YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

X

James g. Blaine

A STUDY OF
HIS LIFE AND CAREER

From the Standpoint of a Personal Witness of the Principal
Events in his History.

BY

Theron Clark Crawford,
Fifteen Years Special Correspondent at the National Capital;
Author -of " An American Vendetta," " English Life," Etc.

EDGEWOOD PUBLISHING CO.
1893.

Copyright, 1893,
BY
J. FRANK BEALE, Jr.

Press op
Franklin Prkitinq Compant,
516-18 Minor St.

CONTENTS.

AN INTRODUCTORY REVIEW.
PAGE
An introductory giving a careful picture of Mr. Blaine's per
sonality, his peculiarities, a general estimate of his character,
"and a review of his career,  17
CHAPTER I.
Mr. Blaine's family and the noticeable features of his early life. —
His character as a student,  41

CHAPTER II.
First steps in his career after leaving college.. — His work in Ken
tucky where he studied the slave question  53

CHAPTER III.
Mr. Blaine's six years in journalistic li .—His work at Augusta
and at Portland. — Working as an editor and legislator, ... 58

CHAPTER IV.
Mr. Blaine's early political history in Maine. — Every advance-
I ment earned by diligent application and study  66

CHAPTER V.
A glance at the leading personalities in the Thirty-eighth Con
gress to which Mr. Blaine was first elected. — A picture of the
period,  81
V

vi Contents.
CHAPTER VI. PAGE
The first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress and Mr. Blaine's
first notable speech,  99
CHAPTER VII.
The second session of the Thirty-eighth Congress.— The maturity
and correctness of views of the young member on the leading
issues of the day. — His notable financial utterances, .... 113
CHAPTER VIII.
The opening scenes in the stormy -times of the reconstruction
period  119
CHAPTER IX.
The notable Blaine-Conkling episode and its important after
effects upon Mr. Blaine's history,  137
CHAPTER X.
Mr. Blaine on Southern representation. — His resistance to the in
justice of Southern demands,  148
CHAPTER XI.
Mr. Blaine's financial record. — Never for a moment deceived by
the financial delusions of the day. — The careful student a
correct teacher of the best financial doctrines,  163
CHAPTER XII.
Mr. Blaine's election as Speaker. — The personal surroundings
and development of the new Speaker who in the perform
ance of his duties won the approval of both parties, . . . . .218
CHAPTER XIII.
A study of the notable figures in the Forty-second Congress, . . . 235

Contents. vii
CHAPTER XIV. PAGE
The beginning of the scandal period developed by Southern
leaders who sought by this means to create a diversion from
the issues raised by reconstruction,  244

CHAPTER XV.
The continuation of the scandal period.— Close of Mr. Blaine's
third term as Speaker and his twelfth year in the House, . . 257

CHAPTER XVI.
The courses that led to the making of the Andersonville speech
and the after-effects of this attack upon Southern domination, 280

CHAPTER XVII.
The attempt to involve Mr. Blaine in a railroad bond scandal
and break down his power as a leader. — The Mulligan *¦-*
, episode. — Mr. Blaine's discomfiture of his enemies, .... 1 314)
CHAPTER XVIII.
The sad climax to the partisan attacks on Mr. Blaine. — The sun
stroke at Washington, and its effect u_»on the Cincinnati
Convention. — How success was there finally lost only through
bad management,  374
CHAPTER XIX.
Mr. Blaine's election to the United States Senate.— Attempt to use
the Mulligan record results in his receiving the unanimous
votes of the Legislature, without regard to party.— The dis
puted election of 1876,  402
CHAPTER XX.
Mr. Blaine' in the Senate.— The silver legislation of the Forty-
fifth Congress.— His argument against the cheap silver dollar, 415

viii Qmfents.
CHAPTER XXI. PAG*
The lists of senatorial candidates for the Presidential nomina
tion of 1880. — ^Antagonism among Republican leaders. — Mr.
Blaine's summary of the Southern political situation, .... 439
CHAPTER XXII.
Mr. Conkling working on the same lines with Mr. Blaine,, to
check the arrogant assumption of the South. — What could
have been done if they had worked together,  461
CHAPTER XXIII.
Mr. Blaine's plan regarding the South. — The Blaine-Conkling
struggle renewed at the Chicago Convention, 1880.— Mr. Blaine
defeats Mr. Conkling.— Nomination of Mr. Garfield,  475
CHAPTER XXIV.
The election campaign of 1880. — The party disrupted by a fight
over offices, .  '  481
CHAPTER XXV.
The Garfield Cabinet. — Made up wholly subordinate to Mr.,
Blaine.^-The foreign policy. — The assassination of Garfield,
and the temporary failure of Mr. Blaine's plans,  493
CHAPTER XXVI.
Mr. Blaine's activity in the office of Secretary of State. — The energy
displayed in opening up at once the South American policy, . 510
CHAPTER XXVII.
President Arthur's embarrassment upon assuming office. — A
study of his character.— His desire to assert himself. — First
breaking with Mr. Conkling, then reorganizing his Cabinet. — ¦
Reversal of the South American policy,  522

Contents. ix
CHAPTER XXVIII. PAGE
Mr. Blaine's literary work following his retirement from the
Arthur Cabinet. — The great success of his book. — His literary,-ntSt
habits. — His nomination at Chicago,  L 546 )
CHAPTER XXIX.
Presidential campaign of 1884.— The enormous enthusiasm of f
the country. — The personal scandals renewed. — The closeness^— N
of the result and the reasons of Mr. Blaine's defeat, . . . f . 558 J
CHAPTER XXX
The trip to Europe. — The principal incidents of the year's visit. —
The illness at Milan; which led to the formal declaration of
withdrawal at Florence. — The peremptory declination of the
Presidency, and the reasons therefor,  584
CHAPTER XXXI.
Mr. Blaine accepts the office of Secretary of State under Presi
dent Harrison. — His relations with the President agreeable
until shortly before his resignation. — The Pan-American Con- _^
ference. — The objects of this notable gathering  ./(60(T)
CHAPTER XXXII.
Mr. Blaine's failing health.— His relations with the President. —
Reasons for his retirement from the Cabinet. — His part in
the campaign of 1888. — His many domestic sorrows,  615
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Summary of Mr. Blaine's career.— His place in history  626

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
Mr. Blaine's Birthplace,  15
School-house at Brownsville,  33
Washington and Jefferson College,  51
Mr. Blaine's Mother,  69
Mr. Blaine at Thirty,  87
Walker Blaine,  105
Emmons Blaine,  123
Mr.-Blaine at Fifty,  141
James A. Garfield,  159
General John A. Logan,  177
Hon. William Walter Phelps,  195
The Blaine Residence, Augusta, Maine  213
Mr. Blaine's Cottage at Bar Harbor,-  ;231
Colonel J. H. Manley,  249
To Be or Not To Be  ,  267
Mr. Blaine Declines the Nomination,  285
Benjamin Harrison  303
Porch of the Bar Harbor Cottage,  321
Mr. Blaine at Sixty,  , . 339
xi

xii List of Illustrations. PAGE
Interior of the Cabinet Room, White House, . . .  357
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword,  375
Library in the Washington Home,  393
Mr. Blaine Accepts the Portfolio of the State under Harrison,  411
Blaine at Work/  429
Mr. Blaine at Sixty4wo  447
Dra wing-Room in the Blaine Mansion  465
Dihing-Room in the Blaine Mansion,  483
On the Porch at Bar Harbor Cottage, t  501
Mr. Blaine's Washington Home,  519
Mr. Blaine at Sixty-three,  537
Mr. Blaine's Physiciaii and Pastor  555.
Church of the Covenant,  573

MR. BLAINE'S BIRTHPLACE.
(West Brownsville, Pa.)

INTRODUCTION.
A GENERAL VIEW OF MR. BLAINE'S CAREER.

HIS PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS.
It is a difficult task to attempt to give the- correct
history of any man. It is particularly difficult in
the case of Mr. Blaine. He has been the subject of
eulogies so extravagant as to border upon the bur
lesque. On the other hand, he has been criticised
and denounced as if he were the last of all criminals.
He has been constantly before the public for the last
thirty years. He steadily grew in prominence until
he became recognized as the most prominent man of
his party, without regard to any official position. To
arrive at such a position he must have had unusual
qualities. The writer of this work has had for a
number of years the best of opportunities for study
ing Mr. Blaine. This period of observation began
during" Mr. Blaine's term as Speaker of the National
House of Representatives, and extended through
every phase of his ' official career. As a special cor
respondent, the writer was present during every day
of the official investigations of Mr. Blaine in Wash-
9 17

18 Introduction.
ington, and subsequently was a witness of the drama
tic incidents which followed in the open sessions of
the House.
It was directly following the summer of the event
ful yea? of 1876 that the writer became personally
acquainted with Mr. Blaine. He was fortunate
enough from the first to secure his confidence, and
through this confidence was enabled to talk freely
with him upon every subject of interest. Mr.
Blaine, when once his confidence was given, was
more than frank. He excelled in the art of conver
sation. His shrewd judgment of men and affairs, his
nimble wit, and his clear, clean English made him
an unusually entertaining companion. Unlike many
men of equal intelligence, he delighted to give and
take. He was not given to monopolizing a conver
sation. At times, he would be in a questioning
mood,' and if any one had anything to say, and real
information to impart, no one could be a more atten
tive listener than he.
When Mr. Blaine was writing his Twenty Years of
Congress, during the winter of '83 and '84, the writer
was in almost daily communication with him; He
was then given an opportunity to look at the original
manuscripts, to go over the ..proofs, and to study
closely his methods of literary work. Sometimes
during these visits Mr. Blaine was in a reminiscent

Introduction. 19
mood, and would only talk of the leaders of the past.
Again, his mind would come back to the issues of the
day, when he would discuss with pungent directness
the topics of the time. While he was engaged in
writing his book, he appeared to have freed himself
from political prejudices. He never saw more clearly
the political situation than at that time. He was
then very reluctant to re-enter the field of politics.
His reasons were given during interludes of his lit
erary work. He was fully convinced that the Re
publican party that year was to be defeated. He
said that the dissatisfaction throughout the country
was too great to be overcome. He believed that
whoever the Democrats should nominate would be
elected. This view is quite enough to demonstrate
the sincerity of his desire to keep out of politics and
to show his reluctance to permit his name to go be
fore the Convention which later in that year nomi
nated him for the office of President of the United
States. The writer, still acting as a special correspondent,
accompanied Mr. Blaine throughout the campaign
of that year. He began with him in the State of
Maine and traveled in a special car which took Mr.
Blaine through the campaign journey made in the
West. He saw him at all points of advantage and
disadvantage, and was a witness of the daily confer-

20 Introduction.
ences between him and the local leaders who came to
report to their chief.
Later the writer, as the London correspondent of
the New York World, came again into intimate per
sonal contact with Mr. Blaine. He saw him at all
of the principal points visited by him in Europe.
He had, on account of Mr. Blaine's isolation from
ordinary political surroundings, unusual opportuni
ties for learning his views. Mr. Blaine while in
Europe depended upon the writer for a large part of
his current information concerning the political situ
ation in America, and was in constant communication
with him during his foreign wanderings.
The object of this work is to give certain living
v pictures of Mr. Blaine's dramatic career, and to pre
sent, in connection with certain studies of his public
life, such records of private conversations and obser
vations of his personality as will give perhaps a more
correct idea of him than would only a dry study of
his speeches and an examination of his record as a
public man.
Dr. Samuel Johnson, in speaking of biography,
says : " Biography has often been allotted to writers
who seem very little acquainted with the nature of
their task or very negligent about the performance.
They rarely afford any other account than might be
collected from public papers, but imagine themselves

Introduction. 21
writing a life when they exhibit a chronological series
of actions ox preferments, and have so little regard
to the manners or behaviors of their heroes that more
knowledge may be gained of a man's real character
by a short conversation with one of his servants than
from a formal and studied narrative begun with his
pedigree and ended with his funeral."
The writer desires to disclaim at the outset any
intention to write a pretentious work. He wishes to
present as honest and faithful a record as possible of
Mr. Blaine's career, many incidents of which fell
under his personal observation, and to give as just
an estimate as possible of his public record. The
writer, for the greater part of his acquaintance with
Mr. Blaine, was not in special political sympathy
with him. In nearly all of his relations with Mr.
Blaine as a special correspondent he represented im
portant and influential Democratic newspapers. He
was first attracted to Mr. Blaine by the unfairness
and vindictiveness of the Democratic investigations
of the House of Representatives. He always sought,
as a correspondent, to treat Mr. Blaine fairly, and on
account of this desire received special consideration
from Mr. Blaine. The writer never asked and never
received any political favors from Mr. Blaine at any
time when he was in a position of power. It was
only in later years that the writer's political sympa-

22 Introduction.
thies became in accordance with the doctrines pf the
Republican party. This explanation is given for the;
purpose of showing, if possible, that the writer has
not been influenced in his judgment of Mr. Blaine by
any personal feeling, and that his eyes have been
quite as wide open* to Mr. Blaine's faults as to his
many brilliant and admirable qualities. Mr. Blaine
was very human, and, being human, had many im
perfections. It is possible that some of these imper
fections may have also had their share in creating
his enormous popularity.
This popularity in itself is a subject for careful
study. No political leader in this country has ever
had a more devoted following. When he was defeated
for the Presidency in 1884, he received on the pop
ular vote, taking out the Democratic strongholds of
Brooklyn and New York, a majority of over four
hundred thousand. Wherever he went during that
campaign he was received by enormous crowds of
people. Gatherings of ten thousand were almost
hourly occurrences. At the stations where the fly
ing special train stopped gatherings * of twenty-five
thousand were common, and meetings where fifty
thousand people were brought together by the single'
desire to see him were not unusual. Upon a few
occasions during that campaign there were assem
blages numbering one hundred thousand. No cam-

Introduction. 23
paign ever witnessed in the United States has ever
been more notable than this in the wildness of
the enthusiasm upon the one side and the bitter vin-
dictiveness upon the other. Mr. Blaine was nomi
nated in a convention where all previous demonstra
tions of uproar and delight were surpassed when his
friends triumphed. Wherever he went during the
period of that canvass he was greeted by such cries
of frantic enthusiasm as to thrill the blood of the
most sluggish and indifferent. Surely there must
have been something noteworthy in the character of
such a leader, who could, by the mere magic of his
presence, provoke such demonstrations of devotion.
The outward reasons for Mr. Blaine's popularity
before a crowd would not be apparent to a casual
observer. There have been many men in the politi
cal world of the United States wha possessed higher
gifts of eloquence. He had nothing of the affecta
tion of the so-called orator. His manner was very
simple and very direct. His voice was not particu
larly agreeable when raised to the key necessary for
the delivery of, a public address. It had a metallic
note, however, which vibrated upon the ear and in
such a way as to produce a thrill of emotion. There
were notes of enthusiasm and of feeling which
must have had behind them deep passion to have
produced the corresponding effect upon the assembled

* 24 Introduction.
listeners. Yet Mr. Blaine nearly always spoke
without the semblance of great emotion. He gave,
however, an impression of sincerity, and of being
very much in earnest. He was very careful in his
choice of words. He avoided the use of the super
lative, and was very sparing in the use of adjectives.
With him the thought was the important thing and
it was his constant desire to make the sentences
employed as a medium for communicating the
thought as simple as possible, so that the form of the
sentence would not attract particular notice, leaving
the mind free for the impression of the idea. In his
judgment the man who had the best literary style
was the one who apparently had none. In other
words, he should be so simple and so direct that the
reader or, listener would forget that there was such a
thing as style.
Mr. Blaine very rarely made a speech that was not
full from beginning to end of information. He
rarely depended upon what is called the inspiration
of the moment. Nearly all of his noted addresses,
were carefully prepared in his library and memorized.
He was an enthusiastic student of American history,
and only a moderate student of the history of foreign
nations. For everything that related to this country
he was a great authority. He was familiar with the
workings of this government from its first founding.

Introduction. 25
He had carefully studied the characters of every one
of the public men of our history, going back to the
earliest days until he knew them better than most
public men know their daily associates. In this field
he was very thorough. While he always prepared
himself for any special effort, yet through his wide
readings and well-stored mind and tenacious memory,
he was well equipped for the emergencies of off-hand
debate. His readiness, the keenness of his wit, the
correctness of his descriptions, and the sharp analy-
zations of the motives of men made him always a
formidable antagonist. Added to this he had the
weight of a great individuality. There was some
thing of almost physical force in the onslaughts of
Mr. Blaine when in the height of his power in the
House. He was capable of a swiftness and an energy
which for the moment carried everything before him.
Some of his opponents would be taken off their
feet by the impulsiveness of this rush, when, if the
argument presented had been delivered in a calm
and quiet manner, they might have found ample
opportunity for the making of effective replies.
Mr. Blaine had a most engaging personality. He
was in the best sense of the word a fine looking man.
He was even handsomer when he passed the period
of middle life, when his hair and beard began to
whiten, than in his youth. Advancing years gave

26 Introduction.
appeared to touch him kindly. The dark hair and
full beard of early youth, when they began to
change, turned to a fine white, which set off his
refined and delicate complexion. He was just under
six feet in height, and in the full prime of his life he
weighed nearly 200 pounds. He had a powerful,
well-rounded- figure. He was very straight, with a
deep chest and broad, well-developed shoulders. His
proportions were graceful, which can be rarely said
of any man of his size not specially trained as an
athlete. Many of the stories published concerning
Mr. Blaine's athletic abilities are as untrue as they
are absurd. He had the strength, the vigor, and the
physical ability of a man properly developed and
who has lived a very simple life. He always took
good care of himself; he never used tobacco in any
form. For many years he was an absolute abstainer.
After he passed middle life he used wine occasionally
upon his table. His use of stimulants, however, was
always very moderate. He was always careful to
take from eight to nine hours for sleep. He was also
excessively careful in all of his personal habits.
His complexion was very fair. In comparison with
many robust men, this fairness amounted to a pallor.
This gave him an appearance of being delicate. Dur
ing the last ten years of his life his complexion was
absolutely destitute of color. This constantly gave

Introduction. 27
rise to stories of ill-health, which were not well
founded. His eyes- were a dark gray, and when un
der the influence of excitement they became quite
black. His nose was very large and impossible to
classify, . It followed nearly a straight line, but with
a breadth of base unusual in straight-nosed men. He
wore a mustache and beard which were carefully
trimmed. Even until the last of his life his hair
was quite thick. The handsomest feature of his face
was his forehead. It was very broad and high, and
showed almost no lines of age. Notwithstanding his
many trials and many sorrows, little trace was left of
them upon his countenance. Before the world he
presented an almost impenetrable mask. It was more
by the flash of his eye that his feelings were shown.
His manners were as simple and as natural as his lit
erary style.
Mr. Blaine's temperament was very impulsive. He
was capable of great gusts of anger, but incapable of
prolonged resentment. His friends often complained
of this lack of resentment. Unless a critic had gone
beyond the line of what he considered proper criti
cism, he would treat him, when he came in contact
with him, with even more consideration than he
would extend to an indiscreet eulogist. He carried-
this very far. There was no limit te his patience
with the critic so long as the latter confined himself

28 Introduction.
to his public acts, and he was known to be most
charitable and forgetful even of personal injuries.
The editor of one of the most vindictive of Western
Democratic newspapers who perhaps had published
concerning him as much current abuse as ever ap-
peared in any one newspaper became only a few
years afterward an intimate and trusted personal
friend of Mr. Blaine. If any man sought his friend
ship it was not refused. The conditions of maintain
ing it were very simple. Mr. Blaine was a very
friendly man. He was especially fond of companion
ship. He hated to move in a narrow groove, and at
Washington had nearly as wide a personal popularity
among Democrats as among Republicans. He loved
to talk with men who had different views from him
self. He was particularly happy in the social field.
He loved good stories, was fond of telling them, and
was a delighted listener to anything amusing. He
had a very keen sense of the ludicrous and a very
light touch in relating anecdotes of a personal char
acter. He was particularly welcome at the dinner
table, where the range of conversation took in a wide
series of topics. The conversation at his own dinner
table was quite as often upon literary topics as upon
political ones. Indeed, the literary atmosphere of
the Blaine household was quite as marked as the
political.

Introduction. 29
In Mr. Blaine's character there were two distinct
and widely differing elements. Although in combat
he was virile and maifly there was a womanish side
to him. He had a woman's love for splendor, for
brilliant company, for music, and for the pleasure of
refined companionship. Then he was very nervous.
He was easily subject to fits of depression, and could
be almost as easily moved to a feeling of cheerfulness.
He was impatient with trifles and cried out at pin
pricks, but, on the other hand, under the burden of
great pain or the suffering of deep grief and dis
appointment he had the calm and resolute endurance
of a stoic.
Mr. Blaine was always a notable figure wherever
he went. At an official reception or at a private
gathering he could not enter the room without be
coming at once the target of attention. There was
an atmosphere of life, vitality, and good fellowship
about him which gathered to him at once the socially
inclined. No stranger could see him enter a room
without being curious to learn who he was. He had
some of the qualities of a great actor. He seemed to
know by instinct how to present any subject, great or
small. He appeared to have an intuitive sense con
cerning the temperament of his circle, of listeners.
He was particularly stimulated by an audience.
For a man whose private life was upright, whose

80 Introduction. ^
habits were clean and simple, he was made the object
of more abuse than any public man of our history.
While his friends have been devoted his enemies
have been equally energetic. For this there are a
number of reasons, which will be treated further on.
One of the most powerful adverse influences to
Mr. Blaine was the enmity made by him in 1866. This
grew out of his dispute with Roscoe Conkling. The
occasion of it, when studied in the light of to-day,
appears to be trivial, but yet its effect was continuous
up to the day of Mr. Conkling's death, and in its
after-consequences most serious and widespread. The
little speech made by Mr. Blaine in the controversy
which arose between him and Mr. Conkling, concern
ing certain frauds charged against the management
of the Provost Marshal's department in Northern
New York, led to a complete severance of their per
sonal relations. Mr. Blaine afterward regretted this
incident. He admired thoroughly the great qualities
of Mr. Conkling's mind, though he had in his speech
burlesqued some of his peculiarities and faults. Mr.
Conkling's vanity being deeply wounded, he was
unrelenting in his determination to punish Mr.
Blaine. At every step of Mr. Blaine's presidential
ambition he was confronted by the powerful individu
ality and influence of Mr. Conkling. In 1880, when
General Garfield was nominated, Mr. Blaine would

Introduction. 31
have undoubtedly 'received the nomination, if it had
not been for the presence and influence of Mr. Conk
ling in the Chicago Convention. It was owing to
this feeling of resentment against Mr. Blaine, growl
ing out of this incident of 1866, that Mr. Conkling
began his war upon the Garfield administration.
This led to his resignation from the Senate, and the
stirring up of a passion of partisan excitement which
gave Guiteau his insane pretext for the assassination
of President Garfield. The influence of this incident
upon both Mr. Blaine's and Mr. Conkling's careers
has never apparently been appreciated by any of
their biographers.
Mr. Blaine's personal honor has been the occasion
of repeated assaults. During and preceding the
campaigns of 1876, 1880, and 1884, he was held up
as the most dishonest and untrustworthy of men.
Under the shadow of the baleful investigation of
1876, he was defeated before the Cincinnati Conven
tion. Yet a fact which seems to have never been
dwelt upon should now be recalled and emphasized.
This is the failure of that House Investigating Com
mittee to complete its work, or to make any report in
the case of Mr. Blaine. It has been said that the
.results were negative. This is a very feeble way of
summarizing the results of an investigation which
was brought for the purpose of crushing and destroy-

32 Introduction.
ing the man who was then one of the most domina
ting and overshadowing figures in this country.
Some of the relentless critics who have pursued Mr.
Blaine, even to the verge of the grave, speak of this
investigation, in which the celebrated Mulligan episode
, occurred, as one which was final and complete in its
results. One critic even has gone so far as to say
that Mr. Blaine narrowly escaped the penitentiary,
and that if he had had his just deserts, he would
have been promptly imprisoned upon the' findings' of -
this committee. Partisan spirit and personal malice
could not go beyond this, unless it had. insisted upon
Mr. Blaine's execution. But what was the real result
of that investigation ? At best, before any personal
explanation or defense from Mr. Blaine, there was,
created only a presumption of evidence. It must be
remembered that the committee charged with this
investigation was made up of furious political parti
sans. It was dominated by Southern influences which
were specially antagonistic to Mr. Blaine, on account
of his celebrated speech opposing the amnesty of Jef
ferson Davis. Yet, after Mr. Blaine's personal exr
planation in the House, the investigation ceased, and *
not another witness was called. The committee
never met but three times afterward, and the
records of the; House of Representatives will show
that this committee never went through the fofr

JMJi^m^j

SCHOOL HOUSE, BROWNSVILLE, PA.— WHERE MR. BLAINE BEGAN HIS EDUCATION.

- Introduction. 35
mality of presenting a report. If Mr. Blaine had
been guilty of one-thousandth part of what was
charged against him by his critics, it would have
been the duty of this committee to have reported him
to the House for censure, at least. This is especially
noteworthy for the reason that the House pf Repre
sentatives was then engaged in numerous investiga
tions, and in each particular case a finding was made
and formal reports drawn, with the exception of the
investigation directed against Mr. Blaine, and about
which so much has been said.
No man in public life has ever had more continu
ous support from his own people than Mr. Blaine.
During the entire period, beginning in 1858, he had
the vote of confidence of his own people. He, had
from them the highest office within the gift of his
State. In the Presidential campaign of 1884 he re
ceived the largest vote that any Presidential candi
date has received in Maine since the formation of
the State. This unshaken and continued confidence
in him by the people who knew him best was always
¦to Mr. Blaine a source of proud satisfaction. When
scandal and partisan fury pursued him with the
greatest energy he would find in his own State a
cordial welcome and a sympathetic support.
Many qualities have been ascribed to him which;
do not properly belong to him. Some of his eulo-

36 Introduction.
gists say that he would have made a great financier,
and that had he entered the financial world he would
have become a king there. This view, judged by
the facts of Mr. Blaine's temperament, is an incorrect
one. Mr. Blaine had too great an impatience with
business details ever to have made a, good adminis
trator of affairs purely financial. His theories con
cerning finance were correct. From the first he was
opposed to an inflated currency or to the coinage of
cheap dollars. While he was a bi-metallist, he did
not believe in the general and free use of silver ex
cept through the general co-operation of the civilized
nations of the world. While he had good judgment
concerning certain lines of investments, and was es
pecially fortunate in the purchase of certain coal
properties in Pennsylvania early in his career, he
yet was too *much absorbed in intellectual pursuits
of a literary or political character to give much of
his time to financial affaire.' He was careless in
money matters, so far as they related to the every
day affairs of life.
He was especially fitted for the field of journalism.
He possessed many of the qualifications of a brilliant
and successful editor. He had a "keen sense of the
public's wants, and through this sense was close in
sympathy with the popular will. He had the ex
perienced and successful editor's ability to recognizp

Introduction. 37
the leading topic of the moment. Some of his
methods would correspond to the methods employed
in sensational journalism of. the higher class. He
' knew how to present in the most striking manner
the topics of the time. None' knew better than he
how to use the channels of the newspapers for creat
ing impressions upon the public mind. He was for
many years of his political life an anonymous edi
torial contributor to the pages of the New YOrk
Tribune. He was at his best as a controversialist. In de
bate or in the field of diplomatic correspondence he
was a strong opponent. In summing up the life of
any public man whose career has been almost exclu
sively confined to the field of politics, the results
which can be classed in words are often very meagre.
When Samuel S. Cox died, after over a quarter of a
century of faithful services in the House of Repre
sentatives, it was remembered, of him as a brilliant
result of this long period of hard work that he had
left upon the statute-book, as a record of his life, the
law establishing the life-saving service.
A study of Mr. Blaine's life will give a most satis
factory answer to the question of what has he after
all accomplished. A man may be a brilliant debater*
he may perform correctly all of the duties assigned
to him in the various offices he may be called upon

38 Introduction.
to hold, and yet when, he comes to die, after the
words of eulogy have been pronounced he may leave
behind him no more real trace than the writings
made upon the shores of the sea. Mi*. Blaine's life,
however, will leave behind it a lasting and perma
nent result which will make for him a solid and
enduring reputation.
He outlined a broader policy for our national life.
He sought to raise politics into a larger field. This
he accomplished in his South American policy. This
achievement is the chapter in his career which will
make his name live the longest. This policy, in brief,
is in the line of the future fraternity of nations.
This is the ideal of every high-minded statesman.
Two very important steps were accomplished by
Mr. Blaine in this direction. The first was in out
lining a plan for arbitration Of all disputes between
the United States and the nations on this continent
lying south of us. * The work of the Peace Confer
ence, convoked at Washington by Mr. Blaine, must
in the end have a decided result upon the disputes of
the nations of tne Old World. If all questions of
difference can be settled on this side of the water by
arbitration, then in time arbitration must make its
way around the world, and war will be abolished.
The fortification of this peace policy is in the newly
established commercial relations growing out of the

Introduction. 39
policy of reciprocity. When peace sentiments and
commercial interests are successfully united, then the
danger of conflict becomes less and less, so that it is
not too much to expect that the early future will see
such a close union of interests between the republics
on this continent that war as a means of settling their
disputes will be forever abolished. It would be too
much to assume that any such result has yet been
reached. But such an outcome will be the logical
end of the policy so nobly planned and so brilliantly
begun by Mr. Blaine.

CHAPTER I.
MR. BLAINE'S FAMILY AND HIS EARLY LIEE.
There is nothing specially remarkable in Mr.
Blaine's early life. His experiences as a boy and in
college do not differ greatly from the experiences of
thousands of other American youths. Although his
immediate family was not rich, they lived in comfort
and he was given the best facilities for education
available in his time and neighborhood. His father
and his grandfather before him had greater opportu
nities for culture and observation during the period,
of youth than he.
The Blaine family was of Scotch origin. They
came to this country in 1720. They were Presbyte
rians of the most rigid kind. They were well-to-do
people in Scotland. Ephraim Blaine, Mr. Blaine's
great-grandfather, was the first of the family to ac
quire prominence in this country. For his time he
was a rich man. He acquired large holdings of land
in Western Pennsylvania in the Cumberland Valley.
His family founded the present town of Carlisle.
They built there the memorial church which is stand
ing to-day. Ephraim Blaine was one of the largest
41

42 Life of James G. Blaine.
owners -of land in his part of the State, and this
property descended intact to his son James, the
grandfather of Mr. Blaine.
Ephraim Blaine was a great figure in the war of
the Revolution. He was first a. colonel, and later
was made. Commissary-General of the patriot army.
It was o^ing to his patriotism, his financial ability,
and his private fortune that he was enabled to main
tain supplies for Washington's army in the face of
the greatest difficulties. It was he who inspired con-~
fidence among his neighbors and associates in the
cause, and who pledged his private fortune where
faith and the credit in the new government were
weak. He was the trusted friend of General Wash
ington, and his achievements made for him a most
honorable place in the history of that eventful- time.
The Cumberland Valley region was afterward set
tled by the veterans of the Revolution. Their tales
and legends of this war were carefully handed down,:
and formed an atmosphere of patriotism and of
Americanism which undoubtedly produced a great
influence upon their descendants.
James Blaine, the son of Ephraim, inherited the
bulk of the property left by the Commissary-Gen
eral, who died at Carlisle, in 1804. He was liberally
educated, according to his time, and, after finishing
his education, traveled in Europe. Through the in-

His Family and Early Life. 43
fluence of his father's name, he was employed in the
diplomatic field. This appears, however, to have
been a mere incident in his European traveling. He
came home as a dispatch-bearer, bringing with hirn
the famous . Jay Treaty. His home was in Carlisle,
but after his return from Europe he spent a good
deal of time in Philadelphia, where he was conspicu
ous in social life.
Ephraim Lyon Blaine, the father of Mr. Blaine,
was the eldest son of James Blaine. He was born in
1796, eight years before his grandfather, the Gen
eral, died. He received, also, a liberal education,
and then followed in the footsteps of his father by
going abroad for study and pleasure. He not only
traveled through Europe, but also went to South
America and the West Indies. He was a man
of careful observation and of good ideas. Undoubt
edly, his experience in South America and his re
cital of the wealth and possibilities of those countries?
planted in the mind of his son the seeds which de
veloped later in the form of his South American
policy. Ephraim L. Blaine married Maria Gillespie, a de
scendant of a Scotch-Irish family which came from
the North of Ireland in 1771. Her grandfather,
Neal Gillespie, who was the head of the family that
left Ireland, possessed a moderate property when he

44 Life of James G. Blaine.-
came to this' country. This he invested in land- in
the neighborhood of the Blaines, in Cumberland
Valley. This family became rich and prosperous,
and occupied a social position equal to that of the
Blaines. The Gillespies were Roman Catholics.
Their home was in Fayette County. At a later
period Neal Gillespie, of this family, crossed the
Monongahela River and built a stone house at West
Brownsville, in Washington County. This land was
bought from the Indians, and was known as Indian
Hill farm.
Mr. Blaine's mother was a remarkable character.
She was one of the handsomest women of her day.
Her picture, published in this book, shows to what
a remarkable degree her beauty was preserved up to
the last days of her life. Her hair was dark, her
eyes were piercing, and her face fine in its lines,
while her complexion was fair as that of a child.
She was devout, careful, possessing an accurate judg
ment and a thoroughly keen knowledge of business
affairs. Ephraim Blaine, her husband, was lavish
in his expenditures, and possessed none of the qualifi
cations necessary to preserve the property which had
descended to him, and which? augmented by the
property of his wife, should have formed the basis
for one of the greatest of modern fortunes. The land
owned by him afforded ample revenue for the main-

His Family and Early Life. 45
tenance of his family, and all that was needed was a
careful business administration to have kept every
acre of the land in the hands of the family. The
value of this land to-day is many millions of dollars.
Ephraim sold from his holdings, for $25,000, the
tract of land now occupied by the Econoinite So-/
ciety, a property which is now worth at least
115,000,000, exclusive of the improvements made by
this Society. He lived in a liberal way, and ex
ceeded his income, so that the great estate dwindled
away. Much of it was then regarded as nearly
valueless. Some of the most valuable coal and iron
properties in Western Pennsylvania have since been
developed on lands which Ephraim L. Blaine
allowed to drift through his hands through' mere
failure to pay the taxes thereon. Toward middle-
life the owner of this property was forced to seek
public employment in order to obtain a sufficient in
come for his large and growing family. He was first
Justice of the Peace of West Brownsville; later he
removed to Washington, Pa., where he held the
office of Prothonotary.
James Gillespie Blaine, who was named after his
two grandfathers, was born at Indian Hill farm on
the 31st of January, 1830. He was the third of a
family of eight, and the only one of them who has
attracted public notice. His early associations were

46 Life of James G. Blaine.
those of any country lad whose family lived in com
fortable circumstances with a heritage of education
and culture. His father gave special attention to the
education of .his children. His travels and broad
view of life had also its influence upon their educa-
tion. He had a good library, while the current lit
erature of the day, such as newspapers and magazines,
were always in the house. The mother was a musi
cian and played the piano, so that the home circle
was, one of cheerfulness and refinement. Young
Blaine began school in the traditional red school-
house at the age of six. His first two teachers were
women. At the age of eleven he was sent away from
home, and spent a year in Lancaster, Ohio, an in
mate of the family of the Hon. Thos. Ewing, a cou
sin of his mother, and the then Secretary of the
Treasury. Mr. Ewing was the father of the wife of
General Sherman. The Shermans and the Blaines
have been always very intimate." It was undoubt
edly in the atmosphere of the Ewing family, that
young Blaine received his first impressions of politi
cal life. In the families of such officials as cabinet #
officers, politics and the personal gossip of the admin
istration family are the prevailing topics of conversa
tion, and it is natural that an intelligent and active- .
minded boy should have become deeply interested
and impressed by ., the stories of public life, the

His Family and Early Life. 47
an< cdotes of prominent people, and the power' and
influence exercised by them. It would be too much
tb suppose that it made more than a temporary im
pression upon the boy, but from time to time follow
ing this visit young Blaine had his attention called
to political matters. He had a natural aptitude for
public affairs. He was well grounded in history
by his parents, and when his father removed to
Washington, Pa., in 1842 he was prepared for the l
Washington and Jefferson College, the university of
Western Pennsylvania, which was located in that
town. He entered this college in 1843 at the early
age of thirteen. Of course the standard for admission
at that time was much below that of to-day.
The young man was enabled to pursue his college
studies while living at home. He learned easily and
was a proficient student. He devoted quite as much
time, however, to amusement and to out-door- fun as
to his books. He was in no sense of the word a
book-worm. He graduated fourth in his class. Out
of the many stories concerning his college career a
few points are conspicuous. First, he was strong in
mathematics and logic. He was a fairly good Latin
scholar, although he did not keep up his reading
after leaving college. He never studied any modern
language except the French, and this he only read in
a superficial way. Among his playmates he was

48 Life of James G. Blaine.
known as " Nosey " Blaine on account of the promi
nence of his nose, which seemed at that time to be
out of proportion with his slim, angular figure. He
was popular among his schoolmates and showed his
ability in one particular regard as a politician' by se
curing the election as president of the debating soci
ety, although he had a certain defect in his speech
and was not able to particularly distinguish himself -
by speaking in the debates before the society. This
defect in his speech was overcome to a great degree
by patience and drilling, but even in later life he had
a slight lisp.
His inclinations during his college career were in
the direction of journalism. He wrote a number of
essays upon the political topics of the day. Some
thing of the bent of his mind was shown in his
graduation address, delivered in September, 1847, the
year in which gold was discovered in California.
The subject of this address was the duty of an edu
cated American. In this address he said :
" The sphere of labor for the educated American
is continually enlarging. But recently we added the
vast dominion of the Lone Star Republic to our
glorious Union. The war to which that act gave rise
is now in victorious progress, and will not end with
out another great accession of territory — possibly
carrying our flag beyond the Great American Desert

His Family and Early Life. 49
to the shores of the Pacific Sea. Where our armies
march, population follows, and the field of duty for
the scholar is to be continental in extent, and as
varied as the demands of a progressive civilization."
The influence of this college, which was a Presby
terian institution, undoubtedly fastened Mr. Elaine's
religious convictions. He followed the Church of
his father, while several of the other children joined
the mother's Church. Throughout life Mr. Blaine
consistently adhered to this Church. He expressed
himself once only, in the campaign of 1884, upon
the subject of his religion.
It has always been charged that Mr. Blaine had a
weakness for his mother's Church, and that his sym
pathies inclined him to become a Catholic. These
stories have been undoubtedly strengthened by the
fact that his two eldest daughters — Alice and Mar
garet — openly joined the Catholic Church. Mr.
Blaine's declaration upon the subject of his religious
views made in answer to an inquiry was as follows :
" My ancestors on my father's side were, as you
know, always 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
feh« introduction of anvthine. that looks like a reli-

50 Life of James G. Blaine.
gious test or qualification for office in a republic
where perfect freedom of conscience is the birthright
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 moth
er'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."
While this does not contain any concrete declara
tion concerning Mr. Blaine's personal belief, it is yet
a matter of fact that he was a member of the Pres
byterian Church of Augusta, Maine, and always at
tended the services of a Church of that denomina
tion in Washington. His wife is also a member of'
the same Church.

WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON COLLEGE, WASHINGTON,, PA.
(Where Mr Blaine was Educated.)

• . CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST STEPS IN HIS CAREER AFTER LEAVING
COLLEGE.
After graduating from "college Mr. Blaine looked
about for the. best means to support himself and to
advance his fortunes. He had then no help from
his father. At this time his father was out of
office, and the young graduate made no delay in
going to work. Following hi3 graduation, in Oc
tober, he found employment as professor of mathe
matics in a military school at Blue Lick Springs,
Kentucky, through the influence of the Hon. Thomas
Ewing. It was a large school, having upwards of
200 pupils. They were the sons of the planters
of the South, and of a class hard to govern. Mr.
Blaine from the first maintained his supremacy by
his tact and firmness, and won the respect and obe
dience of his unruly pupils. This result, however,
was not reached without a physical fight. Early in
the history of his connection with the school there
was a rebellion against the faculty. Some of the
students attacked the professors with pistols and
knives. Mr. Blaine was conspicuous in this fight at
' 53

54 Life of Jar^es G. Blaine.
the head of the faculty, using his fists and arms
against the representatives of the Southern chivalry,
who, as usual, came armed to settle a dispute. The
faculty triumphed in the fight, and Mr. Blaine won
from these Southern young men more respect on ac
count of his having been the hero of this struggle
than if he had demonstrated before them the most
profound learning.
Another interesting incident in his career as a
teacher was his defense of a pupil, a poor young man
who had knocked down and soundly punished the
son of a wealthy planter. The poor student's name
was John F. Edmonds. He had resented an insult
to his mother. Yet, because he had struck the son of
one of the wealthy patrons of the school, he was
severely rebuked by the faeulty, and threatened with
expulsion and disgrace unless he made an apology.
Mr. Edmonds, who afterward became a resident of
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, said that Professor Blaine
alone stood by him. In his account of this incident,
published some years ago, Edmonds said : " The fac
ulty were all against me except Professor Blaine.
He arose, and with much warmth and feeling
said that he could not withhold his sympathy from
a boy whom love and reverence for his mother
had involved in trouble. ' This boy,' said he,, ' only
resented a foul insult to his absent mother. What

The First Steps in His Career. 55
boy of manliness and honor, especially with the
peculiar training of a Kentucky boy, would not re
sent such an insult more quickly than an insult
offered to himself? I will not only not consent to
censure him, but say that I think he did right, and
that I feel more like praising than reproving him.'
This brief speech worked like magic on the strict
minds of the faculty, and the offender was turned
loose with a general admonition."
The president of this institute was Colonel Thorn
ton F. Johnson. His wife was the head of a school
for young ladies at Millersburg, some twenty miles
away from Blue Lick Springs. Among the teachers
' in Mrs. Johnson's school was Miss Harriet Stanwood,
whose father was formerly a merchant at Ipswich,
Mass. He moved from that village to Augusta, Me.,
where he died of heart disease in 1845. Following
his death Miss Stanwood became a teacher. Mr.
Blaine became acquainted with her during her Ken
tucky engagement, and in the third year of his pro
fessorship they became engaged to be married. At
tlie end of his three years' service in the military in
stitute Mr. Blaine resigned and went home to Penn
sylvania. He had not yet adopted a profession. He
was at this time inclined to the law. Within the
year following his leaving the school in Kentucky he
was marripd to Miss Stanwood. The marriage took

5B Life 6f James G. Blaine.
place at Pittsburgh in 1851. He was married at the
early age of twenty-one. He went to Philadelphia
and there engaged in the study of law in the office
of Theodore Cuyler. To support himself and wife
during these studies he obtained a situation as in
structor in the Philadelphia Blind Asylum. His
record there was an honorable and a satisfactory one.
At' the end of two years he resigned his place ; and
while he had fitted himself for admission to the bar,
he never underwent examination to qualify himself
for practice. Owing to Mrs. Blaine's influence he
left Philadelphia and went with her to her former
home, Augusta, Me. About the time he left Ken
tucky his father died. From 1854 he was wholly
identified with the State of Maine, and while he re
tained a grateful memory and a loyal affection for
the place of his birth, he never returned there except
for occasional visits.
This early life formed the outlines of his character
and established firmly the lines of thought and of
political belief to which his subsequent life was de
voted. In his Cumberland Valley home he acquired
a stock of patriotism and an Americanism peculiar
to that region. From his father and his college he
took his religion, which was strengthened by his
marrying a believer in the same doctrines. From
. his father, who was a Whig, he took his politics. In

The First Steps in His Career. 57
Kentucky he saw face to face the evils' of slavery,
and learned to comprehend the arrogance of the
Southern spirit. This experience was of incalculable
value to him and gave great intensity and emphasis
to his arguments in the anti-slavery campaign of
Fremont in 1856. His family was opposed to slave-
holding. But the time for anti-slavery agitation did
not come until Mr. Blaine was at an age to enter
actively into the field of politics. Upon that subject
he did not hesitate. He was, from the first to the
last, an uncompromising opponent to slavery and was
unswerving in his devotion to the cause of Abolition.
It was the leading subject of his maiden speeches in
the Fremont campaign. The earnestness and the
force of the young ex-professor, now become an edi
tor, made him conspicuous from the start in his
newly-adopted State.

CHAPTER III.
MR. BLAINE'S SIX YEARS OF JOURNALISTIC WORK.
Mr. Blaine went to Maine at the time of one of
the most exciting and interesting periods in our
political history. The pro-slavery Democrats had
carried the election of 1852, and the country was
deeply moved over the conflicts upon the" soil of
Kansas between the so-called border ruffians who
respresented slavery, and the New England Colonists
who came to Kansas opposed to slavery and to its
encroachments in that Territory, and whom the
former sought to intimidate. Clay, Webster, and Cal
houn, three of the great figures in the controversies
at Washington, had just died. Everywhere there
was talk of the "impending, crisis." The Fugitive
Slave Law, which went on the statute books upon
the 18th < of September, 1850, was being ruthlessly
enforced. This making the North the hunting-
ground for escaped slaves, with Federal office-holders
as hunters, aroused public opinion and added swiftly
to the growth of the anti-slavery sentiment. Mobs
and riots upon the part of indignant citizens were
common. Often slaves captured by their owners

Six Years of Journalistic Work. 59
were re-taken by the sympathizers with abolition.
The law was nullified and openly defied. In return
the abolition leaders were often mobbed and driven
into hiding by indignant crowds who sought to kill
them because they dared to speak in public against
the crime of slavery. Everywhere /the spirit of
slavery was aggressive, violent, and hesitating at no
means necessary to secure its supremacy. \
Mr. Blaine, soon after moving to Augusta, became
a part owner of the Kennebec Journal, a weekly news
paper published in that town. He had associated
with him his wife's brother, Jacob Stanwood. He
took possession of the new paper on the 10th of No
vember, 1854, and announced the editorial policy of
the paper with brevity and clearness. He said :
"Politically, The Journal will pursue the same
course it has marked out for the last two months.
We shall cordially support the Morrill or Repub
lican party, the substantial principles of which are,
as we understand them : freedom, temperance, river
and harbor improvement within constitutional lim
its, homesteads for freemen, and a just administration
of the public lands of the State and Nation. We
shall advocate the cause of popular education as the
surest -safeguard of our Republican institutions, and
especially the common schools of the State and city.
. . . We shall devote a department of our paper each

60 Life of James G. Blaine.
week to religious intelligence of all kinds, and desire"'
that our friends of all denominations will consider f
themselves invited freely to communicate anything in
this department which they wish to have made pub
lic, particularly notices of religious conventions, ordi
nations, and meetings of such kind."
Some of Mr. Blaine's eulogistic biographers repre
sent the youthful editor as having spent ten days in
committing the entire files of his newly-purchased
newspaper to memory before beginning his work. It
is a fact that Mr. Blaine made a careful study of the
previous issues of the paper as would any sensible
man, coming for the first time into a field wholly
new to him. By this reading he learned the history
of the local issues, the previous expressions of the
paper, and was enabled thereby to keep it in line
with its past, without needlessly offending any of
its previous supporters.
One of the most interesting paragraphs in this
paper at this time was Mr. Blaine's description of
Henry Clay. Henry Clay was Mr. Blaine's political
model. His writings and his career had a greater
influence on him than the life and writings of any
other public man. Mr. Clay was an unswerving
opponent to slavery. He was a conspicuous advocate
of the American system of protection, _ and was one
of the first to see and proclaim the importance of cul-

Six Years of Journalistic Work. 61
tivating close relations with the nations lying south
of us. It was Mr. Clay who was the first to advo
cate the recognition of any new Republic formed in
South America, and it was in the study of the
writings and the speeches of this Kentucky statesman
that Mr. Blaine found the inspiration for his South-
American policy, the culmination of his political
career. Mr. Blaine made a study of Mr. Clay when
he was in Kentucky. He had there an opportunity of
hearing him speak and of. learning more concerning
him than he could have done from the publications
of the time. Mr. Blaine was always pleased when any
one found a parallel in his career to that of Mr. Clay's.
Mr. Blaine, in his personal description of Mr. Clay,
in his newspaper said : "As a speaker, Mr. Clay is
very earnest and persuasive ; not polished either in
manner or diction, but still irresistibly pleasing.
" He speaks from the soul, and the moment you
hear him you are assured that he - gives utterance
only to what he knows and feels to be the truth and
the cause of human freedom.
" Mr. Clay is a man of fine personnel,, in the early
prime of life — being only a few years on the shady
side of forty, and, but for his full suit, of gray,
readily passing for ten years younger. He resem
bles, ex- Vice-President Dallas, who always ranked as
the finest-looking man on Pennsylvania Avenue."

62 Life of James G. Blaine.
The influence of Henry Clay was also openly dis
played in his newspaper. He kept, standing at the
head of the editorial column, printed in capitals, the
following extract from Mr. Clay's last speech in the
United- States Senate:
" I repeat it, sir, I never can and I never will, and
no earthly power can make me vote, directly or indi
rectly, to spread slavery over territory where it does
not exist. Never, while reason holds its seat in my
brain ; never, while my heart sends its vital fluid
through my veins, never !"
It is not necessary to go too deeply into the files
of the Kennebec Journal in order to show the ability
of the young editor. He wrote with clearness and
with dignity and with information. One of the best
illustrations of his style was in an answer to an attack
made upon him by the pro-slavery organ, The Age.
This newspaper resented Mr. Blaine's vigorous at
tacks upon the slaveholders, and published a ] air
graph which was the subject of one of the first edi
torials -written by Mr. Blaine in his post as editor.
This editorial foreshadows the style and manner of
the future debater and diplomatic controversialist.
This article is as follows :
" We find the following precious morceau in The
Age of Saturday last :
" ' One of the editors of the new Morrill organ in

Six Years of Journalistic Work. 63
this city has too recently partaken of the "slave
holder's salt," and reposed beneath the shadow of the
"peculiar institution," to authorize him to lecture
contemporaries on their duty to the cause of " free
dom." We would recommend to his consideration
Shakespeare's advice to new beginnars in the art
" theatrical.' "We — the editor referred to in this would-be
.severe paragraph — have to plead guilty to a resi
dence of four years, prior to and including 1850, in
the State of Kentucky. We were engaged in what
we still consider the honorable capacity of a teacher
in a literary institution, then and now in deservedly
high standing with the several States, both North
and South, which patronize and sustain it. Invited
to take the position for a certain pecuniary considera
tion, which we regularly received, and having to
the best of our ability and to the satisfaction of all
concerned discharged our duties, we have been under
the impression that the matter was closed, and noth
ing due from either party to the other in the way of
personal obligation or political fealty. The Age,
however, seems to think that, having partaken of
the 'slaveholder's salt' (for which we paid), we
should be dumb to the slaveholder's wrong- doing.
So conscious are they of the potency of a little ' ad
ministration salt ' in shutting their own mouths and

64 Life of James G. Blaine.
stifling their real sentiments on the slavery question
that they cannot conceive of any one taking a more
independent or more manly course.
" We beg leave further to say (since we are re
luctantly forced into this allusion to self ) that the
anti-slavery sentiments, which, from our earliest
youth, we imbibed in our- native Pennsylvania — the
first of the ' old thirteen ' to abolish slavery— were
deepened and strengthened by a residence among
slaveholders, and that nowhere, either on slave soil
or on free soil, have we expressed other feelings than
those of decided hostility to the extension of the
withering curse.
" Our residence in the South gave us, we hope, the
advantage of a thorough comprehension of the ques
tion of slavery in all its aspects, and of the views
of the men who sustain it. It taught us among other
things that slaveholders, whilst wholly unreasonable
and even perfidious in their aggressions upon free
dom, have yet the magnanimity to despise a Northern
traitor ; and that all organists and apologists of
dough-facery, after earning the contempt of freemen
at home, have only for consolation the kicks and
cuffs of their Southern masters.
" But we forbear ; the opinion now current is that
our neighbors of The Age, in consenting to preach
acquiescence under the 'crushing-out' process of
Pierce and Cushing:. went it dirt cheat), and have

Six Years of Journalistic Work. 65
even failed to receive the whole of the stipulated
compensation under this belief, the derision which
they so richly merited and at first so bountifully re
ceived is rapidly subsiding and giving place to a
feeling of pity. In this we trust we have the gene
rosity to share, and cannot, therefore, find it in our
heart to add a single taunt or unkind remark."
For six years he was connected with journalism,
For three years he edited and published the Kennebec
Journal. His editorial writing must have made more
than an ordinary impression upon the community, be
cause at the age of twenty-six, two years after his going
to Maine, he made his appearance in the field of na
tional politics by being sent as a delegateto the first
National Convention of the Republican party, held
at Philadelphia, in June, 1856. Mr. Blaine was
made one of the secretaries of the Convention.
In 1857 he sold his interest in the Kennebec
Journal for a good profit and invested to a good ad
vantage the money and accepted a remunerative po
sition as editor of the Portland Daily -Advertiser. In
the following year he was elected to the Maine Legis
lature, but retained his connection with the Portland
newspaper until 1860. He kept his residence, how
ever, at Augusta, the capital. He did most of his
editorial work at home. He made friends in every
direction, and the friendships made du-'ng this
---,._i -._,_.. --i.-v_ ....-it. tvt„:„« r-oyer failed him.

CHAPTER IV.
MR. BLAINE'S EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY IN MAINE.
Mr. Blaine's first appearance as a public speaker
was during the campaign of 1856, when he returned
from the first Republican Convention held at Phila
delphia. He was asked to address a public assem
blage at Augusta for the purpose of telling the story
of the Convention's proceedings. The reports of the
daily newspapers were at that date comparatively
meagre. The various communities depended upon
their delegates for the local pictures, detailed ac
counts, and descriptive pictures of the proceedings of
the National Conventions. In this day the work is
exhaustively done by the newspapers. The political
orators are left free to discuss the issues presented in
the platforms.
Some of Mr. Blaine's friends represent him ' as
having been a success from the start as a public
speaker. This is more than the facts of his history
warrant. He was not a success as a debater in the
literary society of his college. He was nervous,
easily embarrassed, and, owing to the impediment in
his speech, was unable to make an agreeable impres
sion or to present a continuous and logical argument.
66

Early Political History in Maine. 67
His first Augusta address was made with much hesi
tation. He was greatly embarrassed and sought at
first to avoid making the speech. After a time he
became accustomed to the sound of his voice, and
having before him a friendly audience, was able to
make a creditable report of what had been done at
Philadelphia. The first speech made, however, by
Mr. Blaine which he has himself thought worthy of
preserving was delivered at a Republican meeting in
Litchfield, Me., upon the 28th of June in the same
year. This speech was carefully prepared beforehand
and memorized. It begins with a brief outline of the
character of the old parties and then goes on- to de
scribe the policy of the new Republican party. The
speaker then passed to the Convention itself, and
called attention to its marked feature, which was that
a large proportion of its members were young men.
The speech is notable for its conservative character,
and in its claims for the very moderate purposes of
the newly-formed party. This party did not pro
pose at that time to abolish* slavery where it existed,
or to represent in any way the extreme spirit of the
old Abolitionists. Its one great issue was its oppo
sition to the extension of slavery to new territory,
and to keep it absolutely within the limits in which
it then existed. The speaker then in a very moder
ate way analyzed the characters of the leading candi-

68 Life of James G. Blaine.
dates on both sides. In this speech there is no par-?
tisan denunciation, and no extreme declarations that
one might expect to find in the political address of a
young and relatively unexperienced man. It is
almost cold in its business-like directness* and un
doubtedly commended itself to the cautious and con
servative-minded electors in the State of Maine. ,
Nearly all of his addresses in that campaign were
carefully prepared. Gradually he gained more con
fidence, and more freedom, but every effort was the
result of hard work. Those who represent Mr-
Blaine, as accomplishing easily the results reached.
by him do injusticeto his character. Every political
address made by him was always a subject of thought,
reading, and study. During this campaign he
learned to meet the unexpected, which came often in
the form of interruptions. In this his nimbleness
and his readiness came to his aid, and the store of
general information possessed by him supplied "him
often with an answer where a more experienced
speaker even might have been at fault. One of Mr.
Blaine's most noted triumphs at this time was a little
effect produced at a meeting in the town of Wateryille,
Maine. This was then a great Democratic strong
hold, A certain local leader, Gideon Welles, had a
habit of interrupting any public speaker opposed to
bis party views. Mr. Blaine had been warned, to

MR. BLAINE'S MOTHER.

-.¦ Early Political History in Maine. 71
keep away from Waterville for the reason that he
was new to public speaking, and that he would proba
bly meet there with such embarrassment as to break
him down, and produce a bad effect. He determined,
however, to go. He was allowed to go on with his
address, which was directed in the main agains t the
institution of slavery. In the midst of his address
he was interrupted by Welles who, with apparent
consideration, begged leave to interrupt the speaker
for the purpose of asking a question. Mr. Blaine at
once yielded. He was then asked if George Wash
ington was not considered the model citizen of his
country, and if he were not a slaveholder. The
crowd was now on the alert for the answer to what
seemed to them a most formidable question. Mr.
.Blaine rose to his full height and said that he yielded
to no ,one in his respect and veneration for the
memory of George Washington. He then added,
with a sudden change of manner, "but even he
manumitted his slaves before he dared to enter the
presence of his Maker." The local leader was not
aware of this small historical fact, and as Mr. Blaine
was shrewd enough to close his speech with this
climax, the result was a great demonstration in his
favor, and the local Democrat in question became
afterward one of his most fervent supporters.
Mr. Blaine showed in the political field a great

72 Life of James G. Blaine.
aptitude. He learned in time how best to convince
and persuade an audience. He was actively engaged
in every political campaign .following 1856, and al
though modest in his demeanor, pushed himself reso
lutely to the front for the purpose of gaining experi
ence and knowledge. In 1858 he was elected a
member of the Maine house of Representatives, from
Augusta. He now made a careful study of the par
liamentary rules. Those who are fond of picturing
Mr. Blaine as a child of genius to whom everything
was given almost for the asking Gould profitably
study the early steps of his career. He was a con
stant student of public questions. He aimed to make
himself an authority on the issues of the day, and
when he was elected to the Legislature of Maine he
began at once the study of its rules, so as to be a
master of its methods of procedure. Such a course
would soon give prominence to any man of talent.
The average member of any Legislature is indolent
and not given to study. He trusts too much to
chance information, and is indifferent to details, the
knowledge of which is necessary to rise to eminence
in any legislative body. Knowledge and special
preparation tell here as they do in any pursuit of
life. Mr. Blaine's aptitude, his facility for acquiring
special knowledge, and his real liking for the discus
sion of parliamentary questions soon made him the

Early Political History in Maine. 73
possessor Of a thorough knowledge of the manual.
It was this knowledge that formed the basis for his
election as Speaker of the House two years later.
He was re-elected. His two terms as Speaker, and
his four years in the Legislature made a valuable
preliminary training to fit him for the honor which
was conferred upon him later by the National House
of Representatives. In addition to his special ability
as a parliamentarian Mr. Blaine had unusual tact
and knowledge of men., His control of the House
was always good. As a presiding officer he was
never much of a partisan. He aimed always to have
even more than the appearance of fairness.
His first speech in the Legislature was in reply to
Frederick A. Pike, afterward a member of Congress
from Maine, in regard to ' the payment of members.
Mr. Blaine argued that they should receive a fixed
salary instead of a payment based on time of service.
His proposition was adopted, and afterward became
a part of the State Constitution. A speech of more
general interest was on a proposition emanating from
Congress, and^favoring the acquisition of Cuba by the
United States. This measure was strongly opposed
by Mr. Blaine as inexpedient and unjust, forming a
dangerous precedent for the National Government to
adopt. " The proposition," he said, " to place thirty mil-

74 Life of James G. Blaine.
lions of dollars at the disposal of the President, arid
to run the Nation in debt for the purpose of raising
the money ; to surrender to him the power to make
treaties, annex territories, and form States.; to create
him absolute dictator with the purse of the Nation in
one hand and the sword in the other ; to have peace
or war, prosperity or misfortune, follow at his will, or
be decided by his errors — such a proposition, I say,
is too monstrous to be entertained for one moment by
any one who values the preservation of constitutional
right and the perpetuity of a Republican Union. A
dozen years ago, when our country was in actual war
with the neighboring nations, when it was supposed
that peace could be promoted and hastened by plac
ing three millions at the disposal of the President,
the proposition was regarded as so dangerous that
staid, conservative, and dignified Senators thought
themselves justified in resorting to methods of oppo
sition almost revolutionary in their character, in order
to compass its defeat. But now, when we are in pro
found amity and concord with all nations of the earth,
it is deliberately proposed to place under the control
of the President the enormous sum of thirty mil
lions of dollars, in order to see whether he may not
corrupt Spanish officials into a transfer of their most
valuable dependency, and possibly get us into, a war
with England and France, as a sort of premiuin to

Early Political History in Maine. 75
the value of Cuban acquisition. The proposition to
place three millions at President Polk's disposal
to get us out of war, as I have said, was considered
doubtful and dangerous, and yet it is coolly proposed
to give President Buchanan ten times as large a sum
to see if in some kind of secret diplomacy he may
not possibly be able to get us into a war. The Demo
cratic party in Washington sustained both measures,
the past and the present. But I think it a foolish
species of political arithmetic that considers it worth
three millions of dollars in 1847 to get us out of a
war with a weak power and, yet has no hesitancy to
pay thirty millions in 1859 for the possibility of get
ting us into a war with three strong powers.
" " The executive power of the country is sufficiently
strong and overpowering already, without seeking to
aggrandize and increase it by enormous grants of
extra-constitutional power. Let us discountenance
and repudiate this alarming measure as dangerous in
itself, and not even tending to compass the object
which is put forth as the pretext and excuse for it.
Let us cease a fruitless and aimless agitation at home,
which no dne expects to result in practical good; and
let us cease also to insult and menace that proud old
Monarchy of Castile and Arragon, to which, as Mr.
Buchanan asserts, ' we are bound by ties of ancient
friendship that we sincerely desire to render perpet
ual.'"

