance his own interests. One of the elements of weakness of his present position is said to be the? fact that he has with liini none of his old lieuten- ants. The reason for this is simple enough. He has never asked any of them to do anything. Senator Philetus Sawyer has said that he had vainly tried to get from Mr. Blaine one word of encouragement to go ahead and worlc for him. Mr. Sawyer was one of Blaine's most devoted friends. He has worked for him with muscle and money at the last two conventions and was more than ready to work for him this year, but he has never been able to get Mr. Blaine to say that he wanted him to do a thing. Senator Sawyer's ex- perience is that of all of Mr. Blaine's friends. Without encouraging one of them, he committed himself only in one way, and that was he did not disapprove of their works when they went ahead to advance his interest. He made a resolution early in the canvass not to lift his finger as a can- didate, nnd to this he rigidly adhered. E 66 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. In a conversation upon the general subject of the canvass Mr. Blaine said that he would pay $1,000 a line for any note that he had written this year to any one on the subject of politics- So, without personal effort, without official posi- tion, or without a single one of the advantages that ordinarily are possessed by leading candidates, Mr. Blaine's strength grew to such a phenomenal de2;ree as to astound even the most ardent be- lievers in him. He undoubtedly has a hold upon popular favor surpassing anything ever known in the history of modern politics. In the face of this strong, unsolicited, and unguided political move- ment it is absurd to talk about Mr. Blaine having doubtful ability as a candidate if nominated. A man wdiose mere name, unsupported by any organ- ization or machine, can conjure up such a popular support will, if nominated, make one of the most enthusiastic canvasses ever known in the history of the country. There is nothing negative about Mr. Blaine. You cannot remain neutral with him. You are either very much for him or very much against him. Even his enemies who fight him the hardest secretly admire his brilliant abilities. Mr. Blaine is himself a fighter who thrives and grows upon opposition. If he is nominated his individ- uality will pervade the canvass. He personally has more power to secure a devoted following than any oth^r member of the Republican party. In the very prime of his intellectual growth, with LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 67 strong, vigorous health, he has a magnetic power that is very great over every one with whom he comes in contact. Tliis magnetic power is the subject of many sneers. The enemies of Blaine deride the men who are fond of him by calling them victims of this personal magnetism. Analyze this personal magnetism and you will find it is nothing more than the fact of an unassuming intellectual superi- ority, a keen, trenchant common sense that com- mands admiration. Very few public men at short range fulfil the popular idea. They are apt to prove disappointing through the exhibition of some incomplete, undeveloped side. It is rare enough that a public man of prominence is a pleasant companion. Mr. Blaine is so many-sided as to be classed as a man of genius. He is an orator, a polished writer, a student of historj^, a wide reader of gen- eral literature, a successful financier, a thorough man of the world, a complete master of the art of pleasing in a social way. As a conversationalist Mr. Blaine has few equals. He has a keen appreciation of fun, and can tell a story with a wonderful simplicity. There is no dragging prelude, no verbose details preceding a stupid finale. The story is presented always dramatically, and fired almost as if from a gun when the point is reached. Mr. Blaine's abil- ity to entertain a private circle, as well as a public 68 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. audience, shows that he has great powers as an actor. Yet even in his private talk he does not fall into the habit of the average public man of making speeches or soliloquizing. He is quite willing to listen when any one has anything to say, and never appears more at his best than when he is taking part in a running fire of bright, sharp talk. The dinner-table in the Blaine house is the place where the gayest of good-natured chafif rules. From six to eight the dinner speeds under cover of running talk upon the incidents of the day. THE FAMILY CIRCLE. Mr. Blaine is very happy in his family. None of his children appear to regard him as more than a big brother. Unless called out by a dinner or some social gathering, Mr. Blaine is always at home. He belongs to no club, and keeps more to himself than a man of his social instincts might be expected to do. He does not even play the game of poker, which is so general an accomplish- ment with public men. He has nothing of the reputation of a Puritan, but in reality his private life is as irreproachable as the most rigid moralist could ask. He is one of the few men in public life whose name has never been coupled in the most indirect way with any intrigues with women. Out in society he is a gal- lant admirer of the fair sex, but there is yet to be LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 69 breathed against him the first word of scandal in this direction. He is a very temperate man at the table. He occasionally drinks a glass of wine, but he never joined the whisky-drinking ranks in either the House or the Senate. Nothing would make more of a sensation than his going into either of the Senate bar-rooms to sit down and drink whisky with the Senators, who think nothing of drinking at least a pint of whisky every day of their lives. ■* Yet one would not notice Mr. Blaine's temper- ance, as there is no assumption of especial virtue put on with it. He says nothing about it, and when asked to partake socially with his public associates he alwa3's managed to avoid indulgence without giving the idea that he has any special objection to the habit or any desire to criticise the habit in others. During the last year of his liter- ary work Mr. Blaine has lived with the greatest simplicity. He has retired early, so as to devote the forenoon of his days to work. He has per- sisted in following the most rigid system regarding his hours. He has not been visible to callers any day until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. From then on he has devoted himself to social talk, riding and driving, and light reading. Mr. Blaine has been ull his life, since his college- days, a student of American history. There is no man in public or private life to-day who is so thoroughly familiar with the growth and progress 70 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. of his own country as Mr. Blaine. His memory is a marvelous one. He retains without difficulty everj' thing that he reads, and rarely errs in his historical allusions. It is a matter of great pride with him that the first volume of his history has not as yet had any of its facts questioned. It is his idea that a man who w^rites history should have no other object than the honest recital of the facts connected with the period which he is seek- ing to describe. Where history is written with a certain object in view the history itself is too apt to be colored to be of value to the impartial student. Mr. Blaine thinks that the one fault of the brilliant and great Macaulay's History of England is that it was written with the object of sustaining the Whig party. He has tried in his work to have no object in view beyond giving an impartial record of the period covered by his history. It is for the public to decide how far he has succeeded. Originally he had an idea of writing his memoirs. This would have given an opportunity for a closer record of personal observation, and would have also given room for a lighter vein of treatment. With his strong descriptive powers, his excellent knowledge of men, and memory for even the gossips of his time, his memoirs would have possessed extraor- dinary interest. It is possible that Mr. Blaine may yet write such a work. With his restored health he promises to be a figure upon the Ameri- can stage for the next twenty years. LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 71 He has a great fund of personal anecdotes which he employs in the most apt way upon nearly every occasion. He tells his stories as if he enjoyed them himself, and they very often emphasize his mean- ing as no heavier argument could do. Summing up, one finds so much to admire in his varied information, his social culture, his power and individuality as a statesman in the true sense of the word, that one is constantly tempted in the direction of extravagant eulogy. If any man wishes to be Mr. Blaine's enemy he must keep away from him beyond the reach of his voice, and close his eyes and ears to anything but the ancient stories of his former enemies, many of whom are to-day his friends. Criticism of this brilliant and able American patriot should be left to those who know that they are better than he ; by men who have never made any mistakes ; by those who have always done right, and whose one regret in life is the sorrowful fact that the majority of men are not like unto them in goodness. It is particularly interesting to note how the friends of the Republican candidate are acquainted with his early history, and speak with the exact- ness of a conscientious biographer of his ancestry and religious progenitors. An old friend of the family writes as follows : " The BLaines were all staunch Presbyterians. Several were Calvinistic divines. Ephraim, however, fell in love with a lovely Miss Gillespie, of Celtic parentage. She 72 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. acknowledged the Roman obedience. This did not deter her from accepting the hand and name of a Blaine. Fine, sterling woman she was, as mothers of great men are wont to be. A few years since she and herdaughter, Mrs. Robert Walker, wife of a navy officer, died at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. Of three sons James was her favorite, and she prophesied fame for her boy. So do most mothers. Few live to see hopes thus satisfactorily realized. First to an Ohio school, then to Washington Presbyterian College — in the town where his father held office — young Blaine was sent. He studied assiduously, and in 1847 graduated with high honors first of thirty-three classmates. Like Webster and other great Americans, Blaine began his career by teaching. His school was at Georgetown, Ken- tucky, where, in 1853, he became acquainted with and married Miss Stanwood. The Stanwoods were men of prominence in New England, and Mr. Blaine exchanged a pedagogue's pursuits for those of a journalist. As the editor of The Kennebec Jour- nal he was associated with Mr. Stevens. They had the State printing. This proved insufficient for Mr. Blaine's support. In vain he struck for a $1200 salary. This prompted him to assume the editorship of The Portland Daily Advertiser. He soon returned to Augusta, and made it his home for twenty years. Journalism soon led him into politics. " Blaine was elected by the people member of the LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 73 Maine Legislature in 1858, and by his fellow- members in 1860 Speaker of the lower branch of that body. lie availed himself of that opportun- ity to perfect the knowledge of parliamentary law that enabled him later to direct with marked ability the proceedings of the House of Represent- atives. He was elected a member of Congress seven terms by the following majorities : 1862 3,422 1864 4,328 1866 6,591 1868 3,346 1870 2,320 1872 3,568 1874 2,830 " He was three times chosen Speaker of the National House of Representatives, serving in that capacity from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1875, He received the nomination for the Speakership in the Republican caucus each time by acclamation (an honor not enjoyed by any candidate for the Speakership before or since), and he never had a ruling reversed or overruled by the House during the six years he held that onerous and trying office. He was appointed Senator July 8, 1876, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Lot M. Morrill to become Secretary of the Treasury, and he was elected Senator, January 16, 1877, both for the long and short terms, by the unani- mous vote of the Republicans in the Maine Legis- lature, both in caucus and their respective Houses. He was made Secretary of Sta-te March 4, 1881, 74 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. by President Garfield, and held that office until December 12, 1881, when he was succeeded by F. T. Frelinghuysen. Mr. Blaine's public life began in January, 1858; it closed temporarily at the end of 1881, being a period of twenty-four years. It was continuous. He was promoted by the people from one place to another, and he never got he- fore the i^eojple that he teas not elected. His defeats have been confined to two National Conventions of his own party, in both of which he was the un- doubted choice of a majority of the delegates from the Republican States. The politicians have beaten him tw^ice, but the people never. "Mr. Blaine's present fortune is one that has been a subject of a great deal of gossip. It has been estimated by some romancers to be as high as $2,000,000. This is an enormous exaggeration. He is undoubtedly in easy circumstances, and has enjoyed for years a liberal income from his Pennsylvania coal properties. Mr. Blaine once said to a visitor that he was richer than any of the so-called millionaires of the day, because he had all that he wanted. He is not an avaricious man. He is not niggardly in his expenditures, neither is he lavish. He seems to have joined to the liberal and hospitable free-handedness of the West the conservative carefulness of the East. " His style of living at Washington has always been comfortable, never extravagant. " In his manners Mr, Blaine is essentially a LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 75 Democrat — I mean in the broad sense of the term. He never yet in any of the various periods of his career has shown any pride of place. He is sim- ple and unaffected. He harbors few, if any, re- sentments. The general public have supposed him to be a great enemy of Conkling's. This is not true. He would as willingly shake hands with Conkling to-morrow, if Conkling were to meet him half way, as he would with any of his former as- sociates. He has intense pride, and a most fiery temper when provoked, but when his rage explodes no slumbering resentment is left behind. He does not believe in the statesmanship of revenge. Upon this subject he said one day : ' Life is too short to lie in wait for personal retaliation for injuries re- ceived. If you can strike out a good, strong blow at the time, well and good. But the world moves too fast for one to waste his life in waiting for an opportunity to gratify mere personal revenge.' "If Mr. Blaine should happen to be nominated at Chicago a number of people will probably discuss his religious views. I do not think that Mr. Blaine himself gives the subject of religion any special thought. He is a regular attendant at the Presbyterian Church here. His entire family are of the same belief. His mother, however, was a Roman Catholic. Mr. Blaine himself is a cousin of Mrs. Gen. Sherman. It is his connection with the Ewing family which has brought up from time to time the charge that he was himself a Catholic. 76 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. It would not be possible to obtain from Mr. Blaine himself any public denial of such a charge. He does not believe that anyone has a right to introduce a religious test in political canvasses. I once heard him say : ' I have always been a member of the Presbyterian Church. I have never been a Cath- olic ; but I would not make any public statement that I was not a Catholic, because I would not be made to appear even in the slightest degree as reflecting upon the religion of my mother.' " In all the outcry that has been made against Mr. Blaine at various times by his political ene- mies no one has been able to show that he ever defrauded any one. He has never been at the head of any stock enterprise gotten up to SM^ndle investors. He has violated no trust funds, and has wrecked none of the properties with which he has been connected. " It is possibly because Mr. Blaine is known to be a most excellent business man that the public would expect from him better judgment and greater circumspection in business management than from the average public man. " Were I called upon," concludes this graphic writer, " to pick out an honest man — a man who would administer the affairs of this great country with an impartial hand — a man who feared neither prince nor potentate — a man who dared to do right no matter what his enemies said, I should above all others select James G. Blaine, of Maine." THE "PLUMED KNIGHT." HOW JAMES G. BLAINE ACQUIRED THE FAMOUS TITLE. In the Cincinnati Convention of 1876 Colonel Robert G. IngersoU nominated Mr. Blaine for the Presidency in an eloquent speech. In the course of it he spoke as follows : " Our country, crowned with the vast and mar- velous achievements of its first century, asks for a man worthy of the past and prophetic of her future ; asks for a man who has the audacity of genius [applause] ; asks for a man who is the grandest combination of heart, conscience and brain beneath the flag. [Applause.] That man is James G. Blaine. [Applause.] For the Re- publican host led by this intrepid man there can be no such thing as defeat. [Applause.] This is a grand year — a year filled with the recollection of the Revolution [applause] ; filled with proud and tender memories of the sacred past ; filled with the legends of liberty — a year in which the sons of freedom will drink from the fountain of enthusiasm [applause] ; a year in which the people call for a man who has preserved in Congress what our sol- diers won upon the field [cheers] ; a year in which we call for the man who has torn from the throat of treason the tongue of slander [applause] ; a man that has snatched the mask of Democracy from the hideous face of Rebellion ; a man who, like an intellectual athlete, stood in the arena of debate, (77) 78 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. challenged all comers, and who up to the present moment is a total stranger to defeat. [Applause.] Like an armed warrior, like a 'plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen forehead of every defamer of this country and maligner of its honor. For the Republican party to desert that gallant man now is as though an army should desert their general upon the field of battle. [Cheers.] James G. Blaine is now and has been for years the bearer of the sacred standard of the Republic. [Cheers.] I call it sacred, because no human being can stand beneath its folds without becoming and without remaining free. [Cheers.] " Gentlemen of the Convention, in the name of the Great Republic, the only Republic that ever existed upon this earth ; in the name of all her defenders and of all her supporters ; in the name of all her soldiers living; in the name of all her soldiers that have died upon the field of battle, and in the name of those that perished in the skeleton clutches of famine at Andersonville and Libby [cheers], whose suffering he so eloquently remem- bers, Illinois nominates for the next President of this country that prince of parliamentarians, that leader of leaders, James G. Blaine." [Loud and protracted cheers.] MR. BLAINE OFFICIALLY NOTIFIED OF HIS NOMINATION. A Pleasing Scene on the Lawn of his Homestead — Executing the Popular Will — The Nomination Tendered and Accepted— A Short Speech f.y the Plumed Knight Approving of the Principles An- nounced BY THE Convention. Augusta, June 21. — Nature had painted the hiwn with its loveliest tints. The weather was a little warm for comfort, but upon the grass plot, where the spreading branches of an old butternut tree cast a welcome shade, the heat was not op- pressive. The act was set in the open air to escape the oppression of crowded parlors, because this was an occasion when every one interested felt impelled to do and appear at his best. The change was a golden thought, and the fact that it was made upon the moment added a fresh interest to the neat scene that the players and spectators created as they dropped into their situations in the open air by accident. Mr. Blaine's house is not a large one, and was built just before he entered nation;. 1 politics. Its location and surroundings make up for any defects the unpretentious frame building may have. The Capitol building, in the midst of its ample grounds, sits on a hill just beyond, and almost casts its shadows over the now notable place. Before it a (79) 80 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. public grove stretches away to the Kennebec river, some half mile distant. THE committee's ARRIVAL. It was 11 o'clock to the minute when the com- mittee to officially notify Mr. Blaine of his nomi- nation for the Presidency appeared at his residence. The gateway was opened and so was the front door, and the body passed into the parlors. One by one they were presented by Chairman Hender- son to Mrs. Blaine, who had a kind word of greet- ing for all. Perhaps twenty minutes were spent in social talk between guests and members of the committee, Mr. Elkins mingling pleasantly in the throng. All this time Mr. Blaine was in his office awaiting the cessation of the pleasant courtesies and the summons for the final and formal cere- mony. It was soon given and the host appeared alone in the hall door and took the arm of General Henderson. " Shall it be here or out door?" said the leader. *'0n the lawn," replied several persons in the same breath. The candidate and the chairman passed out of the door, turned to the left upon the grass plot and stopped in the shadows which the largest tree in the front yard threw upon the green sward. The company followed, and, as if by magic, grouped about the two central figures of the gathering. They stood facing the front street, with the side- highway on their right. A little to the left of LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 81 Mr. Blaine grew a clump of cedars and to the right and farther in front the favorite shade tree, under which the committee gathered and whose shelter- ing arms turned aside the hot rajs of the sun from, all. THE FAMILY GROUP. The background to this interesting picture was^. perhaps, its chief charm. It was full of bright colors, reflected by the blooming and tasteful toilets of the ladies and children, who had so quickly arranged themselves in a choice position to make the scene complete and witness the unusual proceed- ings. Behind Mr. Blaine stood Walker, the eldest son, holding a roll of manuscript. A little f\irther along was James G. Blaine, Jr., the youngest boy, perhaps sixteen years old, and close to him his sister Maggie, a young woman of fine promise. Near her was Gail Hamilton, standing side by side with Mrs. S. B. Elkins. The latter is the daughter of Henry G. Davis, ex-United States Senator from West Virginia, now President of the railroad in, that State in which the Republican Presidential! candidate is interested. Davis is a Democrat, but he and Elkins helped- to make Blaine strong in the ^' Mountain State.!' Behind the two ladies were J. H. Manley and his- wife, and Colonel H. S. Osgood and wife, insepar^ able and faithful friends of the Plumed Knight. Near them, holding a playmate by the hand, was the youngest of the Blaine household — Hattie, a 82 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. bright little girl of some ten years of age. Just beyond, and nearest to the committee, but only a few feet from her husband, stood Mrs. Blaine, with Mr. Elkins by her side. She looked as if all in- tent upon what was going on. It took but a moment to get these characters all in place, but quickly as it was done it could not have been better done if the situations had been all re- hearsed in advance. It is, indeed, a pity that the camera of an artist was not laid upon this curious blending of house, sky, shrubbery and people. It should have been preserved. The movement from the house to the yard had been so easily accom- plished that only a few, even of the passers-by, had been attracted by it. Before the addresses were over, however, a few strangers and neighbors ranged themselves outside the palings and looked intently upon this significant political scene. MR. Henderson's address. Chairman Henderson lost no time in performing ihis task after the group was complete. He threw his eyes about a second, then drew out his manu- script, and, addressing Mr. Blaine, said : " Mr. Blaine, your nomination for the office of •the President of the United States by the National Republican Convention, recently assembled at Chicago, is already known to you. The gentle- men before you, constituting the committee com- posed of one member from each State and Terri- itory of tthe country and one from the District of LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 83 Columbia, now come as the accredited organ of that Convention to give you formal notice of your nomination and to request }our acceptance thereof. " It is, of course, known to you that beside your own, several other names among the most honored in the councils of the Republican party were pre- sented by their friends as candidates for this nomi- nation. Between your friends and friends of gen- tlemen so justly entitled to the respect and confi- dence of their political associates the contest was one of generous rivalry, free from any taint of bitterness and equally free from the reproach of injustice. At an early stage of the proceedings of the Convention it became manifest tha-t the Re- publican States whose aid must be invoked at last to insure success to the ticket earnestly desired your nomination. It was equally manifest that the desire so earnestly expressed by delegates from those States was but a truthful reflection of an irresistible popular demand.. It was not thought nor pretended that the demand had origin in any ambitious desires of your own, or any organized work of your friends, but it was recognized to be, what it truthfully is, a spontaneous expression by free people of love and admiration of a chosen leader. " No nomination would have given satisfaction to every member of the party. This is not to be expected in a country so extended in area and so varied in interests. The nomination of Mr. Lin- coln in 1860 disappointed so many hopes and over- threw so many cherished ambitions that for a short time disaffection threatened to ripen in open re- volt. In 1872 the discontent was so pronounced as to impel large masses of the party to organized 84 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. opposition to its nominees. For many weeks aftei the nomination of General Garfield in 1880, defeat seemed almost inevitable. In each case the shock of disappointment was followed by the sober second thought. Individual preferences gradually yielded to convictions of public duty. The prompt- ings of patriotism finally arose superior to the irritations and animosities of the hour. " The party in every trial has grown stronger in the face of threatened danger. In tendering you the nomination it gives us pleasure to remem- ber that those great measures which furnished causes for party congratulations by the late Con- vention at Chicago and which are now crystalized into the legislation of the country — measures which have strengthened and dignified the nation, while they have elevated and advanced the people — at all times and on all proper occasions received your earnest and valuable support. It was your good fortune to aid in protecting the nation against the assaults of armed treasons. You were present and helped to unloose the shackles of the slave, you assisted in placing new guarantees of freedom in the Federal Constitution, your voice was potent in preserving national faith when false theories of finance would have blasted national and individual prosperity. We kindly remember you as the fast friend of honest money and commercial integrity. " In all that pertains to security and repose of capital, dignity of labor, manhood, elevation and freedom of the people, the right of the oppressed to demand and the duty of the Government to afibrd protection, your public acts have received the unqualified endorsement of popular approval. But we are not unmindful of the fact that parties, LIFE OF HON. JAMES G, BLAINE. 85 like individuals, cannot live entirely on the past, however splendid the record. The present is ever charged with its immediate cares, and the future presses on with its new duties, its perplexing re- sponsibilities. Parties, like individuals however, that are free from stain of violated faith in the past, are fairly entitled to the presumption of sin- cerity in their promises for the future. "Among the promises made by the party in its late Convention at Chicago are economy and purity of administration ; protection of the citizens, native and naturalized, at home and abroad ; prompt restoration of the navy ; wise reduction of the surplus revenue; the relieving of the taxpayers without injuring the laborer; the preservation of the public lands for actual settlers; that all import duties, when necessary at all, be levied not for revenue only, but for the double purpose of revenue and protection ; the regulation of international commerce, the settlement of international dilTcr- ences by peaceful arbitration, but coupled with the reassertion and maintenance of the Monroe doctrine as interpreted by the fathers of the Republic; perseverance in the good work of civil service reform to the end that the dan2;ers to free institu- tions which lurk in the power of official patron- age may be wisely and effectually avoided; an honest currency, based on coin of intrinsic value, adding strength to the public credit and giving renewed vitality to every branch of American in- dustry. " Mr. Blaine, during the last twenty-three ^^ears the RepubUcan party has builded a new republic, a republic far more splendid than that originally designed by our fathers. Its proportions, already 86 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. grand, may yet be enlarged, its foundations may yet be strengthened and its columns be adorned with beauty more resplendent still. To you, as its architect in chief, will soon be assigned this grateful work. MR. BLAINE'S reply. Mr. Blaine never looked better than when lis- tening to these remarks, except when he replied to them. During the delivery he stood erect with his arms folded. His countenance was clear, his eye bright, his posture superb, and he seemed the picture of health. Now and then he would throw a glance over the committee in front of him, as if searching for a familiar face, but this seemed to be done to rest the eye from looking constantly at one object, for there was no sign of recognition upon his strongly marked features. He was in strikinci: contrast to the man who was deliverins; to him the commission of party leader voted by the Convention. Mr. Henderson looked thinner and taller than ever by the side of the perfect figure of the man who waited upon his words. He seemed to grow as he read. When he had finished, Mr. Blaine turned about and took from his son's hand the roll of paper upon which was written his reply, and said: " Mr. Chairman and Gentleman of the National Committee — I receive, not without deep sensibility, LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 87 your official notice of the action of the National Convention already brought to my knowledge through the public press. I appreciate more pro- foundly than I can express the honor which is implied in the nomination for the Presidency by the Republican party of the nation, speaking through the authoritative voice of duly accredited delegates. To be selected as a candidate by such an assemblage from a list of eminent statesmen, whose names w^ere presented, fills me with embar- rassment. I can only express my gratitude for so signal an honor and my desire to prove worthy of the great trust reposed in me. " In accepting the nomination, as T now do, I am impressed — I am also oppressed — with a sense of the labor and responsibility which attach to my position. The burden is lightened, however, by the host of earnest men who support my candidacy, many of whom add, as does your honorable com- mittee, cheer of personal friendship to pledge of political fealty. A more formal acceptance will naturally be expected, and will, in due season, be communicated. It may, however, not be inappro- priate at this time to say I have already made a careful study of the principles announced by the National Convention, and that, in wdiole and in detail, they have my heartiest sympathy and meet my unqualified approval. "Apart from your official errand, gentlemen, I am extremely happy to welcome you all to my house. With many of you I have already shared duties of public service and have enjoyed most cordial friendship. I trust 3^our journey from all parts of the great republic has been agreeable, and that during your stay in Maine you will feel you 88 LIFE OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. are not among strangers, but with friends. Invok- ing blessings of God upon the great cause which we jointly represent, let us turn to the future with- out fear and with manly hearts. now THE LEADER APPEARED. At times during the delivery of these remarks Mr. Blaine seemed to warm, as he often has done, with the fire of debate. He certainly was never happier or more impressive, even during his eulogy on Garfield. His attitude and the emphasis he often put upon the words spoken to-day were re- marked by every one present, and the tension of close attention to his manners and speech was so marked that there was an instinctive murmur of relief when the last word was lost upon the wings of the whispering wind. Then friends gathered about and the warmth of the greeting almost brought tears to his eyes. He quickly mingled with the crowd, shaking hands right and left. It was picturesque and dramatic by turns. The reception on the lawn lasted nearly half an hour, when all bid the candidate and his family good- bye. There were three cheers for the next Presi- dent and three for the next lady of the White House, and the ceremony was over. EULOGY OF JAMES A. GARFIELD, By JAMES G. BLAINE, DELIVERED BEFORE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTA TIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 27, 1S82. On the twenty-seventh day of February, 1882, an eulogy was delivered before both Houses of Congress, by the Hon. James G. Blaine, Secretary of State during the administration of Mr. Garfield, on the murdered President. The scene at the Capitol was a very impressive one, and will linger long in the memory of those who witnessed it. The bright morn- ing sunshine brought forth thousands, who flocked Capitolward long before the hour announced for the opening of the doors. There were a number of Con- gressmen early on the ground, actively engaged in plac- ing their ladies and other friends. At half-past 10 the galleries were literally packed, and those who came afterwards had to be content with occasional unsatis- factory glimpses through the open doors. It appeared that the seating capacity had been greatly over-esti- mated. Notwithstanding the reiterated announcements of the press that none without tickets would be ad- mitted to the Capitol buildings, there were hundreds there merely to be turned away. The scene within was inspiriting, yet of a sombre tinge. Four-fifths of the immense audience were ladies and these were mostly dressed in black or sober colors. Only here and there a flower on a bonnet, a single ribbon or bow at a feminine throat made an obtrusive show of color. This universal black made the thou- sands of white faces stand out in bold relief with an efiect which was startling. The array of fur-lined circulars and other wraps that were hung over the cornice and dangled in front, contrary to the rules of (89) 90 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. the House, made a ludicrous picture. In the Diplo- matic gallery, clad in purple and black velvets and other rich but sober fabrics, was a distinguished assem- blage of ladies. The Countess Lewenhaupt, wife of the Swedish Minister; Mrs. and Miss Preston, wife and daughter of the Haytian Minister; Viscountess Das Nogueiros, wife of the Minister from Portugal; Senora Don Francisco Barca, Spain; Senor Dom Simon Camacho, Venezuela, and others, were specially notable. In the President's gallery sat Mrs. Blaine, the wife of the distinguished orator of the day and the cynosure of all eyes. She had scarcely got seated when a page entered and presented her with a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Mrs. Blaine was attired in rich blacl<^ velvet and circular lined with leopard skin, which was allowed to fall ov^er the gallery rail. She was accompanied by Mrs. Matthews and Miss Dodge and Mrs. Justice Field. Mrs. David Dudley Field, Mrs. Bradley, Mrs. Brewster, Mrs. Frelinghuysen and Mrs. G. W. Curtis were near her. While these s-alleries were being; filled the Marine Band, stationed in the lobby back of the Speaker's desk, poured forth the sweetest airs, the partial con- cealment giving the music the charm of coming from some vast music box. On the floor about half the members of the House had gathered by eleven o'clock. Most of them ap- peared to be contemplating the great painting of Gar- field that hung above the Speaker's chair, while the rest ogled the ladies in the galleries and joined in con- versation. A loud buzz of subdued voices from two or three thousand persons filled the chamber. Three figures occupied conspicuous places on the front seats and these were the venerable figure of Washington's great man, W. W. Corcoran, the lean figure of Cyrus W. Field and the shrivelled-up figure of the historian, George Bancroft. They came in early and sat there Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 91 alone. Immediately back of them, on both sides the main aisle, the desks had been removed and the vacant chairs awaited the arrival of the Senators and other dignitaries. The General of the Army came in first by the main door and he and stubby Phil Sheridan made a funny pair to come down the aisle together. They were followed by the princely General Hancock, "The Superb," and Generals Howard and Meigs. All were in full uniform. They attracted a storm of eyes and were made the immediate focus of a thousand opera-ghasses. Not very long, how^ever, for that body which always claims priority in attractiveness very soon entered from the Speaker's lobby. The full diplomatic corps, in all its royal splendor of gold lace and its courtly decorations, filed in and took the second row of seats in the semicircle. The foreign gentlemen always form a picturesque group, but never so much as when clustered together among thousands of people in solemn conventional black. The red fez and gold em- broidery of the Turks were in curious contrast with the loose, plain purple robes of the Chinese. The representatives of the Japanese Government appeared in American full dress, swallow-tails, white ties and gloves, like the ordinary American gentleman and ordinary American waiter. The members of the Diplo- matic Corps wore the regulation costumes of their respective countries and were marshaled by Mr, Allen, the Hawaiian Minister, who is now known as the dean since the departure of Sir Edward Thornton. While everybody was picking out the prettiest uniform in came Doctor Bliss, walking down the main aisle alone, his presence recalling the painful cause of this august gathering. The doctor seemed conscious of the general curiosity and hastily passed down and slipped into a side seat just back of the Diplomatic Corps. Shortly afterward Judge Cox, Judge Hagner, Judge Wiley and 92 blaine's eulogy of garfield. Marshal Henry came in and sat near him. Before in- terest had ceased in these reminders of Garfield and his assassin Admiral Porter and Rear Admirals Rogers and Worden were escorted to corresponding seats on the opposite side, sitting immediately behind the great generals. They were also resplendent in the showy uniform of the American navy that is to be. When the House was called to order at noon the seats set aside for the Senate, Cabinet and others were still vacant, though every other seat was occupied, and the space outside the rail was crowded with ex-Con- gressmen and the lesser dignitaries. The House Clerk, however, had scarcely read the resolutions which ap- pointed the occasion before the Senate was announced. President Davis waddled upon the stand and reached out for the gavel in his business-like way, the House remaining standing until the Senators were seated. The Supreme Court, in full black robes, quickly fol- lowed the Senate, and then the President and his Cabinet were announced. The President came in leaning on the arm of Senator Sherman,, who was, with McKinley, of the House, acting for the joint committee. The announcement of the President of the United States was greeted by general applause. He was seated at the corner of the aisle on the first row of seats to the Speaker's right and next to Cyrus W. Field. Arthur didn't seem to know just what to do with his hat for half a second. Field offered to take it, but the President finally found relief in placing it under his seat. Frelinghuysen sat opposite the President across the aisle, next him Secretary Folger, who sat bolt upright in his straight-backed chair, and next sat Secretary Robert Lincoln, who rested on the small of his back in a very ungraceful but comfortable way, while beyond Lincoln were Attorney-General Brewster, Hunt, Postmaster-General Howe and Secre- Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 93 tary Kirkwood, The President wore a Prince Albert coat, with a low-cut rolling collar, a high vest, showing only his black scarf, surmounted by a blacli pin. His gloves were black, undressed kid and his shoes were topped by black cloth gaiters. Attorney-General Brewster wore a bright blue scarf and carried a crush hat. Secretary Kirkwood also carried a crush hat, known in Iowa as, a slouch, the only slouch visible in the Cabinet. Soon after the President was seated and last of all came James G. Blaine, the orator of the day. The announcement of his name was followed by a storm of applause which, by the side of that which greeted the President, seemed like a whirlwind of enthusiasm. Blaine came down the aisle escorted on either side by Senator Sherman and Representative McKinley. He was followed by William E. Chandler, Emmons Blaine and the ex-Premier's private secretary, who bore in his right hand a huge white envelope containing the great address. Mr. Blaine advanced to the rostrum, where he was warmly greeted by Vice-President Davis, and then took his seat at the middle of the Clerk's desk. On the left of th^ orator sat Representative McKinley and Clerk McPherson, representing the authority and dignity of the House of Representatives. On the right sat Senator Sherman and Secretary Shober, represent- ing the authority and dignity of the Senate. On the desk in front of the orator was a glass of water, on his left a silver pitcher and a brace of gold-lined goblets The address was preceded by a brief prayer from Chaplain Power, nearly everybody on the floor rising to their feet and this example being followed to some extent in the galleries. When Mr. Blaine began, the vast assemblage was almost deathly quiet, for the speaker's voice was low and not very clear. As he got warmed up, however, in reciting the military and civic 94 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. honors of his late beloved chief his voice came out, round and full, with its old power. The attention of the audience was captured at the start. Nobody got up, nobody wearied, nobody did aught but listen to catch the orator's every word. When Mr. Blaine reached that portion of his speech in which he alluded to the causes which led to the shootinsr of Garfield there was a visible strainins: to catch the full import of his words. It was a very delicate subject and the orator, with rare tact and judgment, trod daintily on the ground. It was notice- able that at this point the President leaned slightly forward, shifted his feet about and fumbled his watch- chain and his glasses in an abstracted wn.y, fully bound up in his intentness on the language of the orator. The intensity of feeling in the entire audience was un- consciously illustrated in the Ions; breath of relief that swept over the human sea w^hen Mr. Blaine turned from the subject to treat of the religious character of the illustrious deceased. Every one straightened up and looked at his neighbor, as much as to say: "Well, I'm glad that is over." At the close, instead of the brilliant rhetoric of the plumed knight, as nearly everybody had anticipated, there was the simplest and most touching appeal for human sympathy for the poor sufferer by the sea. The speaker's eyes were suffused with tears as he recited the simple story. In fact he almost broke down. The sympathetic eyes of President Arthur filled, his mouth twitched, and he thought it not un- manly to dash away a tear with a sweep of his hand. There were a good many other eyes wet in that vast audience and many women in the galleries sobbed outright. When the final sentence was spoken and the orator sat down, round after round of applause burst forth. Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 95 THE EULOaY IN FULL. Ex-Secretary Blaine's Eloquent and Dignified Tribute to the Memory of hia Dead Chief. Mr. President: For the second time in this genera- tion the great departments of the Government of the United States are assembled in the Hall of Represent- atives to do honor to the memory of a murdered President. Lincoln fell at the close of a mighty strug- gle in which the passions of men had been deeply stirred. The tragical termination of his great life added but another to the lengthened succession of horrors which had marked so many lintels with the blood of the first born. Garfield was slain in a day of peace, when brother had been reconciled to brother and when an2:er and hate had been banished from the land. "Whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it as it has been exhibited where such example was last to have been looked for, let him not give it the grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by revenge, the face black with settled hate. Let him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; not so much an example of human nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms of crime as an infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary display and development of his character." From the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth till the uprising against Charles First about twenty thou- sand emigrants came from old England to New Eng- land. As they came in pursuit of intellectual freedom and ecclesiastical independence rather than for worldly honor and profit, the emigration naturally ceased when the contest for religious liberty began in earnest at home. The man who struck his most effective blow for freedom of conscience by sailing for the Colonies in 1620 would have been accounted a deserter to leave 96 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. after 1640. The opportunity had then come on the soil of En2;land for that lirreat contest which established the authority of Parliament, gave religious freedom to the people, sent Charles to the block and committed to the hands of Oliver Cromwell the supreme executive authority of England, The English emigration was never renewed, and from these twenty thousand men, with a small emigration from Scotland and from France, are descended the vast numbers who have New England blood in their veins. In 1685 the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis Xiy. scattered to other countries four hundred thousand Protestants, who were among the most in- telligent and enterprising of French subjects — mer- chants of capital, skilled manufacturers and handi- craftsmen, superior at the time to all others in Europe. A considerable number of these Huguenot French came to America ; a few landed in New Eng- land and became honorably prominent in its history. Their names have in large part become anglicized or have disappeared, but their blood is traceable in many of the most reputable families, and their ftime is perpetuated in honorable memorials and useful institutions. From these two sources, the English Puritan and the French Huguenot, came the late President — his father, Abram Garfield, being descended from the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballou, from the other. It was good stock on both sides — none better, none braver, none truer. There was in it an inheritance of courage, of manliness, of imperishable love of liberty, of undying adherence to principle. Garfield was proud of his blood ; and, with as nmch satisfaction as if he were a British nobleman reading his stately ancestral record in Burke's Peerage, he spoke of him- self as ninth in descent from those who would not Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 97 endure tlie oppression of the Stuarts and seventh in descent from the brave French Protestants who refused to submit to tyranny even from the Grand Monarque. General Garfield delighted to dwell on these traits, and during his only visit to England he busied him- self in discovering every trace of his forefathers in parish registries and on ancient army rolls. Sitting with a friend in the gallery of the House of Commons one night after a long day's labor in this field of research, he said, with evident elation, that in every war in which for three centuries patriots of English blood had struck sturdy blows for constitutional government and human liberty his family had been represented. They were at Marstoii Moor, at Naseby and at Preston ; they were at Bunker Hill, at Saratoga and at Monmouth, and in his own person had battled for the same great cause in the war which preserved the Union of the States. Losing his father before he was two years old, the early life of Garfield was one of privation, but its poverty has been made indelicately and unjustly prom- inent. Thousands of readers have imagined him as the ragged, starving child whose reality too often greets the eye in the squalid sections of our large cities. General Garfield's infancy and youth had none of their destitution, none of their pitiful features appeal- ing to the tender heart and to the open hand of charity. He was a poor boy in the same sense in which Henry Clay was a. poor boy ; in which Andrew Jackson was a poor boy ; in which Daniel Webster was a poor boy ; in the sense in which a large majority of the eminent men of America in all generations have been poor boys. Before a great multitude of men, in a public speech, Mr. Webster bore this testimony : " It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log G 98 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. cabin raised amid the snow drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke rose first from its rude chimney and curled over tiie frozen hills there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist, I make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it to teach them the hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with all I know of this primitive family abode." With the requisite change of scene the same words would aptly portray the early days of Garfield. The poverty of the frontier, wdiere all are engaged in a common struggle and where a common sympathy and hearty co-operation lighten the burdens of each, is a very different poverty — different in kind, different in influence and effect — from that conscious and humili- ating indigence which is every day forced to contrast itself with neighboring wealth, on which it feels a sense of grinding dependence. The poverty of the frontier is indeed no poverty. It is but the beginning of wealth, and has the boundless possibilities of the future always opening before it. No man ever grew up in the agricultural regions of the West, where a house-raising, or even a corn-husking, is a matter of -common interest and helpfulness, with any other feel- ing than that of broad-minded, generous independence. This honorable independence marked the youth of Garfield as it marks the youth of millions of the best blood and brain now training for the future citizenship and future government of the Republic. Garfield was born heir to land, to the title of freeholder which has been the patent and passport of self-respect with the Anglo-Saxon race ever since Hengist and Horsa landed Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 99 on the shores of England. His adventure on the canal — an alternative between that and the deck of a Lake Erie schooner — was a farmer boy's device for earning money, just as the New England lad begins a possibly great career by sailing before the mast on a coasting vessel or on a merchantman bound to the farther India or to the China Seas. No manly man feels anything of shame in looking back to early struggles with adverse circumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than when he has conquered the obstacles to his progress. But no one of noble mould desires to be looked upon as having occupied a menial position, as having been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, or as having suffered the evils of poverty until relief was found at the hand of charity. General Garfield's youth presented no hard- ships which family love and family energy did not overcome, subjected him to no privations which he did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those which were recalled with delight and transmitted with profit and with pride. Garfield's early opportunities for securing an educa- tion were extremely limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to learn. He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the advantage of the district school. He read all the books to be found within the circle of his acquaintance; some of them he got by heart. While yet in child- hood he was a constant student of the Bible and be came familiar with its literature. The dignity and earnestness of his speech in his maturer life gave evi- dence of this early training. At eighteen years of age he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent all his efforts, working in the harvest field, at the carpenter's bench^ and, in the winter season, 100 Elaine's eulogy of gaufield. teaching the common schools of the neighborhood. While thus laboriously occupied he found time to prosecute his studies, and was so successful that at twenty-two j^ears of age he was able to enter the junior class tit Williams College, then under the presidency of the venerable and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the fullness of his powers, survives the eminent pupil lo whom he was of inestimable service. The history of Garfield's life to this period presents no novel features. He had undoubtedly shown perse- verance, self-reliance, self-sacrifice and ambition — qualities which, be it said for the honor of our country, are everywhere to be found among the young men of America. But from his graduation at Williams onward to the hour of his tragical death Garfield's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly working through his educational period, receiving his diploma when twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively president of a college. State Senator of Ohio, Major General in the Army of the United States and Representative-elect to the National Congress. A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so brief and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history of the country. Garfield's army life was begun with no other military knowledge than such as he had hastily gained from books in the few months preceding his march to the held. Stepping from civil life to the head of a regi- ment, the first order he received when ready to cross the Ohio was to assume command of a brigade and to operate as an independent force in Eastern Kentucky. His immediate duty was to check the advance of Humphrey Marshall, who was marching down the Big !pandy with the intention of occupying in conDection Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 101 with other Confederate forces the entire territory of Kentucky and of precipitating the State into secession. This was at the close of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a young college professor been thrown into a more embarrassing and discouraging position. He knew just enough of military science, as he expressed it himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, and with a handful of men he was marching in rough win- ter weather into a strange country among a hostile population to confront a largely superior force under the command of a distinguished graduate of West Point, who had seen active and important service in two preceding wars. The result of the campaign is matter of history. The skill, the endurance, the extraordinary energy shown by Garfield, the courage he imparted to his men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he adopted to increase his force and to create in the enemy's mind exaggerated estimates of his numbers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his force and the eman- cipation of an important territory from the control of the rebellion. Coming at the close of a long series of disasters to the Union arms, Garfield's victory had an unusual and extraneous importance and in the popular judgment elevated the young commander to the rank of a military hero. With less than two thousand men in his entire command, with a mobilized force of only eleven hundred, without cannon, he had met an army of five thousand and defeated them — driving Marshall's forces successively from two strongholds of their own selection, fortified with abundant artillery. Major General Buell, commanding the Department of the Ohio, an experienced and able soldier of the regular army, published an order of thanks and congratulation on the brilliant result of the Big Sandy campaign, 102 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. which would have turned trie head of a less cool and sensible man than Garfield. Buell declared that his services had called into action the highest qualities of a soldier, and President Lincoln supplemented these words of praise by the more substantial leward of a brigadier general's commission, to bear date from the day of his decisive victory over Marshall. The subsequent military career of Garfield fully sus- tained its brilliant beginning. With his new commis- sion he was assigned to the command of a brigade in the Army of the Ohio, and took part in the second and decisive day's fight in the great battle of Shiloh. The remainder of the year 1862 was not especially eventful to Garfield, as it was not to the armies with which he was serving. His practical sense was called into exer- cise in completing the task, assigned him by General Buell, of reconstructing bridges and re-establishing lines of railway communication for the army. His occupation in this useful but not brilliant field was varied by service on courts-martial of importance, in which department of duty he won a valuable reputa- tion, attracting the notice and securing the approval of the able and eminent Judge Advocate General of the Army. That of itself was warrant to honorable fame; for among the great men who in those trying days gave themselves, with entire devotion, to the ser- vice of their country, one who brought to that service the ripest learning, the most fervid eloquence, the most varied attainments, who labored with modesty and shunned applause, who in the day of triumph sat re- served and silent and grateful — as Francis Deak in the hour of Hungary's deliverance — was Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who in his honorable retirement enjoys the respect and veneration of all who love the Union of the States. Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to the highly Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 103 important and responsible post of chief of staff to General Rosecrans, then at the head of the Army of the Cumberhmd. Perhaps in a great military cam- paign no subordinate officer requires sounder judgment and quicker knowledge of men than the chief of staff to the commanding general. An indiscreet man in such a position can sow more discord, breed more jealousy and disseminate more strife than any other officer in the entire organization. When General Gar- field assumed his new duties he found various troubles already well developed and seriously affecting the value and efficiency of tiie Army of the Cumberland. The energy, the impartiality and the tact with which he sought to allay these dissensions and to discharge the duties of his new and trying position will always re- main one of the most striking proofs of his great ver- satility. His military duties closed on the memorable field of Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous to the Union arms, gave to him the occasion of winning imperishable laurels. The very rare distinction was accorded him of a great promotion for his bravery on afield that was lost. President Lincoln appointed him a major-general in the army of the United States for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Chicka- mauga. The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized under the command of General Thomas, who promptly of- fered Garfield one of its divisions. He was extremely desirous to accept the position, but was embarrassed by the fiict that he had a year before been elected to Con- gress and the time when he must take his seat was drawing near. He preferred to remain in the military service and had within his own breast the largest con- fidence of success in the wider field which his new rank opened to him. Balancing the arguments on the uue side and the other, anxious to determine what was 104 Blaine's eulcgy of garfield. for the best, desirous above all things to do his patriotic duty, he was decisively influenced by the advice of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom assured him that he could at that time be of especial value in the House of Representatives. He resigned his commission of major-general on the 5th day of December, 18G3, and took his seat in the House of Representatives on the 7th. He had served two years and four months in the army and had just completed his thirty-second year. The Thirtv-eio'hth Congress is pre-eminentlv entitled in history to the designation of the War Congress. It was elected while the war was flagrant and every member was chosen upon the issues involved in the continuance of the struggle. The Thirty-seventh Con- gress had, indeed, legislated to a large extent on war measures, but it was chosen before any one believed that secession of the States would be actually at- tempted. The magnitude of tlie work which fell upon its successor was unprecedented, both in respect to the vast sums of money raised for the support of the army and navy, and of the new and extraordinary powers of legislation which it was forced to exercise. Only twenty-four States were represented, and one hundred and eighty-two members were upon its roll. Among these were many distuiguished party leaders on both sides, veterans in the public service, with established reputations for ability and with that skill which comes only from parliamentary experience. Into this as- semblage of men Garfield entered without special prep- aration, and it might almost be said unexpectedly. The question of taking connnand of a division of troops un- der General Thomas or taking his seat in Congress was kept open till the last moment — so late, indeed, that the resignation of his military commission and his appear- ance in the House were almost contemporaneous. He BLAIJS^e's eulogy of GARFIELD. 105' wore the uniform of a major-general of the United States Arm}' on Saturday, and on Monday, in civilian's dress, he answered to the roll-call as a Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio, He was especially fortunate in the constituency which elected him. Descended almost entirely from New England stock, the men of the Ashtabula district were intensely radical on all questions relating to human rights. Well educated, thrifty, thoroughly intelligent in affliirs, acutely discerning of character, not quick to bestow confidence and slow to withdraw it, they were at once the most helpful and most exacting of sup- porters. Their tenacious trust in men in whom they have once confided is illustrated by the unparalleled fact that Elisha Whittlesey, Joshua R. Giddmgs and James A. Garfield represented the district for fifty-four years. There is no test of a man's ability in any depart- ment of public life more severe than service in the House of Representatives; there is no place where so little deference is paid to reputation previously ac- quired, or to eminence won outside; no place where so little consideration is shown to the feelings or the fail- ures of beginners. What a man gains in the House he gains by sheer force of his own character, and if he loses and falls back, he must expect no mercy and will receive no sympathy. It is a field in which the sur- vival of the strongest is the recognized rule, and where no pretence can deceive and no glamour can mislead. The real man is discovered, his worth is impartially weighed, his rank is irreversibly decreed. With possibly a single exception, Garfield was the youngest member in the House when he entered and was but seven years from his college graduation. But he had not been in his seat sixty days before his abil- ity was recognized and his place conceded. He stepped 106 BLAINE'S EULOGY OF GARFIELD, to the front with the confidence of one who belonged there. The House was crowded with strong men of both parties ; nineteen of tliem have since been trans- ferred to the Senate and many of them have served with distinction in the Gubernatorial chairs of their re- spective States and on foreign missions of great conse- quence; but among them all none grew so rapidl}^, none so firmly, as Garfield. As is said by Trevelyan of his parliamentary hero, Garfield succeeded *' because all the world in concert could not have kept him in the background, and because when once in the front he played his part with a prompt intrepidity and a com- manding ease that were but the outward symptoms of the immense reserves of energy on which it was in his power to draw." Indeed, the apparently reserved force which Garfield possessed was one of his great charac- teristics. He never did so well but that it seemed he could easily have done better. He never expended so much strenjfth but that he seemed to be holdins; addi- tional power at call. This is one of the happiest and rarest distinctions of an effective debater, and often counts for as much in persuading an assembly as the eloquent and elaborate argument. The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service in the House of Representatives. His mil- itary life, illustrated by honorable performance and rich in promise, was, as he himself felt, prematurely terminated and necessarily incomplete. Speculation as to what he might have done in a field where the great prizes are so few cannot be profitable. It is sufficient to say that as a soldier he did his duty bravely; he did it intelligently ; he won an enviable fame, and he re- tired from the service without blot or breath against him. As a lawyer, though admirably equipped lor the profession, he can scarcely be said to have entered on its practice. The few efforts he made at the bar Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 107 were distinguished by the same high order of talent which he exhibited on every field where he was put to the test, and if a man may be accepted as a competent judge of his own capacities and adaptations, the law was the profession to which Garfield should have de- voted himself But fate ordained otherwise, and liis reputation in history will rest largely upon his service in the House of Representatives. That service was exceptionally long. He was nine times consecutively chosen to the House, an honor enjoyed by not more than six other Representatives of the more than five thousand who have been elected from the organization of the government to this hour. As a parliamentary orator, as a debater on an issue squarely joined, where the position had been chosen and the ground laid out, Garfield must be assigned a very high rank. More, perhaps, than any man with whom he was associated in public life, he gave careful and systematic study to public questions, and he came to every discussion in which he took part with elabor- ate and complete preparation. He was a steady and indefatigable worker. Those who imagine that talent or genius can supply the place or achieve the results of labor will find no encouragement in Garfield's life. In preliminary work he was apt, rapid and skilful. He possessed in a high degree the power of readily absorb- ing ideas and facts, and, like Dr. Johnson, had the art of getting from a book all that was of value m it by a reading apparently so quick and cursory that it seemed like a mere glance at the table of contents. He was a pre- eminently fair and candid man in debate, took no petty advantage, stooped to no unworthy methods, avoided personal allusions, rarely appealed to prejudice, did not seek to inflame passion. He had a quicker eye for the strong point of his adversary than for his weak point, and on his own side he so marshaled his weighty argu- 108 Blaine's eulogy of garfield.: ments as to make his hearers forget any possible lack in the complete strength of his position. He had a habit of stating his opponent's side with such amplitude of fairness and such liberality of concession that his followers often complained that he was giving his case away. But never in his prolonged participation in the proceedings of the House did he give his case away or fail in the judgment of competent and impartial listen- ers to gain the mastery. These characteristics, which marked Garfield as a great debater, did not, however, make him a great par- liamentary leader. A parliamentary leader, as that term is understood wherever free representative gov- ernment exists, is necessarily and very strictly the or- gan of his party. An ardent American defined the instinctive warmth of patriotism when he offered the toast : " Our country, always right, but right or wrong, our country." The parliamentary leader who has a body of followers that will do and dare and die for the cause is one who believes his party always right, but right or wrong, is for his party. No more important or exacting duty devolves upon him than the selection of the field and the time for contest. He must know not merely how to strike, but where to strike and when to strike. He often skilfully avoids the strength of his opponent's position, and scatters confusion in his ranks by attacking an exposed point when really the right- eousness of the cause and the strength of logical in- trenchment are against him. He conquers often both against the right and the heavy battalions ; as when young Charles Fox, in the days of iiis toryism, carried the House of Commons against justice, against its im- memorial rights, against his own convictions, if indeed at that period Fox had convictions, and, in the interest of a corrupt administration, in obedience to a tyrannical sovereign, drove Wilkes from the seat to which the Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 109 electors of Middlesex had chosen him, and installed Luttrell in defiance, not merely of law, but of public decency. For an achievement of that kind Garfield was disqualified — disqualified by the texture of his mind, by the honesty of his heart, by his conscience, and by every instinct and aspiration of his nature. The three most distinguished parliamentary leaders hitherto developed in this country are Mr. Clay, Mr. Dousrlas and Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. Each was a man of consummate ability, of great earnestness, of intense personality, differing widely each from the others, and yet with a single trait in common — the power to com- mand. In the give and take of daily discussion; in the art of controlling and consolidating reluctant and refractory followers; in the skill to overcome all forms of opposition and to meet with competency and courage the varying phases of unlooked-for assault or unsus- pected defection, it would be difficult to rank with these a fourth name in all our Congressional history. But of these Mr. Clay was the greatest. It would, perhaps, be impossible to find in the parliamentary annals of the world a parallel to Mr. Clay in 1841, when at sixty- four years of age he took the control of the Whig party from the President who had received their suffrages, against the power of Webster in the Cabinet, against the eloquence of Choate in the Senate, against the herculean efforts of Caleb Cushing and Henry A. Wise in the House. In unshared leadership, in the pride and plenitude of power, he hurled against John Tyler with deepest scorn the mass of that conquering column which had swept over the land in 1840 and drove his a,dministration to seek shelter behind the lines of his political foes. Mr. Douglas achieved a victory scarcely less wonderful when, in 1854, against the secret desires of a strong administration, against the wise counsel of the older chiefs, against the conservative instincts and 110 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. even the moral sense of the country, he forced a rehic- tant Congress into a repeal of the Missouri compromise. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, in his contests from 1865 to 1868, actually advanced his parliamentary leadership until Congress tied the hands of the President and governed the country by its own will, leaving only perfunctory duties to be discharged by the Executive. With two hundred millions of patronage in his hands at the opening of the contest, aided by the active force of Seward in the Cabinet and the moral power of Chase on the bench, Andrew Johnson could not com- mand the support of one-third in either house against the Parliamentary uprising of which Thaddeus Stevens was the animating spirit and the unquestioned leader. From these three great men Garfield differed radi- cally, differed in the quality of his mind, in tempera- ment, in the form and phase of ambition. He could not do what they did, but he could do vvhat they could not, and in the breadth of his Congressional work he left that which will longer exert a potential influence among men, and which, measured by the severe test of posthumous criticism, will secure a more enduring and more enviable fame. Those unfamiliar with Garfield's industry and igno- rant of the details of his work may in some degree measure them by the annals of Congress. No one of the generation of public men to which he belonged haS contributed so much that will be valuable for future reference. His speeches are numerous, many of them brilliant, all of them well studied, carefully phrased and exhaustive of the subject under consideration. Collected from the scattered pages of ninety royal | octavo volumes of the Congressional Record they would present an invaluable compendium of the political history of the most important era through which the national government has ever passed. When the his- Blaine's eulogy of garfield. Ill tory of this period shall be impartially written, when war legislation, measures of reconstruction, protection of human rights, amendments to the Constitution, maintenance of public credit, steps toward specie re- sumption, true theories of revenue may be reviewed, unsurrounded by prejudice and disconnected from par- tisanism, the speeches of Garfield will be estimated at their true value, and will be found to comprise a vast magazine of fact and argument, of clear analysis and sound conclusion. Indeed, if no other authority were accessible, his speeches in the House of Representatives from December, 1863, to June, 1880, would give a well-connected history and complete defense of the im- portant legislation of the seventeen eventful years that constitute his parliamentary life. Far beyond that, his speeches would be found to forecast many great measures, yet to be completed — measures which he knew were beyond the public opinion of the hour, but which he confidently believed would secure popular approval within the period of his own lifetime and by the aid of his own efforts. Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilliant parlia- mentary leaders, it is not easy to find his counterpart anywhere in the record of American public life. He perhaps more clearly resembles Mr. Seward in his supreme fViith in the all-conquering power of a principle. He had the love of learning and the patient industry of investigation to which John Quincy Adams owes his prominence and his Presidency. He had some of those ponderous elements of mind which distinguished Mr. Webster and which, indeed, in all our public life have left the great Massachusetts Senator without an intel- lectual peer. In English parliamentary history, as in our own, the leaders in the House of Commons present points of essential difference from Garfield. But some of his 112 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. methods recall the best features in the strong, inde- pendent course of Sir Robert Peel, and striking re- semblances are discernible in that most promising of modern Conservatives, who died too early for his coun- try and his fame, the Lord George Bentinck. He had all of Burke's love for the sublime and the beautiful, with possibly something of his superabundance, and in his faith and his magnanimity, in his power of state- ment, in his subtle analysis, in his faultless logic, in his love of literature, in his wealth and world of illustra- tion, one is reminded of that great English statesman of to-day, who, confronted with obstacles that would daunt any but the dauntless, reviled by those whom he would relieve as bitterly as by those whose supposed rights he is forced to invade, still labors with serene courage for the amelioration of Ireland and for the honor of the English name. Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while not predicted or anticipated, was not a surprise to the country. His prominence in Congress, his solid quali- ties, his wide reputation, strengthened by his then recent election as Senator from Ohio, kept him in the public eye as a man occupying the very highest rank among those entitled to be called statesmen. It was not mere chance that brought him this high honor. "We must," says Mr. Emerson, "reckon success a con- stitutional trait. If Eric is in robust health and has slept well and is at the top of his condition and thirty years old at his departure from Greenland he will steer west and his ships will reach New Foundland. But take Eric out and put in a stronger and bolder man and the ships will sail six hundred, one thousand, fifteen hundred miles fiirther and reach Labrador and New England. There is no chance in results." As a candidate Garfield steadily grew in popular favor. He was met with a storm of detraction at the BLAIXE's eulogy of GARFIELD. 113 very hour of his nomination, and it continued with in- creasing volume and momentum until the close of his victorious campaign : No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape ; back-wounding calumny Tlie whitest virtue strikes. What kings so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue. Under it all he was calm and strong and confident; never lost his self-possession, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered word. Indeed nothing in his- whole life is more remarkable or more creditable than his bearing through those five full months of vitupera- tion — a prolonged agony of trial to a sensitive man, a. constant and cruel draft upon the powers of moral en- durance. The great mass of these unjust imputations- passed unnoticed and, with the general debris of the campaign, fell into oblivion. But in a few instances the iron entered his soul and he died with the injury unforsfotten if not unfor";iven. One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was-unprecedented. Never before, in the history of partisan contests in this country, had a successful Presidential candidate spoken freely on passing events and current issues. To at- tempt anything of the kind seemed novel, rash and even desperate. The older class of voters recalled^ the unfortunate Alabama letter, in. which Mr. Clay was supposed to have signed his political death warrant. They remembered also the hot-tempered effusion by which General Scott lost a large share of his popularity before his nomination, and the unfortunate speeches- which rapidly consumed the remainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. Greeley in a series of vigorous and original addresses, preparing the pathway for his own defeat. Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding the advice of friends, Garfield spoke to large crowds as he H 114 Blaine's eulcgt of gaefield. journeyed to and from New York in August, to a great multitude in that city, to delegations and deputations of every kind that called at Mentor during the sum- mer and autumn. With innumerable critics, watch- ful and eager to catch a phrase that might be turned into odium or ridicule, or a sentence that might be distorted to his own or his party's injury, Garfield did not trip or halt in any one of his seventy speeches. This seems all the more remarkable Avhen it is re- membered that he did not Avrite what he said, and yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of thought and such admirable precision of phrase as to defy the accident of misreport and the malignity of misrepre- sentation. In the beginning of his Presidential life, Garfield's experience did not yield him pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that engross so large a portion of the Presi- dent's time were distasteful to him, and were unfavor- ably contrasted with his legislative work, " I have been dealing all these years with ideas," he impatiently exclaimed one day, " and here I am dealing only with persons. I have been heretofore treating of the funda- mental principles of government, and here I am con- sidering all day whether A or B shall be appointed to this or that office." He was earnestly seeking some practical way of correcting the evils arising from the distribution of overgrown and unwieldy patronage — evils always appreciated and often discussed by him, ])ut whose magnitude had been more deeply impressed upon his mind since his accession to the Presidency. Had he lived, a comprehensive improvement in the mode of appointment and in the tenure of office would have been proposed by him, and with the aid of Con- gress no doubt perfected. But while many of the Executive duties were not grateful to him, he was assiduous and conscientious in Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 115 their discharge. From the very outset he exhibited administrative talent of a high order. He grasped the hehn of office with the hand of a master. In this re- spect, indeed, he constantly surprised many who were most intimately associated with him in the govern- ment, and especially those who had feared that he might be lacking in the executive fticulty. His dispo- sition of business was orderly and rapid. His power of analysis and his skill in classification enabled him to dispatch a vast mass of detail with singular promptness and ease. His Cabinet meetings were ad- mirably conducted. His clear presentation of official subjects, his well-considered suggestion of topics on which discussion was invited, his quick decision when all had been heard, combined to show a thorousrhness of mental training as rare as his natural ability and his facile adaptation to a new and enlarged field of labor. With perfect comprehension of all the inheritances of the war, with a cool calculation of the obstacles in his way, impelled always by a generous enthusiasm, Garfield conceived that much might be done by his administration towards restoring harmony between the different sections of the Union. He was anxious to go South and speak to the people. As early as April he had ineffectually endeavored to arrange for a trip to Nashville, whither he had been cordially invited, and he was again disappointed a few weeks later to find that he could not go to South Carolina to attend the centennial celebration of the victory of the Cowpens. But for the autumn he definitely counted on being present at three memorable assemblies in the South — the celebration at Yorktown, the opening of the Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, and the meeting of the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga. He was already turning over in his mind his address for each occasion, and the three taken together, he said to a friend, gave 116 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. him the exact scope and verge which he needed. At Yorktown he would have before him the associations of a hundred years that bound the South and the North in the sacred memory of a common danger and a common victory. At Atlanta he would present the material interests and the industrial development which appealed to the thrift and independence of every household, and which should unite the two sections by the instinct of self-interest and self-defense. At Chat- tanooga he would revive memories of the war only to show that after all its disaster and all its suflfering the country was stronger and greater, the Union rendered indissoluble, and the future, through the agony and blood of one generation, made brighter and better for all. Garfield's ambition for the success of his administra- tion was high. With strong caution and conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger of attempting rash experiments or of resorting to the empiricism of states- manship. But he believed that renewed and closer at- tention should be given to questions affecting the ma- terial interests and commercial prospects of fifty millions of people. He believed that our continental relations, extensive and undeveloped as they are, in- volved responsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable friendship or be abandoned to harmful indif- ference or lasting enmity. He believed with equal confidence that an essential forerunner to a new era of national progress must be a feeling of contentment in every section of the Union, and a generous belief that- the benefits and burdens of government would be com- mon to all. Himself a conspicuous illustration of what ability and ambition may do under republican institu- tions, he loved his country with a passion of patriotic devotion, and every waking thought was given to her advancement. He was an American in all his aspira- Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 117 tions, and he looked to the destiny and influence of the United States with the philosophic composure of Jeffer- son and the demonstrative confidence of John Adams. The political events which disturbed the President's serenity for many weeks before that fateful day in July form an important chapter in his career, and, in his own judgment, involved questions of principle and of right which are vitally essential to the constitutional administration of the Federal Government. It would* be out of place here and now to speak the language of controversy ; but the events referred to, however they may continue to be source of contention with others, have become, so far as Garfield is concerned, as much a matter of history as his heroism at Chickamauga or his illustrious service in the House. Detail is not needful, and personal antagonism shall not be rekindled by any word uttered to-day. The motives of those op- posing him are not to be here adversely interpreted nor their course harshly characterized. But of the dead President this is to be said, and said because his own speech is forever silenced, and he can be no more heard except through the fidelity and the love of survi- ving friends : From the beginning to the end of the con- troversy he so much deplored, the President was never for one moment actuated by any motive of gain to him- self or of loss to others. Least of all men did he har- bor revenge, rarely did he even show resentment, and malice was not in his nature. He was congenially employed only in the exchange of good offices and the doing of kindly deeds. There was not an hour, from the beginning of the trouble till the fatal shot entered his body, when tlie President would not gladly, for the sake of restoring harmony, have retraced any step he had taken if such retracing had merely involved consequences personal to himself. The pride of consistency or any supposed 118 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. sense of humiliation that might result from surrender- ing his position had not a feather's weight with him. No man was ever less subject to such influences from within or from without. But after most anxious de- liberation and the coolest survey of all the circum- stances, he solemnly believed that the true preroga- tives of the Executive were involved in the issue which had been raised, and that he would be unfaithful to his supreme obligation if he failed to maintain, in all their vigor, the constitutional rights and dignities of his great office. He believed this in all the convictions of conscience when in sound and vigorous health, and he believed it in his suffering and prostration in the last conscious thought which his wearied mind bestowed on the transitory struggles of life. More than this need not be said. Less than this could not be said. Justice to the dead, the highest ob- ligation that devolves upon the living, demands the declaration that in all the bearings of the subject, actual or possible, the President was content in his mind, justified in his conscience, immovable in his con- clusions. The religious element in Garfield's character was deep and earnest. In his early youth he espoused the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that great Baptist Com- munion which in different ecclesiastical establishments is so numerous and so influential throughout all parts of the United States. But the broadening tendency of his mind and his active spirit of inquiry were early apparent and carried him beyond the dogmas of sect and the restraints of association. In selecting a college in which to continue his education, he rejected Beth- any, though presided over by Alexander Campbell, the greatest preacher of his church. His reasons were characteristic : first, that Bethany leaned too heavily toward slavery ; and, second, that being himself a Dis- Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 119 ciple and the son of Disciple parents, he had little ac- quaintance with people of other beliefs, and he thought it would make him more liberal, quoting his own words, both in his religious and general views, to go into a new circle and be under new influences. The liberal tendency which he anticipated as the result of wider culture was fully realized. He was emancipated from mere sectarian belief, and with eager interest pushed his investigations in the direction of modern progressive thought. He followed with quick- ening step in the paths of exploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tjndall and by other living scientists of the radical and advanced type. His own church, binding its dis- ciples by no fortnulated creed, but accepting the Old and New Testaments as the word of God with unbiased liberality of private interpretation, favored, if it did not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its mem- bers profess with sincerity, and profess only to be of one mind and one faith with those who inmiediately followed the Master, and who were first called Chris- tians at Antioch. But however high Garfield reasoned of " fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute," he was never separ- ated from the Church of the Disciples in his affections and in his associations. For him it held the ark of the covenant. To him it was the gate of heaven. The world of religious belief is full of solecisms and contra- dictions. A philosophic observer declares that men by the thousand will die in defence of a creed whose doc- trines they do not comprehend, and whose tenets they habitually violate. It is equally true that men by the thousand will clins; to church organizations with in- stinctive and undying fidelity when their belief in ma- turer years is radically different from that which in- J^pired them as neophytes. 120 Blaine's eulogy of garfield/ But after this range of speculation and this latitude of doubt, Garfield came back ahvjiys with freshness and delight to the simpler instincts of religious faith, which, earliest implanted, longest survive. Not many weeks before his assassination, walking on the banks of the Potomac w^ith a friend, and conversing on those topics of personal religion concerning which noble natures have an unconquerable reserve, he said that he found the Lord's Prayer and the simple petitions learned in infancy infinitely restful to him, not merely in their stated repetition, but in their casual and frequent re- call as he went about the daily duties of life. Certain texts of Scripture had a very strong hold on his mem- ory and his heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh some years ago, an eminent Scotch preacher who pre- faced his sermon with reading the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which book had been the sub- ject of careful study with Garfield during all his re- ligious life. He was greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher, and declared that it had imparted a new and deeper meaning to the majestic utterances of St. Paul. He referred often in after years to that memorable service, and dwelt with exaltation of feel- ing upon the radiant promise and the assured hope with which the great Apostle of the Gentiles was " persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The crowning characteristic of General Garfield's re- ligious opinions, as, indeed, of all his opinions, was his liberality. In all things he had charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the qualities which he possessed himself — sincerity of conviction and frankness of expression. With him the inquiry was Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 121 not so much what a man believes, but does he believe it ? The lines of his friendship and his confidence en- circled men of every creed and men of no creed, and. to the end of his life on his ever-lengthening list of friends were to be found the names of a pious Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and generous-hearted free- thinker. On the morning of Saturday, July second, the Pres- ident was a contented and happy man — not in an ordi- nary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly happy. On his way to the raih'oad station, to which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morn- ing, with an unwonted sense of leisure and a keen an- ticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of. trial his administration was strong in its grasp of af- fairs, strong in popular favor and destined to grow stronger ; that grave difficulties confronting him at his inauguration had been safely passed ; that trouble lay behind him, and not before him ; that he was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately disquieted and at times almost unnerved him ; that he was going to his alma mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest had followed every step of his upward progress from the day he entered upon liis col- lege course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen. Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him ; no slightest pre- monition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching peace- 122 Blaine's eulogy of garfield. fully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence and the grave. Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death — and he did not quail. Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquish- ment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because si- lently borne, with clear sight and calm courage he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes whose lips may tell — what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm manhood's friendships, what bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sustain- ing friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears ; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's day of frolic ; the fair, young daughter; the sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day and every day rewarding a father's love and care; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all de- mands. Before him, desolation and sjreat darkness! And his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfail- Blaine's eulogy of garfield. 123 ing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the de- moniac hiss of the assassin's ballet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the Divine decree. As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders; on its far sails, whitening in the morning light ; on its restless waves, rolling 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 parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a further shore, and felt al- ready upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal mornino:. 124 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. CHAPTER III. OPPOSITION TO MR. ADAMS. The period at length arrived for a signal demon- stration. Among the petitions presented by Mr. Adams, to bring the subject to a head, was one signed by forty-six inhabitants of Haverhill, Massa- chusetts, praying for the adoption of measures peaceably to dissolve the Union, assigning as one of the reasons the inequality of benefits conferred upon the different sections, one section being annu- ally drained to sustain the views and course of an- other, without adequate return, which he moved to a select committee, with instructions to report an answer, showing reasons why the prayer should not be granted. Notwithstanding the nature of the instructions, the chivalry, including Mr. Wise, appeared to think it a favorable opportunity to retaliate upon Mr. Adams, and if possible to inflict punishment upon him for persisting in his deter- mined course. Mr. Gilmore, of Virginia, particu- larly, was sagacious enough to exhibit his indigna- tion at the sage of Quincy. He introduced a resolution declaring that, in presenting a petition for the dissolution of the Union, Mr. Adams had justly incurred the censure of the House. But Mr. Marshall, of Kentucky, wished to subject him to severer discipline. He offered as a substitute HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 125 two resolutions, one declaring Mr, Adams guilty of an offense involving in its consequence high treason ; and the other declaring him deserving of expulsion, but as an act of "grace and mercy," their severest censures only were to be inflicted. In the debate on these resolutions which ensued, it became evident that the representatives of the local despotism in Congress were indulging in new- born hopes of a speedy annexation of Texas, under that administration, in consequence of the stand which the President had taken in regard to the tariff question. They appeared to feel assured that the President was now their convenient man for the approaching emergency ; and that they had only to surround him with leading advisers, and to invest the proposition with partisan importance, in order to precipitate it to a result. Hence in debat- ing Mr. Gilmer's resolution, they alleged that there were combinations of philanthropists in Great Britain, who Avere meditating the overthrow of Southern institutions, and that defensive measures, among them the speedy annexation of Texas, were rendered necessary. Mr. Wise insisted that the Hon. Seth M. Gates, then a member of the House of Representatives, was an agent of the incendi- aries, as he termed them, who stood ready with his torch to fire the magazine, and blow the Union into fragments. In relation to Mr. Adams, whom it was proposed to censure, Mr. Wise remarked that he was time- 126 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. honored .and hoary, but not with wisdom ; that he had the power of age, station, fame, and eloquence ; and that all were greatly mistaken who thought him mad. Mr. Adams, thought Mr. Wise, might truly say, " I am not mad, most noble Festus," even if he did not speak the words of truth and sober- ness; that for himself he did not believe him mad, but thought him more wicked than weak, and the agent of persons who meditated a dissolution of the Union. He was astute in design, obstinate and zealous in power, and terrible in action; and therefore well adapted to accomplish his treason- able purposes. To this Mr. Adams very complacently replied that the resolutions of Mr. Marshall accused him of crimes over which the House had no jurisdiction, and, therefore, they would probably find it conve- nient to confine themselves to a " contempt" under Mr. Gilmer's resolution ; that it might be profitable to advert to precedents, and, perhaps, to the trial in the House four or five years before, when a man (Mr. Wise) came into it with his hands and face dripping with the blood of murder, the blotches of which were yet hanging on to him; and that, when the question was put in that case, it was decided, myself voting in the affirmative, that the accused should be sent where he could have an impartial trial ; that it was very probable that he saved the blood-stained man at that time. (Mr. Wise in- quired whether his character and conduct were in- HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 127 volved in the issue, and whether a man who defended him then would be permitted to now charge him with murder?) "I did not defend him," said Mr. Adams, "on the merits of the case, for I never believed that he was not guilty, nor that the man who pulled the trigger against Cilley was not an instrument in his hands ; but I contended that the House had not the power to try him. It was not then an impar- tial tribunal." This illusion to the Cilley affair was unlooked for by Mr. Wise ; it was a surprise upon him, as he had not estimated correctly the power of the states- man he had undertaken to demolish. He had carefully watched for an opportunity to assail Mr. Adams, under circumstances where his missiles would not be likely to recoil. He had selected this opportunity as one which appeared adventi- tious; but when he found himself confronted with the ghost of the murdered Cilley, he perceived his fatal mistake. His friends anxiously interposed to remove him from the field which he had selected for the fight. Mr. Adams, commiserating his situation, mercifully forbore to punish him further. " I came from a soil," said Mr. Adams, in con- tinuation, " that bears not a slave. I represent here the descendants of Winslow, Carver, Alden and Bedford, the first who alighted on the rock of Plymouth ; and representing these men, the free people of Massachusetts, I am come here to be 128 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. tliusiasm is but a sorry compensation for lack of numbers. The soldiers did their best. Inch by inch the ground was contested. Overpowered, how- ever, and outflanked, the two brigades were turned and forced from their position. Meanwhile Buck- ner, who had moved his troops over from the ex- treme Confederate right, formed them in front of McClernand's left brigade, Colonel W. H. Wallace. It will thus be seen that the whole hostile mass — the entire concentrated strength of the Confederate army — was pressing upon McClernand's Division, the right wing of the Union army. The left brigade soon followed the example of the other two — it fell back from its position ; and by nine o'clock the entire position occupied in the beginning of the contest by the right wing of the National army was in the possession of the Confederates. The Wynn's Ferry road was open. It is not necessary to follow up those harrowing scenes of distress ; the freezing to death of hun- dreds of the brave men under Logan's and Wallace's commands. Donelson was taken and followed by the evacuation of Bowling Green. The National troops had gained a most important victory, although at the cost of many precious lives. The battle of Champion Hills — the subject of illustration — was a struggle which, while disastrous to the Union cause, brought out all the intrepidity emd bold dash in General Logan's character. It GENERAL J04IN A. LOGAN. 129 was the morning of May 16th. General Grant was at the front. Knowing that McClernand would soon be up, and having no fear of the result, Grant sent first one and then another brigade, of Croker's division, of McPherson's corps, to the aid of Hovey, who gallantly renewed the conflict. Meanwhile, Logan's division was operating with great effect on the enemy's left and rear. When Hovey called for more troops, Logan rode up to General Grant, and told him that if Hovey could make another dash at the enemy, he could come up where he then was, and capture the greater part of the opposing army. Grant rode forward, and cheered the troops who had been so gallantly en- gaged, urging them again to the attack, and explain- ing the position of Logan's division. Logan con- tinued to press heavily on Pemberton's left. General C. L. Stevenson, Hovey holding his ground in the centre. About five o'clock in the afternoon. Stevenson's line, which for some time had been yielding under Logan's pressure, broke, and fell back in disorder. The battle was won. Loring, who commanded on the Confederate right, had already left the field, leaving his cannon behind him. When his left gave out, Pemberton's heart sank within him ; and he ordered a retreat of his whole army. McClernand, with Carr's division, followed by that of Osterhaus, arrived on the field only in time to pursue the retreating foe. The battle of Champion Hills was fought and won by Hovey's I 130 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. division, of McClernand's corps, and by Logan's and Quimby's, commanded by Croker, of McPher- son's corps. It was a bloody and most unequal strife, the Nationals from the outset being greatly outnumbered. The National loss amounted to nearly 2,500, of whom some 430 were killed. The loss sustained by the Confederates must have been even more severe ; for, in addition to the killed and wounded, 2,000 were made prisoners. During the summer of 1862, General Logan was repeatedly urged to " run for Congress," but his re- ply was worthy a hero: " I have entered the field to die, if need be, for this Government, and never expect to return to peaceful pursuits until the object of this war of preservation has become a fact established." His personal bravery and military skill were so conspicuous in Grant's North- ern Mississippi movements, where he commanded a division of the Seventeenth Army Corps, under Gen. McPherson, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, November 26th, 1862. He was present in every fight, his daring bravery animat- ing his men to the most heroic deeds. He was in command of McPherson's centre June 25th, when the assault upon Vicksburg was made, immediately following the mine explosion. His column led the entrance into the city, and he became its first military Governor. In November, 1863, Gen, Logan succeeded Gen. Sherman in command of the Fifteenth Army GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 131 Corps; and the following May he joined Sherman as the Georgia campaign was opening. Logan led the advance of the Army of the Tennessee at Resaca, whipped Hardee's trained veterans at Dal- las, and drove the enemy from Kenesaw Mountain. July 22d, he was in the fierce battle before Atlanta, which cost the gallant McPherson his life. In his report of the battle Gen. Sherman said : " Gen. Logan succeeded him (McPherson), and commanded the Army of the Tennessee through this desperate battle with the same success and ability that had characterized him in the command of a corps or division." In the autumn of 1864, after the fall of At- lanta, he returned to Illinois, temporarily, to take part in the Presidential campaign, doing yeoman service for the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. He then rejoined the army, and accompanied Sherman in his " march to the sea," and continued with him until the surrender of Gen. Joseph Johnson, April 26th, 1865. Gen. Logan took command of the Army of the Tennessee the 23d of October, tender- ing his resignation just as soon as active service was over, being unwilling to draw pay unless on duty in the field. President Johnson quickly ten- dered him the mission to Mexico, which he declined. The Republicans of his district sent him to the Fortieth Congress, where he served in the impeach- ment trial of President Johnson. Re-elected to 132 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. the Forty-first Congress, he was made chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. In this com- mittee he was of great use to the nation, his ex- perience in the field having been invaluable to him in regard to military legislation. He was re- elected to the Forty-second Congress, but before it was time to take his seat the Illinois Legislature chose him United States Senator for the full term, commencing March 4th, 1871. At the commence- ment of the third session of the Forty-second Congress he became Chairman of the Military Committee, succeeding Vice-President Wilson. At the close of his Senatorial term he returned to Illinois, to practice law in Chicago. He had not got fairly settled, however, before he was again elected United States Senator, and took his seat March 18th, 1879 ; his present term will expire March 3d, 1885. He led the Illinois delegation in the National Convention held in Chicago in 1880, and was one of the most determined of the 306 who followed the fortunes of " The Old Command- er," Gen. Grant. Gen. Logan is a brilliant de- bater, and having taken his position, never beats a retreat. He has made many bright speeches which have attracted national attention, and by his course in the Fitz-John Porter case has riveted the eyes of the people upon him. His wife, who was Miss Mary S. Cunningham, of Shawneetown, Illinois, and to whom he was married November 27th, 1855, is a worthy helpmate, and is almost as GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 133 popular in Illinois as her distinguished husband. The General has been foremost in all legislation for the benefit of the soldiers of the late war, and pos- sesses the confidence of the rank and file to a re- markable degree. Whatever may betide him politically in the future, it is very certain that for all time his name will shine bright in the galaxy of heroes of the late war. However men may differ as to the calibre of John A. Logan's statesmanship, no one will deny that he is one of the most remarkable men in pub- lic life, with a remarkable career behind him and a remarkable hold upon the masses of the people. His lack of culture is sneered at by those who are not generous enough to consider that it is his mis- fortune rather than his fault; but among those who are situated as he once was he stands as an illustration of the possibilities every lad in this country has before him. Logan was developed by the war. The cavalry bugler sounded the key-note of his character, and in an Atmosphere of dust and powder he grew great. A country lawyer, who found his highest ambition in stirring the languid blood of the crimi- nal jury, sprang suddenly to the head of an array, without previous military education, by the mere force of his courage and his martial instincts. He was the representative of the loyal millions, the beau ideal of the volunteer soldier, and as such in history will he live. He rose alone. He was no 134 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. man's protege and the satellite of no sun. His success was won against opposition, and was ac- knowledged because it was deserved. If the war had not developed him some other opportunity would have brought him out. Even the darkness of the Illinois Egypt could not have shrouded his light. His zeal and industry, his force of character, and the qualities of leadership with which nature gifted him could not have been suppressed, but the war offered an opportunity that brought him suddenly and favorably to the public view, and he earned a place of which the future cannot deprive him, GENERAL LOGAN's ANCESTRY. The story that he has Indian blood in his veins is a myth, founded upon the color of his skin and hair, and is totally untrue, unless the fabled kings of Ireland were related to the North American savage. His father was a physician, John Logan by name, and came to America from Ireland only three years before the Senator was born. His mother was Elizabeth Jenkins, and her fiimily lived in Tennessee. Logan was born at Murphys- boro, a little town among the hills that hem in the Mississippi river, and was the eldest of eleven children. The 9th of February last Logan was fifty-eight years old. His early education was such only as the fron- tier afforded, and was gained at his mother's knee GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 135 and in the log school-house where an itinerant teacher at intervals presided. When he was eigh- teen years old he was sent to the nearest school, called Shiloh Academy, under the jurisdiction of the Methodist Church, and graduated from it into the Mexican War. He joined the First Illinois regiment as a private, but the military instinct de- veloped, and he afterward became a lieutenant and served both as adjutant and quartermaster of his regiment. At the close of the war he went into the law-office of his uncle, Alexander Jenkins, who was a great man in Southern Illinois, a Jacksonian Democrat, and at one time Lieutenant-Governor of his State. It was the love of contest that took him at once into politics, and in 1851 he was elected clerk of Jackson county. By means of the revenues of this office he was enabled to carry on his law studies, and took a course of lectures at Louisville during the following year, which constituted and completed his legal education. At once, upon his return from Louisville, in 1852, he was elected Prosecuting- Attorney of Jackson county, and went to the State Legislature in the following year; being re-elected and gaining a local leadership in the Democratic party, which was recognized by his appointment as a Presidential Elector on the Buchanan ticket in 1856. 