76 Life of James G. Blaine.
The proposition here so vigorously opposed, and
which was in line with the persistent efforts of South
ern Congressmen at that time to extend the domain
of slavery, was defeated, and the members from
Maine were instructed, as the will of their constitu
ents, to do their utmost to defeat the measure in
Congress. In the summer of 1858 Mr. Blaine served as a
member of the Republican Convention of Maine to
nominate a candidate for Governor. Lot M. Mor
rill, of Augusta, was nominated. Mr. Blaine was
made Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions,
and himself drafted the resolutions which were
adopted. These were strongly in consonance with
the principles of the Republican party, and indicated
his own firmly fixed sentiments. They declared the
determined hostility of the Maine Republicans to the
insulting claims of the slave-holding aristocracy, and
advocated the dignity, education, and elevation of
labor. They further declared that the old questions
of Federal supremacy and State-rights were deeply
involved in the existing political contest, and that
Republicans held to the doctrine of State-rights
maintained by the fathers of the Constitution, that
the liberties of the people would vanish when the
State should become subordinate to the general gov
ernment, and consolidation usurp the place of a fed-

Early Political History in Maine. 77
erative union of essentially independent sovereignties.
It went on to say that "The administration of James
Buchanan has proved itself to be unworthy of the
confidence of the American people by its course to
ward those who are struggling to establish free insti
tutions in Kansas, which betrays a spirit more des
perate and , corrupt than that which animated the
British King and ministers in their treatment of the
American colonies which drew our fathers into war."
Before taking leave of Mr. Blaine's record as a
legislator of Maine,, it may be well to add the opin
ion of Governor Kent, who in writing of him, said :
."Almost from, the day of his assuming editorial
charge of the Kennebec Journal, at the age of 23, Mr.
Blaine sprang into a position of great influence in
the politics and policy of Maine. At 25 he was a
leading power in the councils of the party. Before
he was 29 he was chosen chairman of the Executive
-Committee of the Republican organization in Maine,
a position from which he has shaped and directed
political campaigns in the State, leading his party to
brilliant victory. Had Mr. Blaine been New Eng
land born, he would probably not have received such
rapid advancement at so early an age, even with the
same ability that he possessed. But there was a sort
of Western dash about him that took with us down-
easters ; an expression of frankness, candor, and con-

78 Life of James G. Blaine.
.fidence that gave him, from the start, a very strong
and permanent hold on our people, and, as the
foundation of all, pure character and a masterly
ability equal to all demands made upon him."
The most notable speech made by Mr. Blaine dur
ing his term of office in the Maine Legislature was
upon the war power of Congress involved in the
question of confiscation of rebel property. This dis
cussion was brought up upon the consideration of a
series of resolutions indorsing the administration
of Abraham Lincoln. This speech showed the
rapid maturing of Mr. Blaine's mind. In its argu
ment and presentation of the" facts of the situation
it was fully the equal of the best arguments
in the National House of \Repfesentatives at that
time. It showed a knowledge of law, of politics, and
of the Constitution of the United States and its
powers which were the proofs of diligent hours of
hard work in the library. It was this speech, per
haps, which made Mr. Blaine's promotion to the Na
tional House of Representatives certain. This speech
was delivered during the close of his service as a
member of the Legislature. It represented the cul
mination of his work and experience at that time It
was delivered during a discussion which took place
upon the 7th of March, 1862. This speech of Mr
Blaine shows an unswerving devotion to the cause

Early Political History in Maine. 79
of the Union, an unqualified indorsement of Mr.
Lincoln, and a complete appreciation of the high
character and great abilities of the President, who
was at that early time anything -but understood" and
appreciated by the majority of people in the1 North.
It was this speech which first called Mr. Lincoln's
attention to Mr. Blaine. When Mr. Blaine came to
the National House, he was at once brought in close
contact with Mr. Lincoln, and the latter expressed
as high an appreciation of his abilities. Mr. Lincoln
correctly foreshadowed Mr. Blaine's future rise and
prominence. Nearly all of Mr. Blaine's convictions concerning
politics were . formed before leaving Maine. In ac
cepting his first nomination to Congress, he outlined
his adherence to the protective policy and his oppo
sition to free trade. His days in Maine were busy
ones. The campaign following the Fremont Con
vention. was exciting. Mr. Blaine, in his devotion to
the study of politics, attended the Chicago Conven
tion which nominated Abraham Lincoln, as a dele
gate. He went there in the, interest of Mr. Lincoln,
and divided the Maine delegation. He became ac
quainted in Chicago with Wm. M. Evarts, for whom
he afterward always had a sincere admiration. Mr.
Evarts led the Seward forces, but even Mr. Evarts'
arguments could not convince Mr. Blaine. He came

80 Life of James G. Blaine.
home from Chicago fired with enthusiasm over the.
success of his candidate.
He was always in great demand in the local cam
paigns. The local committeemen of Maine would
always say to the State managers in calling for speak-.
ers, " Send us Blaine." Mr. Blaine had always a
good memory for names and faces. This faculty he
cultivated, and in time it came to be remarkable.
Apparently he never forgot a name nor a face, but of
course the stories concerning this ability have always
been exaggerated. He, however, did to an unusual
degree possess the power to call to mind names and
faces which would have made no impression upon an
ordinary memory. This gift added greatly to his
popularity. Mr. Blaine was always anxious to please,
and that is half the art of pleasing.

CHAPTER V.
A GLANCE AT THE LEADING PERSONALITIES IN CON
GRESS WHEN MR. BLAINE FIRST TOOK HIS SEAT IN
THE HOUSE.
Mr. Blaine was elected to the Thirty-eighth
Congress in the fall of 1862. He succeeded Anson
P. Morrill, who had served one term and who vol
untarily declined to be a candidate for re-election on
account of the necessity of attending to his private .
business. It was "a very troublesome time. The
Federal Government at Washington had made but
little headway in subduing the Rebellion. The
North was not yet united in a firm support of Mr.
"Lincoln's government. The expenditures of the war
were already assuming enormous proportions. Con
gress had before- it new questions of finance and
taxation. It was called upon almost daily to sup
port by some new means the Armies of the Union.
It was a time when the best men were being
selected, throughout the country for the National
councils. The list of names of the House to which
Mr. Blaine was first elected shows a remarkable
array of talented men who afterward acquired great
81

82 Life of James G. Blaine.
prominence. The House in; the Thirty-eighth Con
gress was elected during the period of dissatisfaction.
There had been. a series of defeats for the Union arms.
The Confederacy appeared everywhere triumphant,
and there was already beginning that back-fire from
the North which sorely tried Mr. Lincoln's pru
dence and ability during the following summer.
The pro-slavery, now disunion or peace-at-any-
-price, Democrats throughout the North were very-
much encouraged by the result of the Congressional
elections. The administration majority was sensibly
diminished. Among the more conspicuous members
of the preceding house who had failed in their re
election were Roscoe Conkling, A. B. Olin, E. G.
Spaulding, and Charles B. Sedgwick, of New York.
Ohio refused to return John A. Bingham and Samuel
Shellabarger. Galusha A. Grow had failed of re
election in Pennsylvania. Albert G. Porter and Mc
Kee Dunn in Indiana had Democratic- successors.
Mr. Conkling, who was afterward to play such a
conspicuous part in Mr. Blaine's political history, was
elected to the following Congress (the 39th), being
out only one term. Mr. Bingham and Mr. Shella
barger, under the tidal wave of the Union victories
of '63, were again restored to their places in the
House. Mr. Bingham, a hawk-nosed, fiery-eyed,
resolute man of middle life, was afterward to be dis-

Leading Personalities in Congress. 83
tinguished in his conduct of the impeachment case,
upon the part of the House, against Andrew John
son, and later was to go as Minister to Japan. Mr.
Shellabarger was to conduct an elaborate investigation
into the building of the Pacific railroads and to es
tablish himself as a corporation lawyer in Washington.
Among the conspicuous additions in the Thirty-eighth
Congress to the House of known and tried men were
Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, and Robert C.
Schenck, of Ohio. Mr. Davis had served in the House
as a member of the American party in 1854. He had
been re-elected for the two succeeding terms, but had
failed to be re-elected to the Thirty -seventh Congress.
He had not been identified with the Republican party
prior to the Rebellion, and had advocated the elec
tion . of Mr. Bell in the Presidential campaign for
1860. Mr. Blaine, in his personal notes of the mem
bers with whom he was first associated, says of Mr.
Davis : "As a debater in the House, Mr. Davis may
be well cited as an exemplar. He had no boastful
reliance upon intuition, or inspiration, or the spur of
the moment. Though no man excelled him in ex
tempore speech, he made elaborate^ preparation by
the study of all public questions, and spoke from a
full mind with complete command of premise and
conclusion. In all that pertained to the graces of
^oratory he was unrivalled. He died at forty-eight.

84 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
Had he been blessed with length of days, the friends
who Best knew his ability and his ambition believed
that he would have left the most brilliant name in
the parliamentary annals of America."
It is in this description that one can see Mr.
Blaine's own standard of parliamentary requirements.
As near as possible these words of description prop
erly applied to his own case. Few new members have
come to their work so well fitted and so well prepared
for the transaction of their public duties as did Mr.
Blaine. The great leader of the House had been up to that
time Thaddeus Stevens. Mr. Robert C. Schenck,
•who had been elected to this Congress, took preced-,
ence of Mr. Stevens through his experience, his
ability, and official positions assigned him by Speaker
Colfax. He was made Chairman of the Military
Committee, a position at that time of transcendent
importance, and was also placed at the head of the
Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Schenck was a .
man of vast acquirements, great political experience,
sturdy physical health, and a fund of plain common
sense which never failed him. He came to the House
fresh from a personal victory over Mr. Vallandigham,
the idol of the pn>slavery Democrats in Ohio. Mr.
Schenck had defeated the latter in an overwhelmingly
Democratic district. He had had eight years pre-

Y</- Leading Personalities in Congress. 85
vious experience in the House, beginning his term of
service in 1843. He had afterward served as Minis
ter,, representing President Fillmore in Brazil. At
the expiration of that service he had been in
private life until his election to the Thirty-eighth
Congress. He had unusual administrative abili
ties. He was a man of but few words and with
great aptitude for dispatching great masses of de
tailed work. His powers of industry were enormous,
and his physical reserve almost inexhaustible. He
. never made any long speeches in the presentation of
the many important war measures which passed
.-,.-•- through his hands. He was noted for his five-minute
speeches. In these speeches he would place more com-
. i pact, clear, well-digested information than would be
found in the most elaborate addresses of his associates.
Mr. Schenck had a tall, powerful figure. His should
ers were broad and his chest deep. He was large in
every way. His feet, hands, and features were all of
a heavy mold. He bore in his face a great resem
blance to General Grant, although they were wholly
different in complexion. He had the same stolidity
11 of countenance, and the same general cast of features,
, ,. while the resemblance was increased by the short,
reddish-brown beard and mustache, which were
closely trimmed in the fashion always obseryed by
General Grant. The two men had much in common.

86 Life of James G. Blaine.
They were both given to. deeds rather than words.
.Mr. Schenck was sent by General Grant when he
was President, as Minister to England. This was
the last public office held by Mr. Schenck.
When Mr. Blaine was sworn in, he was accompa
nied to his place in front of the Speaker, where the
oath was administered, by two members, whom he
had met for the first time upon his arrival at Wash
ington. They were James A. Garfield, of Ohio, and
William B. Allison, of Iowa. The political fortunes
of these two gentlemen were ever afterward inter
twined with that of Mr. Blaine. Mr. Garfield, who
stood upon his right, was to become his most intimate
friend in the House, and afterward follow him to ,
the Senate, after which he was to be elected Pre
sident of the United States, and to place the chance
acquaintance of this day at the head of his Cabinet.
It would have taken a lively imagination to have
foreshadowed the possibilities growing out of the acci
dental association upon this opening day, between the
new member from Maine and the new member from
Ohio. Mr. Allison, upon his left, was to serve. with.
him in the House, and in the Senate, and to remain
a trusted friend and close adviser through life.
Mr. Garfield was then in the perfection of his in
tellectual and physical powers. He had had an ex
perience in the Ohio Legislature very similar tro that
of Mr. Blaine's in Maine. In addition he had been

MR. BLAINE AT THIRTY.
As Speaker of the House in the Maine Legislature.

Leading Personalities in Congress. 89
broadened out and greatly developed by two years of
military experience. He had risen to the rank of a
major-general and had an air of confidence and com
mand natural to one who had been successful in the
school of war. Mr. Garfield had been elected to the
House while he was engaged in active military serv
ice, He was much embarrassed when the news of
his election came, as he thought that some of his
military Comrades might think that he was anxious
to avoid the further dangers of the war. During
his hesitation he advised with both Mr. Lincoln and
Secretary Stanton. They decided the matter for him
without hesitation. They said that he could render
a higher service in the House. There the adminis
tration was being torn and tortured by its enemies,
they seeking by every possible argument under the
cover of States' rights and professed regard for the
Constitution to harass the work of the Government
and to weaken the source of supplies of the Union
Army. Nothing better is recorded of Thaddeus
Stevens than when a States' Rights Democrat said to
him in the debates of the House that such and such
an act was outside of the Constitution of the United
States, he replied that he should not controvert that
assertion. The war was outside of the Constitution
and " to subdue it," he added, " we have been outside
the Constitution ever since the war began."

90 Life of James G. Blaine.
The case of General Garfield mentioned above
recalls a somewhat similar decision in the case of
Mr. Blaine. The Thirty-seventh Congress had
passed a conscription law, and through an oversight
Senators and Members were not exempted from its
provisions, although members of legislative bodies
the world over have always been made exempt from
such laws. In the drawing at Augusta under the
new law Mr. Blaine's name was one of the first to
come out. He at once, under the advice, and almost
commands, of Mr. Lincoln purchased a substitute.
and remained at his post of duty in the House.
Some of his critics later have laid partisan emphasis
upon the fact that he did not resign his seat, shoulder
a musket, and go to the war as a private. Mr. Blaine
thought that he could be of more service in the
closely-contested House where the administration
majority needed the best ability of its members to
carry through the measures vital to the success oi"
the war, and no one possessing the rudiments of
common sense would question the propriety of his.
course. It is interesting to look over the list of the mem
bers who were associated with Mr. Blaine during his
first term. From Connecticut came James E, Eng-
, lish, who afterward served in the United States Sen
ate. From Illinois were John F. Farnsworth, tall,

Leading Personalities in Congress. 91
energetic, and active, always inclined to independence
of view, rather than W the opinion of a partisan, and
Eben C. Ingersoll, the brother of Colonel Robert G.
Ingersoll, who succeeded Owen Lovejoy. Mr. Eben
C. Ingersoll's association in the House with Mr.
Blaine led to the latter's acquaintance with Colonel
Robert G. Ingersoll and the subsequent brilliant
address of Colonel Ingersoll nominating Mr. Blaine
for the Presidency in the National Convention
held at Cincinnati in 1876. Elihu B. Washburn
came also from this State. He was afterward to be
Minister at Paris during the Franco-Prussian War
and to throw the shelter of our flag around an
asylum for the thousands who flocked to our legation
for protection during the siege of Paris and the ter
rors of the Commune which followed.
From Indiana came Schuyler Colfax, who was
elected Speaker of that House after a preliminary
service in the House of eight years, arid who was
afterward to be Vice-President of the United States
and then to be retired through the disclosures
of the Credit-Mobilier Investigating Committee.
William S. Holman, from the same State, had already
served two terms and had made a reputation for.
himself as an economist. He began even then to
object. He objected to all of the expenditures of the
war. • He scrutinized carefully the items of money

$2 Life of James G. Blaine.
appropriated, and examined every detail of the acts
of the Government with a Constitution in one hand
and a bill of estimates in the other. He constantly
objected, and it is on this platform of objection that
he has remained almost continuously in Congress,
with but brief periods of retirement, up to the pres
ent day. The brilliant George W. Julian, Godlove
S. Orth, and the silver-tongued Daniel W. Voorhees
were also members of this delegation. Mr. Orth was
to afterward serve as Minister to Vienna, while Mr.
Voorhees was to remain in the House until the ex
piration of the Forty-third Congress and to succeed
in the United States Senate the war Governor, Oliver
P. Morton. Mr. Voorhees began his career in the
preceding Congress. He was of the class of public
men sent up to Congress during the war. They
were tall, with great physical frames and uncommon
powers as debaters and orators, acquired in the fierce
and forceful campaigns of this stormy and passion-
tossed period.
From Iowa the men of future national reputation
were William B. Allison, already mentioned, John A.
Kasson, Hiram Price, and James F. Wilson. Mr.
Allison from the first devoted himself to financial
topics. He made himself one of the House authori
ties. He served in the House until the Forty-first
Congress, when he went to the Senate, where he has

Leading Personalities in Congress. 98
since remained. Mr. Kasson was afterward to be
come conspicuous in the field of diplomacy, one of
the few American diplomats to possess a knowledge
of modern languages. The Quaker dress and< austere
face of Hiram Price were to be conspicuous in the
House for many years. Mr. Wilson was to serve
after his preliminary years in the House, in the Sen
ate, where he now is.
From Maryland came John A. J. Creswell, a fu
ture Postmaster- General under General Grant's ad
ministration, and the brilliant Henry Winter Davis,
the right-hand, man of Mr. Schenck in conducting
and pushing the business of the House.
From Massachusetts were John B. Alley, Oakes
Ames, George S. Boutwell, Henry L. Dawes, and
Samuel Hooper. Mr. Alley was even then a rich
man, and later, through his relations with Oakes
Ames in the Construction of the Pacific railroads,
was to become one' of the great millionaires of the
country. Oakes Ames was one of the great charac
ters of the House. He was not a speaker. He was
devoted to the business of the committees, and showed
there his abilities as an administrator. His broad,
rugged face indicated honesty, great simplicity of
purpose, and- reserve. It was he who formed the
Credif-Mobilier Construction Company, which made
so much money in the building of the Pacific rail-

94 Life of James G. Blaine.
roads. Mr. Ames was associated with his brother
Oliver. They went into this railroad enterprise at a
time when the conservative capitalists of the East
stood aloof from the undertaking. It was argued
that the country was too new for opening up, and
that the whole enterprise must fail for lack of sup
port, notwithstanding the liberal assistance given to
it by the Government. The two Ames pledged their
private fortunes, assumed enormous risks, and their
profits in the end were great. Oakes Ames sought
to benefit some of his old associates in Congress at a
time when he saw that the enterprise was going to
succeed.- He had no ulterior motive, but out of his
semi-benevolence grew the great Credit-Mobilier
scandal. Mr. Boutwell, who afterward moved up to
the United States Senate, was to be Secretary of the
Treasury under President Grant. Mr. Dawes, who
became conspicuous as Chairman of the Ways and
Means Committee, was to be rewarded w,ith a long
term of service in the Senate. Samuel Hooper, an
other one of the rich men of the Massachusetts dele
gation, was to hate his fortune greatly increased by
investments in the Pacific railroad enterprises.
From Minnesota came the rotund, bullet-headed,
smooth-shaven, innocent-eyed Ignatius Donnelly,
who ever dwells in a tempest of theories, and who
was to attempt to reform the world and the adminis-

Leading Personalities in Congress. 95
tration of affairs by means of numerous party organi
zations and still more numerous pamphlet publica
tions, and who had not yet reached the beginning of
his -cryptogram theory concerning the authorship of
Shakespeare's plays. Wm. Windom, from this State,
became an intimate friend of Mr. Garfield, and
-through the associations formed in this House was
afterward to be the latter's Secretary of the Treasury.
He was to go to the Senate from the House for a long
term prior to his becoming a Cabinet member. He
was to serve twice as Secretary of the Treasury, and
to die in that office under President Harrison.
From Missouri was the fiery Francis P. Blair, Jr.,
who was so conspicuous in future political cam
paigns. From New York were James Brooks, Reuben E.
Fenton, Francis Kernan, Benjamin Wood, and Fer
nando Wood, Mr. Fenton and Mr. Kernan were
afterward to be members of the Senate. James
Brooks who was conspicuous through his being the
editor of one of the leading papers of New York, was
to be dragged into the clutches of the Credit-Mobilier
'investigation soon after, and was then a little
later to die under the ' shadow of the House repri
mand. ' Fernando Wood, whose courtly manners and
whose stately figure made him conspicuous on the
Democratic side, was to be there one of its most

96 Life of James G. Blaine.
forceful leaders for many years. He was socially
much attached to Mr. Blaine, and was nearly his
next-door neighbor during a number of years in
Washington. From Ohio, besides General Garfield, were James
M. Ashley, Samuel S. Cox, George H. Pendleton,
and Robert C. Schenck, already mentioned. Mr.
Ashley was to go down to posterity in connection with-
the presentation of the first impeachment resolutions,
against President Johnson. Mr. Cox was to be the
thorn in the Republican side of the House for more
than a quarter of a century. His lively wit, his
pungent style and general ability and acquirements
were to lighten many a serious and heavy debate.
He Was afterward to transfer his allegiance to New
York, where he was to receive continued support and
leave behind him a reputation and a memory which
warranted the city's building for him a bronze statue
in one of its public places. As a close to his public*
services, h°< was to be sent as Minister to Turkey.
Mr. Pendleton was one of the most kindly, polished
and well, instructed of men. He, unfortunately for
his reputation^ adhered to the narrowest of States'
Rights construction of all questions, and was an active
opponent of all the war measures proposed by the,
Lincoln administration. He was to be equally wrong
on the financial questions of the day, and to become-

Leading Personalities in Congress. 97
an advocate of greenbackism. He, too, was among
the many others who were promoted to the Senate,
and finished his public career abroad as Minister,
serving as Minister to Berlin, under Mr. Cleveland.
From Pennsylvania, were William D. Kelley,
Samuel; J. Randall, Charles O'Neill, Glenni W.
Schofield, and Thaddeus Stevens. Mr. Kelley served
for nearly a quarter Of a century, as the special advo
cate of the protective policy of the Republican party.
Mr. Randall was to become the great leader on the
Democratic side of the House, and afterward to
serve as Speaker. Charles O'Neill was to remain
Continuously in the House as a representative of the
business interests of Pennsylvania up to the present
day. Mr. Schofield was to be conspicuous in other
official positions, and was to become one of the pillars
of his party. He was to be one of the fifteen judges
who sat On the Electoral Commission to settle the
disputed election of 1876.
From Vermont, was Justin S. Morrill, the author
of the Morrill Tariff bill, which is to-day the base,
with certain modifications, of the American protec
tive system.
From Wisconsin, was Charles. A. Eldridge, who
became one of the ablest debaters and1 parliamenta
rians on the Democratic side.
In the Senate, the list of notables is long. Of

98 Life, of James G. Blaine.
these men only one Senator, John Sherman, to-day
remains in the Senate. At no period has the Senate
contained a greater number of intellectual giants than
during this period. This will be apparent to any~ one
at all familiar with the political history of this coun
try, in reading a list which includes such names as
Lot M. Morrill, William Pitt Fessenden, John P.
Hale, Solomon Foot, Jacob Collamer, Henry Wil
son, Charles Sumner,' Henry B. Anthony, Charles R.
Buckalew, James A. Bayard, Reverdy Johnson,
Garrett Davis, John Sherman, Benjamin F. Wade,
Henry S. Lane, Thomas A. Hendricks, Lyman
Trumbull, Zachariah Chandler, James Harlan, James
W. Grimes, James R. Doolittle, Timothy O. Howe,
James A. McDougall, Alexander Ramsay, James
H. Lane, and James W. Nesmith.

CHAPTER VI.
THE FIRST SESSION OF THE THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS,
AND MR. BLAINE'S FIRST NOTABLE SPEECH AT WASH
INGTON.The Thirty-eighth Congress met under much more
favorable conditions than had preceded its election.
If the election could have taken place in the fall
prior to the meeting of the House, the administra
tion would have had an overwhelming majority. The
people who opposed the war and who were for peace
at any price, had reduced the administration's major
ity to such an extent in the fall election of 1862 that
they entered the year of 1863 with greater energy
and increased strength. The movement begun by
Mr. Vallandigham in Ohio, if it had not been frus
trated by the superior tactics of Mr. Lincoln, might
have created a rebellion in the North. No better
illustration could be given of the absurdity of having
a House elected one year in advance of its taking
office. It is rare that the National House when it
meets represents public sentiment. The summer of
1863 was a fortunate one for the Union cause. The
humiliating defeats of the Union arms during 1862
99,

100 Life of James G. Blaine.
had caused great distrust: The proposed advance of
Lee, early in 1863, upon the North, increased this
distrust and fear. Tne great victory at Gettysburg,
and General Lee's defeat came just in time to re
establish the Union cause. It was the turning-point
of the war. The rejoicings over Gettysburg were just
begun, when the news of the capture of Vicksburg
was telegraphed to the President. The Fourth of
July of that year was the day on which the celebra
tion of these two victories took place. The tide of
enthusiasm which followed the great victories of the
Federal army would have elected an overwhelming
majority for the House which met that winter if the
date of its election could have been changed.
The House in which Mr. Blaine first served met
on the 7th of December, 1863. The House had then
one hundred and eighty-six members. Of these,
seventy-five were Democrats, nine were " Border
State " men, and one hundred and two Republicans.
The Senate was overwhelmingly Republican, having
thirty-six Republicans and fourteen Democrats.
The previous Congress had passed the legisla
tion necessary for the formation of the army and for
the extension of the military powers of the govern
ment. Many of these acts necessitated a very free-
construction of the Constitution, and were passed
under the plea of military necessity. It passed also

First Notable Speech at Washington. 101
the Conscription Act, one of the most sweeping that
ever was enacted in this country. The appropria
tions for the year 1862 reached the enormous sum of
$972,000,000. The Thirty-eighth Congress had before it the
financial problems involved in meeting the enormous
expense of the war. These expenses were now in
the neighborhood of two millions of dollars a day.
In the first session was passed the Internal Revenue
Law which was to bring in a great revenue from a
tax on whisky, tobacco, and a number of small do
mestic articles. This included the Income Tax Law,
the levying of a tax of five per cent, on incomes of
over $600, and which provided further for the stamp
ing of notes, documents, and agreements. This
income tax and the stamp tax were even then very
unpopular. The position occupied by Mr. Blaine as a new
member was a modest one. He was made a member
of the Committee of Post-Offices and Post Roads,
and the Committee on Militia. He was then in the
prime of physical health. He had apparently a
constitution of iron. His habits were then, as ever,
simplei He. devoted his leisure to the continued
study of the public questions of the day. He was
always in his seat in the House, and carefully fol
lowed the debates of that time. During the winter

102 Life of James G. Blaine.
he said but little. His first notable speech was made
during the late spring of this session. His subject
was — " Can a country sustain the expense of the war
and pay the debt which it will involve ?" Mr. Blaine
then boldly advocated the assumption upon the part
of the National Government of the debts incurred
by the States for the prosecution of the war. JThis
speech was a wholesome, business-like statement of
the finances of the government, and in its clearness
and strength of tone did much to reassure the public
mind, which was at that time much agitated at the
enormous debt which was being piled up by the con
duct of the war. The National Republican Com
mittee circulated' 200,000 copies of. this speech.
This address, which did much to give Mr. Blaine a ~
national reputation, is remarkable for its view of
the future. Mr. Blaine first addressed himself to
the common illusion that the war was to be ended
in a short time. He advised all to avoid self-decep
tion upon this subject, and to look soberly at the
facts. He based the calculations which he submitted
upon a belief that the war might be continued until
as late as July, 1865, while the majority of speakers
in the House at that time held that the Rebellion
would not be continued beyond the month of July,.
1864. Mr. Blaine assumed that the rebel leaders
would continue the struggle until after the Presiden-

First Notable Speech' at Washington. 103
tial election of 1864. In this his prediction proved
correct, and tiie final, surrender of the • rebel army
was made Only a very few months before the date set
by Mr. Blaine. His estimate of the expenditures
necessary for the subduing of the Rebellion, taking
tne date mentioned by him as the possible period of
its close, proved when the war ctosed to be supris-
ingly accurate. His outside estimate was, in round
numbers, three thousand millions of dollar^, while
from the figures of the Secretary of the Treasury,
without any allowance for extra expenditures, his
minimum calculation reached twenty-five hundred
millions. Mr. Blaine showed that even this great national
debt was one that could be easily borne by the
' country, and was not greater in proportion than the
debt assumed by our government at the time it was
founded in 1779. Then, with a population of only
four millions, Mr. Jefferson did not distrust the
ability of the nation to bear a debt of ninety mil
lions upon a valuation of property which did not ex
ceed six hundred millions of dollars. The debt
assumed then was praetically one-seventh of the
property valuation, and Mr. Jefferson said that this
d6bt could be easily borne if the increase of the
value of property for the future should be only five
per cent. Mr. Blaine was able to show that the

104 Life of James G. Blaine.
country's increase was so rapid even under the un
favorable conditions of that early period that the in
terest was promptly paid on 'this debt and a fund
quickly accumulated for the redemption of the whole
amount. Mr. Blaine was also able to show that
. Great Britain, at the close of the Napoleonic wars,
which culminated at Waterloo, had assumed a vastly
greater debt in proportion to its population and
property than would the United States for the put
ting down of the Rebellion.' The subsequent pros
perity of Great Britain made its public debt a matter
of easy payment and adjustment. Mr. Blaine said,
in closing, " The war closing in 1865 will leave us in
this condition : A nation numbering some thirty-
three, millions of people owning over sixteen thou
sand millions of property and carrying a debt of
twenty-five hundred millions of dollars. The pro
portion between debt and property will be just about
1 the same that it was when the Union was formed,
while the ratio of our advance and the largely en
hanced productiveness of agricultural, manufacturing,
and commercial pursuits gives the present generation
an advantage that renders, the debt far less burden
some than at the very outset. If the Revolutionary
debt became in a very brief period so light as to
be unnoticed, why may we not, with a vastly accel
erated ratio of progress, assume a similar auspicious

WALKER BLAINE.

First Notable Speech at ' Washington. 107
result with regard to the debt we are now con
tracting ?"
Mr. Blaine's predictions concerning the ability of
this country to easily carry the war debt were veri
fied to the very letter. His picture of the future
.power and prosperity of this country was very
graphic. In his close he said : " Our facilities for
commerce and exchange, both domestic and foreign,
who shall measure them ? Our oceans, our vast in
land seas, our marvelous flow of navigable streams,
uur canals, our network of railroads, more than
thirty thousand miles in extent, these give us ave
nues of trade and channels of communication both
- natural and artificial such as no other nation has
ever enjoyed and which tend to the production of
wealth with a rapidity nQt to be measured by any
standard of the past. The enormous field for manu
facturing industry in all its complex and endless
variety, with our raw material, our wonderful motive-
' power, both by water and steam, our healthful cli
mate, our cheap carriage, our home consumption, our
foreign demand foreshadows a traffic whose magni
tude and whose profit cannot now be estimated. Our
mines of gold and silver, and iron, and copper, and
lead, and coal, with their untold and unimaginable
wealth, spread over millions of acres of territory in
the valley, on the mountain side, along rivers, yield-

108 Life of James G. Blaine.
ing already a rich harvest, are destined yet to in
crease a thousand-fold until their every-day treas
ures, " ' Familiar grown
Shall realize Orients fabled wealth.*
" These are the great elements of material progress,
and they comprehend the entire circle of human en
terprise — agriculture, commerce, manufactures, |nin-
ing. They assure to us an increase in property and
population that will surpass the most sanguine deduc
tions of our census tables, framed as those tables are-
upon the ratios and relations of • our progress in the
past. They give into our hands under the blessing
of Almighty God the power to command our fate as
a nation. They hold out to us the grandest future
reserved for any people, and with this promise they
teach us the lesson of patience and render confidence
and fortitude a duty. With such amplitude and
affluence of resources, and with s\ich a vast stake at
issue, we should be unworthy of our lineage and our
inheritance if we for one moment distrusted our
ability to maintain ourselves a united people with
' one country, one Constitution, one destiny.' "
This speech is remarkable for its spirit of lofty
patriotism, its breadth of view, and the supreme confi
dence it displayed in the future power of this nation.
Mr. Blaine was then thirty-four years of age. The

First Notable Speech at Washington. 109
speech was delivered during the doubtful days of the
war. Rebellion was everywhere still holding its
own. A successful general for the Army of the
Potomac had not been found. Discord reigned in
many of the councils of the administration. Dis
union sentiments were freely uttered throughout the
North, and it required' a very stout heart and very
clear vision to see what Mr. Blaine so graphically
describes in this first real speech in his career as a
member of Congress. It was a speech which secured
the commendation of ^Thaddeus Stevens, who said
that " No man had come to Congress during his term
of Congress who surpassed Mr. Blaine for the higher
walks of public life." It was warmly commended by
Mr. Lincoln, and it moved Mr. Blaine up among the
members of the first rank in the House.
Though generally silent' during his first term in
Congress, he spoke briefly on a variety of bills, in
cluding those for the adjustment of the revenue, the
tariff for protection, the law for fugitive slaves, and
various other topics ; his speeches on these subjects
were short and crisp, yet always those of a man who
never spoke till he had something to say, and never
without a full comprehension of his subject.
As a member of the Post-office Committee, Mr.
Blaine was diligent and progressive, and took an
active part in establishing the system of postal cars

110 Life of James G. Blaine.
which have sinee been found of such high, utility.
Before that time there had been little effort at dis
tribution of the mail on the cars, and the appropria
tion necessary was only obtained with difficulty.
The value of the results amply testifies to the sound
judgment of those who first proposed this innovation.
In June, 1864, the need of men to fill the de
pleted ranks of the armies in the field led to the
advocacy of a conscription bill of merciless character
and providing harsh measures toward citizens who
had not enlisted. This bill Mr. Blaine strongly
opposed, declaring that it had never been surpassed
for stringency even in the wars of the first Napoleon,
and was out of all consonance with the. principles of
a republican government.
In nothing was Mr. Blaine's clearness of political
vision more correctly shown than in his early advo
cacy of the candidacy of Abraham" Lincoln. From
the beginning of his public career in the House
until its close he was on the side of questions which
were ultimately determined in his favor. He was not
led aside by any of the delusions of the day. He was
particularly clear on all questions of a financial char
acter. This is all the more to his credit because the
great questions of finance, so far as they related to
this country, were then new-, and the public, to a
certain extent, had to be educated to correct think-

First Notable Speech at Washington. Ill
ing. The delusions favoring cheap money are not
yet wholly extinguished, but Mr. Blaine has done as
much as any one public man for their correction.
Regarding his intimacy at this time with President
Lincoln, Mr. Ward H. Lamon, who was then Mar
shal of the District Of Columbia, Mr. Lincoln's biog
rapher and special friend, says : " I know those who
were Mr. Lincoln's friends and those who were plot
ting against him, and I am sure that there was no one
among the younger members of Congress on more
intimate, cordial, and confidential terms with him than
Mr. Blaine, nor was there any one more implicitly
trusted by Mr. Lincoln. When the movement was
made against Mr. Lincoln in the winter preceding
the campaign of 1864, Mr. Blaine was the person
with whom Mr. Lincoln constantly conferred about
Maine. And I was present at a conference between
the two when Mr. Lincoln requested Mr. Blaine to
proceed to Maine and see if there was any adverse'
movement there. Mr. Lincoln became acquainted
with Mr. Blaine in Illinois during his memorable
compaign with Douglas in 1858. Mr. Blaine was
corresponding from the scene of contest with his
paper in Maine, and in one of his letters he predicted
that Lincoln would be defeated for Senator by Dou
glas, but would beat Douglas for President in 1860.
This letter was copied in several Illinois papers, and

112 Life of James G. Blaine.
Mr. Lincoln cut it out and carried it in his small
memorandum-book until long after he was inaugu
rated as President. It naturally laid the foundation'
for cordial friendship between the two."
This picture of Mr. Lamon is intensely interesting,
because it shows, in the first place, Mr. Blaine's jour
nalistic sense. It- is not reasonable to suppose that
many weekly New England newspapers in that then
distant part of the country went to the trouble and
expense of sending a special correspondent to report
the proceedings of this most eventful campaign.
From it one can also' learn how the young Maine
editor acquired so early a knowledge of Mr. Lincoln's
abilities and why he should have become so devoted
to him and his cause in the National Convention of"
1860, at Chicago. This friendship existing between
the two men had another after-effect not generally
emphasized. It was the friendship that Mr. Blaine
had for Abraham Lincoln which led him to suggest
to President Garfield the selection of Robert T. Lin
coln for a place in his cabinet, and again later Mr.
'Blaine, when Secretary of State under President
Harrison, sent Mr. Lincoln as Minister to England.
The second Mr. Lincoln owes his public prominence
almost entirely to Mr. Blaine, although his capacity
and his abilities to fill the places given him are un
questioned.

CHAPTER VII.
THE SECOND SESSION OF THE THIRTY-EIGHTH CON-
GRESS. — CORRECTING THE FINANCIAL THEORIES OF
THADDEUS STEVENS.
The campaign preceding the Presidential election
of 1864 was an interesting one. Maine, with its
early election, was an important State. It was deemed
important to poll there as large a vote as possible for
its influence on the States holding their elections
later. The great successes of the Union arms and the
l lamentable conclusion of the Chicago Democratic
Convention, that the war was a failure, preceding the
most brilliant victories of the war, made the cam
paign an easy one for the Republicans. Mr. Blaine
made a number of speeches, the most important of
which was delivered on the 5th of September, pre
ceding the Monday of the election. This speech
contained a graphic comparison of the characters of
General McClellan and President Lincoln. Follow
ing this comparison he said : "If we elect General
McClellan we should apologize for the victories at
Gettysburg and Vicksburg, forget the glories of the
Chattanooga campaign, express regret for the valued
113

114 Life of James G. Blaine.
achievements of our navy, recall Grant from the
splendid campaign he is waging against Lee in Vir
ginia, and rebuke Sherman for having driven back
the enemy from Atlanta." He added strength to
this picture by saying, in another part of his ad
dress : " We have sacrificed thousands of valuable
lives, have spent money by the thousands of mil
lions, are pressing the Rebellion to its final retreat,v
are exhausting its last resources, and just when these
Southern conspirators against the Union are in de
spair, the Democratic National Convention meets,
and, in the name of their great and once honored
party, demands that the war shall cease, that our
troops shall be withdrawn, and that the proud people
of this nation shall stand hat in hand and wade in
humiliation and disgrace until the rebels prescribe
the terms on which they will agree to govern us
hereafter." This whole address was a common-sense,
business-like exposition of the situation. There was
no attempt, at any so-called oratory or any impas
sioned flight.
Mr. Blaine was elected, with the State ticket, by a
largely increased majority. He had been renomi
nated for Congress without opposition. He was the
unanimous choice of the Convention. It should be"
added here that Mr. Blaine was sent to Congress from
this State for seven terms, and each time he was

- Financial Theories of Thaddeus Stevens. 115
unanimously renominated. Such a series of con
tinued returns without opposition is without parallel
in the history of ahy of our public men. The elec
tion in the State of Maine was an overwhelming in
dorsement of Mr. Lincoln, and so Mr. Blaine had a
double triumph. The result in the State only fore
shadowed the general result.
Great victory made the atmosphere of Washington
very pleasant for the Republican members of the
National House when they came together again in
December. Mr. Blaine appeared more sure of him
self in the second session. He again made one nota
ble speech. This is all that any new member could
¦ reasonably expect to accomplish in any one session.
Indeed he is more than fortunate if he is able to de
liver one specially noteworthy speech during his
entire first term. This speech of Mr. Blaine was on
the subject of " The futility of attempting to equal
ize gold, silver, and paper money by legislation."
It was in opposition to the veteran Thaddeus Stevens
who was then one of the conspicuous powers of tlie
House. Mr. Stevens had a very arbitrary disposi
tion and an enormous force of character. He was
just the man for his time in sustaining all of the ex
treme measures necessary for the successful carrying
on of the war to subdue the Rebellion. But he must
have had a strange warp in his mind when he thought

116 Life of James G. Blaine.
that the legislative power of Congress could be em
ployed to the extent of enforcing a bill " to prevent
gold and silver coin and bullion from being paid or
exchanged for a greater value than their real cur
rent value and for preventing any note or bill issued
by the United States and made lawful money and a
legal tender from being received for a smaller sum
than is therein specified."
In plain English, Mr. Stevens proposed by act of
Congress to prevent the depreciation of greenbacks,
and to forbid gold going to a premium. He would
have found it as easy to control the tides of the sea
by legislative power as to determine the value of the
commodities which he sought to regulate. Such,
however, was the lack of public education upon the
subject of what could and could not be done by mere
congressional enactment that Mr. Stevens had for a
brief time a certain support for his measure. Mr.
Blaine faced Mr. Stevens and talked to him, al
though many years younger than he, as a college
professor might have talked to a raw student. He
said-: " The whole bill, sir, aims at what is simply im
possible. You cannot by congressional enactment .
make a coin dollar worth less than it is, nor a paper
dollar worth more than it is. I think we had ex
perience enough in that direction with the famous
gold bill at the last session. We passed that measure

Financial Theories of Thaddeus Stevens. 117
after very severe pressure and with great promises as
to the wonders it would work in Wall Street. It
continued on the statute book for some twelve days —
gold advancing at a rapid rate every day until its re
peal was effected. The bill under consideration has
already had a most pernicious effect and should it
become a law no man can measure the degree of its
hurtful influence." The bill was soon after with
draw^ as the arguments in its favor had no ground
upon which to stand.
It was in February of this session that the House
finally passed the Thirteenth Amendment of the Con
stitution, which had failed at the last session to re
ceive a two- thirds majority. This amendment was
modeled upon the ordinance of 1787. After a struggle
of nearly eighty years the principle of this ordinance
became the law of the land. This was the amend
ment ab©lishing slavery within the jurisdiction of the
United States. The second clause of this amendment,
providing that Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation, was offered in
the next Congress on the 16th of June, 1866, and
declared in force upon the 28th of July, 1868.
It was in this same month of February that the
House passed the bill authorizing the President to
appoint a lieutenant-general in the army. This bill
did not create a hew office. It gave the President an
nniinrhinJtiT frv oolo/>f o Li-rK nfRnaj- f(_f the Supreme

118 Life of James G. Blaine.
command of all the armies of the United States.
This special rank authorized by Congress in eonnec-s
tion with the war of the Rebellion was first ex
tended to Ulysses S. Grant.
Mr. Blaine, in his description of his first appear
ance in Congress, in his own history confines the
declaration to exactly one line, " James G. Blaine
entered from Maine at thirty-three years of age." His
pen picture of the Speaker of that House is as follows :
" Schuyler Colfax was specially fitted for the duties
of the chair. He had been a member of the House
for eight years, having been chosen directly after the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. He came from
good Revolutionary stock in New Jersey, but had
been reared in the West, had learned the trade of a
printer and had edited a successful journal at South
Bend. He was a paragon of industry with a keen,
quick, bright intellect. He mingled freely and
creditably in the debates. With the wisdom in which
many able members seem deficient, he had given stu
dious attention to the rules of the House and was
master of their complexities. Kindly and cordial
by nature, it was easy for him to cultivate the art of
popularity, which he did with tact and constancy.
He came to the chair with absolute good-will . from
both sides of the House, and as a presiding officer
proved himself able, prompt, fair-minded, and just
in all his rulings."

CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONSIDERATION OF THE GREAT ISSUES OF THE
RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD.
The Thirty-ninth Congress met under widely dif
ferent circumstances than the preceding one, to which
Mr. Blaine was first elected. Within a month after
the adjournment of the Thirty-eighth Congress,
General Lee had surrendered. The Rebellion had
been crushed, and President Lincoln had fallen at
the hands of Wilkes Booth, the assassin. Andrew
Johnson was now at. the head of the Government,
and the entire change of policy which ensued made
Congress the continued theatre, of great feeling and
bitterness, growing out of the reconstruction legisla
tion. It was with difficulty that President Johnson
was prevented from first inaugurating a policy of
revenge, and then from wholly surrendering the Gov
ernment to the late rebels.
It was during this Congress that Mr. Blaine had
his celebrated difference with Mr. Conkling. Mr.
Conkling came back to the Thirty-ninth Congress
after having been retired for one term. The differ
ence between these two gentlemen occurred during
119

120 Life of James G. Blaine.
the spring of the opening session. This episode was
to have a marked influence upon Mr. Blaine's poli
tical career. No one could have at the time of the
occurrence imagined the full after-effect of this inci
dent. It made for Mr. Blaine a powerful and life
long enemy, who upon several distinct occasions
crossed effectively the pathway of his most ardent
ambitions. Mr. Blaine; in this Congress, was given positions
upon the committees corresponding to the rank and
power which he had gained in the previous Con
gress. He was placed on the Committee of Military
Affairs, still the most important committee of the
House. In the second session of the same Congress
he was made Chairman of the Committee on the War
Debts of Loyal States. He was eighth of the nine
members composing the Military Committee. He
was made second on the special committee appointed
to represent Congress on the death of President Lin
coln. Congress appointed one member from each
State in the make-up' of this committee. E. B. Wash-
burne, of Illinois, was Chairman. This Congress
met on the first Monday in December, 1865. Mr.
Colfax was re-elected Speaker. The Democratic can
didate against him was James Brooks, who received
the complimentary vote of thirty-six. The Repub
licans had one hundred and thirty-nine members,

Great Issues of tlie Reconstruction Period. 121
and^a full majority of one hundred and three. Mr.
Colfax, in again assuming the Chair, spoke of the
duty of the Republican party in the field of legisla
tion of Congress, now controlled by the Republican
party. He said : " Its first and highest obligation is
to guarantee to every State a Republican form of
government ; to establish the rebellious States anew
on such a basis of enduring justice as will guarantee
all safeguards to the people, and protection to all
men in their inalienable rights." " In this great
work," he continued, " the world should witness the
flhost inflexible fidelity, the most earnest devotion to
the principles of liberty and humanity, the truest
patriotism, and the wisest statesmanship."
This was a lofty plan, but it would be assuming a
great deal to declare that this plan has been carried
out by the party to which it was proposed. ' Mr.
Blaine throughout his congressional career has
repeatedly called attention to the fact that Repub
lican forms of government have been practically
abolished in the South, and that the results of the
war were practically nullified by the surrender to the
former leaders of the Confederacy their State gov
ernments before an absolute guarantee of the rights
of every citizen had been secured by something more
than a pledge in the form of legislation. Following
swiftly upon the organization of the House, Mr

' 122 Life of James G. Blaine.
Thaddeus Stevens moved for the appointment of a
joint Congressional Committee of fifteen members,
nine from the House and six from the Senate, for the
purpose of taking up the question of the reconstruc
tion of the Southern States.
President Johnson then was following a policy of
military governorship, and the first difference be
tween him and Congress occurred upon this question
of the rehabilitation of the South.
There was a feeling very soon engendered in Con
gress of great prejudice against the South. Wash
ington then swarmed with ex-Confederate officers
who were there unrepentant, glorying in their records
of disloyalty, actively demanding seats in Congress
to which they had been elected by constituents who
had exhausted every resource to destroy the Govern
ment. They were not at all modest in pressing their
claims, and came to the Capitol making demands
instead of requests. This aggressiveness upon their
part had roused the spirit of the Republican major
ity. These applicants for seats in the House were
refused the courtesies of the floor, although it has
been usual for Congress to extend this privilege to
contestants for seats in that body.
There were not many changes in the personnel of
the Thirty-ninth Congress. Nearly all of the lead
ing members mentioned in the preceding chapter

EMMONS BLAINE.

Great Issues of the Reconstruction Period. 125
had been re-elected. ,/In the Senate two vacancies
occurred, one by the death of Jacob Collamer, of
Vermont, whose temporary successor by appointment
was Luke P. Poland. Mr. Poland was a gentleman
of the old school — one of the handsomest and most
picturesque members ever seen in Congress. His
complexion was a dark clear olive. His eyes were in
tensely black. His nose was a pure Roman while the
lower part of his face was shaped upon clear classical
lines. Small, very white side whiskers set off his clear
strong face. He wore the blue dress coat with brass
buttons of the old school. His diamond-ornamented
ruffled shirt, frills, arid his general attention to the
details of his peculiar ¦ and precise dress gave him
the appearance of a beau of the times of George the
Third. He was a man of ability, a fine lawyer,
and commanded the respect and appreciation of his
associates. He was in the Senate but a few weeks,
being succeeded by Justin S. Morrill. Mr. Poland
was afterward to be sent to the House of Represen
tatives, and to become the Chairman of the celebrated
Credit-Mobilier Investigating Committee. *
Eight days after the announcement of the death
of Senator Collamer the death of his colleague, Sena
tor Solomon Foot, was announced. Senator Foot
was succeeded by George F. Edmunds, who made
his appearance in this Congress, and remained con-

126 " Life of James G. Elaine.
tinuously in the Senate until he voluntarily resigned
his seat in 1891 on account of illness in his family,
which required so much of his time as to incapacitate
him from attending to, his public duties. Mr. Ed
munds has been a great figure during his quarter of a
century of service in the Senate. He too has played
an important part in Mr. Blaine's career, in that he
has been, ever since 1876, the steadfast opponent of
Mr. Blaine's Presidential aspirations. Mr. Edmunds
is a tall, fine, distinguished-looking man, with a strOng
aquiline featured face. He had served in the Ver
mont Legislature, and had been the Speaker of its
House. He had fine legal training, and was ranked
as one of the first lawyers in the country. He was
even at that time noted for his coolness, his great self-
control, and for his keen powers of satire.
Among the changes in the Senate were the follow
ing : Richard Yates, Illinois' War Governor, dis
placed Senator Richardson ; Senator John P. Hale
was succeeded by Aaron H. Cragin. Mr. Hale was
sent, a few days after the Senate election, as Minister
to Spain by Mr. Lincoln. M». Cresweil, from the
House, had been promoted to the Senate. Grant's
future Attorney-General, George H. Williams, came
to the Senate from Oregon. John P. Stockton came
from New Jersey, and Samuel J. Kirkwood, who was
to serve in Garfield's Cabinet with Mr. Blaine, as

Great Issues of the Reconstruction Period. 127
Secretary of the Interior, came to the Senate from
Iowa as the successor of James Harlan.
Among the additions to the House were several
who had been conspicuous in the Union army. Gen
eral Banks, who had served as Speaker in the House
before the war, came back to the Thirty-ninth Con
gress. Brigadier- General Gilman Marston, from New
Hampshire, and Henry C. Doming, of Connecticut,
who had served during the war, were noticeable
among the new-comers. Another New York editor,
the brilliant Henry J. Raymond, came from New
York to this Congress. General John H. Ketcham,
who was to do honorable service for more than a quarter
of a century from one of the most influential districts
of New York and who was to voluntarily retire after
many years of service, was conspicuous in the business
administration of the House. Samuel Shellabarger
and John A. Bingham, who had failed to be re-elected
to the Thirty-eighth Congress, now came back with
Columbus Delano who was to be in President Grant's
cabinet. Among the notable additions from the West
were Shelby M. Cullom from Illinois,, on the Repub
lican side, and* Judge William E. Niblack, of Indi
ana, on the Democratic side. Judge Niblack be
came one of the leading managers among his Deino-
cratic associates. Mr. Cullom, who greatly resembles
Mr. Lincoln in personal appearance, was to become

128 Life of James G. Blaine.
afterward United States Senator, the author Of im
portant legislation regulating inter-state commerce
traffic, and further to become after years of faithful
service a formidable presidential quantity.
Mr. Blaine's conspicuous effort during the first
session of this Congress was during the debate on
reconstruction. This debate was opened by Thaddeus
Stevens on the 18th of December, 1865, immediately
after the meeting of the Congress. It is interesting
to look through to-day this opening address of Mr.
Stevens. However incorrect were his theories con
cerning financial topics, in the field of political ad
ministration he was a master mind. He foreshad
owed in that speech the situation of to-day. He
pointed out clearly and distinctly the power that
would be given to the South through the manumission
of the slaves by the increase it would give them in
their representation in Congress. With the negroes
counted they would be entitled under the then
existing law to 86 members. By excluding them
from the basis of representation they would have but
46 members. He argued that as long as the negroes
were not allowed to vote they should be excluded
from the basis of congressional representation. He
was then opposed to extending the right of suffrage
to the colored people; believing that it would only be
used as a weapon against the North, and that it would

Gfeat Issues of the Reconstruction Period. 129
have been best to have left that question to be settled
by the Southerri people themselves. Mr. Stevens, in
speaking of the helpless condition of the colored peo
ple and their inability to exercise the political rights
which it was even then proposed to extend to them,
said : " We have turned, or are about to turn loose,
four millions of slaves,, without a hut to shelter them
or a cent in their pockets. The diabolical laws of
¦ slavery have prevented them from acquiring an edu
cation, understanding the commonest laws of contract,
or of managing the ordinary business of life. This
Congress is bound to look after them until they can
take care of themselves. If ,we do not hedge them
around with protecting laws, if we leave them to the
legislation of their old masters, we had better have
left them in bondage. Their condition will be worse
than that of our prisoners at Andersonville. If we
fail in this great duty now when we have the power,
we shall deserve to receive the execration of history,
and of all future ages."
Mr. Stevens combatted sharply the Democratic
theory that this was a white man's government.
Upon this subject he said : " If this Republic is not
now made to stand on solid principle, it has no
honest foundation, and the Father of all men will
shake it to its centre. If we have not yet been suf-
ciently scourged for our national sin to teach us to

130 Life of James G. Blaine.
do justice to all God's creatures without distinction
of race or color, we must expect a still more heavy
vengeance of an offended Father, still increasing
His inflictions as He increased the severity of the
plagues of Egypt, until the tyrant consented to do
justice, and when that tyrant repented of his reluct
ant consent, and attempted to re-enslave the people,
as our Southern tyrants are attempting to do now,
He filled the Red Sea with broken chariots and
drowned horses, and strewed the shore with corpses
of men."
Mr. Stevens' dire prophecy yet remains unfulfilled.
The Southern power which he correctly defined, in its
aggressiveness has practically eliminated the vote of
the colored man in the South from all political con
siderations, while it retains .the representatives of
these colored men. To-day, upwards of five millions
of colored men are unrepresented in the halls of
Congress, in the Electoral College, "while the South
with their stolen votes, usurps their places and their
share in the power of the Government.
Mr. Blaine, throughout his Congressional career,
made repeated appeals to Congress, and to the
country to guard against this usurpation of power
upon the part of the South. After Mr. Stevens,
there was no more devoted debater upon this sub
ject. As he grew older in experience and" as he

Great Issues of the Reconstruction Period. 131
advanced in power in the House he became even
more emphatic both in public and private. He al
ways held that there was no assurance of safety for
Republican institutions in this country until we had
reached a basis of honesty and justice in our gov
ernment. Mr. Blaine held that it was impracticable
to try to control the local affairs of the South through
the agency of Federal power. But he always in
sisted that the representation in Congress should be
cut , down to a just basis, so that the power of a
Southern member should not' represent from two to
three times the power of a Northern member. This
inequality as it was denounced by the Republican
leaders throughout the reconstruction period exists
tO-day. The Southern managers with their Northern
allies have carried the point for which the Rebellion
was started. The first uprising of the slave-owners
was in the interest of their political- power. They
resisted the movement of. the Abolitionists in the
North chiefly on account of its endangering their po
litical supremacy. They are to-day more contented
with the situation than if they had been successful in
the Rebellion. They have no longer slavery, but
they have even more political power than when they
were strongest and the slavery sentiment was at its
height. Then they had the labor of the slaves
which was even more expensive to them than the

1 32 Life of James G. Blaine.
free labor of to-day, and the political representation
based upon three-fifths only of the slave population.
To-day they have the advantage of the labor of the
entire colored population and the basis of their
political representation extended to the whole negro
population. Mr. Blaine outlined this issue very clearly in a
speech made by him on the 8th of January, 1866, in
which he discussed the amendment to the Federal Con-
stitution so as to change the basis of representation in
Congress from that of .population to that of the votes
cast. In other words, employing suffrage instead of
population as the basis of representation. This
amendment has been frequently offered and with the
frank "and avowed purpose of curtailing the unjust
arid dishonestly acquired power of the South. The
argument advanced by Mr. Blaine in this speech
was that no injustice would be done to the South by
changing the laws governing Congressional represen
tation. So long as the negro was disfranchised he
should not be counted in the basis of representation.
If the South should wish to secure the increase of
power it could do so by extending the, franchise to
the negro and by honestly ' counting his vote,
bat Mr. Blaine thought then to change from a
population to a suffrage' basis would create such
inequalities in the end as to constitute an evil greater

.

Great Issues of the Reconstruction Period. 133
than the one sought to be rendered. He said : "The
ratio of voters to population varies widely in different
sections, ranging from a minimum of 19 per cent.
.to a maximum of 58 per cent., and the changes ,
which this fact would work in the relative represen
tation of certain States would be monstrous. For
example : California has a population of 358,110,
and Vermont 314,369, and each has three Repre
sentatives on this floor to-day. But California has
207,000 votes in electing her three Representatives
and Vermont has 87,000. If suffrage had been the
basis of representation California would have had
eight Representatives to Vermont's three." This
argument of Mr. Blaine's was the first one made on
the. Republican side against the plan of basing repre
sentation on votes. Mr. Blaine's suggestion as to the
form of the addition to the Fourteenth Amendment
as the basis of reconstruction was the one which
finally prevailed. In this speech the suggestion was
made in the following language :
" The Constitution of the United States, Article I,
Section 2, Clause 3, reads as follows to the first period :
' Representative and direct taxes shall be apportioned
among the several States which may be included
within this Union according to their respective num
bers, which shall be determined by {adding to the
whole number of free persons, including those bound to

134 Life of James > G. Blaine.
service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not
taxed, three-fifths of all other persons). ,' "
He then said : " The portion which I have included
in parenthesis has become meaningless and nugatory
by the adoption of the Constitutional Amendment
which abolishes the distinction between free persons
and all other persons. And being thus a dead-letter
might as well be formally struck out. In its stead 1
propose to insert the words following included in
parentheses so that the clause amended will read thus :
" 'Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor
tioned among the several States which may be in
cluded within this Union according to their respective
numbers, which shall be determined by (taking the
whole number of persons except those to whom civil
or political rights or privileges are denied or abridged
by the Constitution or laws of any State on account
of race or color).'"
Mr. Blaine thought this was a very simple and
direct way of reaching the desired result without
embarrassment to any other question or interest.
While it left population as the basis of representa
tion, he argued that it would deprive the Southern
States of all representation in Congress on account
of the colored population so long as those States may
choose to, abridge or to deny to that population the
political rights and privileges accorded to others.

Great Issues of the Reconstruction Period. 135
Mr. Blaine did not foresee at that time that such a
provision of the Constitution could not be enforced
without additional congressional legislation and with
the prowding of a tribunal of a non-partisari char
acter for the taking of evidence showing the abridg
ment of the civil or political rights in question. Be
fore such legislation was reached the dominant power
of the South captured the control of the House of
Representatives, and so for the future no legislation
will be possible to reduce or limit this dishonestly
acquired power of the South without some great up
heaval of public opinion at the North. To secure
such a tidal wave of opinion there will have to occur
some signal and striking event to illustrate the arbi
trary and aggressive power of the now dominant
South. The amendment to the Constitution when finally
approved by Congress did not, however, follow the
exact words of Mr. Blaine's suggestion. The change,
when made, instead of the language employed bj
Mr. Blaine, was as follows : " But when the right to
vote at any election for the choice of electors for
President and Vice-President of the United States,
Representatives in Congress, the executive and judi
cial officers of the State, or the members of the
legislature thereof is denied to any of the male mem
bers of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and

136 Life of James G. Blaine.
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged,
except for participation in rebellion, or other crimes,
the basis of representation therein shall be reduced
in the proportion which the number of such male
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."
The seceded States refused to accept this amend
ment, and several of them passed laws which would
have reduced the freedmen into a condition of sla
very worse than that from which they had been . re
leased. Mr. Blaine was himself to feel the weight of this
Southern power. Southern people were at the head
of all the Committees of Investigation which sought
to destroy him, a few years later. If he had con
sented to temporize with this Southern element he
would undoubtedly have been spared the great trials
of 1876. It was on account of his power and his
popular following at the North that he was early
marked for political destruction by the leaders of the
Southern Democracy.

CHAPTER IX.
A PEN-PICTURE OF THE BLAINE-CONKLING EPISODE.—
CONKLING'S PECULIAR CHARACTER, AND LATER EN
MITY TO MR. BLAINE.
The so-called Blaine-Conkling episode took place
on the 30th of April, 1866, toward the close of the
long session of the Thirty-ninth Congress. This
occurrence added to the list of Southern enemies of
Mr. Blaine a formidable Northern leader, who was
prominent until his resignation from the Senate in
1881, and who was the chief of what was later called
the stalwart element in the Republican party.
Mr. Conkling possessed a peculiar and charac*
teristic individuality. He was an educated lawyer.
He was very imperious and masterful in his tempera
ment. He was Impatient with oppCsition, and in de
bate scorned all of the small courtesies, and appar
ently took pleasure in annoying and insulting an
-opponent, either by contempt or by overwhelming
him with the flood-gates of his power of rhetoric.
His style of speaking was very dissimilar to that of
Mr, Blaine. In many ways he was one of the ablest
men who ever sat in the House. He had great
137

138 Life of James G. Blaine.
capacity for study, was a wide reader, and in the
presentation of a case went over every possible
detail which he thought could produce an effect.
His style of oratory was very ornate. In his ex
treme youth this style was even turgid at times,
and to the close of his political career his fault
was an over-use of extravagant adjectives, with too
great an employment of mere flowers of speech.
Yet with all of this excessive ornamentation, with
his at times extreme verbosity and repetition, the
force and individuality of the man made him a domi
nant figure. His sublime and almost aggressive con-_
fidence in himself, and in the righteousness of his
own cause ; his belittling contempt for the intellects
of his adversaries made him always an object of de
light for the galleries. There was no orator from
the North who possessed Mr. Conkling's ability to
aggravate and enrage the Southern members, He
always treated them with lofty, patronizing contempt,
and the language employed by him to stigmatize the
acts of the Ku-Klux, the swindling of returning
boards, the use of fraudulent ballots will long be
remembered in the halls of Congress. His courage
in debate was fully the equal of. Mr. Blaine's, and
this courage, often carried to the verge of swaggering
insolence, made him an object of absolute hatred on
the Democratic side.

The Blaine- Conkling Episode. 139
Mr. Conkling's appearance was quite as striking as
his manners. He was over six feet in height. He
had very broad shoulders, a deep chest, and a sinewy,
powerful figure. He stooped slightly from his waist
without being round-shouldered. His physical pro
portions were built on a generous scale. His head
was very large and extremely broad and full above
the ears. His hair was a reddish blond, curling and
trimmed closely to his head, with the exception of/ a
long curl which grew down in the centre of his fore
head. His eyes were a keen blue-gray. His nose
was' a drooping aquiline, with sarcastic lines falling
from the nostrils,- which moved only too easily into
the fixed expression of a sneer. A short mustache
and pointed beard, very closely trimmed at the sides,
accentuated the oval of his face and emphasized the
extreme breadth of the top of his great head.' He
was always dressed in the very latest fashion, and was
as careful in his selection of linens and cravats and
bo^ts as the traditional beau of society. He was a
collector of fancy-colored silk handkerchiefs, and was
always displaying some new acquisition in this line.
He always appeared in Congress fresh from a plunge
in the marble bath-tubs in the basement of the Capi
tol building ; curled, scented, and insolent, he swag
gered through the debates of Congress, attending
rigidly to his public duties, performing prodigies of

140 Life of James G. Blaine.
work, and fighting courageously for the "most aggres
sive principles of the extreme stalwart element of the
Republican party. He never faltered or hesitated in
the face of a fight. In a debate his great physical
proportions added splendor to his Oriental forms of
expression. He seemed at times to tower far above
and beyond an opponent. It was hopeless for a small '
man to try and conduct a debate against Mr. Conk
ling. The disproportion of mere appearance was too
great for any argument to be effective. It was very
rare that Mr. Conkling lost his temper. It was more
his delight to provoke others to ill-temper. He was
scrupulously honest, and never but once was charged
by any one all through his official career with,; .ever
having made a penny improperly. The single ex
ception was at the time of this notable debate in
April, 1866.
Mr. Conkling and Mr. Blaine were nearly of the
same age. Both were aspirants for the position of
leader on the Republican side. Mr. Blaine had as
fine a presence as Mr. Conkling. He was nearly as
tall, and was equally aggressive and courageous,
although he did not have the same swaggering as
sumption and over-confidence in his methods of
speech. _ Both gentlemen had high tempers and were
naturally antagonistic from the first through the dis
similarity of their temperaments. Mr. Conkling

MR. BLAINE AT FIFTY.
Secretary of State in the Garfield Cabinet.

The Blaine- Conkling Episode. 143
v
made friends easily only with those who yielded
to him. He had none of the arts of the conversa
tionalist. He delivered monologues, and those who
wished to be his friends were obliged to sit in reve
rent attitudes and listen to his brilliant discourses.
Naturally Mr. Blaine could not have any political
or friendly alliance with such a man.
The occasion for an open war between these two
members occurred during a debate when the subject
of the number of troops enlisted by each Northern
State for the putting down of the Rebellion came up.
In this discussion Mr. Conkling made an all-around
Bweeping attack upon General James B. Fry, who
had been a provost-marshal general in the State of
New York. Mr. Conkling charged General Fry
with the guilty knowledge of certain frauds in the
recruiting records for that State, whereby the State
was given an unjust credit for soldiers enlisted.
General Fry was from the State of Maine and a
friend of Mr. Blaine's.
Mr. Blaine came to the rescue of General Fry and
in turn made a counter-charge against Mr. Conkling.
He said that in a previous Congress Mr. Conkling had
accepted an appointment from the Secretary of War
as a Judge- Advocate and had drawn the salary of
that place, while the statutes of the United States
forbade any member of Congress or Federal official

144 Life of James G. Blaine.
from drawing the. salary of two places under the
government. . Mr. Conkling replied to this with some
heat that he was employed as special counsel by the
War Department to prosecute these recruiting frauds,
and as special counsel he had received his fee. Mr.
Blaine was able to produce from the war records a
copy of a letter from the Secretary of War to Mr.-
Conkling in which he was appointed a Judge- Ad-.
vocate. To this Mr. Conkling replied that this letter
was a mere form and that in reality he was employed
as special counsel. He made no concealment or
denial of the fact that he had received a fee from the
government for a special service rendered while he
had at the same time had a salary as a member of
Congress. After Mr. Blaine had produced the document from
the War Department, Mr. Conkling declined to
make any further explanation, and when the Speaker
asked him, " Does the gentleman from New York
yield to the gentleman from Maine ?" Mr. Conkling
replied " No, sir, I do not wish to have anything to'
do with the member from Maine, not even so much
as to yield him the floor."
Mr. Blaine : " All right."
Here Mr. Conkling said in his deepest voice and
most tragic manner, "If the member from Maine
had the least idea how profoundly indifferent I am

The Blaine^ Conkling Episode. 145
to his opinion on this subject, or on any subject, I
think he would hardly take the trouble to rise to ex
press his opinion, nor detain the House." Mr. Conk
ling added : " I will not detain the House with an
argument as to whether this opinion is well or ill-
founded." Mr. Conkling then turned toward Mr.
Blaine, and, glaring upon him in the most contempt
uous possible manner, sat down, and began with an
air o'f cool contempt to write a letter as if he had
dismissed a troublesome person from further con
sideration in his mind.
But Mr. Blaine was never a man who could be
contemptuously dismissed by any one. He flushed
for a moment under the whip of Mr. Conkling's
manner, and then, advancing in his direction, he de
livered the only personal diatribe ever uttered by
him in' Congress. He spoke as follows :
" Mr. Speaker, it is hardly worth while to pursue
the controversy further. But still the gentleman
from New York cannot get off on the technicality
which he has suggested. He says that a commission
never was issued to him. I understand him to admit
that if a commission had been issued to him he could
not have taken pay for both offices. Now every one
knows that those preliminary authorizations are the
things on which half the business arising out of the
war has been done. Men have fought at the head

146 Life of James G. Blaine.
of battalions and divisions of army corps with
out having received their formal commissions.' The
gentleman was as much bound to respect the law
under that appointment as though he had been given
a formal commission with the signature of the Secre
tary of War."
Here Mr. Blaine, instead of addressing the Speaker,
turned to Mr. Conkling himself as he said : "As to
the gentleman's cruel sarcasm, I hope he will not be
too severe. The contempt of that large-ririnded
gentleman is so wilting, his haughty disdain, his
grandiloquent swell, his majestic over-powering
turkey-gobbler strut has been so crushing to myself
and to all the members of the House, that I know it
was an act of the greatest temerity for me to venture
upon a controversy with him. But, sir, I know who
is responsible for all of this. I know that within
the last five weeks, as members of this House will
recollect, an extra strut has characterized the gentle
man's bearing. It is the fault of another. That gifted
and satirical writer, Theodore Tilton, of The New
York Independent, spent some weeks recently in this
city. His letters published in that paper embraced
with many serious statements a little jocose satire, a
part of which was the statement that the mantle of
the late Winter Davis had fallen upon the member
from New York. The gentleman took it seriously,

The Bl ine-Conkling Episode. 147
and it has given his strut additional pomposity. The
resemblance is great. It is striking. Hyperion to a
Satyr, Thersites to. Hercules, mud to marble, dung
hill to diamond/ a singed cat to a Bengal tiger, a
whining puppy to a roaring lion. Shade of the
mighty Davis, forgive the almost profanation of that
joeose satire."
The members roared with delight all over the
House at this attack. There is nothing so relished
in the House as personalities in debate. Those who
had suffered at . the hands of Conkling, of course,
roared the loudest. Mr. Conkling did not condescend
to make any reply or to notice in any way Mr.
Blaine's speech. He continued his writing. His
face was slightly flifshed, but he gave no other out
ward sign of having heard what was said. From
that day until the day he died he never spoke a word
to Mr. Blaine, and never, apparently, saw him,
although for upward of fifteen years he was a member
of Congress, later in the Senate, and constantly meet
ing Mr. Blaine in the limited regions of the social
Circles of Washington. Wherever his influence
could stay the ambition of Mr. Blaine, or defeat his
plans, it was always active, although never openly
opposing him by name.

CHAPTER X.
THE COMPLETION OF THE RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLA
TION.  MR. BLAINE'S PROPHETIC PICTURES.
The second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress
met on the 3d of December, 1866. The conflict be
tween the President and the Republican majority
had reached its height. Nearly every measure pro
posed by the Republicans of a political character
was vetoed by the President and then* passed over
his head. This feeling of antagonism culminated in
the presentation in the House of a resolution to im
peach the President. This resolution was sen}; to a
special committee to take testimony to see whether
articles of impeachment should be presented. The
committee found no evidence to warrant the presen
tation of articles at that time, and so the matter was
deferred, and the impeachment question went over to
the following Congress.
This preliminary action had been undoubtedly
stimulated by the partisan passions awakened during
the campaign of the preceding summer. The South,
stirred up by the conflicting plans for reconstruction
and by their failure to recover their footing as equal
148

Mr. Blaines Prophetic Pictures. 149
States in the Union, was the scene of violence, dis
order, and great intimidation of the colored people.
The celebrated riot in New Orleans, where forty
negroes were killed, added greatly to- the excitement.
It was during this period previous to the meeting of
Congress that Mr. Johnson had broken with the
leading members of his, cabinet. The defeat of Presi
dent Johnson in the campaign of that year, notwith
standing his remarkable tour in which he went before
the people to explain his movements and to attack
Congress left him tied hand and foot, in the power
of the Republican majority in Congress.
The first two months of this session were given up
to debates of the Southern question. On the 10th of
December, Mr. Blaine expressed himself upon the
subject of the legislation proposed by Mr. Stevens,
resulting from the investigations in, the preceding
session. Mr. Blaine asked, "Shall the late rebels
wield the entire civil. power of the South?" This
speech was uttered with the belief that the Southern
States would not accept the Fourteenth Amend
ment. He said, still talking on this never-ending dispute
concerning the proper representation of the South in
the House : " If the Southern States are to be de
prived of their undue share of Representatives based
on their non-voting population, they should be de-

150 Life of James G. Blaine..
prived of them at once, and not be admitted even
temporarily with the old apportionment by which
they would continue to exercise in the House of
Representatives, and in the Electoral Colleges, the
same weight of influence exercised by them before
the Rebellion. • -
"The population of the States recently slave-hold
ing was, by the census of 1860, 12,240,000, of whom
8,039,000 were whites, and 4,201,000 negroes. The
population of the free States by the same census was
19,201,546, of whom only 237,000 were negroes. It
would hardly be maintained by any one that the
States lately slave-holding, taken as a whole, have
done anything more than hold good their population
of 1860, while in the free States, despite the losses
of war,, the ratio of increase has never been more
rapid than since that year. It is speaking with
moderation to say that the population, of the free
States is to-day 25,000,000.
"Supposing the Constitutional Amendment to be
adopted as the basis of re-admitting the Southern
States to the privilege of representation, it would be
a cruel mockery of the whole aim and intent of that
Amendment, to usher those States upon this floor
with the full number of Representatives assigned
them by the census of 1860. Then three-fifths of
their slaves, and all their disfranchised free people of

Mr. Blaine's Prophetic' Pictures. 151
color were allowed them in fixing the basis of appor-*-
tionment. Were they so admitted to-day, the aggre
gate number of Representatives from the late slave
States would be 85, and from the free States 156,
making a House of 241 in all. And yet if those 241
members were divided between the free and slave
States on the basis of the representative population,
as directed by the Constitutional Amendment, the
slave States would have but 58 members, while the
free States would have 183.
" A corresponding change would be wrought in
the Electoral Colleges. Were the Government to
permit an election for President and Vice-President
in 1868 on the basis assigned by the census of 1860
the late slave States would have 115 electoral votes
while the free States would have but 198. But on
the actual basis contemplated by the Constitutional
Amendment the late slave States would have but 88
while the free States would have 225. On the old
basis the free States would thus have a majority of
83, while on the basis of the Constitutional Amend
ment they would have a majority of 127 ; a new
difference of 44 electoral votes in favor of the free
States. " In view of these results, which are the plainest
arithmetical deductions, it could not be expected that
the free States, if they were to adhere to the Con-

152 Life of James G. Blaine.
, >
stitutional Amendment as the ultimatum of adjust
ment, would consent to have the lately ' rebellious
States admitted to representation here and to partici
pation in the Electoral Colleges until the relative and
proper strength of the several States should be
adjusted anew by a special census by an apportion
ment made in pursuance thereof. It was in this
belief and with these views that at the last session of
Congress I framed a bill providing for a special
enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States,
which bill was on my motion referred to the Recon
struction Committee, and has never been reported to
the House by that committee either favorably or
adversely. " What then shall be done ? The people, so far as
we represent them, have plainly spoken in the late
election, and the interpretation of their voice is not
difficult. They have pronounced with unmistakable
emphasis in favor of the Constitutional Amendment
with its definition of American citizenship, with its
guaranty of the national obligations and with its
prohibition of the assumption of the rebel debt is
an invaluable addition to our organic law. We can
not surrender its provisions, and the rebel States
cannot by their utmost resistance defeat its ultimate
adoption. It is too late to deny or even to argue the
right or power of the Government to impose in

Mr. Blaine's Prophetic Pictures. 153
those States conditions precedent to their resump
tion of the privilege of representation. The Presi
dent set^ the example, by exacting three highly
important concessions from those States as his basis
of reconstruction. Congress followed by imposing
four other conditions as its basis of reconstruction.
.Now the people have spoken demanding one ad
ditional condition as their basis of reconstruction, and
that condition is the absolute equality of American
citizens in civil and political rights without regard
to caste, color, or creed."
The Republican majority in Congress had not up
tO this time reached the point where they were ready
to extend the right of suffrage to the negro. They
wished to leave that to the Southern States them
selves. In passing the Fourteenth Amendment they
had provided that the South could not secure its old
representation in Congress, without extending politi
cal rights to the negroes. The South, with one
exception — the State of Tennessee — rejected the
Fourteenth Amendment, and as the result of such
action Mr. Thaddeus Stevens reported on the Sth of
February, 1867," the famous reconstruction measure
which divided the South into military districts, and
placed its government in the hands of the military
authorities, giving the right under ^certain circum
stances of violence and riot to suspend the writ of

154 Life of James G. Blaine.
habeas corpus. This measure, as reported by Mr.
Stevens, gave rise to prolonged discussion in both
branches of Congress.
Mr. Blaine said he was willing to support any
measure that would place the South under military
government, if it did not at the same time prescribe
the methods by which the people of a State could by
their own action re-establish civil government." He
submitted an amendment providing that " When any
one of the late so-called Confederate States shall have
given its assent to the Fourteenth' Amendment of
the Constitution, and conformed its constitution and
laws thereto, in all respects, and when it shall have
provided by its constitution that the elective fran
chise shall be enjoyed equally and impartially by all
male citizens of the United States, twenty-one years
of age and upward, without regard to race, color, or
previous condition of servitude, except such as may
be disfranchised for participating in the late Rebellion,
and when such constitution shall have been submit
ted to the voters of said State as then defined, for rati
fication or rejection, and when ,the constitution, if
ratified by the popular vote, shall have been sub
mitted to Congress for examination and approval,
said State shall, if its constitution be approved
by Congress, be declared entitled to representa
tion in Congress, and Senators and Representa-

Mr. Blaine's Prophetic Pictures. 155
tives shall be admitted therefrom on their taking the
oath prescribed by law, and then and thereafter the
preceding sections of this bill shall be inoperative in
said State."
Mr. Blaine, in presenting the argument in favor
of this amendment, said that he believed the true
interpretation of the election of 1866 was that, in
addition to the proposed constitutional amendrnents,
impartial suffrage should be the basis of reconstruc
tion. He asked, " When you send out this military
police to the lately rebellious States, why not send
with it that impressive declaration ?"
Changes were made in the bill in keeping with the
spirit of Mr. Blaine's • suggestions, and when thd
measure came to be passed it carried with it the en
franchisement of the negro which the rebellious
spirit of the South had forced the Northern Repub
lican managers to give him as a protection. The
South has denied over and over again with bitter
emphasis that they were responsible for giving the
negro suffrage. The original plan of the Republican
leaders was to grant a gradual extension. Mr. Lin
coln himself favored extending it first only to the
educated negroes and to those who had served in the
Union army.
Mr. Blaine, in his personal history of Congress,
lays great emphasis upon the declaration that the

156 Life of James G. Blaine.
Southern men themselves forced the situation, and
made negro suffrage absolutely necessary. Upon
this subject he says : " As a matter of historical
truth, which has been ingeniously and continuously,
whether ignorantly or malignantly, perverted, this
point, cannot be too fully elaborated nor too forcibly
emphasized : The Northern States nor the Republican
party, which then wielded the aggregate political power
of the North, did not force negro suffrage upon the
South, nor exact it as a condition of readmitting the
Southern States to the right and privilege of represen
tation in Congress until after other conditions had been
rejected by the South. The privilege of resuming-
representation in Congress had, in effect, been ten
dered to the Southern States upon the single condi
tion that they would ratify the Fourteenth Amend
ment, which provided, among other safeguards for,
the future, that, so long as the negro was denied
suffrage he should not be included in the basis of
Federal enumeration. In other words, that the white
men of the South should not be allowed to elect
thirty-'five or forty Representatives to Congress based
on the negro population in addition to the ^Repre
sentatives duly apportioned to their own numbers.
When all the Southern States, with "the exception of
Tennessee, declined to accept this basis of reconstruc
tion, by their rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment,

Mr. Blaine's Prophetic Pictures. 157
they ought to have measured the consequences. The
imperative question thenceforward was whether the
loyal or disloyal; the victorious Union or the de
feated Confederacy, should prescribe the terms of re
construction. "The Northern States were thus compelled to
consider whether they would unconditionally sur
render to the rebel element of the South or devise
some other plan of reconstruction. At that point in
the order of time, in the order of events, and not
until then, the just resolve was made by the Re
publicans to reconstruct the South on the basis of
loyalty, regardless of race or color. By refusing to
co-operate with Republicans, in the work of rehabili
tating their States, the Southern rebels forced the
Northern States to make impartial suffrage the
•corner-stone of the restored Union. The South had
its choice, and it deliberately and after fair warning
decided to reject the magnanimous offer of the North,_
and to insist upon an advantage in representation
against which a common sense of justice revolted.
The North foiled in its original design of recon
struction by the perverse course of the South, was
compelled under the providence of the Ruler of
Nations to deal honestly and justly with the colored
people. It was the insane folly of the South in
drawing the sword against the life of the nation that

158 Life of James G. Blaine.
led irresistibly to the abolition of slavery. In a
minor degree the folly was repeated, in resisting the
mode of reconstruction first tendered, and thus forc
ing Congress to confer civil rights and suffrage upon
the emancipated slaves. A higher than human
power controlled these great events. The wrath of
man was made to praise the righteous works of God.
Whatever were the deficiencies of the negro race in
education, for the duties and responsibilities of citizen
ship, they had exhibited the only vital qualification
of an instinctive loyalty, and as far as lay in their
power a steadfast ' helpfulness to the cause of the
national Union."
This brilliant historical description represents the
highest and best of Mr. Blaine's mind upon this
subject. In Congress he held rigidly to this princi
ple of fair and just -representation in the House and
in the Electoral College, but the solid South has
proved in the end to have been, more powerful and
to have overreached the skill, shrewdness, and
statesmanship of the Republican leaders of that time.
They have succeeded in creating such a false senti
ment at the North that the mild and occasional
attempts to revive the subject is denounced in the
Northern press as being a renewal of the partisan
issues of the war, arid is dismissed under the csurt
phrase of " bloody-shirt literature." The Democratic

JAMES A. GARFIELD
(The Martyi President.)

Mr. Blaine's Prophetic Picture. 161
South has politically to-day the full value of its
negro population, and wields a pOwer which can
never be broken unless the majority in the North
shall see fit some day to equalize the powers of the
two sections.
The bulk of the great business interests of this
country to-day are in the North. The great wealth,
the great cities, are in the Northern States. The
foreign shipping interests come in bulk to the North
ern ports. The millions of emigrants who come
from Europe seek Northern homes. The great
newspapers, the educational institutions, the railroads
are nearly all in the North. It is not reasonable to
suppose that the representatives of all these vast in
terests will consent for an indefinite period to
be governed by representatives of the poorer,
and, in a comparative sense, the inferior section
of the country. One of the reasons often given
by Mr. Blaine in private conversation for the su
periority of the South in the political world lies in
the fact that all of their leading men are trained
to politics. Politics is nearly the only great pro
fession in the South. It secures the attention of
its best and most talented" men. In the North it is
only a small percentage of the best men who go into
politics. Their presence is needed in the great com
mercial world, in the fields of education and indus-

162 Life of James G. Blaine.
trial development. So the South with its unscrupu
lous seizure of power wields it compactly, and by
union with selfish interests in the North which
scruple at nothing to arrive at success, controls the
administration of National affairs. Mr. Blaine
always believed that the North would never be fully
awakened to an actual realization of the extent to
which the South has been able through Northern
aid to nullify the results of the war until these same
commercial interests would be made to feel the para
lyzing effect of putting into practice the theories of
free trade which have so long been the prevailing
doctrine of the South. The Southern members have
advocated consistently the doctrines of free trade-
as a further means of weakening the power of the*
North. The Northern commercial interests have
been indifferent or have refused to believe, and
it remains to be seen how clearly Mr. Blaine's prer
dictions concerning their future will be realized after
the South has controlled the affairs at Washington
for another Presidential term.

CHAPTER XI.
mr. Blaine's early record a model for young
legislators to study. — his correct views upon
the then troublesome question of finance.
The most admirable chapters in Mr. Blaine's
career are his early experiences in Congress and his
development as a debater of public questions in the
House. At no time did he present any doubtful
theories. He had the correct views of a superior
mind. • He had by study learned to give proper
reasons for these views. He was devoted to the
cause of the Union, and upon the great public ques
tions of the day showed none of the rashness of
youth, none of the immaturity of a young man, but,
on the contrary, displayed qualities which entitled
him to be considered, at this period of his life, a
statesman above ordinary criticism.
The Fortieth Congress met in an extra session
immediately, following the adjournment of the Thirty-
- ninth. Mr. Blaine had been re-elected to this Con
gress the summer before, without any opposition.
It was believed by the Republican majority in Con
gress that the Government could not be safely left
163

164 Life of James G. Blaine.
unguarded in President Johnson's hands. The
Thirty-ninth Congress had therefore passed a law
providing that future Congresses should be convened
immediately after the final adjournment of the pre
ceding Congress. The Republican majority knew
that the President was not in sympathy with the.
Reconstruction Act.
There were a number of changes and additions in
both branches in this Congress. Oliver P. Morton,
the great war Governor of Indiana, came to the Sen
ate. He was as strong a character in his way as
Thaddeus Stevens. He had an intense individuality,
great force of character, and was passionately de
voted to the fortunes of the Republican party. He
was a stalwart of the stalwarts. Although his legs
were paralyzed so that he had to be wheeled into the
Senate in an invalid chair, aside from this inability
to walk or to move about unaided, his appearance
did not give any indication of physical weakness.
He was large and powerful in his frame, and had a
great round head, which was nearly bald. His hair
was black, his eyebrows very marked in their lines,
and his complexion a deep sallow. His eyes were
very black. His nose was short, thick, and very
round at the end, giving an air of pugnacity to his
resolute-jawed face. A dark mustache and Bhort
beard added character to his stern countenance. Mr.

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 165,
Morton was always tremendously in earnest. He
had an iron frame set in his desk as a support for
his arms. He used to cling to this frame and pre
sent his arguments with a "force and a dogmatism
which always commanded attention. For the conve
nience of entering the Senate chamber in his invalid
chair, he had a seat in the front row on the Demo
cratic side of the Senate. Some of his fiercest utter
ances against Southern mismanagement and outrages
were delivered absolutely in the faces of ex-Confed
erate generals, who sat within arm's reach of this
earnest, resolute, and, at times, almost vindictive old
man. Other additions in the Senate were Orris S. Ferry,
from Connecticut, and James Harlan, from Iowa,
who came back after two years in Mr. Johnson's
Cabinet, where he had served as, Secretary of the
Interior. In the House the most notable new-comer was
John A. Logari. He was the great volunteer soldier
of the war. He was Grant's most intimate and
trusted friend. He had made a record in the war,
unsurpassed for courage, common sense, and high
military ability., He loved to fight as other men
love to play. He was then in the prime of his
physical vigor. He was about five feet ten in
height, with a compact, well-built frame. His

166 Life of James G. Blaine.
complexion was that of a native of Sicily. His eyes
were intensely black. His nose was straight. A-
heavy black mustache shaded his severe soldierly
countenance. His hair was intensely blue-black
and as fine as silk. It hung long and straight, as a
frame to his characteristic face. In every way he
was a notable-looking man. His common sense was
quite the equal of his courage. He was very plain
and matter-of-fact. He was not generally appre
ciated during his first years of service in the House,
perhaps because he lacked some of the surface polish
of many who were not as well educated as he. He
was to become the Vice-Presidential candidate with
.Mr. Blaine in later years, and to have an honorable
and brilliant record as Senator of the United States
from his State of Illinois. Norman B. Judd, who
had been Minister to Berlin under Mr. Lincoln, came
to the House from Chicago.
General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts,
entered this House as one of the new members. He
became, with his "talent for turbulence," a vigorous
opponent in time of Mr. Blaine's, and was to be
one of the direct causes of Mr. Blaine's defeat for the
Presidency in 1884. He was a very original char
acter. He loved opposition. Although a nominal
Republican he never acted in harmony with any of
his party associates. His conduct as a politician was

Mr. Blaine's Early Record: 167
very much like his conduct as a general during the
war. He was a law unto himself and had no in
clination to act as a subordinate to any one.
He was at his best in purely administrative mat
ters. His record as Governor of New Orleans during
the war was the best chapter, in his public career.
Iri appearance he was unlike any other man who has-
ever before lived on this earth. He had a face
which was the special delight of the caricaturists.:
He was so ugly, however, as to be interesting. There
was nothing disagreeable in his ugliness. He was of
medium height, with a figure inclined to be stout.
In later years he was quite stout. His head was
very large and round. His neck was very short, so
that this great head sat very low on broad and high
shoulders. He served in Congress for many years
after the war. He Ttras quite bald, with a narrow fringe
. of sandy brown hair running around the back of
his head. What was left of his hair was worn long.
His forehead was very broad and full.
His complexion was high. He had the color of a
man in good health and accustomed to much out-door
life. His eyes were the most peculiar feature of his
face. He was very near-sighted. The eyelids were
shaped like those of a Chinaman, only the line turned
outward instead of inward. His nose was a short
Roman. His mouth was full-lipped and stern. A

168 Life of James Cr. Blaine.
short, reddish mustache curled in at each corner of
his mouth. The lower part of his face was broad,
double-chinned, and smooth shaven.
He always presented a picturesque and graceful
appearance, in spite of his ugliness and his awkward-
figure. He had the self-possession, the poise, and
grace of a great personage perfectly confident of him
self and of his abilities. He nearly always was
dressed in black. He was scrupulously neat in the
small details of his dress. For many years he wore
a boutonniere in the lapel of his black frock coat.
He was the first member of the House of Repre
sentatives who habitually appeared upon the floor
wearing this bit of decoration. A few since have
copied this, but no one, perhaps, except Mr. Springer,
of Illinois, has become so persistent in what is known
as the boutonniere habit. General Butler always
wore a broad-brimmed soft hat. It was either a
black or a light gray, according to his fancy.
He had a very deep, gruff voice, but it cannot be
said that he spoke with great distinctness. His
utterances were labored, although the labor appeared
to be physical rather than intellectual. There never
appeared to be any lack of freedom in the flow of his
thoughts, but when he spoke he puffed and worked
as hard as a locomotive on an up grade.
In speaking his gestures were graceful. His

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 169
hands, in their smallness, plumpness, and graceful
contour, were almost like a woman's. He used them
freely as he spoke. Nature had apparently concen
trated the little beauty given to General Butler in
his hands. They were the hands of an aristocrat.
General Butler in debate was aggressive and almost
tyrannical. He loved to crush an adversary, arid if
he could get an opponent at a disadvantage he was
perfectly merciless.
General Butler was perfectly unscrupulous in the
methods employed by him to defeat an antagonist.
- He possessed great wealth, made by the judicious
investment of the large fees gathered by him in the
active practice of Jiis profession. He was one of the
first lawyers of the country. He used all of his skill
as a lawyer to gather testimony to overwhelm in the
political field a chance opponent. He was always at
war with the prim and conventional ideas of Massa
chusetts. He appeared to be happy when he was shocking
some one, and so he was nearly always at odds with'
the New England delegation in Congress. There
was always some struggle going on over local ap
pointments. One of the most celebrated of patronage
fights was the war made by the delegation on Col
lector Simmons, of the port of Boston. He was a
,„ friend of General Butler's, and the means employed

170 Life of James G. Blaine.
by the General to carry out his own purpose in sus
taining this friend would hardly be considered fail
by any ordinary code of ethics.
The good, old-fashioned members of the Massa
chusetts delegation, who hated General Butler as the
Puritans were taught to hate the devil, found that
they were continually at a disadvantage in this fight.
Whatever they would attempt to do they, would find
anticipated by the active General. Their most secret
plans were divined, and, until the mystery was ex
plained, they were in a constant state of rage and.
disappointment over their inability to keep up with
him. The explanation came finally through the vigilance
of a Boston newspaper correspondent, who was a tel
egraph operator. v He noticed that General Butler's
private secretary, who was also a telegraph operator,
was nearly always to be seen during the morning
hanging about the telegraph offices in the Capitol
building, which were then placed for the convenience
of the members in the lobbies of the House of Repre
sentatives. His private secretary was always about whenever
any of the Massachusetts members were sending
their dispatches. Of course, yhe heard the moment
the instrument . began to click the language of their*
messages, and so reported- them to General Butler.

Mr. Blaines Early Record. 171
This discovery made a great uproar, and the House
was obliged to answer to the demands of the indig
nant Massachusetts members, to order that the tele
graph instruments be so arranged that no eaves
droppers could listen to the private messages of
members. General Butler was quitejas often at war "with the
Republicans in the House as with the Democrats.
He- was dreaded by every one, at least by every man
who had any private record which he did not desire
published. One of the most terrific onslaughts made
by General Butler was upon Congressman Whit
thorne, of Tennessee, in a later Congress. This
ex-confederate brigadier had, during some raid upon
a Southern town, captured a bank.
The funds of the bank disappeared during this
raid. It was an incident of the war, which attracted
but little notice "at that time. During one of those
partisan debates ' between Northern and Southern
members, which took place pending the considera
tion of reconstruction legislation, Mr. Whitthorne
made some very severe reflections upon the integrity
of General Butler's administration when Military
Governor of New Orleans. General Butler arose to
reply with a particularly malicious smile upon " his
face. He said that he would be pleased to submit the

172 Life of James G. Blaine.
accounts of his administration, with the vouchers, for
the consideration of the most eminent board of Con
federate brigadiers that could be found. He would
not ask to have a Northern man upon the auditing
commission. This he would agree to do at once if
Mr. Whitthorne would oblige him with an equally
trustworthy account of what he did with the money
captured in a particular bank in a particular town,
naming the hour and the day on which the capture
was made.
There was a furious cry of denial from the South
ern side that any such raid was made, but General
Butler flew to his desk and took from it an official
report of the bank in question, which showed to a
penny the amount of money taken, by whom, and
under what circumstances, and, certified to by such
an unquestioned Southern authority, not a word
could be said in reply. And so for the time, further
criticism of General Butler's administration ceased.
The only time that General Butler was ever met
with his own weapons was during a debate upon some
Treasury matter involving the fees of informers.
Secretary of the Treasury Charles Foster, who was
then comparatively unknown, made a national name
for himself by violently attacking General Butler
on the floor of the House and exposing his peculiar
methods.

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 173
Mr. Foster was able to show the absolute employ
ment of spies by General Butler- for the purpose of
ransacking private accounts, burrowing into the Dis
trict Attorneys' offices, and for the surreptitious
copying of confidential documents. The impudent
aggressiveness of Butler was met by equal aggressive
impudence upon the part of the Ohio member.
Every one expected to see Mr. Foster blown up by
some documentary dynamite of General Butler's.
But, either owing to Mr. Foster's previous obscurity
or because there was nothing to be found, General
Butler had nothing very special to say in reply to
him. General Butler was then at the height of his
power. He was brusque, overbearing, and at times
very surly. The proofs of Foster's speech came into
the House during a late night session. It was during
the closing hours of the session and so these proofs
had to be corrected then and there.
Remarks of General Butler were interspersed
throughout Mr. Foster's address. General Butler
being the veteran the proofs were first carried to him.
Mr. Foster did not wait for the proofs to be finished
in General Butler's hands, but came down himself to
the side of the General's desk and stood there and
deliberately Corrected the proofs of his attack upon
General Butler as they were passed over from the
noted General's hands. This seemed to please General

174 Life of James G. Blaine.
Butler. It was in accordance with his own tactics,
and he even glanced humorously at Mr. Foster as
the latter worked diligently at the mass before him.
General Butler and Mr. Blaine had a severe tilt _
when the latter was Speaker. General Butler was
fond of harassing Mr. Blaine, and the latter came
down to the floor one day for the purpose of exposing
the former's, methods. In the colloquy that ensued
concerning a certain declaration made by General
Butler which was disputed by Mr. Blaine, the latter
said: " I hope God will pardon you, but you ought not
to ask me to do it."
Mr. Butler — I will ask God and not you.
Mr. Blaine— -I am glad the gentleman will.
Mr. Butler — I have no favors to ask of the devil. .
General Butler's candidacy during the campaign
of 1884 took just enough votes to defeat Mr. Blaine,
as the General intended they should. It was always
Mr. Blaine's belief that he was cheated out of the
vote of New York and that enough Butler votes
were deliberately transferred to Mr. Cleveland, to
give him the narrow majority officially declared for
him. Rutherford B. Hayes was also in this Congress.
He was not especially prominent at this time. He
was a large, ponderous member, with good capacity

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 175
for routine work, and who was always prompt Narid
faithful in his performance of the work assigned to
him on the committees where he was placed. He
took but very little part in- the debates. He gave
but little evidence of the possibilities which the fu
ture had in store for him in the coming Presidential
contest of 1876.
Another notable figure in the House was James B.
Beck, who came from the Ashland district of Ken
tucky. Mr. Beck was a tall, powerful man of Scotch
birth. He was educated in the Transylvania Uni
versity. He had a marked Scotch accent, and spoke
with tremendous rapidity. He was one of the fastest
speakers in the House. He became quite a tariff
authority, and for many years, both in the House
and later in the Senate, presented the best arguments
offered by the Democrats for a modification of the
American protective tariff system.
This first extra session of the Fortieth Congress
took up the subject of, supplementary legislation
necessary to the complete carrying out of the recon-
.struction act which had been passed through the
preceding Congress with so much difficulty. All
legislation of this character was promptly vetoed by
the President, and with equal promptness passed
1 over his head. The great debt of the war was also
a subject for consideration. Many - members of the

1 76 Life' of James G. Blaine.
Republican majority wished to remain in continuous
session throughout the summer. But another divi
sion of leaders thought that such a policy would
cause even greater uneasiness throughout the country
than then existed. And so a compromise was reached,
whereby the first extra session was ended on the
20th of July, adjourning on this date with the
agreement to reconvene on the 21st of the following
November, two weeks in advance of the regular date
for the beginning of the winter session. During this
extra session Mr. Blaine occasionally occupied the
Speaker's chair, and became one of the leaders
among the younger members on the Republican side.
A writer in a New York paper of that period thus
describes Mr. Blaine as he appeared to him at that
time :
" Mr., Blaine is metallic ; you cannot conceive how
a shot should pierce him, for there seems no joints
in his harness. He is a man who knows what the'!
weather was yesterday morning in Dakota, what the
Emperor's policy will be touching Mexico, on what
day of the week the 16th of December proximo will
fall, who is chairman of the School Committee in
Kennebunk, what is the best way of managing the
National Debt, together with all the other interests
of to-day, which anybody else would stagger under.
How he does it, nobody knows. He is always in his

GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 179
place. He must absorb details by assimilation at his
finger ends. As I s^id, he is clear metal. His feat
ures are made in a mold ; his attitudes are those of
a bronze figure ; his voice clinks ; and he has ideas
fixed as brass."
Greenbackism had its birth in this extra session.
Mr. Pendleton opened the ball by introducing a bill
-providing for the payment of the bonds iri green
backs. A favorite argument in those days was, " Is
not the money which was good enough to pay for the
services of the brave Union soldiers good enough to
pay the debt of the money-sharks who lent money
to the Government at high rates and who drew the
income in a safe and protected place ?" " The
battle and blood-stained greenback " was another
phrase. The Democrats who had been so active in
seeking to defeat every war measure were now to the
front trying to cheat the creditors of the Government
who had advanced the money at a time when the
existence of the Government itself was at stake.
Mr. Rlaine took advantage of the vacation afforded
by the adjournment to go to Europe. He went in
company with E. B. Washburne. He was not ac
companied by his family. It was his first trip to
Europe, and he derived great benefit from the change
afforded him by the, variety of scene and of climate.
He went through Ireland, Scotlarid, England, and

180 Life of James G. Blaine.
then over to Paris. He went through the Rhine
country, visited Switzerland and northern Italy,
spending in all some three months on his trip, after
the fashion of the wandering tourist who seeks rest
and recreation rather than special information.
Some of his biographers represent Mr. Blaine as
such a proficient in the French language that his
brief stay in Paris completed his education in that
language. But the fact is that Mr. Blaine was never
able to speak a dozen words of that language in con
versation, and all through his experience at the head
of the State Department he never took the time to
acquire a sufficient conversational knowledge to be
able to talk in that language with the diplomats
who came to see him. Where they could not speak
English he always depended on an interpreter.
When Mr. Blaine returned from Europe the green
back heresy was at its height. The argument that
the money that was good enough for the soldier
should certainly be good enough for the bond-holder
had been coined into a number of catch phrases.
Everywhere States and cities and individuals were in
debt, and, the debtor class being very large,, they
hailed with delight any proposition to manufacture a
cheaper money which would scale their indebtedness
and strike at the unfortunate and misguided. creditor
class, which had presumed by its industry and ability

Mr. Blaine's Earty Record. 181
to place itself in the position of having more money
than their debtor fellows. Mr. Blaine made two
notable speeches in this Congress on this subject of
our finances. It should be noted, in this connection,
that Mr. Blaine then took very high ground in favor
of the payment of the bonds in gold, and for the
maintenance to the absolute letter of all the financial
contracts made by the Government. There was no
man in public life at that time who had a more perfect
financial record. Even the soundest and best intel
lects appeared to be tainted by the financial here
sies which were then so prevalent. Senator John
Sherman, who was afterward to be one of the
ablest Secretaries of the Treasury the United States
has ever had, and who was to pilot with unerring
skill the nation's finances through the period of
specie resumption, was then committed to greenback
views, and later was to become responsible for silver
legislation almost as objectionable as some of the Pen
dleton bills introduced in the Fortieth Congress.
It was during the November session that Mr.
Blaine, fresh from his European trip, made an ad
dress in the House in which he claimed that the na
tion's honor was involved in the payment of the bond
debt in gold, and that to pay in greenbacks was to
scale the debt, and that this was as intrinsically a
violation of the original, compact as repudiation would

182 Life of James G. Blaine.
have* been. This speech was so remarkable in its
character as opposed to the spirit of the time that the
better part of it is here reproduced. It is the best
answer that can be made to the oft-repeated charge
of Mr. Blaine's enemies that he sought always in his
political career to keep merely abreast" of public
opinion, and not in advance of it.
Mr. Blaine began this speech with a direct appeal
to the business, sense of the members, and said :
"Within the. past few months, some erroneous and
mischievous views have been put forward in regard
to the nature of the public obligation imposed by the
debt of the United States. Without stopping to notice
the lesser lights of the new doctrine, and not caring
to analyze the various forms of repudiation suggested
from irresponsible sources throughout the country, I
propose to, review, as briefly as may be, the position
contemporaneously assumed by two able and distin
guished gentlemen — the one from the West, the
other from the East — the one the late candidate of
the Democratic party for the Vice- Presidency — [Mr.
Pendleton of Ohio] — the other a prominent member
of this House from one of the strongest Republican
districts of the State of Massachusetts^-[General
Butler]. " The position of these gentlemen I understand to
be simply this : That the principal of the United

Mr. Blaine's Early Record 183
States bonds, known as "the five- twenties, may be
fairly and legally paid in paper currency by the
Government after the expiration of five years from
the date of issue.
. "A brief review of the origin of the five-twenty
bonds will demonstrate, I think, that this position is
in contravention of the honor and good faith of the
National Government ; that it is hostile to the spirit
and the letter of the law ; that it contemptuously
ignores the common understanding between borrower
and lender at the time the loan was negotiated ; and
that finally, even if such mode of payment were hon
orable and practicable, it would prove disastrous to
the financial interests of the Government and the
general prosperity of the country. I crave the
attention and the indulgence of the House while I
recapitulate the essential facts in support of my
assertion. " The issue of the five-twenty bonds was originally
authorized by the Act of February 25th, 1862, which
provided for the large amount of $500,000,000. It
is this series which was successfully disposed of by
Jay Cooke & Co. in 1863, and" of which a great pro
portion was subsequently purchased by foreign capi-
talists. It will be borne in mind that up to that
time in all the loari bills passed by Congress, not- one
word had ever been said in regard to coin payment

184 Life of James G: Blaine.
either of bond or coupon ; and yet it will be equally
borne in mind that coin payment, both of the prin
cipal and interest of the public debt, has been the
invariable rule from the foundation of the Govern
ment. No instance to the contrary can be found in
our history. In the pithy language of Nathaniel
Macon, ' our Government was a hard-money Govern
ment, founded by hard-money men, and its debts
are hard-money debts.'
" It will be still further borne in mind that when
the bill authorizing the original issue of five-twenties
was under discussion in Congress no man of any
party, either in the Senate or the House, ever inti
mated that those bonds were to be paid in anything
else than gold and silver. The issue of legal-tender
notes of contemporaneous origin was regarded as a
temporary expedient, forced upon us by "the cruel
necessities and demands of war, and it was universally
conceded that the specie basis was to be resumed long
before the bonds should mature for payment. And
in order that the public creditor might have the
amplest assurance of the payment of both principal
and interest in coin it was specially enacted that all
duties on, imports should be paid in coin, and the
amount thus raised was distinctly pledged, not only
to the payment of the interest in coin, but to the
formation of a sinking fund for the ultimate redemp-

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 185
tion of the principal in coin. This provision is so
important that I quote it entire. After providing
that the duties shall be paid in coin, the act devotes
the amount so collected to the following specific pur
poses : —
" ' First, To the payment in coin of the interest on the bonds
of the United States.
" ' Second, To the purchase or payment of one per cent, of
the entire debt ofthe United States, to be made within each
fiscal year after the first day of July, 1862, which is to be
set apart as a sinking-fund, aud the interest of which shall be
in like manner applied to the purchase or payment of the
public debt, as the Secretary ofthe Treasury shall from time
to time direct.'
" Much carping and criticism have been expended
on the second clause of this provision, mainly by
those who seem desirous of wresting and distorting
its plain and obvious meaning. Brushing aside all
fine-spun construction and cunning fallacy, it is
manifest that the sinking fund herein authorized
was primarily to be formed from coin, and that it
was only to be invested and re-invested in securities
whose interest was equally pledged in coin ; that this
process was not to be confined to any specific number
of years, but was limited only by the amount and the
duration of the debt which was ultimately to be re
deemed by the sinking fund thns constituted. The
sinking fund was thus to receive an annual incre-

186 Life of James G.Blaine.
ment in coin amounting to the one-hundredth part
of the entire debt of the Government ; and this in
crement was to be invested only in securities which
would yield coin interest for the further increment
of the fund. It would be difficult to conceive hOw
the language of an enactment could more distinctly
recognize and. provide for the ultimate coin payment
of the entire bonded debt of the nation. Instead of
the Government having the right at this late day to
change its coin obligation into one of paper, it seems
to me that the public creditors could with far mOre
consistency allege that the Government had not kept
faith with them by failing to provide the sinking
fund which was guaranteed at the outset as one of
the special securities of the loan.
" But the argument does not rest merely on the
after-construction of a statute to prove that the prin
cipal of the five-twenties is payable in coin. The
declarations in Congress when the measure was
under consideration were numerous and specific.
Indeed, no other possible mode of payment was
even hinted at, and Mr. Stevens, then Chairman of
the Ways and Means, was emphatic and repeated in
his assertions that the bonds were redeemable in
coin. He stated this fact no less than three times in
his speech of February 6th, 1862, giving it allthe
prominence and emphasis that iteration and reitera-

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 187
tion could impart. He spoke of the ' redemption in
gold in twenty years ' as one of the- special induce
ments for Capitalists to invest, and he gave, in every
form of words, the sanction of his influential position
and great name, to the maihtainance of the coin
standard in the payment of the bonds.
" It may astonish even the gentleman from Penn
sylvania himself to be reminded that within less than
three years from the date of these declarations he
asserted On this floor — referring to the five-twenty
bonds — that ' it is just as clear as anything is clear
that the interest is payable in gold, but the principal
in lawful money.' He made this startling statement
in answer to a question addressed to him by my hon
orable friend from Ohio [Mr. Spalding], and the
gentleman from Massachusetts has quoted it in his
argument on this question as though it had been
made when the five-twenty bill was originally intro
duced, and was to be taken as the authorized opinion
of the Ways and Means Committee at that time. I
have already shown that the gentleman from Penn
sylvania was a firm advocate of coin payment, and
that a considerable period had elapsed before hex ex
perienced his marvelous change of opinion on this
question. But it is due to the gentleman from Penn
sylvania to say that, late as he was in this declaration,
he was in advance of other gentlemen who have since

188 Life of James G^ Blaine.
figured prominently as advocates of the doctrine.
Should this scheme of repudiation ever succeed, it is
but just to give the gentleman from Pennsylvania
the honor of first proposing it. He announced it on
this floor while yet-the gentleman from Massachu
setts was doing honorable service on the tented field,
and while Mr. Pendleton was still adhering to those
hard-money theories of which he was a conspicuous
defender during his service in this House.
" But I digress. I was stating that while the origi
nal five-twenty bill was pending the declaration that
the bonds were redeemable in coin was constantly
repeated. It was the ground assumed by every
member of the Committee of Ways and Means, so
far as the record shows, and it was likewise the
ground taken by the Finance Committee of the Sen
ate, Mr. Fessenden and other members being on rec-
ord. in many ways to that effect. While so many
gentlemen' in both branches of Congress were repeat
ing that these bonds were redeemable in coin, it is a
significant circumstance, as already intimated, that
no one ventured the opposite opinion. The univer
sality of the understanding at that time is that
which renders a different construction now so repre
hensible. Mr. Pendleton was present in his seat
during the whole discussion of the measure, and he
was an active and frequent participant therein.

JTr. Blaine's Early Record. 189
Then jras his tiice to- -have enunciated his scheme
of greenback payment if he ever intended it in good
faith. As a gentleman of candor, however, I am
sure he will confess that he never dreamed of such
an idea until long after the bonds Were purchased
by the people, and possibly not until some prospect
Of party advantage lured him to the adoption of a
theory which is equally at war with the letter of the
law and with sound principles of finance.
"After the bill became a law, Mr. Chase, the Secre
tary of the Treasury, proceeded to place the loan -for
mally on the market, and following the uniform pre
vious practice of the Government, and especially
adopting the language used by Mr. Stevens, and
other gentlemen in both branches of Congress, he
officially proclaimed through the loan agents of the
Government that the .five-twenty bonds were ' a six
per cent, loan, the interest and principal payable in
coin.' It was on this basis, with this understanding,
with this public proclamation, that the people -were
asked to subscribe to the loan. They had the assur
ance of an unbroken practice on the part of the
Government, rendered still more significant by the
provision for a sinking fund in coin ; they had
the general assurance of both branches of Congress,
especially expressed through the appropriate chan
nels of the Chairman of Finance in the Senate' and

190 Life of James G. Blaine.
the Chairman of Ways and Means in the House, and
further and finally enforced by a distinct declaration
to that effect by the public advertisement proposirig
the loan to the people, issued by the authority ofthe
Secretary of the Treasury. If anything could con
stitute an honorable contract between borrower and
lender— between Government and people — then was
it a contract that the five-twenty bonds should be
redeemed in coin.
"I have been thus minute, and possibly tedious, in
regard to the facts attending the issue of the first
series of five-twenties because ' in effect that estab
lished the rule for all subsequent issues. The prin
ciple laid down so clearly in the proposal for the first
loan was steadily adhered to afterward. It is quite
true that the Chairman of Ways and Means [Mr.
Stevens], as I have already said, changed his ground
on the question, but he failed to influence Congress,
notwithstanding his parade of terrible figures show
ing the utter impossibility of ever paying coin inter
est, to say nothing of coin principal. The gentleman
can recall his statistics with amusement, if not with
advantage, from that grave of unfulfilled prophecies
. to which he, in common 'with the rest of us, have sent
many baseless predictions.
" The next loan bill passed by Congress was that
of March 3d, 1863, .authorizing the borrowing of

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 191
$900,000,000. This is commonly known as the ten-
forty act, and it contains the special provision that both
principal and interest shall be payable in coin. But
this provision was never inserted by way of discrimi
nation against the five-twenties, implying that they
were to be paid in paper currency. Its origin palpa
bly discredits any such inference. Jt was moved as
an amendment by Mr. Thomas, of Massachusetts,
and it was moved to meet and repel the first covert
insinuation that any bond Of the United States was
redeemable in anything else than coin. The Chair
man 'of Ways and Means, in apparent forgetfulness
of his declaration the preceding year, had for the first
time intimated that the principal of United States
bonds was payable in paper money, and the amend
ment of Mr. Thomas, as the discussion reported in
the Globe clearly discloses, was intended as a sharp
protest against this heresy of the gentleman from
Pennsylvania, and as such it was adopted by the
House by a majority so overwhelming that its oppo
nents did not call for a division. During the dis
cussion, Mr. Horton, of Ohio, a distinguished member
of the- Ways and Means, and a gentleman of very high
character in every respect, said :
" ' 1 wish to state here that the Committee of Ways and
Means, in framing; this bill, never dreamed that these .twenty-
year bonds were to be payable in anything other than coin

192 • Life of James G. Blaine.
until the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] told it
yesterday upon' the floor of the House.'
" In this connection I desire the special attention
of the House to one fact of conclusive import, and
it is this : at the time this ten-forty loan bill was
passed, March 3d, 1863, only f 25,000,000 ofthe five-
twenty loan, authorized the year before, had been
disposed of. It was in the succeeding summer and
autumn of 1863, especially after the triumph of the
Union arms at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, that those
marvelous sales of $500,000,000 were effected through
the Government agency of Jay Cooke & Go. And
yet the gentleman from Massachusetts would have us
believe that the people subscribed for a loan of
$500,000,000 that was payable in five years in paper
currency, when another loan, for a larger amount, to
run forty years, expressly payable in coin, was
already authorized and about to be put on the
market. Such a conclusion cannot be reconciled
even with the common sanity, to say nothing of the
proverbial shrewdness of those who invested their
money in the five-twenty loan.. Every one can see,
sir, that not one dollar of the five-twenty loan could
have been disposed of on the understanding that the
-bonds were redeemable in currency, while another
loan for a longer period, possibly at the same rata of
interest, for the bill so allowed, and absolutely re-

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 193
deemable in coin, was already authorized, and imme
diately to be offered to the public.
" The next loan bill in the order of time was the Act
of March 3d, 1864, which was merely supplementary
to the ten-forty bill, whose history I have just re
viewed. It covered the amount of $200,000,000,
and, like the bill to which it formed a supplement,
it provided for both interest and principal to be paid
in coin. Under this bill more than one hundred and
seventy-five million dollars were negotiated, partly
in ten-forties and partly in five-twenties ; by far the
greater part in the former. But as some five-twenties
were negotiated under it, the gentleman from Massa
chusetts, even on the line of logic which he has
sought to travel, will be compelled to acknowledge
that tiiey were payable in coin, and hence, according
to his theorv, some of the five-twenties are redeemable
in coin and some in paper — a distinction which has
never yet been proclaimed, and the equity of which
would hardly be apparent to the holders of the same
description of bonds — identical in phrase, and differ
ing only in the subordinate, and immaterial circum
stance of date.
" The last loan bill to which I need specially refer
is that of June 30th, 1864, under the provisions of
which tha five-twenties bearing that date were issued.
The seven-thirties, authorized by the same act, as

194 Life of James G: Blaine.
well as by the subsequent acts of January 28th and
March 3d. 1865, were convertible into five-twenties
of the same tenor and description with those whose
issue was directly authorized ; so that, in reviewing
the history of the loan bill of June 30th, 1864, I
shall, in effect, close the narrative of Congressional
proceedings 'in regard to five-twenty bonds. The
history of that bill shall be brief. It was discussed
in its various provisions very elaborately in both
branches of Congress. As reported from the Ways
and Means Committee it was worded like all previous
bonds, promising to pay so many dollars to the holder,
without specifying that they were to be anything else
than coin dollars, in which United States bonds had
always been paid. Toward the close of the dis
cussion Mr. Brooks, of New York, then, as now, a
member of this House, moved to insert an amend
ment providing especially that the bonds should be
*
'payable in coin.' Mr. Brooks was answered by
Mr. Hooper, of Massachusetts, on behalf of the Ways
and Means Committee, as follows : —

" ' The bill of last year, the $900,000,000 bill, contained
these words, but it was not deemed necessary or considered
expedient to insert them in this bill. I will send to the desk
and ask to have read, as a part of my reply to the gentleman
from New York, a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury-
giving his views, upon this point.'

HON. WILLIAM WALTER PHELPS

Mr. Elaine's Early Record. 197
" ' The clerk_read as follows from Secretary Chase's letter
dated May 18th, 1864 :—
" ' It has been the constant usage of the Department to re
deem all coupon and registered bonds, forming part of the
funded or permanent debt of the United States, in coin, and
this usage has not been deviated from during my administra
tion of its affairs.
" ' The five-twenty sixes, payable twenty years from date,
though redeemable after five years, are considered as belong
ing to the funded pr permanent debt, and so also are the
twenty years sixes, into which the three years seven-thirty.
notes are convertible. These bonds, iherefore, according to
the usage of the Government, are payable in coin.'
"Apparently satisfied with this statement, Mr.
Brooks withdrew his amendment, regarding the
point as conclusively settled I suppose, not only by
the uniform practice of the Government, but by the
special declaration of the Secretary of the Treasury,
who immediately afterward proceeded on the basis
of that letter to put the bonds on the market. Mr.
Hooper stated the case well when he said it was
' not deemed necessary or considered expedient ' to in
sert coin payment in this bill; ' not necessary ' for the
practice of the Government and the assurances of the
Treasury Department in its advertisements in propos
ing for loans, conclusively settled the point ; and not
'considered expedient,' because to specially insert
coin payment in all the loan bills except that of
February 25th, 1862, under which $500,000,000 of

198 Life of James G. Blaine.
five-twenties had been sold, might, in the end, by
the exclusio unius, give some shadow of ground for
the mischievous and groundless inference which is
now sought to be drawn.
" We thus find that the voice of Congress has been
uniform and consistent in support of the principle of
paying the bonded debt in coin. No vote in Con
gress, even implying the opposite theory, has ever
been given-; even the weighty influence and conceded
ability of the distinguished gentleman from Pennsyl
vania failing to carry with him any support whatever
when he made his surprising and unprecedented
change on this question. But the public creditors
did not rely solely on the declarations of leading
men in Congress in regard to coin payment, nor did
they rest wholly on the past practice and the good
faith of the Government. They had, in addition to
both these strong grounds of confidence and assur
ance, the more direct and explicit guaranty of the
Treasury Department, the authorized agent of the
Government, speaking ex cathedra, with the knowl
edge and assent of Congress.
" I have already quoted Secretary Chase's significant
declarations in his letters and his public proposals
for loans, and I have now to quote one of his equally
significant acts. . At the close of 1862 the twenty
year loan of 1842, amounting to nearly $3,000,000,

Mt\ Blaine's Early Record. 199
fell due. Nothing was said in that loan about coin
payment, and thus a grand opportunity was afforded
to test the theory of paper payment. Circumstances
all conspired to favor such a policy if it could be
honorably adopted. Gold was at a -high premium,
and the Government was passing through the darkest
and most doubtful hours of the whole struggle.
Could there have been even a decent pretext to pay
the debt in papCr currency the temptation was surely
great enough to resort to it, if not fully to justify it.
But in the face of all the adverse circumstances ;
with gold very high and daily rising ; with expenses
enormous and daily increasing ; with resources
already embarrassed and daily growing more so, and
with a military situation rendered well-nigh des
perate by months of almost unbroken disaster, Secre
tary Chase decided that the faith of the Government
demanded that its funded debt, falling due no matter
when and owned by no matter whom, must be paid
in coin. And it was paid iri coin ; and no voice but
the voice of approval was raised in either branch of
Congress. The course of Secretary Chase was not
only honorable to himself and the country, but it
was in the highest degree wise merely from the
stand-point of worldly wisdom ; for it created so pro
found a confidence in the good faith of our Govern
ment that it aided us incalculably in the negotiation

200 Life of James G. Blaine. .
of all our great loans for the war. When the
Government paid its debt to the uttermost farthing
at such a time capitalists at once argued that there
never could come a crisis when any evasion of public
obligation would be resorted to. It has been re
served for the gentleman of Massachusetts, and the
gentleman from Ohio, and the gentleman from Penn
sylvania to propose that our Government should
adopt a policy in the sunshine and prosperity of
peace which it scorned to resort to in the storms and
adversities of war.
"The course of Secretary Chase in guaranteeing
coin payment on all bonds of the United States was
followed by his successors, Secretary Fessenden and
Secretary McCulloch. The words of Mr. Fessenden
are entitled to great weight in the premises, for he
had been Chairman of Finance in the Senate during
the passage of all the loan bills, had elaborately dis
cussed them in turn, and had as largely as any single
member in either branch of Congress shaped their
provisions. His views on the question at issue may
be briefly presented by the following extract from
his official report made to Congress in December,
1864 :
" ' Though forced to resort to the issue of paper for the
time, the idea of a specie basis was not lost sight of, as the
payment of interest on long loans in coin was amply secured.

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 201
And- though in several of the acts authorizing the issue of
bbnds at long.periods payment ofthe principal at maturity in
coin is not specifically provided, the omission, it is believed,
was accidental, as there could have been no intention to-make
a distinction between the different classes of securities in this
regard.' "It will be noted that this declaration of Mr. Fes
senden, made in his official report, was at the very
time of the negotiation of the five-twenties of 1864,
and preceded the large sale of seven-thirties which
were convertible into five-twenties. So that in effect
it was an additional guaranty of coin payment on
the. part of the Government, operating at once as
the condition and the inducement of the loan.
" It is well known that Secretary McCulloch enter
tains precisely the same opinions that" were so freely
expressed by Messrs. Chase and Fessenden, and he
placed himself on record on the question by his letter
to L. P. Morton & Co., of New York, wherein he
says, under date of November 15th, 1886 :
" ' I regard, as did nlso 'my predecessors, all bonds of t-he
United States, as payable in coin. The bonds which have
matured since the suspension of specie payments have been
so paid, and I have no doubt that the same will be true with
all others. This being, as I understand it to be, the estab
lished policy of the Government, the five-twenty bonds of
1862 will either be called in at the expiration of five years
from their date_and paid in coin, or be permitted to run
Until the Government is prepared to pay them in coin.'

202 . Life of James G. Blaine.
"In view ofthe uniform declarations of the Treasury
Department, made through official reports, through
public proposals for loans, and through personal
letters of assurance, all guaranteeing coin payment of
the five- twenty bonds, I submit that the Government
is bound thereto, even if there were no other obliga
tion expressed or implied. These official and un
official promulgations f rom the Treasury Department
were made with the full knowledge of Congress, and
without the slightest expression of dissent on the part
of that body. Had Congress not believed or intended
that the five-twenty bonds were to be paid in coin,
the Secretary should not have been allowed, with its
evident assent, so to advertise ; and for Congress,
after this significant permission and warrant,, to step
forward at this late day and declare itself not bound
by the conditions published by the Secretary is simply
to place the United States Government in the posi
tion of a man playing a ' confidence game,' in which
the Treasury Department and Congress are the con
federate knaves, and the whole mass of bond-holders
the unfortunate victims.
" But now, Mr. Chairman, suppose, for the sake of
argument, we admit that the Government may fairly
and legally pay the five-twenty bonds in paper cur
rency, what then ? I ask the gentleman from Mas
sachusetts to tell us> what then ? It is easy, I know,

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 203
to issue as many greenbacks as will pay the maturing
bonds, regardless of the effect upon the inflation of
prices and the general derangement of business. Five
hundrad millions of the five-twenties are now pay
able, and, according to the mode suggested, all we
have to do is to set the printing-presses in motion,
and ' so long as rags and lampblack hold out ' we
need have no embarrassment about paying our na
tional debt. But the ugly question rectirs, What are
you going to do with the greenbacks thus put afloat?
Five hundred millions this year, and eleven hundred
millions more on this theory of payment by the year
1872, so that within the period of four or five years
we would have added to our paper money the trifling
inflation of $1,600,000,000.
" Payment of the five-twenty bonds in paper cur
rency involves, therefore, a limitless issue of green
backs, with attendant evils of great magnitude. The
worst evil of the whole is the delusion which calls
this a payment at all. It < is no payment "in any
proper sense, for it neither gives the creditor what he
is entitled to, nor does it release the debtor from sub
sequent responsibility. You may get rid of the five-
twenty by issuing the greenback, but how will you
get rid ofthe greenback except by paying coin ? The
only escape from ultimate payment of coin is to de
clare that as a nation we -permanently and finally re-

204 Life of James G. Blaine.
nounce all idea of ever attaining a specie standard ;
that we launch ourselves upon an ocean of paper i
money, without shore or sounding, with no rudder to
guide us, and no compass to steer by. This is pre
cisely what is involved if we adopt this mischievous
suggestion of ' a new way to pay old debts.' Our
fate in attempting such a course, may be easily
read in the history of similar . follies both in Eu
rope and in our own country. Prostration of credit,
financial disaster, wide -spread distress among all
classes of the community would form the closing
scenes in our career, of gratuitous folly and national
dishonor. From such an abyss of sorrow and hu
miliation it would be a painful and toilsome effort
to regain as sound a position in our finances as we
are asked voluntarily to abandon to-day."
Toward the close of the session, upon the 23d of
June, .1868, Mr. Blaine completed his good financial -
record by the following opinion on the bill to tax
United 'States bonds. He said: "The fact that the
bonds of the United States are exempt from State
and municipal taxation has created discontent among
the people— the belief prevailing quite generally that
if this exemption could be removed the local burdens
of the taxpayer would be immediately and essen
tially lightened. Many persons assert this belief
from a spirit of mischievous demagogism, and many '

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 205
do so from sincere conviction. To the latter class I
beg to submit some facts and suggestions which
may modify if not entirely change their conclu
sions. " The total coin-bearing debt of the United States,
the conversion of seven-thirties being now practi
cally completed, amounts to a little more than
$2,100,000,000 ; of this large amount, some
$200,000,000 draws but five per cent, interest, a rate
not sufficiently high in the present condition of the
money market to provoke hostilities or suggest the
especial necessity of taxation. Indeed it may be
safely said that there never has been any popular
dissatisfaction with regard to the non-taxation of the
five per cents., it being agreed by common consent
that such a rate of interest was not unreasonable on
a loan negotiated at such a time.
" The agitation may, therefore, be regarded as
substantially confined to the six per cent, coin-
bearing bonds, which amount to $1,900,000,000.
Many people honestly but thoughtlessly believe
that if- this class of bonds could be taxed by local
authority the whole volume represented by them
would at once be added to the lists of the assessor.
It is my purpose to show that this conclusion
is totally unfounded, and that if the right of
local taxation ^existed in its amplest extent, but a

206 Life of James G. Blaine.
minor fraction of the bonds could by any possibility
be subjected to larger local tax than they already
pay. " The entire amount of these bonds, as I have
stated, is $1,900,000,000 ; and of this total, by the
best and most careful estimates attainable, at least
$650,000,000 are now held in Europe. This amount
could not, therefore, be reached by any system of
local taxation, however searching. Deducting the
amount thus held abroad, we find the amount held
at home is reduced to $1,250,000,000.
" But of. this $1,250,000,000, more than one-third,
or to speak with accuracy, about $425,000,000, are
beld by the national banks, and no form of property
in the United States pays so large a tax, both local
and general, as these banks. The stock, the deposi
tories, and the deposits which these $425,000,000 of.
bonds represent pay full local tax at the highest rate,
beside a national tax averaging about two and a half
per cent. Were the power of local taxation made
specific on the bonds held by the national banks they
could not yield a dollar more than is now realized.
It thus follows that the $1,250,000,000 of bonds in
this country, presumptively escaping local taxation,
must be reduced by the amount represented by the
banks, and hence we find the aggregate falls to
$825,000,000.