136 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. HIS NATURAL ELOQUENCE. At this point he began his career as a stump orator, and his speeches were considered remarka- ble examples of eloquence, giving him a reputation that sent him to Congress in 1858. He was an earnest Douglas man, and being renominated to Congress in 1860, stumped the State with great success. Right here came a critical period in his career, and although there are men who still assert that his sympathy was with the secessionists, there is plenty of evidence that the South had no claim upon him : that, whatever his original sentiments may have been, his public utterances were always loyal, and that when the crisis came he was on the right side. The country he lived in was full of Southern sympathizers, his mother's family were secessionists, and his surroundings made loyalty unpopular. The story that he tendered his ser- vices to Jefferson Davis is contradicted by that gentleman, who says he never heard of Logan until more than a year after the war began. There are several witnesses to the fact that in November, 1860, when Lincoln's election was Assured, and threats were freely made that he should not be inaugurated, Logan publicly declared that he would shoulder a musket and escort the " Rail-Splitter " to the White House. While he was in Washington attending the /ailed session of Congress in the summer of 1861, GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 137 he went to the front, as many Representatives did, to visit the army in Virginia, and being the guest of Colonel Richardson when the battle of Bull Run took place, he was given a musket and fought through that eventful July day as a private in the ranks. GOING INTO THE ARMY. When Congress adjourned in August he went home and at once raised a regiment (the Thirty- first Illinois), which went into battle at Belmont, two months after they were mustered into the army. In the siege of Fort Donelson Logan ac- tively engaged, and was badly wounded in the left arm. His gallantry here and at Belmont made him a Brigadier-General, and from this time his star rose rapidly. He was given command of a division in McPherson's corps, and made a Major- General before he had been a year in the army. In 1862 he declined a renomination for Congress, believing that he could serve his country best in the field. In Grant's winter campaign in Mississippi, and in the siege of Vicksburg, Logan bore a conspicu- ous part, and his bravery as a leader was pro- verbial. When Grant was sent to the Army of the Potomac, and yielded to Sherman the command of the Division of the Mississippi, Logan succeeded the latter as commander of the famous Fifteenth army corps, and followed Sherman in the march 138 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. to the sea. In the desperate assault upon Hood, at Atlanta, Logan fought as he never fought before, and when McPherson fell he took command of the Army of the Tennessee, and with resistless fury avenged the death of the beloved commander. CLOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN. The displacement of Logan from a position which he had earned, and the promotion of How- ard to McPherson's place, was a blow from which the General never will recover. It came very near depriving the army of one of its most gallant and valuable officers. He considered it a cruel and uncalled for humiliation, and but for the entreaties of friends would have tendered his resignation. But he remained with the army until the evacua- tion of Atlanta, when he went to Illinois to stump the State for Lincoln. After the election he re- turned to camp, and led his corps in the remarka- ble campaign through the Carolinas. After the surrender of Johnston he marched his men to Alexandria, and rode at their head in the grand review at Washington. After being mustered out of the army he was tendered the Mexican mission by President John- son, but declined it, and, covered with glory, re- turned to his home in Illinois, where his political career was resumed. He was nominated and elected as a Congressman-at-Large from Illinois, and served as such until his election to the Senate GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 139 to fill the seat of Richard Yates, in 1870. During his service in the House he was an active par- ticipant in the debates, and took strong grounds in favor of the radical reconstruction policy of Thad- deus Stevens. In 1869 he was one of the man- agers on the part of the House in the Johnson im- peachment trial. His first term as Senator of the United States expired in 1877, when he was defeated for re- election by disaffected members of his own party in the Legislature of Illinois, and David Davis was chosen in his stead. The Republicans had but two majority on joint ballot in this Legislature, and there were three Representatives from the city of Chicago who voted with the Democrats for David Davis. In 1878, however, he was more successful, and succeeded to the seat of Richard J. Oglesby. THE FRIEND OF THE SOLDIER. General Logan has always been an active man at all military reunions, and was one of the founders of the Grand Army of the Republic, which originated at Decatur, Illinois. He was the first National Commander of that organization, and as such issued the order in 1868 for the deco- ration of the graves of Union soldiers the 30th of May. His financial views have always been the sub- ject of more or less criticism in the Eastern press, but they have usually represented the sentiments 140 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. of his constituency. In 186G he made his first financial speech, in which he took strong grounds in favor of the payment of the national debt, both bonds and greenbacks, in gold coin. This position he held until the inflation fever of 1874, when he followed the popular Western movement and voted for the inflation bill, which Grant vetoed. But in the following year he was a member of the Senate Committee on Finance, and favored the Sherman Resumption act, which went into efiect January 1st, 1879. General Logan was always a leader in securing pension legislation ; was one of the most urgent advocates of the arrears of pension bill, and has never failed at each meeting of Congress to present a bill for the equalization of bounties. He now has a measure to pension every man who saw active service in the war. He has been radical on the subject of internal improvements, has always voted for liberal appropriations for rivers and harbors, and has given his support to railroad land-grant measures. His personal honesty, however, has never been doubted, and his poverty is the best evidence of his integrity. Having been in public life almost since he reached his majority, and hav- ing given his entire time to politics, he has had no time to engage in lucrative employment, and his entire property consists of a residence on Calumet avenue in Chicago, which is worth from $25,000 to $30,000, and a farm at his old home in Southern Illinois. GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 141 HIS DOMESTIC LIFE. General Logan resides in Washington, at a boarding-bouse on Twelftb street, occupying two modest rooms, tbe same in wbicb be baa lived for twelve years. In bis domestic relations General Logan lias been one of tbe most bappy and for- tunate of men. In 1855 be married Miss Mary Cunningbam, of Sbawneetown, Illinois, and sbe has proven a most valuable helpmeet, being as good, if not a better politician than himself, and a lady of great refinement as well as intellectual force. There is no woman in public life who possesses more admirable traits than Mrs. Logan, and, what is unusual, her popularity with her own sex is quite as great as with tbe other. She can write a speech on finance or dictate tbe action of a political caucus with as much ease and grace as she can preside at a dinner party or receive the guests at a ball — and has been known to perform all of these difficult duties the same day. No one whose intimacy with tbe Logan family has given him a knowledge of its past, will deny to Mrs. Logan the credit of being her husband's most energetic advocate and judicious adviser, and at tbe same time a devoted mother. She has two children, a daughter, who is the wife of Paymaster Tucker, of the army, now stationed at Santa Fe, and a son. Manning, who is a cadet at West Point, having inherited his father's military ambition. Both of them have been educated by her or under 142 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. her personal supervision ; both have been con- stantly at her side ; in the camp, during war time^ and in the most exciting political campaigns, she has never for a moment neglected the duties of her household or forgotten her children's claims. As a society woman she is graceful and accomplished ; in charities she is always active and generous ; in religion she is a devout Methodist; and what she cannot do, and do well, has never yet been dis- covered. POPULAR WITH THE MASSES. General Logan's popularity is with the masses. In the country, among the farmers, and particu- larly with the veterans of the war, he is very strong. Logan has the reputation of being a chronic growler, and General Grant once said that he "was never at peace except in war." He thrives on opposition, and is never so cool or so good-natured as when he is in the midst of an exciting contest. General Grant, when he was in the White House, once described his characteristics by comparing him with the late Oliver P. Morton. " Morton will come to me," said Grant, " with two requests. I will grant one of them, and he will go away boast- ing of his influence with the administration. Logan will come with thirteen requests. I will grant twelve of them, and he will go away swear- ing that his wishes are never complied with." To sum him up in a word, the Republican can- GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 143 didate for Vice-President of these United States is a man of strong convictions, a fearless soldier, and an honest American patriot. He is as brave in his beliefs to-day as he was when he stood in front of rebel shot and shell, and he stands ready now, as he did then, to give up his life for the preserva- tion of the Union. JAMES G. BUIE'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. All National Issues Ably and Thoroughly Discussed — His Views on Pkotection and on Commerce — A Foreign Policy OF Peace, Friendship and Commercial Enlargement — Im- partial Appointment? in the Civil Service. It would be difficult to name any document in the long and glorious history of the Republic which surpasses this in masterly grasp of many great questions, in profound, solid reasoning. Yet it comes not from a chief magistrate, already crowned with a nation's highest honors, but from a candidate in the midst of a strange bitterness. No op- ponent can complain that Mr. Blaine has ever evaded or dodged any important question. With singular candor, nowhere shrinking from the avowal of opinions in some quarters unpopular, and nowhere swerving from his own known opinions to court the favor of any, Mr. Blaine treats every question earnestly and yet as calmly as if he had no personal interest at stake. The following is the full text of the letter : Augusta, Me., July 15, 1884, The Hon. John B. Henderson and Others of the Com- mittee, etc., etc. Gentlemen : In accepting the nomination for the Presi- dency, tendered me by the Republican National Conven- tion, I beg to express a deep sense of the honor which is conferred and of the duty which is imposed. I venture to accompany the acceptance with some observations upon the questions involved in the contest, questions whose (145) 146 Blaine's letter of acceptance. settlement may affect the future of the nation favorably or unfavorably for a long series of years. In enumerating the issues upon which the Republican party appeals for popular support, the convention has been singularly explicit and felicitous. It has properly given the leading position to the industrial interests of the coun- try as affected by the tariff on imports. On that question the two political parties are radically in conflict. Almost the first act of the Republicans, when they came into power in 1861, was the establishment of the principle of protection to American labor and to American capital. This principle the Republican party has ever since steadily maintained, while on the other hand the Democratic party in Congress has for fifty years persistently warred upon it. Twice wdthin that period our opponents have destroyed tariffs arranged for protection, and since the close of the ■civil war, whenever they have controlled the House of JRepresentatives, hostile legislation has been attempted — never more conspicuously than in their principal measure at the late session of Congress. THE TARIFF QUESTION. Revenue laws are in their very nature subject to frequent revision in order that they may be adapted to changes and modifications of trade. The Republican party is not con- tending for the permanency of any particular statute. The issue between the two parties does not have reference to a specific law. It is far broader and far deeper. It involves a principle of wide application and beneficent influence, against a theory which we believe to be unsound in con- ception and inevitably hurtful in practice. In the many tariff revisions which have been necessary for the past twenty-three years, or which may hereafter become neces- sary, the Republican party has maintained and will main- tain the policy of protection to American industry, while our opponents insist upon a revision which practically destroys that policy. The issue is thus distinct, well de- fined and unavoidable. The pending election may deter- mine the fate of protection for a generation. The over- throw of the policy means a large and permanent reduction in the wages of the American laborer, besides involving the loss of vast amounts of American capital invested in manufacturing enterprises. The value of the present Blaine's letter of acceptance. 147 revenue sj^stem to the people of the United States is not a matter of theory and I shall submit no argument to sus- tain it. I only invite attention to certain facts of official record which seem to constitute a demonstration. , In the census of 1850 an effort was made, for the first time in our history, to obtain a valuation of all the prop- erty in the United States. The attempt was in large degree unsuccessful. Partly from lack of time, partly from prejudice among many who thought the inquiries foreshadowed a new scheme of taxation, the returns were incomplete and unsatisfactory. Little more was done than to consolidate the local valuation used in the States for purposes of assessment and that, as every one knows, differs widely from a complete exhibit of all the property. In the census of 1860, however, the work was done with great thoroughness, the distinction between "assessed" value and " true " value being carefully observed. The grand result was that the " true value " of all the property in the States and Territories (excluding slaves) amounted to fourteen thousand millions of dollars ($14,000,000,000. This aggregate was the net result of the labor and the savings of all the people within the area of the United States from the time the first British colonist landed in 1607 down to the year 1860. It represented the fruit of the toil of two hundred and fifty years. After 1860 the business of the country was encouraged and developed by a protective tariff. At the end of twenty years the total property of the United States, as re- turned by the census of 1880, amounted to the enormous aggregate of forty-four thousand millions of dollars ($44,- 000,000,000). This great result was attained, notwithstand- ing the fact that countless millions had in the interval been wasted in the progress of a bloody war. It thus appears tliat while our population between 1860 and 1880 increased sixty per cent, the aggregate property of the country increased two hundred and fourteen per cent. — showing a vastly enhanced wealth per capita among the people. Thirty thousand millions of dollars ($30,000^000,- 000) had been added during these twenty years to the permanent wealth of the nation. These results are regarded by the older nations of the world as phenomenal. That our country should sur- mount the peril and the cost of a gigantic war, and for an 148 HISTORY OF THE EEPUBLICAN PARTY. under all and any circumstances, and you may rest assured, he will have none in his cabinet that are aspiring to the Presidency. I write in confidence, and will soon again write you. You may rest assured in my friendship — all the politicians on earth can never shake it. I wish to see you the organ of the Democratic party as long as you own a paper, and as long as the party is true to itself, you will be its organ, and true to its principles. "I am very weak, and must close. [Signed] "Andrew Jackson." On hearing this communication read, they were able to perceive that General Jackson had been completely betrayed by Mr. Polk. Further denouements were attentively looked for until it was ascertained that James Buchanan had been selected by Mr. Polk for Secretary of State, instead of Silas Wright, of New York, the states- man of all others, under the circumstances, most entitled to that honor, and that William Marcy, the political enemy of Mr. Wright, had been selected for his Secretary of War. This plainly signified that although Mr. Polk was indebted to Mr. Wright and his friends in New York for his election, he had resolved to repay the boon by "crushing them out" so effectually that they would be unable to bring him (Mr. Wright) forward in 1848, as a candidate for the succession. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 149 CHAPTER YII. NULLIFICATION SCHEMES. Perceiving that it was definitely arranged to put the Democratic ship on the nullification tack, the old-line Democrats, and the friends of Silas Wright, especially, in and out of Congress, became reluctant passengers in the projected voyage. Al- though they were partially committed to annexa- tion by resolves of Democratic conventions, they determined at once that in whatever they did in relation to that subject, their action should enure to the benefit of freedom rather than slavery; that they would oppose annexation by all processes, other than by treaty negotiated pursuant to a special law, hoping that when a treat}^ should be concluded, there would not be found a two-third vote in the Senate to confirm it. Hence their six consecutive votes upon and against the House resolutions for the annexation of Texas, given on the 25th of January, 1845. About the first of April, Mr. Blair received an- other letter from General Jackson, dated at the Hermitage, February 28th, 1845. "i/y dear Blair: — For the first time on the 23d instant, I was informed that Colonel LauGflilin had gone to the city of Washington to become inter- ested in the Madisonian. If this is true, it will 150 blaine's letter of acceptance. AGRICULTURE AND THE TARIFF. The agricultural interest is by far the largest in the na- tion, and is entitled in every adjustment of revenue laws to the first consideration. Any policy hostile to the full- est development of agriculture in the United States must be abandoned. Realizing this fact, the opponents of the present system of revenue have labored very earnestly to persuade the farmers of the United States that they are robbed by a protective tariff, and the effort is thus made to consolidate their vast influence in favor of free trade. But happily the farmers of America are intelligent, and cannot be misled by sophistry when conclusive facts are before them. They see plainly that during the past twenty-four years wealth has not been acquired in one section or by one interest at the expense of another sec- tion or another interest. They see that the agricultural States have made even more rapid progress than the man- ufacturing States, The farmers see that in 1860 Massachusetts and Illinois had about the same wealth — between eight and nine hun- dred million dollars each — and that in 1880 Massachusetts had advanced to twenty-six hundred millions, while Illi- nois had advanced to thirty-two hundred millions. They see that New Jersey and Iowa were just equal in popula- tion in 1860, and that in twenty years the wealth of New Jersey was increased by the sum of eight hundred and fifty millions of dollars, while the wealth of Iowa was in- creased by the sum of fifteen hundred millions. They see that the nine leading agricultural States of the West have grown so rapidly in prosperity that the aggregate addition to their wealth since 1860 is almost as great as the wealth of the entire country in that year. They see that the South, which is almost exclusively agricultural, has shared in the general prosperity, and that, having re- covered from the loss and devastation of war, it has gained so rapidly that its total wealth is at least the double of that which it possessed in 1860, exclusive of slaves. In these extraordinary developments the farmers see the helpful impulse of a home market, and they see that the financial and revenue system, enacted since the Re- publican party came into ])ower, has established and constantly expanded the home market. They see that Blaine's letter of acceptance. 151 even in the case of wheat, which is our chief cereal export, they have sold, in the average of the years since the close of the war, three bushels at home to one they have sold abroad, and that in the case of corn, the only other cereal which we export to any extent, one hundred bushels have been used at home to three and a half bushels exported. In some years the disparity has been so great that for every peck of corn exported one hundred bushels have been consumed in the home market. The farmers see that in the increasing competition from the grain fields of Russia and from the distant plains of India, the growth of the home market becomes daily of greater concern to them, and that its impairment would depreciate the value of every acre of tillable land in the Union. OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE. Such facts as these, touching the growth and consump- tion of cereals at home, give us some slight conception of the vastness of the internal commerce of the United States. They suggest also that in addition to the advantages wliich the American people enjoy from protection against foreign competition, they enjoy the advantages of absolute free- trade over a larger area and with a greater population than any other nation. The internal commerce of our thirty- eight States and nine Territories is carried on without let or hindrance, without tax, detention or governmental interference of any kind whatever. It spreads freely over an area of three and a half million square miles — almost equal in extent to the whole continent of Europe. Its profits are enjoyed to-day by fifty-six millions of American freemen, and from this enjoyment no monopoly is created. According to Alexander Hamilton, when he discussed the same subject in 1790, "the internal competition which takes place does away with everything like monopoly and by degrees reduces the prices of articles to the minimum of a reasonable profit on the capital employed." It is im- possible to point to a single monopoly in the United States that has been created or fostered by the industrial system which is upheld by the Republican party. Compared witii our toreign commerce these d^^mestic exchanges are inconceivably great in amount — requiring, merely as one instrumentality, as large a mileage of railway 152 Blaine's letter of acceptance. as exists to-day in all the other nations of the world com- bined. These internal exchanges are estimated by the Statistical Bureau of the Treasury Department to be an- nually twenty times as great in amount as our foreign commerce. It is into this vast field of home trade — at once the creation and the heritage of the American people — that foreign nations are striving by every device to enter. It is into this field that the opponents of our present revenue system would freely admit the countries of Europe — countries into whose internal trade we could not recip- rocally enter; countries to which we should be surren- dering every advantage of trade, from which we should be gaining nothing in return. EFFECT UPON THE MECHANIC AND THE LABORER. A policy of this kind would be disastrous to the me- chanics and workingmen of the United States. Wages are unjustly reduced when an industrious man is not able by his earnings to live in comfort, educate his children, and lay by a sufficient amount for the necessities of age. The reduction of wages inevitably consequent upon throwing our home market open to the world would deprive them of the power to do this. It would ])rove a great calamity to our country. It would produce a conflict between the poor and the rich, and in the sorrowful degradation of labor would plant the seeds of public danger. The Republican party has steadily aimed to maintain just relations between labor and capital, guarding with care the rights of each. A conflict between the two has always led in the past and will always lead in the future to the injury of both. Labor is indispensable to the creation and profitable use of capital, and capital increases the effi- ciency and value of labor. Whoever arrays the one against the other is an enemy of both. That policy is wisest and best which harmonizes the two on the basis of absolute justice. The Republican party has protected the free labor of America so that its compensation is larger than is realized in any other country. It has guarded our people against the unfair competition of contract labor from China, and may be called upon to prohibit the growth of a similar evil from Europe. It is obviously un- fair to permit capitalists to make contracts for cheap labor Blaine's letter of acceptance. 163 in foreign countries to the hurt and disparagement of the labor of American citizens. Such a policy (like that which would leave the time and other conditions of home labor exclusively in the control of the employer) is inju- rious to all parties — not the least so to the unhappy per- sons who are made the subjects of the contract. The institutions of the United States rest upon the intelligence and virtue of all the people. Suffrage is made universal as a just weapon of self-protection to every citizen. It is not the interest of the Republic that any economic system should be adopted which involves the reduction of wages to the hard standard prevailing elsewhere. The Repub- lican party aims to elevate and dignify labor — not to degrade it. As a substitute for the industrial system which under Republican administrations has developed such extraor- dinary prosperity, our opponents offer a policy which is but a system of experiments upon our system of revenue — a polic}'' whose end must be harm to our manufactures and greater harm to our labor. Experiment in the indus- trial and financial S3'stem is the country's greatest dread, as stability is its greatest boon. Even the uncertainty result- ing from the recent tariff agitation in Congress has hurt- fully affected the business of the entire country. Who can measure the harm to our shops and our homes, to our farms and our commerce, if the uncertainty of perpetual tariff agitation is to be inflicted upon the country ? We are in the midst of an abundant harvest ; we are on the eve of a revival of general prosperity. Nothing stands in our way but the dread of a change in the industrial system which has wrought such wonders in the last twenty years, and which, with the power of increased capital, will work still greater marvels of prosperity in the twenty years to come. OUR FOREIGN POLICY. Our foreign relations favor our domestic development. We are at peace with the world — at peace upon a sound basis, with no unsettled questions of sufficient magnitude to embarrass or distract us. Happily removed by our geographical position from participation or interest in those questions of dynasty or boundary which so fre- quently disturb the peace of Europe, we are left to culti- 154 Blaine's letter of acceptance. vate friendly relations with all and are free from possible entanglements in the quarrels of any. The United States has no cause and no desire to engage in conflict with any power on earth, and we may rest in assured confidence that no power desires to attack the United States. With the nations of the Western Hemisphere we should cultivate closer relations, and for our common prosperity and advancement we should invite them all to join with us in an agreement that, for the future, all international troubles in North or South America shall be adjusted by impartial arbitration and not by arms. This project was part of the fixed policy of President Garfield's administra- tion, and it should, in my judgment, be renewed. Its ac- complishment on this continent would favorably affect the nations beyond the sea, and thus powerfully contribute at no distant day to the universal acceptance of the philan- thropic and Christian principle of arbitration. The efiect even of suggesting it for the Spanish-American States has been most happy and has increased the confidence of those people in our friendly disposition. It fell to my lot, as Secretary of State, in June, 1881 , to quiet apprehension in the Republic of Mexico, by giving the assurance in an official despatch that " there is not the faintest desire in the United States for territorial extension south of the Rio Grande. The boundaries of the two republics have been established in conformity with the best jurisdictional in- terests of both. The line of demarcation is not merely conventional. It is more. It separates a Spanish-Amer- ican people from a Saxon- American people. It divides one great nation from another with distinct and natural finality." We seek the conquests of peace. We desire to extend our commerce and in an especial degree with our friends and neighbors on this continent. We have not improved our relations with Spanish-America as wisely and as per- sistently as we might have done. For more than a genera- tion the sympathy of those countries has been allowed to drift away from us. We should now make every effort to gain their friendship. Our trade with them is already large. During the last year our exchanges in the Western Hemisphere amounted to three hundred and fifty millions of dollars, nearly one-fourth of our entire foreign com- merce. To those who may be disposed to underrate the Blaine's letter of acceptance. 155 value of our trade with the countries of North and South America, it may be well to state that their popula- tion is nearly or quite fifty millions, and that, in propor- tion to aggregate numbers, we import nearly double as much from them as we do from Europe. But the result of the whole American trade is in a high degree unsatis- factory. The imports during the past year exceeded two hundred and twenty-five millions, while the exports were less than one hundred and twenty-five millions — showing a balance against us of more than one hundred millions of dollars. But the money does not go to Spanish-America. We send large sums to Europe in coin or its equivalent to pay European manufacturers for the goods which they send to Spanish-America. We are but paymasters for this enormous amount annually to European factors — an amount which is a serious draft, in every financial depres- sion, upon our resources of specie. Cannot this condition of trade in great part be changed ? Cannot the market for our products be greatly enlarged ? We have made a beginning in our effort to improve our trade relations with Mexico, and we should not be content until similar and mutually advantageous arrangements have been successfully made with every nation of North and South America. While the great powers of Europe are steadily enlarging their colonial domination in Asia and Africa it is the especial province of this country to improve and expand its trade with the nations of America. No field promises so much. No field has been cultivated so little. Our foreign policy should be an American policy in its broadest and most comprehensive sense — a policy of peace, of friendship, of commercial enlargement. The name of "American," which belongs to us in our national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism. Citizenship of the Republic must be the pan- oply and safeguard of him who wears it. The American citizen, rich or poor, native or naturalized, white or colored, must everywhere walk secure in his personal and civil rights. The Republic should never accept a lesser duty, it can never assume a nobler one, than the protection of the humblest man who owes it loyalty — protection at home and protection which shall follow him abroad into what- ever land he may go upon a lawful errand. 156 blaine's letter of acceptance. THE SOUTHERN STATES. I recognize, not without regret, the necessity for speak- ing of two sections of our common country. But the regret diminishes when I see that the elements which separated them are fast disappearing. Prejudices have yielded and are yielding, while a growing cordiality Avarms the Southern and the Northern heart alike. Can any one doubt that between the sections confidence and esteem are to-day more marked than at any period in the sixty years preceding the election of President Lincoln ? This' is the result in part of time and in part of Republican principles applied under the favorable conditions of uniformity. It would be a great calamity to change these influences under which Southern Commonwealths are learning to vindicate civil rights and adapting themselves to the conditions of political tranquillity and industrial progress. If there be occasional and violent outbreaks in the South against this peaceful progress, the public opinion of the country regards them as exceptional, and hopefully trusts that each will prove the last. The South needs capital and occupation, not controversy. As much as any part of the North, the South needs the full protection of the revenue laws which the Republican party offers. Some of the Southern States have already entered upon a career of industrial development and pros- perity. These, at least, should not lend their electoral votes to destroy their own future. Any effort to unite the Southern States upon issues that grow out of the memories of the war will summon the Northern States to combine in the assertion of that nation- ality which was their inspiration in the civil struggle. And thus great energies which should be united in a com- mon industrial development wall be wasted in hurtful strife. The Democratic party shows itself a foe to South- ern prosperity by always invoking and urging Southern political consolidation. Such a policy quenches the rising instinct of patriotism in the hearts of the Southern youth ; it revives and stimulates prejudice ; it substitutes the spirit of barbaric vengeance for the love of peace, progress and harmony. THE CIVIL SERVICE. The general character of the civil service of the United Blaine's letter of acceptance. 157 States under all administrations has been honorable. In the one supreme test — the collection and disbursement of revenue — the record of fidelity has never been surpassed in any nation. With the almost fabulous sums which were received and paid during the late war, scrupulous in- tegrity was the prevailing rule. Indeed, throughout that trying period, it can be said to the honor of the American name that unfaithfulness and dishonesty among civil officers were as rare as misconduct and cowardice on the field of battle. The growth of the country has continually and neces- sarily enlarged the civil service, until now it includes a vast body of officers. Rules and methods of appoint- ment which prevailed when the number was smaller have been found insufficient and impracticable, and earnest efforts have been made to separate the great mass of min- isterial officers from partisan influence and personal con- trol. Impartiality in the mode of appointment, to be based on qualification, and security of tenure, to be based on faithful discharge of duty, are the two ends to be ac- complished. The public business will be aided by sepa- rating the legislative branch of the government from all control of appointments, and the executive department will be relieved by subjecting appointments to fixed rules, and thus removing them from the caprice of favoritism. But there should be rigid observance of the law which gives in all cases of equal comj^etency the preference to the soldiers who risked their lives in defence of the Union. I entered Congress in 1863, and in a somewhat pro- longed service I never found it expedient to request or recommend the removal of a civil officer except in four instances, and then for non-political reasons which were instantly conclusive with the appointing power. The officers in the district appointed by Mr. Lincoln in 1861, upon the recommendation of my predecessor, served, as a rule, until death or resignation. I adopted at the begin- ning of my service the test of competitive examination for appointments to West Point, and maintained it so long as I had the right by law to nominate a cadet. In the case of many officers I found that the present law, which arbitrarily limits the term of the commission, offered a constant temptation to changes for mere political reasons. 158 blaine's letter of acceptance. I have publicly expressed the belief that the essential modification of that law would be in many respects ad- vantageous. My observation in the Department of State confirmed the conclusions of my legislative experience, and im- pressed me with the conviction that the rule of impartial appointment might with advantage be carried beyond any existing provision of the civil service law. It should be applied to appointments in the consular service. Consuls should be commercial sentinels — encircling the globe witli watchfulness for their country's interests. Their intelli- gence and competency become, therefore, matters of great public concern. No man should be appointed to an American consulate who is not well instructed in the his- tory and resources of his own country, and in the require- ments and language of commerce in the country to which he is sent. The same rule should be applied even more rigidly to secretaries of legation in our diplomatic service. The people have the right to the most efficient agents in the discharge of public business, and the appointing power should regard this as the prior and ulterior consid- eration. THE MORMON QUESTION. Religious liberty is the right of every citizen of the Re- public. Congress is forbidden by the Constitution to make any law "respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." For a century, under this guarantee, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, have worshipped God according to the dictates of conscience. But religious liberty must not be perverted to the justification of offences against the law. A relig- ious sect, strongly intrenched in one of the Territories of the Union, and spreading rapidly into four other Territo- ries, claims the right to destroy the great safeguard and muniment of social order, and to practise as a religious privilege that which is a crime punished with severe pen- alty in every State of the Union. The sacredness and unity of the family must be preserved as the foundation of ail civil government, as the source of orderly adminis- tration, as the surest guarantee of moral purity. The claim of the Mormons that they are divinely au- thorized to practise polygamy should no more be admitted Blaine's letter of acceptance. 159 than the claim of certain heathen tribes, if they should come among us, to continue the rite of human sacrifice. The law does not interfere Avith what a man believes ; it takes cognizance only of what he does. As citizens the Mormons are entitled to the same civil rights as others, and to these they must be confined. Polygamy can never receive national sanction or toleration by admitting the community that upholds it as a State in the Union. Like others the Mormons must learn that the liberty of the in- dividual ceases where the rights of society begin. OUR CURRENCY. The people of the United States, though often urged and tempted, have never seriously contemplated the recogni- tion of any other money than gold and silver, and cur- rency directly convertible into them. They have not done so, they will not do so, under any necessity less pressing than that of desperate war. The one special requisite for the completion of our monetary system is the fixing of the relative values of silver and gold. The large use of silver as the money of account among Asiatic nations, taken in connection with the increasing commerce of the world, gives the weightiest reasons for an international agreement in the premises. Our government should not cease to urge this measure until a common standard of value shall be reached and established — a standard that shall enable the United States to use the silver from its mines as an auxiliary to gold in settling the balances of com- mercial exchange. THE PUBLIC LANDS. The strength of the Republic is increased b}^ the multi- plication of land-holders. Our laws should look to the judicious encouragement of actual settlers on the public domain, which should henceforth be lield as a sacred trust for the benefit of those seeking homes. The tendency to consolidate large tracts of land in the ownership of indi- viduals or corporations should, with proper regard to vested rights, be discouraged. One hundred thousand acres of land in the hands of one man is far less profitable to the nation in every way than when its ownership is di- vided among one thousand men. The evil of permitting large tracts of the national domain to be consolidated and controlled by the few against the many is enhanced when 160 blaine's letter of acceptance. the persons controllinpj it are aliens. It is but fair that the public lands should be disposed of only to actual set- tlers, and to those who are citizens of the Republic or willing to become so. OUR SHIPPING INTERESTS. Among our national interests one languishes — the for- eign carrying trade. It was very seriously crippled in our civil war, and another blow was given to it in the general substitution of steam for sail in ocean traffic. \Vith a frontage on the two great oceans, with a freightage larger than that of any other nation, we have every inducement to restore our navigation. Yet the government has hith- erto refused its help. A small share of the encouragement given by the government to railways and to manufactures, and a small share of the capital and the zeal given by our citizens to those enterprises would have carried our ships to every sea and to every port. A law just enacted re- moves some of the burdens upon our navigation, and in- spires hope that this great interest may at last receive its due share of attention. All efforts in this direction should receive encouragement. SACREDNESS OF THE BALLOT. This survey of our condition as a nation reminds us that material prosperity is but a mockery if it does not tend to preserve the liberty of the people. A free ballot is the safeguard of republican institutions, without which no national welfare is assured. A popular election, hon- estly conducted, embodies the very majesty of true gov- ernment. Ten millions of voters desire to take part in the pending contest. The safety of the Republic rests upon the integrity of the ballot, upon the security of suffi-age to the citizen. To deposit a fraudulent vote is no worse a crime against constitutional liberty than to obstruct the deposit of an honest vote. He who corrupts suffrage strikes at the very root of free government. He is the arch-enemy of the Republic. He forgets that in trampling upon the rights of others he fatally imperils his own rights. " It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us," but we can maintain our heritage only by guarding with vig- ilance the source of popular power. I am, with great re- spect, your obedient servant, James G. Blaine. JOHN A. lOGAf S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Pkotection to American Industry Insisted Upon — The Evils TO Capital and Labor Consequent Upon Free Trade Forc- ibly Pointed Out — The Platform Fully Indorsed. The following is Gen. John A. Logan's letter accepting the nomination for the office of Vice-President of the United States. It is a straightforward and able document. It takes up the issues of the campaign one by one and discusses them in an open and soldier-like way, and will command attention and respect. Washington, D. C, July 19, 1884. Dear Sir — Having received from you on the 24th of June the official notification of my nomination by the National Republican Convention as the Republican candi- date for Vice-President of the United States, and consider- ing it to be the duty of every man devoting himself to the public service to assume any position to which he may be called by the voice of his countrymen, I accept the nom- ination witli a grateful heart and a deep sense of its re- sponsibilities, and if elected shall endeavor to discharge the duties of the office to the best of my ability. This honor, as is well understood, was wholly unsought by me. That it was tendered by the representatives of the party in a manner so flattering will serve to lighten whatever labors I may be called upon to perform. Although the variety of subjects covered in the very ex- cellent and vigorous declaration of principles adopted by the late Convention prohibits, upon an occasion calling for brevity of expression, that full elaboration of which they are susceptible, I avail myself of party usage to signify my approval of the various resolutions of the platform and to discuss them briefly. (161) 162 Logan's letter of acceptance. PROTECTIO^' TO AMERICAN LABOK. The resolutions of the platform declaring for a levy of such duties "as to afford security to our diversified indus- tries and protection to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that actis'e and intelligent labor, as well as cap- ital, may have its just award and the laboring man his full share in the national prosperity," meet my hearty approval. If there be a nation on the face of the earth which might, if it were a desirable thing, build a wall upon its ever}^ boundary line, deny communion to all the world and proceed to live upon its own resources and produc- tions, that nation is the United States. Tliere is hardly a legitimate necessit}'' of civilized communities which can- not be produced from the extraordinary resources of our several States and Territories, v.