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 207
" The reduction, however, goes still farther ; for it
must be remembered that the savings banks have
invested their deposits in these bonds to the amount
of $175,000,000. In some States by local law the
doposits of savings banks are exempt from taxation
as an incentive to thrift and economy. In other
States where the deposits are taxed, as in Connec
ticut, it has been held by judicial decision that the
fact of their investment in United States bonds does
not exempt them from taxation. Hence these
$175,000,000 thus invested in savings-bank deposits
are either locally taxable or, if exempt, it is by State
law and not by virtue of the general exemption 'of
the bonds. It thus follows that the $825,000,000
must be further reduced by this sum of $175,000,000,
leaving but $650,000,000 not already included within
the scope of local taxation.
" But there is a still further reduction of $30,000,-
000 of bonds held by the life insurance companies
on precisely the same terms as the deposits of savings
banks — that is, either taxed locally or, if exempt,
deriving the exemption from the local law. The
surphis earnings and reserve of these life insurance
companies invested to the extent of $30,000,000 in
United States bonds are as open to taxation when
invested in that form as though they were held
in State or railroad securities. Deducting these

208 Life of 'James G.. Blaine.
$30,000,000 we find the untaxed bonds reduced to
$620,000,000. " There is still another large reduction ; for thejire
and marine insurance companies, the annuity arid
trust companies, and other corporations which cannot
readily be classed, hold in the aggregate over
$125,000,000 of bonds ; and these are held on pre
cisely the same basis as -those held by the savings
banks and the life insurance companies. These
numerous corporations have their capital stock, their
reserves, and their surplus earnings invested in
Government bonds to the extent named, and they
are in this form as open to taxation and are actually
taxed as much as though they were invested
in any other form of security. Making the deduc
tion of this $125,000,000 we find remaining but
$495,000,000 of the six per cent, gold-bearing
bonds that are not already practically subjected to
local taxation. Allowing for the possibility that
$100,000,000 of the five per cents, are held instead
of six per cents, in all the channels of investment I
have named, and it follows that at the outside figure
there are to-day in the whole country less than
$600,000,000 of Government sixes not fully sub
jected- to the power of local taxation. And these
$600,000,000 are rapidly growing less as the various
corporate institutions I have named continue to

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 209
invest their funds in the bonds. These institutions
desire a security that is of steady value, not liable to
fluctuation, and at all times convertible into money ;
and hence they seek Government bonds in prefer
ence to any other form of investment. The high
premium on the bonds induces individuals to part
with them, and hence they are readily transferred to
corporate ownership, where they become, in effect, at
once subject to local taxation, and are no longer
obnoxious to the charge of evading or escaping their
just share of municipal burden. In the hands of
individuals the bonds may be concealed, but in the
possession of corporations concealment is necessarily
impossible. " If these statistical statements needed any verifica
tion it would be supplied by the examination of the
income returns recently made under oath and pub
lished in all the Jarge cities of the Country, disclosing
the fact that the amount of bonds held by the
wealthy men of the country has been continually
growing less, just as they have been absorbed by
foreign purchase and by corporate investment. The
correctness of these income returns in reference to
the investment in bonds will be accepted even by
the incredulous and uncharitable, when it is remem
bered, that the interest of those making them was to
exaggerate rather than depreciate the respective

210 Life of James G. Blaine.
amounts of bonds held by them. Instead, then, of
$1,900,000,000 of these bonds running free of taxa
tion, it is clear that less than $600,000,000 are open
to that charge — less than one-third of the whole
amount. The remainder, largely more than two-
thirds of the whole, are either held abroad, where no
local taxation can reach them, or they are held at
home in such form as subjects them to local taxation.
" Let us suppose that we were now in possession of
the full power to tax by local authority * these
$600,000,000 of bonds presumptively owned by
individuals ! Would we realize anything from if/?
On its face the prospect might be fair and inviting,
but in practice it would assuredly prove delusive and
deceptive. The trouble would be that the holders
of the bonds could not be found. No form of prop
erty is so^ easily concealed, none so readily trans
ferred back and forth, none so difficult to trace to
actual ownership. We. have hundreds of millions
of State bonds, city bonds, and railroad securities in
this country, and yet every one knows that it is only
an infinitesimal proportion of this vast invest
ment that is ever represented on the books of
assessors and tax-collectors. As a pertinent illus-
tion I might cite the case of the bonds of my
own State, of which there are over five millions in
existence to-day, largely held as a favorite invest-

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. , 211
ment by the citizens, of Maine. Of this whole sum
I am safe in saying that scarcely a dollar is found on
the lists of any assessor in the State.
" The facility for concealing ownership in national
bonds is far greater than in any other form of
security, and the proportion in the hands of individ
uals that would escape the assessment of local taxes
may be inferred with reasonable certainty from the
analogies I have suggested, which are familiar to all
who have given the least attention to the subject.
Indeed, I venture to assert with confidence that if the
power of local taxation of these bonds were fully ac
corded to-day, the tax-lists of our cities and towns
would not be increased on an average one per cent.
Many of those who to-day may be ambitious to
parade- their bonds when protected by what is deemed
an offensive exemption, would suddenly have no
bonds when the power of taxation applied to them.
Indeed, the utter failure to realize anything from this
source, if the power to test it were granted, would in
"the end create more dissatisfaction than that exemp
tion, which, in theory, is offensive, but in practice is
-absolutely of no consequence whatever.
" But it .may be asked, ' Why are not the bonds
taxed by national authority ?' , Granted, it will be
urged that the power of local taxation would be
nugatory and valueless, 'that affords all the stronger

212 Life of James G. Blaine.
reason for taxing the bonds by direct Congressional
enactment.' In answer to this, I have -"only to say
that a tax levied directly upon the coupon is simply
an abatement of interest, , and that result can be
reached in a better and more satisfactory and more
honorable way. The determination manifested., by
this Congress and by the great Republican Conven
tion at Chicago to maintain the national faith has
already worked a large appreciation in the value of
the bonds, and with the strengthening of our credit,
which results from an honest policy, we shall speedily
be able to fund our debt on a lower scale of interest,
running down to five, four and a half, and ultimately
to four per cent, per annum. Should we proceed,
however, in violation of good faith and of the. uni
form practice of civilized nations, to hold back part
ofthe stipulated interest instead of effecting an hon
orable exchange of bonds to the mutual advantage of
the Government and the public creditor, we should
only punish ourselves, produce calamitous results in
the business world, and permanently injure * our
national fame.
" To withhold one per cent, of the interest under the
plea of a national tax this year might be followed byx
withholding two per cent, next year, and three per
cent, the year ensuing. To enter upon such a policy
would produce alarm at home and "distrust abroad.

THE BLAINE RESIDENCE AT AUGUSTA, ME.

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 215
for, every man holding a bond would be forced to
count his rate of interest not on what was stipulated
in the contract, but on what might be the will and
caprice of Congress in its annual withholding of a
portion of the interest under the pretense Of a tax.
Under such a policy our bonds would be returned
upon us from Europe with panic-like rapidity, and
the drain upon our specie resources would produce
an immediate and disastrous crisis in monetary
circles. If even one -half of our bonds held in Eu
rope were suddenly sent home it would drain us of
two hundred and fifty millions of specie, and the
financial distress throughout the land would be be
yond the power of calculation or imagination. And
yet that is the precise result involved if we should
follow the policy advocated by those who urge us to
tax the coupon and withhold one or two per cent, of
the interest. Let us reject such counsels, and adhere
to the steady, straightforward course dictated alike
by good policy and good faith. Let us never forget
that, in the language of the Chicago platform, ' the
best policy to diminish our burden of debt is to so
improve our credit that capitalists will seek to loan
us money at lower rates of interest than we now'pay,
and must continue to pay so long as repudiation,
either partial or total, open or covert, is threatened
or suspected.' "

216 Life of James G. Blaine. '
The impeachment resolutions against President
Johnson were passed during the Fortieth Congress
on the 24th of February, 1868. Mr. Blaine, while
he had opposed the impeachment resolutions offered
in the preceding year, now yielded to the general
sentiment of the majority and voted aye on their
passage. Mr. Blaine took a conspicuous part in the Presi
dential campaign of 1868. The Republican Con
vention which met in Chicago on the 20th of May
expressed a spirit of great disappointment over the
failure to impeach President Johnson. The Repub
lican Senators who had voted against his impeach
ment were read out of the party and for a time
afterward were almost ostracized by their party
associates. The expression " Johnsonized " was used
as a term to describe a man who had betrayed a trust,
and everywhere partisan spirit was extreme. Mr.
Blaine spoke only at the meetings in the State of
Maine. The election of General Grant was a fore
gone conclusion from the start, and but little cam
paign speaking was necessary.
Mr. Blaine performed a great deal of work in the
Fortieth Congress which does not appear in the
record of debates. He was on the leading committees
in the House, and was the originator of bills relating
to the army, the navy, post-offices, the Congressional

"•V

Mr. Blaine's Early Record. 217
Library, the Indian reservations, private relief of
individuals, the rights of common carriers between
the States,, the Treasury Department, the cotton tax,
funding bills, the Mexican treaty, foreign commerce,
special election cases, river and harbor improve
ments, House rules, military laws, and even the re
arrangement of the rooms in the Capitol. He was
very closely associated in those days with Mr.
Garfield, of Ohio, who was as much of a worker and
student as Mr. Blaine.

CHAPTER XII.
MB. BLAINE'S ELECTION AS SPEAKER. — THE GREAT
POWER OF THAT OFFICE AS COMPARED WITH THE
SAME OFFICE IN ANY OF THE LEADING LEGISLA
TURES OF THE WORLD.
The Forty-first Congress met on the 4th of March,
1869, on the very hour following the adjournment of
the Fortieth Congress. On the same day General
Grant was inaugurated President of the United
States. Schuyler Colfax, who had been the official
head of the Republican majority in the House, was
now transferred to the other end of the Capitol as the
presiding officer of the Senate through his office of
Vice-President. Mr. Blaine was elected to the
Speakership to.succeed Mr. Colfax, without any real
opposition. He had become the recognized leader
on the Republican side. There is no part of Mr.
Blaine's career that is more worthy of commendation,
and which is less subject to criticism than this very
period of his history. He had begun his political
career as an Opponent of slavery. He had been to
the great national Conventions, beginning in 1856, :
until the party was fully formed. His early advo
cacy of Fremont in the Philadelphia Convention was
' 218

Election as Speaker. 219
followed by his vigorous support of Mr. Lincoln at
Chicago. To the cause of the Union he was
always staunch and true. His course in the
field of legislation is one that can be studied
with profit by future legislators. His mastery
of the subjects then under consideration was the
result of hard work and careful application. If
he had any special genius at that time it was for
hard work. He had a faculty for presenting clearly
and forcibly the results of his studies. He adhered
very closely to facts, and indulged in but few so-
called oratorical flights. He was quite devoted to
practical things than to the fanciful or the senti
mental. It was his fondness for study, his love
for logical and mathematical questions which' made
him such a Careful student of the rules of the House.
These rules have grown year by year until they
have become the most complex regulations ever
devised for the governing of a legislative body. It
must be remembered that these rules are only made
for each Congress, and that each new Congress has it .
in its power to adopt the rules as a whole or to
reject them entirely or in part, or else go directly to
a new code. Long custom, however, -has ordained
that each Congress shall accept these complicated
rules as its own and to modify them only as its Com
mittee of Rules shall suggest from time to time.

220 Life of James G. Blaine,
The rules being so complicated and so involved,
they of a necessity place great power in the hands of
the Speaker, who is called upon to construe them.
There is no presiding officer in any legislative body
in the world who has one tithe of the power belong
ing to the Speaker of our House of Representatives.
Nominally, the House of Representatives possesses
all the power, and what the Speaker is called upon to
exercise is merely a delegated power which can be cur
tailed or entirely taken away, if the House should so
will. But the House never does so will ; and so from
time to time new powers have been created, until the
Speaker has much greater influence in shaping and
molding legislation, which after all is the most im
portant part of the Government, than the President
of the United States has.
When Mr. Blaine was elected Speaker his official
rank was that of third in the Government. The
President came first, the Vice-President next, and
the Speaker directly after. According to the then
existing law, he was also third in order for the suc
cession to the Presidency in the event of the death or
resignation of the two officials above hinL_ Since
that time the law has been changed and the order of
succession changed to the Cabinet officers, according
to their rank. The object of this change was to keep
the administration in the same party hands, for often

Election as Speaker. 221
a Speaker of a House might be of one party while
the President and Vice-President could belong to
another. The Speaker has the power to appoint all of the
committees, and although the House has the right to
change his selections and can substitute an entirely
new list, the majority which elects a Speaker has
always approved his work. So rigidly are his lists of
appointments followed that even the committees
themselves now never venture to change the chair
man selected by a Speaker. Although in many in
stances his selections have been unpopular. Iri one
Or two noted cases he has certainly shown a down
right favoritism which would have been resented in
almost any other body of legislators in the world.
Where a member objects to the work of the Speaker
he may be marked for punishment. The Speaker
has such a power when in the chair in his recogni
tion of members, in his directing and shaping legis
lation, that if he wishes to use this power arbitrarily
he can negative absolutely the work of any individ
ual member. The Speaker of the House of Repre
sentatives is always a partisan, and is the spokesman
and chief of the majority. This is essentially dif
ferent from the offiee of Speaker in the English
House of Commons. There the House has
never delegated its powers as we have done. It

222 Life of James G. Blaine.
retains the right to make its own committees,
and through the cO-operatiOn of the Cabinet
Ministers on the floor works openly in the
Committee of the Whole upon the items of the esti
mates necessary for the maintenance of the various
departments of the Government. The heads of the
English departments submit their estimates in person,
and these estimates take the place of our reports of
committees. The English Speaker is purely a pre
siding officer, and his office is of so little importance,
from a political standpoint, that he holds this position
often for many years without any regard to the char
acter of the majority in the ETouse of Commons.
The same Speaker will preside with the same impar
tiality over a Liberal majority as over a Conservative
one, although he may be an extreme Tory in politics.
His only rule of action is to be fair and to decide
disputed parliamentary questions strictly according
to their merits.
With us the estimates of the various departments
go first to. committees appointed by the Speaker.
These committees use these estimates simply as a
basis for the preparation of bills for the mainte
nance of the Government, and may differ wholly in
character and in amounts from the demands of the
department heads. No one has apparently less in
fluence upon Congressional legislation ' than the

Election as Speaker. 223
President of the United States. His message is
treated always as a perfunctory document, and
while it is regularly and respectfully referred to
the proper committees for consideration, it is very
rare that any suggestion made by the Executive has
any practical result.
In the hands of an able, energetic, well-equipped
man the power of the Speaker is very great. With
Mr. Blaine the office was made second only to that
of the President. The Speaker is elected by a strictly
party vote. The Republicans select by caucus the
man they wish to be considered as their leader, and
if they are in a majority in the House this caucus
vote is equivalent to his election as Speaker which
comes later in the open House as a mere formality.
The minority, too, holds its caucus and nominates
its chief. He receives the complimentary vote of his
side in the formal election in the open House, and
he leads the debate of the opposition.
The Democratic chief who received the compli
mentary vote of the Democrats when Mr. Blaine was
first elected Speaker was Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana."
Mr. Kerr, who was conspicuous as the leader ofthe
Tariff Reformers in that day, became afterward
Speaker when the Democrats first captured the House
of Representatives six years later, and died in that
office, of consumption. Mr. Blaine received one hun-

224 Life of James G. Blaine.
dred and thirty-five votes, representing the Republi
can side of the House, against the fifty-seven votes
cast for Mr. Kerr.
There were a number of important additions to
the membership of this House. A number of strong
men who afterward arrived at further prominence
now entered the halls of Congress for the first time.
Mr. Wm. A. Wheeler, who was to be Vice-President
on the ticket with Mr. Hayes, came from northern
New York. Mr. Wheeler was a hard worker, a
forcible speaker, and a sturdy Republican. Clark-
son Nott Potter, Noah Davis, and Henry W. Slocum
were the other notable additions from New York.
Mr. Potter was the son of Bishop Alonzo Potter.
He had the high color and manner of an English mem
ber of Parliament. He dressed in the English style.
His affectations of speech and his eccentricity of maiv
ner made him the subject of many a newspaper para
graph at that time. But his real abilities and his
industry made a place for him on the Democratic
side. He was Chairman of the Investigating Com
mittee which sat for so many months looking into
the manner employed to secure the vote of the
Southern States counted for Rutherford B. Hayes.
Eugene Hale now entered the House, where he was
to serve for nine years before going to the Senate.
He was Mr. Blaine's personal representative upon the

Election as Speaker. 225
floor during his occupancy of the Speakership- chair.
Mr. Blaine, Mr. Garfield, and Mr. Hale worked to
gether, both as friends and party leaders. Later,
when Mr. Chas. Foster and Mr. McKinley came they
were associated with these gentlemen in their friendly
and political alliance. This personal alliance made
on the floor of the House had no formal character.
It was the natural result of the association of men
who were personally agreeable to each other and who
had the same political thoughts and objects in
common. In the Senate the notable additions to this Con
gress were Matthew H. Carpenter, Carl Schurz,
Allen G Thurman, William G. BrownlOw, and
Thomas A. Bayard.
Mr. Schurz, who came to the Senate as a Republi
can, was to afterward attack President Grant and
become one of the leaders of the Liberal party.
He was also, in later years, to become a vigorous
opponent Of Mr. Blaine, and this opposition was
made none the less bitter because of the opinion
expressed by Mr. Blaine in his history, where he, in
speaking of Mr. Schurz, said : " Through all the
centuries since Tacitus drew his vivid picture of the
habits and manners of the Germans, their attach-
, ment (it might be almost called their passion) , for
home has been a marked and meritorious feature

226 Life of James G. Blaine. '
of their character. To Fatherland first, and then
to whatever country fate or fortune may draw them,
their devotion is proverbial. This admirable trait _„
seems altogether wanting in Mr. Schurz. When he >
left Germany he lived for three years in other
countries of Europe — first in Switzerland, then in
France, then in England. In 1852 he came to
America, and resided first in Pennsylvania, then in
Wisconsin, then in Michigan, then in Missouri, and
then in New York. He has not become rooted and
grounded anywhere ; has never established a home,
is not identified with any community, is not inter
woven with the interests of any locality, or of any
class ; has no fixed relations with church, profes
sional, political, or social life ; has acquired none of
the companionship and confidence which united old
neighbors in the closest ties, and give to friendship
its' fullest development, its most gracious attributes.'.'
This severe portraiture of Mr. Schurz has the
counter-foil in a warm and friendly picture of Mr.
Thurman, the great Democratic leader in the Senate, ~-
whom Mr. Blaine described in the same history with
all the warmth of an ardent friend. Of Mr. Bayard
Mr. Blaine made an elaborate description, the point
of which is concentrated in the following sentence :
" His service in the Senate has been remarkable for
one leading characteristic — the power or the acci-

Election as Speaker. 227
dental fortune ^to create a public impression as to his
career precisely the reverse of its actual history."
The partisan passions and the differences of opinion
created by the war with President Johnson gave way
to a period of comparative peace; when General
Grant became President the country, took a long
breath of relief. The Republican majority in Con
gress, unfettered by a dispute with the Executive, now
took up the work of reconstruction, and the Rebel
States began to come back into the Union.
. It was during the Forty-first Congress that the
entire list of Representatives of the seceding South
ern States were admitted to both branches of Con
gress. Among these Representatives were certain
Republicans who were denounced by the Southern
newspapers of that period as carpet-baggers and scala
wags. Anybody who went to the South from any
other section was classed as a " carpet-bagger," and
any white man who dared to aspire to office in the
South with the aid of colored or Republican votes
was a " scalawag." The reappearance of the former
leaders of the Rebellion in Congress re-awakened
partisan discussions. Everywhere in the South, .fol
lowing the relaxation of military control, there were
at once intimidation of the colored voters, and a re-
assertion ofthe supremacy of thedement which had
brought about secession.

228 Life of James G. Blaine.
Stories of outrage and violence in the South were
frequently brought to the attention of the House. The
Southern leaders, in return, charged that the Repub
licans were plundering the South, and that their
every act was one of knavery and dishonesty. Upon
the one side crimes of murder and midnight assassi
nation were alleged and proved, and these. were off
set by stories of mal-administration. There were
numerous investigating committees sent South from
time to time. The evidence taken by these com
mittees was undoubtedly colored for partisan pur
poses. But between the two stories of the two sides
there was enough remaining to convince the North
that the South was unrepentant, and unwilling to
accept the results of the war, and absolutely deter
mined to recapture its lost political control regard
less of consequences.
Naturally, those who had been the .most conspicu
ous at Washington in asserting the supremacy of the
Republican party incurred the full weight of the
Southern opposition. Washington city, toward
the close of the Forty-first Congress, swarmed with
Southern people who. had been active in the Rer
hellion. Without exception, every Democratic Rep
resentative from the South was a former officer in the
Confederate army. No man who had been loyal to
the Union cause could hope to secure the election td

Election as Speaker. 229
the smallest office in the South by the aid of Deirio-
cratic votes.
These Southern men came back to Washington
angry at their defeat, unreconciled and impoverished.
They recognized that the North was physically richer
and stronger than they, and they could never hope
to capture the Government along the lines of armed
resistance. They began then the new policy which
has given them such a success. They resisted every
act of the Republican majority to control in any way
Southern affairs. Murder under the approval of
State authorities was not considered so high a crime
as the interference of a Federal official to protect the
rights of voters. The mere presence of a Federal
official upon the scene of any local contest was the
signal for uproarious riot and a petition to Congress.
The Southern people were so aggressive and so persist
ent, that they have succeeded in the end in nullifying
all of the so-called Ku-Klux legislation which Con
gress passed for the purpose of protecting the rights
of Republican voters in the South.
At the opening of the Congress Mr. Blaine in
accepting the office of Speaker, said :
"The Forty-first Congress assembles at an auspi
cious period in the history of our Government. The
splendid and impressive ceremonial which we have
just witnessed in another part of the Capitol appro-

230 Life of James G. Blaine.
priately symbolizes the triumphs of the past and the
hopes of the future. A great chieftain, whose sword,
at the head of gallant and victorious armies, saved
the Republic from dismemberment and ruin, has-been
fitly called to the highest civic honor which a grate
ful people can bestow. Sustained by a Congress that
so ably represents the loyalty, the patriotism, and the
personal worth of the nation, the President this day
inaugurated will assure to the country an administra
tion of purity, fidelity, and prosperity; an era of,
liberty regulated by law, arid of law thoroughly in
spired with liberty.
" Congratulating you, gentlemen, upon the happy
auguries of the day, and invoking the gracious bless
ing of Almighty God on the arduous and responsible
labors before you, I am now ready to take the oath
of office, and enter upon the discharge of the duties
to which you have called me."
Mr. Blaine took almost no part in the debates
during this Congress. His knowledge of the rules.
and his fairness made him the subject of commenda
tion on the Democratic side. Mr. Cox, of New
York, offered a resolution of approval on the closing •
day of Congress. The resolution said, after a
courteous preamble : " In view of the difficulties in
volved in the performance of the duties of the
presiding officer of ^this House and of the able,

MR. BLAINE'S COTTAGE AT BAR HARBOR.

Election as Speaker. 233
courteous, dignified, and impartial discharge of
those duties by the Hon. J. G. Blaine during the
present Congress, it is eminently becoming that
our thanks be and they are hereby tendered to the
Speaker." This resolution was unanimously passed, and in
reply Mr. Blaine said to a full house and to a vast
audience which packed the galleries : " Our labors
are at an end, but I delay the final adjournment
long enough to return my most profound and
respectful thanks for the commendation which you
have been pleased to bestow upon my official course
and conduct. In a deliberative body of this
character, a presiding officer is fortunate if he retains
the confidence and steady support of his political
associates. Beyond that you give me the assurance
that I have earned the respect and good- will of those
from whom I am separated by party lines. Your
expressions are most grateful to me and are most
gratefully -acknowledged.
"The Congress whose existence closes with this
hour enjoys a memorable distinction. It is the first
in which all of the States have been represented on
this floor since the baleful winter that preceded our
late bloody war. Ten years have passed since then.
Years of trial and triumph, years of wild destruction,
and years of careful rebuilding, and after all, and

234 Life of James G. Blaine.
as to the result of all, the National Government is
here to-day united, strong, proud, defiant, and just
with a territorial area vastly expanded, and with
three additional States represented on the folds of
its flag. For these prosperous fruits of our great
struggle let us humbly give thanks to the God of
Battles and to the Prince of Peace."

CHAPTER XIII.
STUDIES OF NEW PERSONALITIES IN THE FORTY-SECOND
CONGRESS. — DEMOCRATIC LOSSES IN THE GRANT-
GREELEY CAMPAIGN.
At the convening of the Forty-second Congress
Mr. Blaine was again elected Speaker. He was sent
back to Congress for his fifth term by a majority of
two thousand three hundred and twenty, and he had
the unanimous vote of his party associates for re
election as Speaker. He received one hundred and
twenty-six Republicari votes against the ninety-two
Democratic votes given to George W. Morgan, of Ohio.
The Republican majority in the House had been cut
clown from seventy-eight to thirty-four. The Re
publicans had no longer a two-thirds majority. The
Southern movement to recapture the House was
growing and was ere long to become successful.
Mr. Blaine was sworn in by Mr. Dawes, the senior
member of the House, Mr. Washburne, having ac
cepted the mission to France from President Grant,
Mr. Blaine, when the oath was administered, said:
" The Speakership of the American House of Repre
sentatives has always been esteemed as an enviable
235

236 Life of James G. Blaine.
honor. A re-election to the position carries with it
peculiar gratification in that it implies an approval
of past official bearing. For this great mark of your
confidence I can but return to you my sincerest
thanks, with the assurance of my utmost devotion to
the duties which you call upon me to discharge.
" Chosen by the party representing the political
majority in this House, the Speaker owes a faithful
allegiance to the principles and policy of that party.
But he will fall far below the honorable requirements '
of his station if he fails to give to the minority their
full rights under the rules which he is called upon to
administer. The successful working of our grand
system of government depends largely upon the
vigilance of party organizations, and the most whole
some legislation which this House produces and per
fects is that which results from opposing forces mu
tually eager and watchful and well-nigh balanced in
numbers. " The Forty-second Congress assembles at a period
of general content, happiness, and prosperity through
out the land. Under the wise administration of the
National Government peace reigns in all our borders,
and the only serious misunderstanding with any for
eign power is, we may hope, at this moment in pro
cess of honorable, cordial, and lasting adjustment.
We are fortunate in meeting at such a time, in repre-

Forty-second Congress. 237
sen ting such constituencies, in legislating for such a
country. " Trusting, gentlemen, that our official intercourse
may be free from all personal asperity, believing that
all our labors will eventuate for the public good, and
craving the blessing of Him without whose aid we
labor in vain, I am now ready to proceed with the
further organization of the House; and, as the first
step thereto, I will myself take the oath prescribed by
the Constitution and laws."
The reason for the decrease of the Republican ma
jority was owing to differences of opinion iri the
North concerning the wisdom of the so-called Ku-
Klux legislation.
There were a number of new men in the House,
and a number of changes took place in the Senate.
General John A. Logan, from Illinois, took a seat in
the Senate, succeeding Governor Richard Yates.
Matt. W. Ransom, a former Confederate general
under Robert E; Lee's command, came as Senator
from North Carolina, and has since remained in con
tinuous service. General Frank P. Blair was elected
from Missouri. Henry G. Davis, one oi the wealthy
owners of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, who had
risen to great wealth, starting as a humble brake-
man, came to the Senate from West Virginia.
Powell Clayton, a one-armed, blonde-mustached,

238 Life, of James G. Blaine.
handsome military looking man, a former officer in
the Union army, came from Arkansas as the " Carpet-
Bag " Senator from that State. He was conspicuous
for his gallant upholding of the cause of his party in
Arkansas. His brother was later to be assassinated
in that State by politicians who were opposed to him,
and Mr. Clayton himself driven ont in the re-estab
lishment of Democratic supremacy in that Stiite.
In the House there were several new members
who were noticeable. Joseph R. Hawley, a general
of the war and the editor of the Hartford Pourant,
came from Connecticut. Although born in North
Carolina, no one in Connecticut has ever dreamed of
calling him a carpet bagger or to introduce against
him this question of his birthplace, even in the
most bitter of political contests. Had the situation
been reversed and had General Hawley been born
in Connecticut and had then gone to North Carolina
to enter politics he never could have reached/ the
high place in public affairs without becoming a
Democrat. Another notable editor was Ellis H.
Roberts, of the Utica Morning Herald. Mr. Roberts
was a dintinguishedrlooking man with a very fair
complexion, regular features set off by closely-
trimmed white silky hair, and a short beard. He
was a very vigorous speaker and one of the most
earnest supporters of Mr. Blaine. The now present

Forty-second Congress. 239
Senator from Maine, William P. Frye, entered this
House. Mr. Frye is a man of resolute, dogged type
who never recedes from a position when once his
mind is made up. Charles Foster who joined the
Republican side of this House, and became very
prominent in the discussion of tariff and financial
matters, came from Ohio. Charles B. Farwell, of Chi
cago, and Alexander Mitchell, of Wisconsin, repre
senting large business interests, were the most promi
nent of new members from the Northwest. Jeremiah
M. Wilson who was to afterward investigate one
section of the Credit-Mobilier history, came from
Indiana. Jeremiah Rusk, of Wisconsin, a gallant
Union soldier and a future member of President
Harrison's Cabinet, came from Wisconsin.
The leading topic of the first session of this Con
gress was the removal of disabilities of ex-Confeder
ates who were, as yet, disqualified from exercising any
political rights by the provisions of the Fourteerith
Amendment. This and the discussions upon the
Civil Rights Bill occupied a great deal of the time of
the session. In each Congress special investigating \
committees were sent South to take evidence concern
ing the continued intimidation of the colored people.
There was one personal incident which occurred
during this, session which attracted some attention.
It was a sharp difference of opinion between Mr,

240 Life of James G. Blaine.
^laine and General Butler. ' General Butler had ac
cused Mr. Blaine of not being sincere in supporting
a certain resolution to investigate Southern affairs
He charged that he was putting on the committee
only " weak-kneed " Republicans who would find
nothing, and that Mr. Blaine was already himself
beginning to prove weak-kneed before this newly or
ganized and rapidly growing Southern power. Mr.
Blaine replied to this by making General Butler
Chairman of the committee, and came down on the
floor himself to resent what he called in the debate
General Butler's " insolence and impudence." This
difference of opinion led to a break between the two
gentlemen, and General Butler after that never lost
an opportunity to harass and annoy the Speaker by
every possible device which could suggest itself to
his ever-fertile mind. .
The Presidential campaign of 1872, when General
Grant was re-elected, was a disastrous one all the way
around for the Democrats. The defection from the
Republican ranks led by Mr. Schurz amounted to
nothing, arid the indorsement of Horace Greeley by
the Democrats discouraged and disheartened the reg
ular party voters. The Democratic majority in the
Congressional election fell away, and the Republi
cans gained so that in the Forty-third Congress they
had a majority of one hundred and nine, the Demo-

Forty-second Congress. 241
crats having only eighty of the two hundred and
eighty-nine members.
The issues during the Presidential campaign were
still the issues of the war. The Southern questions
were still unsettled. The South still represented dis
order, violence, and disregard of law. The issues of
that year are very accurately defined in a speech
made by Mr. Blaine at Worcester, Massachusetts,' on
the 28th of October. In that campaign he held that
the question of maintaining inviolate the provisioris
of the Amendments to the Constitution was of para
mount importance to the questions of the tariff, of
an ti- monopoly, or of the railroad and bank questions.
After speaking of the difficulties of changing the
Constitution and the necessity for the changes al
ready made to secure the results of the war, he then
passed, to the question of the rights of the colored
voters in the South. He called attention to the fact
that the Amendments to the Constitution had been
secured in the face of practically unanimous Demo
cratic opposition, and that there had been no decla
ration since upon the part of any Democratic con
vention approving them ; while, on the contrary, the
leading Democratic writers and speakers throughout
the country had advocated a policy which would re
sult in practically nullifying them". Mr. Blaine, in
speaking of the legislation which was then described by

242 Life of James G. Blaine.
the Democratic newspapers as the Ku-Klux law, said :
" Pray, now, what is that law ? Strip it of its legal
verbiage, and it is simply this — that if any citizen of
the United States shall receive an injury, in his per
son or property, and the local authority is unable or
unwilling to protect and redress him, then it is the
duty of the United States Government to step in and
do it. So long as the State authority shall discharge
its duty there is no necessity for invoking Federal
interposition; but when State supervision is not given,
and when the citizen is left without redress, then,
according to the Ku-Klux law, it is the duty of the
Federal Government with all its powers to vindicate
the citizen in all his rights,"
Mr. Blaine then showed from official reports made
by the select committees of both branches of Con
gress that the Union men, both black and white, who
had been murdered in the South since the war
for purely political reasons was greater in number
than those who lost their lives in the Mexican
War and in the • War of 1812 combined. He
added that more men had been wounded in the
South during this period and for the same reason
than were wounded in the two wars just mentioned.
To send the men who were the subjects of these in
juries to the local courts or to attempt to punish
the perpetrators of these crimes through the local

Forty-second Congress., 243
authorities would result only in a farcical trial and
never in punishment. Mr. Blaine then called atten
tion to particular cases where American citizens had
received injuries abroad and where the whole power
ofthe Federal Government had been invoked to
secure redress, and no one had dreamed of criticising,
yet at the very trine he was speaking a cruel illustra
tion of Southern intolerance had just occurred. Six
teen colored men had been killed by a mob in
Tennessee for political reasons, and President Grant,
who had sought to use the office of the Attorney-
General to prosecute the murderers, had his path
barred by the protest and action of the Governor of
that State. 'Had sixteen British citizens been slain
upon the soil of Tennessee then Great Britain would
have forced the Federal Government to exercise its
power for the punishment of their murderers.
Mr. Blaine placed the whole responsibility for the
disturbances at the South upon the shoulders of the
Democrats at the North. He said that if they
would accept themselves the Constitutional Amend
ments and issue a joint opinion to that effect the
political troubles of the South would come to an end.
Mr. Blaine was very active in this campaign,
making a number of speeches throughout the coun
try following v the adjournment of Congress on the
10th of June, 1872.,

CHAPTER XIV,
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCANDAL PERIOD CREATED BT!
THE SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS TO MAKE THE NORTH
FORGET KU-KLUX TACTICS.  THE CREDIT-MOBILIER.
During the Presidential campaign of that year
the Democrats sought to make new issues. They
persistently charged that the Republican party had
grown corrupt, and that the country could only be
safely trusted in the hands of the men who had done
their utmost to destroy the Government and to bring
the country to absolute ruin. Undoubtedly following
the close of the Rebellion there were certain irregu
larities, which were incident to the winding up of
any war involving such enormous disbursements
through multifarious agencies. It would not be diffi
cult in examining the history of any country follow
ing the necessary rush and carelessness incidental to
a war period to find many instances of mal-admin
istration and evidences here and there of wrong
doing. Every incident of this kind found or suspected
by the Democrats was exaggerated to an extraordinary
degree, and so when the second term of Grant's ad
ministration began there ensued an era of official
244

The Credit-Mobilier. 245
scandals concerning alleged dishonesty in high office.
These scandals were fomented in the colurnns of the
Democratic newspapers until they created such an
impression that the Democrats were enabled with the
aid of the financial panic of. 1873 after two years
more to capture completely the House of Representa
tives. The first great scandal was that of the celebrated
Credit-Mobilier. This was the subject of numerous
publications during the Presidential campaign of that
year. The original publication was in the New York
Sun. Mr. A. M. Gibson of that newspaper unearthed
in Western Pennsylvania what he called the authen
tic history of that corporation. He charged that the
Credit-Mobilier had bribed during the years of 1867
and of 1868 certain members of Congress with presents
of the stock of that company for the purpose of in
fluencing" their actions upon legislation relating to
the Union Pacific Railroad. Oakes Ames, a member
from Massachusetts, who was at the head of the
Credit-Mobilier Company, which was the construc
tion company of the Union Pacific Railroad, was
charged, with either having given to certain promi
nent members shares in his company or with having
sold -the stock to, them at a price much below its
value. Hardly had the House met in the second session

246 Life of James G. Blaine.
when Mr. Blaine himself called the attention of the
House to these charges, which included the Speaker,
the Vice-President-elect, the Vice-President, the
then Secretary of the Treasury, and several leading
members of the House. An investigation was
promptly ordered. The public mind was greatly
excited by the disclosures. It was shown that Oakes
Ames had sold certain small blocks of stock to cer
tain of his friends in the House and Senate, but,
taken in the light of to-day, the evidence which, was
then regarded as so overwhelming as proof of cor
ruption looks almost trifling. Mr. Blaine was offered
ten shares of the stock as an investment. .He de
clined to make the investment. Several other mem
bers thought well of the investment, and agreed to
take a small amount in the enterprise. Not a single '
man who owned up frankly to the facts was injured
in the public estimation. But there was at first such
a storm of public indignation awakened, when it was
found that Oakes Ames had actually distributed
some of the shares of this company among his fellow-
associates, that the members who lacked moral cour
age prevaricated, and in some instances actually, lied
in their haste to divest themselves of all connection
with the affair. There was no evidence found that
the vote of any member had ever been affected by
the ownership of this stock, or that any serious ques-

The Credit-Mobilier. 247
tion relating to the Union Pacific Railroad had been
considered by Congress pending the ownership of the
Credit-Mobilier stock by members who were investi
gated. Some of the members had had their stock
carried for them, and found themselves in front
of this investigation in the embarrassing position
of men who had dividends due to them, or who
had received dividends upon stock for which they
still owed. General Garfield and Schuyler Colfax
were the most conspicuous and worst hit of them.
This was not so much so on account of their partici
pation in the enterprise as because of their vehement
denial of any interest in the enterprise when the
charges were first made. General Garfield professed
to have forgotten that he had agreed to take a few
of the shares. The amount was trivial and the
dividend due him on the enterprise up to that time
was exactly $323. A, frank statement of the real
facts would have created no bad impression. General
Garfield before the committee nearly broke down
when presented with the evidences of his absolute
ownership of the stock. During his last exami
nation when Oakes Ames brought out his famous
memorandum-book and told the simple story of
the investment, General Garfield almost shed
tears of mortification. He escaped the censure of
the committee through the personal influence of

248 Life of James G. Blaine.
Mr. Blaine. The work of the committee was -to a
certain extent farcical. It was necessary to have a
scape-goat to 'Satisfy public indignation. The com
mittee weakly reported in favor of punishing one
Republican and one Democrat. They selected Oakes
Ames in the House and recommended him for ex
pulsion on account of his alleged bribery of mem
bers. They then reported in favor of expelling Mr.
Brooks, a Democratic member from New York. The
findings of the House Committee were taken up
in the Senate as a basis for a resolution favor
ing the expulsion of Senator Patterson of New
Hampshire. This latter resolution was changed to
one of censure. It is possible that this mitigation
of the punishment recommended was owing to the
fact that the Senator's term was within a few days
of e spiring.
The debates upon the report of the House Coiri-
mittee occupied the closing days of the short session
of the Forty-second Congress. Public opinion was '
then ruthless in its condemnation of every official
holder of Credit-Mobilier stock. The greatest display
of virtuous indignation was on the Democratic side.
The former Confederate brigadiers who had defended
every charge of outrage and assassination throughout
the Souths during the reconstruction period, now
trembled with holy indignation, at the awful thought

COL. J. H. MANLY.
(Intimate friend and associate.)

The Credit-Mobilier. 251
that some of the Republican members had had small
holdings in the stock of the Credit-Mobilier Com
pany. The sessions were prolonged into the night.
Washington City was excited and deeply moved over
the sharp personalities indulged in during this de
bate. The galleries were packed during the day and
crowded to suffocation during the night. One of the
most notable scenes in this debate occurred during
the closing hours of a brilliantly-lighted night ses
sion 'of the House. It was when General Butler
took the floor and came to the rescue of Oakes Ames.
He said that Ames had been cruelly made the scape
goat of cowardly members who had not had the
courage to tell the truth about their associations with
him, and more than intimated that the Speaker of
the House was more- responsible than any one for the
attempt to blacken and destroy the reputation of an
honest man. His description of the virtues of Oakes
Ames so affected this over-wrought and much-tried
capitalist that he shed tears in the face of the open
House. He sat with his face turned toward General
Butler, drinking in every word of his .discourse with
tears chasing down his face, and without thought of
restraining himself. It was undoubtedly General
Butler's appeal to the House which saved Oakes
Ames from expulsion, and which secured a change in
the proposition to that of censure of him and of Mr.
1/J

252 Life of James G. Blaine.
Brooks. To have done more would have placed the
House in a ridiculous attitude. If Mr. Oakes Ames
was really guilty of bribery, and was to be expelled
for the offense, how was it possible to ignore the
logical sequence that the members must have been
bribed ? There cannot be a briber without some one
to be bribed, and so the House suddenly changed its
mind, and voted for the resolution of censure.
General Garfield, up to this time, had been the
unquestioned leader on the floor among the Republi
cans. Mr. Blaine had made him the Chairman of
the Appropriations Committee, the great business
committee of the House. To have had him cut
down by the Credit-Mobilier Committee would have
seriously impaired Mr. Blaine's influence in the
world of politics. Mr. Garfield was his intimate
friend. He had been the chosen exponent of the
Speaker's policy, and so Mr. Blaine stood by him,
used his influence to secure a kindly glossing over of
his mistakes before the Investigating Committee, and
rehabilitated him in the next Congress by reappoint
ing him Chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee at a time when General Garfield was al
most without influence and standing. If ' General
Garfield had not been re-elected the summer pre
ceding to the next Congress it is extremely doubtful
whether, in the then condition of public sentiment,

The Credit-Mobilier. 253
he could have been returned from his district. Mr.
Blaine's indorsement of him and his subsequent work
in the House restored him to the confidence of the
people of his' district, so that, two years later, he was
again returned, and was -afterward elected to the .
United States Senate from Ohio, although he never
took his seat, being elected President of the United
States before the date of the beginning of his Sena
torial term.
General Garfield had many great qualities mingled
with many petty ones. He had uncommon intellect
ual powers, but he was lacking in moral courage. His
own conviction of right was never strong enough to
sustain him. He' never knew how to act without
consultation with others in whom he had confidence.
Such a temperament naturally Caused him much un-
happiness, and even in his early public career he was
known as a man not quite certain as to his course on
many subjects. Before publicly announcing himself
upon a question he was only too apt to be influenced
by the person last with him. Mr. Charles Foster
when in Congress with him was a great resource for
General Garfield. Mr. Foster is not at all nervous.
He is apparently impervious to criticism. His
stolidity was a sOurce of great comfort to General
Garfield, who jused to come to him in all his embar
rassments. General Garfield never made a speech

$54 Life of James G. Blaine.
in the House without asking his friends afterward
what they thought of it. He could not live without
praise and appreciation. He was fond of -flattery.
In his manners with his associates he would exhibit
an almost girlish fondness. It was not at all unusual
to see him walking about the aisle back of the rows
of seats in the House of Representatives with an arm
twined about a friend.
His fear of public opinion was so great that those
near to him said he could never be trusted' to>
hold any fixed line of policy until fully committed.
When the Star Route people were being investi
gated before Congress he promised General Brady,
one of the principals * involved, to make a speech
defending them ; but when the time for the
speech came General Garfield was not in Wash-,
ington. The journals of the House, however, will
show that at that time he was paired on the side
of the Star Route people, a fact which was never
made prominent. '
His first great mistake was made during the Credit-
Mobilier investigation. He lost his head completely
at the public outcry, and insisted upon a denial of
any ownership in the stock in the face of the most
absolute proof. If he had had Mr. Blaine's courage
-he could have left the committee-room with head as
erect as did the Maine statesman. The Credit-

The Credit-Mobilier.' 255
Mobilier' incident for a long time took took away in
a great measure General Garfield's influence in the
House. Before this investigation he had been one
of the great figures on the floor. He had great skill
in debate, arid this, combined with his great knowl
edge of affairs, had made him a formidable adversary.
After the investigation, however, he showed so much
humiliation and lack of*c6urage that he would have
been swept into obscurity if it had not been for his
friends. General Butler, who was sometimes very brutal in
debate, saw how broken was his spirit and took ad
vantage of it one day when General Garfield at
tempted to call him to task for some criticism. Mr.
Butler turned around with mock courtesy as he with
drew his remarks, and said, contemptuously : " De
mortuis nil nisi bonum."
, General Garfield's face flushed as he sank into his
seat without making any attempt to reply. Mr.
Foster was very angry, and he at once ran over to
Mr. Garfield's seat and said: "Don't, for God's
sake, put your tail between your legs and run be
cause a mule has kicked you. I will show you some
day that this man Butler is as vulnerable as any
one." It was this episode which led to the , attack made
later by Mr, Foster on General Butler. Mr. Foster

256 Life of James G. Blaine.
was then a comparatively new member and but little
known, but when he produced proofs of the machi
nations of General Butler in the celebrated moiety :
cases it was generally conceded that Butler had niet
his match, and that he was attacked with the same
kind of weapons that he himself made use of. This
sharp debate gave Mr. Foster notoriety and influence-
in the House, and made him a very able ally for the
rehabilitation of General Garfield in connection with
Mr. Blaine, who continuously kept the power of his
influence at his friend's back. General Garfield soon
began to regain his power and influence in the de
bates in the House. The man who reads and studies
is the man who makes himself feared in the House,
a large proportion of whose members give but little
time to the study of public questions. General Gar
field's habits of regular study and his fine memory
soon gave him a reputation as a scholar which was
perhaps greater than he really deserved. He was,
however, a thorough student in political economy.
His financial speeches and his support of the specie-
resumption policy make up one of the, brightest and
most important chapters in his career. His sympa
thies as a student led him to look favorably upon
free trade, but his interests forced him to fall in with
the Protectionists when the tariff issues came to be
agitated.

CHAPTER XV.
CONTINUATION OF- THE PERIOD OF INVESTIGATION
SCANDALS. — MR. BLAINE CLOSES HIS CAREER AS
SPEAKER. — THE RECIPIENT OF THE APPROVAL OF
HIS FRIENDS AND OPPONENTS.
The policy of scandal and defamation continued
during the Forty-third Congress, which met on the
1st of December, 1873. The policy of the Demo
crats was to discredit every act of the Republican
party. The Republican majority in Congress had
passed upon the great questions raised during the
war, and settled them in accordance with the best
judgment of the people in the North. The regula
tion of the finances, the granting of pensions, and
the reconstruction of the South were continued sub
jects of bitter attack. The great name and fame of
General Grant was no protection to him. Notwith
standing the kindness of spirit which he had shown
toward the Southern leaders, when he accepted Lee's
surrender, he was always considered by the Southern
men as their conqueror, and so one story after another
derogatory to his character was circulated at Wash
ington. At the beginning of his second term Gen-
257

258 Life of James G. Blaine.
eral Grant himself become very impatient at this
continued misrepresentation and slanderous abuse.
No man who ever held the office of President had a
higher sense of honor or of his obligations to the
public. He was a resolute friend, and because he
did not instantly cut the acquaintance of every offi
cial against whom charges were brought by furious
partisans, he was himself made to share the weight
of these attacks. General Grant was very staunch
and loyal where he had once placed his confidence.
He never withdrew this confidence without absolute
proofs of lack of merit upon the part of the person
trusted. He was conscious of his own rectitude^ and
consequently did not trouble himself to defend his
administration against the charges which were circu
lated by vindictive Southern enemies, aided by their
Northern party associates. General Grant, at the
beginning of his second term, refused admission to
the White House to nearly all of the correspondents
of the daily newspapers. He had been so misrepre
sented, so criticised, that he became impatient, and
trusted only one or two representatives of the press
who had been with him during the war. This was
an error upon his part, because he could have had
the friendly support of all the reputable correspond
ents, who admired his high qualities. But the criti
cisms came from so many directions that he came to

The Period of Investigation. 259
adopt a sweeping order against the representatives of
the newspaper press. In a message which he -wrote
at that time General Grant said that he was
anxious to be released from public care and was
looking forward to the expiration of his term of
office, so that he could be released from respon
sibilities from which he "had scarcely had a
respite since the eventful firing upon Fort
Sumter in April, 1861, to the present day." He
continued, " my services were then tendered and ac
cepted under the first call for troops growing out of
the event. I did not ask for place or position, and
was entirely without influence or the acquaintance of
persons of influence, but was resolved to perform my
part in a struggle threatening the very existence of
the nation. I performed a conscientious duty with
out asking for promotion or command, and without a
revengeful feeling toward any section or individual.
Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from
my candidacy for my present office, in 1868, to the
close of the last Presidential campaign, I have been
the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equalled
in political history, which to-day I feel that I can
afford to disregard in view of your verdict, which I
gracefully accept as my vindication."
Mr. Blaine, who was elected Speaker of this Congress
for the third and last tiriie, did not have the same in-

260 Life of James G. Blaine.
timate relations with President Grant that he had had
with Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Roscoe Conkling had become
the devoted friend and ardent supporter of General
Grant, and for this reason it is not natural to suppose
that the President could have had at the same time
an intimate friendship with Mr. Blaine. Mr. Blaine,
however, never opposed General Grant in any way
when he was in office. He gave a hearty support to
the acts of the administration under Grant, and
speaks in the highest terms of this great General in
his history, where he says that any criticism or any
attempt to belittle the military qualities of General
Grant in the face of the record of his long list of
successful achievements is " idle chatter."
These scandals complained of by President Grant
continued throughout his administration, and culmi
nated, so far as he was concerned, in the breaking up
of the whiskey ring in St. Louis, and the attempt
upon the part of the Democrats to fasten upon him a
guilty knowledge of the ignoble facts of this conspir
acy to rob the Government. In St.. Louis a ring had
been formed among certain corrupt Republican poli
ticians through which they were enabled to bribe
certain subordinate revenue officials, and evade the.
payment ofthe tax on whiskey in favored distilleries
belonging to the ring. As the tax was then ninety
cents a gallon, and the output of the ring distilleries

The Period of Investigation. 261
was many hundreds of thousands of gallons, the
profits for a time were enormous. Some of the men
found guilty in connection with these frauds were
former friends of General Grant. One or two of the
leaders in the conspiracy were shown to be intimate
friends of General Babcock, the Private Secretary of
the President. Evidence was brought out showing
that Babcock had at least acted imprudently, and he
was dismissed from his post. Benjamin H. Bristow,
who was Secretary of the Treasury at that time un
der President Grant, was particularly active in bring
ing out the facts of this fraud, and was none Jtoo
prompt in reporting them to the President. The
public had the facts very often before Secretary Bris
tow saw fit to report them to the President. Mr.
Bristow was then bitten with Presidential ambitions,
and wished to make unusual credit for himself be
fore the public, and his friends more than hinted
that he was prosecuting these frauds with great .vigor
under difficulties thrown constantly in his way by
the head of the administration. This resulted in
Mr. Bristow's dismissal from the Cabinet during the
closing year of General Grant's administration.
More new faces appeared in the Forty-third Con
gress. Mr. Allison, of Iowa, who had served with the
close band of Blaine friends in the House, was pro
moted to the Senate, where he has since remained.

262 Life of James G. Blaine.
John J. Irigalls came to the Senate from Kansas for
the first time. He was a thoroughly well equipped
student with unusual powers of satire and with
great fluency in debate. He became afterward one
of the most dreaded of the Senators on account of his
critical powers and his agility to picture frailties
and faults of his opponents. The position that he
occupied was that of a critic, and he therefore never
had much of a personal following and even his party
associates bore with composure the news of his defeat
through the influence of the Farmers' Alliance in
the Senatorial election of 1891. It was in this Con
gress that the Farmers' Association in politics made
its first appearance through sending to the House
members of what was then called the Grange or
Patrons of Husbandry.
Senator John P. Jones, a man of great wealth,
great individuality, and unusual social acquirements,
came from Nevada. He was afterward to become
one of the most devoted friends of Mr. Conkling, and"
to work with him in the Senate as a leader among the
stalwart Republicans, who were for a time so actively
opposed to the Republicans who regarded Mr. Blaine
as their chief.
Among the most prominent of the new Senators
on the Democratic side was General John B. Gordon
from Georgia. He was a* noted cavalry general in

The Period »f Investigation. 263
the Confederacy. His appearance indicated his
career as a fighter. His face was deeply marked by
a savage sabre cut. His manner w^ts kindly, but his '
temper was high, and in the partisan debates of the
day he easily lost control of himself. He became later
involyed in such a personal quarrel with Senator
Conkling that the lie was passed, arid for the first
time in the history of the Senate a committee of
honor was officially authorized to settle the dis
pute in accordance with the rules of the ancient
code. In the House there were many men who afterward.
became prominent. Among these were E. Rockwood
Hoar, of Massachusetts, Lymain Tremaine, of New
York, L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi, William R.
Morrison, of Illinois, Hugli J. Jewett, of Ohio,
Julias C. Burrows, of Michigan, Richard P. Bland,
of Missouri, Milton I. Southard^ of Ohio, Hiester
Clymer, of Penrisyl van ia, Eppa Hunton, of Virginia,
Stephen A- Hurlbut and Joseph G, Cannon, both
from Illinois, Thomas C. Piatt, of New York, Wil
liam Walter Phelps, of New Jersey, Stewart L.
Woodford, of New Yerk, and Stephen B. Elkins, of
New Mexico,
Mr. Lamar who was afterward to become a Senator
of the United States, a member of Mr. Cleveland's
Cabinet, and a Justice of the Supreme Court, was

264 Life of James G. Blaine.
one of the most notable and most creditable of the
great Southern leaders who came back to Washing
ton after the War of the Rebellion.
He was one of the most striking-looking men in
Washington. He was very individual in all of hin
characteristics. He was tall, round-shouldered, with
a round figure.
His brown hair he always wore very lOng and
turned in at the neck. His habit was to allow
his hair to fall across his forehead in careless waves,
and in moments of deep abstraction clear over his
eyes. His eyes were very dark and deep set. His
nose was straight. A long flowing mustache and
luxuriant chin whiskers swept down nearly to his
breast. The sides of his face were smooth shaven.
His complexion was very dark. His nature was
ardent and his temper high. His intellect was of a
superior order. His temperament always inclined
him to indolence. Yet, in spite of this tendency, he
was capable of great feats of energy and tremendous
spurts of application.
He had more influence in the South than possibly
any Southern leader of his time. He had never
been an extremist. His habits were diplomatic.
He believed in victories accomplished by the arts of
persuasion rather than by dogmatic force. He was
one of the chief advisers of the South in its onward

The Period of Investigation. 265
march at Washington to regain control of the Gov
ernment, It was he' who was the pioneer in the plan of
harmony and reconciliation. This he began in
the days of the reconstruction legislation, when
party spirit ran high, when every Southern member
was called an unrepentant rebel, and when every
member from the North could think of nO better ar
gument in legislative debates than to taunt the
Southern members with the humiliating story of their
defeat. When Mr. Lamar first came to Washington
he was not prominent, not even in Southern circles.
He was known as a scholarly man, whose partici
pation in the Rebellion had been in the field of diplo
macy, rather than in the field of war. He began as
a colonel of the Nineteenth Mississippi, but his
health did not permit him to remain in the service.
He was transferred to the European field, where he
sought, with other agents of the Confederate Govern
ment, to obtain recognition for the Confederacy.,
Hawas the specially accredited agent to Russia.
His natural bent' in the, direction of diplomacy re
ceived a sharp accentuation through this European
experience. He came home more soft-voiced, more
gentle and persuasive in his manners than ever. He
was always very fond of books, and was never hap
pier than when a professor in the University of Mis-

266 Life of James G. Blaine.
sissippi. He served there as law professor from 1866
until 1872, when he was elected a member of the
House. Mr. Lamar first made an impression in national
affairs by his eulogy on Charles Sumner. Mr. Sum
ner died on the llth of March 1874. Mr. Lamar
surprised every one by his coming forward with an
eloquent tribute to the memory of the dead statesman,
and by an eloquent, sympathetic appeal to the North '
to forget the issues of the war and to unite in har
mony with the South for the common good of the
country. It was the first word of kindness from the
South ; the first suggestion of anything in the direc
tion of peace or harmony from that section, and it
made a profund sensation throughout the country.
William Walter Phelps, one of the younger mem
bers, became a devoted supporter of Mr. Blaine, and
was associated with him in a number of business en
terprises. Mr. Blaine afterward sent him to Vienna
during the Garfield administration, and then to Ber
lin under the Harrison administration. Stephen B.
Elkins became an ardent supporter of Mr. Blaine,
and in the campaign of 1884 was the leader of his
forces at Chicago and later the chief manager of Mr.
Blaine's campaign.
The scandal-mongers found lively occupation all
through this Congress in attacking the methods of

TO BE OR NOT TO BE.— (Cartoon.)
By permission from Judge.

The Period- of Investigation. 269
expenditure of every dollar laid out for the improve
ment ofthe National Capital. The previous Con
gress had authorized theformation of a new govern
ment for the District, and Alexander R. Shepherd, a
former plumber, had been made the Governor of the
town. TVTr. Shepherd was a man of great force of
character, an iron will, and the. firm resolution of a
leader.. Washington, when he took hold of it, was
unpaved, undrained, shabby, and wholly unworthy
ofthe nation. It had always been dominated by the
spirit of the South. Its residents were then exces
sively provincial, and opposed to the march Of im
provement. They apparently preferred that ' the
capital should remain an aggregation of splendor in
its public buildings, squalor and shabbiness in its
private buildings, with muddy or dusty streets,
according to the season, rather than to submit to the
daring innovations proposed by the new Governor.
He made the capital over into a city, and left it,
at the close of his administration, the one city in
the United States with clean streets, with good pave-
_ ments, and results fully justifying the enormous
expenditures made. He retired himself bankrupt
at the end of his career as Governor, and was driven
from the town by the persistency of the scandal
mongers, who insisted almost to the day of ~ his failure
.that he -made millions out of the contracts and, that

270 Life of James G. Blaine. «
his retirement afterward was only for the purpose of
getting away safely with his ill-gotten gains. Some
of the reformers of that day employed burglars to
break open a safe in the District- Attorney's office,
for the purpose of capturing evidence against'-Gov-
ernor Shepherd. It was the same type of reformers
that had employed a burglar to capture the docu
ments in the original Credit-Mobilier exposure. This
safe burglary conspiracy was investigated in the
following Forty-fourth Congress, in connection with
the many topics taken up by the ¦ Democrats when
they regained control of the House of Representa
tives. The, Forty-third Congress, through its Republican
majority, appropriated great sums for the improve
ment of the capital. It is probable that the contrac
tors made. money and in some instances frauds were
practiced upon the District administration, but in
the main the expenditures were made wisely, and the
changes secured at the Capital have transformed a
pretty provincial village into a handsome modern
city. The Southern issues were for a time overshadowed \
by the financial depression which reigned throughout
*.he country after the panic of September, 1873. The
Forty-third Congress had before it many financial
questions to consider. The inflationists and the

The Period of Investigation. 271
V
cheap-money men were now violent in their denun
ciations of the financial policy of the Republican
majority. They were supported by the people who
were ruined by the panic of1 1873. Mr. Bland in
this Congress came forward with his plan to make
cheap silver dollars, and inflate the currency by free
coinage of silver and the issuing of silver certificates
based upon this free coinage. Various propositions
were offered in the Senate and in the House to in
crease the "greenback issues, and to augment the issues
of the national bank notes.
Mr. Blaine supported with his personal influence
the previous policy of the Republican majority.
Nothing positive was accomplished during the first
session. The Congressional election following the
close of the long session resulted in an overwhelming
majority for the Democrats. During the short session
which followed the Congressional election, the Repub
lican majority, which was soon to pass from power in
the House, took steps to provide for specie resump
tion, and to put the nation's finances upon as sound
a basis as possible before turning over the control
to the opposition. This act was passed by a vote of
one hundred and twenty-five ayes to one hundred
and six noes, upon the 7th of January, 1875. Every
Democratic vote in the House was against the meas
ure. The closeness of the vote was occasioned by a

272 Life of James G- Blaine.
number of Republicans voting with the Democrats,
not because they believed in opposing resumption,
but because they thought that the country was not
yet prosperous enough to maintain specie payriients
at the date fixed by the act. The act for the re
sumption of specie payments provided that on arid
after January 1st, 1879, the Secretary of the Treas
ury should redeem United States legal tender notes
in coin, but it left open the question whether these
legal tender notes up to three hundred millions
should be re-issued after redemption.
The supplementary Civil Rights Bill of Senator
Sumner was also passed during this session. There
were debates also upon the methods of electing the
President and the Vice-President, in which the dan
gers which arose in 1876 were foreshadowed by Sen
ator Morton, but no affirmative action was taken. .
The Democrats were now carrying everything
before them. They had gained the next House
of Representatives, and had further gained the
control of all their State Governments in the
South with the exception of South Carolina,
Florida, and Louisiana. The Republican managers
fought against the Democratic policy of intimidation,
and in several instances had made appeals to General
Grant for troops to suppress disorder and riots. In
Arkansas Elisha Baxter and Joseph Brooks had a

The Period of Investigation. 273
dispute as to which one was elected Governor. This
dispute was settled by both withdrawing, and then
Mr. V. V. Smith, who claimed to be Lieutenant Gov
ernor under Baxter, set up as Governor. He called
for troops, but before a reply could be given to him
he was driven out of the State by a Democratic mob.
In Mississippi the Legislature called on the President
for troops to suppress rioting. This call- for troops
was repeated by Governor Ames, a Republican, the
son-in-law of General B. F. Butler. The call was
refused, and President Grant directed him to use his
own forces to maintain pOace in the State.
Mr. Blaine now closed a six years' term period as
presiding officer in the House of Representatives.
He had been elected for each of his three terms with
out opposition, and at the expiration of each term of
Service the House had passed a resolution of thanks
and approval for these services. These resolutions
were invariably proposed by a Democrat. Mr.
Blaine always spent more hours in the chair than
had been the custom. He was very rarely absent
from his post. His strength 'and iron frame enabled
-him to undergo" the longest sessions ofthe House
without apparent fatigue. No one could count a
rising vote as quickly as he. It was one of the sights
of the time for a visitor to watch Mr. Blaine when
he stood erect facing a standing House, for the pur-

274 Life of James G. Blaine.
pose of counting the ayes and noes. With the head
of the gavel clutched in his right hand, he moved its
handle with almost lightning-like rapidity as he
turned from the right to the left. His announce
ments were made with such a brief interval for
counting that they were often disputed, but the count
of the tellers always verified his declaration. He
was always courteous, quick, and fair. He never lost
his head, and in the face of the most furious - scenes
of disorder, when parliamentary points were being
made on every side, he was serene, composed, and.
master of the situation. His clear voice would ring
out above the din, while his furious manipulation of
the gavel in time destroyed the covering of the desk,
which was regularly renewed at the close of each ses
sion. One of his greatestfeats of endurance was dur
ing the eventful scenes which occurred when the Rer
publican majority tried to pass what was then called
the Force Bill. This was a measure which was to
give President Grant the right to use the military
and suspend the writ of habeas corpus in the sup
pression of violence and outrage in the South with
out first referring the question to the State authori
ties. This bill, which was passed in the Senate,
came over to the House, and Samuel J. Randall, of
Pennsylvania, who afterward became -Speaker, led
the minority opposition to it. It was toward the

Thi Period of Investigation. 275
closing days of the last session, and there was a clear
majority for the measure in the House. \ Mr. Ran
dall opposed the bill with what is known as dilatory
tactics. He would first make a motion to adjourn,
and then he would make a motion to take a recess.
Upon each of these motions he would have a roll-
call of the House. Each roll-call occupied a half an
hour of time. When the motion to adjourn failed,
then the motion to take a recess under the rules was
always in order. When this failed, one motion hav
ing been made, then another motion to adjourn was
in order. This see-saw was kept up for a continuous
session of forty-six hours. The fight began when
Mr. Blaine was absent during an evening session.
He was at a dinner-party, and he came to the
chair in evening dress. He remained continu
ously in the chair for twenty and one-half hours
without rest or sleep. Refreshments were brought
to him. It was a period of the angriest pas
sion. The stalwart element of the Republican
party insisted upon this measure and the Southern
element resisted it as they resisted the Government
in 1860. The galleries were thronged, while on the
floor there was a continued series of personal quarrels
and violent attacks. At the close of the first night's
session the interior of the chamber look as if it had
been occupied by rioters. The carpet was completely

276 - Life of -James G. Blaine.
covered with torn papers and fallen books. Mr.<
Blaine's iron constitution and vigorous frame sup
ported him, so that at the close of the twenty hours'
strain, and the succeeding hours of struggle, while he
/ was weary, he was by no means broken down. His
voice gave out during the last hour or two, but a few
hours' rest gave him back all his lost vitality and
energy. Many of the Republicans then insisted that
Mr. Blaine should refuse to recognize Mr. Randall
in his making of the dilatory motions and to recogr
nize only those who were in charge of the Bill, so
that it could be put upon its passage. Mr. Blaine
said that the rules -of the House provided for the
making of the motions exactly as they were submitted
by Mr. Randall, and that until the rules were
changed he could do nothing but recognize him.
This attitude of Mr. Blaine's was construed as antag
onistic to the Grant administration. It was said that
Mr. Blaine was beginning to yield to the Southern
sentiment of the capital and that he had a Presiden
tial ambition which he hoped to gratify by opposing
the Force Bill measure. None of .these criticisms
appear to be warranted by the facts. If Mr. Blaine
had been out and out for the measure he could not
have ruled differently than he did without assuming
an authority of an arbitrary character which did not
belong to his office.

The Period of Investigation.' . 277
His course in reality was approved by his party
associates, because they voted with the Democrats in
favor of the resolution of thanks and commendation,
which was offered by Mr. Clarkson Potter at the
final adjournment at noon on the 4th of March, 1875.
Mr. Blaine, in response to this resolution, said :
"I close with this hour a six years' service as
Speaker of the House of Representatives — a period
surpassed in length by but two of my predecessors,
and equalled by only two others. The rapid muta
tions of personal and political fortunes in this coun
try have limited the great majority of' those who
have occupied this chair to. shorter terms of office.
"It would be the gravest insensibility to the
honors and responsibilities of life not to be deeply
touched by so signal a mark of public esteem as that
which I have thrice received at the hands of my po
litical associates. I desire in this last moment to re
new to them, one and all, my thanks and my grati
tude. "To those from whom I differ in my party rela
tions — the minority of this House — I tender my ac
knowledgments for the generous courtesy with which
they have treated me. By one of those sudden and
decisive Changes which distinguish popular institu
tions, and which conspicuously mark a free people,
that minority is transformed in the ensuing Congress

278 Life of James G. Blaine.
to the governing power of the House. However it
might possibly have been under other circumstances,
that event renders these words my farewell to the
Chair. " The Speakership of the American House of
Representatives is a post of honor, of dignity, of
power, of responsibility. Its duties are at once com
plex and continuous ; they are both onerous and
delicate; they are performed in the broad light of
day, under the eye of the whole people, subject at all
times to the closest observation, and always attended
with the sharpest criticism. I think no other official
is held to such instant and such rigid accountability.
Parliamentary rulings in their very nature are per
emptory ; almost absolute in authority and instanta
neous in effect. They cannot always be enforced in
such a way as to win applause or secure popularity ;
but I am sure that no man of any party who is
worthy to fill this Chair will ever see a dividing line
between duty and policy.
" Thanking you once more, and thanking you cor
dially, for the honorable testimonial you have placed
on record to my credit, I perform my only remain
ing duty in declaring that the Forty-third Congress
has reached its constitutional limit, and that the
House of Representatives stands adjourned without^
day."

The Period of Investigation. 279
A remarkable scene followed the delivery of this
farewell address. The galleries were packed, and
the House was filled with members and . officials who
had the right to the floor. Mr. Blaine was then in
perfect health, and had closed his six years of office
quite free of any scandal during a period when
every one high in office was the subject of assault-
In the discharge of his duties he had performed the
apparently impossible task of satisfying his enemies,
and when he left the chair he was cheered and, ap
plauded by both sides, while the members on the
floor rushed to him to shake him by the hand and
to add their personal congratulations to the official
indorsement of the House. He was then the most
conspicuous man in his party, alert, active-minded,
and naturally spoken of in the leading journals of
the country in connection with the National Repub
lican Convention which was to meet the following
year.

CHAPTER XVI.
BEGINNING OF DEMOCRATIC RULE IN THE HOUSE.—
RANSACKING THE COUNTRY FOR MATERIAL TO DIS
CREDIT REPUBLICAN LEADERS.  MR. BLAINE'S AN
DERSONVILLE SPEECH AND WHY IT WAS MADE.
There is nothing in Mr. Blaine's record to indicate
that he has at any time sympathized with the South
ern spirit which has sought to control the Govern
ment "by any means within its power. He opposed
the slavery element, from the beginning of his polit
ical career, and at every step in his political life in
Congress he was the unswerving opponent of the
South in its unlawful demands. His position in the
chair gave rise during the year which followed the
adjournment' of the Forty-ninth Congress to the
story that he favored great moderation in the future,
and that he cOuld not be classed as a stalwart Re
publican. Mr. Blaine was always opposed to violent
means, and he believed at this time that it was not
possible to enforce the laws in any community against
the overwhelming public sentiment of that commu
nity. He came to the conclusion that it was. wisest
and best to leave the South free to manage its State

Andersonville Speech. 281
affairs, but he never changed his mind concerning
the injustice of permitting the South to have the un
due representation it now has in the. Electoral College
and in the National House of Representatives,
based as it is upon the- colored population, which is
unrepresented except by white Southern votes.
The opposition to Mr. Blaine in Republican cir- •
cles came almost entirely from the stalwart Repub
licans led by Mr. Conkling. It is possible that Mr.
Blaine may have been influenced by the various /
public Criticisms published at that ,time concerning
his attitude as a Republican, but he remained, in spite
of the opposition of certain Republican leaders, the
chief of the party in Congress, and was the leader of
the miriority in the House of Representatives which
met December 6th, 1875.
A Democratic Speaker now for the first time since
the war presided over the House. The Forty-fourth
Congress was not wholly Democratic, the Senate was
still in Republican hands. The House was notable
for the many investigations ordered by it. Over
one hundred official investigations were ^ordered
Every charge which had been made against Repub
lican officials, since the war were brought to the atten
tion of the Democratic House. Every scandal
monger, every one who had anything to tell which
would reflect on the honor or character of any Ra

282 Life of James G. Blame.
publican official, however humble, was made welcome
at the Democratic House. Drag nets were thrown
out in every direction. The committees met at first
in secret. This was for the alleged reason of fairness,
so that charges should not be published against offi
cials, until the members of the committee were satis-
• tied that there was sufficient evidence to warrant their
being given to the public.
Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana, the Speaker of the
House, was a fair-minded and honorable man. He
was, however, an invalid, in the last stages of con
sumption, and could give but little attention to the
'duties of his office. This office was dominated en
tirely by Southern influences, and it was Southern
men who led in proposing resolutions.of inquiry and
who were most active in prosecuting investigations.
The Star chamber investigations of the various com
mittees went over every one of the old scandals of
the period following the war. Whenever any evi
dence was taken in their secret sessions, it straight
way found its road to some opposition newspapers.
The sessions were secret only in name. In this
way officials were done great injustice. They
were given no opportunity for defense and their
explanations or their testimony, when given to
the public after the original publications had
but little effect. The attention of these investi-

Andersonville Speech. 283
gating committees was first directed against President
Grant. Nothing can better illustrate the character
of the stories taken up than the history of one
particular investigation of the President. A certain
Washington grocer made his appearance before the
House Judiciary Committee and offered an affidavit
charging that General Grant had seduced his sistc r,
and that the President had compromised the case
with him, and later had had him exiled from the
country through paid agents* who had carried him
off on a ship to England, and who had kept him for
two years in confinement in that country. This
story upon its face was the concoction of an insane
man. Yet this committee took up the charge gravely,
and allowed the scandalous story to be published be
fore they had taken the trouble to examine into the
character or standing Of the man making so infamous
a charge against the President of the United States.
The committee, after allowing the story to be pub
lished, began examining the witness for further proof
ofthe damnable charges. They asked the witness when
President Grant first came to see his sister. He
named a certain date. He was asked at what hour he
made this first visit. He said that he came at two
o'clock in the morning. This reply astonished the-
cross-axaminer, but life still went on and asked how he,
came. He said that he came through the window uf

284 Life of James G. Blaine.
one of the upper floors of his house. Here was an
entrancing picture of scandal for the distinguished
ex-Confederate officer who was conducting this inves
tigation. He asked how he got in through the win
dow, in order to have no detail lacking in the narra
tion of this remarkable story. The witness replied
that General Grant came floating in on a cloud, and
then his insane ravings were such as to discourage
further questioning. Yet that story concerning Gen
eral Grant was never denied by the committee, its
publication reappeared from time to time with the
silent indorsement of the Democratic members of
that committee, and it was only toward the close
of Grant's administration that the witness was re
moved to the Government insane asylum, where a
few of the Southern newspapers of that time insisted
that he had been sent by the tyrant Grant to close
his mouth against any further scandal to the then
President. ,
It is essential to a just estimate of the character of
this investigation persecution to go over its work,
for it- was soon to be turned upon Mr. Blaine on
account of his prominence and his activity as a
leader of the minority in opposing Southern dom
ination. In these investigations the laws governing the tak
ing of evidence . in -the courts were never observed,

' * A
- «*•*+ 7 * -

THE BEST OF FRIENDS MUST PART

LETTER OF WITHDRAWAL— PUBLIC UNCERTAINTY.
CCartnnn — Puck's Version.)

Andersonville Speech. 287
The idlest of hearsay was accepted and instantly
promulgated. The public was at first credulous, and accepted the
various stories as they were sent out, but soon the
malicious and wholly partisan character of these
investigations became apparent, and after fomenting
to the uttermost possibility this flood of scandal the
period came to an end, and investigations were no
longer popular.. In later years the House, even
when Democratic, has found but little profit in; these
drag-net searches after material to blacken political
opponents. The most important result of all these investiga
tions was the development of the post- trader scandal,
where the sale of one appointment was traced di
rectly to the family of Mr. Belknap, the then Secre
tary of War. He took upon his broad shoulders the
guilt of the whole affair. He was able to show to
President Grant his complete innocence, although
the evidence he submitted could not be shown to
Congress without hopelessly ruining his family.
President Grant accepted his resignation before the
impeachment charges were fairly brought, and so
Mr. Belknap escaped the verdict of impeachment
which would otherwise have been found.
This one exposure appeared for a time to justify
all the rest. It was about this time that Mr. Blaine

288 Life of James G. Blaine.
resolved to create a diversion. He succeeded, and
brought down upon his head the. united wrath of the
solid South.
This he did in his celebrated speech in the House
upon the consideration of the bill for general am
nesty for the few ex- Confederate officers who had
not yet been restored to their political rights. Opin
ions differ as to the motives for that speech. Some
regard it as the act of a politician seeking simply to
produce a counter effect, and to attract further atten
tion to hlmseif as a Presidential candidate; while
others, his admirers, regard the speech as the act of
a statesman who wished to call the attention of the
country to the character of the men, who, fresh, from
the field of rebellion, were seeking in a high-handed
way to grasp first, power in their section, and then
to control the national administration.
This speech was made with all the vigor and
energy of Mr. Blaine's character. It_ came with the
force of a stinging blow in the faces of the Southern
leaders. It was almost brutal in its truth. It was
made in a full House, before galleries packed with a
curious and excitable crowd. Up to this time, under
the influence of the soothing eulogy of Mr. Lamar
upon Charles Sumner, there had been a great deal
of talk about harmony. "The grasp of fraternal
hands across the bloody chasm " was one of the

Andersonville Speech. 289
phrases of the day. Mr. Blaine's speech called at
tention to the fact that the harmony was all on one
side, and made clear that the Southern Democrats
were only agreeable and disposed to be fraternal
when they had everything their own way. * .
The response from the North to this speech was so
swift and emphatic that the Southern people put
their best men forward to reply. Ben. Hill, a great
advocate, one of the first lawyers of the South, made
the plea in response. His reply to the charges of
cruelty at Andersonville, and Mr. Davis' responsi
bility, was to beg the question by charging that Con
federate prisoners had had similar treatment in the
hands of the North.
General Garfield supported Mr. Blaine in this de
bate, and the propositions to extend amnesty to Jef
ferson Davis failed in that session.
Mr. Blaine's speech was one of the most forcible
ever delivered by him in Congress, and, as the after-
results were to him so important, it is well to look
over the summary revised and preserved by Mr.
Blaine himself. To read it one can then understand
the point of fury and rage to which the Southern
leaders were driven, and how, when they had an op
portunity, afterward to retaliate upon Mr. Blaine
personally, they become so relentless in their at
tempts to destroy him.

290 Life of James G. Blaine.
Mr. Blaine said :
"Mr. Speaker — I rise to a privileged question.
I move to reconsider the vote which has just
been -declared. I propose to debate the question
at issue, and now give notice that if the motion
to reconsider shall be agreed to, it is my intention to
offer the amendment which has been read several
times. I will not delay the House to ask that it be
read again.
" Every time the question of amnesty has been in
troduced, during the last two Congresses, by a Demo
cratic member, it has been done with a certain flourish
of magnanimity which seemed to convey an imputa
tion on this side of the House. It seemed to charge v •
the Republican party, which has been in control of
the Government for the last fifteen years, with beirig
bigoted, narrow, and illiberal, grinding down certain <
gentlemen in the Southern States under a great tyr
anny, from which the hard-heartedness of this side
of the House constantly refuses to"relieve therii.
" If I may anticipate as much wisdom as ought to
characterize the gentlemen on the other side of the
House, this may be the last time that amnesty need
he brought to the attention of Congress. I desire,
therefore, to place on record precisely What the Re
publican party has done in this matter. I wish to
place it there as an imperishable record of liberality

Andersonville Speech, 291
> _ ¦'
an magnanimity and mercy far beyond that which
has ever before been shown ,in the world's history by
oonqueror to conquered.
"I entered Congress at the same time with the
gentleman from, Perinylvania [Mr. Randall], while ,
the hot flame of war was yet raging, when the Union
was rocking to its foundations, and when no man
knew whether we were to have a country or not. I
think the gentleman from Pennsylvania would have
been surprised when he and. I were novices, in the
Thirty-eighth Congress, if he had been told that
before our joint service ended we shodld see sixty-
one gentlemen, who Were then in arms against us,
admitted to the privileges of membership in this
body, and all by the grace and. magnanimity of the
Republican party. When the war ended, according
to the universal usage of nations, the Government,
then under the exclusive control of the Republican
party, had the right to determine what should be the
political status of the' people who had suffered defeat.
Did the Republicans, with full power in their hands,
inaugurate any measure of persecution? Did they
set forth on a career of bloodshed and vengeance?
Did they take the property of the Southern people
who had rebelled? Did, they deprive any man of
his civil rights ?
"Not at all. Instead of a general and sweeping

292 Life of James G. Blaine.
condemnation, the Republican party placed in the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution only this
exclusion :
" ' That no person shall be a Senator or Representative in
Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or
hold any office, civil or military, under the United Stages of
under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a
member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or
as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or
judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of
the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or re
bellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the ene
mies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of
each House, remove such disability.'
" It has been variously estimated that this section
at the time of its original insertion in the Constitu
tion included from fourteen to thirty thousand per
sons. As nearly as I can gather the facts of the case,
it, included about eighteen thousand men in. the
South. It did not apply to the hundreds of thou
sands- — or millions, if you please — who had been en
gaged in the attempt to destroy this Government.
It held under disability only those who, in joining
the Rebellion, had violated a special and peculiar and
personal oath to support the Constitution of the
United States. It was limited to these.
" That disability, Mr. Speaker, was hardly placed
upon the South before we began in this hall and in

Andersonville Speech. 293
the other wing of the Capitol, when more than two-
thirds of the members in each branch .were Repub
licans, to remit it, and the very first bill removed this
disability from 1,578 citizens of the South. The
next bill removed it from 3,526 others. Amnesty
was thus, granted by wholesale. Many ofthe gentle
men on this floor shared the grace conferred on those
occasions. After these bills had passed, with several
smaller bills specifying individuals, the Congress of
the'United States in 1872, still being two-thirdsJEie-
publican in both branches, passed this general law :
"'That all political disabilities, imposed by the third sec
tion of the fourteenth article of Amendments of the Consti
tution of the United States, are hereby removed from all per
sons whomsoever, except Senators and Representatives ofthe
Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses, officers in the
judicial, military, and naval service of the United States,
heads of departments, and foreign ministers of the United
States.' "Since that measure passed, a very considerable
number of the gentlemen whom it still left under
disability have been relieved specially, by name, in
separate acts. But I believe, Mr. Speaker, in no in
stance since the Act of May 22d, 1872, have the dis
abilities been removed, except upon respectful peti
tion torthe Congress of the United States from the
person interested. I believe in no instance, except

294 Life of James G. Blaine.-
one, have they been refused upon the petition being
presented. I believe in no instance, except one, has
there been any other than a unanimous vote for re
moving the disability.
" I find there are widely-varying opinions in regard
to the number that are still under disabilities in the
South. By conference with the Department of War
and of the Navy, and with the assistance of some
records which I have caused to be searched, I am
able to state to the House, Lbelieve with substantial
accuracy, the number of gentlemen in the South still
under disabilities. Those who were officers of the
United States Army, educated at its own expense at
West Point, and who joined the Rebellion, and are
still , include'd under this act, number, as nearly as
the War Department^ can state it, 325 ; those in the
Navy about 295. Those under the other heads-^
Senators and Representatives of the Thirty-sixth
and Thirty-seventh Congresses, officers in the judi
cial service of the United States, heads of depart
ments, and foreign ministers of the United- States —
make up a number somewhat more difficult to state'
accurately, but estimated at 125 to 130. The entire
list, therefore, is about 750 persons now under dis
abilities out of the great unnumbered host that en
gaged in the Rebellion.
" I am very frank to say that in regard to all these

Andersonville Speech. 295

•>'.

gentlemen, save one, I do not know any reason why
amnesty should not be grafted, as it has been to
many others of the same class. I am not here to
argue against it. The gentleman from Iowa [Mr.
Kasson] suggests 'on their , application.' I 'agree
with him on that point. But in the absence of the
respectful form of application, which since May 22d,
1872, has become a sort of common law as prelimi
nary to amnesty, I simply wish to make it a condition
that they shall go before a United States court, and,
with uplifted, hand, swear that they will, conduct
"themselves as good and loyal citizens of the United
States. That is all.
. " Gentlemen may say that this is a foolish exaction.
Possibly it is. But I confess I have a prejudice in
favor of it. I insist upon it, because I do not. want
to impose citizenship on any gentleman. If I am
correctly informed, and I state it on apparently good'.
authority, there are some gentlemen in this list who
have spoken contemptuously of resuming citizenship,
and have spoken still more contemptuously of apply
ing for citizenship. I may state it erroneously, and
if I do I am ready to be corrected ; but I understand
that Mr. Robert Toombs has, on several occasions, at
watering-places, both in this country and in Europe,
openly and jrubliely stated that he would not ask the
'United States for citizenship.

296 ^ Life of James G. Blaine.
" I insist, therefore, that if Mr. Robert Toombs is
not prepared to go into a court of the United States,
and swear that he honestly intends to be a good and
loyal citizen, he may live and die outside of that
great privilege. I do not think that the two Houses
of Congress should convert themselves into a joint
convention for the purpose of embracing Mr. Robert
Toombs, and requesting him to favor us by coming
back and accepting the honors of citizenship. All
we ask on this side of the House is that each, of these
gentlemen shall show his good faith by. coming for
ward and taking the oath-, which all the members on
this floor take, and are proud to fake. It is a ver^r
small exaction to make as a preliminary to full res
toration to all the rights of citizenship.
" In my amendment, Mr. Speaker, I have excepted
Jefferson Davis from amnesty. I do not place his
, exclusion on the ground that he was, as he has been
commonly called, the head and front of the Rebellion,
because I do not think the exception would be tena
ble. Mr. Davis was in that respect as guilty, no more
so, no less so, than thousands of others who have re-r
ceived the benefit and grace of amnesty. Probably
he was less efficient as an enemy of the United States,
probably he was more useful as a disturber of the
councils of the Confederacy, than, many who have
already received amnesty. It is not because of any

'. Andersonville Speech. -297
particular and special damage that he above others
did to the Union, or because he Was personally or
especially of consequence, that I except him. But'
I -except him on this ground : that he was the respon
sible author, knowingly, deliberately, guiltily, of the
great crime of Andersonville.
" I base his exclusion on that ground ; and I be
lieve to-day, that so rapidly does one event follow on
the heels of another in the age in which we live, that
even those of us who were contemporaneous with the
war, and especially those who have grown up since,
fail to remember the crime at Andersonville.
"Since the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr.
Randall] introduced this bill last month, I have
taken occasion to re-read some of the historic cruel
ties of the world. I have read once more the
details of those atrocious murders by the Duke of
Alva in the Low Countries, which are always men-
tionedN with a thrill of horror throughout Christen
dom. I have refreshed my memory with the details
of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, that stands
out in history as another of those atrocities beyond
iriiagination. I have read anew the horrors of the'
Spanish Inquisition. But' neither the deeds of the
Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, nor the massa
cre of Saint Bartholomew, nor the thumb-screws of
the Spanish^ Inquisition surpass the hideous crime of

298 Life of James G. Blaine.
Andersonville. This is not matter of mere passion
but of proof. Thank God, Mr. Speaker, that while
this Congress was under different control from that
which exists here to-day, with a Committee composed
of both sides arid of both branches, that tale of hor
ror was placed where it cannot be denied, and where
it must remain as a warning.
" I hold in my hand the story written out by a
committee of Congress. I state that Winder, who is
dead, was sent to Andersonville with a full knowl
edge of his previous atrocities in Richmond. These
were so terrible that Confederate papers,, the Rich
mond Examiner for one, after Winder had gone
thanked God that Richmond was rid of his presence.
We in the North knew from returning skeletons
what Winder had accomplished at Belle Isle and
Libby ; and, fresh from those accursed cruelties to
his fellow-men, he was.sent by Mr. Jefferson Davis*
against the protests of others in the Confederacy, to
Construct this den of horrors at Andersonville.
" It would be utterly beyond the scope of the
occasion, and beyond the limits of my hour, to go
into full details. But.in arraigning Mr. Davis, I will
riot ask any one to take the testimony of a Union
soldier. I ask gentlemen of this House to take only
the testimony of men who themselves were engaged
in and devoted to the Confederate cause. If that

Andersonville Speech. 299
testimony does not entirely justify the declaration I
have made, then I will take prompt occasion to state,
that I have been in error in my reading..
" After detailing the preparation of that prison,
the arrangements made with studied cruelty for the.
vietims, the report which I hold in my hand, and
which was concurred in by Democratic members as
well as Republican members of Congress, gives a con
densed description of the horrors — and I beg mem
bers to hear it, for it is far more impressive than any
thing I can say. After giving full details, the report
states : —
" ' The subsequent history of Andersonville has startled
and shocked the world with a tale of horror, of woe, and
death before unheard and unknown to civilization. , No pen
can describe, no painter sketch, no imagination comprehend
its fearful and unutterable iniquity. It would seem as if the
concentrated madness of earth and hell had found its final
lodgment in the( breast of those_who inaugurated the Rebellion
and controlled the policy of tlie Confederate government, and
that the prison at Andersonville had been selected for the
most terrible human sacrifice which the world has ever seen.
Into its narrow walls were crowded thirty-five thousand en
listed men, many of them the bravest and best, the most
devoted and heroic of those grand armies which carried the
flag of their country to final victory. For long and weary
months here they suffered, maddened, were murdered, and
died. Here they lingered, unsheltered from the burning
rays of a tropical sun by day, and drenching and deadly dews
by night, in every stage of mental and physical disease,, hun-

300 Life of James G. Blaine,
gered, emaciated, starving, maddened ; festering with unhealed
wounds; gnawed by the ravages of scurvy and gangrene;
with swollen limb and distorted visage ; covered with vermin
which they had no power to extirpate ; exposed to the flooding
rains which drove them drowning from the miserable holes
in which, like swine, they burrowed ; parched with thirst,
and mad with hunger; racked with pain, or prostrated with
the weakness of dissolution ; with naked limbs and matted
hair; filthy with smoke and mud ; soiled with the very ex
crement from which their weakness would not permit them
to escape ; eaten by the gnawing worms which their own
wounds had engendered ; with no bed but the earth ; no cov
ering save the cloud or the sky ; these men, these heroes, born
in the image of God, thus crouching and writhing in their
terrible torture and calculating barbarity, stand forth in his
tory as a monument of the surpassing horrors of Anderson
ville, as it shall be seen and read in all future time, realizing
in the studied torments of their prison-house the ideal of
Dante's "Inferno" and Milton's " Hell." '

" I venture the assertion, from reading the testi
mony upon which the report is based, that this
description is not overdrawn. I will read but a
single paragraph from the testimony of Rev. WilHam
John Hamilton, a Catholic priest at Macon, who, I
believe, never was in the North. He is a Southern
man, and a Democrat, and a Catholic priest. And
when you unite those three qualities in one man,
you will not find much testimony that would be
strained in favor of the Republican party, or any
member of it.

Andersonville Speech. 301
" This man had gone to Andersonville on a mis
sion of mercy to the men of his own faith, to admin
ister to them the rites of his Church in their last
moments. That is the way in which he happened to
be a witness. I will read his answer under oath to
a question ,addressed to him in regard to the bodily
condition of the prisoners. He said :
" ' Well, as I said before, when I went there I was kept so
busily engaged in giving the sacrament to the dying men
that I could not observe much, but, of course, I could not
keep my eyes closed as to what I saw there. I saw a great
many men "perfectly naked [their clothes had been taken from
them by rebels, as other testimony shows]; walking about the
stockade perfectly nude. They seemed to have lost all re
gard for delicacy, shame, morality, or , anything ' else. I
would frequently have to creep on my hands and knees into
the holes that the men had burrowed in the ground, and
stretch myself out alongside of them to hear their confessions.
I found them almost living in vermin in those holes; they
could not be in any other condition but a filthy one, because
they got no soap, and no change of clothing, and were there
all huddled up together.'
" Let me read further, from the same witness, a
personal description :
" ' The first person T conversed with on entering the stockade
was a countryman of mine, a member ofthe Catholic Church,
who recognized me as a clergyman. I think his name was
Farrell. He was from the North of Ireland. He came
toward me and introduced himself. He was quite a boy. I
do not think, judging from his appearance, that .he could have

302 Life of James G. Blaine.
been more than sixteen years old. I found him without a
hat, and without any covering on his feet, and without jacket
or coat. He told me that his shoes had been taken from him
on the battle-field. I found the boy suffering very much
from a wound on his right foot ; in fact, the foot was split
open like an oyster, and, on inquiring the cause, they told me
it was from exposure to the sun in the stockade, and not from
any wound received in battle. I took off my boots and gave
him a pair of socks to cover his feet, and told him I would
bring him some clothing, as I expected to return to Ander
sonville the following week. I had to return to Macon to
get another priest to take my place on Sunday. When I
returned, on the following week, on inquiring for this man
Farrell, his companions told me he had stepped across the
dead-line, and requested the guards to shoot him. He was
not insane at tlie time I was conversing with him.'
" Mr. Speaker, I do not desire to go into such hor
rible details as these for any purpose of arousing bad
feeling. I wish only to say that the man who ad
ministered the affairs of that prison wentv there by
order of Mr. Davis, was sustained by him, and the
Rev. William John Hamilton, from whose testimony
I have read, states again that he went to General
Howell Cobb, commanding that department, and
asked that intelligence as to the condition of affairs
there be transmitted to the Confederate Government
at Richmond. There are many proofs to show that
Mr. Davis was thoroughly informed as to the condi
tion of affairs at Andersonville.
" One word more, and I shall lay aside this book.

BENJAMIN IIARRI-ON

Andersonville Speech. 305
When the march of General Sherman in the Atlanta
campaign was in progress, there was danger, or sup
posed danger, that his army might come into the
neighborhood of Andersonville ; and the following
order, to which I invite the attention of the House —
a. regular military order — Order No. 13, dated,.
Headquarters Confederate States Military Prison,
Andersonville, July 27th, 1864, was issued by Brig
adier-General John H. Winder :
' " The officers on duty and in charge of the battery of
Florida artillery at the time will, upon receiving notice
that the enemy have approached within seven miles of
this post, open fire upon the stockade with grape-shot,
without reference to the situation beyond these lines of de
fense.' " Here, within this horrible stockade, were thirty-
five thousand poor, helpless, naked, starving, sick
ened, dying men ! The Catholic priest to whom I
have referred states that he begged Gerieral Howell
Cobb to represent that, if these men could not be ex
changed, or could not be relieved in any other way,
they should be taken to the Union lines in Florida
and paroled; for they were shadows, they were skel-*
etons. Yet it was declared ih a regular' order, issued
, by the commandant of the prison, who had been
specially selected by Mr. Davis, that if the Union ,
forces should come within seven miles the battery of

306 Life of James G. Blaine.
Florida artillery should open fire with grape-shot on
these shadows and skeletons without the slightest
possible regard to what was going on outside. And
they had stakes put up with flags in order that the
line of fire might be properly directed from the
battery of Florida artillery.
" I mention only one. additional horror in this dark
valley of cruelty and death. When one of the tor
tured victims escaped from its. confines — as was some
times, though not often, the case — he was remorse
lessly hunted down by bloodhounds. In a single
month twenty-five escaped, but in the official record
kept by the notorious Wirz ' they were taken by the
dogs before the daily returns were made out.'
" Mr. Speaker, the administration of Martin Van
Buren, that went down in a popular convulsion in
1840, had no little of obloquy thrown upon it be
cause it was believed that the Seminoles in the
swamps of Florida had been hunted' with blood
hounds. " Bloodthirsty dogs were sent after the hiding sav
ages, and the civilization and Christian feeling of the
American people revolted against cruelty. I state
here, upon the testimony of witnesses as numerous
as would require me all day to read, that bloodhounds
were used at Andersonville ; that largepacks of them
were kept, and Confederate officers directed them on

Andersonville Speech. 807
the hunt; that they were sent after the poor unfor
tunate, shrinking men who by an accident could get
cmt of that horrible stockade.
" I do not wish to be understood as arraigning the
Southern people for these inhumanities. God for
bid that I should charge sympathy with such
wrongs upon the mass of any people. There were
many .evidences of great uneasiness in the South
about the condition of Andersonville. I know that
leading officers of the Confederacy protested against
it. I know that many of the subordinate officers
protested against it. I know that a distinguished
gentleman from North Carolina, now representing his
State in the other end of the Capitol, protested
against it. But I regret to say that these wrongs
were known to the Confederate Congress, they were
known at the doorway of their Senate, along the cor
ridors of their Capitol. A gentleman whom I see at
this moment, who served in the Confederate Con
gress, and who had before served in the Senate of
the United States, brought them to the attention of
the Confederate. Congress, arid I class him with those
whose humanity was never burned out by the angry
fires of the rebellion. I allude to the Honorable and
now venerable Henry Stuart Foote.
" It is one of the rank offenses of Jefferson Davis,
Mr. Speaker, that besides conniving at the cruelties

308 Life of James G. Blaine.
at Andersonville, he concealed them from the South
ern people. He labored not only to conceal them,
but to make false statements about them. We have
obtained, and have now in the Congressional Library,
a complete series of Mr. Davis's messages— the offi
cial imprint from Richmond. I have looked over
them, and I have an extract here from his message
of November 7th, 1864, at the very time when these
horrors were at their height and their worst. Mr.
Davis said : —
" ' The solicitude of the Government for the relief of our
captive fellow-citizens has known no abatement, but has on
the contrary been still more deeply evoked by the additional
sufferings to which they have been wantonly subjected by de
privation of adequate ' food, clothing, and fuel, which they
were not even permitted to purchase from the prison sutler.'
" And he adds that the — -
" ' Enemy attempted to excuse their barbarous treatment by
the unfounded allegation that it was retaliatory for like con
duct on our part.'
"In answer to this atrocious slander by the
Confederate President, now become historic, I am
justified in declaring that there is not a Confederate
soldier living who has any credit as a man in his
community, and who was a prisoner in the hands of
the Union forces, who will sav that he wag ever

Andersonville Speech. 309
cruelly treated ; that he ever was deprived of jrist
such rations as the Union soldiers had — the same
food and the same clothing."
Mr. Cook, of Georgia — " Thousands of them say
it — thousands of them ; men of as high character as
any in this House."
Mr. Blaine — " I P^e issue npon that. There is
not one who can substantiate it — not one. As for
the measures of retaliation, although goaded by this
terrific treatment of our friends imprisoned by Mr.
Davis, the Senate of the United States specifically
refused to pass a resolution of retaliation, as contrary
to modern civilization and to the first precepts of
Christianity. No retaliation was attempted or jus
tified. It was forbidden, and Mr. Davis knew it was
forbidden as well as I knew it or any other man, be
cause what took place in Washington or what took
place at Richmond was known on either side of the
line within a day or two thereafter.
" Mr. Speaker, this is not a proposition to punish
Jefferson Davis. Nobody is attempting that. I
thought the indictment of Mr. Davis at Richmond,
under the administration of President Johnson, was
not justifiable, for he was indicted only for that of
which he was guilty in common with all others who
went into the Confederate revolt. But here and now
I express my firm conviction that there is .not a gov-

310 Life of James G. Blaine.
ernment, not a civilized government on the face of
the globe — I am very sure there is not a European
government — that would not have arrested Mr. Davis
at the close of the war, and when they had him in
their power would not have tried him for maltreat
ment of the prisoners of war, and shot him within
thirty days. France, Russia, . England, Germany,
Austria, any of them would have done it. The poor
victim Wirz deserved his death for brutal treatment
and murder of many victims, but it was weak policy
on the part of our Government to allow Jefferson
Davis to go at large and to hang Wirz. Wirz was
nothing in the world but a mere subordinate, acting
under orders, and there was- no special reason for
singling him out for death. I do not say he did not
deserve it. He deserved no mercy, but, as I have
often said, his execution seemed like passing over the
president, superintendent, and board of directors in
the case of a great railway accident and hanging the
brakeman of the rear car.
" I repeat, there is no proposition here to punish
Jefferson Davis. Nobody is seeking to do it. That
time has gone by. The statute of limitations, the
common feelings of humanity, supervene for his
benefit. But what you ask us to do is to declare by
a vote of two-thirds of both branches of Congress
that we consider Mr. Davis worthy to fill the highest

Andersonville Speech. 311
offices in the United States, if he can find a con
stituency to indorse him. He is already a Voter; he
is at liberty to engage in any calling ; he can buy
and he can sell ; he can go and he can come. He is
as free as any man in the-United States. It is now
proposed in the pending bill for which the gentle
man from Pennsylvania stands sponsor, that Mr.
Davis, by a two-thirds vote of the Senate and a two-
thirds vote of the House,. shall be declared eligible
and worthy to fill any office under the Government
of the United States, including the Chief Magistracy
thereof. For one, upon full deliberation, I refuge my
assent to that proposition.
"One word, Mr. Speaker, by way of explanation,
which I omitted. It has been said in mitigation of
-Jefferson Davis's responsibility for the Andersonville
horror, that the men who died there (I think the
number was about twelve thousand) fell a prey to an
epidemic, and died of a disease which could not be
averted. The record shows this to be untrue. Out
of thirty -five thousand men about thirty-three . per
cent, died ; while of the soldiers encamped neai by
to guard the prisoners only one man in four hundred
died: — that is, within half a mile, only one in four
hundred died, while inside the stockade one in three
died. "As to the general question of amnesty, Mr.

312 Life of James G. Blaine. <
Speaker, as I have already said, it is too late to de
bate it. Whether the general and generous remission
of political disability by the Republicans has been in
' all respects wise, or whether it has been unwise, I will
not detain the House here and now to discuss. Even
if I had a strong conviction upon that question, I do
not know that it would be productive of any good to;
enunciate it at this time. But I must say it is a
singular spectacle that the Republicans, in possession
of the entire Government, have deliberately called
back into political power the leading men of the
South, nearly every one of whom is their bitter and
relentless and malignant foe ; and to-day, from -the
Potomac to the Rio Grande, the very men who have
received this amnesty are as busy as they were before
the war in consolidating the old slave States into one
compact political organization. We see the banner
held out, blazoned again with the inscription that
with the united South and a few votes from the
North this country can be governed. I want tlie
people to understand the character of the movement ;
to appreciate its animus, to measure its intent. But
I do not think that offering amnesty to the seven
hundred and fifty men who are now without it will
hasten or retard the course of events in the South.
"It is often said that 'we shall lift Mr. Davis
again into great consequence by refusing him am-

Andersonville Speech. 313
nesty.' That is not for me to consider. I only see
before me, when his name is presented, a man, who,
by a wave of his hand, by a nod of his head, could
have put an end to the atrocious cruelties at Ander
sonville !
' " Some of us had kinsmen there, many of us had
friends there, all of us had countrymen there. In
the name of those kinsmen, friends, and countrymen,
I here protest, and shall with my vote protest, against
calling back and crowning with the honors of full
American citizenship the man who stands responsible
for that organized murder."

CHAPTER XVII.
THE ATTEMPT TO INVOLVE ME. BLAINE IN A RAILROAD
BOND SCANDAL AND BREAK DOWN HIS POWER AS A
LEADER.— THE MULLIGAN EPISODE.  MR, BLAINE'S
DISCOMFITURE OF HIS ENEMIES.
The winter of 1875 and 1876 was the occasion of
general political excitement throughout the country
concerning the choice of a successor to President
Grant. The prejudice in the country against the
rule of military ideas in civil affairs created a dis^
trust of soldier candidates. It was believed by many
that it would be best- to have a candidate from civil
life. President Grant- was accused by some of the
leading newspapers of having aspirations for a third
term. This charge was\believed by many, although
it never had any foundation in fact. The New York
Herald was conspicuous with sensational articles on
" Csesarism." The whole public was warned against
the possible military dictatorship of Grant in the
form of a third term. This newspaper took great
credit to itself for putting an end to a movement
which never existed.
Mr. Blaine was the most prominent man men-
314

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 315
tioned as the Republican candidate. His record
was one which pleased the country. His success
as Speaker and his opposition to the Southern ele
ment in Congress concentrated public attention upon
him. The Southern members of Congress were
very much opposed to Mr. Blaine after his Ander
sonville speech. He showed then such a com
prehension * and appreciation of the Southern
policy of domination that they knew that if
he should become President he would be stronger
than any one then in the field to oppose them. He
had gone on the record in Congress frequently in
favor of cutting down their representation in the
House, and in the Electoral College, to a basis of
honesty and equality with the other sections of the
country. They feared him more than they would
any outsider, or new man, not so familiar with the
subject and not so ready in practical devices to se
cure a desired end. President Grant, with all his
military knowledge, lacked the practical knowledge
" of a civil administrator, and so he was powerless,
even with the aid of the army, to suppress the dis
orders and outrages in the South. Every fall elec
tion was "tlie occasion Of bloody outbreaks through
out the South. . Mr. Blaine, with his knowledge of
the channels of legislation, with his fertility of re
source, and his quick touch with the public, was just

316 Life of James G. Blaine.
the man to solve the Southern question. He was not
a great believer in rough and violent means for the
settlement of any question. It would have been
more in accord with his policy to have placed the
-Southern people clearly and absolutely in the wrong
by showing, through indisputable means, the injus
tice and the inequality of their share in the adminis
tration of national affairs. His capacity to do this
has never been questioned by the Southern men.
And when during the latter part of the winter of
1875, as it became evident that Mr.. Blaine was to
be the coming man of the Republican party, the
most rigid scrutiny was turned in the direction of
his past career to find, if possible, means to discredit
him before the people.
There was so much said upon the subject that the
ingenuity of Democratic associates at the North was
stimulated. Preceding the Credit-Mobilier exposure,
there were a number of paragraphs printed hinting at
tremendous exposures ; so before this movement upon
Mr. Blaine was made there were a number of pre
liminary publications. In these statements it was
/ charged that Mr. Blaine had received a large sum of
money, $64,000, as payment for a favorable decision
of his when Speaker of the House. The $64,000 in
question were said to have been paid to him by the
Union Pacific Railroad through its purchase of

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 317
$75,000 worth of land-grant bonds of the Little
Rock & Fort Smith Railroad. It was charged
that these bonds had no particular value at the time
of the sale, and that the bonds were used as a cover
to hide the direct payment of the money upon the
part of the Union Pacific Railroad. These publica
tions appeared in a number of newspapers and were
taken up so eagerly by the Democratic newspapers
as to convey the idea that they were only too de
lighted at last to have material to destroy Mr.
Blaine's character.
"These publications were made with some circum
stantiality early in April of that year, with the evi
dent purpose of influencing the Cincinnati Conven
tion, which was to meet on the 14th of June. On
the 24th day of April, 1876, Mr. Blaine arose in the
House, and, taking these various publications as
the basis of his remarks, made a personal explana
tion. He stated then his entire connection with the ,
Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad, and no sub
sequent investigation ever disclosed anything more
in the way of facts beyond what he himself freely
gave in this explanation. He did not ask for any
personal investigation for the reason that he knew
then that if the subject were to go to a committee of
investigation, the Democrats in charge of it would"
prolong the examination beyond the time of the

318 Life of James G. Blaine.
Convention, and would then perhaps delay their re
port until the last days of the canvass. He under
stood how hopeless it would be to be tried by any
partisan committee which would be controlled by
Southern members, eager and anxious to see him de
stroyed. So he made to the House this frank and
full statement, which covered denials from Sidney
Dillon, the President of the Union Pacific Railroad ;
Colonel Thomas Scott, and of Morton, Bliss & Com
pany, through whom the payment was alleged to
have been made, that they had ever paid Mr. Blame
any money at any time for any purpose whatsoever.
This Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad, whose
affairs were afterward made the subject of investiga
tion by the House, had quite an eventful history.
This history was never fully brought out in the in
vestigation of the House. There were so many sen
sational incidents, which occurred at the time of the
investigation and Mr. Blaine's coming so near death
from the sunstroke that followed, the plain history of
the road was lost sight of. Mr. Blaine's connection
with this road came through his brother-in-law,
Jacob Stanwood. The latter was associated in busi
ness with Warren Fisher, of Boston. The- Little
Rock & Fort Smith Railroad went to the public
with certairi securities based upon land grants which
were originally given to ,it before the war. The most

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 319
succinct history of this road and of its business con
nections with Mr. Blaine was given to the Republi
can National Committee in 1880, when Mr. Blaine
was a candidate for the Presidency of the United
States. This history came from ex-Senator McDon
ald, of Arkansas. In his declaration upon the sub
ject to the committee, he said that after the war the
carpet-bag speculators in Arkansas saw in him a con
venient capitalist, and invited him to come into Ar
kansas and settle. He had made a fortune at Fort
Scott, Kan., as a post trader. There was in Arkan
sas at that time a very active company of speculators
looking around for railroad possibilities. They
seized upon a lapsed land grant of the Little Rock.
& Fort Smith Railroad as a good, subject for their
first experiment. This grant was originally made
four or five years before the war. It was part of the
original land grants scheme of Stephen A. Douglas,
who originated the giving by Congress of land grants
to railroads in order to help the Illinois Central
Railroad, which began building in 1856. A number
of the Southern States were brought to support this
scheme at that time by having land grants given
them. None of them availed themselves of these
land grants before the' war. The war and its attend-
arit events caused the grants to lapse.
The speculators who took up the Fort Smith

320 Life of James G, Blaine.
& Little Rock land grant found the original
grant was for one million acres of land. They
thought there would be little trouble, in getting this
land grant renewed, as they expected to get, support
from the other Southern States which had had the
same character of grants. The argument in favor
of the restoration of these land" grants was a most
plausible one. The States to which they were
granted were impoverished by the war, and some
sort of aid .was needed to stimulate their depressed
commercial interests. Mr. McDonald, soon after
coming into the State? was elected to the United
States Senate by the political influence of the land
speculators. These men, who were interested in the
plan of reviving the Fort Smith land grant, had but
little money. But they had influence enough to
secure the solid support ofthe Arkansas delegation
in Congress.
The bills to renew the grant came up in 1871, two
years after Mr. Blaine was first elected Speaker. At
that time there was not one dollar invested in the
enterprise. The company was not organized, and
not a single bond or share of the stock had been
issued. Mr. McDonald is the authority for the
statement that no member of their delegation,, and
no one interested in the enterprise, ever spoke a word
to Mr. Blaine about the bill. There was no need to

PORCH OF THE BAR HARBOR COTTAGE.
(showing the Mirror Window.)

Diseomfiture of His Enemies. 323
so do. Mr. .Blaine could not have defeated the
measure if he had so desired. He might have been
able to delay it, but even then Only for a short time,
as the measure was passed through both Houses with
out a word of opposition or a dissenting vote.
Mr. Blaine's decision made in connection with this
measure was upon a point of order raised when the
bill was on its passage. It is one that any Speaker
would have been obliged to make, in simply follow
ing the rules of the House. After the bill was passed
its Arkansas projectors were unable to raise money
in their own State, even with the land grant, and
they went to Boston to raise the necessary money.
In Boston they met Mr. Bates, the President of
the Bank of Commerce, a man of high character
and standing. He took charge of the enterprise and
brought it to the attention of two promoters, Messrs.
Caldwell and Farrington. Mr. Caldwell soon he-
came the master spirit of the enterprise. It was he
who organized the original. company, and floated the
original bonds and stock. Mr. Caldwell was a very
large-minded man in financial affairs, and he bonded
the road for much more than was warranted. He
conducted the affair as a speculative and not as a
legitimate enterprise.
Mr. Caldwell, in pushing about for a market for
his borids, sought the support of Mr. Adams, the

324 Life of James G. Blaine.
founder of the express company bearing his name.
Mr. W. Fisher was then an intimate friend of. Mr-.
Adams, and it was on account of his relations with
the express company that he was put into the road.
Mr. Caldwell, soon after the organization of the com
pany, made Mr. Blaine the agent for the sale of these
securities in the State of Maine. He contracted to
pay him a handsome commission for the work. He
knew that Mr. Blaine had the confidence of the cap
italists of his State, and made ~ such representations
concerning the value of the road that Mr. Blaine
was induced to place some of the bonds among his
friends. And from this transaction dates the \ whole
trouble. Mr. Blaine did what no ordinary broker
would do. In selling the bonds he gave with them
a personal pledge of security.
Mr. Caldwell so over-bonded the road that it was
impossible to meet the interest. The first that Mr.
Blairie knew of this was the notification from Lot M.
Morrill, an investor, that the interest was not being
paid. Mr. Blaine then began to pay the interest on
these bonds bought by his friends -from his own
pocket. This drain on his private resources soon em
barrassed him greatly. At this time he had very
little reserve money, and this failure upon the part .
of the road to take care of its liabilities threatened
him with financial ruin. His letters written to Mr.

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 325
Fisher therefore were not written to Mr, Fisher as
an individual but to him as the chief officer, of the
defaulting road. Mr. Blaine's loss through this
transaction was at the time of the writing of thes_e
letters some $20,000.
Mr. Caldwell afterward made a large sum of money
out of the enterprise. With the money obtained by
the sale of bonds in New England, he constructed
twenty miles of the road, and then sold his rights to
Allen & Marquand of St. Louis, clearing by the
transaction some three-quarters of a million of dol
lars. The St. Louis men then sold this, property
in London for a million pounds sterling. Mr. W.
Fisher was thrown over by Mr. Caldwell, and he
was left with no other assets than Mr. Blaine's let
ters begging his road to do him justice. Mr. Fisher
kept these letters, believing that a malevolent con
struction could be put upon them, and , that they
would ultimately have value.
Mr. Qaldwell went to Europe after he had made
his handsome profit in the affair, and engaged in
railroad building in Italy. This is the explanation
of his .absence from the country at the time of ,the
investigation before the House of Representatives,
. although he was only too ready to cable to the
investigating committee the evidence of Mr. Blaine's
entire innocence of any. wrong-doing in sthe transac-

326 Life of James G. Blaine. .
tion, and that he had had relations with him early in
the affair only as a private individual, and that the
road never had any favors to ask of him in his offi
cial capacity.
The first explanation made by Mr. Blaine in the
House did not bring out the detail given in the state
ment of Mr. McDonald, but it gave the essential facts
of the history so far as they could then interest the
public. Mr. Blaine's critics, however, were more
unrelenting than ever. Mr. W. Fisher's book
keeper, James Mulligan, who had obtained posses
sion of a number of Mr. Blaine's letters to Mr. Fisher
bearing upon this transaction of the Fort Smith
bonds gave out dark hints to Democrats in Boston
that he had it in his power to ruin Mr. Blaine.
Mulligan was an Irishman, small in size and with
the mind and judgment, of the men of the small
bookkeeper class. His face was very small, his eyes
were sharp and cunning, while his smooth-shaven
face Wore always an expression of extreme reserve
and satisfaction. He had received some fancied
affront from Mr. Blaine while he was in the employ
ment of Mr. Fisher, and had cherished for a long
time a feeling of resentment against him. He was
also an extreme partisan Democrat. He belonged
to the class of reformers who had been coming to
the House of Representatives with tales of scandal

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 327
and stolen papers after the House Investigating Com
mittees had begun their work under Democratic
rule. He had no real knowledge of public affairs
or of men, and he had no means of correctly interpre
ting any of the letters which were in his keeping.
He construed every ordinary phrase in them relating
to money matters with the malicious perversion' of a
narrow and prejudiced mind. He misquoted from
them in his conversation with the Boston reporters,
and made out an incorrect abstract of their contents.
Some of the Democrats in the House heard of Mr.
Mulligan and of his mysterious hints as to what he
could' do to destroy Mr. Blaine.
It was only a few days before . the meeting of the
Convention at Cincinnati that the House Democrats
really got to work. A resolution of inquiry was in
troduced which did not mention Mr. Blaine, and the
proposer of it, Mr. Tarbox, of > Massachusetts, dis
claimed in reply to a question from Mr. Fryef that
it had any reference to Mr. Blaine. It was an inno
cently worded inquiry relating to land grant roads
in general. Mr. Tarbox had undoubtedly been in
communication with Mr. Mulligan, and was directly
aiming at Mr. Blaine when he introduced this reso
lution. It. must be remembered that Mr. Blaine
made no concealment of his early business relations
with the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad. As

328 Life of James G.' Blaine.
an investor he had lost some $20,000 through
his investments and was endeavoring to re
cover the lost money through a suit in the State of
Arkansas, at the time of the introduction of the Tar
box resolution. A resolution introduced by Mi'.
Luttrell, of California, relating to the Northern Pa
cific Railroad, was sent with the Tarbox resolution to
the House Judiciary Committee, presided over by
Proctor Knott, of Kentucky, a committee wholly
dorhinated by Southern influences. The Tarbox
resolution was introduced for the sole purpose of
giving Mr. James Mulligan an opportunity to come
to Washington and to tell his story and to publish
Mr. Blaine's letters to Warren Fisher.
Mr. Mulligan was subpoenaed as a witness in com
pany with Warren Fisher. Mr. Blaine learned by a
private dispatch from one of his friends in Boston
that these gentlemen were coming to testify against
him, and that his private correspondence, extending
through some years of business transactions, was to
be given out to the public with the most malevolent
constructions that could be placed upon them by par
tisan enemies. It was a time when investigations
were the order of the day, and when the public mind •
had become so stirred up by charges and counter
charges" that no man in public life cared to be con
sidered as the owner of any railroad bonds or stocks,N

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 329
no matter how legitimately they may have come into
his possession. It was an anxious time for Mr.
Blaine; of that there is no doubt. He was a very
ambitious man. He was in the prime of life. He
was the leader of his party, and nothing but adverse
circumstances of a cruel and unjust character could
prevent him from obtaining the nomination at Cin
cinnati, and with his popular following throughout
the country he could be equally certain of an elec
tion to the office of the President of the United
States. • ¦
He called upon Mr. Fisher, whom he had known
for many years, at his hotel soon after his arrival in
Washington. He asked him frankly if he came
there opposed to him, and Mr. Fisher said then that
he did not. It was clear that Mr. Fisher's busi
ness losses and the differences he had had in settling
with Mr. Blaine had created the first feeling of un-
kindness upon his part. If it had not been for this
feeling Mr. Fisher would in all probability have kept
Mr. Blaine's private correspondence to himself. As
it was, he was evidently ashamed when Mr. Blaine
confronted him, and he readily consented to give up
the letters. These letters either belonged to him or
to Mr. Blaine. Mr. Mulligan had simply been made
the temporary custodian of them by his employer,
Mr. Fisher. Mr. Blaine asked to see the letters, and

330 Life of James G. Blaine.
when he went over them, he decided to put them in
his pocket and keep them unless Mr. Mulligan would
consent to not use them as part of his testimony.
This was done with Mr. Fisher's consent. Mr.
Blaine was thoroughly justified in this course. As Mr.
3Iulligan refused to give the pledge, the letters were
¦ Mr. Blaine's private property after Mr. Fisher re-
' ' leased his title to them.
This act of Mr. Blaine was the subject of a sen
sational disclosure by Mr. Mulligan before the in
vestigating committee the next clay. The little Irish
bookkeeper was not to be balked of his revenge ;
he was not to be cheated out of posing as a hero of a
sensational episode. He went before the committee
and swore that Mr. Blaine came to him the night
before, and had gone down on his knees to beg him
, for the letters ; that Mr. Blaine had threatened to
commit suicide unless they were given to him, and
that in the midst of his pleading On his knees to the
little Irish bookkeeper and his threats to commit
suicide he had offered him an appointment to a for-1-
eign consulate if he would surrender the document?,
and afterward he had captured the letters, obtaining
permission to look at them on a pledge to return
them. ' This statement was a cunning mixture of
fact and Action. It was a fact that Mr. Blaine had
• called. It was a fact that he had demanded the let-

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 331
ters, arid that he had put them in his pocket and
had walked off with them. Mr. Fisher, Mr.' Mulli
gan's employer, was present during the greater part
of the visit. He saw Mr. Blaine when he arrived
and he saw him when he went away. The only time
when he was not present was when Mr. Blaine
stepped into Mr. Mulligan's room to obtain the let
ters. Mr. Fisher testified that at no time did Mr.
Blaine betray any particular excitement. He was
indignant, as any gentleman would be, at being put
in the position of having his private letters in the
hands of a small-minded and merciless enemy. Mr.
Mulligan's story of Mr. Blaine's pleading and threats
of suicide can be classed with the testimony of the
Washington grocer who swore before another inves
tigating committee that General Grant came floating"
in on a eloud through the window of his sister's
room. Mr. Mulligan, before the Committee, pretended to
give an abstract of the letters which were to prove
Mr. Blaine guilty of having improperly acquired
certain bonds of the Little Rock & Fort Srnith
Railroad. The committee then called upon Mr.
Blaine to produce the letters themselves. Mr. Blaine
declined to give the letters to the committee.
He submitted the letters to counsel, Matthew H.
Carpenter, a Republican lawyer, and Jeremiah S.

332 Life of James G. Blaine.
Black, one of the greatest Democratic lawyers in the
country. They both signed a declaration that the
letters were Mr. Blaine's private property, and that
the committee had no legal right to demand them. ,
This attitude of Mr. Blaine was at once construed
by the Democratic newspapers as evidence of guilt.
It took very little in those days to secure a convic
tion before a board of partisans. The fact that the
letters were withheld was' considered sufficient to
prove every charge that James Mulligan had made.
It was a very trying time for Mr. Blaine. He had
then been .eighteen years in public life, had served
six years as Speaker, and was in his fourteenth year
as a member of Congress. He had never before
been accused by any one of dishonesty, and had
properly prided 'himself upon his flawless honor and
upon the perfection of his record as a public man.
He had extreme pride, and the great sensitiveness
of a refined and high-minded man. The malignant
perversions of the facts of the situation which were
daily published humiliated him beyond expression.
It was now drawing near the close of an exciting
session on which he had been in daily attendance,
and where he had had his vital resources drawn
upon by being in the forefront of fiery, and partisan
debates. Now he was surrounded by friends eager to
advance his political fortunes as a presidential candi-

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 333
date, and the complications ensuing from the situation
in the Investigating Chamber of the House Judi
ciary Committee were enough to upset and unbal
ance the judgment of the strongest-minded man.
Outwardly, Mr. Blaine was composed. But he was
fully alive to the effect that was being produced upon
the public mind by the daily charges made against
him and which were published far and wide in the
newspapers of all parties. It was then that he re
solved to go before the House and expose the unfair
ness of the committee which was trying him, and
submit the letters which had been so much talked
about to the American public for its judgment. In
this Mr. Blaine acted wisely, and he secured for liim-
self such a reversal of public opinion that the in
vestigation was practically closed after he made his
second statement to the House.
The submission of the letters to the House came in
the nature of a surprise. Mr. Blaine had .been in
daily attendance upon the meetings of the Judiciary
Committee. ¦ There he managed his own case and
cross-examined. Mr. Mulligan. He produced the
witnesses who disproved nearly every word uttered
by this voluble witness, but so long as the letters
were kept back Mr.- Blaine's enemies were continu
ally saying that they contained the testimony which
would prove Mr. Mulligan's charges. Mr. Blaine

334 Life of James G. Blaine.
had the reputation of doing sensational and dramatic
things. This came from his habit of keeping his
own counsel until he was ready to act, and then he
moved with rapidity and celerity, and in the sur
prise created by the originality of his acts and by his
force when in motion the dull and the commonplace
men, who did not understand that method of tactics,
employed continually the words sensational and dra
matic to describe what he did.
In one sense of the word it was a dramatic scene
when Mr. Blaine arose to attack the Investigating
Committee which was aiming to destroy mOre than
his life ; his honor. There is no more cruel chapter
in partisan politics than will be found in the history
of this investigation of the House Judiciary Com
mittee. Its unfairness was shown at the close of Mr.
Blaine's address, and this too, came in the form of a
dramatic surprise as a climax to his address to the
House. The House was crowded to its utmost capacity
within five minutes after Mr. Blaine had risen to
speak. It was a hot June day. It was on the fourth
of June early in the afternoon that Mr. Blaine,
dressed in a closely -buttoned-up black frock suit,
took a position at the top of the first aisle on the Re
publican side and began to address the Speaker,
asking the privilege of making a personal explanar

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 335
tion. "There Was a subdued energy in Mr. Blaine's
manner which attracted the attention of everybody.
All present felt that a scene was imminent, and pages
were sent out scurrying all through the committee-
roorns to liotify members that something unusual was
on in the House, and that Mr. Blaine had the floor.
This was enough to bring every one into the cham
ber. When Mr. Blaine had fairly begun speaking
every member in the Capitol building was present,
while many Senators from the other side joined them.
Mr. Blaine never appeared better than as he walked
up and down the aisle, making his statement. He
was never more deliberate, never more at his ease,
and never more master of himself. When he reached
the close of his preliminary statement, and brandished
in the face of the House the package containing the
missing letters, there was a long murmuring move
ment of excitement which ran through the chamber.
The atmosphere of the room was stifling. Outside
the thermometer registered ninety-two in the shade.
The poor means of ventilating the House of Repre
sentatives made the atmosphere close, and the tem
perature was much higher than the out-door reg
istry. Mr. Blaine's statement was one which will impress
every one with its candor and frankness. This brief
explanation was made without any interruption, and

336 Life of James G. Blaine.
was listened to with the most profound attentions-
Mr. Blaine said :
"Mr. Speaker, on the second day of May this
resolution was passed by the House :
" ' Whereas it is publicly alleged, and is not denied
by the officers of the Union Pacific Railroad Com
pany, that that corporation, did, in the year 1871 or
1872, become the owner of certain bonds of the Lit
tle Rock & Fort Smith Railroad Company, for
which bonds the said Union Pacific Railroad Com
pany paid a consideration largely in excess of their
market or actual value, and that the Board' of Di
rectors of said Union Pacific Railroad. Company,
though urged, have neglected to investigate said
transaction ; therefore,
" 'Be it resolved, That the Committee on the Judi
ciary be instructed to inquire if any such transaction
took place, and, if so, what were the circumstances
or inducements thereto, from what person or persons
said bonds were obtained, and upon what considera
tion, and whether the transaction was from corrupt
design or in furtherance of any corrupt object ; and
that the committee, have power to send for persons
and papers.'
" That resolution on its face, and in its fair intent,
was obviously designed to find out whether any im
proper thing had been done by the Union Pacific

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 337.
Railroad Company ; and of course, incidentally there
to, to find out with whom the transaction was made.
"No sooner was the sub-committee designated
than it became entirely obvious that the resolution
was solely and only aimed at me. I think there had
not been three questions asked until it was evident
that the investigation was to be a personal one upon
me, and that the Union Pacific Railroad, or any
other incident of the transaction, was secondary, in
significant, and unimportant. I do not complain of
that ; I do not say that I had any reason to complain
of it. If the investigation was to be made in that
personal sense, I was ready to meet it.
" The gentleman on whose statement the accusa-
sion rested was first called. He stated what he knew
from rumor. Then there were called Mr. Rollins,
Mr. Morton, and Mr. Millard, from Omaha, a Gov
ernment director of the Union Pacific Road, and fi
nally Thomas A. Scott. The testimony was completely
and conclusively in disproof of the charge that there
was any possibility that I could have had anything to
do with the transaction. When the famous witness
Mulligan came here loaded with information in re
gard to the Fort Smith Road, the gentleman from
Virginia drew out what he knew had no reference
whatever to the question Of investigation. He then
and there insisted on all of my private memoranda

838 Life of James G. Blaine.
being allowed to be exhibited by that man in refer
ence to business that had no more connection, no-
more relation, no more to do with that investigation
than with the North Pole.
" And the gentleman tried his best, also, though I .
believe that has been abandoned, to capture and use
and control my private correspondence. This man
has selected, out of correspondence running over a
great many years, letters which he thought would be •.
peculiarly damaging to me. He came here loaded
with them. He came here for a sensation. He came
here primed. He came here on that particular errand.
I was advised of it, and I obtained those letters under
circumstances which have been notoriously scattered
over the United States, and are known to everybody.
I have them. I claim that I have the entire' right
to those letters, not only by natural right, but by all
the principles and precedents of law, as the man who
held those letters in possession held them wrong
fully. The committee that attempted to take those
letters from that man, for use against me, proceeded
wrongfully. It proceeded in all boldness to a most
defiant violation of the ordinary private and personal
rights which belong to every American citizen. I
wanted the gentleman from Kentucky and the gen
tleman from Virginia to introduce that question upon
this floor, but they did not do it.