-ith their manufactories, mines, farms, timber lands and water-ways. This circumstance, taken in connection with the fact that our form of government is entirely unique among the nations of the Vvorld, makes it utterly absurd to draw com- parisons betAveen our own economic systems and those of other governments, and especially to attempt to borrow systems from them. We stand alone in our circumstances, our forces, our possibilities and our aspirations. . In all successful government it is a prime reciuisite that capital and labor should be upon the best terms, and that both should enjoy the highest attainable prosperity. If there be a disturbance of that just balance between them, one or the other suffers, and dissatisfaction follows, which is harmful to both. The lessons furnished by the comparatively short his- tory of our own national life have been too much over- looked by our people. The fundamental article in the old Democratic creed proclaimed almost absolute Free Trade, and this, too, no more than a quarter of a century ago. The low condition of our national credit, the financial and business uncertainties and general lack of prosperity under that system can be remembered by every man now in middle life. Although in the great number of reforms instituted by the Republican party sufficient credit has not been pub- licly awarded to that of tariff reform, its benefits have, nevertheless, been felt throughout the land. The principle ZOGAJS'^S LETTEE OF ACCEPIAXCE. 163 tmderlying this measure has been in process of i-ra i: 1 development by the Republican party during the : l.- paratively brief period of its power, and to-day a ponion of its antiquated Democratic opponents make unwilling concession to the correctness of the doctrine of an equit- ably adjusted protective tariff by following slowly in its footsteps, though a very long way in the rear. The principle involved is one of no great obscority, and can be readily comprehended by any intelligent person calmly reflecting upon it. The political and social systems of some of our trade competing nations have created working classes miserable in the extreme. They receive the merest stipend for their daily toil. and. in the great expense of the necessities of life, are deprived of those comforts of clothing, housing and health-producing food with which wholesome mental and social recreation can alone make existence happy and desirable. EVILS OF FREE TRADE. Xow, if the products of those countries are to be placed in our markets, alongside of American products, either the American capitalist must suffer in his legitimate profits or he must make the American laborer suffer in the attempt to compete with the species of labor atK)ve referred to. In the case of a substantial reduction of pay. there can be compensating advantages for American labor, because the articles of daily consumption which he uses — with the exception of articles not produced in the United States and easy of being specially provided for. as coffee and tea — are grown in our own country, and would not be affected in price by a lowering in duties. Therefore, while he would receive less for his labor, his cost of living would not be decreased. Being practically placed upon the pay of the European laborer, our own would be deprived of i^cilities for educating and sustaining his family respectably : he would be shorn of the proper opportunities of sell-improve- ment and his value as a citizen, charged with a portion of the obligations of government, would be lessened ; the moral tone of the laboring class would suffer, and in turn the interests of capital and the well-being of orderly citi- zens in general would be menaced, while one evil would react upon another until there would be a general disturb- ance of the whole community. The true problem of a good and stable government is. how to infuse prosperity 164 Logan's letter qf acceptance. among all classes of people — the manufocturer, the farmer, the mechanic and the laborer alike. Such prosperity is a preventative of crime, a security of capital, and the very best guarantee of general peace and happiness. The obvious i)olicy of our government is to protect both capital and labor by a proper imposition of duties. This protection should e.^tend to every article of American pro- duction which goes to build up the general prosperity of our people. The National Convention, in view of the special dangers menacing tlie wool interests of the United States, deemed it wise to adopt a separate resolution on the subject of its proper protection. This industry is a very large and important one. The necessary legislation to sustain this industry upon a prosperous basis should be extended. No one realizes more fully than myself the great delicacy and difliculty of adjusting a tariff so nicely and equitably as to protect every home industry, sustain every class of American labor, jDromote to the highest point our great agricultural interests, and at the same time to give one and all the advantages pertaining to foreign productions not in competition with our own, thus not only building up our foreign commerce, but taking measures to carry it in our own bottoms. Difficult as this work appears, and really is, it is suscep- tible of accomplishment by patient and intelligent labor, and to no hands can it be committed Avith as great assur- ance of success as to those of the Republican party. OUR MONETARY SYSTEM. The Republican party is the indisputable author of a financial and monetar}' system which, it is safe to say, has never before been equalled by that of any other nation. Under the operation of our system of finance the country was safely carried through an extended and expensive war, with a national credit which has risen higlier and higher with each succeeding year, until now the credit of the United States is surpassed by that of no other nation, while its securities, at a constantly increasing j^remium, are eagerly sought after by investors in all parts of the world. Our system of currenc}^ is most admirable in construc- tion. While all the conveniences of a bill circulation Logan's letter of acceptance. 165 attach to it. every dollar of paper represents a dollar of the world's money standards, and as long as the just and wise policy of the Republican party is continued there can be no impairment of the national credit. Therefore, under present laws relating thereto, it will be impossible for any man to lose a penny in the bonds or bills of the United States or in the bills of the national banks. The advantage of having a bank-note in the house which will be as good in the morning as it was the night before, should be appreciated by all. The convertibility of the currency should be maintained intact, and the establishment of an international standard among all commercial nations, fixing the relative values of gold and silver coinage, would be a measure of peculiar advantage. FOREIGN COMMERCE AND RELATIONS. The subjects embraced in the resolutions respectively looking to the promotion of our inter-state and foreign commerce and to the matter of our foreign relations are fraught with the greatest importance to our people. In respect to the inter-state commerce, there is mucli to be desired in the way of equitable rates and facilities of transportation, that commerce may flow freely between the States themselves, diversity of industries and employ- ments be promoted in all sections of the country, and that the great granaries and manufacturing establishments of the interior may be enabled to send their products to, the seaboard for shipment to foreign countries, relieved of vexatious restrictions and discriminations in matters of which it may emphatically be said: "Time is money;" and also of unjust charges upon articles destined to meet close comjDetition from the products of other parts of the world. As to our foreign commerce, the enormous growth of our industries and our surprising production of cereals and other necessaries of life imperatively require that imme- diate and effective means be taken, through peaceful, orderly and conservative methods, to open markets, which have been and are now monopolized largely by other na- tions. This more particularly relates to our sister repub- lics of Spanish America, as also to our friends, the jDeople of the Brazilian empire. The republics of Spanish America are allied to us by the 166 Logan's letter of acceptance. very closest and warmest feelings, based upon similarity of institutions and government, common aspirations and mutual hopes. " The great Republic," as they proudly term the United States, is looked upon by their people with affectionate admiration, and as the model for them to build upon, and we should cultivate between them and ourselves closer commercial relations, which will bind all together by the ties of friendly intercourse and mutual advantage. Further than this, being small common- wealths, in the military and naval sense of the European powers, they look to us at least a moral defender against a system of territorial and other encroachment which, aggressive in the past, has not been abandoned at this day. Diplomacy and intrigue have done much more to wrest the commerce of Spanish America from the United States than has legitimate commercial competition. Politically we should be bound to the republics of our continent by the closest ties, and communication by ships and railroads should be encouraged to the fullest possible extent consistent with a wise and conservative public policy. Above all, we should be upon such terms of friendship as to preclude the possibility of national misun- derstandings between ourselves and any of the members of the American republican family. The best method to promote uninterrupted peace between one and all would lie in the meeting of a general conference or congress, whereby an agreement to submit all international differ- ences to the peaceful decision of friendly arbitration might be reached. An agreement of this kind would give to our sister re- publics confidence in each other and in us, closer com- munication would at once ensue, reciprocally advantageous commercial treaties might be made, whereby much of the commerce which now flows across the Atlantic would seek its legitimate channels and inure to the greater pros- perity of all the American commonwealths. The full ad- vantages of a policy of this nature could not be stated in a brief discussion like the present. FOREIGN POLITICAL RELATIONS. The United States has grown to be a government rep- resenting more than 50,000,000 people, and in every sense, excepting that of mere naval power is one of the first na- Logan's letter of acceptance. 167 tions of the world. As such its citizenship should be valuable, entitling its possessor to protection in every quarter of the globe. I do not consider it necessary that our government should construct enormous fleets of ap- proved ironclads and maintain a commensurate body of seamen, in order to place ourselves on a war footing with the military and naval powers of Europe. Such a course would not be compatible with the peace- ful policy of our country, though it seems absurd that we have not the effective means to repel a wanton invasion of our coast, and give protection to our coast towns and cities against any power. The great moral force of our country is so universally recognized as to render an appeal to arms by us, either in protection of our citizens abroad, or in re- cognition of any just international right, quite improbable. What we most need in this direction is a firm and vigor- ous assertion of every right and privilege belonging to our government or its citizens, as well as an equally firm as- sertion of the rights and privileges belonging to the gen- eral family of American republics situated upon this con- tinent, when opposed, if they ever should be, by the different systems of government upon another continent. An appeal to the right by such a government as ours could not be disregarded by any civilized nation. In the treaty of AVashington we led the world in the means of escape from the horrors of war, and it is to be hoped that the era when all international differences shall be decided by peaceful arbitration is not far off. EQUAL RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP. The central idea of a republican form of government is the rule of the whole people as opposed to the other forms, which rest upon a privileged class. Our forefathers, in the attempt to erect a new govern- ment which might represent the advanced thought of the world at that period upon the subject of governmental reform, adopted the idea of the people's sovereignty, and thus laid the basis of our present republic. While tech- nically a government of the people, it was in strictness only a government of a portion of the people, excluding from all participation a certain other portion held in a condition of absolute despotic and hopeless servitude, the parallel to which, fortunately, does not now exist in any modern Christian nation. 1G8 Logan's letter of acceptance. With the cuhiiination, however, of another cycle of ad- vanced thought, the American RepubHc suddenly as- sumed the full character of a government of the whole people, and 4,000,000 human creatures emerged from the condition of bondsmen to the full status of freemen, theoretically invested with the same civil and political rights possessed by their former masters. The subsequent legislation, which guaranteed by every title the citizenship and full equality before the law in all respects of this pre- viously disfranchised people, amply covers the require- ments, and secures to them, so far as legislation can, the privileges of American citizenship. But the disagreeable fact of the case is that, while theoretically we are in the enjoyment of a government of the whole people, practi- cally we are almost as far from it as we were in the ante- bellum days of the Republic. There are but a few leading and indisputable facts which cover the whole statement of the case. In many of the Southern States the colored population is in large excess of the white. The colored peopTe are Republicans, as are also a considerable portion of the white people. The remaining portion of the latter are Democrats. In the face of this incontestable truth, these States in- variably return Democratic majorities. In other States of the South the colored people, although not a majority, form a very considerable body of the population, and with the white Republicans are numerically in excess of the Democrats, yet precisely the same political result obtains — the Democratic party invariably carrying the elections. It is not even thought advisable to allow an occasional or unimportant election to be carried by the Republicans as a " blind " or as a stroke of finesse. Careful and impartial investigation has shown these results to follow the syste- matic exercise of physical intimidation and violence, con- joined with the most shameful devices ever practised in the name of free elections. So confirmed has this result become that we are brought face to face with the extraor- dinary political fact that the Democratic party of the South relies almost entirely upon the methods stated for its success in national elections. This unlawful perversion of the popular franchise, which I desire to state dispassionately and in a manner comporting with the proper dignity of the occasion, is one Logan's letter of acceptance. 169 of deep gravity to the American people in a double sense. First. It is in violation, open, direct, and flagrant, of the primary principle upon which our government is supposed to rest, viz. : that the control of the government is partici- pated in by all legally qualified citizens in accordance with the plan of popular government ; that majorities must rule in the decision of all questions. Second. It is in violation of the right and interests of the States wherein are particularly centred the great wealth and industries of the nation, and which pay an overwhelming portion of the national taxes. The immense aggregation of interests embraced within, and the enormously greater population of these other States of the Union, are subjected every four years to the dangers of a wholly fraudulent show of nu- merical strength. Under this S3^stem minorities actually attempt to direct the course of national affairs, and, though up to this time success has not attended their eff'orts to elect a President, yet success has been so perilously imminent as to encour- age a repetition of tlie effort at each quadrennial election, and to subject the interests of an overwhelming majority of our people, North and South, to the hazards of illegal subversion. The stereotyped argument in refutation of these plain truths is, that if the Republican element was really in the majority they could not be deprived of their rights and privileges by a minority ; but neither statistics of popula- tion nor the unavoidable logic of the situation can be overridden or escaped. The colored people of the South have recently emerged from the bondage of their present political oppressors ; they have had but few of the advan- tages of education which might enable them to compete with the whites. As I have heretofore maintained, in order to achieve the ideal perfection of a popular government, it is absolutely necessary that the masses should be educated. This proposition applies itself with full force to the colored people of the South. They must have better educational advantages, and thus be enabled to become the intellectual peers of their white brethren, as many of them undoubt- edly already are. A liberal school system should be pro- vided for the rising generation of the South, and the col- ored people be made as capable of exercising the duties of electors as the white people. 170 Logan's letter of acceptance. In the meantime it is the duty of the national govern- ment to go beyond resolutions and declarations on the subject, and to take such action as may lie in its power to secure the absolute freedom of national elections every- where, to the end that our Congress may cease to contain members representing fictitious majorities of their people, thus misdirecting the popular will concerning national legislation, and especiall}'' to the end that, in presidential contests, the great business and other interests of the country may not be placed in fear and trembling, lest an unscrupulous minority should succeed in stifling the wishes of the majority. In accordance with the spirit of the last resolution of the Chicago platform, measures should be taken at once to remedy this great evil. FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. Under our liberal institutions the subjects and citizens of every nation have been welcomed to a home in our midst and, on a compliance with our laws, to a co-opera- tion in our government. While it is the policy of the Republican party to encourage the oppressed of other nations and offer them facilities for becoming useful and intelligent citizens in the legal definition of the term, the party has never contemplated the admission of a class of servile people who are not only unable to comprehend our institutions, but indisposed to become a part of our national family or to embrace any higher civilization than their own. To admit such immigrants would be only to throw a retarding element into the very path of our progress. Our legislation should be amply protective against this danger, and, if not sufficiently so now, should be made so to the full extent allowed by our treaties witli friendly powers. THE CIVIL SERVICE. The subject of civil service administration is a problem that has occupied the earnest thought of statesmen for a number of years past, and the record will show that to- ward its solution many results of a valuable and compre- hensive character liave been attained by the Republican party since its accession to power. In the partisan war- fare made upon the latter, with the view of weakening it Logan's letter of acceptance. 171 in the public confidence, a great deal has been alleged in connection with the abuse of the civil service, the party making the indiscriminate charges seeming to have en- tirely forgotten that it was under the full sway of the Democratic organization that the motto, " To the victors belong the spoils," became a cardinal article in the Demo- cratic creed. With the determination to elevate our governmental ad- ministration to a standard of justice, excellence and pub- lic morality, the Republican party has assiduously en- deavored to lay the foundation of a system which shall reach the highest perfection under the plastic hand of time and accumulating experience. The problem is one of far greater intricac}" than appears upon its superficial con- sideration and embraces the sub-questions of how to avoid the abuses possible to the lodgment of an immense num- ber of appointments in the hands of the executive ; of how to give encouragement to and provoke emulation in the various government employes, in order that they ma}'' strive for proficiency and rest their hopes of advancement upon the attributes of official merit, good conduct and ex- emplary honesty ; and how best to avoid the evils of creating a privileged class in the government service, who, in imitation of European prototypes, may gradually lose all proficiency and value in the belief that they possess a life calling, only to be taken away in case of some flagrant abuse. The thinking, earnest men of the Republican party have made no mere wordy demonstration upon this sub- ject, but they have endeavored to quietly perform that which their opponents are constantly promising, without performing. Under Republican rule the result has been that, with- out engrafting any of the objectionable features of the European systems upon our own, there has been a steady and even rapid elevation of the civil service in all of its departments, until it can now be stated, Vvdthout fear of successful contradiction, that the service is more just, more efficient and purer in all of its features than ever before since the establishment of our government, and if defects still exist in our system, the country can safely rely upon the Republican party as the efficient instrument for their removal. 172 Logan's letter of acceptance. I am in favor of the highest standard of excellence in the administration of the civil service, and will lend my best efforts to the accomplishment of the greatest attain- able perfection in this branch of our service. REMAINING TWIN RELIC OF BARBARISM. The Republican party came into existence in a crusade against the Democratic institutions of slavery and poly- gamy. The first of these has been buried beneath the embers of civil war. The party should continue its efforts until the remaining iniquity shall disajDpear from our civilization under the force of faithfully executed laws. There are other subjects of importance Avhich I would gladly touch upon did space permit. I limit myself to saying that while there should be the most rigid economy of governmental administration, there should be no seif- defeating parsimony, either in our domestic or foreign ser- vice. Official dishonest}'' should be promptly and relent- lessly punished. Our obligations to the defenders of our country should never be forgotten, and the liberal system of pensions provided by the Republican party should not be imperiled by adverse legislation. The law establishing a labor bureau, through which the interests of labor can bo placed in an organized condition, I regard as a salutary measure. The eight-hour law should be enforced as rigidly as any other. We should increase our navy to a degree enabling us to amply protect our coast lines, our commerce, and to give us a force in foreign waters which shall be a respectable and proper representative of a country like our own. The public lands belong to the people, and should not be alienated from them, but reserved for free homes for all desiring to possess them ; and finally, our present Indiai, policy should be continued and improved upon as our ex- perience in its administration may from time to time suggest. I have the honor to subscribe myself, sir, Your obedient servant, John A. Logan. To the Hon. John B. Henderson^ Chairman of the Committee. Interesting Facts about all our Presidents. ADMINISTRATION OF WASHINGTON. 1789-1797. The 4th of March, 1789, was the time appointed for the Government of the United States to go into operation under its new organization ; but several weeks elapsed before quorums of both Houses of Congress were assembled. The city of New York was the place where Congress then met. On the 6th of April the electoral votes were counted. At that time, and until 1805, each elec- tor voted by ballot for two persons. If a majority of all the votes were cast for any person, he who received the greatest number of votes became President, and he who received the next greatest number became Vice-President. When the votes were counted they were found to be for George Washington, of Virginia, 69 (all of the electors having voted for him), John Adams, of Massachu- setts received 34 votes, and 35 votes were cast for various other candidates. Charles Thompson, the oldest secretary of Con- gress, was sent to Mount Vernon to notify Wash- ington of his election, Washington promptly sig-, nified his acceptance of the office, and, two days later, started for New York. He was desirous of 2 (17) 18 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. travelling as quietly and unostentatiously as possi- ble, but the people of the States through which he passed would not permit him to do so. His jour- ney was a constant ovation. Crowds greeted him at every town with the most enthusiastic demon- strations of ajffection and confidence j triumphal GEOKGE WASHINGTON. arches were erected, and his way was strewn with flowers by young girls ; and maidens and mothers greeted him with songs composed in his honor. In consequence of these demonstrations his pro- gress was so much retarded that he did not reach New York until the latter part of April. On the 30th of April Washington appeared on FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 19 the balcony of Federal Hall, New York, on the site of which the United States Treasury now stands, and took the oath of office in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, and a large crowd of citizens assembled in the streets below. He then repaired to the Senate chamber, and there delivered an address to both Houses of Congress. The plan of the new government being now completed, Congress proceeded to its or- ganization through the departments of the judi- ciary, of state, of the treasury, of war, and of attorney-general. President Washington appointed Thomas Jeffer- son, of Virginia, Secretary of State, Alexander Ham- ilton, of New York, Secretary of the Treasury, and General Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, Secretary of War. John Jay, of New York, was made Chief- Justice of the United States, and Edmund Ran- dolph, of Virginia, Attorney-General. Frederick A. Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, was chosen Speaker of the House ; but his election was not a party triumph, for parties were still in a state of utter confusion. Between the extreme Anti-Federalists, who considered the Constitution a long step toward a despotism, and the extreme Federalists, who desired a monarchy modeled on that of England — there were all varieties of polit- ical opinion. Washington, through the universal confidence in his integrity and good judgment, had the ability to hold together the conservative men 20 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. of all parties for a time, and prevent party contest upon the interpretation of Federal powers until the Constitution should be tested and its value de- monstrated to the people. In 1792 the second Presidential election took place. Washington was anxious to retire, but yielded to the wishes of the people, and was again chosen President by the unanimous vote of the electoral colleges of the several States. The electoral votes were counted in February, 1793, and found to be for George Washington 132 (all the electors having voted for him), for John Adams 77, for George Clinton 50, for Thomas Jefferson 4, and for Aaron Burr 1. Washington was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1793. At the close of his term of office Washington withdrew to his home at Mount Yernon, to enjoy the repose he had so well earned, and which was so grateful to him. His administration had been eminently successful. When he entered upon the duties of the Presidency the government was new and untried, and its best friends doubted its ability to exist long ; the finances were in confusion, and the country was burdened with debt ; the disputes with Great Britain threatened to involve the country in a new war ; and the authority of the general government was uncertain and scarcely recognized. When he left office the state of affairs was changed. The government had been severely tested, and had been found equal to any demand FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 21 upon it. The disputes with England had been ar- ranged, and the country, no longer threatened with war, but was free to devote its energies to its im- provement. Industry and commerce were growing rapidly. ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS. 4th of March, 1797— 4th of March, 1801. At the elections held in the fall of 1796 the Federalists put forward John Adams, of Massa- chusetts, as their candidate, while the Republicans or Democrats supported Thomas Jefferson, of Vir- ginia. The contest was very bitter, and resulted in the election of Mr. Adams. Mr. Jefferson, receiv- ing the next highest number of votes, was de- clared Vice-President, in accordance with the law as it then stood. The electoral vote was counted in February and was as follows : For John Adams 71, for Thomas Jefferson 68, for Thomas Pinckney 59, for Aaron Burr 30, and the rest scattering. On the 4th of March, 1797, Mr. Adams, the second President of the United States, was inau- gurated at Philadelphia, in the presence of both Houses of Congress, and Thomas Jefferson was in- augurated as Vice-President. Mr. Adams was dressed in a full suit of pearl-colored broadcloth, and wore his hair powdered. He was in the sixty- second year of his age, and in the full vigor of health and intellect. 22 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. Mr. Adams made no changes in the cabinet left by President Washington, and the policy of his administration corresponded throughout with that of his great predecessor. He came into office at a time when this policy was to be subjected to JOHN ADAMS. the severest test, and was to be triumphantly vin- dicated by the trial. Mr. Adams began his official career with the declaration of his "determination to maintain peace and inviolate faith with all nations, and neutrality and impartiality with the belligerent powers of Europe." FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 23 During the summer of the year 1800 the seat of the general government was removed from Phila- OR. (62) FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 03 but liad removed with his parents to Kentucky at an early age, and had grown up to manhood on the frontiers of that State. In 1803, at the age of twenty-four, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the army by President Jefferson, and had spent forty years in the military service of the country. His exploits in the Florida war and brilliant vic- tories in Mexico had made him the most popular man in the United States, and had won him the high office of the Presidency at the hands of his grateful fellow-citizens. He was without political exp?rience, but he was a man of pure and stain- less integrity, of great firmness, a sincere patriot, and possessed of strong good sense. He had re- ceived a majority of the electoral votes of both the Northern and Southern States, and was free from party or sectional ties of any kind. His inaugural address was brief, and was confined to a statement of general principles. His cabinet was composed of the leaders of the Whig party, with John JVL Clayton, of Delaware, as Secretary of State. The last Congress had created a new executive depart- ment — that of the interior — to relieve the secre- tary of the treasury of a part of his duties, and President Taylor was called upon to appoint the first secretary of the interior, which he did in the person of Thomas Ewing, of Ohio. The new de- partment was charged with the management of the public lands, the Indiau tribes, and the issuing of patents to inventors. 04 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. Since the announcement of the Wilmot Proviso, the agitiition of the slavery question had been in- cessant, and had increased instead of diminishing with each succeeding year. It Avas one of the chief topics of discussion in the newspaper press of the country, and entered largely into every political controversy, however local or insignificant in its nature. The opponents of slavery regarded the annexation of Texas and the Mexican war as efforts to extend that institution, and were resolved to put an end to its existence at any cost. The advocates of slavery claimed that the Southern States had an equal right to the common property of the States, and were entitled to protection for their slaves in any of the Territories then owned by the States or that might afterwards be acquired by them. The Missouri Compromise forbade the existence of slavery north of the line of 3G° SCX north latitude, and left the inhabitants south of that line free to decide upon their own institutions. The Anti-slavery party was resolved that slavery should be excluded from the territory acquired from Mexico, and in the Wilmot Proviso struck their first blow for the accomplishment of this pur- pose. Upon the organization of the House President Taylor sent in his first and only message. He re- cognized the danger with which the sectional con- troversy threatened the country, expressed his views of the situation in moderate terms, and inti- MILLARD FILLMORE. (65) 66 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. mated that he should faithfull}- discharge his duties to the whole country. About the last of June, 1850, President Taylor was stricken down with a fever, which soon ter- minated fatally. He died on the 9th of July amid the grief of the whole country, which felt that it had lost a faithful and upright chief magistrate. Though the successful candidate of one political party, his administration had received the earnest support of the best men of the country without regard to party, and his death was a national calamity. He had held office only sixteen months, but had shown himself equal to his difficult and delicate position. By the terms of the Constitution the office of President devolved upon Millard Fillmore, Vice- President of the United States. On the 10th of July he took the oath of office, and at once entered upon the duties of his new position. Mr. Fillmore was a native of New York, and was born in that State in the year 1800. He had served his State in Congress, and as governor, and was personally one of the most popular of the Presidents. The cabinet of General Taylor re- signed their offices immediately after his death, and the new President filled their places by ap- pointing a new cabinet with Daniel Webster at its head as Secretary of State. On the 4th of July, 1851, the corner-stone of the two new wings of the capitol was laid. Mr. FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 67 Webster delivered a speech on the occasion which was considered one of the greatest of his life. It was delivered to an immense audience, on a plat- form erected on the east side of the capitol. In it, among other things, he said : " If it shall hereafter be the will of God that this structure shall fall from its base — that its foundations shall be upturned, and the deposit be- neath this stone be brought to the eyes of men — be it then known that on this day the Union of the United States of America stands firm, that this Constitution still exists unimpaired, and, with all its usefulness and glory, is growing every day stronger in the affections of the great body of the American people, and attracting more and more the admiration of the world." During the fall of this year (1852) another Presidential election took place. The Democratic party nominated Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, for President, and Wil- liam R. King, of Alabama, for Vice-President. The Whig party nominated General Winfield Scott for President, and William A. Graham, of North Carolina, for Vice-President. The Anti-slavery party put in nomination John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and George W. Julian, of Indiana. The election resulted in the choice of the candi- dates of the Democratic party by an overwhelming majority. Mr. King, the Vice-President elect, did not long 68 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUK PRESIDENTS. survive his triumph. His liealth had been deli- cate for many years, and he was obliged to pass the winter succeeding the election in Cuba. Being unable to return home, he took the oath of office before the American consul, at Havana, on the 4th of March. He then returned to the United States, and died at his home in Alabama on the 18th of April, 1853. The result of the election was : 251 electoral votes for Pierce and King ; and 42 for Scott and Graham ; by States, 27 for Pierce and King, and 4 for Scott and Graham. The States which voted for General Scott were : Mnssachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The anti-slavery ticket received no electoral vote, but out of the popular vote of nearly 3,500,000, it polled 155,825 indi- vidual votes, being little over half of what it polled at the previous election. In October, 1852, the whole country was again thrown into mourning by the announcement of the death of Mr. Webster, the last survivor of the great senatorial ''trio," Clay, Calhoun and Webster. They were regarded as the three greatest states- men of the country in their day. They were all men of very great abilitj', of very different charac- ters of mind, as well as styles of oratory. They differed also widely on many questions of public policy. But they were all true patriots in the highest sense of that term. FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 69 ADMINISTRATION OF PIERCE. 4th of March, 1853— 4th of March, 1857. On the 4th of March, 1853, Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, the fourteenth President of the United States, was duly inausjurated in the 49th FIIANKLIN PIERCE. year of his ago. The oath of office was adminis- tered by Chief-Justice Taney. General Pierce was an accomplished orator, and his inaugural address was delivered in his happiest style, in a tone of voice that was distinctly heard at a great distance. It was responded to by shouts from the surroundin": multitudes. 