MR. BLAINE AT SIXTY.
Secretary of State in the Harrison Cabinet.

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 341
" I stood up and declined, not only on the conclu
sions of my own mind, but by eminent legal advice.
I was standing behind the rights which belong to
every American citizen, arid if they wanted to treat
the question in my person anywhere in the legisla
tive halls, or judicial halls, I was ready. Thea there:
went forth everywhere the idea and impression that
because I would not permit that man, or any man
whom I could prevent from holding as a menace
over my head my private correspondence, there must
be in it something deadly and destructive to my rep
utation. I would like any gentleman to stand up
here and tell me that he is willing and ready to
have his private correspondence scanned over and
made public for the last eight or ten years. I
would like any gentleman to say , that. Does it
imply gnilt ? Does it imply wrong-doing ? Does
it imply any sense of weakness that a man will pro
tect his private correspondence ? No, sir ; it is the
first instinct to do it, and it is the last outrage
upon any man to violate it.
"Now, Mr. Speaker, I say that I have defied
the power of the House to compel me to produce
these letters. I speak with all respect to this
House. I know its powers, and I trust I respect
them. But I say that this House has no more power
to order what shall be done or not done with my
on

342 Life of James G. Blaine.
private correspondence than it has with what I
shall do in the nurture and education of my chil
dren, not a particle. The right is as sacred in the
one case as it is in the other. But, sir, having vin
dicated that right, standing by it, ready to make any
sacrifice in the defense of it, here and noW if any gen
tleman wants to take issue with me ©n behalf of this
House I am ready for any extremity of contest or
conflict in behalf of so sacred a right. And while I
am so, I am not afraid to show the letters. Thank
God Almighty, I am not ashamed to show them.
There they are (holding up a package of letters).
There is the very original package. And with some
sense of humiliation, with a mortification I do not
attempt to conceal, with a sense of the outrage which
I think any man in my position would feel, I invite
the confidence of forty-four millions of my country
men while I read those letters from this desk." [Ap
plause.] As Mr. Blaine uttered the last sentence he turned
to his desk, and catching with a swift movement the
package of letters, held them up in his. right hand.
At his attitude and pose of defiance there was a
storm of applause. Mr. Blaine then proceeded to
read these letters. It is not necessary to cumber the
record with them all, for the reason that even his

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 343
most extreme enemies have never claimed that there
were more than two of them capable of a construc
tion unfavorable to Mr. Blaine. The others related
to the business transactions growing out of Mr.
Blaine's relations with Mr. Fisher, The one letter
which was used by the caricaturists of the time, and
by the opponents of Mr. Blaine was that which Mr.
Blaine, in speaking of his co-operation in the affairs
of the Little Rock '& Fort Smith Road, said : " I do
not feel that I shall prove a deadhead in the enter
prise if I once embark in it. I see various channels
in which I know I can be useful."
The letter in which Mr. Mulligan says that Mr.
Blaine admits the receiving the $64,000 is one that
was never used by his enemies. In reality, this letter
shows that Mr. Blaine was a victim in the whole
affair, and a loser of some $20,000. The second let
ter, which is considered to have an unfavorable bear-
ing upon Mr. Blaine's position, was submitted to the
House with the following introduction by Mr.
Blaine :
" In the autumn, six or eight months afterward, I
was looking over the Globe, probably with some
curiosity if not pride, to see the decisions I had
made the first five weeks I was Speaker. I had not
until then recalled this decision of mine, and when I

344 Life of James G. Blaine.
came across it all the facts came back to me fresh,,
and I wrote this letter :
'"(Personal.)
" Augusta, Maine, Oct. 4th, 1869.
" ' My Dear Sie : — I spoke to you a short time
ago about a point of interest to your railroad com
pany that occurred at the last session of the
Congress. " ' It was on the last night of the session^ when the
bill renewing the laud grant to the State of Arkan
sas, for the Little Rock road was reached, and Julian,
of Indiana, chairman of the Public Lands Com
mittee, and by right entitled to the floor, attempted
to put on the bill as an amendment, the Fremont El
Paso scheme — a scheme probably well known to
Mr. Caldwell. The House was thin, and the Lobby
in the Fremont interest had the thing all set up, and
Julian's amendment was likely to prevail if brought
to a 'vote. Roots arid the other members from
Arkansas, who were doing their best for their own
bill (to which there seemed to be no objection), were
in despair, for it was well known that the Senate
was hostile to the Fremont scheme, and if the
Arkansas bill had gone back to the Senate with
Julian's amendments, the whole thing would have
gone on the table and slept the sleep of death.

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 345
" ' In this dilemma Roots came to me to know what
on earth he could do under the rules ; for he said it
was vital to his constituents that the bill should
pass. I told him that Julian's amendment was
entirely out of order, because not germane ; but he
had not sufficient confidence in his own knowledge
of the rules to make the point, but he said General
Logan was opposed to the Fremont scheme and
would probably make, the point. I- sent my page to
General Logan with the suggestion, and he at once
made the point. I could not do otherwise than
sustain it, and so the bill was freed from the mis
chievous amendment moved by Julian, and at once
passed without objection.
" 'At that time I had never seen Mr. Caldwell,
but you can tell him that, without knowing it, I did
him a great favor. " ' Sincerely yours,
" ' J. G. Blaine.
'"W. Fisher, Jr., Esq.,
" ' 24 India Street, Boston."
" The amendment referred to in that letter will
be found in The Congressional Globe of the first
session of the Forty-first Congress, page 702. That
was before the Boston persons had ever touched the
road. •..**?

346 Life of James G.Blaine.
" There is mentioned in another letter $6,000 of
land-grant bonds of the Union Pacific Railroad for
which I stood as only a part owner ; these were only
in part mine. As I have started to make a personal
explanation, I want to make a full explanation in
regard to this matter. Those bonds were not mine
except in this sense : In 1869, a lady who is a
member of my family, and whose financial affairs I
have looked after for many years — many gentlemen
will know to whom I refer without my being more
explicit — bought, on the recommendation of Mr.
Hooper, $6,000 in land-grant bonds of the Union
Pacific Railroad as they were issued in 1869. She
got them on what was called the stockholder's basis ;
I think it was a very favorable basis on which they
distributed the Bonds. These $6,000 of land-grant
bonds were obtained in that way.
" In 1871 the Union Pacific Railroad Company
broke down, and these bonds fell so that they
were worth about forty cents on the dollar. She
was anxious to make herself safe, and I had so
much confidence in the Fort Smith land bonds
that I proposed to her to make an exchange. The
six bonds were in my possession, and I had pre
viously advanced money to her for certain pur
poses, and held a part of these bonds as security.
for that advance. The bonds, in that sense, and in

Discomfiture of His Enemies, 347
that sense only, were mine — that they were security
for the loan which I had made. They were all lit
erally hers ; they were all sold finally for her ac
count — -not 0ne of them for me. I make this state
ment in order to be perfectly fair."
The lady referred to in the statement given by
Mr. Blaine was Miss Dodge (Gail Hamilton). When
Mr. Blaine finished reading the letters he tossed
them back on his desk with an air of fierce con
tempt, and then moved down the aisle toward the
.Democratic side. It was , evident from his manner
that he had by no means closed the story of his case
by the presentation and reading of these letters.
With the air of a man who has nothing to fear from
the judgment of the public to which he had made
his explanation and appeal, he proceeded to say, with
increased. emphasis and energy : "I do not wish to
detain the House, but I have one or two more obser
vations to make. The specific charge that went to
the committee as it affects me is whether I was a
party in interest to the sixty-four-thousand-dollar
transaction, and I submit that up to this time there
has not been one particle of proof before the commit
tee sustaining that charge. Gentlemen have said
that they heard somebody else say, and generally,
when that somebody else was brought on the stand,
it appeared that he did not say it at all. Colonel

348 Life of James G. Blaine.
Thomas A. Scott swore very positively and dis
tinctly, under the most rigid cross-examination, all
about it. Let me call attention to that letter of mine
which Mulligan says refers to that. I ask your at
tention, gentlemen, as closely as if yOu were a jury,
while I show the absurdity of that statement. It is
in evidence that, with the exception of a small frac
tion, the bonds which were sold to parties in Maine
were first mortgage bonds. It is in evidence, over
and over again, that the bonds which went to the
Union Pacific Road were land-grant bonds. There-
' fore, it is a moral impossibility that the bonds taken
up to Maine should have gone to the Union Pacific
Railroad. They were of different series, different
kinds, different colors, everything different, as dif
ferent as if not issued within a thousand miles of
each other. So, on its face, it is shown that it
could not be so.
"There has not been, I say, one positive piece
of testimony in any direction. They sent to
Arkansas to get some hearsay about bonds. They
sent to Boston to get some hearsay. Mulligan
was contradicted by Fisher, and Atkins and
Scott swore directly against him. Morton, of
Morton, Bliss & Co., never heard my name in
the matter. Carnegie, who negotiated the note,
never heard my name in that connection. Rollins

.Discomfiture of His Enemies. 349
said it was one of the intangible rumors he spoke of
as floating in the air. Gentlemen who have lived
any time in Washington need not be told that in
tangible rumors get very considerable circulation
here ; and if a man is to be held accountable before
the bar of public opinion for intangible rumors, who
in the House will stand ?
" Now, gentlemen, those letters I have read were
picked out of correspondence extending over fifteen
years. The man did his worst, the very worst he
could, out of the most intimate business correspond
ence of my life. I ask, gentlemen, if any of you,
and I ask it with some feeling, can stand a severer
scrutiny of, or more rigid "investigation into, your
private correspondence ? That was the worst he
could do.
" There is one piece pf testimony wanting. There
is but one thing to close the complete circle of evi
dence. There is but one witness whom I could not
have, to whom the Judiciary Committee, taking into
account the great and intimate connection he had with
the transaction, was asked to send a cable dispatch,
and I ask the gentleman from Kentucky, if that cable
dispatch was sent to him ?"
As Mr. Blaine concluded this last sentence he was
down at the front on the Republican side. Proctor
Knott, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, occu-

350 Life of James G. Blaine.
pied a seat at a front desk on the Democratic side.
He is a man of medium height, with a fiery red
face, set off by a snowy white mustache and white
hair. His disposition is sluggish, and he turns about
in debate with great deliberation. He is anything
but a ready man. There was no one in the House
more surprised than he when Mr. Blaine launched
this first question at him. The sympathy of the
audience was thoroughly with Mr. Blaine, as it is
always with any one who is gallantly maintaining
himself against a persecution, instead of a prosecu
tion. If he had been on trial for his life the interest
and excitement could not have been greater. As
Mr. Blaine made this inquiry, Mr. Frye, of Maine,
called out, "Who?"
Mr.' Blaine replied, without turning in Mr. Frye's
direction, keeping his entire regard concentrated upon
Mr. Knott—" To Josiah Caldwell."
Mr. Knott was now on his feet. He was evi
dently much disturbed at being made the focus of
attention of this great audience, with Mr. Blaine
towering above him in an attitude of stern indigna
tion. The positions in the twinkling of an eye had
become changed. Mr. Blaine was now the prose
cutor, and Mr. Knott was on trial before the public.
Mr. Knott said — " I will reply to the gentleman
that Judge Hunton and myself have both endeav-

^Discomfiture of His Enemies. 351
ored to get Mr. Caldwell's address, and have not yet
got it."
- Mr. Blaine at this became aggressive. He even
advanced in Mr. Knott's direction, so that only a
r few feet separated them, as he said — " Has the gentle
man from Kentucky received a dispatch from Mr.
Caldwell?" To this Mr. Knott said — " I will explain that di
rectly." Mr. Blaine now came at him with a perfectly furi
ous rush, and imperiously called out — " I want a cate
gorical answer."
Mr. Knott, standing still at his desk, and looking
stolidly at Mr. Blaine, said — " I have received a dis
patch purporting to be from Mr. Caldwell." Mr.
Knott laid great emphasis upon the word " purport-
ing." At this Mr. Blaine assumed a triumphant air as he
said— "You did?"
It was now Mr. Knott's turn to question. He
asked, still laboring under the disadvantage of the
surprise so suddenly sprung on him — " How did you
know I got it ?"
Mr. Blaine, however, was the examiner. He came
back at Mr. Knott with another question, delivered
with the same intense energy and with the rapid
utterances of indignation. " When did you get it ?"

352 Life of James G. Blaine.
he asked. " I want the gentleman from Kentucky to
answer. when he got it."
Mr. Knott said — "Answer my question first."
Mr. Blaine — "I never heard of it until yester-
nay." Mr. Knott—" How did you hear it ?"
Mr. Blaine now appeared to be content for the
moment with the confession that he had drawn from
Mr. Knott acknowledging the receipt of a dispatch
from Mr. Caldwell. He stepped forward to Mr.
Knott's desk and right to his face he said, "I heard
you got a dispatch last Thursday morning at eight
o'clock from Josiah Caldwell completely and abso
lutely exonerating me from this charge, and you
have suppressed it."
This very remarkable declaration charging ex
treme unfairness upon the part of the chairman
of the committee, and reflecting most seriously
upon the honor of the committee, was followed by a
perfect storm of applause throughout the chamber.
Hardly had this applause come to an end than
Mr. Blaine mercilessly pursued his advantage, as he
said, "I want the gentleman to answer." Then
there was a very dramatic pause during which Mr.
Knott said nothing but shrugged his shoulders con
temptuously. Mr. Blaine continued, " Does the gentlemari from

354 Life of James G. Blaine.
Kentucky decline to answer ? The gentleman from
Kentucky in responding probably, I ' think from
what he said, intended to convey the idea that I had
some illegitimate knowledge of how that dispatch
was obtained. I have had no communication with
Josiah Caldwell. I have had no means of knowing
from the telegraph office whether the dispatch was
received. But I tell the gentleman from Kentucky
that murder will out, and secrets will leak. , And I
tell the gentleman now, and I am prepared to state
to this House, that at eight o'clock on last Thursday
morning, or thereabouts, the gentleman from Ken
tucky received and receipted for a message ad
dressed to him from Josiah Caldwell, in London,
entirely corroborating and substantiating the state
ment of Thomas A. Scott, which he had just read in
the New York papers, and entirely exculpating me
from the charge which I am bound to believe, from
the suppression of that report, that the gentleman is
anxious to fasten upon me." [Protracted applause
from the floor and galleries.] *
This- blunder, to call it by the mildest word, of the
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee gave
Mr; Blaine great advantage. And while it would be
too much to assume that the enemies of Mr. Blaine
were any the less disposed to attack him after this

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 355
explanation in the House, the fact yet remains that
this explanation and exposure of the methods of the
committee practically put an end to the inyestiga-
tion. There were only one or two meetings after
that, and the testimony brought out by them was not
thought worthy of summarizing, even in the form of
a report. The unfairness in the suppression of the
dispatch from Mr. Caldwell has a much better illus
tration in a subsequent examination before the House
Judiciary Committee than was given in the colloquy
between Mr. Blaine and Mr. Knott in the House of
Representatives. Mr. Knott failed to submit the tele
gram in question even before the committee, and it was
never made a part of the record of the Investigating
Committee as it was officially received by him. A
copy of it was offered by Mr. Frye, a member ofthe
committee, but it was not admitted into the official
records of the testimony taken. Mr. Blaine's cross-
examination of Mr. Knott concerning this dispatch
was much more searching in the committee-room, at
the session held on the 7th of June than the one
which took place in the House on the 4th of that
month. Those who still believe that this investiga
tion was an impartial one should read with care this
second colloquy which took place between Mr.
Blaine and Mr. Knott in the committee-room. Mr.
Blaine had gone to the committee-room for the pur-

356 Life of James G. Blaine.
pose of insisting that the Caldwell dispatch should
go on the record, and that 'Mr. Knott should incor
porate this evidence of his innocence of the charge
made with the evidence offered by Mr. Mulligan.
In the committee-room Mr. Knott turned to Mr.
Blaine as he said : " You have asked some questions
about that- telegram."
The following questions and answers made the
practical closing chapter of this attempt upon the
part of the Judiciary Committee to break down
and octroy Mr. Blaine. This colloquy was as
follows :
Mr. Blaine — Yes; I have several to ask if you
will do me the horior to answer them.
- Mr. Knott — What was your question ?
Mr. Blaine — I want to know whether you are
going to produce that telegram to the House of Rep
resentatives ?
Mr. Knott— I never had any other intention than
to produce that telegram to the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Blaine — You had it. in your pocket five days
at the time I brought it into the House.
Mr. Knott — I am aware that I had it five
days. Mr. Blaine — Did you, during Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, or Sunday, deny to newspaper correspond
ents that you had heard from Josiah Caldwell ?

INTERIOR OF THE CABINET ROOM.

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 359
- Mr. Knott — I will make a statement about that
telegram in full.
Mr. Blaine — That is a question susceptible of a
very direct answer.
Mr. Knott— I received that telegram on Thursday
morning. I will state, as particularly as- 1 can recol
lect, the circumstances. I had gone to my break
fast. After breakfast I took a walk as usual — some
what protra'cted. , I came back to my room and my
wife called my attention to the telegram. I took it
up and read it, and immediately started to the Cap
itol. That telegram excited my suspicion for this
reason : A proposition had been made some time
before, by some member of the Judiciary Committee
(I don't know by whom, for I was not present), that
a telegraphic dispatch should be sent to Josiah Cald
well to know if he would return to this country and
testify. That proposition was resisted, as I was in
formed, by Mr. Blaine and by Mr. Blaine's friends.
Mr. Blaine — Oh the ground that it was utterly
and preposterously absurd, because you could not get
him to come.
Mr. Knott — On the ground that he could not be
got. Mr. Blaine — Yes ; and that if he would not come,
it would then be said that he would not come because
his testimony would be unfavorable to me. It would

360 Life of James G. Blaine.
be said, " Oh ! yes ; he cannot come ; he is conven
iently absent in Europe."
Mr. Knott— I do not desire to be interrupted any
more in my statement. Some days afterward the
question was again raised in the Judiciary Commit-.
tee as to whether a telegraphic dispatch should be
sent asking Mr. Caldwell if he would come and
testify. In that instance, also, Mr. Blaine's friends
resisted the motion.
M,r. Blaine — On the same grounds.
Mr. Knott — It nevertheless prevailed. The Com
mittee on the Judiciary instructed me to send such a
telegraphic dispatch to Mr. Caldwell. I did not
know where Mr. Caldwell was to be found. I went
to the Representative from Boston, Mr. Warren,
thinking that he would know, and asked him where
Mr. Caldwell might be found. He told me he did
not know. I asked him to inquire, telling him that
I had been instructed by the committee to send a
dispatch to Mr. Caldwell. He said he would write
to a gentleman in Boston and ascertain. In the
meantime I went to Judge Hunton and told him I
had a great variety of things on hand, and asked
him to take hold of that matter and find out where
Mr. Caldwell was, and to telegraph to him in my
name. Mr. Warren, some days afterward, came to
me and told me that he had received a letter from his

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 361
r
friend in Boston, inforriiing him that Mr. Caldwell
was somewhere, I think, in Italy. When, therefore,
I received a dispatch from Mr. Caldwell, without
having dispatched to him, it occurred to me that it
was suspicious.
Mr. Blaine — Would not the publication of it have
exposed it ?
Mr. Knott — I beg the gentleman not to interrupt
me. Furthermore, there was simply at the top of
the dispatch the word " London," no month, no day,
no place, no street, no house. I knew nothing about
these cable-dispatches — had never sent one in my
life, and never even saw one before that. I have
since been informed that it is customary in London
to keep the addresses of persons sending dispatches,
and not to put the address in the dispatch itself. I
did not know it at that time, and I don't know it now
except from information. As soon as I could, after
reading that dispatch, I came to the Capitol and read
it to Judge Lynde, and, I think, to Judge Lord, Mr.
Jenks, and Mr. McMahon.* I think it was to these
four gentlemen that I read it ; I know that these four
gentlemen were present at the meeting, and my im-
pressiori is that they were there when I read the dis
patch. I am confident that Judge Lynde was. That
was on Thursday. On Friday there was a meeting
of the committee. A variety of subjects were under

' 362 . Life of James G. Blaine.
consideration, and this matter, so far as I know, was
not mentioned.
Mr. Blaine — You did not think of mentioning the
telegram to the committee ?
Mr. Knott — I did not think of it. The truth is,
Mr. Blaine, I had a great many things to think of
besides your Presidential aspirations. I am free to
say I do not recollect that it occurred to me at all.
Mr. Blaine — I am not alluding to myself, but to
the dispatch. That might have occurred to you.
Mr. Knott. — I say I do not recollect that it oc
curred to me at all.
Mr. Blaine— Did you read it to any other mem
bers of your comrnjttee besides Mr. Hunton and Mr.
Lynde ?
Mr. Knott — Those were the only persons.
Mr. Blaine — Are those the only persons that you
mentioned it to ?
Mr. Knott — Let me get through. I have told you
I did not want to be interrupted. On that same
occasion, while we were in the committee-room, Mr.
McMahon came over and described a scene which
was taking place in this room, and in which he said
Mr. Mulligan had stated that Mr. Blaine had come
before him and got letters from him under promise
to return them, almost getting on his knees, etc. —
describing the scene as it had been described by the

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 363
witness. Whether it was on the next day or on that
same day I do not now remember, I mentioned the
fact to Mr. Hunton that I had received a telegraphic
dispatch from Mr, Caldwell, and repeated to him the
contents of the dispatch. I did not read it to him.
I told him of it, however.
Mr. Hunton — And you stated your suspicions in
regard to it ?
Mr. Knott- — I stated my suspicions in regard to
it, saying I thought it was a trick. I did not regard
the telegraphic dispatch as a matter of evidence in
any sense of the word. Had a dispatch come from
Mr. Caldwell saying that Mr. Blaine was guilty — -
that he had got the bonds from him- — it would have
been injustice to Mr. Blaine to have given it to the
public. Mr. Blaine— You will permit me, however, to be-
. lieve that it would have got out pretty soon.
Mr. Knott — What did you say, sir ?
Mr. Blaine — I do not think that you would have
kept back testimony that would have hurt me ; that
is what I have said, sir.
Mr. Knott- — Do you mean to say that I would
have done you such an injustice as that ?
Mr. Hunton — Let it be understood, gentlemen, that
there must not be any interruptions.
Mr. Blaine— I shall not interrupt the gentleman

364 Life of James G. Blaine.
further ; I know that the Cheeseborough dispatch —
let me make that remark —
Mr. Hunton — No, sir ; the floor has not been con
ceded. Mr. Knott — So far gs the Cheeseborough dispatch
is concerned, I know nothing about it. I have not
read it. All I have to say is that I have had a vari
ety of other things to think about and to attend to, and
I know nothing about it. So far as this dispatch is
concerned, however, it was my object to verify it, if
possible ; but in any event to present it to the com
mittee to do with as they saw proper, and to take any
action that they saw fit. That was my intention
even had not the scene taken place which did take
place on Monday ; that dispatch would have been
presented to this committee, perhaps, on the next
day. Mr. Blaine — Or some time along.
Mr. Knott — Before the report would come in, and
in time to subserve your purpose. I want to add
here, and Judge Hunton will bear me out in it, that
when the Tarbox resolution was introduced he and I
agreed that, in justice to Mr. Blaine; that thing ought
to be investigated as soon as possible, and that he
should be exonerated, if he were innocent. I under
stand it to be his desire, and the desire of his
friends —

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 365
Mr. Blaine (interposing) — Yes ; but in case this
dispatch were genuine —
Mr. Hunton — The rule must be observed that in
terruptions must not take place.
Mr. Knott — After the order of the committee had
been made that I should telegraph to Mr. Caldwell
I several times talked with Mr. Hunton, and asked
him if he had found out were Mr. Caldwell was. I
will say further that I considered it due to Mr.
Blaine that Mr, Caldwell's testimony should be
taken, if possible, and that if he refused to come at
the request of the committee Mr. Blaine could not be
blamed for it. As to the statement that I was sup
pressing that telegraphic dispatch, or that I had any
intention of keeping it from the committee, I de
nounce here, as I have denounced elsewhere, all in
sinuations to that effect as absolutely false.
Mr. Blaine — But I did not understand you, to
deny that you kept it in your pocket five days.
Mr. Knott — I say I kept the dispatch from the
time I received it.
Mr. Blaine — Now, if you are through, I will ask
you a simple question or two. ,
Mr. Knott — I did not myself receive that dispatch,
nor receipt for it. I do not know who executed the
receipt for it, but one night a boy wearing the uni
form of the telegraph company came to my room and

366 Life of James G. Blaine.
asked me to give him my initials, saying that there
was a dispatch at the office which had been lying
there for several days for Mr. Knott, and' he wanted
my initials to see whether I was the person to whom
it ought to be brought. I picked up a piece of paper,
wrote my full name upon it, and handed it to the
boy. I did not anticipate that a report would be
made in this case before this time, but I did intend
that that telegraphic dispatch should be laid before
the committee, and let the committee do what it
pleased in the matter. i
Mr. Blaine — When were you- intending to do
that? Mr. Knott — I had riot fixed any particular time
for doing it.
Mr. Blaine — Then I understand that you do not
call that suppressing a dispatch ?
Mr. Knott— I do not.
Mr. Blaine — Was it not suppressing it from the
public for the time being ?
Mr. Knott— What right had the public to it ?
Mr. Blaine— The same right that the public had
to all the inculpating testimony against me that went
out. Mr. Knott — It was not my fault that it went out.
Mr. Blaine— But it was your fault that that dis
patch did not get out.

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 367
Mr. Knott — My colleagues will all bear me witr
ness that in every investigation that has taken place
beforo a committee in which I have been engaged, I
have been particularly careful to prevent anything
from getting out that would inculpate anybody before
a report was made. I have been blamed by news
paper reporters for being so reticent, for the simple
reason that I did not' want any man to be blamed
through me, by ex-part'e statements made in a com
mittee-room. Mr. Blaine — You stated that you wanted to hold
that dispatch for the purpose of verifying its authen
ticity ; you thought that there might be something
indirect, or bogus, or " put up " about it. What
steps did you take to verify its authenticity ?
Mr. Knott — I wanted to find out Mr. Caldwell's
address. Mr. Blaine — You had this dispatch in your hands
from Thursday morning, the 1st of June, and never
.brought it to the notice ofthe public until I interro
gated you on the floor of the House on Monday, the
5th of June. In 'those intervening five days what
steps did you take to acquire information as to whether
that was an authentic dispatch ?
Mr. Knott — I took the only steps that I thought
I ought to take to. find out where Caldwellwas, and
fco telegraph to him.

368 Life of James G. Blame.
Mr. BlainC— Did it ever occur to you to telegraph
to the London office ?
Mr. Knott— No, sir.
Mr. Blaine — You are a lawyer, and, I presume, a
lawyer of prominence, else you would not be the
chief of the Judiciary Committee. If a dispatch
comes to you from Josiah Caldwell, what is the pre
sumption as to its authenticity ; that it is from Josiah
Caldwell, or that it is not ?
Mr. Knott — That depends upon circumstances.
Mr. Blaine— What is the presumption ?
Mr. Knott — If I knew that Josiah Caldwell was
in London, and if I had no other information to give
me ground for suspicion, I would presume that the
dispatch came from Josiah Caldwell.
Mr. Blaine — You had information that he was
building a railroad in Italy, near Turin, and Turin
is only forty-eight horirs from London. During
the course of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,
while you had this dispatch, did you not state to
one or more newspaper reporters that you had not
heard from Josiah Caldwell ?
Mr. Knott — I will state about that. I was met in
the rotunda by some gentleman whom I do not know,
and who asked me if I had heard from Caldwell.
Probably you [Mr, Blaine] know who that gentle
man is. I do not, and would not know him now if I

Discomfiture of His F/nemies. 369
saw him. My reply to him was, " I have not yet
found out where Caldwell is."
Mr. Blaine — You got that dispatch on Thursday
morning, and on that day there was a regular meet
ing of the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Knott — No sir ; that was the day that Mulli
gan was examined here.
Mr. Blaine — You were here on Friday morriirig,
twenty-four hours after you got that dispatch,
Mr. Knott — Yes, sir.
Mr. Blaine — And you had a meeting called of the
Judiciary Committee on Saturday.
Mr. Knott — Yes, sir.
Mr. Blaine — Specially on my case
Mr. Knott — Yes, sir.
Mr. Blaine — And it does not seem to have occurred
to you at either of those meetings to say anything
about that dispatch.
Mr. Knott — I will explain that. In the first meet
ing we were engaged in general business. In the
second meeting we were engaged, from the time the
Committee convened until it broke up, in discussing
the proposition presented to us in reference to the
letters that you had obtained from Mulligan.
Mr. Blaine — Did you recollect then that you had
this telegram ?
Mr. Knott — I do not know whether it occurred to

370 Life of James G.Blaink
me or not, and I do not know that I should have
brought up the question at that time if it had oc
curred to me.
Mr. Blaine— Is it not probable that if you did not
recollect it when it was quite fresh you would have
forgotten it afterward ?
Mr. Knott — No, sir; I think hqt".
Mr. Blaine — When it was fresh you forgot it, but
you think that after it got old you would have recol
lected it ? Do I understand you correctly in that ?
I merely want to wind up by having the world
know that on the day that this dispatch came to Mr.
Knott, Mr. Lynde, Mr. Lord, Mr. Jenks, Mr. Mc
Mahon, and Mr. Hunton, of the House of Represen
tatives, all. knew of it. Mr. Lawrence,* of this sub
committee, I believe, knew nothing of it.
Mr. Lawrence — I heard nothing of it.
Mr. Ashe — [To Mr Blaine] I informed you this
morning that I heard nothing of it before I heard it
in the House.
Mr. Blaine — I have not mentioned your name as
one who had heard it.
Mr. Knott — I gave it as my impression that those
four gentlemen, whom I first named, were present
when I read the dispatch. ' I am confident that Mr.
Lynde was present, and my impression is that the
others were all present, too, when I read it out, with-
• Republican

Discomfiture of His .Enemies. 371
out any reservation whatever, in the room Of the
managers at tlie Senate end of the building.
. Mr. Blaine — Can you tell me what processes or
steps you are waiting on to publish the dispatch, or
to give it to the House ?
Mr. Knott- —I am going to give the dispatch to the
House through the regular channel — that is, through
the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Blaine — You had a meeting of this committee,
I think, yesterday ?
Mr. Knott — Yes, sir.
Mr. Blaine: — Did you bring that subject up ?
Mr. Knott — I referred the matter of your resolu
tion to the sub-committee. I suppose we will take
our own way of transacting our own business.
Mr. Blaine — Can you give any information to the
public as to when you expect to produce that dispatch ?
Mr. Knott — I do not choose to do so ; I choose to
transact business in my own way, so far as I am con
cerned. The public has had the substance of that
' dispatch from my own lips. I stated it on Monday.
Mr. Blaine — You said then that Mr. Caldwell in
that dispatch stated that he would send an affidavit
if necessary?
Mr. Knott — Yes, sir.
Mr. Blaine — That approaches to somethings like
testimony. . You said that that dispatch was no testi-

• Ws

372 Life of James G. Blaine.
mony. I understand you now to say that Mr. Cald
well offered to send an affidavit ?
Mr. Knott — To send an affidavit if it were required
or if it were necessary.
Mr. Blaine — That looked a good deal like a man
who was ready to give testimony.
Mr. Knott — It looked to me a good deal in this
way : that if I had sent to a man in London, asking
him to send over a dispatch exculpating me I would
probably make that very suggestion; and if he were an
intelligent man, he must have known that an ex parte
affidavit made in London could not be received as
evidence at all.
Mr. Blaine — Do you mean to imply by that that
you have any evidence of the, slightest character that
I have had, directly or indirectly, any, communica
tion with Josiah Caldwell ?
Mr. Knott — I have never said that you had.
Mr. B.laine — Your intimation just now meant that
or it meant nothing.
Mr. Knott— Well, suppose it did ?
Mr. Blaine — I want you to state whether you have
the slightest evidence of it, although I have heard
that you have been rummaging the telegraph offices
through the country for such evidence.
Mr. Knott— Then you have heard a lie ; that is
what you have heard.

Discomfiture of His Enemies. 373
Mr. -Blaine — I am very glad to hear it is a lie', but
I want this to be understood, whether you have the
slightest evidence that I have had, in any manner
whatever, any communication with Josiah Caldwell.
Mr. Knott — I have no evidence of it, and I never
have preiended that; I had any.
Mr. Hunton — I desire to make a brief statement
in regard to the efforts to find Josiah Caldwell. I
went to Mr. Knott a day or two after that order of
the Judiciary Committee to telegraph to Caldwell
was made, and asked him if he had sent the tele
gram. He said no ; that he had not been able to
find Caldwell's address. He asked me to assist him,
and he authorized me, if I found Caldwell's address,
to telegraph to him in his name. From the moment
that I went to Mr. Knott to know whether the tele
gram had been sent, I have been diligently, (and I
have reason to believe that several other gentlemen,
at my instance, have been diligently) employed in
seeking to get this information."
After this session the committee met only twice,
and then dropped the whole inquiry and abstained
from writing out any opinion upon the testimony
taken in accordance with the invariable custom of
such official inquiries.

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SAD CLIMAX TO THE PARTISAN ATTACKS UPON
MR. BLAINE. — THE SUNSTROKE AT WASHINGTON
AND ITS EFFECT UPON THE CINCINNATI CONVEN
TION. — HOW SUCCESS WAS THERE FINALLY LOST,
ONLY THROUGH BAD MANAGEMENT.
The trials and the excitement of the few days of
the close of the Mulligan episode had made an un
usual draft upon Mr. Blaine's physical resources. If
he had not been an extremely sensitive man, he
would have gone through this period with less ner
vous worry. There is a subtle poison in an atmos
phere of depreciation and slander for people of the
extremely nervous or sensitive type. General Grant,
who was outwardly stolid, a man without apparent
feeling, wa§ so cut to the heart by the charges
against his honor, made at the time of the colossal
failure, in 1880, of Grant & Ward, with which firm
he was connected, that he succumbed to the shock and
died from its effect as if he had actually received a
virulent poison in his veins. The physicians who
attended him at that time asserted that the period of
depression following the many charges, which were
374

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD.— (Cartoon.)
By permissi -n from Judge.

Partisan Attacks. , . 377
made against him produced the condition, which led
to the development of actual poison, that produced
his death.
Mr. Blaine, after the close of the episode of his
second explanation, in the House, felt the reaction
the moment he returned home. The heat and the
depressed condition of the atmosphere further con
tributed to his physical weakness. During the week
which ended on the 10th of June, 1876, he was
once or twice in his bed. He got up, against the ad
vice of his physicians, and went again to Proctor
Knott's committee-room to present his personal de-
mandfor justice. He was not'conscious of the strain
which he was undergoing. Saturday, June 10th, he
felt almost recovered. The Cincinnati Convention
was to meet the following Week, and he was anxious
to avoid even the appearance of illness, because his
enemies were disposed to use even that as a weapon
against him. The Mulligan episode had no bad ef
fect in the Convention. Mr. Blaine's explanation in
the House satisfied Republican opinion. The. proof
of this is shown by the fact that he polled within one
of the full vote that had been credited to him in the
previous calculations of the politicians representing
the various candidates' interests.
The leading candidates before the Convention when
it met were Mr. Blaine, Oliver P. Morton, B. H.

378 . Life of James G. Blaine.
Bristow, Mr. Conkling, Governor Hartranft, of Penn
sylvania, and ex-Postmaster-General Jewell, of"
Connecticut. Two of the candidates represented
were Cabinet officers under President Grant., They
were afterward retired at General Grant's request.
In the opinion of President Grant each had sought
to discredit his administration while holding office
under it, and he had called for their resignations.
Mr. Bristow, who was from Kentucky, combined his
forces with those of Governor Morton. Mr. Conk
ling was also in synipathy with Mr. Morton, and in
. the end a combination of these interests, under the
management of Mr. Conkling, led to Mr. Blaine's
defeat. Mr. Jewell, who received only eleven votes
on the first ballot, had his name withdrawn in the
succeeding ballot.
Mr. Blaine was defeated through lack of good man
agement upon the part of his friends and through the
force of unfortunate circumstances. He was then the
natural choice of the party. In connection with the
office of the President of the United States, Mr.
Blaine's life always seemed to be governed by an un
toward fate. The Mulligan episode had only
stimulated his friends, but just before the Conven
tion met Mr. Blaine was prostrated at Washington
by a sunstroke, and so during the opening of the
fight his fortunes were clouded by the thought of his

Partisan Attacks. 379
physical weakness, and the fear that he would not
regain his strength and ability to conduct the can
vass and to administer the office of President.
It was another proof that the unexpected was a
factor always to be counted upon in Mr. Blaine's
career. The Sunday morning when he was attacked
was a very quiet one. Even the politicians at Wash
ington took but little interest in the reports of the
gathering of the delegates at Cincinnati, as it seemed
then a foregone conclusion that Mr. Blaine would be
nominated, in some one of the early ballots, of the
Convention. Even the Democrats ^conceded this.
Mr. Blaine then lived on Fifteenth Street, opposite
the house occupied by Hamilton Fish on McPher
son Square. He left the house Sunday morning,
accompanied by his wife and Miss Abigail Dodge,
to atterid divine service at the Congregational Church,
at the corner of Tenth and G Streets. The distance
from his house was about a third of a mile. Mr.
Blaine walked. The excessive heat of the morning,
radiating from the asphalt pavements proved too
much for him. When he reached the church he be
gan to complain of the heat, and a moment later fell
prostrated by a sunstroke. Mrs. Blaine "at once
stooped and lifted his head. People who were about
entering the church came at once to his assistance,
and within the shortest possible time a carriage was

380 Life of James G. Blaine.
obtained and he was carried to his house. He was
placed on the floor in the front drawing-room. Dr.
Bliss, who was the first surgeon called to attend Geri^
eral Garfield when he was shot by Guiteau, was the
nearest physiciari. Dr. Pope, a homoeopathic physi
cian, was the regular attendant at the Blaine house,
but he was not reached until some time later. Mr.
Blaine remained unconscious for nearly six hours.
The news of his prostration flashed through ;the
Capital with lightning speed. President Grant, who
was at Annapolis, sent at once to learn news of his
condition, while the wires were burdened between
Washington and Cincinnati with the most sensa
tional reports. It was even telegraphed that he was
dead. Mr. Blaine, who was attacked late in the
morning, gave no sign of consciousness for three
hours afterward, and then he simply murmured his
wife's name. He gave no further sign until after
four o'clock. Then he began to come to, and the
physicians were able to state to the family that there
was no danger of his- death, and that he would
speedily recover. There was a crowd around the
front of Mr. Blaine's house all of the afternoon,
eager and anxious to learn the news of his condition.
When the bulletin was first published by the physi
cians that Mr. Blaine was out of danger the alarmists
who had telegraphed to Cincinnati that Mr. Blaine

Partisan Attacks. 381
' was dead now sent word that he had had an attack
of apoplexy, while others used the authority of Dr.
Bliss to report that Mr. Blaine had had an attack of
paralysis. Dr. G. W. Pope, the family physician, authorized
the following bulletin as correctly describing the na
ture of the attack and his condition at the time the
bulletin was written — six o'clock in the afternoon of
tlie day of the attack. This bulletin was as follows :
" Mr. Blaine's" trouble is one of cerebral depression
merely, produced by excessive mental strain com
bined with atmospheric heat. There is no apoplectic
condition whatever. He has partly recovered con
sciousness, and recognizes his family. The pupils of
his eyes are natural. He has spoken, and now lies
quiet and is disposed to sleep. He has responded
well to the treatment employed, and I have every
reason to anticipate that in a few days he will be re
stored to his usual health."
The tide of sympathy with Mr. Blaine had been
running in his direction ever since his exposure in
the House of the methods of his enemies, and now
that he was broken down from the strain Of this fight,
there was a most universal expression of kindness
and good feeling toward him. During the evening
of that day Mr. Blaine continued to improve. He
slept for nearly twenty-four hours and the following

382 Life of James G. Blaine.
day his physicians were able to report to the public
that he was rapidly recovering. If the President
of the United States had been lying seriously and
suddenly ill it could not have attracted more atten
tion. Ropes were stretched across the streets
at the ends of the block in which Mr.
Blaine's house was situated. Outside of this
inclosure the carriages of all the notable people
in Washington were packed while their owners came
on tiptoe to the door to make inquiry. The crowds
outside fraternized with the visitors who were per
mitted entrance to the house, eager for news, and no
one ofthe vistors refused to answer the inquiries of
these bystanders. Fortunately, there was a pleasant
change in the weather on Monday, so that the physi
cians, Monday evening, could say that Mr. Blaine
himself would probably be able on tlie following day
to write the dispatch describing his condition for the
information of his friends at Cincinnati. Tuesday
evening the prediction of the physicians was verified.
Mr. Blaine was able to sit up, and he wrote the fol
lowing dispatch to Mr. Hale, who was then • in
charge of his forces :
"Eugene Hale: — I am entirely convalescent,
suffering only from physical weakness. Impress
upon my friends the great depth of gratitude I feel

Partisan Attacks. 383
for the unparalleled steadfastness with which they
have adhered to me in my hour of trial.
"J. G. Blaine."
This dispatch was posted at all of the • political
headquarters in Cincinnati, and was the source of
great delight and encouragement to the Blaine
people. The Convention was to meet the following
day, Wednesday. When tlie Convention came to
meet, its organization was controlled by the Blaine
adherents. Edward McPherson, of Pennsylvania,
who had been the clerk ofthe House of Representa
tives for a number of years, was made permanent
Chairman. Mr. McPherson possessed a good knowl
edge of parliamentary law, but he had not the force
and individuality requisite to control a great assem
blage like a National Convention. He had in his
power at one particular time in the Convention to
have forced Mr. Blaine's nomination. When the
Blaine furore was at its height and was gaining votes
from every direction, Mr. McPherson permitted a
recess, which gave the opposition, under the able
lead of Mr. Conkling, plenty of time and full oppor
tunity to unite every one of the other candidates'
strength against Mr. Blaine. This was done with
great difficulty, and even then through the fault of
Mr. Hale, who overrated Mr. Blaine's strength, and

384 Life of James G. Blaine.
did not discount enough the possibilities of a pro
longed contest.
The Convention was formally organized on
Wednesday, the 14th. There was the usual routine
work to be performed, which occupied all of that
day. It was on Thursday that the nominating
speeches* were made. It was in this Convention that
the excessive cheering and extraordinary demonstra
tions, now common in such gatherings, favoring the
nomination, of a particular candidate began. This
manner of showing the strength of a candidate fol
lowed the nominating speech of Mr. Blaine by Col
onel Robert G. Ingersoll, of Illinois. This remark
able agnostic orator was then comparatively unknown
to the nation, although he was then beginning to
make a reputation for himself as an author of a
number of clearly-written and strongly-expressed
books on free thought. He was a lawyer by profes
sion, whose home was in Peoria, Illinois. He had
been the Colonel of an Illinois regiment during the
war, and had then, as he has to-day, an extraordinary
ability to capture the attention of an audience, to
compel it for the moment to think as he does, and to
move it to a perfect passion of enthusiasm under the
impulse of his imaginative powers and his frank and
manly method of going directly to the point of any
subject which he presents. He was then in the

Partisan Attacks. 385
neighborhood of forty years of age. No man has
ever sprung higher into prominence through the ef
fect of a five minutes' speech than did Colonel In
gersoll. Colonel Ingersoll has a most marked indi
viduality. He is nearly six feet in height, with a
broad, powerful frame. His head is very large and
round. In the Convention days of 1876, he was
' already quite bald and gray. His complexion is
high. His forehead is very broad, his eyes are blue
and deep set. His nose is nearly straight, turning
up slightly at the end, while the fine lines of his
mouth are unshaded by either mustache or beard.
He has a full, rich/ penetrating voice, and an
easy manner of address. Over his face flits the
emotions of his mind in such clear forms of
expression that the audience is brought into closer
contact with the speaker. In Illinois he had
learned the ways and manners of political audiences.
He had tried his powers as a political orator in the
local campaigns of his State. He felt deeply, and
was capable of great enthusiasm. He brought to the
support of Mr. Blaine the sincere admiration which
he had found in the study of his record. Up to that
time Colonel Ingersoll had not been brought into direct
personal contact with Mr. Blaine, except upon one
or two brief occasions. It was as much the manner
of Colonel Ingersoll before the Cincinnati Conven-

386 Life of James G. Blaine.
tion as the address itself which produced the out
break of enthusiasrii which followed. This speech,
the only thing which lives out of the proceedings of
that Convention, beyond the formal record of the
ballots cast, was as follows :
, "Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: —
Massachusetts may be satisfied with the loyalty of
Benjamin H. Bristow; so am I; but if any man
nominated by this Convention cannot carry the State
of Massachusetts I am not satisfied with the loyalty
of that State. If the nominee of this Convention
cannot carry the grand old Commonwealth of Massa
chusetts by seventy-five thousand majority I would
advise them to sell out Faneuil Hall as a Democratic
headquarters. I would advise them to take from
Bunker Hill that old monument of glory.
" The Republicans of the United States demand as
their leader in the great contest of 1876, a man of
intelligence, a man of integrity, a man of well-known
and approved political opinions. They demand a
statesman ; they demand a reformer after as well as
before the election.. They demand a politician in the
highest, broadest, and best sense — a man of superb
moral courage. They demand a man acquainted with
public affairs, with the wants of the people ; with riot
only the requirements of the hour, but with the de
mands of the future. [Applause.]

Partisan Attacks. 387
" They demand a man broad enough to compre
hend the relations of this Government to the other
nations of the earth. They demand a man well
versed in the powers,, duties, and prerogatives of each
and every department of this Government. They
demand a man who will sacredly preserve the finan
cial honor of the United States; one who knows
enough to know that the national debt must be paid
through the prosperity of this people ; one . who
knows enough to know that all the financial theories
in the world cannot redeem a single dollar ; one who
knows enough to know that all the money must be
made, not by law, but by labor ; one who knows
enough to know that all the people , of the United
States have the industry to make the money, and the
honor to pay it over just as fast as they make it.
[Applause.] " The Republicans of the United States denfand a
man who knows that prosperity and resumption,
when they come, must come together ; that when
they come they will come hand in hand through the
golden harvest-fields ; hand in hand by the whirling
spindles and the turning wheels ; hand in hand past
the open furnace doors ; hand in hand by the chim
neys filled with eager fire, greeted and grasped
by the countless sons of toil. This money has to.
be dug out of the earth. You cannot make it by "

388 Life of James G. Blaine.
passing resolutions in a political convention. [Ap
plause.] "The Republicans of the United States want a
man who knows that this Government should pro
tect every citizen at home and abroad ; who knows.
that any government that will not defend its de
fenders and protect its protectors, is a disgrace to
the map' of the world. They demand a man who be
lieves in the eternal separation and divorcement of
Church and State. They demand a man whose po- -
litical reputation is as spotless as a star ; but they do
not demand that their candidate shall have a certifi
cate of moral character signed by a Confederate Con
gress. The man who has, in full, heaped and
rounded measure, all these splendid qualifications, is
the present grand and gallant leader of the Republi
can party — James G. Blaine. [Great applause.]
" Oiir country, crowned with the vast and marvel- ,
ous 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 ; asks
for a man who is the grandest combination of heart,
conscience, and brain beneath her flag — such a man
is James G. Blaine. [Applause.]
"For the Republican host, led by this intrepid
man, there can be no defeat.
" This is a grand year — a year filled with recol-

Partisan Attacks. 389
lections of the Revolution ; filled with the proud and
tender memories of the past ; with the sacred legends
of liberty — a year in which the sons of freedom will
drink from the fountain of enthusiasm ; a year in
which the people call for a man who has preserved,
in Congress what our soldiers won upon the field ;
a year in which they call for the man who has torn
from the throat of treason the tongue of slander — for
the man who has snatched the mask of Democracy
froai the hideous, face of rebellion ; for this man who,
like an intellectual athlete, has stood in the arena of
debate and challenged all comers, and who is still 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 foreheads of the defamers
of his country and the maligners of his honor. For
the Republican party to desert this gallant leader
now is as though an army should desert their general
upon the field of battle. [Applause.]
" James G. Blaine is now, and has, been for years,
the bearer of the sacred standard of the Republican
party. I call it sacred, because no human being can
stand beneath its folds without becoming and without
remaining free.
"Gentlemen of the Convention, in the name ofthe

390 Life of James G. Blaine.
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, dead
upon the field of battle, ahd in the name of those
who perished in the skeleton clutch of famine at
Andersonville and Libby, whose sufferings he so
vividly remembers, Illinois— Illinois nominates for the
next President of this country that prince of parlia
mentarians, that leader of leaders — James G. Blaine."
For upward of twenty minutes following the close
of this address the audience cheered and applauded.
Hats were thrown in the air, handkerchiefs were
waved, and for a period the enthusiasm of the
audience seemed to partake of madness. The nomi
nating speeches for the other candidates were also
loudly applauded, but there was no such scene
awakened as that which followed the address of
Colonel Ingersoll. He was the great orator of the
Convention, and he had undoubtedly the most popu
lar subject. The union of these two elements pro
duced a scene of enthusiasm which has never been
equaled in any subsequent mention of Mr. Blaine in
any other National Convention.
The taking of the ballots did not come until the
following day — Friday. There were seven hundred
and fifty-six delegates in the Convention. Three

Partisan Attacks. 39J
hundred and seventy-nine votes were necessary to a
choice. The first ballot did not indicate the strength of
the leading candidates, as there were a number of
complimentary votes cast which went later to the
leaders. Mr. Blaine had on this ballot two hundred and
eighty-five votes; Morton, one hundred and twenty -
•.five ; Bristow, one hundred and thirteen ; Conkling,
ninety rnine ; Hayes, sixty-one ; Hartranft, fifty-
eight ; Jewell, eleven, and Wm. A- Wheeler, three.
Mr. Conkling led the opposition to Mr. Blaine.
He was active throughout the Convention, went from
delegate to delegate, and was ready at any time to
throw the votes controlled by himself to any one who
could defeat Mr. Blaine. Upon the next ballot Mr.
Blaine secured the eleven votes given to Mr. Jewell.
' Mr. Conkling lost six votes, and Mr. Morton lost
five. Mr. Hayes gained three votes.
The third ballot did not show much of any change.
Mr. Blaine lost three votes. On the fourth ballot
he gained back two of these, so that he was within
ninety-one votes of a nomination. Mr. Blaine's
friends were standing very firm, and were disposed
to stand by him to the very last. The two delega- _
tions that controlled the situation were the New
York and Pennsylvania ones. New York was un-

392 Life of James G. Blaine.
der the control of Mr. Conkling. This delegation
obeyed his orders as if they were members of a
militia company. Mr. Don Cameron, who was after
ward to succeed his father as Senator of the United
States, was at the head of the Pennsylvania delega
tion. General John A. Logan was the authority for
the statement that Mr. Cameron had visited. Mr.
Hale the night before, and had pledged-to him that
the Pennsylvania delegation would come to Mr.
Blaine solidly if that State could have in return a
pledge that it would have one representative in Mr.
Blaine's Cabinet. General Logari said that Mr.
Hale refused to make the pledge. He was so confi
dent that he had enough votes without the Pennsyl
vania delegation, and that Mr. Blaine's popularity
would in the end stampede the Convention,, that he
refused to accept Mr. Cameron's overtures. Thurs
day Mr. Blaine" was reported out and about, so that
the stories of his illness no longer counted" against
him. Pennsylvania was naturally for Mr. Blaine,
and that delegation would have gone solidly to him
with the slightest encouragement. As it was, the
fifth ballot showed a slight falling off for Mr. Blaine,
his vote going down to two hundred and eighty-
six. Upon the sixth ballot there was a reaction.
Twelve votes came back to him from: North Carolina,
and amid a scene of tremendous excitement the solid

MR. BLAINE'S LIBRARY IN HIS WASHINGTON HOME.

Partisan Attacks. 395
delegation of Pennsylvania was broken and fourteen
of their votes given to Mr. Blaine. It was evident
that he was to be nominated on the next ballot*
unless his opponents could all unite on some one
man. This is where Mr. McPherson failed in
his duty as a chairman and friend of Mr. Blaine.
Mr. Hale on the floor was pushing for a vote
upon the next ballot. Mr. McPherson permitted
a respite in the proceedings long enough for the
New York and Pennsvlvania delegations to with-
draw for consultation, where, under the powerful
pleadings of Mr. Conkling and the influence of Mr.
Cameron, all candidates were withdrawn and the
united opposition concentrated upon Rutherford B.
Hayes, of Ohio. When they came back to the Con
vention, the battle was lost for Mr. Blaine, and Mr.
Hayes was nominated on the seventh ballot.
The following table shows the exact fluctuations of
the various ballots until Mr. Hayes was selected :
1st 2d 3d 4th 5th 6th 7th
ballot, ballot ballot, ballot, ballot, ballot, ballot.
Hayes  61 64 67 68 104 113 384
Blaine,  285 296 293 292 286 308 351
Morton,  125 ,120 113 108 95 85 —
Bristow,  113 114 121 126 114 111 21
Conkling  99 93 90 84 82 81 —
Hartranft,  58 63 68 71 69 50 —
Jewell,  11' withdrawn. —
Wm. A. Wheeler  3 3 2 2 2 2 —
Elihu B. Washburne, ... — .1 1 3 3 5 —
Whole number of votes, . 754 754 755 754 755 755 756
Necessary to choice, ... 378 378 ,, 378 378 378 378 379

396 Life of James G. Blaine.
It was a personal triumph for Mr. Conkling,, The
" Turkey Gobbler," whose strut had been so graph
ically described by Mr. Blaine in 1866, had now for
the first time been able to retaliate and to punish his
much-hated adversary. In so doing he practically
surrendered" his own future chances for the Presi-
dency^ because the Republicans throughout the
country resented his war upon Mr. Blaine and the
means used by him to defeat him at Cincinnati. The
Convention was manipulated. If it had been left
free from personal influence to make its choice it
would have undoubtedly nominated Mr. Blaine on
the seventh ballot. Mr. Conkling presented the
name of Mr. Hayes as a means of humiliating Mr.
Blaine. Mr. Conkling always seemed to have a con
tempt for Mr. Hayes. He took very little part in
the campaign which followed, and when Mr: Hayes
was President Mr. Conkling never went near him,
always opposed him, and invented the term " feather-
head " to describe the President and men of his type.
The afternoon that Mr. Hayes was nominated Mr.
Blaine at once sent to him a congratulatory dispatch.
Whatever disappointment he may have felt he
carefully concealed. Indeed, this was one of his
characteristics. He would fight in a contest with all
his power, and, when the contest was ended, he invari
ably accepted the results, when they were against him,

Partisan Attacks. 397
without complaint. He went farther than sending
a mere dispatch to show his cheerful acceptance of
the situation. He ordered an open carriage within
an hour following the finding of the Convention, and
calling for Hamilton Fish went driving through the
streets of Washington. This carriage took a turn
up by Newspaper Row, situated then, as now, in
Fourteenth Street, to show to the representatives of
the press of the country that Mr. Blaine had fully
recovered from the sunstroke and from the disap
pointment ofthe Convention. Everywhere he was
saluted and cheered. He looked a perfect picture of
pluck and gallantry in the hours of his defeat. Mr.
Blaine was then only in his forty-seventh year, and his
prominence warranted the belief that the Presidency
would be within his reach in a not far distant future.
This belief was confirmed by the expressions of dis
appointment throughout the country over his failure
-to be nominated. Mr. Blaine followed up the spirit
of his dispatch to Mr. Hayes by cordially supporting
the Republican candidate. He took part in the cam
paign of that year. Before he left Washington he
had been appointed to fill a vacancy in the Senate of
the United States. This vacancy was occasioned by
the resignation of Lot M. Morrill, who went into the
Cabinet of President Grant as Secretary of the
Treasury, succeeding Mr. Bristow.

398 Life of James G. Blaine.
Colonel IngersolPs speech, which was such a nota
ble feature of the Convention, was constantly printed
and quoted from during the campaign. One of its
phrases — " the Plumed Knight " — was adopted
throughout the country by Mr. Blaine's devoted fol
lowers, and was used through every campaign follow
ing where his name was mentioned.
Colonel Ingersoll took part in this campaign, and
also in the campaign of 1880, when General Garfield
was nominated. When it came to the campaign of
1884, when Mr. Blaine was himself the Republican
candidate, there was much speculation about Colonel
- IngersolPs position.
Early in the campaign he went West, and appar
ently Cut himself off from all connection with active
politics. By some this non-participation in the cam
paign was credited to a loss of faith on the part of ""
Colonel Ingersoll in Mr. Blaine ; by others, to per
sonal enmity; while still others credited Colonel
Ingersoll with such great devotion to Mr. Blaine
that he avoided embarrassing him with his support
on account of his being retained as counselfor the
people who were being prosecuted at Washington for
alleged frauds in the Star Route mail service. Col
onel IngersolPs position with regard to Mr. Blaine
since the time of the Cincinnati Convention in 1876,
was never generally understood. There .was never

Partisan Attacks. 399
any outward positive breaking of friendship between
the two men. A few weeks before the Convention at
Chicago in June, 1884, Mr. and Mrs. Blaine were
entertained by Colonel and Mrs. Ingersoll at their
Washington home at an evening reception. General
Logan was present at the same reception. , Close
friends of Colonel Ingersoll said that he had what
he considered a real grievance against Mr. Blaine.
There was no basis of real importance for this, but it
grew out of several trifling acts which did not seem
to Colonel Ingersoll as quite courteous. This feeling
grew until- Colonel Ingersoll felt that he could no
longer support Mr. Blaine politically.
The date of the first dissatisfaction went back to
the Plumed Knight speech at Cincinnati. Colonel
Ingersoll's friends '.said that Mr. Blaine never made
any public acknowledgment of this great effort.
This was made particularly noticeable by the fact
that later Mr. Blaine was a guest at Colonel Inger
soll's Peoria home, and made a speech to the people
of that .town from the threshold of the great agnos
tic's house without making any reference to his host.
Colonel Ingersoll sought under two administrations
to get some acknowledgment for his services as a
campaign orator. He said to Mr. Hayes that he
merely wanted the recognition. He would like to
be offered the Berlin, Mission, and said plainly that

400 Life of James G. Blaine.
he would not accept any office. Mr. Evarts advised
Mr. Hayes not to offer any appointment to Colonel
Ingersoll. Mr. Hayes intimated that ColonelTnger-
soil s agnosticism made him a political outcast.
Colonel Ingersoll was not pleased because Mr. Blaine
did not assist him at that time. He was not really
offended, but when the Garfield administration cairie
in, controlled by his two personal friends, Garfield
and Blaine, the same policy of non-recognition was
pursued toward him. Then Colonel Ingersoll, who
is a sensitive man, withdrew from politics, and said
that he would never take any future part for any
person or party.
Soon after the Chicago Convention of 1884 a gen
tleman prominent in active politics had a talk with
Colonel Ingersoll, and asked him what he intended
doing in the campaign that year.
" Nothing," said Colonel Ingersoll.
Then, the gentleman said to him, " I know you be
lieve in my friendship enough not to feel hurt at
what I am going to say. I think your resolution a
wise one."
" How is that ?" asked Colonel Ingersoll.
"It is simply for this reason," he replied. "You
can never be. recognized by any administration.. I
believe about as you do about religious matters, but
I recognize the fact that there is a sentiment in this

Partisan Attacks. 401
country that would break any administration or pub
lic man that should appoint you to any office of honor
or trust. You are simply ahead of your time, and
must abide the consequences. I admire you as much
as any man, but I should advise against any recogni-
tion of you if I had anything to do with any admin
istration. You ought to be clear-headed enough to
see this."
Colonel Ingersoll replied that he had no doubt that
he was right in what he said.