70 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. The most important measure of Mr. Pierce's ad- ministration was the bill to organize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The region embraced in these Territories formed a part of the Louisiana purchase, and extended from the borders of Mis- souri, Iowa, and Minnesota to the summit of the Rocky mountains, and from the parallel of 36° 3(y north latitude to the border of British America. This whole region by the terms of the Missouri Compromise had been secured to free labor by the exclusion of slavery. The people engaged warmly in the discussion aroused by the reopening of the question of slavery in the Territories. The North resented the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and in the South a large and respectable party sincerely regretted the repeal of that settlement. By the passage of the Kansas- Nebraska bill the Thirt^'-third Congress assumed a grave responsibility, and opened the door to a bloody and bitter conflict in the Territories between slavery and free labor. The troubles in Kansas which followed gave rise to a new party which called itself Republican, and which was based upon an avowed hostility to the extension of slavery. A third party, called the American, or Know Nothing, also took part in the Presidential campaign of 1856, and was based upon the doctrine that the political offices of the country should be held only by persons of American birth. The Democratic party nominated James Buchanan, of FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 71 Pennsylvania, for the Presidency, and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for the Vice-Presidency. The Republican nominee for the Presidency was John C. Fremont, of California; for the Vice- Presidency William L. Dayton, of New Jersey. The American or Know Nothing party supported Millard Fillmore, of New York, for the Presidency, and Andrew J. Donelson, of Tennessee, for the Vice-Presidency. The Whig party had been broken to pieces by its defeat in 1852, and had now entirely disappeared. The canvass was unusually excited. Slavery was the principal question in dispute. Party ties had little influence upon men. The sentiment of the nation at large had been outraged by the re- peal of the Missouri Compromise, and thousands of Democrats, desiring to rebuke their party for its course in bringing about this repeal, united with the Republican party, which declared as its lead- ing principle that it was " both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism — polygamy and slavery." The elections resulted in the triumph of James Buchanan, the candidate of the Democratic party. Mr. Buchanan received 174 electoral votes; Gen- eral Fremont 114, and Fillmore 8. The vote by States was : 19 for tdo Democratic ticket ; 11 for the Republican, and 1 for the American. The nineteen States that voted for Mr. Buchanan were: 72 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ken- tucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, and California. The eleven that voted for Fremont were : Maine, New Hampshire, Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The one that voted for Fillmore was Maryland. ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BUCHANAN. March 4th, 1857— March 4th, 1861. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, the fifteenth President of the United States, was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1857, in the 66th year of his age, and was a statesman of ripe experience. The oath of office was administered by Chief- Justice Taney. His inaugural was conciliatory, and approbatory of the principles of the Kansas and Nebraska bill upon which he had been elected. He was born in Pennsylvania, in 1791, and was by profession a law^'er. He had served his State in Congress as a representative and a senator, had been minister to Russia under President Jackson, and had been a member of the Cabinet of Presi- dent Polk, as Secretary of State. During the four years previous to his election to the Presidency, he had resided abroad as the Minister of the United States to Great Britain, and in that capao- JAMES BUCHANAN. (73) 74 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. itj had greatly added to his reputation as a states- man. The intense sectional feeling which the dis- cussion of the slavery question had aroused had alarmed patriotic men in all parts of the Union, and it was earnestly hoped that Mr. Buchanan's administration would be able to effect a peaceful settlement of the quarrel. Mr. Buchanan selected his Cabinet from the leading men of the Democratic ]3arty. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, was appointed Secretary of State ; Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Sec- retary of the Treasury ; John B. Floyd, of Vir- ginia, Secretary of War ; Isaac Toucey, of Connec- ticut, Secretary of the Navy ; Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Secretary of Interior ; Aaron V. Brown, of Tennessee, Postmaster-General, and Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, Attorney-General. The two leading subjects which immediately engaged the attention of the new administration were the state of affairs in Utah on the one hand, and Kansas on the other. On the night of the 16th of October. 1859, John Brown, who had acquired a considerable notoriety as the leader of a Free Soil company during the war in Kansas, entered the State of Virginia, at Harper's Ferry, with a party of twenty-one men, and seized the United States arsenal at that place. He then sent out parties to induce the negro slaves to join him, his avowed object being to put an end to slavery in Virginia by exciting an insurrection of the slaves. Several citizens were kidnapped by FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 75 these parties, but the slaves refused to join Brown, or to take any part in the insurrection. The effect of Brown's attempt upon the South- ern people was most unfortunate. They regarded it as unanswerable evidence of the intention of the people of the North to make war upon them under the cover of the Union. The John Brown raid was the most powerful argument that had ever been placed in the hands of the disunionists, and in the alarm and excitement produced by that event, the Southern people lost sight of the fact that the great mass of the Northern people sin- cerely deplored and condemned the action of Brown and his supporters. While the excitement was at its height the Presidential campaign opened in the spring of 1860. The slavery question was the chief issue in this struggle. The Convention of the Democra- tic party met at Charleston, in April, but being unable to effect an organization, adjourned to Bal- timore, and reassembled in that city in June. The extreme Southern delegates were resolved that the convention should be committed to the protection of slavery in the Territories by Congress, and fail- ing to control it withdrew from it in a body, and organized a separate convention, which they de- clared represented the Democratic party, but which, in reality, as the vote subsequently proved, repre- sented but a minority of that party. The original convention, after the withdrawal 76 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. of these delegates, nominated for the Presidency Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, and for the Vice- Presidency Herschell V. Johnson, of Georgia. It then proceeded to adopt the platform put forward by the entire party four years before, at Cincinnati, upon the nomination of Mr. Buchanan, with this additional declaration : " That as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party as to the nature and extent of the powers of a territorial legislature, and as to the powers and duties of Con- gress under the Constitution of the United States over the institution of slavery within the Territo- ries, . . . the party will abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the questions of constitutional law." The " Seceders' Convention," as it was commonly called, also adopted the Cincinnati platform, and pledged themselves to non-interference by Congress with slavery in the Territories or in the District of Columbia. This party held to the doctrine that the Constitution recognized slavery as existing in the Territories, and sanctioned and protected it there, and that neither Congress nor the people of the Territories could frame any law against slavery until the admission of such Territories into the Union as States. The " Seceders' Con- vention" put forward as its candidate for the Pres- idency John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and for the Vice-Presidency Joseph Lane, of Oregon. The Republican party took issue with both wings FACTS ABOU'i ALL OUR' PRESIDENTS. 77 of the Democratic party. Its convention was held at Chicago, Illinois, and its candidates were, for President, Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and for Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine. The platform of principles adopted by the Republican Convention declared that *^ the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Inde- pendence and embodied in the federal Constitution is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions. . . . That all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- tain inalienable rights." A fourth party, known as the "American or Constitutional Union Party," proclaimed as its platform the following vague sentence : " The con- stitution of the country, the union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws." The convention of this party met at Baltimore, and nominated for the Presidency John Bell, of Tennessee, and for the Vice-Presidency Edward Everett, of Massachu- setts. The contest between these parties was bitter beyond all precedent, and resulted as follows : Popular vote for Lincoln, . 1,860,452 Douglas, . 1,375,157 Breckinridge, 847,953 Bell, . . 590,631 The electoral vote stood as follows: For Lincoln, 180; for Breckinridge, 72; for Bell, 39; for Douglas, 12. 78 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. Mr. Lincoln was thus elected by a plurality ot the popular vote, which secured for him the elec- toral votes of eighteen States. These States were entirely north of the sectional line, and he received not a single electoral vote from a Southern State. The States which cast their electoral votes for Breckinridge, Bell, and Douglas, w^ere entirely slaveholding. The division thus made was alarm- ing. It was the first time in the history of the republic that a President had been elected by the votes of a single section of the Union. The eighteen States that voted for Mr. Lincoln, under the plurality count of the popular vote, were : Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, and Oregon. The eleven that voted for Mr. Breckinridge were : Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mis- sissippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas. The three that so voted for Mr. Bell were : Vir- ginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee ; and the one that so voted for Mr. Douglas was Missouri. Mr. Lin- coln did not receive the majority of the popular vote in but sixteen of the thirty-three States then constituting the Union ; so he had been constitu- tionally elected, without having received a majority of the popular vote of the States or of the people. FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 7& ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. March 4th, 1861— April 15th, 1865. Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States, was inaugurated at Washington on the 4th of March, 1861. As it was feared that an attempt would be made to prevent the in- auguration, the city was held by a strong body of regular troops, under General Scott, and the Presi- dent elect was escorted from his hotel to the capitol by a military force. No effort was made to inter- fere with the ceremonies, and the inauguration passed off quietly. The new President was in his fifty-third year, and was a native of Kentucky. When he was but eight years old his father removed to Indiana, and the boyhood of the future President was spent in hard labor upon the farm. Until he reached man- hood he continued to lead this life, and during this entire period attended school for only a year. At the age of twenty-one he removed to Illinois, where he began life as a storekeeper. Being anx- ious to rise above his humble position, he deter- mined to study law. He was too poor to buy the necessary books, and so borrowed them from a neighboring lawyer, read them at night, and re- turned them in the morning. His genial character, great good nature, and love of humor, won him 80 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. the friendship of the people among whom he re- sided, and they elected him to the lower house of the legislature of Illinois. He now abandoned his mercantile pursuits, and began the practice of the law, and was subsequently elected a representative ABRAHAM LINCOLN. to Congress from the Springfield district. He took an active part in the politics of his State, and in 1858 was the candidate of the Republican party for United States senator. In this capacity he en- gaged in a series of debates in various parts of the FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 81 State with Senator Douglas, the Democratic can- didate for re-election to the same position. This debate was remarkable for its brilliancy and intel- lectual vigor, and brought him prominently before the whole country, and opened the way to his nomination for the Presidency. In person he was tall and ungainly, and in manner he was rough and awkward, little versed in the refinements of so- ciety. He was a man, however, of great natural vigor of intellect, and was possessed of a fund of strong common sense, which enabled him to see at a glance through the shams by which he was sur- rounded, and to pursue his own aims with single- ness of heart and directness of purpose. He had sprung from the ranks of the people, and he was never false to them. He was a simple, unaffected, kind-hearted man ; anxious to do his duty to the whole country ; domestic in his tastes and habits ; and incorruptible in every relation of life. He was fond of humor, and overflowed with it ; find- ing in his " little stories " the only relaxation he ever sought from the heavy cares of the trying position upon which he was now entering. He selected his cabinet from the leading men of the Republican party, and placed William H. Seward, of New York, as Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury ; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy ; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of the 82 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. Interior; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Post master-General ; and Edward Bates, of Missouri, Attorney-General. The Great Civil War was the all-important event of Mr. Lincoln's administration. In 1864 the next Presidential election was held. The Republican National Convention met at Bal- timore, June 7, and adopted a platform declaring war upon slavery, and demanding that no terms but unconditional surrender should be given to the rebellious States. It nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for President, and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, for Vice-President. The latter was a United States Senator when his State allied itself to the Confederacy. He, however, continued to hold his seat, and was the only Senator from any of the States, who did so after, the withdrawal of their States from the Federal Union. The Democratic Convention met at Chicago Au- gust 29, and nominated for the Presidency General George B. McClellan, of the Federal army, and for the Vice-Presidency, George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. The result was Messrs. Lincoln and John- son carried the electoral votes of every State ex- cept three, to wit : New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky ; of the popular vote the Democratic ticket received 1,802,237, against 2,213,665 cast for Lincoln and Johnson. Abraham Lincoln having been duly elected was FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 83 inaugurated for his second term on the 4th of March, 1865. On the night of April 14th, Presi- dent Lincohi was assassinated at Ford's Theatre, in Washington City, by John Wilkes Booth. ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 15th of April, 1865— 4th of March, 1869. Upon the death of Mr. Lincoln, Andrew John- son, the Vice-President, by the terms of the Con- stitution, became President of the United States. He took the oath of office on the 15th of April, and at once entered upon the discharge of his duties. His first act was to retain all the mem- bers of the Cabinet appointed by Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Johnson was a native of North Carolina, having been born in Raleigh, on the 29th of De- cember, 1808. At the age often he was bound as an apprentice to a tailor of that city. He was at this time unable to read or write. Some years later, being determined to acquire an education, he learned the alphabet from a fellow-workman, and a friend taught him spelling. He was soon able to read, and pursued his studies steadily, working ten or twelve, hours a day at his trade, and studying two or three more. In 1826 he re- moved to Greenville, Tennessee. He was subse- quently chosen alderman of his town, and with this election entered upon his political career. Studying law he abandoned tailoring, and devoted himself to legal pursuits and politics. He wq,s ANDREW JOHNSON. (84) FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 85 successively chosen Mayor, Member of the Legisla- ture, Presidential elector, and State Senator. He was twice elected Governor of Tennessee, and three times a Senator of the United States from that State. Upon the secession of Tennessee from the Union, he refused to relinquish his seat in the Senate, and remained faithful to the cause of the Union throughout the v/ar, winning considerable reputation during the struggle by his services in behalf of the national cause. He was an earnest, honest-hearted man, who sincerely desired to do his duty to the country. His mistakes were due to his temperament, and proceeded from no desire to serve his own interests or those of any party. In his public life he was incorruptible. A man of ardent nature, strong convictions, and indomitable will, it was not possible that he should avoid errors, or fail to stir up a warm and determined opposition to his policy. The first duty devolving upon the new adminis- tration was the disbanding of the army, which at the close of the wnr numbered over a million of men. It was prophesied by foreign nations and feared by many persons at home, that the sudden return of such a large body of men to the pursuits of civil life would be attended with serious evils, but both the Union and the Confederate soldiers went back quietly and readily to their old avoca- tions. Thus did these citizen-soldiers give to the world a splendid exhibition of the triumph of law S6 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. and order in a free country, and a proof of the- stability of our institutions. The restoration of the Southern States to their places in the Union was the most important work of Mr. Johnson's administration. In the fall of 1868 another Presidential election was held. The Republican party nominated Gen- eral Ulysses S. Grant for the Presidency, and Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, for the Vice-Presi- dency. The Democratic party nominated Horatio Seymour, of New York, for the Presidency, and Frank P. Blair, of Missouri, for the Vice-Presi- dency. The election resulted in the choice of General Grant by a popular vote of 2,985,031 to 2,648,830 votes cast for Mr. Seymour. In the electoral college Grant received 217 votes and Seymour 77. The States of Virginia, Mississippi and Texas were not allowed to take part in this- election, being still out of the Union. ADMINISTRATION OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 4th of March, 1869— 4th of March, 1877. Ulysses S. Grant, the eighteenth President of the United States, was inaugurated at Washington with imposing ceremonies on the 4th of March, 1869. He was born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, on the 27th of April, 1822. His father was a tanner, and wished him to follow his trade, but the boy had more ambitious hopes, and at the age of seven- FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 87 teen a friend secured for him an appointment as a cadet at West Point, where he was educated. Upon graduating he entered the army. Two years later he was sent to Mexico, and served through the war with that country with distinc- ULYSSES S. GKAXT. tion. He was specially noticed by his comman- ders, and was promoted for gallant conduct. Soon after the close of the war he resigned his commis- sion, and remained in civil life and obscurity until the breaking out of the civil war, when he volun- 88 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. teered his services, and was commissioned by Governor Yates Colonel of the Twenty-first Illi- nois regiment. He was soon made a Brigadier- General, and fought his first battle at Belmont. His subsequent career has been related in all his- tories of the Great Civil War. He selected the members of his Cabinet more because of his per- sonal friendship for them than for their weight and influence in the party that had elected him. General Grant was the fifth President whose military achievements had contributed more to his election to this high office than any services ren- dered in the civil departments of the government. His inaugural, delivered before an immense crowd of enthusiastic admirers, on the east portico of the capitol, was brief and pointed. He was no orator, and his address on this occasion was rehearsed from a manuscript before him. It might be char- acterized as a good specimen of the '^ multum in pm-vo." He said '' he should have no policy of his own, except to carry out the will of the people, as expressed by the legislative department, and ex- pounded by the judiciary. Laws," said he, "are to govern all alike, those opposed, as well as those who favor them. I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." The oath of office was administered by Chief-Justice Chase. His cabinet consisted at first of Elihu B. Wash- burne, of Illinois, Secretary of State; Alexander FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 89 T. Stewart, of New York, Secretary of the Treasury ; John D. Rawlins, of Illinois, who had been his chief of staff from the beginning of the great war until its termination. Secretary of War; Adolph E. Borie, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Navy ; Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio, Secretary of the Interior ; John A. J. Cresswell, of Maryland, Postmaster-General ; and Ebenezer R. Hoar, of Massachusetts, Attorney-General. Several changes in the cabinet were afterwards made, the most notable of which were George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, Secretary of the Treasury, instead of Alexander T. Stewart, the famous merchant of New York. Soon after the confirmation of the latter by the Senate, it was ascertained that he was ineligible under the law, because of his being engaged in commerce. Mr. Washburne also gave up his place to accept the position of Minister to France, and the vacant Secretarj^ship of the State Department was given to Hamilton Fish of New York. The President on the 20th of March, 1870, issued a proclamation announcing that the Fifteenth Amendment had been duly ratified by a sufficient number of States, and therefore declared it to be part of the Constitution of the United States. In the fall of 1872, another presidential election occurred. The canvass was marked by the most intense partisan bitterness. The Republican party renominated General Grant for the presidency, and 90 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. supported Henry Wilson for the vice-presidency. The measures of the administration had arrayed a large number of Republicans against it. These now organized themselves as the Liberal Republican party, and nominated Horace Greeley of New York for the presidency, and B. Gratz Brown of Missouri for the vice-presidency. The Democratic party made no nomhiations, and its convention indorsed the candidates of the Liberal Republican party. The election resulted in the triumph of the Republican candidates by overwhelming majorities. The elections were scarcely over when the country was saddened by the death of Horace Greeley. He had been one of the founders of the Republican party, and had been closely identified with the political history of the country for over thirty years. He was the "Founder of the New York Tribune,'' and had done good service with his journal in behalf of the cause he believed to be founded in right. He was a man of simple and childlike character, utterly unaffected, and generous to a fault. In his manner and dress he was eccen- tric, but nature had made him a true gentleman at heart. His intellectual ability was conceded by all. His experience in public life and his natural dis- position induced him to favor a policy of concilia- tion in the settlement of the reconstruction ques- tion, and, influenced by these convictions, he signed the bail-bond of Jefferson Davis and secured the release of the fallen leader of the South from his FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 91 imprisonment. This act cost him a large part of his popularity in the North. He accepted the presidential nomination of the Liberal party in the belief that his election would aid in bringing about a better state of feeling between the North and the South. He was attacked by his political opponents with a bitterness which caused him much suffering, and many of his old friends deserted him and joined in the warfare upon him. Just before the close of the canvass, his wife, to whom he was- tenderly attached, died, and his grief for her and the excitement caused by the political contest broke him down and unsettled his mind. He wa& conveyed by his friends to a private asylum, where he died on the 29 th of November, 1872, in the sixty-second year of his age. The result of the election by States was 286 electoral votes for Grant, for President, 286 for Wilson, for Vice-President,, and 47 for B. Gratz Brown, for Vice-President. Mr. Greeley having died soon after the election, and before the meeting of the Electoral Colleges, the electoral votes that he carried at the popular election (only 65) were cast in the colleges for a number of persons whose names had never been connected with the office. The votes by States for Grant were Alabama^ California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois^ Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ne- vada, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New 92 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. Jersey, New York. Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, West Virginia, Vir- ginia, Vermont, Wisconsin — 29. Those casting electoral votes against Grant were Maryland, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas — 6. The electoral votes of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana were not counted. On the 4th day of July, 1876, the United States of America completed the one hundredth year of their existence as an independent nation. The day was celebrated with imposing ceremonies and with the most patriotic enthusiasm in all parts of the Union. The celebrations began on the night of the 3d of July, and were kept up until midnight on the 4th. Each of the great cities of the Union vied with the others in the splendor and complete- ness of its rejoicings ; but the most interesting of all the celebrations was naturally that which was held at Philadelphia, in which city the Declaration of Independence was adopted. In the summer of 1876 the various political par- ties met in their respective conventions to nomi- nate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presi- dency of the United States, which officers were to be chosen at the general election in November. The Republican Convention assembled at Cincin- nati, Ohio, on the 14th of June, and resulted in the nomination of Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, for President of the United States, and of William A. Wheeler, of New York, for Vice- FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 93 President. The Democratic Convention was held at St. Louis on the 27th of June, and nominated Governor Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, for the Presidency, and Governor Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, for the Vice-Presidency. A third Conven- tion, representing the Independent Greenback party, met at Indianapolis on the 18th of May, and nomi- nated Peter Cooper, of New York, for President, and Samuel F. Gary, of Ohio, for Vice-President. The campaign which followed these nominations was one of intense bitterness, and was in many respects the most remarkable the country has ever witnessed. The election was held on the 7th of November. The popular vote was as follows : ForSannielJ. Tilden 4,284,265 " Rutherford B. Hayes 4,033,295 " Peter Cooper 81,737 Tilden thus received a popular majority of 250,970 votes over Hayes, and a majority of 169,- 233 votes over both Hayes and Cooper. Both sides claimed the success of their tickets. In several of the States there were two returns. Three hundred and sixty-nine was the aggregate number of votes of the electoral college. It re- quired 185 to elect. The advocates of Tilden and Hendricks maintained that by right they were en- titled to the electoral votes of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, which would give them an 94 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. aggregate of 203 votes ; but that if the votes of these three Statas, amounting to 19, were given to Hayes and Wheeler, Tilden and Hendricks would still have 184 undisputed votes, and that they were clearly entitled to one vote from Oregon, which would give them 185 — the requisite majority. Meantime the Republican leaders maintained that upon a right count of the vote of the four States in dispute Hayes and Wheeler had the majority. Leading Republicans in Congress maintained that the presiding officer of the Senate had a right to count the votes as sent up from the several States, and to decide questions of dispute between differ- ent returning boards. The Democrats proposed that the matter should be settled and adjusted under the previously existing joint rule of the two Houses on the subject of counting the electoral votes. This the Republicans refused to do. The condition of affairs was assuming a threatening aspect, when a proposition was made to provide by law for a Joint High Commission to whom the whole subject should be referred. This was to consist of five members of the House, five of the Senate, and five of the Supreme Court. The five Judges of the Supreme Court were Clifford, Miller, Field, Strong, and Bradley ; the Senators were Edmunds, Morton, Frelinghuysen, Bayard, and Thurman ; the members of the House were Payne, Hunton, Abbott, Garfield, and Hoar. To the commission thus constituted, the whole subject was referred by special act of Congress. FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 95 The two Houses of Congress met in joint con- vention on the 1st of February, 1877, and began the counting of the electoral vote. When the vote of Florida was reached, three certificates were presented and were referred to the Electoral Com- mission. This body, upon hearing the arguments of the counsel of the Democratic and Republican parties, decided that it had no power to go behind the action of the Return Board, and that the cer- tificate of that body giving the vote of that State to Hayes must be accepted by the two Houses of Congress. The vote by which this decision was reached stood eight (all Republicans) in favor of it, and seven (all Democrats) against it. A similar conclusion was come to in the case of Louisiana. Objections were made to the reception of the votes of Oregon and South Carolina. In the Oregon case the decision was unanimously in favor of counting the votes of the Hayes electors. In the South Carolina case the commission decided that the Democratic electors were not lawfully chosen ; but on the motion to give the State to Hayes the vote stood 8 yeas to 7 nays. So South Carolina was counted for Hayes. Objection was made on the ground of ineligibility to certain electors from Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, but the objections were not sustained by the two Houses. This Commission made its final report on all the cases submitted to them, On the 2d day of March^ 96 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. and according to their decision, Hayes and Wheeler received 185 votes, and Tilden and Hendricks 184 votes. The States that voted for Hayes and Wheeler were California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Pennsyl- vania, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin ; and those which voted for Tilden and Hendricks were Alabama, Arkansas. Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia. Indiana, Kentucky. Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. General Grant, on the expiration of his second term, retired from office, but remained in Wash- ington City, receiving marked denionstrations of the admiration of his friends for some months, before starting upon an extensive travel through Europe and around the world. ADMINISTRATION OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 4th of March, 1877— 4th of March, 1881. Rutherford B. Hayes, the nineteenth President of the United States, was inaugurated at Washington on Monday, March 5th, 1877. As the 4th of March fell on Sunday, the President-elect simply took the oath of office on that day. The inaugural ceremonies were carried out on the 5th at the EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. (97) 98 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. capitol with the usual pomp and parade, and in the presence of an enorn)ous multitude of citizens and visiting military organizations from all parts of the country. After the customary reception by the Senate, the new President was escorted to the eastern portico of the capitol, where he delivered his inaugural address to the assembled multitude, after which the oath of office was publicly adminis- tered to him by Chief-Justice Waite. 1 The new President was a native of Ohio, having been born at Delaware, in that State, on the 4th of October, 1822. He graduated at Kenyon Col- lege, Ohio, and obtained his professional education at the law school, Cambridge, Mass. He began the practice of law at Cincinnati in 1856. Soon after the opening of the war he enlisted in the Twenty- third Ohio Volunteers, with which regiment he served as major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel. He led his regiment, which formed a part of General Reno's division, at the battle of South Mountain, in September, 1862, and was severely wounded in the arm in that engagement. In the fall of 1862 he was made colonel of the regiment, and in 1864 was promoted to the rank of brigadier- general of volunteers, and was brevetted major- general, "for gallant and distinguished services during the campaigns of 1864 in West Virginia, and particularly in the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek." At the time of this last promotion he was in command of a division. He served FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 99 until the close of the war, receiving four wounds and having five horses shot under him during his military career. In the fall of 1864 he was elected to Congress, and was returned a second time in 1866. In 1867, before the expiration of his Con- gressional term, he was elected Governor of Ohio, and was re-elected to that office in 1869, being each time the candidate of the Republican party. In 1870 General Hayes was again elected to Con- gress, and in 1874 was nominated for a third term as Governor of Ohio. His opponent was Governor William Allen, one of the most popular of the Democratic leaders of Ohio. General Hayes was elected by a handsome majority. He resigned this office in March, 1877, to enter upon his new duties as President of the United States. President Hayes selected as his cabinet William M. Evarts, of New York, Secretary of State; John Sherman, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury ; George W. McCrary, of Iowa, Secretary of Warj Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, Secretary of the Navy; Carl Schurz, of Missouri, Secretary of the Interior ; David M. Key, of Tennessee, Post- master-General ; and Charles E. Devens, of Massa- chusetts, Attorney-General. The cabinet was of a composite character and generally regarded as a very conservative one. Mr. Hayes, early in his admin- istration, adopted several reforms in the civil service, one of which was not to allow Federal office- holders to take active part in elections. 100 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. Few Presidents were ever so embarrassed upon entering on the duties of the office as he was. At this time the States of South CaroUna and Lou- isiana were in a quasi civil war. Two Governors in each were claiming to be entitled to the execu- tive chair. Two legislatures in each were also- claiming to be rightfully entitled to the law-making power. Mr. Hayes displayed the most consummate skill in the conduct and settlement of these most em- barrassing questions. In the summer of 1880 the various political parties of the country met in Con- vention to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the United States. The Republican Convention met in Chicago on the 2d of June, and nominated James A. Garfield, of Ohio, for President, and Chester A. Arthur, of New York, for Vice-President. (The platform and all the ballots of this convention will be found in another part of this work.) The Democratic Con- vention met in Cincinnati, on the 22d of June, and nominated Winfield Scott Hancock, of Pennsyl- vania, for President, and William H. English, of Indiana, for Vice-President. The Greenback Con- vention met at Chicago, on the 9th of June, and nominated James B. Weaver, of Iowa, for Presi- dent, and B. J. Chambers, of Texas, for Vice- President. The election was held on the 2d of November, and resulted in the choice of General James A. FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 101 Garfield, who received 214 electoral votes to 155 electoral votes cast for General Hancock. The States that voted for Garfield and Arthur were : Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, . Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ver- mont, Wisconsin ; and those that voted for Han- cock and English were : Alabama, Arkansas, Del- aware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. The State of California was divided. She cast one vote for Garfield and Arthur, and five for Hancock and English. The last days of Mr. Hayes' administration were the happiest he spent in the White House. At the close of his term, he retired to his residence at Fremont, Ohio, followed by the good will of mil- lions of his fellow-citizens. ADMINISTRATION OF GARFIELD. 4th of March, 1881— 19th of September, 1881. On Friday, March 4th, 1881, the inauguuation ceremonies took place upon a scale of unusual mag- nificence, and were participated in by numerous military and civic organizations, and by thousands of citizens from all parts of the country. After the 102 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS, new Vice-President had taken the oath of office, President-elect Garfield was formally received by the Senate, and escorted to the eastern portico of the capitol, where, in the presence of an immense multitude of citizens and soldiery, he delivered .¥../ JAMES A U\h\ IFLD. an able and eloquent inaugural address, and took the oath of office at the hands of Chief-Justice Waite. The new President had been lonn; and fjivorably FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 103 known to his countrymen. He was in his fiftieth year, and in vigorous health. A man of command- ing presence, he was dignified and courteous in his demeanor, accessible to the humblest citizen, and deservedly popular with men of all parties. Born a poor boy, without influential friends, he had by his own efforts secured a thorough collegiate edu- cation, and had carefully fitted himself for the arduous duties he was now called upon to dis- charge. Entering the army at the outbreak of the civil war, he had won a brilliant reputation as a soldier, and been promoted to the rank of Major- General of volunteers. Elected to Congress from Ohio, in 1862, he had entered the House of Repre- sentatives in December, 1863, and had seen almost eighteen years of constant service in that body, in which he had long ranked as one of the most bril- liant and trusted leaders of the Republican party. Early in 1880 he had been chosen a United States Senator from Ohio, but had been prevented from taking his seat in the Senate by his election to the Presidency. Immediately after his inauguration the names of the new cabinet were sent to the Senate, and were confirmed without opposition. James G. Blaine, of Maine, was Secretary of State ; William Windom, of Minnesota, was Secretary of the Treasury ; Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, son of ex-t resident Abraham Lincoln, was Secretary of War; William H. Hunt, of Louisiana, was Secretary of the Navy ; Samuel J. Kirkwood,of Iowa, was Sec- 104 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. rotary of the Interior ; Thomas L. James, of New- York, was Postmaster-General, and Wayne Mc- Veagh, of Pennsylvania, was Attorney-General. The Cabinet was regarded, generally, as one very judiciously selected, being all men of marked ability, though of somewhat different shades of opinion in the Republican party. As the time wore on, President Garfield gained steadily in the esteem of his countrymen. Hi& purpose to give to the nation a fair and just ad- ministration of the government was every day more apparent, and his high and noble qualities became more conspicuous. Men began to feel for the first time in many years that the Executive chair was occupied by a President capable of con- ceiving a pure and noble standard of duty, and possessed of the firmness and strength of will necessary to carry it into execution. The country was prosperous, and there was every reason to ex- pect a continuance of the general happiness. On the morning of July 2d, President Garfield, accompanied by a distinguished party, including several members of the Cabinet, proceeded to the Baltimore and Potomac depot, in Washington, to take the cars for Long Branch. The President arrived in company wdth Secretary Blaine. They left the President's carriage together, and walked arm-in-arm into the depot. In passing through the ladies' waiting-room, the President was fired at twice by a man named Charles J. Guiteau. The 1 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 105 first shot inflicted a slight wound in the President's right arm, and the second a terrible wound in the right side of his back, between the hip and the kidney. The President fell heavily to the floor, and the assassin was secured as he was seeking to make his escape from the building. The whole city was thrown into the greatest consternation and agitation when swift-winged rumor bore the news through every street and avenue, that the President had been assassinated ! The wires carried the same consternation through- out the length and breadth of the Union, as well as to foreign nations. In the meantime, the suffering President re- ceived every attention that could be given. He was borne as soon as possible to the Executive mansion, where many eminent surgeons of the country were soon summoned to his bedside ; but no permanent relief was given. The ball was not found, and he continued to suffer and languish for weeks. His physicians thought it best to remove him to Long Branch. Suitable and comfortable ar- rangements were made for his travel from the White House to Francklyn Cottage, at Elberon, at that place, and his journey was successfully per- formed on the 6th of September. Here he continued to languish, with intervals of hopeful improvement until he suddenly grew worse on the 18th, and finally expired quietly at 10.35 P. M., on the 19th of September. 106 FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. His remains were taken to Washington and lay in state in the rotunda of the capitol, after which they were conveyed to Cleveland, Ohio, and there interred with the most solemn and impressive cer- emonies. Never before was there such universal and unfeigned sorrow over the death of any public official. On the night of the death of the President at Elberon, the members of the Cabinet present joined in sending the following telegram to Mr. Arthur, the Vice-President, who was at that time in the city of New York : " It becomes our painful duty to inform you of the death of President Garfield, and to advise you to take the oath of office without delay." Mr. Arthur, as advised by Mr. Garfield's Cabi- net, immediately took the oath of office before Judge Brady, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. On the 22d of September President Arthur again took the oath of office, this time at the hands of the Chief-Justice of the United States, and was quietly inaugurated in the Vice-President's room, in the Capitol at Washington, delivering upon this occasion a brief inausrural address. President Arthur entered quietly upon the duties of his administration, and his first acts were sat- isfactory to a majority of his countrymen. As he had been the leader of " the Stalwart " section of the Republican party, it was felt by the mem- FACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. 107 bers of the Cabinet of the late President that he should be free to choose his own advisers. There- fore, immediately upon his accession to the Execu- tive chair, Mr. Blaine and his colleagues tendered CHESTER A. ARTHUR. him their resignations. They were requested, however, by the new President to retain their offices until he could find suitable successors to 108 PACTS ABOUT ALL OUR PRESIDENTS. them. To this they agreed, but before the year was out several important changes had been made in the Cabinet. The principal of these were the sub- stitution of Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, for Mr. Blaine, as Secretary of State, and the appointment of Judge Charles J. Folger, of Ohio, to the Treasury Department. One of the first acts of the new administration was to cause the indictment of Charles J. Guiteau for the murder of President Garfield. After some delay the trial of the assassin began on the 14th of November. It ended on the 25th of January, 1882, in the conviction of Guiteau for the murder of the late President. The execution took place in the District jail on the 30th of June, 1882, and was witnessed by about 200 people, many of whom were represen- tatives of the press. The administration of President Arthur has re- sulted in the prosperity of the whole country, and been satisfactory to the mass of the people. History of the Republican Party. CHAPTER I. BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. To trace out the causes leading to the birth of a principle it is necessary to study the reasons for a remote cause leading to an ultimate cause. When it becomes necessary to learn why the scion of a noble house is entitled to the honors bestowed upon his ancestors, the conscientious investigator must needs learn something of the history of those an- cestors. Thus it is that to know why a great political power came into existence we must of necessity begin with its very conception. The Republican party in the United States is a reformation and continuation of the political asso- ciation which exalted Thomas Jefferson to the pres- idency at the commencement of the present cen- tury. It originated in a high public necessity, which became manifest during the administrations of Washington and the elder Adams. Its primary object was the defense of unsurrendered rights against the monocratic doctrines and measures of the Federalists. It was subsequently required to de- fend, as well, our whole Republican system of gov' ernment, including free speech, of the press, of (109) 110 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. religion, and of the person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and the right of trials by juries impartially selected. It is now resisting usurpations which have resulted from the substi- tution by the political party temporarily admin- isterins; the Federal Government, of the Calhoun policy, so called, for that of the author of the Declaration of Independence, under which our Re- publican system was inaugurated, and insisting upon a return to, and a resumption of, the policy from which both the executive and legislative de- partments have unwisely departed. After the martial forces employed in the Ameri- can revolution had sundered the bonds which held the colonies in allegiance to a foreign government, Thomas Jefferson and his compeers entered upon the more difficult task of devising, constructing, and setting in motion, another and better political establishment. For although all the illustrious men, whom we revere as patriots of the Revolu- tion, were very unanimous respecting the necessity of colonial independence, they were greatly divided in regard to the form and composition of the struc- ture to be erected in place of the government re- pudiated. Some of them were unprepared for any change whatever, and therefore urged the creation of a limited monarchy, after the British model. Some had advanced with the age so far as to be willing to adopt the form of the Helvetic and Bata- vian confederacies; whilst others, among whom HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Ill was JefFerson, who confided less in the strength and solidity of any particular system, than in the moral force of the voluntary principle, preferred a Republic. This preference ultimately obtained with the people, and our federal constitution is the result. These questions were succeeded by others respecting the details and alleged defects of the constitution. The larger States apprehended that, according to the extent of the sovereign power which it lodged in the Federal Government, would their own local importance and influence with their sister commonwealths be injuriously dimin- ished. The smaller ones, by an opposite course of reasoning, foreboded for themselves an equally dis- astrous result. They were apprehensive, also, of being overslaughed by the larger States, through combinations of interest or ambition. Some appre- hended danger from the gradual usurpations of the executive ; others were jealous of the absorbing power vested in Congress. Some regarded the intermixture of legislative, executive, and judicial functions in the Senate as a mischievous departure from all former ideas of government ; others con- sidered the non-participation by the House of Representatives in the same functions as highly objectionable. Some considered equality of repre- sentation in the Senate improper ; others com- plained of inequality of representation in the House. Some disliked the compromise of sovereignty be- 112 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. tween the Union and the several States. Others were opposed to the compromises of liberty by the clause admitting representation in Congress for slaves. Some objected to the power to levy direct taxes ; others disliked the power to levy them in- directly. Some feared the powers of the judiciary were too extensive ; others professed to believe the power to keep up a standing army the precursor of military despotism ; and in the States of Pennsyl- vania and Virginia it was asserted in published manifestoes, " that there was power enough lodged in Congress and the Executive to enable them to convert the government into an absolute despotism." James Madison was indicated by the Republican party as Mr. Jefferson's successor. George Clinton was desired to continue in the office of vice-presi- dent. They were unanimously elected at a caucus held by ninety-four members of both Houses of Congress, on the 19th of January, 1808, at which the former received eighty-three, and the latter all the votes given at the informal ballot. They were supported in the canvass against Charles C. Pinck- ney, and Rufus King, the candidates of the Federalists, and confirmed in the colleges of that year by one hundred and twenty-two against forty- seven electoral votes. Mr. Madison was deeply read in all the history, philosophy and logic that appertained to institutions for human government. He was habitually solemn and contemplative. Until now his position had HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 113 been less conspicuous than that of his predecessor, and it had never required of him the exercise of high executive talent; yet he considered well all the issues which had been made with the British gov- ernment, all the principles and interest which had been involved in that controversy, and all the pledges and guarantees which had been made by the Con- tinental Congress, and by the constitutional con- vention, to the people of this country, in respect to their rights and immunities under the new system, and he had contributed liberally with his voice and pen toward the upholding and vindicating of the American cause. He had drafted the memorable address of the Federal Congress to the people of the United States, issued by that body on the 18th of April, 1783, which defined the rights, for which the colonies contended with Great Britain, to be the rights of human nature. He had been promi- nent in the convention which framed the constitu- tion, where the word "slave" was stricken from the draft on his motion, because he would not con- sent to acknowledge the "right of property in man." He had expounded and commended that instrument to the favor of the several States by a series of arguments alike patriotic and convincing; and he had been Secretary of State under Mr. Jef- ferson for eight years, in which position he had conducted the foreign correspondence with great ability, and identified himself with the Republican policy which that statesman had inaugurated. 8 114 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. THE PARTY NAME CHANGED. The Republican party of the United States kept its faith and name until after the defeat of Henry Clay and John Sargeantin the presidential election of 1832, when it relinquished the title for one more agreeable to Anti-Masons, who then dis- banded as a party, and entered its ranks. It then assumed to be the Whig party in the country, with republican principles. It claimed a high antiquity, reaching back to protests against crown prerog- atives under the reisru of James the Second of Enar- land, and extending through an unbroken series of political struggles down to the American revolu- tion. It claimed inheritance of the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, as they were subsequently expounded by the author of that manifesto, and administered by himself and all his Republican successors. It set John Quincy Adams, the last Republican President; Henry Chiy, his Secretary of State ; William Wirt, his Attorney-General ; Richard Rush, his Secretary of the Treasury ; John McLean, his Postmaster- General ; Samuel L. Southard, his Secretary of War, and Daniel Webster, who about that time distinguished himself by a masterly argument against nullification, in the front rank of its forces as distinguishing representatives of its principles. And it put itself at issue with the Jackson polity respecting the proceeds of the public lands, the power and duty of the general government to im- HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 115 prove the interior of the country, the rechartering of the Bank of the United States, the removal from that institution of the government deposits, the payment of the government dues in specie, and. the exposure of domestic industry to ruinous com- petitions from English workshops. For the sake of Mr. Clay, who had been persuaded into a compromise with nullification, it withheld censure against the President for signing that bill. In the State of New York the new party sig- nalized its advent by the nomination, in 1834, of William H. Seward, the intimate friend and ad- mirer, and since, the eulogist and biographer of one of the Republican Presidents, for governor. This gave a complexion to its subsequent character in the Northern States, down to the period when it fell, with General Scott, under the enormous weight of compromises with the slave power, with which its national platform of 1852 was burthened. It was inaugurated in the faith of the apostles of civil liberty, and undertook to resist both the allurements and encroachments of southern des- potism. It j)ledged itself as well to all constitu- tional measures for ameliorating and improving the social condition of the people, as to others re- lating merely to their pecuniary interests and po- litical rights; and it committed itself particularly to the policy of universal education, universal suffrage, and unrestricted freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press. It avowed fidelity to 116 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. the Constitution of the United States, including its reservations and compromises; but it dissented from all attempts to construe the former into licenses for State rebellion, or the latter into war- rants for federal usurpations. It maintained the general right of every man to personal freedom, unless forfeited by crime, but disclaimed the right of Congress, or of the Legislature, or the people of non-slave-holding States to interfere with slavery where it existed under the protection of the local law. From this time forward, to 1840, the growth of the Whig party was rapid and healthy. It re- ceived large accessions from conservative Demo- crats, who broke with Van Buren on account of his measures and meddling with the currency. Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, William C. Rives, Hugh S. Lagare and John C. Clark were of the number. It attracted into its ranks the young men of the country who relied for support on the rewards of their own industry, which were greatly diminished by the monetary pressure which the currency measures of Van Buren occasioned. And it held an incentive no less influential than this — the reasonable certainty of success at the next Presi- dential election. On the 4tli of December, 1839, the Whig party held a national convention at Harrisburg, Penn- sylvania, where, after twenty-four ballotings in grand committee of delegates, who were divided HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 117 in choice between the nominees, Henry Clay and General Scott, General William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, the leading candidate four years before, was mianimously nominated for President ; and John Tyler, of Virginia (after the nomination had been offered to, Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, by the delegations from Ohio, Virginia, and North Caro- lina, and by him declined), was designated for Vice-President. This convention was composed of men who were sagacious enough to adjourn after they had performed their delegated work, without incumbering themselves and their nominees with useless resolutions. It was the administration which they opposed — not the Whig party, which at that time had public measures to defend. The convention formally declared no principles ; it only authorized its presiding officer. Governor Barbour, of Virginia, to announce that it flung the broad flag of liberty to the breeze, inscribed : "One presidential term ; the integrity of public servants; the safety of public money, and the general good of the people." Nor were the masses of the party less sagacious in the management of the canvass which ensued. They resolved to waste neither time nor money in defending their candidates against any charges or aspersions which might be made against them by the Democrats. Whatever epithets or sobriquets the adverse party applied to General Harrison, and they were numerous as well as ludicrous, they 118 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. readily and pleasantly adopted as their own ; and thus reserved all their energies for " rolling the ball " directly on, against the forces of the adverse party. Their movements were all aggressive, not defensive ; and the result of the election vindicated the policy. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 119 CHAPTER II. THE PUBLIC LANDS BILL. After the passage of the bill in July, 1842, which continued the distribution of the proceeds of pubhc lands, it was sent to the Senate for con- currence, where it passed by a vote of twenty-five against twenty-three. All who voted for the bill were Whigs, except one, and all the Whigs in the Senate voted for it except Messrs. Rives, Graham and Preston. This bill was then sent up for execu- tive approval, and met another "" veto," called in the parlance of the day " veto ditto." Mr. Adams then took the message in hand, and moved to raise a committee of thirteen to consider it, which prevailed. • He prepared the report of that committee, which reviewed the whole question and the President's extraordinary treatment of the representatives of the people, who had high duties to fulfil, by enacting laws to relieve them from the distresses under which they were suffering, and alleged that, under the circumstances relating to the veto of the law in question, he had usurped the whole legislative power of the nation. It concluded with a proposition to amend the Constitution, so that a majority of the whole num- ber of the members of Congress might pass a bill, notwithstanding an executive veto. 120 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Congress then succumbed to executive dictation. The House concluded to omit the distribution clause, and pass the balance of the bill separately. This was done by a vote of one hundred and five against one hundred and three, and afterwairds concurred in by the Senate by a vote of twenty-four against twenty-three, Mr. Wright, of New York, voting in the affirmative, as he said, under the con- viction that some such measure was imperatively required by revenue. This bill received the Pres- ident's signature on the 30th of August, 1842. Congress then enacted a separate law, which re^ pealed the proviso to the distribution act, so as to allow distribution to be made, notwithstanding the increase of duties by the new tariff bill; but this was done only for the purpose of casting upon the President the responsibility of its defeat. As the issue had already been fully and completely made, the President had only to permit it to expire in his hands. During the debate in the House of Representa- tives upon the second veto, Mr. Richard Barnwell Rhett revived the story of nullification of 1833, and acknowledged the gratitude of the people of his State for the President's vote against the " force bill" on that occasion. " The President," said Mr. Rhett, " is himself a party to that compromise. His faith and character are committed to it ; and the party which sup- ported him for the Vice-Presidency ought to have HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 121 known, if they did not, the historical fact. He is a Virginian, a name never coupled with dishonor. He is now at the liead of the government, and being in favor of the institutions of the South, he might rest assured of an earnest and substantial support." Mr. Calhoun, as usual, found in the provision for continuing distribution a violation of the constitu- tion, and a tendency toward a dissolution of the Union. " Distribute," said he, "the revenue of the Union, and you distribute the powers of the Union ; and in distributing the powers of the Union to States whose interests do not harmonize with others, the breach is widened between them." He understood the object of the measure very well. Two motives had contributed to its conception and consummation. It would not have been thought of, if there was no desire to raise the tariff to a protective standard, and the States were not in debt. It is a project to lay on high duties, whatever may be the declarations to the contrary. Their actions do not disprove it. He could suppose a con- dition of things in which the people would submit to taxation; a condition in which the government having reformed and retrenched till the most economical administration of the proper functions of government had proved that the public business could not get along without the aid of additional taxation. But no such circumstance as this had 122 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. shown that a higher tariff was now necessary. On the contrary, a fund which is properly a source of revenue is taken from the treasury — a fund insisted on as no tax at all ; and the deficit its ab- straction occasions is to be made up by putting an onerous burden on that portion of the community which has no right whatever to bear it." During this session of Congress the subject of the right of petition was conspicuous. Immense numbers of petitions, with almost all conceivable prayers, went up and were presented, most of them relating to the slavery question, by Mr. Adams and Mr. Giddings in the House, which provoked great resistance. On one occasion Mr. Adams pre- sented one which purported to be from inhabitants of Georgia, praying for his removal from the office of chairman of the committee of foreign relations, and moved its reference to the committee having them in charge. This, being objected to by a mem- ber from Georgia, was laid on the table, but called up the next day as privileged ; when Mr. Adams said that the entire slaveholding representation in the House, with one exception, were against him. He then read a letter from a late senator from Ala- bama to his constituents, which disclosed the fact (here Mr. Smith, of Virginia, said the House had consented only that he inight defend himself from monomania) that a coalition had been formed be- tween Southern Whig leaders and Northern Feder- alists, not less for the safety of the South than for HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 123 the prosperity of the Union, and contained pre- cisely the same charges against those whom it termed abolitionists in the North, which the peti- tion set forth against him. But before he had finished his comments upon this letter, the House adjourned. 124 HISTORY or THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. CHAPTER III. OPPOSITION TO MR. ADAMS. The period at length arrived for a signal demon- stration. Among the petitions presented by Mr. Adams, to bring the subject to a head, was one signed by forty-six inhabitants of Haverhill, Massa- chusetts, praying for the adoption of measures peaceably to dissolve the Union, assigning as one of the reasons the ineqnality of benefits conferred upon the different sections, one section being aimu- ally drained to sustain the views and course of an- other, without adequate return, which he moved to a select committee, with instructions to report an answer, showing reasons why the prayer should not be granted. Notwithstanding the nature of the instructions, the chivalry, including Mr. Wise, appeared to think it a favorable opportunity to retaliate upon Mr. Adams, and if possible to inflict punishment upon him for persisting in his deter- mined course. Mr. Gilmore, of Virginia, particu- larly, was sagacious enough to exhibit his indigna- tion at the sage of Quincy. He introduced a resolution declaring that, in presenting a petition for the dissolution of the Union, Mr. Adams had justly incurred the censure of the House. But Mr. Marshall, of Kentucky, wished to subject him to severer discipline. He offered as a substitute HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 125 two resolutions, one declaring Mr. Adams guilty of an offense involving in its consequence high treason ; and the other declaring him deserving of expulsion, but as an act of "grace and mercy," their severest censures only were to be inflicted. In the debate on these resolutions which ensued, it became evident that the representatives of the local despotism in Congress were indulging in new- born hopes of a speedy annexation of Texas, under that administration, in consequence of the stand which the President had taken in regard to the tariff question. They appeared to feel assured that the President was now their convenient man for the approaching emergency ; and that they had only to surround him with leading advisers, and to invest the proposition with partisan importance, in order to precipitate it to a result. Hence in debat- ing Mr. Gilmer's resolution, they alleged that there were combinations of philanthropists in Great Britain, who were meditating the overthrow of Southern institutions, and that defensive measures, among them the speedy annexation of Texas, were rendered necessary. Mr. Wise insisted that the Hon. Seth M. Gates, then a member of the House of Representatives, was an agent of the incendi- aries, as he termed them, who stood ready with his torch to fire the magazine, and blow the Union into fragments. In relation to Mr. Adams, whom it was proposed to censure, Mr. Wise remarked that he was time- 126 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. honored and hoary, but not with wisdom ; that he had the power of age, station, fame, and eloquence ; and that all w^ere greatly mistaken who thought him mad. Mr. Adams, thought Mr. Wise, might truly say, " I am not mad, most noble Festus," even if he did not speak the words of truth and sober- ness; that for himself he did not believe him mad, but thought him more wicked than weak, and the agent of persons who meditated a dissolution of the Union. He was astute in design, obstinate and zealous in power, and terrible in action; and therefore well adapted to accomplish his treason- able purposes. To this Mr. Adams very complacently replied that the resolutions of Mr. Marshall accused him of crimes over which the House had no jurisdiction, and, therefore, they would probably find it conve- nient to confine themselves to a " contempt" under Mr. Gilmer's resolution ; that it might be profitable to advert to precedents, and, perhaps, to the trial in the House four or five years before, when a man (Mr. Wise) came into it with his hands and face dripping with the blood of murder, the blotches of which were yet hanging on to him; and that, when the question was put in that case, it was decided, myself voting in the affirmative, that the accused should be sent where he could have an impartial trial; that it was very probable that he saved the blood-stained man at that time. (Mr. Wise in- quired whether his character and conduct were in- HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN" PARTY. 127 volvecl in the issue, and whether a man who defended him then would be permitted to now charge him with murder?) " I did not defend him," said Mr. Adams, " on the merits of the case, for I never believed that he was not guiltj', nor that the man who pulled the trigger against Cilley was not an instrument in his hands ; but I contended that the House had not the power to try him. It was not then an impar- tial tribunal." This illusion to the Cilley affair was unlooked for b}^ Mr. Wise ; it was a surprise upon him, as he had not estimated correctly the power of the states- man he had undertaken to demolish. He had carefully watched for an opportunity to assail Mr. Adams, under circumstances where his missiles would not be likely to recoil. He had selected this opportunity as one which appeared adventi- tious ; but when he found himself confronted with the ghost of the murdered Cilley, he perceived his fatal mistake. His friends anxiously interposed to remove him from the field which he had selected for the fight. Mr. Adams, commiserating his situation, mercifully forbore to punish him further. " I came from a soil," said Mr. Adams, in con- tinuation, " that bears not a slave. I represent here the descendants of Winslow, Carver, Alden and Bedford, the first who alighted on the rock of Plymouth ; and representing these men, the free people of Massachusetts, I am come here to be 128 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. tried for high treason, because I presented a pe- tition which gentlemen suspect contain anti-slavery sentiments, but, as a matter of mercj and grace, not to be expelled, but subjected to the severest censure, and to have this decided by a tribunal which contains one hundred slaveholders. Are such men impartial ? Do they even consider themselves impartial and competent to adjudicate in a case where they have such sordid interests at stake ? On this question, slaveholders cannot be impartial." Mr. Underwood, of Kentucky, said that, as a slaveholder, he differed with his brethren in their endeavor to suppress petitions. He was opposed to all gag rules and said. Away with them. As to this proceeding against Mr. Adams, it was to punish him for an imputed, not a declared motive. As he had not announced himself to be in favor of the prayer of the petition presented by him, how could the House judge of his motive? He had been guilty of no offence, nor had he violated any rules. He had presented a petition, and they were endeavoring to punish him for the manner in which he represented his constituents. Gentle- men should beware how they put it in the power of the gentleman from Massachusetts to inform his constituents that he had become a martyr to the right of petition. Mr. Botts did not think this a very consistent employment for those who favored the secession of I HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 129 South Carolina. He noticed among the instigators of the movement one (Mr. Rhett) who had him- self on several occasions undertaken to raise a committee to take into consideration the propriety of dissolving the Union. As to Mr. Adams, he did not approve of all he said on that floor, yet he would not on any account wound his feelings. It is very likely that, under the weight of years, he had said many things which his subsequent reflec- tion condemned. But of what is he charged ? He has presented a petition here for a purpose, against which he desired a committee to remonstrate and expostulate with them, for the folly of their course. He had not undertaken, as had other gentlemen on that floor, to dissolve the Union. Mr. Rhett denied that he could be really ac- cused of desiring a dissolution of the Union, and assured his friends, who had so understood him, that they had misapprehended his motives. He had, three or four years before, proposed as an amendment to a motion to refer, with instructions, a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, something of that import, but that was designed only to place before Congress and the country the vital question he supposed at issue. It was merely a motion to go upon the table, with the matter to which it was attached. " It was," said Mr. Botts, " not only the doc- trine of that gentleman, but of the majority of his State, where the right of secession was in- 130 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. flexibly maintained. It was in vain for the gen- tlemen to ignore the fact — one that had gone into history, and was read of all men throughout the Union. South Carolina and her representative statesman are committed to the doctrine of seces- sion, which applies as well to one State as to another. It was maintained by others. The Sec- retary of the Navy, the last time he conversed with me, was an open, avowed advocate of the imme- diate dissolution of the Union. (Mr. Wise inter- rupting, denied it.) I repeat the statement and will prove it whenever the Secretary himself denies. If there were to be trials for high treason, he de- sired the Secretary to be respectfully noticed. " Mr. Saltonstall, of Massachusetts, on obtaining the floor, gave a succinct history of threats of a forcible dissolution of the Union, and demonstrated that they all proceeded from the South, and had arisen out of the subject of slavery ; that if they were mere pretences, as he supposed they were, their frequent repetition had rendered them dis- gusting, and if they were earnest intentions, as they aflected to be, they were at the head of the crimi- nal calendar, where trials should proceed in order. Whilst he regretted that the petition in question came from his State, he felt that it was in safe hands, when controlled by his venerable colleague, who so far from being in favor of grantins; its prayer was disposed to convince the petitioners, and the people generally, that in the union of HISTOr.Y OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 131 States rested their greatest safety. But gentlemen might rest assured that the State of Massachusetts would never surrender the right of petition. Mr. Arnold, of Tennessee, was disgusted with a miserable outcry respecting the dissolution of the Union. He said it was obvious to anv one who' would perceive the truth, that the gentleman from Massachusetts would, with permission, crown a long and illustrious life, by sending forth in these times of confusion and degeneracy, a luminous audi convincing report in favor of the American Union ; and yet, for presenting a petition from his constitu- ents, it is gravely proposed to punish him with the censure of the house. What a singular spectacle would a consummation of such purposes present — the arrest and arrai2;nment at the bar of that ven- erable statesman with his palsied hand, his bare head, and whitened locks, to be rebuked by the' speaker, comparatively a boy, after having been visited by the vituperation of others, boys in com- parison. Such a proceeding would shock the sen- sibilities of the nation, and so far from helping the cause of the South, it would kindle a blaze of in- dignation that would reach the heavens. The debate was continued by others, until no more of his accusers desired to speak, when Mr. Adams entered upon his defense, which was a mas- terly exposition of all the combinations and. coali- tions of the slave power against the liberty of speech, and of the press, and the right of the peo- 132 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. pie to invoke the national Legislature upon any subject appertaining to the institutions of the country, and of the right of every man accused of crime to an impartial trial. He administered a withering rebuke to the nullifiers for seeking to punish him for presenting a petition from forty- five of his constituents, whose views of the subject involved accorded with their own. But after oc- cupying the floor for several days, without seem- ing to approach the end of his speech, his assail- ants, to drop the tedious discussion, moved to table the subject, which was carried by a vote of 106 against 93. The reception of the petition was then refused by 106 against 40. On the 21st of March, Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, offered a resolution, suggested by the affair of the brig "Creole," which had just transpired, to the effect that the slave laws of the State did not extend on the high seas, beyond the State jurisdic- tion, and that the slaves on board the " Creole," in asserting their right to liberty, violated no law of the United States; whereupon Mr. Botts, of Virginia, introduced a resolution declaring his con- duct deserving of the condenniation of the people and the House. An exciting and confused debate ensued, when without affording the accused an opportunity of defense, the resolution of censure was passed by a vote of 129 against 69. Mr. Gid- dings then resigned, returned home, and was sent back by his constituents with a vote of 3,500 over the opposing candidate. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 133 Mr. Webster remained in Tjler's cabinet for the principal reason of negotiating a treaty with Lord Ashburton, for the settlement of the northeast boundary question ; and there is authority for as- serting that he assured his friends that the belief that he could avert a war with Great Britain, which was certain to occur if he left the adminis- tration to itself, was the only reason why he con- sented to remain there. In this Mr. Webster was successful. He concluded a treaty which not only adjusted the disputed boundary, but arranged for the united and final suppression of the slave trade, and the mutual extradition of fugitives from justice. After the same was ratified by both governments, he resigned his office of Secretary of State in May, 1843. 