CHAPTER XIX.
MR. BLAINE'S ELECTION TO THE UNITED STATES
SENATE. — ATTEMPT TO USE THE MULLIGAN REC
ORD RESULTS IN HIS RECEIVING THE UNANIMOUS
VOTE OF THE LEGISLATURE, WITHOUT REGARD TO
PARTY. — THE DISPUTED ELECTION OP 1876.
The Legislature that met during the following
winter at Augusta ratified Mr. Blaine's appointment
by the Governor in electing him for the full term of
six years. This election was made under peculiar
circumstances. No one would have supposed that
the Democratic leaders at Washington would have
continued their war upon Mr. Blaine to the extent
of sending down agents to try and defeat him before
a Legislature controlled by Republicans, who were
all friends of Mr. Blaine. Great packages of news
papers, containing perverted testimony and the
many scandalous stories of the Little Rock & Fort
Smith episode, were sent to Augusta with active
agents to distribute them. Copies of the leading
New York newspapers, which had opposed Mr.
Blaine, were also mailed in great quantities to indi
vidual members. The result accomplished was not
402

Election to the Senate. 403
what Mr. Blaine's opponents desired. This outside
interference was very much resented by the people
in the State. This resentment was shared by the Demo
crats of Maine. So that when the election came
to take place, Mr. Blaine received the votes ofthe
members of both parties in the Legislature, and for
the first time in the history of the election of a
United States Senator, he was chosen by the unani
mous vote of the Legislature. Tt was a flattering
verdict, and one which confirmed the impression
made throughout the country that Mr. Blaine had
been made the victim of malicious misrepresentation.
This election was a most gratifying climax to his
career in the State of Maine, following, as it did, an
unopposed fourteen years of service in the. House.
The Senate of the United States is a very conserv
ative body. It prides itself upon its dignity and its
decorum. It is rare in that body that stormy scenes
occur as they do in the House. It has been the
theatre of many partisan debates, but it is the theory
of Senatorial life that such debates shall be conducted
within the lines of propriety, and that criticisms
shall be directed against the public, and never the
private acts of Senators. It is not considered in
. . accordance with good taste for a new Senator, however
prominent he may have been elsewhere, makes him
self conspicuous during the first year or two after

404 Life of James G. Blaine.
entering the Senate. Mr. Blaine had from the first
the antagonism of prominent Republican Senators
who were themselves candidates for the office of
President of the United States. Mr. Conkling, who
Was now in the Senate, was one of its most conspicu
ous members, and was disposed to use every occasion
to assert his own power and to oppose Mr. Blaine as he
had throughout their j oint careers in Congress. In the
Senate, where dullness is often translated as decorum,
Mr. Blaine's methods were described as sensational.
He had not enough respect for traditions, and was
capable of deciding for himself without hunting for .
the precedents to determine his rale of action. Why
the Senators should have regarded Mr. Blaine as a
sensationalist would be difficult to find through any
study of his record.
Upon all public questions he was uniformly con
servative, and upon the leading questions of the day
he was slightly in advance of his party. He showed
in the Senate the same capacity for leadership that
he had shown in the House. He met, there no warm
welcome on account of the peculiar character of the
body, but during his five years of service his position
as the leader of his party was questioned by few.
During the winter of '76 and '77, when the times -
were nearly as troubled as during the winter preced
ing the War of the Rebellion, Mr. Blaine was not

Election to the Senate, 405
very active in the disputes between the two parties.
Mr. Blaine was himself opposed to the electoral tri
bunal created during that winter. He objected to
the forming of any tribunal of an extra-judicial
character for the settlement of such disputes. He
believed that the machinery of the Government as it
was then constituted was sufficient. He, however,
took no active part in opposing it, and out of defer
ence to public sentiment voted for the Electoral
Commission 'Bill. He felt that if he had been con
spicuous in opposing it, his party loyalty might have
been questioned, and that it might have been charged
that he was influenced by his personal disappointment
at Cincinnati. Mr. Conkling occupied very nearly
the same attitude, although he was more outspoken in
private. Mr. Conkling, in private, fdvored the Re
publicans yielding to the claims of Mr. Tilden. He,
however, voted for the Electoral Commission Bill.
This Commission, which was proposed by a Southern
Democrat, a, member of the House, was carried
through, by the aid of Democratic votes.
The whole winter was occupied with the settlement
of the disputed election of 1876. The House was
Democratic and the Senate was Republican. The
bill was adroitly prepared, to make certain that the
findings of the Commission would be final, for it de
clared that its rulings should not be set aside except

406 'fe of James G. Blaine.
by a joint vote of the two Houses. There was much
more interest in the proceedings before the Commis
sion than in the routine affairs of Congress. Mr.
Blaine was one of the conspicuous figures in the
brilliant and distinguished audience that occupied
the restricted quarters of the Supreme Court cham
ber, where the sessions ofthe Commission were held.
The work of this Commission began on the 31st of
January, 1877, the birthday of Mr. Blaine. There
were fifteen members on the Commission. There
were five representatives from the Senate, five from
the House, and five from the Supreme Court bench.
The Senate Commission was represented by three
Republicans and two Democrats, the House was rep
resented by three Democrats and two Republicans,
the Supreme Court by five Justices.
• The Democrats, who planned the Commission, ex
pected that two Democrats, Clifford and Field, and
two Republicans, Strong and Miller, would be selected
from the Justices, and that David Davis, an indepen
dent in politics, would be made the fifth Justice.. The
Democrats believed that his vote would go to Mr.
Tilden, and give them the one majority necessary.
Justice Davis, unfortunately for their plans, was
elected as an independent Senator by the Illinois
Legislature before the Commission was appointed,
and so Justice Bradley was nominated to take his

Election to the Senate. 407
place. Each body named its own members. The
Senate and the House selections were made in cau
cuses, while the Justices in committee named their
own representatives. The Commission was a most
notable body of men. Among its members were
General Garfield, a future President of the United
States, and two future heads of Cabinets, Messrs.
Bayard and Frelinghuysen. Mr. Frelinghuysen was
to be Mr. Blaine's successor in the State Department
following the assassination of Garfield. The Senate
members of this Commission were Messrs. Bayard,
Thurmanj Edmunds^ Oliver P. Morton, and Freling
huysen ; the House members were Messrs. Garfield,
H. B. Payne, Eppa Hunton, Josiah G. Abbott, and
George F. Hoar ; the Justices were Clifford, Miller,
Field, Strong, and Bradley.
When the Commission made its first decision in
favor of the Republicans there was great excitement
and uneasiness throughout the country. The Demo
crats who had planned to capture the tribunal were
now violent in their denunciations. The Southern
Democrats, under the leadership of Mr. Lamar,
made a compromise with Mr. Charles Foster, repre
senting Mr. Hayes. They said to Mr. Foster, in the
famous Wormley Hotel conference at Washington,
that the Southern members would ratify the decision
of the Electoral Commission, which was now clearly

408 Life of James G. Blaine.
foreshadowed to be in favor of Mr. Hayes, if the new
national administration would concede to them the
State governments in the three States in dispute, viz.,
Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. These were
the three last States in the South whose State govern
ments were not wholly under the control . of the
Democrats. The details of that conference have
never been published. But some arrangement was
undoubtedly reached, for the reason that the find
ings of the Electoral Commission' were ratified in
the House with the aid of Southern votes, and it is
a matter of history that the troops were withdrawn
afterward from the three States in question, so that
the Democratic State governments obtained power in
the three States whose electoral votes had been
counted for Mr. Hayes. Mr. Blaine never approved
of this, and believed that the State governments
should have been held.
The Commission finished its work only on the 2d of
March, two days before the day fixed for the expira
tion of the Congress which had the authority to settle
this dispute. The Tilden Democrats throughout the
North were furious with anger at what they were
pleased to call the treachery of their Southern asso
ciates. A call was issued by some of the most ex
treme men to assemble mass-meetings throughout
the North to protest and rebel- against the findings

Election to the Seriate. # 409
of the Commission. Henry Watterson, in Louis
ville, threatened in his paper to march on Washing
ton with a hundred thousand men to overturn the
Government and seat Mr. Tilden. The Southern
members took no part in this attempt to foment a
new rebellion. They had just secured the control of
their own State governments, and they knew that
they could obtain, with the aid of the solid » South,
any share that they might desire in the future ruling
of this country, and so they wisely refrained from
taking any part in the disturbances threatened at
that time, and were content to wait in patience the
result of their diplomacy. Mr. Tilden himself coun
seled moderation and the acceptance of the findings
of the Commission. He could have done no less. As
a lawyer he could not have presented any argument
for the setting aside of the verdict of a lawfully
constituted tribunal especially authorized to pass
upon the questions in dispute, and from whose
decision there could be no appeal except to Con
gress. The extreme element in the Democratic party,
however, refused to obey Mr. Tilden's counsels.
They denounced 1iim as a timid old man, and started
out in the House of Representatives to undertake to
defeat t he -count. They began there the same dila
tory tactics which were employed by Mr: Randall

410 , Life of James G.Blaine.
when he defeated the "Force Bill" when Mr. Blaine
was Speakbr. Mr. Randall had been elected to the
Speakership to succeed Mr. Kerr, who died during
the summer Of 1876, in office. Mr. Randall was a
man of great courage, strong will, and an unques
tioned patriot. The fillibusters thought that they
could defeat the count. There was but little over
twenty-four hours left to ratify the work of the
Commission. Mr. Randall exercised an arbitrary
power when he decided to recognize no longer any
dilatory motions, and proceeded to put the vote for
the approval or disapproval of the finding of the
Commission. This he did in the face of wild yells
and furious protests, hoots and howls from infuriated
partisans in thfr galleries, while one or two members
carried their passion of objection to the extent of
jumping on the desks and shouting their protests
like madmen. Mr, -Randall, a devoted believer in
Mr. Tilden, stood firmly to the question, and soon
declared, by the coun^t of the vote that the findings
were ratified. There would have been much
greater uneasiness throughout the country pending
this attempt to defeat the count had it not been for
the fact that General Grant was at the White House,
and that he could be relied upon in any event to
suppress disorder. President Grant had frequent
consultations with General Sherman, and these two

ACCEPTING THE PORTFOLIO OF STATE UNDER HARRISON.

Election to the Senate. 413
soldiers were fully prepared to assume any responsi
bility in the use of the forces of the Government to
resist any incipient rebellion. Mr. Hayes, whose life
had been threatened by some of the agitators, came
quietly to Washington, and went to Senator Sher
man's private house. The 4th of March preceding
inauguration day was on Sunday. That was the
period of the greatest uneasiness. That night Mr.
Hayes went to the White House, accompanied by
Chief Justice Waite. There he was privately sworn
in as President of the United States by the Chief
Justice. The witnesses were President Grant, Colo
nel Frederick D. Grant, and Ulysses S. Grant, Jr.
This precaution was taken after a jreport had been
telegraphed from New York that it was Mr. Tilden's
intention to take the oath of office before some mag
istrate in that city. Taking the oath on Sunday
evening also anticipated any forcible objection that
might be made to the public ceremony on the 5th of
March, the day following.
All fears of disturbance appeared to have been
groundless. The ceremonies of the inauguration of
President Hayes were quiet and with no more out
ward objection than upon the inauguration of any
President. The Senate remained' in- session for the
purpose "of considering his appointments, but ad
journed within a few weeks without considering more

414 Life of James G. Blaine.
than the question of approving the leading appoint
ments of the new administration.
In the fall following, the Democratic House had an
official investigation into the methods employed by
the Republicans in fhe securing the electoral votes
counted for Mr. Hayes in the South. There was the
usual amount of disputed testimony taken, and the
customary partisan reports prepared afterward, but
nothing was developed not already known to the
public.

CHAPTER XX.
MR. BLAINE IN THE SENATE.— THE SILVER LEGISLA
TION OF THE FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS — HIS ARGU
MENT AGAINST A CHEAP SILVER DOLLAR.
When Mr. Blaine entered the Senate he was
accompanied there by four prominent members of
the House, Mr. Beck, of Kentucky, Mr. George F.
Hoar, of Massachusetts, Mr. Benjamin H. Hill, of
Georgia, and Mr. Lamar, of Mississippi. Mr. Hill
had made additional fame for himself in the South
by his arguments against Mr. Blaine during the
amnesty debate. When Mr. Blaine was sent to the
Senate the South congratulated itself upon the fact
that their most stalwart debater would follow him
there so as to be ready to -meet further onslaughts
upon the part of Mr. Blaine directed against the
Southern . power.
David Davis, who now came to the Senate from
Illinois as an independent, "occupied a seat on the
Democratic side. Mr. Davis was originally an
appointment to the Supreme Court bench by, Abra
ham Lincoln. During the War of the Rebellion he
was one of Mr. Lincoln's most trusted counsellors. 415

416 Life of James G. Blaine.
His physical proportions were massive. At the time
he entered the Senate he weighed nearly, three hun
dred pounds. He had a large, strong -featured face,
which was smooth shaven with the exception of a
thin wisp of whiskers which ran around under his
heavy double chin. His habits as a judge followed
him to the Senate. He never took part in a debate
except to read occasionally an opinion in which he
summarized the arguments of both sides and ren
dered a decision in very much the same style as if
he were still a justice. He occupied a very unique
position in the Senate, for the reason that within a
short time after his arrival there; the political com
plexion of that body became so balanced that he held
the deciding vote, and so the arguments on both sides
were addressed to him really as a judge who was to
pass upon a case. His honesty and his uprightness
placed him entirely above partisanship. It was said
of him at the time that he was the only public man
who ever succeeded in making so-called political,
independence respectable. He was later to be ap
pointed presiding officer of the Senate, and when
Vice-President Arthur became President toward the
close of Senator Davis' term the latter became acting
Vice-President. Samuel J. Kirkwood, who had before served in the
Senate, now came back from Iowa, Preston B.

Silver Legislation. 417
Plumb, who was to become one of the most conspicu
ous of the Republican Senators, representing large
Western business interests, came from Kansas. Mr.
McPherson, of New Jersey ; Mr. Coke, of Texas ;
Mr. Harris, of Tennessee, and Wm. Pinkney White,
of Maryland, were the notable additions on the Dem
ocratic side. In the fall of the same year, Daniel
Voorhees, 'of Indiana, and M. C. Butler, of South
Carolina, were further added to the Democratic side.
On the Republican side the new men of prominence
were Stanley Matthews, of Ohio, who was after to
become a justice of the Supreme Court, and J. Donald
Cameron, who succeeded his father, Simon Cameron.
The latter voluntarily retired after securing the elec
tion of his son. This family arrangement was car
ried out so easily that the second Mr. Cameron was
called among his associates the Duke of Pennsylva
nia. The Forty-fifth Congress was called together in
extra session on the 15th of October, 1877. Samuel
J. Randall was re-elected Speaker of the House.
Mr. Garfield received the complimentary vote of the
Republicans, and became the leader of the House in
the place of Mr. Blaine. Mr. Blaine, in his sum
mary of the character of Mr. Garfield, said that the
latter was a great parliamentary debater, but that he
had too much conscience to become a great par lia-

418 Life of James G. Blaine.
mentary leader. This is. a very friendly way of say
ing that he had not the requisite force of character
to make a good leader, and the moral courage neces
sary to compel a following. Mr. Blaine himself said-
that the three most distinguished parliamentary
leaders developed in the history of our country were
Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglas, and Mr. Thaddeus Stevens.
And of these, in his judgment, Mr. Clay was the
greatest. Mr. Blaine thought that it would be diffi
cult to find a fourth who could rank with them. Mr.
Blaine himself should be classed as the fourth, for he
had to a great degree the qualities and the powers
possessed by these gentlemen in outlining a positive
course, and in compelling a devoted following to that
course. It, was in this Congress that Thomas B. Reed, of
Maine, a future Speaker, made his first appearance.
Mr. Reed was afterward a personal opponent of Mr.
Blaine, although he became reconciled to him in the
latter days of his life.
The feature of the Forty-fifth Congress was the
consideration of silver legislation. Ah act was
passed providing for the coinage of .silver dollars,
and for the fixed purchase by the Government each
month of so much silver. The arguments through
the debates were largely directed to the standard to
be adopted. The members who previously had in-

Silver Legislation. 419
clined to greenbackism and to former inflation plans
now favored the establishment of a standard be
tween silver and gold of fifteen to one. This silver
bill was vetoed by the President, who said that its
provisions practically provided for the payment of
the principal and interest of the public debt in silver.
This measure was passed over the President's veto.
It was during the debate on this bill that Mr.
Blaine delivered a carefully prepared speech. This
was the first notable effort in his new position as
Senator of the United States. This address shows
that Mr. Blaine adhered to the same conservative
financial views that he had so frequently expressed
in the House.. Although every time he made an
address in the Senate he was charged with Uttering
opinions to advance his future presidential interests,
he never, in anything he said there, gave warrant for
such a supposition. The silver craze was then at its
height, and the public man who opposed the silver
inflation theories of the far West could not depend
upon any support from that section of the country.
Mr. Blaine, in the course of his remarks, said that
Congress in his judgment had no more power to
demonetize silver than to demonetize gold. He
favored the policy of co-operating with foreign
nations to secure a uniform standard for silver with
gold. He showed that any attempt upon our part to

420 Life of James G Blaine.
coin silver at a 'less ratio than that adopted abroad
would result only in bringing here foreign silver to
buy our' gold. The injustice of making the de
preciated silver dollar was forcibly illustrated by
Mr. Blaine. He said that to make silver coin even
three per cent, less valuable than gold would inflict
at once a loss of more than $20,000,000 on the
holders of our paper money. To make a silver
dollar worth but ninety-two cents would precipitate
on the same class a loss of nearly $60,000,000,
Continuing, he said : " For whatever the value of
the silver dollar is the whole paper issue of the
country will sink to its standard when its coinage
is authorized and its circulation becomes general in
the channels of trade. Some one in conversation
with Commodore Vanderbilt during one of the many
freight competitions of the trunk lines said, ' It can
not be that the Canadian Railroad has sufficient
carrying capacity to compete with your great line?'
— ' That is true,' replied the Commodore, ' but they
can fix a rate and force us down to it.' Were* Con
gress to pass a law to-day declaring that every legal-
tender note and every national-bank note shall here
after pass for only ninety-six or ninety-seven cents
on the dollar, there is not a constituency in the
United States that would re-elect. a man who sup
ported it, and in many districts the Representative

Silver Legislation. 421
would be lucky if he escaped merely with a defeat at
the polls.
" Yet it is almost mathematically demonstrable that
the same effect will follow from the coinage of an
inferior silver dollar. Assurances from empirics and
scientists in finance that remonetization of the former
dollar will at once and permanently advance its value
to par with gold, are worth little in the face of oppos
ing and controlling facts. The first effect of issuing
any silver dollar that will pay customs dues and inter
est on the public debt will undoubtedly be to raise it
to a practical equality with gold ; but that condition
will last only until the amount needful for customs
shall fill the channels of its use ; and the overflow
going into general circulation will rapidly settle to
its normal and actual value, and then the discount
will come on the volume of the paper currency,
which will sink, pari passu, with the silver dollar in
which it is made redeemable. That remonetization
will have a considerable effect in advancing the value
of the silver dollar is very probable, but not enough
to overcome the difference now existing — a difference
resulting from causes independent of our control in
the United States.
" The responsibility of re-establishing silver in its
ancient and honorable place as money in Europe
and America, devolves really upon the Congress of

422 Life of -James G. Blaine.
the United States. If we act here with wisdom
and firmness, we shall not only successfully re-
monetize silver, and bring it into general use as
money in our own country, but the influence
of our example will be potential among Euro
pean nations, with the possible exception of Eng
land. Indeed, our annual indebtment to Europe is
so great that, if we have the right to pay it in silver,
we necessarily coerce those nations, by the strongest
of all forces, self-interest, to aid us in upholding the
value of silver as money. But if we attempt the re
monetization on a basis which is obviously below the '
fair standard of value as it now exists, we incur all
the evil consequences of failure at home, and the cer
tainty of successful opposition abroad. We are; and
shall be, the greatest producers of silver in the world,
and we have a larger stake in its complete reonetiza-
tion than any other country. The difference to the~
United States, between the general acceptance and
"the general destruction of silver as money, in the
commercial world, will possibly within 'the next half-
century equal the entire bonded debt of the Nation.
But, to gain this advantage, we must make it actual
money, the accepted equal of gold in the markets of
the world. Remonetization here, followed by general
remonetization in Europe, will secure to the United
States the most stable basis for its currency that we

Silver Legislation. 423
have ever enjoyed, and will effectually aid in solving
all the problems by which our financial situation is
surrounded. " On the much-vexed and long-mooted question of
a bi-metallic or mono-metallic standard, my own
views are sufficiently indicated in the remarks I have
made. I believe the struggle now going on in this
country, and in other countries, for a single gold
standard, would, if successful, produce disaster in the
end throughout the commercial world. The destruc
tion of silver as money, and the establishment of
gold as the sole unit of value, must have a ruinous
effect on all forms of property except those invest
ments which yield a fixed return in money. These
would be enormously enhanced in value, and would
gain a disproportionate, and, therefore, unfair advan
tage over every other species of property. If, as
the most reliable statistics affirm, there are nearly
seven thousand millions of coin or bullion in the
world, not very unequally divided between gold and
silver, it is impossible to strike silver out of exist
ence as money without results which will prove
distressing to millions, and utterly disastrous to
tens of thousands. Alexander Hamilton, in his
able and invaluable report in 1791 on the
establishment of a mint, declared that 'to an
nul the use of either gold or silver as money

424 Ljfe of James G. Blaine.
is to abridge the quantity of circulating medium, and
is liable to all the objections which arise from a com
parison of the benefits of a full circulation with the
evils of a scanty circulation.' I take no risk in
saying that the benefits of a full circulation, and the
evils of a scanty circulation, are both immeasurably
greater to-day than they were when Mr. Hamilton
uttered these weighty Words, always provided that
the circulation is one of actual money, and not of
depreciated ' promises to pay.'
" In the report from which I have already quoted,
Mr. Hamilton argues at length in favor of a double
standard, and all the subsequent experience of ninety
years has brought out no clearer statement of the
case, or developed a more complete comprehension of
this subtle and difficult subject. ' On the whole','>
says Mr. Hamilton, 'it seems most advisable not to
attach the unit exclusively to either of the metals,
because this cannot be done effectually without de
stroying the office and character of one of them as
money, and reducing it to the situation of mere mer- '
chandise.' Mr. Hamilton wisely concludes that this
reduction of either of the metals to mere merchandise
(I again quote his exact words) ' would probably be
a greater evil than "occasional variations in the unit
from the fluctuations in the relative value of the
metals, especially if care be taken to regulate the

Silver Legislation. 425
proportion between them, with an eye to their
average commercial value.' I do not think that this
country, holding so vast a proportion of the world's
supply of silver in its mountains and its mines, can
afford to reduce the metal to the ' situation of mere
merchandise.' If silver ceases to be used as money
in Europe and America, the mines of the Pacific
slope will be closed and dead. Mining enterprises
of the gigantic scale existing in this country cannot
be carried on to provide backs for mirrors,, and to
manufacture cream-pitchers and sUgar-bowls. A
source of incalculable wealth to this entire country
is destroyed the moment silver is permanently disused
as money. It is for us to check that tendency, and
bring the continent of Europe back to the full re
cognition of the value of the metal as a medium of
exchange. "The question of beginning anew the coinage
of silver dollars has aroused much discussion as
9
to its effect on the public credit. * The Senator
from Ohio [Mr. Matthews] placed this phase of
the subject in the very forefront of the debate — in
sisting, prematurely and illogically, I think, on a
sort of judicial construction in advance, by concur
rent resolution, of a certain law in case that law
should happen to be passed by Congress. My own
view on this question can be stated very briefly. I

426 Life of James G. Blaine.
believe the public creditor can afford to be paid in
any silver dollar that the United States can afford to
coin and circulate. We have forty thousand mill
ions of property in this country, and a wise self-in
terest will not permit us to overturn its relations by
seeking for an inferior dollar wherewith to settle the
honest demands of any creditor. The question might
be different from a merely selfish point of view if, on
paying the dollar to the public creditor, it would
disappear after performing that function. But the
trouble is that the inferior dollar you pay the public
creditor remains in circulation, to the exclusion of
the better dollar. That which you pay at home will
stay here ; that which you send abroad will come
back. The interest of the public creditor is indis-
solubly bound up with the interest of the whole peo
ple. Whatever affects him affects us all ; and the evil
that we might inflict upon him by paying an inferior
dollar would recoil upon us with a vengeance as
manifold as the aggregate wealth of the Republic
transcends the comparatively small limits of our
bonded debt. Remember that our aggregate wealth
is always increasing, and our bonded debt steadily
growing less ! If paid in a good silver dollar, the
bondholder has nothing to complain of. If paid in
an inferior silver dollar, he has the same grievance
that will be uttered still more plaintively by the

K?;;.;.j
Silver Legislation. 427
/holder of the legal-tender note and of the national-
bank bill, by the pensioner, by the day laborer,
and by the countless host of the poor, whom we have
with us always, and on whom the most distressing
effect of inferior money will be ultimately precipi
tated. " But I must say, Mr. President, that the specific
demand for the payment of our bonds in gold coin,
and in nothing else, comes with an ill grace from
certain quarters. European criticism is leveled
against us, and hard ' names are hurled at us
across the ocean, for simply daring to state that
the letter of our law declares the bonds to
be payable in standard coin of July 14th, 1870 ;
. explicitly declared so, and declared so in the
interest of the public creditor, and the declaration
inserted in the very body of the eight hundred mill-
',- ions of bonds that have been issued since that date.
Beyond all doubt, the silver dollar was included in
the standard coins of that public act. Payment at
that time would have been as acceptable and as un
disputed in silver as in gold dollars, for both were
equally valuable in the European as well as in the
American market. Seven-eighths of all our bonds,
owned put of the country, are held in Germany and
in Holland. Germany has demonetized silver, and
Holland has been forced thereby to suspend its coin-

428 Life of James G. Blaine.
age, since the subjects of both powers purchased our
securities. The German Empire, the very year after
we made our specific declaration for paying our bonds
in qoin, passed a law destroying, so far as lay in its
power, the value of silver as money. I do not say
that it was specially aimed at this country, but it
was passed regardless of its effect upon us, and
was followed, according to public and undenied
statement, by a large investment on the part of the
German Governments in our bonds, with a view, it
was understood, of holding them as a coin reserve for
drawing gold from us to aid in establishing their new
gold standard at home. Thus, by one move the
German Government destroyed, so far as lay in its
power, the then existing value of silver as money,
enhanced consequently the value of gold, and then
got into position to draw gold from us at the moment
of their need, which would also be the moment of our
own sorest distress. I do not say that the German
Government, in these successive steps, did a single
thing which it had not a perfect right to do, but I do
say that the subjects of that Empire have no reason
to complain of our Government for the initial step
which has impaired the value of one of our standard
coins. The German Government, by joining with
us in the remonetization of silver, can place that
standard coin in its old position, and make it as easy

BLAINE AT WORK.

Silver Legislation. 431
for this Government to pay and as profitable for
their subjects to receive the one metal as the other.
" When we pledged the public creditor in 1870 that
our obligations should be paid in the standard coin
of that date, silver bullion was worth in the Lon
don market a fraction over sixty pence per ounce ;
its average for the past eight months has
been about fifty-four pence ; the price reckoned in
gold in both cases. But the large difference is due
in part to the rise of gold as well as to the fall of
silver. Allowing for both causes and dividing the
difference, it will be found, in the judgment of many
of the wisest men in this country, perfectly safe to
issue a dollar of four hundred and twenty-five grains
standard silver; as one that, anticipating the full
and legitimate influence of remonetization, will equate
itself with the gold dollar,' and effectually guard
against the drain of our gold during the time neces
sary for international conference in regard to the
general re- establishment of silver as money. When
that general re-establishment shall be effected with a
coinage of fewer grains, the dollar which I am now
advocating will not cause loss or embarrassment to
any one. The miner of the ore, the owner of the
bullion, the holder of the coin, and the Government
that issues it will all in turn be benefited. It will
yield a profit on recoinage and will be advantageously

432 Life of James G. Blaine.
employed in our commercial relations with foreign
countries. Meanwhile it will insure to our laborers:
at home a full dollar's pay for a dollar's worth of
work. " I think we owe this to the American laborer.
Ever since we demonetized the old dollar we have
been running our mints at full speed, coining a new
silver dollar for the use of the Chinese cooly and the
Indian pariah— -a dollar containing four hundred and
twenty grains of standard silver, with its superiority
over our ancient dollar ostentatiously engraved on
its reverse side. To these ' outside barbarians ' we
send this superior dollar, bearing all our national
emblems, our patriotic devices, our pious inscriptions,
our goddess of liberty, our defiant eagle, our federal
unity, our trust in God. This dollar contains seven
and one-half grains more silver than the famous
' dollar of the fathers,' proposed to be recoined by
the pending bill, and more than four times as many
of these new dollars have already been coined as ever
were coined, of all other silver dollars in the United
States. In the exceptional and abnormal condition
of the silver market now existing throughout the
world we have felt compelled to increase the
weight of the dollar with which we carry on trade
with the heathen nations of Asia. Shall we do
less for the American laborer at home ? Nay,

Silver Legislation* 433
shall we not do a little better and a little
more for ¦ those of our own blood and our
own fireside ? If you remonetize the dollar of the
fathers your mints will be at once put to work on two
different dollars — different in weight, different in
value, different in prestige, different in their reputa-
1 tion and currency throughout the commercial world:
It will read strangely in history that the weightier
and more valuable of these dollars is made for an
ignorant class of heathen laborers in China and India,
and that the lighter and less valuable is made for the
intelligent and educated laboring man, who is a citi
zen of the United States. Charity, the adage says,
begins at home. Charity, the independent American
laborer scorns to ask, but he has the right to demand
that justice should begin at home. In his name, and
in the name of common sense and common honesty,
. I ask that the American Congress will not force upon
the American laborer an inferior dollar which the
naked and famishing laborers of India and China re
fuse to accept.
" The bill which I now offer as a substitute for the
House bill contains three very simple provisions :
"1. That the dollar shall contain four hundred
and twenty-five grains of standard silver, shall have
unlimited coinage, and be an unlimited legal tender,
*'2. That all the profitsrof coinage shall go to the

434 Life of James G. Blaine.
Government, and not to the operator in silver
bullion. "3. That silver dollars or silver bullion, assayed
and mint-stamped, may be deposited with the
Assistant Treasurer at New York, for which coin
certificates may be issued, the same in denomination
as United States notes, not below ten dollars, and
that those shall be redeemable on demand in coin or
bullion. We shall thus secure a paper circulation
based on an actual deposit of precious metal, giving
us notes as valuable as those of the Bank of England
and doing away at once with the dreaded inconven
ience of silver on account of bulk and weight.
" I do not fail, Mr. President, to recognize that
the committals and avowals of Senators on this ques
tion preclude the hope of my substitute being
adopted. I do not indeed fail to recognize that
on this question I am not in line with either
extreme — with those who believe in the single
gold standard or with these who by premature
and unwise action, as I must regard it, would
force us to the single silver standard. Either
will be found, in my judgment, a great misfortune to
our country. We need both gold and silver, and we
can have both only by making each the equal of the
other. It would not be difficult to show that, in the
nations where both' have been fully recognized and

Silver Legislation. 435
most widely diffused, the steadiest and most continu
ous prosperity has been enjoyed — that true form of
prosperity which reaches all classes, but which begins
with the day-laborer whose toil lays the foundation
of the whole superstructure of wealth. The exclu
sively gold nation, like England, may show the most
massive fortunes in the ruling classes, but it shows
also the most helpless and hopeless poverty in the
humbler walks of life. The gold and silver nation,
like France, can exhibit no such individual fortunes
as abound in a gold nation like England, but it has
a peasantry whose silver savings can pay a war in
demnity that would have beggared the gold bankers
of London, and to which the peasantry of England
could not have contributed a pound sterling in gold
or even a shilling in silver.
" The effect of paying the labor of "this country in
silver coin of full value, as compared with irredeem
able paper — or as compared, even, with silver of
inferior value — will make itself felt in a single gen
eration to the extent of tens of millions — perhaps
hundreds of millions — in the aggregate .savings which
represent consolidated capital. It is the instinct of
man from the savage to the scholar— developed in
childhood and remaining with age — to value the
metals which in alb lands are counted 'precious.'
Excessive paper money leads to extravagance, to

io6 Life of James G. Blaine.
waste, to want, as we painfully witness to-day. With
abounding proof of its demoralizing, and destructive
effect, we hear it proclaimed in the halls of Con
gress that ' the people demand cheap money.' I
deny it. I declare such a phrase to be a total
misapprehension — a - total misinterpretation of the
popular wish. The people do not demand cheap
money. They demand an abundance of good money,
which is an entirely different thing. They do not
want a single gold standard that will exclude silver
and benefit those already rich. They do not
want an inferior silver standard that will drive
out gold and not help those already poOr. They
want both metals, in full value, in equal honor,
in whatever abundance the bountiful earth will
yield them to the searching eye of science and to
the hard hand of labor.
"The two metals have existed side by side in har
monious, honorable companionship as money ever
since intelligent trade was known among men. It is .
well-nigh forty centuries since ' Abraham weighed
to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the
audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels
of silver, current money with the merchant.' Since
that time nations have risen and . fallen, races have
disappeared, dialects and# languages have been for
gotten, arts have been lost, treasures have per-

Silver Legislation. 437
ished, continents have been discovered, islands
have been sunk in the sea, and through all these ages
and through all these changes, silver and gold have
reigned supreme as the representatives of value — as
the media of exchange. The dethronement of each
has been attempted in turn, and sometimes the de
thronement of both ; but always in vain ! And we
are here to-day, deliberating anew over the problem
which comes down to us from Abraham's time— the
weight of the silver that shall be ' current money
with the merchant.' "
It was during this same session of the Senate that
Mr. Blaine made another speech which attracted
great attention, from the Southern Senators. It was
the first address made by Mr. Blaine which they
could approve. The subject was trade with South
America, and in this talk Mr. Blaine outlined a part
of his future South American policy. He advocated
then the payment of subsidies to American lines of
steamships running between our ports and the ports
south of us. He argued that this was the only way
through which commercial relations could be quickly
and speedily established. The great trade of South
America went to Europe instead of coming to us,
because the foreign governments, such as England,
Trance, and Germany had established lines of swift,
well-equipped, modern steamships which made the

438 Life of James G.Blaine.
markets of Europe much more accessible and desir
able than the American market.
These steamship lines were protected by subsidies,
and no American line could compete with them
without similar subsidies. It was only a variation of •
the protection principle applied to our commerce on
the high seas. Foreign bounties to foreign lines had
driven American ships from the seas, hence the
necessity for the recasting of our policy. This
proposition, however, did not become, successful until
the Harrison administration came into power.

CHAPTER XXI.
the list of senatorial candidates for the
presidential nomination op 1880. — antago
nism among republican leaders. — mr.
blaine's summary of the southern political
situation.During the four years of Mr. Hayes's administra
tion the Senate was said to contain more Presidential
candidates than ever before in its history. It was
generally conceded that Mr. Hayes would not be
presented for renomination. He had himself de
clared in favor of one term for a President. Sena
tors mentioned prominently in connection with the
future Presidential nomination were Mr. Blaine, Mr.
Sherman, Mr. Edmunds, Mr. Windom, and Mr.
Conkling, on the Republican side, while on the
Democratic side Mr. Bayard, Mr. Thurman, and Mr.
Voorhees were conspicuous Democratic candidates.
The debates, therefore, in which these gentlemen
participated were subjects of profound interest and
attention. It is rare that a candidate for the Presidency ex
presses himself freely upon all the pending issues of
439

440 . Life of James G. Blaine.
the day. It is a rule of such candidates to avoid ex
pressions of opinion, when possible, up to the time
when some official declaration is necessary. In the
shifting current's of public opinion there are such
changes that the average candidate wishes to have
every possible advantage. There was nothing in Mr.
Blaine's course in the Senate to indicate that he was
a candidate. He did not hesitate to express himself
in clear and unequivocal terms upon the current
issues of the day. He was still determined in his
opposition to the over-representation of the South in
Congress. On the llth of December, 1878, Mr. Blaine took
occasion to make a very formal declaration of opinion
upon this subject. In it he presented the issue
which the Republican party should maintain if it
wished to have the confidence of the country.
It was reported about Washington that Mr. Blaine
was going to make a sensational speech. It was be
lieved that there would be a repetition of the scene
of the amnesty debate. The Democratic newspapers
said that Mr. Blaine was to formally pose as a Presi
dential candidate, and so Mr. Thurman was selected
as the representative of the party to first reply to
Mr. Blaine. The occasion was one of the most nota
ble ones during Mr. Blaine's term in the Senate.
The Democrats were then in control of the House,

Southern Political Situation. 441 .
and within one vote of controlling the Senate.
The personal dissensions between the leaders of
the Republican party had led to this. Further,
Democratic majorities were predicted everywhere.
The Forty-sixth Congress, which had already been
elected during the summer of '78, had a clear and
positive Democratic majority in both branches. Ex-
President Grant was then on his way around the-
world, with the general understanding that he would
arrive home in time to be a candidate again ; so it
was natural that great interest should be felt in Mr.
Blaine's presentation of the issues of the day, as it
was practically understood to be the platform upon
which he would ask for the support; of the Republican
party in the coming Presidential campaign. The
audience which assembled to' hear him was a notable
one. The diplomatic gallery was filled with, the
leading representatives of foreign nations, while the
other galleries were filled with the many elements
representing the brightest and best of Washington
society. The audience, so far as any scene was con
cerned, was disappointed. Mr. Blaine, instead of
making a long speech, made a very brief one. His
address was in his best vein, as usual, clear, business?
like, and direct. Tt was read from printed manu
script. His clear, vibrating tones made his every
word plain to all. It was only toward the last that

442 Life of James G- Blaine.'
he used anything like declamation. He then
came forward impulsively dropping his printed
page, and addressed his warning to the South.
Then his cool, deliberate utterance was changed.
The vigorous personality of the speaker came
to the surface. There was a "ringing note in
his voice and a rush of feeling in his manner which
sent a sharp thrill through the audience. His climax
was followed by an outburst of applause which called
forth a stern rebuke from Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont,
who asked that the Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate be
requested to arrest any one violating the Senate rules
with manifestations of approval. Mr. Conkling took
no part in the debate of this day, but assumed the
manner of indifference which he always wore when
Mr. Blaine was speaking. He wrote letters with
labored care all through the discourse and never once
raised his head. The conspicuous Southern Senators"
who followed every word of Mr. Blaine's utterance
were Messrs. Gordon, Lamar, and M. C. Butler. Mr.
Blaine's speech was based on a resolution of inquiry
which he had introduced directing the Judiciary
Cqmmittee to investigate whether the rights, of
suffrage had been abridged in any way by intimida
tion, fraud, or otherwise in any part of the United
States, in violation of the provisions of the Four
teenth Amendment of the Constitution.

Southern Political Situation. , 443
He spoke first of current report as found in the
newspapers which had suggested to him the necessity
for the inquiry. First these reports in the press of
the county pictured South Carolina as holding, during
the last election; a series of skirmishes where the
poling places were regarded as forts to be captured.
Mr. Blaine then went on with great deliberation
to say :
" But we do not need investigation to establish cer-
tain facts already of official record. We know that
one hundred and six Representatives in Congress
were recently chosen in the States formerly slave-
holding, and that the Democrats elected one hundred
and one, or possibly one hundred and two, and the
Republicans four, or possibly five. We know that
thirty-five of these Representatives were assigned to
the Southern States by reason of the colored popu
lation, and that the entire political power thus
founded on the numbers of the colored people has
been seized and appropriated to the aggrandizement
of its own strength by the Democratic party of the
South. "The issue thus raised before the country, Mr.
President, is not one of mere sentiment for the rights
of the negro— though far distant be the day when
the'rightsof any American citizen, however black or
however poor, shall form the mere dust of the bal-

444 Life of Jamss G. Blaine.
ance of any controversy. Nor is the issue one that
involves the waving of the ' bloody shirt,' to quote
the elegant vernacular of Democratic vituperation;
nor still further is the issue as now presented only a
question of the equality of the black voter of the
South with the white voter of the South. The issue,
Mr. President, has taken a far wider range, one
indeed of portentous magnitude ; viz., whether the
white voter of the North shall be equal to the white
voter of the South in shaping the policy and fixing
the destiny of this country ; or whether, to state it
more baldly, the white man who fought in the ranks
of the Union army shall have as weighty and influ
ential a vote in the Government of the Republic as
the white man who fought in the ranks of the rebel
army. The one fought to uphold, the other to de
stroy the Union of the States, and to-day he who
fought to destroy is a far more important factor in
the Government ofthe nation than he who fought to
uphold. " Let me illustrate my meaning by comparing groups
of States of the same representative strength North
and South. The States of South Carolina, Missis
sippi, and Louisiana send seventeen Representatives
to Congress. Their aggregate population is com
posed of one million and thirty-five thousand whites,
and one million two hundred and twenty-four thou-

Southern Political Situation. 445
sand colored, the colored being nearly two hundred
thousand in excess of the whites. Of the seventeen
Representatives, it is evident that nine were appor
tioned to these States by reason of their eolOred
population, and only eight by reason of their white
population ; and yet, in the choice of the entire seven
teen Representatives, the colored voters had no more
voice or power than their remote kindred on the
shores of Senegambia or on the coast of Guinea.
The One million and thirty-five thousand white peo
ple had the sole and absolute choice of the entire
seventeen Representatives. In contrast, two States
in the North, Iowa and Wisconsin, with seventeen
Representatives, have a white population of two mill
ion two hundred and forty-seven thousand, corisider-
- ably more than double the entire white population of
the three Southern States I have named. In Iowa
and Wisconsin, therefore, it takes one hundred and
thirty-two thousand white population to send a. Rep
resentative to Congress, but in South Carolina, Mis
sissippi, and Louisiana every sixty thousand white
people send a Representative. In other words, sixty
thousand white people in those Southern States have
precisely the same political power in the Government
of the country that one hundred and thirty-two thou
sand white people have in Iowa and Wisconsin.
" Take another group of seventeen Representatives

446 Life of James G. Blaine.
from the South and from the North. Georgia and
Alabama have a white population of eleven hundred
and fifty-eight thousand, and a colored population of
ten hundred and twenty thousand. They send seven-
. teen Representatives to Congress, of whom nine were
apportioned on account of the white population and
eight on account of the colored population. But the
colored voters are not able to choose a single Repre
sentative, the white Democrats choosing the whole
seventeen. -The four Northern States, Michigan,.
Minnesota, Nebraska, and' California, have seventeen
Representatives, based on a white population of two
and a quarter millions, or almost double the white
population of Georgia and Alabama, so that in these
relative groups of States we find the white man in
the South exercising by his vote double the political
power of the white man in the North.
" Let us carry the comparison to a more compre
hensive generalization. The eleven States that formed
the Confederate Government had by the last census
a population of nine and a half millions, of which,
in round numbers, five and a half millions were
white and four millions colored. On this aggregate
population seventy-three Representatives in Congress
were apportioned to those States, forty-two or three
of which were by reason of the white population and
thirty or thirty-one by reason of the colored popula-

MR. BLAINE AT1 eivTv-mm
At Bar Harbor —    —  

Southern Political Situation. 449
tion. At the recent election the white Democracy of
the South seized seventy of the seventy-three dis
tricts, and thus secured a Democratic majority in the
next House of Representatives. Thus it appears that
throughout the States which formed the late Confed
erate Government sixty-five thousand whites — the
very people that rebelled against the Union — are
enabled to elect a Representative in Congress, while
in the loyal States it requires one hundred and
thirty-two thousand of the white people that fought
for the Union to elect a Representative. In levying
every tax,, therefore, in making every impropriation
of money, in fixing every line of public policy, in
decreeing what shall be the fate and fortune of the
Republic, the Confederate soldier South is enabled
to cast a vote that is twice as influential and twice as
powerful as the vote of the Union soldier North.
" But the white men of the South did not acquire
and do not hold this superior power by reason of law
or justice, but in disregard and defiance of both.
Th'e Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was
expected to be and was designed to be a preventive
and corrective of all such possible abuses. The read
ing of the clause applicable to the case is instructive
and suggestive. Hear it :
" ' Eepresentatives shall be apportioned among the several
States according to their respective numbers, counting the^

450 . Life of James G._ Blaine.
whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians
not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for
the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the
United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive
aud judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legis
lature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of
such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the
United States, or in any way abridged, except for participa«-
tion in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation
therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number -
of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.'
"The patent, undeniable intent of this provision was
that if any class of voters should be denied or in any
way abridged in the right of suffrage, then the class
so denied or abridged should not be counted in the
basis of representation ; or, in other words, that no
State Or States should gain a large increase of repre
sentation in Congress by reason of counting any class
of population not permitted to take part in electing
such Representatives. But the construction given to
this provision is that before any forfeiture of repre
sentation can be enforced, the denial or abridgment
of suffrage must be the result of a law specifically
enacted by the State. Under this construction every
negro voter may have his suffrage absolutely denied
or fatally abridged by the violence, actual or threat
ened, of irresponsible mobs, or by frauds and decep
tions of State officers from the Governor down to the

Southern Political Situation. 451
last election clerk, and then, unless some State law
can be shown that authorizes the denial or abridg
ment, the State escapes all penalty or peril of reduced
representation. This construction may be upheld by
the courts, ruling on the letter of the law, ' which
killeth,' but the spirit of justice cries aloud against
the evasive and atrocious conclusion that deals out
oppression to the innocent and shields the guilty from
the legitimate consequences of willful transgression.
" The colored citizen is thus most unhappily situ
ated ; his right of suffrage is but a hollow mockery ;
it holds to his ear the word of promise, but breaks it
always to his hope, and he ends only in being made
the unwilling instrument of increasing the political
strength of that party from which he suffered ever-
tightening fetters when he was a slave and contemp
tuous refusal of civil rights since he was made free.
He resembles, indeed, those unhappy captives in the
East, who, deprived of their birthright, are compelled
to yield their strength'to the aggrandizement of the
monarch from whose tyrannies they have most to
fear, and to fight against the power from which alone
deliverance might be expected. The franchise in
tended for the shield and defense of the negro has
. been turned against him and against his friends, and
has vastly increased the power of those from whom
he has nothing to hope and everything to dread.

452 Life of James G. Blaine.
"The political strength thus unjustly seized by
Southern Democrats by reason of the negro popula
tion is equal to thirty-five Representatives in Congress.
It is massed almost solidly and offsets the great State
of New York ; or Pennsylvania and New Jersey to
gether ; or the whole of New England ; or Ohio and
Indiana united ; or the combined strength of Illinois,
Minnesota, Kansas, California, Nevada, Nebraska,
Colorado, and Oregon. The seizure of this power is
wanton usurpation ; it is flagrant outrage ; it is vio
lent perversion of the whole theory of Republican
government. It inures solely to the apparent ad
vantage and yet, I believe, to the permanent dishonor
of the Democratic party. It is by reasOn of this
trampling down of human rights, this ruthless seiz
ure of unlawful power, that the Democratic party
holds the popular branch of Congress to-day and will
in less than ninety days have control of this body
also, thus grasping the entire legislative department
of the Government through the unlawful capture of
the Southern States. If the proscribed vote of the
South were cast as its lawful owners desire, the
Democratic party could not gain control. Nay, if
the ballot of the colored man were not counted on
the other side, against the instincts and the inter
ests, against the principles and the prejudices of
its lawful owners, Democratic success would be

Southern Political Situation. 453
hopeless. It is not enough, then, for modern
Democratic tactics that the negro vote shall be
silenced ; the demand goes farther and insists that
it shall be counted on the Democratic side, that
all the Representatives in Congress, and all the Pres
idential electors apportioned by reason of the negro
vote shall be so cast and so controlled as to insure
Democratic success — regardless of justice, in defiance
of law.
" This great wrong is wholly unprovoked.' I doubt
if it be in the power of the most searching investiga
tion to show that in any Southern State during the
period of Republican control any legal voter was
ever debarred from the freest exercise of his sufrrage.
Even the revenges which would have leaped into life
with many who despised the iiegro were buried out
of sight with a magnanimity which the ' superior
race ' fail to follow and seem reluctant to recognize.
I know it is said, in reply to such charges against the
Southern elections as I am now reviewing, that un
fairness of equal gravity prevails in Northern elec
tions. I hear it in many quarters, and read it in the
papers, that in the late exciting election in Massachu
setts intimidation and bulldozing, if not so rough and
rancorous as in the South, were yet as widespread
and effective.
"I have read, and yet I refuse to believe, that the

454 Life of James G. Blaine.
distinguished gentleman who made an energetic but
unsuccessful canvass for the Governorship of that
State has indorsed and approved these charges, and
I have accordingly made my resolution broad enough
to include their thorough investigation. I am not
demanding fair elections in the South without de
manding fair elections in the North also. But, ven
turing to speak for the New England States, of
whose laws and customs I know something, I dare
assert that in the late election in Massachusetts, or
any of her neighboring Commonwealths, it will be
impossible to find even one case where a voter was
driven from the polls ; where a voter did not have
the fullest, fairest, freest opportunity to cast, the
ballot of his choice, and have it honestly and faith-.
fully counted in the returns. Suffrage on this conti
nent was first made universal in New England, and
in the administration of their affairs her people have
found no other appeal necessary than that which is
addressed to their honesty of conviction, and to their
intelligent self-interest. If there be anything differ
ent to disclose I pray you show it to us that we may
amend our ways.
" But whenever a feeble protest is made against
such injustice as I have described in the South the
response we receive comes to us in the form of a
taunt — ' What are you going to do about it ?' and

Southern Political Situation. 455
'H'^w do you propose to help yourselves ?' This is
the stereotyped answer of defiance which intrenched
wrong always gives to inquiring justice. Those who
imagine it to be conclusive do not know the temper
of the American people. For let me assure you that
against the complicated outrage upon the right of
representation lately triumphant in the South there
will be arrayed many phases of public opinion in the
North not often hitherto in harmony. Men who
have cared little, and affected to care less, for. the
rights or the wrongs of the negro suddenly find that
vast monetary and commercial interests, great
questions of revenue, adjustments of tariff, invest
ments in manufactures, in railways, and in mines,
are under the control of a Democratic Congress
whose majority was obtained by depriving the negro
of his rights under a common Constitution and com
mon laws. Men who have expressed disgust with
the .waving of bloody shirts, and have been
offended with talk about negro equality, are begin
ning to perceive that the question of to-day relates
more pressingly to the equality of white men under
this-Government, and that, however careless they may
be about the rights or the wrongs ofthe negro, they
are jealous and tenacious about the rights of their
own race and the dignity of their own firesides and
their own kindred.

456 Life of James G. Blaine.
" I know something of public opinion in the North.
I know a great deal about the views, wishes, and pur
poses of the Republican party of the Nation. Within
that entire great organization there is not one man,
whose opinion is entitled to be quoted, that does not
desire peace and harmony and friendship and a pa
triotic and fraternal union between the North and the
South. This wish is spontaneous and universal
throughout the Northern States; and yet, among
men of character and sense, there is surely no need
of attempting to deceive ourselves as to the pre
cise truth. First pure, then peaceable. Gush
will not remove a grievance, and no disguise of
State rights will close the eyes pf our people to
the necessity of correcting a great National
wrong. Nor should the South make the fatal
mistake of concluding that injustice to the negro is
not also injustice to the white man ; nor should it
ever be forgotten that for the wrongs of both a
remedy will assuredly be found. The war, with all
its costly sacrifices, was fought in vain unless equal
rights for all classes be established in all the States
ofthe Union. In words which are those of friend
ship, however tiiey may be accepted, I tell the men
of the South here on this floor and beyond this
chamber, that even if they could strip the negro of
his Constitutional rights they can never permanently

Southern Political Situation.. ' 457
maintain the inequality of white men in this nation.
They can never make a white man's vote in the
South doubly as powerful in the administration of.
the Government as a white man's vote in the North.
" In a memorable debate in the House of Com
mons, Mr. Macaulay reminded Daniel O'Connell,
when he was moving for Repeal, that the English
Whigs had endured calumny, abuse, popular fury,
loss of position, exclusion from Parliament rather
than that the great agitator himself should be less
than a British subject ; and Mr. Macaulay warned
him that they would never suffer him to be more.
Let me now remind you that the Government, under
whose protecting flag we sit to-day, sacrificed myriads
of lives and expended thousands of millions of
treasure that our countrymen of the South should
remain citizens of the United States, having equal
personal rights and equal political privileges with all
other citizens. I venture, now and here, to warn
the nien of the South, in the exact words of Ma
caulay, that we will never suffer them to be more !"
This utterance of Mr. Blaine's was the last one
made by him in definite, concrete form in Congress
upon the subject of the inequality of the representa
tion ofthe South in national affairs. He took part
upon other occasions in debates upon Southern ques
tions, but he never was able to add anything to the

458 Life of James G. Blaine.
clear and comprehensive view presented by him in
the above speech.
Mr. Thurman, who replied to him at the moment,
assumed an air of good-natured grumbling. He said
that the resolution offered by Mr. Blaine was not
sincere, and that it was the thread upon which Re
publican speeches were to be hung. - Mr. Thurman
could afford to take the good-natured and the jocular
view of the situation. The Democrats were every
where triumphant in Congress, and any argument
made by a Republican in the interests of justice or
equality for the unrepresented Republican element
in the South was met by a contemptuous shrug and
the suggestion that the Republicans lacked sincerity,
and were seeking to thresh out the old war issues.
After Mr. Thurman, Mr. Lamar arose. He was
the most diplomatic of the Southern men, and one
with whom Mr. Blaine had for some time main
tained friendly personal relations. Mr. Lamar be
gan with what he intended to be a temperate rebuke
of Mr. Blaine for his unpatriotic attempt to stir up
sectional hatred. He then paid a compliment to Mr.
Blaine's great abilities, expressed a regret that he
should so misuse these* high abilities, and that the
regret was deepened on account of Mr. Lamar's be
lief that Mr. Blaine was yet to occupy a much higher
position before the country. Mr. Blaine listened

Southern Political Situation. 459
very carefully and soberly until Mr. Lamar, passing
from the field of compliment, made the remarkable
statement that no fraud or outrage had ever been
perpetrated by the Democrats in a Southern election
contest, when Mr. Blaine actually laughed outright,
although he at once assumed an air of apology, as if
the remarkable character of the declaration had come
upon him with too much suddenness to permit him
to retain his' self-control. Mr. Lamar said, in closing,
in tones of tragic warning, that perhaps the Republi
cans were releasing the demon Of the fable. At this
Mr. Edmunds said, with a sarcastic smile, that he did
not know whether the demon was present or not, but
that lie believed that it would be well to go on with
the regular order.
This debate led to more exciting scenes later, but
Mr. Blaine became involved in none of its person
alities. The Southern spirit throughout this debate
was that they were in a position of immaculate inno
cence, that the Republican movement in the South
was based on crime and dishonesty, and that perfect
government in the South could be maintained only
through Democratic control. The Southern and
Northern Democrats indulged in the same kind of
talk uttered by them in the halls of Congress before
the war. They again warned the Northern Repub
licans not to interfere with the peculiar political

460 Life, of James G. Blaine.
methods of the South for fear that further blood
might be shed. It was in the same way that they
formerly had warned the North not to interfere with
their peculiar institution of slavery. This debate
led to the formation of what is known as the Teller
Committee which conducted a special investigation
which established an official record of a uniform
system of outrage, intimidation, and wholesale frauds
throughout the South for the maintenance of Demo
cratic rule and of a white man's government in each
one of the Southern States.

CHAPTER XXII.
MR. CONKLING WORKING ON THE SAME LINES WITH
MR. BLAINE TO CHECK THE ARROGANT ASSUMPTION
OF THE SOUTH. — WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE
IF THEY HAD WORKED TOGETHER.
If Mr. Conkling and Mr. Blaine had worked
together, they undoubtedly could have secured
legislation which .might have checked the adr
vancmg growth of Southern political power. They
were both men of genius. Mr. Conkling was, in
some respects, in point of intellectual ability, Mr.
Blaine's superior, but he was very much his inferior
in the arts and graces of pleasing men. He had
nOne of Mr. Blaine's magnanimous spirit, and was
wholly incapable of forgetting an injury. There was
nothing but a personal feeling which kept them
apart. Their lines of argument relating to the
Southern question led practically in the same direc
tion They both had a profound regard for each
other's abilities. Mr. Blaine would have been willing
at any time to have made up the difference between
them, but he could not make the first advance with
out some assurance that this advance would not be
rejected. > 461

462 Life of James G. Blaine.
Mr. Blaine's effort, mentioned in the last chapter,
was delivered early in the session of 1878 and 1879.
Mr. Conkling waited until the 24th of April, 1879,
before he came to the front with a speech practically
on the same subject. The occasion for this speech
was the attitude of the Democrats, who had threat
ened to defeat the passage of the army appropriation
bill unless they could limit the President's power
over the army so that troops could not be used under
any circumstances to suppress disorder during State
elections. . *,
The Southern people, flushed by the Democratic
victory of the preceding summer, had grown more
and more aggressive as the winter wore along. Mr.
Conkling himself appeared to resent Mr. Blaine's
apparent fraternizing with the Southern Senators
while he was opposing them in theory. Senator
Conkling was never so aggressive and so contemptu
ous in his manner toward the Southern Senators as
during this' session. The executive session episode,
when General Gordon had been led. by a burst of
passion to challenge him to a duel was only one of
the evidences of the feeling stirred up on the
Southern side by Mr. Conkling's attitude. It was
as a stalwart .of the stalwarts that he advanced
a policy which should not persuade the South
to agree to terms of equality in the Government,

Arrogant Assumption of the South. 463
but should absolutely force them to accept such
terms. It was on the 24th of April that Mr. Conkling
made the most notable speech of the session. The
audience was as remarkable in its character as the
one which had gathered to hear Mr. Blaine in the
preceding December. The private galleries were
packed with the flower of Washington society.
Brilliant toilettes and large bouquets of handsome
flowers gave the festive air of a social reception to the
sombre Senate chamber. The Senate was full, while
the floor back of the seats was occupied by a majority
ofthe members who had come over from the House.
Mr. Conkling, moving like a great actor who had
carefully studied , his part, was the focus * of every
-eye. He came into the Senate chamber just before
the time for the delivery of his speech dressed in
black. The only bit of color in his dress was a
tiny patch of -red ribbon in the upper button-hole
of his black cut-a-way coat. Mr. Conkling had
carefully prepared his speech, had memorized it, and
had studied the proper shade of inflection for
nearly every word of this truthfully cruel and power
ful address. Senator Ingalls, dressed in black, with
a clerical white cravat, occupied a seat at his right.
He performed for Mr. Conkling the temporary
office of secretary and stood up and read for him

464 Life of James G. Blaine.
extracts from documents, which, under ordinary
circumstances, during the speech of a Senator are
sent up to the clerk's desk to be read. As Mr.
Conkling began his speech his face was very pale,
but as he talked it flushed, though the speaker
never allowed his feelings to carry him beyond the
regions of perfect self-control. Upon his desk in
front of him rested a modest pile of manuscript. The
opening of his speech was original. He began with
a declaration which was such an assault upon the
Southern position, that it brought Senator Ben Hill
at once to the front, before Mr. Conkling himself
had littered a half a dozen lines of his address..
Mr. Conkling held in his hand a sheet of paper
upon which were figures taken from the internal
revenue reports. These figures were read by a
clerk. They showed that of the two hundred and
thirty-odd millions of dollars collected under the in
ternal revenue laws for the support of the Govern
ment for the preceding year, two hundred and
twenty-odd millions were paid by the States which
had remained loyal to the Union. Of the eleven
States which rebelled, Virginia paid six millions in
the -tobacco tax, leaving only seven millions coming
from the fraction of the country once known as the
Southern Confederacy. Mr. Conkling gave these
figures to indicate the real proportion that the South

DRAWING-KOOM IN THE BLAINE MANSION AT WASHINGTON.

Arrogant Assumption of the South. 467
had in the support of the Government, and by com-
parison to show how little basis it had for its arro
gant assumption of a control of the National admin
istration. Senator Ben. Hill, who sought to inter
rupt at this point, was met with an icy politeness
by the New York Senator, who said that he had
simply stated facts from the official record, and if
the Georgia Senator thought that two could state
them .better than one he would yield. Mr. Hill then
began to explain the figures from his point of view,
when Mr. Conkling declined to yield further and re
sumed his discourse. Mr. Conkling took up the
story of the figures and showed that the Southern
portion, small as it had been, had been recently
diminished by the reduction of the tobacco tax,
almost the only tax paid by the South for the sup
port of the Government. Taking then the subject
of the people's money, Mr. Conkling proceeded to
ask how it was to be used. The people who paid it
were certainly the ones who were to be consulted in
its expenditure. The Constitution requires that it
shall be expended only under appropriations. To
make these appropriations is obligatory upon Con
gress ; to refuse is to commit treason, to rise up
at once in rebellion. Such refusal to obey plain
duties, he said, would render the President, or any*
occupant of a Federal office, subject to summary

468 Life of James G. Blaine.
impeachment. Congress was only impeachable
at the bar of public opinion. Mr. Conkling then
went to the discussion of another Constitutional
feature of the question — that the President had
undoubtedly the right to call out the militia ,
to suppress domestic violence, and the legislar
tion that has since been passed upon the subject was
only specifying plain powers given, by the Constitu
tion. Mr. Ingalls here read the statutes bearing
upon this subject. When these statutes were read,
Mr. Conkling earnestly asked if there was any
special reason why any day should be set apart
as sacred to violence; to say upon an election day
the President should be powerless to suppress out
rageous infractions of law. He had heard that the
repeal of the Federal election laws had been urged
upon the plea of economy. Then with a satirical
smile he spoke of the millions that had been poured
out like water in the maintenance of the integrity of
the Union, as he said, " and was the country to falter
now oyer the $200,000 necessary for the preserva
tion of the purity of its elections. Why," said Mr.
Conkling, "there is appropriated every year in that
monstrosity, known as the River and Harbor bill,
enough money to keep the Federal election laws
supported as long as grass grows or water runs."
From this aggressive thrust Mr. Conkling passed

Arrogant Assumption of the South. 469
rapidly, to a dramatic description of the horrors of
the riots in New York where, as he ¦ said, the occu
pants of the slums, the groggeries, the vile sinks of
crime and other hot-beds of the New York Democ-,
racy came out and seized the great city by the throat
during the days of the war and would have destroyed
it had it not been for the iron hand of Federal in
terference. This picture pf a ribald, ignorant, crimi
nal Democratic mob was tersely and vigorously
sketched, even tp the burning of the asylum for
colored orphans, " from whose funeral pyre the souls
of murdered innocents went to Heaven to complain
of the terrible inhumanity of man." This picture'
was given with such grave simplicity, such perfec
tion of utterance, and with such a deep expression
of emotion, that tears started from many eyes. A
gentleman seated just behind the speaker was so
carried away by the pathos of the mournful picture
that tears ran down his cheeks. Mr. Conkling changed
abruptly from this pathetic picture. He said that
New York had then learned a terrible lesson, and that
it was on account of General Grant's vigorous efforts
to restrain the New York mob thaf such a crown of
victory had been presented to him in his Presiden
tial campaign by this grateful State. "And," said Mr.
Conkling, " if the occasion should ever come when
General Grant should again be a subject for honor it

470 lAfe of James G. Blaine.
will be again seen that New York will never forget
his services." This allusion to Grant attracted great
attention and was followed by a murmur of approval.
The speaker then described how the corrupt and
vicious elements in New York city had nearly always
been able to negative the vote of the State, however
great the majority there, and then asked whether the
thugs and thieves of New York city should be
allowed to run riotously free upon election day. Mr.
Conkling then passed to a consideratiorPof the pres
ent attitude of the Democrats, who were seeking to
coerce the executive and to restrict his power. Mr.
Conkling thought ihen that the country was not
quite ready to pass over its entire affairs to the men
who had so recently tried to ruin it and who repre
sented really such a small proportion of its material
interests. He thought the place for the South was
not quite so far in the foreground. Here he turned
to the Southern Senators, and his quick glance in
cluded Mr. Blaine as he said that he was not , an
advocate of the doctrine of sentiment and gush.
Here he gave an amusing description of the Phila
delphia Convention of 1867, when members from the
North and from the South walked into the Conven
tion with locked ar,ms, gushing and grinning. Just
before these last words General Sherman entered the
Senate chamber and took. a seat in front of Mr.