134 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. CHAPTER IV. LOCAL DESPOTISM IN THE ASCENDENCY. We have now reached a point in the history of the United States where the local despotism, under the lead of Mr. Calhoun, attained complete ascen- dency in the government. The vetoes of the tariff hill by President Tyler v/ere taken by the nulli- fiers as sufficient indications that he was their con- venient man for the consummation of their schemes; they set themselves immediately to work to pre- pare a case for him, which might seem to justify the employment of the forces of the government in its fulfilment. The great desideratum was the speedy annexation of Texas to the United States. During the summer and autumn of 1843 they held the President's ear. They impressed him with the idea that the pending war between Texas and Mexico was exhausting the physical energies of both, and exposing them to the designs of foreign governments, particularly that of Great Britain ; that Texas was negotiating loans and commercial arrangements with the latter government, which were likely to be consummated only upon the con- dition of the abolition of slavery in that State ; and that in case no such treaty were concluded and loans only were effected, it would result in a mone- tary vassalage of Texas to Great Britain, which HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 135 would subject it to the sway of influenees adverse to the profitable continuation of slavery. They also persuaded him that then was the opportune occasion for augmenting the slave power to such an extent as to render it invulnerable against public sentiment in the North. This argument prevailed. On the 4th of December, 1843, the President laid the matter before Congress, in his annual mes- sage, in which he dilated at great length upon the exhausting effects of the existing war between Texas and Mexico, and the exposure of both gov- ernments to foreign interference which resulted from its continuance. About the time of the delivery of this message, it was stated in a newspaper published in Texas,, that authentic information had been received by that government that the President of the United States had concluded to favor the project of an- nexation, and would break ground on the subject in his message to Congress ; that the Texan Legis- lature had taken action on the subject, and author- ized the President of that Republic to open negotia- tions which, it was said, Mr. Upshur, the American Secretary of State, had proposed to commence. It is known that secret despatches were sent to the Department of State, touching that subject ; and a correspondence opened between the Secretary of State and a Mr. Murphy, our charge d'affaires in Texas, in which the latter pretended to have infor- 136 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN TARTY. mation from a mysterious Texan named Andrews ; that a project was on foot in England to raise money with which to purchase slaves in Texas, and that lands were to be taken in payment. That information which was undoubtedly manufactured for the occasion had the influence desired, and elicited a letter from the secretary in reply stating that "a movement of this sort cannot be contem- plated in silence," as it was doubtless part of a plan " to seek to abolish slavery throughout the entire continent and islands of America." The secretary further said that Great Britain desired the abolition of slavery in order to open in this country a better market for the production of her East and West India colonies ; and that if Texas were free, it would afford a refuge for fugitive slaves. Mr. Murphy replied that he had learned that both Mexico and Texas were negotiating in Eng- land, and under the control of British emissaries, and there existed an imminent danger to the domestic institutions of the Southern States, which required prompt and energetic action on the part of our government. Mr. Upshur reassured Mr. Murphy that the President felt the deepest con- cern on the subject, and would do all that lay in his power to avert the impending disaster, and urged him to diligence in watching all further movements in that direction. He also wrote Mr. Everett confidentially in England, what informa- HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 137 tion the deiDartment possessed on that subject, in which he urged the necessity of shave h-ibor in the production of cotton, sugar and rice, and dechared that the slaves themselves would be damaged by emancipation. Mr. Everett heard nothing of the matter in England, but, on the receipt of the letter of Mr. Upshur, called on Lord Aberdeen for information, and was assured by his lordship that the suggestion that England had made or intended to make the abolition of slavery the condition of any treaty ar- rangement with Texas was wholly without founda- tion, and thereupon communicated that assurance to Mr. Upshur. This was corroborated by Mr. Packen- ham, the British Minister at Washington, who en- closed a letter, received by him from Lord Aber- deen, stating that as much as the British Govern- ment might wish to see slaveholding States placed on the solid footing only obtained by general freedom, it had never in its treatments with them made any distinction between slave States and free ones. Hence it will be perceived that the pretence of Mr. Murphy was utterly false in fact. But the administration was committed to the measure, and it had been vaguely indicated to Con- gress in the message. Texas formally made her application, and numerous Southern State Legisla- tures sent up resolutions and memorials urging speedy annexation. At length Mr. Edward J. Black, a representative from Georgia, on the 15th 138 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. of January, 1844, gave notice in the House of Representatives of his intention to move as an amendment to the Oregon bill then reported, a sec- tion providing for the provisional annexation of Texas. This brought the subject distinctly before ConGfress. The next link in the chain of circumstances was the sudden death of the Secretary of State, on the 28th of February, 1844, by the explosion of the " peace-maker," and the immediate appointment of Mr. Calhoun to his place. This raised the great nuUifier to the place which he coveted, and placed in his hands all the wires of the plot. He was the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, in charge of that correspondence, and invested with the discretion to conclude a treaty of annexation whenever he should judge such a contract necessary. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 139 CHAPTER V. CALHOUN IN POWER. The Jupiter-Ammon of the Palmetto State was now invested with high authority. In his hands the nominal President was plastic clay. The South was now to be aroused, and the deed ex- ecuted, and no man lived, who knew so well as he how to strike a chord that would vibrate all through the precincts of slavery. He advised the Presi- dent to take an open stand in favor of the im- mediate annexation of Texas ; to insist upon it as a Democratic measure ; and to force the Democratic nominating convention, which was advertised to be held at Baltimore on the 27th of May following, to adopt it. His words were implicitly heeded. The views of the administration were immediately announced in the newspapers of Washington, and they electrified the entire oligarchy. It was a magnificent scheme, not only to exalt and en- throne the slave power, but to augment largely the value of existing slaves, and the profits of slave- breeding. He signified to the Texan government that he was prepared to negotiate a treaty of annexation with it at Washington, whenever ministers with plenipotential powers were ready to meet him. Messrs. Isaac Van Zant and J. Pinckney Hender- 140 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN TARTY. son were duly commissioned on the part of Texas to treat with him. After suitable preliminaries, he concluded a treaty of annexation with them on the 12th day of April^ 1844, which was immedi- ately transmitted to the Senate for approval. The time for the meeting of the Democratic convention being near, the premier advised speedy measures for controlling its action, and for menac- ing its nominee with defeat, in case it refused to indorse the measure. To that end he convened a deputation of officeholders from all the States, at Baltimore, contemporaneously with the delegated convention, which secretly nominated President Tyler, and resolved to support him to the damage of any Democratic nominee who should fail to give satisfactory pledges respecting Texas. This done, the deputies repaired to the Democratic con- vention, where they succeeded not only in produc- ing a schism, but in procuring the adoption of a two-third rule, by which Martin Van Buren, who was the choice of a majority of the delegates, was defeated, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, foisted upon the ticket instead. The nuUifier was now greatly elated. He saw that he was making rapid progress. He perceived that the influence of his great name, and the pe- cuniary interests which invested it, had raised the Texas proposition to the dignity of a cardinal prin- ciple, and one that outweighed all other questions involved in the pending canvass. He had only to HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 141 convince Colonel Polk that without his aid he could not have been nominated, and could not be elected to insure the conquest. Holding up before the colonel, as a menace, the secret nomination of Tyler, he procured a ready acknowledgment of his power, and a complete acquiescence in his favor- ite measure. Thus the Democratic party, the party of Jackson and Van Buren, was surrendered to the nuUifier by the chosen bearer of its stan- dard. But this surrender of Colonel Polk was carefully withheld from the people of the North during the presidential canvass. To them he appeared in the mantle of General Jackson, which was yet attrac- tive. Privileged classes in the South only were intrusted with the secret. Under the double guise of Jackson-man and nullifier, he was tri- umphantly elected. He then laid aside the gar- ment borrowed from the Hermitage, and disclosed, even to the dying hero himself, that his protege was in solemn league with his most implacable enemy. The Senate, after debating the Calhoun treaty from day to day in secret session, until the 8th of June, then rejected it by a vote of thirty-five, sixteen voting in the affirmative. The injunction of secrecy was then removed. It should be re- marked in this connection, that the project had not, at the time when the treaty was under considera- tion in the Senate, fully ripened ; it had not be- 142 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. come a party measure ; hence, senators of tlie Democratic party felt at liberty to characterize the treaty as a miserable intrigue for political and per- sonal ends. Colonel Benton, in particular, who was decidedly in favor of annexation as a public measure, with the assent of Texas and Mexico, denounced it as a proceeding got up for election- eering purposes, which would end in the disgrace of its authors. Atchinson, his colleague, was in the confidence of Mr. Calhoun, and supported the treaty. Two days after the rejection of the treaty, Colonel Benton, whom the Calhounites sought to place in a false position before the country, intro- duced a bill into the Senate, conferring authority on the President to open negotiations with Mexico and Texas for the adjustment of boundaries and the annexation of the latter to the United States, the assent of Mexico to be obtained by treaty, that of Texas by an act of her legislature, and after erecting out of Texas a State not exceeding the size of the largest State in the Union, slavery to be excluded from the northern half of the re- mainder, which was ordered to be printed. The subject then went over to the ensuing session. In his annual message of December 3d, to the second session of the same Congress, the President recommended annexation especially, and without reservations or conditions, and averred that which had not been generally understood in the North. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 143 that in the election of his successor, the people of tlie United States had pronounced in fixvor of an- nexation. The mode suggested by the President was a joint resolution or act to be perfected and made binding upon the two governments when adopted, in- like manner, by the government of Texas; but when the Democratic members of both Houses of Congress from the North reached Wash- in2:ton to attend this session of Consrress, some of them, and among others Senators Dix, of New York, and Niles, of Connecticut, and Representa- tives Preston King, George Rathbun, Horace Wheeten, and Amasa Dana, were surprised by in- formation of a discovery that the President-elect, Mr. Polk, had been in collusion with President Tyler and the nuUifier from about the time of the Baltimore convention; that prior to the election he had committed himself secretly but in writing to certain confidential friends of Mr. Calhoun to depose, in the event of his election, Francis P. Blair from his position as the editor of the National Demo- cratic organ ; and yet had, after so committing himself in writing through his particular friends in Tennessee, drawn upon Messrs. Blair and Rives for several thousand dollars for use in promoting his election, which drafts had been accepted and paid ; that after having thus obtained for election- eering purposes heavy sums of money from those gentlemen, whilst he was under a secret contract to establish a new organ to their great political and 144 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. pecuniary damage, he had arranged with Tyler, Calhoun, and prominent men to raise the requisite funds for the purchase of such press ; and was au- thorized by the President to invest it in the Globe, or in the establishment of another press at AVashing- ton ; and that the arrangement had gone so far to- ward completion, as to have been intimated to Gen- eral Jackson himself, at the Hermitage, by General Armstrong, with a view to obtain his assent to the project. It was seen at a glance, therefore, that a conspiracy which involved the President-elect in such palpable treachery and ingratitude might well be taken as an admonition that other developments equally astounding were yet behind. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 145 CHAPTER VI. EFFORTS AGAINST THE PARTY. It soon afterward appeared that the information- imparted by General Armstrong, at the Hermitage,. was such as to induce Jackson on the 14th of December, 1844, to write Mr. Blair as follows : " Our mutual friend, General Robert Armstrong,, spent a part of yesterday with me, from wliofn I confidentially learned some movements of some of our Democratic friends, not of wisdom, but of folly,, that would at once separate the Democratic party and destroy Polk, and would of course drive you from the support of Polk's administration. I fortli- Avith wrote Colonel Polk on the subject, and am sure he will view it as I do — a wicked and concerted movement for Mr. Calhoun's and Mr. Tyler's politi- cal benefit. It is this : to amalgamate the Madisonian and what was the Spectator, and make that paper the organ of the government, to the exclusion of the Glohe. I am sure Polk, when he hears it, will feel as indignant at the plot as I do. I will vouch for one thing, and that is, that Mr. Calhoun will not be one of Polk's cabinet, not any aspirant to the presidency. This is believed to spring from Mr. Rhett's brain, inculcated into the brain of some of our pretended Democratic politicians who "want to be great men but will never reach that height 10 146 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. "As your friend on the political watch-tower, I give you this confidential information, and by silence and care you will soon find the secret movers of this weak and wicked measure that would at once divide and distract the Republican party, and dissolve it — unless the measures we have adopted here may put it down, you will soon see the movement in Washington, and I hope, if attempted, the whole Democracy will rally around the Globe, and prostrate the viper for- ever. This intrigue puts me in mind of Mr. Cal- houn's treachery to, me, and is well worthy of a disciple of his. "But there is another project on foot as void of good sense and benefit to the Democratic cause as the other, but not as wicked, proceeding from weak and inexperienced minds. It is this — to bring about a partnership between you and Mr. Ritchie, you to continue proprietor and Ritchie editor. This, to me, is a most extraordinary conception, coming from any well-formed mind or experienced politician. It is true Mr. Ritchie is an experienced editor, but sometimes goes off at half cock before he sees the whole ground, and does the party great injury before he sees his error, and then has great -difficulty in getting back to the right track again. Witness his course on my removal of the deposits, ;and how much injury he did us before he got into (the right track again. Kwoihev faux pas he made when he went off with Rives and the conservatives, HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 147 and advocated for the safe-keeping of the public revenue special deposits in the State banks, as if where the directory were corrupt there could be an}' more security in special deposits in corrupt banks than in general deposits, and it was some time before this great absurdity could be beaten out of his mind. " These are visionary measures of what I call weak politicians, but who wish to become great by foolish changes. Polk, I believe, will stick by you faithfully; should he not, he is lost; but I have no fears but that he will, and being informed con- fidentially of this movement, may have it in his power to put it all down. One thing I know. Gen- eral Armstrong and myself, with all our influence, will stick by you till the last. I am not at liberty to name names, but you will be able, by silent watchfulness, to discover those concerned, because the amalgamation of the Madisonian with Mr. Rhett's paper will be at once attempted to be put in operation to carry out Mr. Tyler's administra- tion, and attempt to become the administration paper under Polk, and the copartnership between you and Mr. Ritchie broached to you by some of your friends and his. I therefore give you this information that you may not be taken by surprise. There will be great intrigue at Washington this winter, and if I mistake not Mr. Polk, he will throw the whole to the bats and to the wind. He has energy enough to give himself elbow-room 148 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. under all and any circumstances, and you may rest assured, he will have none in his cabinet that are aspiring to the Presidency. I write in confidence, and will soon again write you. You may rest assured in my friendship — all the politicians on earth can never shake it. I wish to see you the organ of the Democratic party as long as you own a paper, and as long as the party is true to itself, you will be its organ, and true to its principles. " I am very weak, and must close. [Signed] "Andrew Jackson." On hearing this communication read, they were able to perceive that General Jackson had been completely betrayed by Mr. Polk. Further denouements were attentively looked for until it was ascertained that James Buchanan had been selected by Mr. Polk for Secretary of State, instead of Silas Wright, of New York, the states- man of all others, under the circumstances, most entitled to that honor, and that William Marcy, the political enemy of Mr. AVright, had been selected for his Secretary of War. This plainly signified that although Mr. Polk was indebted to Mr. Wright and his friends in New York for his election, he had resolved to repay the boon by "crushing them out " so effectually that they would be unable to bring him (Mr. Wright) ibrward in 1848, as a candidate for the succession. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 149 CHAPTER YII. NULLIFICATION SCHEMES. Perceiying that it was definitely arranged to put the Democratic ship on the nullification tack, the old-line Democrats, and the friends of Silas Wright, especially, in and out of Congress, became reluctant passengers in the projected voyage. Al- though they were partially committed to annexa- tion by resolves of Democratic conventions, they determined at once that in whatever they did in relation to that subject, their action should enure to the benefit of freedom rather than slavery; that they would oppose annexation by all processes, other than by treaty negotiated pursuant to a special law, hoping that when a treaty should be concluded, there would not be found a two- third vote in the Senate to confirm it. Hence their six consecutive votes upon and against the House resolutions for the annexation of Texas, given on the 25th of January, 1845. About the first of April, Mr. Blair received an- other letter from General Jackson, dated at the Hermitage, February 28th, 1845. '■''My dear Bhdr: — For the first time on the 23d instant. I was informed that Colonel Laughlin had gone to the city of Washington to become inter- ested in the Madisonian. If this is true, it will 150 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. astonish me greatly. Some time ago, I did learn that there was a project on foot to unite the Madi- sonian and the Constitution, and make it the organ of the executive. Another plan is to get Mr. Ritchie interested as the editor of the Globe, all of which I gave you an intimation of, and which I thought had been put down. But that any lead- ing Democrat here had any thought of becoming interested in the Madisonian, to make it the organ of the administration, was such a thing as I could not believe ; as common sense at once pointed out as a consequence, that it would divide the democ- racy, and destroy Polk's administration. The moment I heard it, I adopted such measures as I trust will put an end to it, as I know nothing could be so injurious to Colonel Polk, and his ad- ministration. The pretext for this movement will be the Globes support of Colonel Benton. Let me know if there is any truth in this rumor. I guarded Colonel Polk against any abandonment of the Globe. It can do you but little harm. A few subscribers may resign, but it will add one hundred per cent, to your subscription list one month after it is known. If true, it would place Colonel Polk in the shoes of Mr. Tyler. " Your friend sincerely, [Signed] Andrew Jackson." In this communication the General says he guarded Colonel Polk against any abandonment of the Globe, vainly supposing that the question was an open one, and therefore within reach of his in- fluence. Had he been aware of the bargain of Mr. Polk with his (the General's) most implacable HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 151 enemy, he would have known that his efforts would be fruitless. It is well, for the purposes of history, however, that he was kept in the dark on that subject until the intrigue was fully accomplished. On the 9th of April he wrote Mr. Blair again as follows : Hermitage, April 9, 1845. ^^ My dear Mr. Blair: — I have been quite sick for several days, my feet and legs much swollen, and it has reached my hands and abdomen, and it may be that my life ends in dropsy. All means hitherto used to check the swelling have now failed — be it so : I am fully prepared to say, the Lord's will be done. My mind, since ever I heard of the attitude the President had assumed with you as editor of the Globe, which was the most unexpected thing I ever met with, has been troubled, and it was not only unexpected by me, but has shown less good common sense by the President than any act of his life, and calculated to divide, instead of uniting the Democracy, which appears to be his reason for urging this useless and foolish measure, at the very threshold of his administra- tion, and when everything appeared to augur well for, to hitn, a prosperous administration. The President, here, before he set out for Washington, must have been listening to the secret counsels of some political cliques, such as Tyler or Calhoun cliques (for there are such here), or, after he reached Washington, some of the secret friends of some of the aspirants must have gotten hold of his ear, and spoiled his common sense, or he never would have made such a movement, so uncalled for. and well calculated to sever the Democracy, by calling 152 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. down upon himself suspicion, by tlie act of secretly favoring some of the political cliques who are lookhig to the succession for some favorite. I have in ni}^ confidential letters, and particularly in that of the 4th instant, brought fully to his view, in my plain common sense way, his situation, and asking him at least, how he can justify his course to you, to the real Democracy, that sustained my administration and Mr. Van Bnren's. " I brouofht to his view that when I entered upon the duties of the administration of the gov- ernment, Duff Green was the Democratic editor, whose object was to heat tlie executive chair by me for Mr. Calhoun. He was the executive organ until I found he was doing my administration in- jury, and dividing the Democratic ranks; that the Globe, with you, its editor, took Dufi' Green's place; that you and Colonel Polk went hand in hand in sustaining all my measures with ability and zeal — both advocated the election of Mr. Van Buren, and went hand in hand in sustaining his adminis- tration — united in his support for a second term ; that ever since the Colonel's name was announced as the nominee of the Baltimore Convention, you have given him an undeviating support, and I have fully explained to him how your paper had been drawn astray from your own matured views on the Texas question. I then conclude by asking him what excuse can he give to the old substantial Jackson and Van Buren Democrats for not letting you and your paper go on as his organ, until you are in some fault, and then, as I did Duff Green, turn you away. I ask, have you (the Colonel) any new principles other than those you have always advocated, and set forth in your inaugural, to bring HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 153 before the people, that you think Mr. Blair will oppose, that at the very threshold of your admin- istration you have repudiated Blair and his Globe from being your organ ? I know this cannot be the case ; therefore, am entirely lost to conjecture any good cause for your unaccountable course to Mr. Blair; and wind up, telling him there is one safe course to pursue — review his course, send for you, and direct you and the Globe to proceed as the organ of his administration, give you all his con- fidence, and all would end well. This is the sub- stance ; and I had a hope on the receipt of this letter, and some others written by mutual friends, it would have restored all things to harmony and confidence again. I rested on this hope until the 7th, when I received yours of the 30th, and two confidential letters from the President directed to be laid before me, from which it would seem that the purchase of the Globe, and to get clear of 3-ou, as editor, is the great absorbing question before the President. '• My own opinion is, that the contract made, the monej^ cannot be raised, and the Globe cannot be bought. What then ? The President will find himself in a dilemma, have to apologize, and the Globe will be the organ ; and Ritchie will return, not so well satisfied with the sagacity of the ad- ministration as when he left Richmond. These are my speculations. I may be in error. I would like to know what portion of the Cabinet are sup- porting and advising the President to this course, where nothing but injury can result to him in the end, and division in his Cabinet arising from jealousy. Wliai political clique is to be benefited ? My dear friend, let me know all about the Cabi- 154 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. net, and their movement on this subject. How loathsome it is to me to see an old friend laid aside, principles of justice and friendship forgotten, and all for the sake oi policy — and the great Dem- ocratic party divided or endangered for 'policy — and that a mere imaginary policy, that must tend to divide the great Democratic party whilst the "Whigs are secretly rejoicing at the prospect of disunion in our ranks. I declare to you, it is a course that common sense forbade the adoption, when the administration was entering on its career with so much harmony and prospect of success. I cannot reflect on it with any calmness ; every point of it, upon scrutiny, turns to harm and dis- union, and not one beneficial result can be ex- pected from it. I will be anxious to know the result. If harmony is restored, and the Glohe the organ, T will rejoice ; if sold, to whom, and for Avhat. This may be the last letter I may be able to write you ; but live or die, I am your friend (and never deserted one from policy), and leave my papers and reputation in your keeping. As far as justice is due to my fame, I know you will shield it. I ask no more. I rest upon truth, and require no more than truth will mete to me. All my household join me in wishes for your health and prosperity, and that of all your family ; and that you may triumph over all enemies. May God's choicest blessing be bestowed on you and yours through life is the sincere prayer of your sincere friend, [Signed] '-'Andrew Jackson." HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 155 CHAPTER VIII. THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS. Haying noticed the plot against Silas Wright and the newspaper intrigue, we will return to the early part of the second session of the Twenty- eidith Consrress. We remarked that when certain Democratic Senators and Representatives arrived at Washington, they were surprised by certain in- formation of a coalition between Tyler, Calhoun, and the President-elect. The moment of surprise having passed, the old-school Democrats and friends of Mr. Wright saw at a glance the origin, object and drift of the whole conspiracy. They also com- prehended the declaration in the message, that the people had decided in favor of the annexation of Texas at the recent presidential election. They comprehended, in short, the general fact that the radical Democracy of New York, without whose aid Mr. Polk could not have been elected, had been most infamously betrayed in the house of their friends. But as no public good seemed attainable by an open rupture with those who abetted the treason, Messrs. Dix, Niles, King, Rathbun and Dan;i and their associates concluded to abide results for the time, and until the conspiracy should ripen into fruits more obvious to their constituents and the 156 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. people at large. On the Texas question their posi- tion at that time was well defined by Mr. Rathbun, of the Cayuga district, in a speech delivered by him in the committee of the whole of the House of Representatives, on the 22d of January, 1845. The joint resolutions for the annexation of Texas reported by the committee on foreign affairs being under consideration, Mr. Rathbun, after combating various arguments of Messrs. Rhett, Holmes, Bayly, Hammitt and others, in favor of their passage, amonii; other thins-s said : "This is an attempt to usurp an authority not given to us in the constitution ; and to exercise, by this liouse, a power specifically granted to another department of the government. It is an humble imitation of the usurpations of the long Parliament in Great Britain, and a yet more hum- ble imitation of the Chamber of Deputies in France. " They usurped the power belonging to the other departments of the government, and established the most intolerable despotism that ever existed, and then in their turn were overthrown by the armed hand of military despots, whose power, usurped and lawless as it was, was a relief and refuge to those countries. I am in favor of exercising all the leg- itimate powers which belong to this house, when they can be wisely exerted ; but I will not consent to assume an authority which has been withheld by the constitution. This house has no authority to create or confirm a treaty. mSTORT OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 157 " We are willing to annex Texas, but we say here, in the beginning, after we have given jou of the South seven new States, and vou still ask for more, to give us at least our portion of the genial climate, rich products, and fertile soil of this southern Eldorado. The North has asked for no addition to her territory. It wants none. But if we are to add an empire to the Union in the South, we ask you to leave a part of it open to the people in the North. The South has acquired all. The North has been taxed to pay millions for the territory of Florida and Louisiana, and yielded it all to the South and Southern institutions. We are willing to go further in the acquisition of terri- tory, but we demand a fair division of it when it is obtained. If you will meet us on fair, equal and honorable terms, it is well; if not, no Northern man who has any respect for the feelings, honor and interest of his constituents can go with you. I certainly will not. " There is one gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. Holmes) whose remarks I cannot suffer to pass without notice. He said that any Southern man who should consent to the admission of Texas, on condition that her territory should be divided between either slaveholding or non-slaveholding States, was either a knave or a fool. Now, with all due deference, I doubt the propriety or wisdom of such a remark. AVe meet here as one fimiily ; and il^ under strong and opposing prejudices and 158 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. interest, we insist upon a fair portion of new terri- tory, I do not think that the gentleman from South Carolina is either courteous or prudent in saying to every Southron who should be liberal enough to vote for a fair and honorable division of this large acquisition of new territory, that he is either a knave or a fool." In the same speech he said, that the second ma- gician of New York (alluding to Mr. Wright) sat trembling on his throne ; probablj^, because in the Senate he voted asrainst Mr. Calhoun's Texas treatv. Now, in the first place, the distinguished statesman alluded to occupies no throne in the common ac- ceptation of that term, though it is true that he is, and long will be, throned in the hearts of his countrymen. They have done and will continue to sustain him. He neither trembles, nor has oc- casion to tremble. An upright, honest and con- sistent politician like Silas Wright may sit as calm as a summer's morn, without the least fear of the threats of the gentleman from South Carolina or his friends. By a life of integrity and purity, by his great talents and dignified deportment, he has fixed himself in the affections of the people of that State ; and his throne, based on their love and confidence, has a foundation too deep to be shaken by any wind that can blow from South Carolina. " The gentleman has assumed to be weather- wise. He has predicted that a storm is gathering HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 159 in the political atmosphere that we cannot stand. Now we have occasionally some storms in the North, compared with which your Southern winds are gentle zephyrs, your lightning the flash of a firefly, your thunder but the rumbling of a hand- barrow; so let me say to the gentleman that he who provokes the usually quiet elements of the North will have reason to regret his temerity. The people of the North are a cool, quiet, think- ing, moderate people ; but there are points beyond which they cannot be driven. A gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Hammitt) remarked that Texas had killed Martin Van Buren. I trust it may not kill the Constitution of our country. He said it was a bomb-shell that would blow everything to atoms before it. I say to the gentleman that the Constitution is an obstruction to it here, and if that be blown to atoms, the suffering will not be limited to the North. " The Richmond Enquirer says that Democrats who oppose the measure that Mr. Polk is so anx- ious to have settled this session will have noth- ing to expect from his administration ; that the 'Northern Democrats who avail themselves of this critical contest to indulge their hatred of the South will find themselves marked by a great national sentiment in return. Gentlemen from the North may see the prospect before them. If they dare oppose annexation, or insist upon fair and honor- able terms, they sliall have no share in the loaves 160 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. and fishes of the coming administration.' I hope gentlemen will not be alarmed at the crack of the Virginia lash. Practice submission in time. For my own part I believe tliat Mr. Polk is an honest man: if he is not he is greatly belied; and if he would object to our insisting upon what we believe to be honest and fair and just, all I shall say here is, he is not the kind of man we supposed. We voted for him under the firm belief that he was a man whose sentiments and feelings were exalted far above, and we still believe him incapable of, any such intention. " If he shall attempt to deprive the North of the right of acting in accordance with our honest opin- ions, we shall be sadly disappointed in him. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bayl\') told us that the people had settled the question. I ask him, How ? When ? Where ? Does he take the vote of New York, without which we should have been beaten, as a settlement of the question ? If he does, then Texas must not be annexed, for in that State there was a majority of ten thousand on the popular vote against' us. "What is it the South asks from New York? Must she commit suicide on this floor? Must she yield her sentiments, her feelings, and her inde- pendence to the dictation of the South, and that dictation to be enforced by threats of punishment? No; we shall judge, from the circumstance, how far we can go in compliance with public opinion in HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 161 our own State, and beyond that we shall not be driven. I call the attention of Northern Demo- crats to the history of the past as a beacon light to them on the present occasion. This is no new question. The case is precisely like the Missouri question. In that ever-memorable struggle several Northern men voted in favor of allowing slavery to exist in Missouri. I call upon every Northern man to remember their fate. I am not condemnv ing the vote they gave ; I wish the gentlemen to look at the consequence. Some of them, it is true^ were appointed to offices by the government; but when the term of their office expired, they ex- pired with them. They have been politically dead! ever since. Let their fate be a warning to the North. They were denounced as traitors to their country, and condemned by their constituents.. New York desires Texas if it can be had without slavery; and a large number, and perhaps the^ majority of her people, are willing to consent to a fair compromise on that subject. But throughout the whole of that large State there can be drummed up scarcely a corporal's guard, unless it be composed of men looking for office, who go for annexation without some j^ust and fair division of the territory." 11 162 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. CHAPTER IX. THE PITTSBURG CONVENTION. It was remarked at the commencement o^' t'tiis history that the Republican party in the Uriited States originated in a high public necessity^ which manifested itself during the administrations of Washington and the elder Adams ; that it kept its organization, faith, and name until 1833, when it was dissolved ; that after a lapse of twenty-three years it was reformed again, for the same principal objects — for the defense of freedom of the person, of speech, and of the press, and for resistance to usurpations resulting from the substitution, by the political party temporarily administering the gov-