?/

^Arrogant Assumption of the South. . 471
Conkling. Senator David Davis yielded him his
place, while he walked to a chair at the official report
ers' table. Mr. Conkling utilized at once the presence
of General Sherman by turning to him and saying :
" General Sherman, who was present at this Conven
tion, warned those present not to make fools of them
selves." The speaker deprecated any such means
for the building up of unity of sentiment. It could
be only done on a basis of justice, honesty, and
equality. Here he came out .in the central aisle, a«nd
in phrases of blunt common-sense turned bis exclu
sive attention to a group of Southern Senators, who
turned white and red with indignation as Mr. Conk
ling strode up and down the aisle talking to them in
a manner which stirred resentment with every
phrase. He said that there was room for them all
at the national table, but they must not expect that
wherever they sat must of a necessity be the head of
the table. They must learn something besides poli
tics. "Go to work," said he, "plant, sow, build;
make your country the equal of other sections before
you come to us talking of ruling in Government
councils." This chapter was the best and most
convincing part of his speech. He adjured them
to disband their rifle clubs, their white leagues,
to dismount their night riders, and to show the
regard for life and liberty of person that is shown

472 Life of James G. Blaine.
in other sections of the country. He askCd what
reason the South had to complain of the North
in bringing up the issues of the war. Out
of the ninety-three Representatives from the eleven
States that entered the Rebellion eighty-five had
served in the Confederate army, while three others
had held high civil positions under the Confederate
Government at Richmond. Upon the Republican
side in the Senate there were only four former officers
of the Union army and in the House but fifty, out
of a representation of about two hundred. Who
then was mainly responsible for keeping the war
and its issues active in politics ? The speaker was
the most adroit when he showed that the South was
at the bottom of all the pending election legislation.
First, he said it was clear that with an honest election
the country was overwhelmingly Republican, and
that, therefore, a Democratic victory could be secured
only by breaking down the safeguards about the
ballot-boxes. Now this pending legislation was ruled
by the caucus. There were forty-two Democratic
Senators, without counting Judge Davis, who went
into the caucus. Twenty-three Senators, the repre
sentatives of the eleven seceding States, were a ma
jority in this caucus, and controlled its action. Sena
tor Morgan, of Alabama, had very wisely declined to
go ahead in this debate, saying that he preferred

Arrogant Assumption of the South. 473
Northern Senators to precede him. This presenta
tion of the tail, and the burial of the head in the
sands deceived no one, but merely betrayed the
species of the bird. At this there was general
laughter. It was not through cruelty that the
Northern men were deployed in advance, but only
as party tactics.
A few ,days before this speech was delivered
David Davis had made a short address, in which
he had counseled peace and harmony between the
two sides. Mr. Conkling replied to this, and in
so doing at first begged the ex-Justice, for whom he
had the most profound respect, not to be offended at
what he was going to say. He said that this speech
of Mr. Davis's reminded him of an improved, copi
ous, ever-flowing stream of soothing syrup, superior
even to that of Mrs. Winslow. The Judge believed
everything was quiet in the South. Such faith there
was not in all Israel ! Then Mr. Conkling asked if
the learned Judge had read the petition from St.
Louis concerning the negro exodus, and then quoted
a number of passages from testimony recently taken
by Senate committees concerning outrages in the
South. Mr. Conkling then turned to Daniel Voor
hees, who had recently portrayed a picture of tyranw^
in the form of Federal election -supervisors at the
elections. Mr. Conkling paraphrased this picture

474 , Life of James G. Blaine.
Of Mr. Voorhees. He said that these supervisors,
one Democrat and one Republican, were charged
with the despotic duty of tyrannically observing the
old and the young, as they cast their ballots, to see
that they were not defrauded of their rights. And
he, Mr. Conkling, had no doubt that after the fitful
\ fever of this election day, when the end came, the
old and the young slept well. Throughout the three
hours' talk there was an unflagging interest. When
the end came there was no extravagant peroration.
It was the simple graceful leaving of the subject,
the easy farewell of a man of the world completiug
a morning call. When he finished, the proceedings
of the Senate were suspended for at least ten min
utes, to permit those present to extend their personal
congratulations to Mr. Conkling. It was one of the
most gratifying incidents of Mr. Conkling's career,
and an occasion on which he was at his best from the
beginning to the end.

CHAPTER XXIII.
MR. BLAINE'S PLANS REGARDING THE SOUTH. — THE
BLAINE-CONKLING STRUGGLE RENEWED AT THE
CHICAGO CONVENTION OF 1880.  MR. BLAINE DE
FEATS MR. CONKLING. — NOMINATION OF GENERAL
GARFIELD.
While in the Senate, Mr. Blaine directed a good
deal of his time to the consideration of South
ern questions. The Southern Senators sooh found
that there was no personal feeling in his speeches,
and that while he denounced their political methods,
he was perfectly willing to meet them on a friendly
footing, and so a number of the leading Southern
Senators maintained most cordial relations with him.
Senator Lamar, in particular, was very devoted at
that time to Mr. Blaine. Mr. Lamar undoubtedly
believed then that Mr. Blaine would become, within
a few years, the President of the United States,
and that if the South could not have a Demo
crat in that position, they undoubtedly preferred
him. They believed that he lacked the element of
personal vindictiveness, that he was thoroughly op
posed to any policy of revenge, and he had already
475

476 Life of James G. Blaine^.
interested them in his South American policy. He
frequently consulted with them concerning it, and he-
laid plans during his Senatorial term for a series
of improvements throughout the South which should
bring into it new elements of commercial power which
would in themselves come to the support of the law-
and-order elements.
Mr. Blaine's career in Congress is the subject for
an interesting and profitable study. In the field of
Presidential candidature it lacks permanent interest.
It- is no longer a story of statesmanship. It is a
story of necessary political intrigue, of rivalries be
tween Republican leaders, and of their attempts to de
feat each other. Any man who arrives at high promi
nence in Congress has made on his way there many
strong, enemies. Under our' political system of
nominating Presidential candidates, it -has become
almost impossible for a conspicuous and brilliantly
successful man to arrive at consideration if remain
ing silent or inactive. The Candidates who are con
sidered are those who are resolute in pushing their
own fortunes, and who have vigorous, firm friends
who are willing to work hard for them. The leading
contestants often succeed in simply defeating each
other, and then the prize goes to some one not thought
of at the outset of the contest and one in whom the
country has no particular interest. It has.become an

Mr. Blaine Defeats Mr. Conkling. 477
established rule in American politics that no Senator
of the United States can while in office reach the
nomination to the Presidency. The rivalries and
personal jealousies of the Senate are so great that,
rather than see one of their own members nominated
for the Presidency, the rest would unite their entire
influence to defeat him.
General Garfield, who was nominated in 1880, was
only a Senator- elect, and had never taken his seat and
had taken no part in the proceedings of that body."
The winter of 1879 and 1880 was an exciting one,
all of the Senatorial candidates were carefully
watched and their every act published and criticised.
General Grant had now returned home and was the
choice of the extreme stalwart element. His candi
dacy awakened the criticisms of leaders in the anti-
third term movement of 1876. They started out
favoring any coalition to beat him. " Anything to
beat Grant" was the watch- word with them. Mr.
Blaine had about the same following that he had in
187.6. His record in the Senate had not apparently
increased his popularity, which was at its height in
the campaign of 1876.
The spring preceding the meeting of the Republi
can Convention General Grant came to Washington.
General Grant, instead of being reticent as usual/
talked unreservedly on political subjects. He ex-

478 Life of James G. Blaine.
pressed with • great frankness his objections to Mr.
Sherman, the administration candidate. At that
time he was not on speaking cerms with Mr. Blaine.
Mr. Conkling had become General Grant's personal
representative. Mr. Conkling himself had been
eliminated from the lists of possible candidates
for well-known reasons, accepted by every one "as
putting him out of the contest. The fact that Mr.
Conkling was himself out of the fight made his oppo
sition to Mr. Blaine all the more intense. There was
no more noticeable figure in the Chicago Convention,
when it met, than Senator Conkling. He prided
himself then on his being considered the chief of the
stalwarts. He had defeated Mr. Blaine in 1876, and
it was now Mr. Blaine's turn to defeat Mr. Conkling's
ambitions if possible. Seated quietly in his library
at Washington, Mr. Blaine was kept constantly ad
vised of every movement in the Convention by his
intimate friend, General Garfield, who was chairman
of the Ohio delegation, and supposed to be there in
the interests of Mr. Sherman. General Garfield's
experience as a debater and his really fine presenee
made a profound impression upon the Convention.
Mr. Conkling held in the Convention the strongest
following. The Grant forces polled the largest vote
on the first ballot. They were in the position occu
pied by the Blaine forces at Cincinnati four years

Mr. Blaine Defeats Mr. Conkling. 479
before. They were unable to nominate theiy man
on the first ballot, and from then On had opposed to
them the ability and skill of all the other candidates,
ready at any moment to combine upon anybody to
defeat Grant. Mr. Blaine's was undoubtedly the
directing mind of the Convention. The unit rule,
which constituted the main strength of the Grant
delegates, was broken through the work of. the Com
mittee of Rules, of which General Garfield was
chairman. It is questioned in political circles whether General
Garfield did not betray Mr. Sherman, and this has
never been satisfactorily answered. He was -in the
Convention representing Mr. Sherman, and he ac
cepted a nomination in the end while he had been
sent by his St^tte to present the claims of some one
else. The choice of this Convention was bitterly con
tested and the sessions ran through a number of
days. On the first ballot General Grant" received
three hundred and four ; Mr. Blaine two hundred
and eighty-four ; John Sherman ninety-three ; E. B.
Washburne thirty-one ; George F. Edmunds thirty-
four, and Wm. Windom ten votes. The stalwarts,
under the leadership of Mr. Conkling, stood firmly
by General Grant, and Mr. Blaine's forces were
equally faithful. The suggestion to break the dead
lock through turning the vote of the Blaine forces to

480 Life of James G. Blaine.
General Garfield came from Mr. Blaine's house at
Washington. ' He saw that he could not be nomi
nated himself, and he indicated among the candidates
before the Convention, the one who would be the
most acceptable to him. General Garfield protested
with apparent indignation when the ballot began to
turn in his direction. He said that he could not
with honor accept a nomination. This remark
seemed to convince the Convention that he pos
sessed unusual merits, and the stampede began
which carried with it defeat for the stalwarts, hu
miliation for Mr. Conkling, ending another chapter
in the Blaine-Conkling feud which resulted in the
nomination of James A. Garfield on the thirty-sixth
ballot. The extraordinary fierceness of the fight
made by Mr. Conkling was shown by the fact that
in the face of the stampede not a single Grant vote
was lost, and that General Grant polled on the final
ballot two more votes than he did on the opening
one. The stalwarts perpetuated this contest by hav
ing a badge made on which the figures 306 were
emblazoned as an emblem of fidelity to the fortunes
of General Grant.
The nomination of Chester A. Arthur as second
on the ticket with General Garfield was a concession
made to the Grant men, but this act was not the
occasion of any marked manifestation of. gratitude;

CHAPTER XXIV.
THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN OF 1880. — GENERAL GAR
FIELD MAKES PEACE WITH THE STALWARTS. — THE
PARTY DISRUPTED OVER A FIGHT ABOUT OFFICES.
General Garfield's nomination was a great disr
appointment to the stalwarts. They recognized it as
a substantial Blaine victory. During the early part
of the campaign they were silent and reserved. One
of the current expressions of the day described them
as " warriors sulking in their tents." Several weeks
elapsed without any outward indication upon their
part of enthusiasm over the ticket. Senator Sher
man was also indignant, and for a time it looked
as if he might quietly oppose his influence to General
Garfield in the State of Ohio. Then came a confer
ence of the Republican leaders at the Fifth Avenue
Hotel, in New York. General Grant, who was
always conspicuous for his common sense and un
selfishness, was the first of the Republican leaders
approached by the representatives of General Gar
field. General Grant, showed no resentment or dis
appointment over the result of the Chicago Conven
tion, He pledged at once his own support to
481

482 Life of James G. Blaine.
the ticket, and promised to use his influence to
bring the rest of the stalwarts into line. He did
this. Mr. Conkling, through the influence of
General Grant, supported the ticket throughout"
New York, and as he had in that State a most
devoted personal following, his influence was un
doubtedly necessary to the Republican success
in that Presidential campaign. The stalwarts fol
lowed the lead of these two chiefs. General Han
cock, who had been nominated by the Democrats,
was unfortunate enough to speak of the tariff as a
mere local issue, and the ridicule heaped upon him
weakened him more as a candidate than if he had
been made the target of the most virulent scandal or
abuse. General Garfield's election by a decided ma
jority in the Electoral College was most gratifying to
the Republicans. It affirmed the decision made by
the Electoral Commission, which declared that Mr".
Hayes had been elected in 1876. The Democrats
had made a charge of fraud in that election one of
the issues of the campaign, and the decision in the
election of 1880 was that the charge was not sus
tained. General Garfield remained at his home in Mentor,
Ohio, during the greater part of the winter preceding
his inauguration. The first office tendered by him
to any one was the position of. Secretary of State to

DINING-ROOM IN THE BLAINE MANSION AT WASHINGTON.

Campaign of 1880. 485
Mr. Blaine. General Garfield had always been
dominated and controlled by Mr. Blaine, from the
day when the latter rehabilitated him in the House by
putting him at the head of the Appropriations Com
mittee when he was under the cloud of the Credit-
Mobilier investigation. Mr. Blaine appreciated the
great abilities of General Garfield, while at the same
time lie was fully conscious of his weak side. Gen
eral Garfield had high aspirations, but was easily
guided by a stronger will. Mr. Blaine had that
stronger will, and when he accepted the office of
Secretary of State under President Garfield he ac
cepted all the more readily because he knew that
with that acceptance he would have practically the
control and direction of the National administration
in the fields of his legitimate ambition.
The offer to Mr. Blaine was made on the 26th of
November, just after the election. Mr. Blaine took
some days for consideration, and then wrote the fol
lowing letter of acceptance :
" Washington, December 20th, 1880.
" My Dear Garfield : — Your generous invita
tion 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

486 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
it with such cogent arguments in its favor and with
such 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 subject
in all its bearings and to make up my mind, definitely
and conclusively. I now say 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 accept, written
to me in consequence of the mere unauthorized news
paper report that you had been pleased to offer me
the plaCe. While I have received 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 expected to encounter local jealousy and per
haps rival aspiration.
" In our new relation I shall give all that I am
and all that I can hope to be, freely and joyfully, to

Campaign of 1880. 487
your serviced 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 political fortunes
in the present and in the future. Your administra
tion must be made brilliantly successful and strong
in the confidence and pride of the people, not at all
directing its energies for re-election, and yet com-
"pelling that result by the logic of events and by the
imperious necessities of the situation.
" To that most desirable consummation I feel that,
next to yourself, I can possibly contribute as much
-influence as any other one man. I say this not from
egotism or vainglory, Jbut merely as a deduction 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 accept it as one of the happiest
circumstances connected with this affair that in ally
ing my political fortunes with yours — or rather for
the time merging mine in yours — my heart goes with
my head, and that J. carry to you not only political
support but personal and devoted friendship. I can
but regard it as somewhat remarkable that two men
of ..he same age, entering Coiigress at the same time,
influenced by the same aims and cherishing the same
amliitinns should never, for a single moment in

488 Life of James G. Blaine.
eighteen years of close intimacy, have had a misun
derstanding or a coolness, and that our friendship
has steadily grown with our growth, and strengthened
with our strength.
" It is this fact which has led me to the conclusion
embodied in this letter ; for however much, my dear
Garfield, I might 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."
The acceptance Upon the part of Mr. Blaine was not
officially made known to the public until the latter
part of the month of February of that winter. He
remained in the Senate attending to his daily duties -
until some of the Stalwarts began to hope that Mr.
Blaine was not to be in the new administration. Mr.
Conkling even made a pilgrimage to Mentor, where
he was received by General Garfield and where he
also received the promise that Mr. L. P. Morton
should be made Secretary of the Treasury. At least
Mr. Conkling was the authority for this declaration.
It is true that Mr. Conkling was a difficult man to
deal with, but it does* appear that very little trouble
was taken to satisfy him after the election.. He had
loyally supported the ticket during the campaign,

Campaign of 1880. 489
and when Mr. Blaine was placed at the head of the
Cabinet he feared at once that he was to be made an
object of attack. It is an unfortunate chapter in
our politics. The great issues discussed in and out
of Congress by the Republican leaders were
forgotten, and questions of personal power were
substituted. In reality, these issues were small ones,
but at the time they looked very large. Mr. Conk-
ling had a great political power in his State. He
was devoted to his friends and merciless toward his
enemies. When the new administration formed its
Cabinet, and left out of it all representation of the .
stalwart element, Mr. Conkling was only too ready to
ascribe the composition of the Cabinet to the power
ful influence of Mr. Blaine. He was at once ready
to make the fight which he said had been thrust upon
him. If he had been content to have gone ahead in
a dignified way in the Senate and to have dropped
the question of personal importance and Federal pa
tronage he would undoubtedly have had the sym
pathy of the country. As it was, he degraded his
great political career by staking the whole of it on
an issue of Federal patronage.. President Garfield
sent into the Senate the name of Mr. Robertson, an
opponent of Mr. Conkling's, for the office of Collector
of the Port of New York. Mr. Conkling regarded
this as a personal blow at himself in his own State.

490 Life of James G. Blaine.
A war. of a personal character at once began. Mr.
Conkling was jeered at for having trusted President
Garfield. He was told by the newspapers of the
country that his old enemy, Mr. Blaine, had him now
at a disadvantage, and that his political power would
henceforth be limited. Mr. Conkling made the mis
take of assuming that a control of the Federal pa
tronage in his State was at all necessary to his stand
ing. He then had a great place and a great name.
He could have much better afforded, to wait in
patience the result of time rather than to force
the issue that was then made. The Garfield
administration, upon the other hand, should have
shown more magnanimity. It was in the posi
tion of power, and should have borne much be
fore needlessly antagonizing such a man as Mr.
Conkling. His manner at this time was not in
gratiating. At Mentor even his requests were like
demands. During the final months preceding the inaugura
tion of General Garfield, Mr. Blaine increased his
intimacy with the Southern Senators. He was then
recognized by them as the coming man, and he be
lieved that he could bring the South to a system of
honest government and to a proper consideration of
the Republican voters in that section of the country-:
by other means than violent ones. He believed in

Campaign of 1880. 491
appealing to their self-interest, and through this self-
interest to divide them. He consulted frequently
with Mr. Lamar, and told him that he was going
into the Cabinet. He outlined to this most distin
guished Southern Senator the details of his South
American plan. He pictured to him how the com
mercial importance of the South could be increased
through the development of this policy. ' There was
first to be a Peace Conference, which should bring
the Republics of this continent together, and then a
reciprocity policy was to be brought forward as a
means of adding commercial strength to the union
of sentiment. . He described to Mr. Lamar the plan
for the Pan-American Railroad, which was to unite
the Southwest and South in direct communication
with the rich countries lying still to the south of them.
Mr. Blaine made one more speech in the Senate
during this winter, in which he advised liberal subsi
dies for steamship lines running to South American
ports. This was in accordance with the sentiment
of Southern Senators,- had their cordial support, and
was generally regarded as ah outline of the policy
of the new administration.
The brilliant South American policy of Mr.
Blaine's, which was not to be fully developed until
eight years later under President Harrison, was not
fully begun under President Garfield. So far as the

492 Life of James G. Blaine.
public was concerned it was completely over
shadowed by the war with Mr. Conkling.
The Vice-President sympathized with Mr. Conk
ling and approved his resolution to resign from the
Senate arid make the issue with the new admin
istration before the Legislature at Albany. Mr.
Thomas C. Piatt, his associate, resigned also. Sena
tor Logan, who had been a strong, friend of Mr.
Conkling, was indignant at this act of weakness. He
said to Mr. Arthur the day they resigned, " They
will never live long enough to be again elected to
any office."
The resignations proved to be acts of political
suicide. The people of New York regarded the
resignations as trifling with them over an issue too
small to be considered. Mr. Conkling had lived too
long in an atmosphere of adulation to see clearly.
No one was more surprised and disappointed than
he when the Legislature rebuked his act by retiring
him to private life. From that day Mr. Conkling
kept out of active politics and devoted himself to the
practice of law.
He made his last move in politics when he threw
the influence left him against Mr. Blaine in the
campaign of 1884. He died from the effects of an
exposure in the blizzard that, swept suddenly upon
New York in March, 1887.

CHAPTER XXV.
THE GARFIELD CABINET. — MADE UP WHOLLY SUBOR
DINATE TO MR. BLAINE.  THE BREAK WITH THE
STALWARTS AND THE FOREIGN POLICY.  THE AS
SASSINATION OF GARFIELD AND THE TEMPORARY
FAILURE OF MR. BLAINE'S PLANS.
The Garfield administration, so far as its Cabinet
was concerned, was completed during the last twenty-
four hours preceding the inauguration. There was
great difficulty in filling the post of Secretary of the
Treasury. The Stalwarts had asked for the place,
and both the Grant and Conkling elements had
pressed the claims of L. P. Morton, of New York.
But General Garfield said that he was too closely
identified with the banking interests to be eligible,
and so he turned to his former intimates in Congress.
He made the first offer to Senator Allison, of Iowa.
He considered the subject for several days, and finally
declined, preferring to remain h| the Senate. Through
this wisdom upon his part he escaped retirement to
private life, and has remained in the Senate ever
since. Senator Windom, whose term was about to
expire, was offered the place, and he accepted the
493

494 Life of James G. Blaine.
night before inauguration. He had been associated
with Mr. Garfield in the House, was in the confidence
of Mr. Blaine, and was very intimate with the latter
in the Senate. He was thoroughly in accord with
both the President and the head of his Cabinet.
The entire Cabinet was made up in accordance
with the wishes of Mr. Blaine; not a single ele
ment antagonistic to him was admitted. The gen
eral criticism of the opponents of the administration
was that it was a weak Cabinet, with the exception of
its head.
. Mr. Windom in the Treasury gave satisfaction as
a good business administrator. He was a safe, care
ful man, but he was not original. He would have
been incapable of outlining any determined or bold
policy, but he was very faithful and discreet in car
rying out the orders of a superior mind. In the
War Department, Mr. Lincoln, then a young lawyer
without the slightest experience in public affairs,
began to learn his duties. In the Navy Department
was W. H. Hurit, a former judge of the Court of
Claims. He was from Louisiana. He was a well-
equipped lawyer whj. a good knowledge of affairs,
but he was comparatively unknown to the public,
and represented no active element in political life,
although he was put in as the representative of the
South. In the Interior Department was Mr. Kirk-

The Assassination of Garfield. 495
wood, a former Senater. He was an amiable old
gentleman, very slow, and lethargic in his move
ments, possessing strong common sense and good
abilities, but having none of the executive qualities
of an administrator necessary for a great depart
ment. He labored under the delusion that he
could do everything himself, and until he learned
hy absolute, necessity to delegate some of the
work of his department to others the affairs
of that portion of the administration were hopelessly
behind. The Attorney-General was Wayne Mac-"
Veagh,- of Pennsylvania, a corporation lawyer
without any previous public experience. He
. owed his selection to the fact that he was a son-in-law
of Simon Cameron. He made no record for himself
during the brief period of his career, except as a
disorganizing element. Had General Garfield lived,
he would have undoubtedly been changed during the
fall of 1881. The Post-office Department was given
to Thomas L. James, of New York city, another
gentleman wholly unknown to public life, and whose
experience had been entirely in commercial affairs.
The general impression throughout the country was
that Mr. Blaine had the administration so completely
under his will that the President was practically his
private secretary and the Cabinet a board of record
ing scribes.

496 Life of James G. Blaine.
The opening chapter in the history of this new
administration was one of turmoil and political ex
citement. The nomination of Mr. Robertson for the
Collector of the Port of New York was directly
charged to the influence of Mr. Blaine. Mr. Rob
ertson had been a devoted adherent of Mr. Blaine's
in his State and a consequent opponent of Mr. Conk
ling's. When the two New York Senators resigned,
President Garfield showed what a poor politician he
was by being anxious as to the result before the Leg
islature at Albany. Mr. Blaine never had any doubt
about the result. He considered Mr. Conkling elimi
nated from the field of political calculation on the
day he resigned from the United States Senate.
Mr. Conkling's defeat caused a very bitter feeling
upon the part of certain stalwarts, although their
personal sympathy for him after he resigned was but
slight. Mr. Conkling resigned on the ,16th of May,
1881. It was about this time that General Grant
had a break with President Garfield.1 A few days
after President Garfield's inauguration General Grant
called upon him to pay his respects. He said, after
ward, that the President thanked him most heartily
for the part he had taken in the previous campaign.
He said that his open stand in company with Conk
ling and Logan, had been the turning-point of , the
campaign. He asked General Grant if there was not

The Assassination cf Garfield. 497
something that he could do for him which would
enable him to show his gratitude for the service that
he had rendered him. General Grant at first refused
to suggest anything. He said that he had called
merely to pay his respects, and had no wish to
burden the administration with any personal requests.
General Garfield, however, persisted, and then Gen
eral Grant make three requests. The first was that
General Badeau, formerly of .his staff, a lifelong and
intimate friend, and who was engaged then in writing
the history of his life, should be retained as Consul-
General at London. The second request was that
rhis brother-in-law, Mr. Kramer, then Minister to
Copenhagen, should be retained at his post, this re
quest being made chiefly on account of the feeble
health of Mrs. Kramer, General Grant's sister, who
found the climate of Copenhagen very beneficial to
her. The third request was that John Russell
Young should be made Minister to Mexico. The
fulfilment of these requests was readily promised.
General Grant left the White House, went to New
York, and did not come back to Washington again
that spring. On the very day of his call Mr. Kramer,
by direction of the State Department, was transferred
from Copenhagen to Berne, and General Badeau was
transferred from London to Copenhagen so as to
make a place for Mr. Merritt, the former Collector

498 Life of James G. Blaine.
of the Port of New York, who had been moved out
to make a place for Mr.. Conkling's enemy, Mr.
Robertson. The request concerning John Russell-
Young was never acted on. These and similar
stories concerning the attitude of the administration
toward the stalwarts were published from time to
time, and the climax of all this excitement was the
assassination of President Garfield on the 2d of July,
1881, by Charles J. Guiteau, within four months
following his inauguration.
Guiteau, the assassin, was in every respect a des
picable creature. He had apparently no elements of
humanity or decency in his composition. It would
be very -unjust to charge him to any community or
party. He was a product of ighoble conditions, and
was a creature wholly unbalanced by an egotism and
a vanity which amounted to insanity, although when
put on trial for his life he was found accountable
and sent to the gallows as an ordinary murderer.
The word " crank," so often misused, could properly
be employed to describe Guiteau. ' The word came
into common use during the period of his trial.
During the change of any administration at Wash=
ington there is always a great pressure brought to
bear- from office seekers. This demand for official
place comes from all corners of the country, and
brings to Washington a great many different types of

Assassination of Garfield. 499
half-crazy humanity. Many enfeebled and ill-in
formed minds of this class become inflamed in the at
mosphere of political excitement they find at Wash
ington. Some of these applicants for office become
actually insane. This insanity often reaches a belief
that they themselves have been elected to high office,
and that the President of the United States is, keep
ing them out' of their positions. The White House
is the loadstone which draws to it the crazy people
who come to the Capital. The arrest of insane per
sons at the doors of the White House, who come
there for the purpose of taking the President's life
is only too common.
Guiteau was a man in the neighborhood of forty
years of age when he came to Washington, after the
inauguration of Garfield. He was" a man of medium
height and small figure. He had a fairly good-
sized head. His reddish hair was closely cropped,
his ~ forehead was narrow and wrinkled, - his eyes
were a pale blue, his nose small and straight, his
mouth vulgar and thick-lipped, while a reddish,
scrubby mustache and ragged beard covered the
lower part of his face. He had been partially edu
cated as a lawyer. He had been married, but had
deserted his wife in Chicago, and had pursued every
known device for obtaining a living without work.
He was a natural vagabond, without a single redeem-

500 Life of James G. Blaine.
ing quality. He was dirty and repulsive in his.
person, with a cold perspiration constantly standing
on his forehead and dripping from his hands, which
in itself suggested a disordered mind. He was a
beast in his appetites, devoured his food like a wolf,
and insulted women whenever he had the slightest
opportunity of coming in their neighborhood. He
was dishonest and without any regard for the rights
ofv others. Yet, in spite of all these ignoble and
wretched qualities, he had the most colossal egotism.
He imagined himself to be a great politician, a
polished writer, and capable of holding the highest
office. He besieged the door-keepers of the ante
chamber of the White House for weeks, and sent
tli3re long, rambling missives presenting his claims
for an appointment. - His dirty, wretched appearance
and his general air of repulsiveness made him re
jected at every door. He could not even secure ad
mission to present his papers, ayd could not have ob
tained ah appointment as a laborer in any of the Gov
ernment departments. He used to say in his letters
that he was a Blaine Republican. When his missives
met with no response he began to write threatening let
ters. He then signed himself a stalwart Republican.
The morning of the 2d pf July was a regular
Washington mid-summer day. The thermometer
registered ninety in the shade, and the radiation from-

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m*&

f '¦;-;. ,.W:-

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f ->.V- M
* *f; ¦'¦
,-i-" ¦*.
- > Ii
ON THE PORCH AT BAR HARBOR COTTAGE.
(Blaine and Harrison families.) .
Assassination of Garfield. 503
the pavements made walking in the streets intolera
ble. . The President had planned to leave that morn
ing at half-past nine on the New York train to
go to a commencement at Williams College. He
was then to spend several weeks in Massachusetts.
Mr. Blaine had planned to go away with him, and to
separate from the President in Massachusetts, then
going on to Maine. The President was in a happy,
contented mood. He had just seen the end of the
first political fight of the administration, and had
had his mind directed entirely toward the South-
American policy of Mr. Blaine, which he thought
would make such a brilliant chapter in his adminis
tration. For the first time in his life perhaps he was
financially at ease. With his large family his
relatively narrow income as member of Congress
had been sufficient for only actual necessaries of life.
He had not even known the luxury of a private
carriage. The large salary and abundant ease of his
new position were specially gratifying to him, after
his many years of self-denial. He was in the prime
of physical health, in the first year of his Presi
dential term. He hoped and believed that his ad
ministration would succeed itself, and that he had
before him perhaps eight years of power, a career
which appealed to his mind, especially open to
imaginative impressions.

504 Life of James G. Blaine.
On the way to the station he joked and laughed
with the high spirits of a school-boy off for a vaca
tion. Mr. Blaine drove to the station with him.
He stood by his side in the ladies' waiting-room of
the Pennsylvania station while the train was being
made ready. The President and his Secretary of
State stood with their backs to the street entrance,
facing the door which communicated with the main
station. Guiteau, who had been hanging about the
White House and the departments for the last month,
came in too from the street without being noticed by
any one until he drew a short bull-dog revolver and
fired directly into the back of the President, while
standing not more than four feet away. He fired
twice, but it was only the first shot that hit the
President. General Garfield fell unconscious to the
floor as the assassin brandished his revolver, saying,
"lama stalwart and Arthur is President." The
shock to Mr. Blaine was very great, as he expected
that he would be the next victim of the assassin's
weapon. He stooped and lifted the President's head as
the by-standers rushed and secured the assassin. It was
with difficulty that Guiteau was carried by the police
through the streets to the jail. In almost any other
city he would have been lynched upon the spot.
The citizens of the Capital are the most law-abiding
people in the country, and notwithstanding the violent

Assassination of Garfield. 505
expressions of indignation at the cruel and cowardly
act of the vulgar assassin, they consented to allow the
law to take its course. And the authorities soon
concealed him from sight.
The President was carried back to the White
House, where the surgeons in attendance decided
that he was mortally wounded. A Cabinet meet
ing was called, and Mr. Blaine related the story
of the assassination. Mr. Blaine 'suffered as cruelly
from this shock as if he had himself been stricken by
the hand of the assassin. It was a bolt from a sum
mer sky. The President was first his friend, and it
was through him that he occupied his position of
power. That morning he had reviewed with Gen
eral Garfield just what they would do during the
next four years. He had laid out great and noble
plans. He knew that this policy would make the
country soon forget the petty war oyer offices in New
York. He saw this plan and his policy dashed to
the ground, arid, with the death ofthe President, his
retirement to private life. \He knew then that there
would be no possibilities of his remaining the abso
lute master of the administrative situation with a
change in the office of the Presidency. The whole
composition of the administration had been made to
fit his plans. Now any change which would come
would of necessity undo all that he had outlined.

506 Life of James G. Blaine,
This second blow to Mr. Blaine was so severe that
it as seriously impaired his health as would have a
long illness. He had no longer the rude vigor to sus
tain continued shocks and disappointments. The first
blow came during the strain of the Democratic in
vestigations of the House. Early in the days of the
Garfield administration, a Democratic committee had
again sought to discredit him through the charges of
a man of the name of Shipherd, who had been dis
barred from practice before the- State Department.,
He charged that Mr. Blaine was interested in the
Landreau claim, a great claim against the Peruvian
Government, and that was the motive which led Mr.
Blaine, early in the history of the Garfield adminis
tration, to send his oldest son, Mr. Walker Blaine,
and Mr. William Henry Trescott as special envoys to
Peru for the purpose of offering their good offices as
mediators to settle the devastating war then going on
between Chili and Peru. The charges fell nearly as
soon as they were made. This investigation illus
trated well the Democratic point of view at that time.
Mr. Blaine's whole South American policy in its be
ginning was denounced as in the interests of private
speculation. No better motives could then be found
by his political opponents.
* Mr. Blaine, who had intended to go to the bracing
climate of Maine for the summer of 1881, was obliged

Assassination of Garfield. 507
to remain at Washington on account ofthe President's
illness during the trying months of July and August.
Since his sunstroke in 1876 he was much troubled by
extreme heat. -The summer of . this year was espe
cially severe. The atmosphere was very depressing
and debilitating. Hardly a drop of rain fell during
nearly two months that General Garfield lay at the
point of death in the White House. . The country
was again disturbed and excited, and some of the
partisan newspapers charged, according to their po
litical view, the responsibility for stirring up the
political excitement which had led to the inflaming
of the feeble mind of Guiteau' alternately upon the
heads of the stalwarts and the Blaine Republicans.
The burden of this summer aged Mr. Blaine rap
idly. When he. went to Long Branch with the dy
ing President he looked himself as if he were suffer
ing from some mortal malady. His face was ashen
while dark rings encircled his eyes, and he moved
with a languor unusual to him.
, He had almost no respite from his official dutieF
until the following winter. He came back to Wash
ington with Mr. Arthur after the death of President
Garfield, and served under the new administration
for a few weeks, until Mr. Arthur reorganized his
Cabinet, retaining only Mr. Lincoln of the original
Cabinet .selected by Mr. Garfield. Some of Mr.

508 Life of James G. Blaine.
Blaine's enemies have represented him as having
made overtures to Mr. Arthur, hoping to be retained
in his Cabinet. • This is wholly untrue. Mr. Blaine
would have remained if Mr. Arthur- had asked him
to, and would have gone on, if he had been permitted,
with the policy he had begun under the Garfield
administration ; but he saw, within the shortest time
after his return to Washington, that there was such
a lack of harmony of ideas between himself and the
new President that he placed his resignation in the
hands of Mr. Arthur upon the reassembling of Con
gress the following winter.
Mr. Blaine's last official act of importance under
the Arthur administration, was the entertainment
of the French and German visitors who came here to
take part in the Centennial celebration of the victory
at Yorktown. The descendants of Baron Steuben
were the most conspicuous of the German visitors,
while the descendants of Lafayette were the principal
French guests. The famous General Boulanger was
officially attached to the French deputation, and as
there were several distinguished German officers with
the German visitors, it required very nice tact and
good management to treat the two opposing sets of
visitors with equal courtesy so that neither could be
offended. It was a difficult task, because the French
and the Germans were then very antagonistic, and

Assassination of Garfield. 509
apparently on the watch for some occasion for affront.
In a task of this kind where social and diplomatic
abilities were requisite Mr. Blaine was always success
ful. He closed the formal ceremonies by a brilliant
reception which he gave at Wormley's Hotel iri
Washington.,,

CHAPTER XXVI.
mr. blaine's activity in the office of secretary
of state. — the energy displayed in opening up
at once his south american policy.
No better illustration of Mr. Blaine's activity of
mind can be given than by looking through the dis
patches in the diplomatic correspondence in 1881.
During the four months of the Garfield administra
tion he wrote enough to fill a small volume. The
questions embraced were wide and far-reaching, and
covered issues between many countries and ours.
The political fight with Mr. Conkling could have
occupied but a small share of Mr. Blaine's attention,
judging by the volume of the work left recorded in
the archives of the State Department. Many of
the dispatches represent great labor, research, and
study. The first of these dispatches was between Mr.
Blaine and James Russell Lowell on the subject of
the Clayton-Bulwer treaty relating to the inter-
oceanic canal .at the isthmus. Mr. Blaine was not
satisfied with the treaty as it then stood. He wished
to secure its modification. Under the treaty we
510

His South American Policy. 511
undertook to guarantee the neutrality of the canal in
co-operation with Great " Britain, but we were for
bidden to land troops or to fortify upon the land,
while Great Britain with its powerful navy could, in
the event of dispute or disturbance, seize the mouths
of the canal and hold them against all comers until
dislodged by superior force. Mr., Blaine desired to
have this Government assume wholly the guaranteeing
of the neutrality of the canal, and presented an elabo
rate argument, in which he claimed that the follow
ing summary of the adjustments of the articles of the
treaty would meet with his approval.
"First. — Every part of the treaty which forbids the
United States to fortify the canal and hold the
political control ofit in conjunction with the country
in which it is located, to be canceled.
"Second. — Every part of the treaty in which Great
Britain and the United States agree to make no ac
quisition of territory in Central America to remain
in full force. As an original proposition, this Gov
ernment would not admit that Great Britain and the
United States should be put on the same basis, even
negatively with respect to territorial acquisitions on
the American Continent, and would be unwilling to
establish such a precedent without full explanation.
But the treaty contains that provision with respect to
Central America, and if the' United States should

512 Life of James G. Blaine.
seek its annulment it might give rise to erroneous
and mischievous apprehensions among a people with
whom this Government desires to be on the most
friendly terms. The United States has taken special
occasion to assure the Spanish- American Republics
that we do not intend and do not desire to cross their
borders, or in any way disturb their territorial integ
rity. We shall not, therefore, willingly incur the
risk of a misunderstanding by annulling the clauses
in the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty which forbid such a
step with respect to Central America. But the ac
quisition of military and naval stations necessary for
the protection of the canal and voluntarily ceded to
the United States by the Central American States is
not to be regarded as a violation ofthe provision con
tained in the foregoing.
"Third. — The United States will not object to the
clause looking to the establishment of a free port
at each end of whatever canal may be constructed,
if England desires the clause to be retained.
"Fourth. — The clause in which the two Govern
ments agreed to make treaty stipulations' for a joint
protectorate of whatever railway or canal might be
constructed at Tehuantepec or Panama has never
been perfected. No treaty stipulations for the pro
posed end have been suggested by either party, al
though citizens of the United States long since con-

His South American Policy. 513
structed a railway at Panama, and are now engaged
in the same work at Tehuantepec. It is a fair pre
sumption, in the judgment of the President, that
this provision should be regarded as obsolete by
the non-action and common consent of the two
Governments. "Fifth. — The clause defining the distance from
either end of the canal where, in time of war, cap
tures might be made by either belligerent on the high
seas, was left incomplete, and the distance was never
determined. In the judgment of the President,
speaking in the interest of peaceful commerce, this
distance should be made as liberal as possible, and
might, with advantage, as a question relating to
the high seas and common to all nations, be a
matter of stipulation between the great powers of
the world."
The most elaborate dispatch upon the subject was
written upon the 24th of June, 1881, and was followed
later by dispatches on the 19th of November and the
29th of the same month, just before he tendered his
resignation to Mr. Arthur. This argument of Mr.
Blaine's so elaborately presented then represents to
day the Government's attitude in Central American
canal affairs. We are to-day committed absolutely
by a policy of guaranteeing the neutrality of any
such canal which may be constructed against seizure

514 Life of James, G. Blaine.
or control by any foreign power without any regard
to the character or ownership of the company owning
and managing the canal. This position of the Gov
ernment has been reaffirmed from time to time, and
now is generally accepted as a part of the extension
of the Monroe Doctrine.
On the 26th of May Mr. Blaine wrote* two
dispatches to Minister Lowell concerning arbi
trary arrests in Ireland of American citizens for
alleged political reasons. Mr. Blaine's directions
here were very explicit. American citizens were not
to receive the countenance of our Minister for any in
fraction of local laws, but where they were unjustly
arrested or made the subjects of political prosecution,
their rights were to be carefully guarded. All
'through Mr. Blaine's dispatches his instructions re-
gardingthe protection of American citizens in for
eign lands are diplomatic and just, and at the same
time show unusual firmness upon the part of the
Government to protect these interests where im
properly encroached upon.
One of the most important steps taken by Mr.
Blaine in the direction of the. furthering of his
South American policy was his sending the spe
cial envoys to Peru to see if the good offices of this
Government could not be accepted to arbitrate the
dispute between Peru and Chili, and to put an end to

His South American Policy. 5f 5
a cruel and destructive war then going on. Some of
the leading Governments of Europe had previously
to this sought to co-operate with this country to per
form this act of mediation. This was notably true
in the case of France, which had large interests in
Peru. Mr. Blaine declined always to accept such
assistance, following the time-honored policy of this
Government not to be drawn into entangling foreign
alliances for the consideration of foreign questions.
The. offer of France came through the influence of
the Credit Industriel Company, of Paris. The agents
of this company had previously established close
relations with General Hurlbut, our Minister at
Peru. General Kilpatrick was the Minister to
Chili. Both ministers exceeded their authority
from time to time, and were the subjects of severe
rebuke. General Hurlbut, upon his own judgment
and responsibility, negotiated with the Government ¦
of Peru for a naval and coaling station for 'the
United States. He also entertained a proposition
for the transfer of a railroad company, of which
he was to become the trustee, to . an American com
pany. Mr. Blaine has been regarded as over
anxious to acquire power in1 the direction of the
South. He showed his conservative spirit, however,
by discrediting wholly the action of General Hurl
but, and instructing him to notify the Peruvian Gov-

516 Life of James G. Blaine.
ernment that what he had done was wholly unauthor
ized and disapproved. Mr. Hurlbut's indiscretion
gave Chili an opportunity to make just complaint.
General Kilpatrick, upon his part, was equally in
discreet in other directions. He resented the criti
cisms of Chili. The effect of the interposition of
these two Ministers was for the time injurious to Mr.
Blaine's plans. The instructions to the special en
voys who were sent down are models of discretion.
The two envoys soon after their arrival smoothed
away all difficulties, and would have made a brilliant
success of their mission had they not been recalled by
Mr. Frelinghuysen.
During the month of June a number of elaborate
dispatches were written by Mr. Blaine concerning
our relations with Mexico. There was then a dis
pute going on between Mexico and Guatemala as to
the boundary line between the two countries. The
Government of Guatemala made a formal application
to the President of the United States to lend his
good offices toward the restoration of a better state
of feeling between the two Republics. Mexico then
proposed to use its superior power to invade Guate
mala and settle the question of the boundary by the
arbitrary exercise of might. Our relations with
Mexico were then most cordial, and Mr. Blaine's dis
patches to Mr. Morgan at Mexico kept wholly within

His South American Policy. 517
the line of friendship in the suggestions which he
made in the interests of the weaker power. He ad
mitted at the outset that if Mexico should decline to
accept our intervention there was nothing more to
be said, as it was clearly within Mexico's right to de
cline such intervention. Closing his dispatch upon
this subject, Mr. Blaine presented a brief argument
bearing upon his whole general policy. It was this
dispatch which produced the most favorable effect,
and ultimately led to the settlement of the dispute
upon a basis of fairness and equity. The concluding
paragraphs of Mr. Blaine's last dispatch upon this
subject are as follows :
"But in reference to the union of- the Central
American Republics under one Federal Government,
the United States is ready to avow that no subject
appeals more strongly to its sympathy nor more
decidedly to its judgment. Nor is this a new. policy.
For many years this Government has urged upon
the Central American States the importance of such
an union to the creation of a well-ordered and con
stitutionally governed Republic, and our Ministers
have been instructed to impress this upon the indi
vidual Governments to which they have been accred
ited, and to the Central American statesmen with
whom they have been associated. We have always
cherished the belief that in this effort we had the

518 Life of James G. Blaine.
sincere sympathy and cordial co-operation of the
Mexican Government. Under the conviction that
the future of the people of Central America is abso
lutely dependent upon the establishment of a Federal
Government which would give strength abroad and
maintain peace at home, our chief motive in the
recent communications to Mexico was to prevent the
diminution, either political or territorial, of any one
of these States, or the disturbance of their exterior
relations, in order that, trusting to the joint aid and
friendship of Mexico and the United States, they
might be encouraged to persist in their effort to
establish a Government which would, both for their
advantage and ours, represent their combined wealth,
intelligence, and character. -
" If this Government is expected to infer from the
language of Seiior Mariscal that the prospect of such a
result is not agreeable to the policy of Mexico, and that "
the interest which the United States has always man
ifested in its consummation renders unwelcome the
friendly intervention which we have offered, I can
only say that it deepens the regret with which we
shall learn the decision of the Mexican Government,
and compels me to declare that the Government of
the United States will consider a hostile demonstra
tion against Guatemala for the avowed purpose, or
with the certain result of weakening her power in

MR. BLAINE'S WASHINGTON HOME.
The House in which he Died;

His South American Policy. 521
such an e^ffort, as an act not in consonance with the
position and character- of Mexico, not in harmony
with the friendly relations existing between us, and
injurious to the best interests of all the Republics of
this continent.
" The Government of the United States has sincere
sympathy witl# the Spanish Republics of America,
and profound interest in their prosperity ; and is
influenced by no selfish considerations in its earnest
efforts to prevent war between them. This country
will continue its policy of peace even if it cannot
have the great aid which the co-operation of Mexico
would assure ; and it will hope, at no distant day, to
see such concord and co-operation between all the
nations of America as will render war impossible."

CHAPTER XXVII.
president Arthur's embarrassment upon assum
ing OFFICE. — -A STUDY OF HIS CHARACTER. — HIS
DESIRE TO ASSERT HIMSELF.  FIRST BREAKING
WITH MR. CONKLING, AND THEN RE-ORGANIZING
HIS CABINET. — REVERSAL OF THE SOUTH-AMERI
CAN POLICY.
Mr. Arthur was greatly embarrassed by the free
expressions Of public opinion at the time of President
Garfield's assassination. Public indignation mada
him the scapegoat of popular feeling. If General
Garfield had died within a few days after he was
shot, he mights have met with serious resist
ance in going to Washington. The public indigna
tion among a certain turbulent-loving class was so
great that his life was threatened in many anonymous
missives. The more sober journals of the country se
verely criticised him for the share that he had taken
in advising Mr. Conkling to resign from the Senate.
Mr. Arthur was very much overcome at the shock of
the assassination, and for a brief period recoiled be
fore the responsibilities which now appeared so im
minent. The protracted illness of General Garfield
522

President Arthur's Embarrassment. 523
prepared the country for the change to the new ad
ministration. Mr. Arthur was an amiable, kindly disposed man,
with very little experience in public affairs. He
possessed but moderate ability, and was" very sensi
tive tO criticism. He feared that the public would
estimate him as a puppet in the hands of others. He
had been classed, as one of Mr. Conkling's lieuten
ants—that was his political rank in New York. He
had previously held the office of Collector of the Port
of New York. This appointment he owed directly
to Mr. Conkling. He was an officer in the Conk
ling political organization. He owed his place on
the National ticket with General Garfield entirely to
his relations with Mr. Conkling. Mr. Conkling did
not suggest his name, and would have scorned to
have given an opinion concerning the second place
on the ticket, after his failure to secure the nomina
tion of General Grant. But Mr. Arthur was put on
the ticket, nevertheless, as the representative of this
defeated element. When he came to Washington as
Vice-President he was in the prime of life and in the
full vigor of what appeared to be robust health. He
was very- tall and inclined to be stout. He had a
large head and a full double-chinned face. His hair
was dark and curling, slightly sprinkled, with gray.
tt,-c Aj^ai-^-j -~~~ i  j — i--i- his eyes were dark

524 , Life of James G.Blaine.:
and full around the lids. His nose was straight. A
slight mustache and small side-whiskers set off his
fresh-colored face. He was very neat in his
dress, and had the air and manner of a prosper
ous New York club-man. He was apparently
satisfied to reach the standard of a polished mem
ber of a club. He was, the first President of
this class in the White House. His friends were
fond even then of saying that Mr. Arthur was the
first gentleman who ever occupied the White House.
He kept Very late hours, did not breakfast before
eleven o'clock, and was rarely seen in the executive
office before twelve. He gave great attention to his
dress^ to his dinners, and gave several weeks to
the study of new decorations for the White House.
He devoted himself to social affairs more than any
President, and so through these siriall graces won the
praise of a narrow little circle which esteems club
life as the beginning and ending of the world of
fashion and affairs. Very soon Mr. Arthur adopted
a course which led to his political destruction. He
wished to show the public that he was a great politi
cian and a statesman. He was so overshadowed by
Mr. Blaine in the Cabinet that he was uneasy until
he had changed the entire Cabinet. He would have
been content with the retirement of Mr. Blaine,, but
to have accepted his resignation only would have

President Arthur's Embarrassment. 525
been too conspicuous an evidence of his real reason,
and so he made for himself a new Cabinet. He then
went farther and broke with Mr. Conkling. Mr.
Conkling at first supposed that when his former lieu
tenant had reached the Presidency of the United
States through him that he now would have some in
fluence with the new administration. He had been
in the habit of patronizing Mr. Arthur, and had
given him political orders for so many years that he
could not imagine this pleasure-loving, easy-going
man capable of rebellion. It is possible that the so
cial" influences that were called about Mr. Arthur had
something to do with stimulating the vanity of this
weak and inexperienced man. At any rate, it was
soon after Mr. Frelinghuysen, the head of an ancient
family of New Jersey, came into the1 State Depart
ment that Mr. Conkling was very quietly given to
understand that his advice and counsel were not
wanted at Washington. Mr. Arthur pursued this
course throughout his term of office, but he never
succeeded in raising his administration to the dignity
of even criticism. It was so mild, so gentle, and so
given to the small graces of a narrow, pleasure-going
existence that the public was content to wait for the
end without faking the trouble to think much about it.
It was in reality acting only as the executor of a trust
left in its hands by the death of General Garfield.

526 Life of James G. Blaine.
- There was some amusement created oy the attempt
to remodel Mr. Blaine's South American policy.
It was only a few weeks after Mr. Blaine's retire
ment that a reversal of this policy came. Even
the invitations to the Peace Conference were with
drawn upon the plea that it would be better to have
the opinion of Congress before assuming the responsi
bility of seeking to establish more intimate relations
with the other Republics on this continent. Mr.
Blaine's negotiations in the interests of peace between
Peru and Chili were abruptly terminated. Mr.
William Henry Trescott and Mr. Walker Blaine,
who had been sent down as special envoys, were re
called. The plans for negotiating treaties of reci
procity were at once modified. The State Depart
ment, under the Arthur administration, continued to
enter upon the record a negation to everything that
had been proposed during the few months of the
Garfield administration.
This reversal of the policy of Mr. Blaine without
any reason save the inability to carry it out or
the'jealousy of its author irritated Mr. Blaine. - He
made a sharp rejoinder in a letter addressed to the
President, in. which he pointed out the good effects
that would have resulted from the peace policy, and
hinted at the possible results that would have been
accomplished later in commercial directions.

President Arthur's Embarrassment. 527
Mr. Blaine's points, however, were more fully
brought out in an article prepared by him on the
subject of " The foreign policy of the Garfield admin
istration," which was written during the following
summer. This article embraces the whole range of
that policy, and is • the best exposition of it that
has been printed. No perusal of any series of docu
ments can give so clear an idea as this summary upon
the part of the author himself. Mr. Blaine said :
" The foreign policy of President Garfield's admin
istration had two principal objects in view : First, to
bring about peace and prevent future wars in North
and South America; second, to cultivate such friendly
commercial relations with all American countries as
would lead to a large increase in the export trade of
the United States by supplying those fabrics in which
we are abundantly able to compete with the manu
facturing nations of Europe.
" To attain the second object the first must be accom
plished. It would be idle to attempt the development
and enlargement of our trade with the countries of
North and South America if that trade were liable
at any unforeseen moment to be violently interrupted
by such wars, as that which for three years has en
grossed and almost engulfed Chili, Peru, and Bolivia;
as that which was barely averted by the friendly
offices of the United States between Chili and the

528 Life of James G. Blame.
Argentine Republic ; as that which has been post
poned by the same good offices, but not decisively
abandoned, between Mexico and Guatemala ; as that
which is threatened between Brazil and Uruguay; or
as that which is even now foreshadowed between
Brazil and the Argentine States. Peace is essential to
commerce, is the very life of honest trade, is the solid
basis of international prosperity, and yet there is no
part of the world where a resort to arms is so prompt
as in the Spanish- American Republics. Those Re
publics have grown out of the old colonial divisions,
formed from capricious grants to favorites by royal
, charter, and their boundaries are, in many cases, not
clearly defined, and consequently afford the basis of
continual disputes breaking forth too often in open war.
To induce the Spanish- American States to adopt
some peaceful mode of adjusting their frequently,
recurring contentions was regarded by the late
President as one of the most honorable and useful
ends to which the diplomacy of the United States
could contribute, useful especially to those States by
securing permanent peace within all their borders,
and useful to our own country by affording a coveted
opportunity for extending its commerce and securing
enlarged fields for our products and manufactures.
. " Instead of friendly intervention here and there,
patching up a treaty between two countries to-day,

President Arthur's Embarrassment. 529
securing a truce between two others to-morrow, it
was apparent to the President that a more compre
hensive plan should be adopted if war were to cease
in the Western Hemisphere. It was evident that
certain European powers had in the past been inter
ested in promoting strife between thp Spanish-
American countries, and might be so interested in the
"future ; while the interests of the United States were
wholly and always on the side of peace with all of
our American neighbors and peace between them all.
" It was therefore the President's belief that mere
incidental and partial adjustments failed to attain
the desired end, and that a common agreement of
peace permanent in its character and continental in
its extent should if possible be secured. To effect
this end it had been resolved before the fatal shot of
July 2d, to invite all of the independent govern
ments of North and South America to meet in a
Peace Conference at Washington. The date to be
assigned was the 15th of March, 1882, and the invi
tations would have been issued directly after the
New England tour which the President was not per
mitted to make. Nearly six months later, on
November 22d, President Garfield's successor issued
the invitations for the Peace Congress, in the same
spirit and scope and with the same limitations and
restrictions that had been originally designed. As

530 Life of James G. Blaine. ..
soon as the project was understood in South America,
it received a most cordial approval, and some of the
countries not following the' leisurely routine of diplo
matic correspondence made haste to accept the invi
tation. There can be no doubt that within a brief
period all the nations invited would have formally
signified their readiness to attend the Congress, but
in six weeks after the invitations had gone to the
several countries, President Arthur caused them to
be recalled or at least suspended. The subject was
afterward referred to Congress in a special message
in which the President ably vindicated his constitu
tional right to assemble the Peace Conference, but
expressed a desire that the legislative department
of the Government should give an opinion upon the
expediency of the step before the Congress should be
allowed to convene. Meanwhile- the nations that
had received the invitation were in an embarrassing
situation, for after they were asked by the President
to come they found that the matter had been recon
sidered and referred to another department of the
Government. The change was universally accepted
as a practical though indirect abandonment of the
project, for it was not from the first probable that
Congress would take any action whatever upon the
subject. " The good-will and welcome ofthe invitation would

President Arthur's Embarrassment. 531
be destroyed by a long debate in the Senate and the
House, in which the question would necessarily be
come intermingled with personal party politics, and
the project be ultimately wrecked from the same
cause and by the same process that destroyed the
usefulness of the Panama Congress, more than fifty
years ago, when Mr. Clay was Secretary of State.
The time for Congressional action would have been
after the Peace Congress had closed its labors. The
Conference could not agree upon anything that
would be binding upon the United States unless
assented to as a treaty by the Senate or enacted into
a law by both branches. The assembling of the
Peace Conference, as President Arthur so well dem
onstrated, was not in derogation of any right or pre
rogative of the Senate or House. The money neces
sary for the expenses of the Conference, which would
not have exceeded $10,000, could not with reason
or propriety have been refused by Congress. If
it had been refused, patriotism and philanthropy
would have promptly supplied it.
" The Spanish- American States are in special need
of the help which the Peace Conference could afford
them. They require external pressure to keep them
from war. When at war they require external .pres
sure to bring them to peace. Their outbreaks are
not only frequent, but are sanguinary and sometimes

532 Life of James G. Blaine.
Cruel. The inhabitants of those countries are a brave
people belonging to a race that have always been
brave, descendants of men that have always been
proud. They are of hot temper, quick to take
affront, ready to avenge a wrong, whether real or
fancied. They are at the same time generous and
chivalrous, and though tending for years past to es
trangement and alienation from us, they would
promptly respond to any advance made by the great
Republic of the North, as they have for two genera
tions termed our Government. The moral influence
upon the Spanish- American people of such an inter
national assembly as the Peace Congress, called by
the invitation and meeting under the auspices of the
United States, would have proved beneficent and far-
reaching. It would have raised the standard of their
civilization. It would have turned their attention to
the things of peace ; and the continent whose unde
veloped wealth amazed Humboldt might have had a
new life given to it, a new and splendid career
opened to its inhabitants.
" Such friendly interventions as the proposed Peace
Congress ; and as the attempt to restore peace between
Chili and Peru, fall within the line of both duty and
interest on the part of the United States. Nations,
like individuals, often require the aid of a common
friend to restore relations of amity. Peru and Chili

President Arthur's Embarrassment. -533
are in need of a wise and powerful mediator. Though
exhausted by war, they are unable to make peace,
and unless they shall be- aided by fhe intervention
of a friend, political anarchy and social disorder will
come to the conquered, and evils scarcely less serious
to the conqueror. Our own Government cannot take
the ground that it will not offer friendly intervention
to settle troubles between American countries, unless
at the same time it freely concedes to European Gov
ernments the right of such intervention, arid thus
consents to a practical destruction of the Monroe
Doctrine, and an unlimited increase of European and
monarchical influence on this- continent. The late
special envoy to Chili and Peru, Mr. Trescott, gives
it as his deliberate and published conclusion that if
the instructions under which he set out jipon his
missions had not been revoked, peace between those
angry belligerents would have been established as the
result of his labors, necessarily to the great benefit
of the United States.
" If our Government does not resume its efforts to
secure peace in South America, some European Gov
ernment will be forced to perform that friendly
office. The United States cannot play between na
tions the part of the dog in the manger. We must
perform the duty of humane intervention ourselves
or give way to foreign Governments that are willing

534 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
to accept the responsibility of the great trust, and
secure the enhanced influence and numberless ad
vantages' resulting from such a philanthropic and
beneficent course.
"A most significant and important result would
have followed the assembling of the Peace Congress.
A friendship and an intimacy would have been es
tablished between the States of North and South
America which would have demanded and enforced a
closer commercial connection. A movement in the
near future, as the legitimate outgrowth of assured
peace, would, in all probability, have been a
great commercial conference at the City of Mex
ico or Rio Janeiro whose deliberations would be
directed to a better system of trade on the two
continents. "To such a conference the Dominion of Canada
could properly be asked to send representatives, as
that Government is allowed by Great Britain a very
large liberty in regulating its commercial relations.
In the Peace Congress to be composed of independent
Governments the Dominion could not have taken any
part, and was consequently not invited. _ From* this
trade conference of the two continents the United
States could hardly have failed to gain great advan
tages. At present the commercial relations of this
country with the Spanish- American countries, both

, President Arthur's Embarrassment. 535
continental and insular, are unsatisfactory and un
profitable ; indeed, those relations are absolutely
oppressive to the financial interests of the Govern
ment and people of the United States. In our cur
rent exchanges it requires one hundred and twenty
millions to pay the balance which Spanish America
brings against us every year. This amount is fifty
per cent, more than the average annual product of
the gold and silver mines of the United States dur-
ing the past five years. This vast sum does not, of
course, go to Spanish America in coin, but it goes
across the ocean in coin or its equivalent to pay
European countries for manufactured articles which
they furnish to Spanish America, a large proportion
of which should be furnished by the manufacturers
of the United States.
"At this point of the argument the free trader ap
pears, and declares that our protective tariff destroys
our power of competition., with European countries,
and that, if we will abolish protection, we shall soon
have South Airierican trade. The' answer is not suffi
cient, for to-day there are many articles which we
can send to South America and sell as cheaply as
European manufacturers can furnish them. It is
idle, of course, to make this statement to the genuine
apostle of free trade and the implacable enemy of
protection, for the great postulate of his argument,

536 Life of James G. Blaine. -
the foundation of his creed, is that nothing can be
made as cheaply in America as in Europe.
" Nevertheless, facts are stubborn, and the hard
figures of arithmetic cannot be satisfactorily answered
by airy figures of speech. The truth remains that
the coarser descriptions of cottons and cotton prints,
boots and shoes, ordinary household furniture, har
ness for draught animals, agricultural implements of
all kinds, doors, sashes, and blinds, locks, bolts, and
hinges, silverware, plated ware, wooden ware, ordi
nary paper and paper hangings, common vehicles,
ordinary window-glass and glassware, rubber goods,
coal oils, lard oils, kerosenes, white lead, lead pipe,
and articles in which lead is the chief component,
can be and are produced as cheaply in the United
States as in any part of the world.
"The list of such articles might be lengthened by
the addition of those classed as notions, but enough
only are given to show that this country would,, with
proper commercial arrangements, export much more
largely than it now does to Spanish America.
" In the trade relations of the world it does not
follow that mere ability to produce as cheaply as an
other nation insures a division of an established
market, or, indeed, any participation in it. France
manufactures many articles as cheaply as England,
some articles at even less cost. Portugal lies nearer

Copyright, 1892, by Napoleon Saroney.
MR. BLAINE AT SIXTV-THREE.
^rmrm Pkotesrcoli taken iust nrior to his last illness.

' President Arthur's Embarrassment. 539
to France than to England, and the expense of
transporting the French fabric to the Portuguese
market is therefore less than the transportation of
the English fabric, and yet Great Britain has almost
a monopoly of the trade of Portugal. The same
condition applies, though in a less degree, in the
trade of Turkey, Syria, and Egypt, which England
holds to a much greater extent than any of the other
European nations that are able to produce the same
fabric as cheaply. If it be said in answer that Eng
land has special trade relations by treaty with Portu
gal, and special obligations binding the other coun
tries, the ready answer is that she has no more favor
able position with regard to those countries than can
be readily and easily acquired by the United States,
with respect to all of the countries of America. That
end will be reached whenever the United States de
sires it and wills it, and is ready to take the steps
necessary to secure it.
" At present the trade with Spanish America runs
so strongly in channels adverse to us that besides
our inability to furnish manufactured articles we do
not get the profit on our raw products that are
shipped there. Our petroleum reaches most of the
Spanish American points after twice crossing the At
lantic, paying often a better profit to the European.
middle-man who handles it than it does to the pro*

540 r Lifa of James G. Blaine.
ducer of oil in the Northwesterri counties of Penn
sylvania. Flour and pork from the West reach Cuba
by way of Spain, and though we buy and consume
ninety per cent, ofthe total products of Cuba/ almost
that proportion of her purchases are made in Europe
— made, of course, with money furnished directly
from our pockets.
" As our exports to Spanish America grow less, as
European imports constantly grow larger, the bal
ance against us will show an annual increase of and
will continue to exhaust our supply of the precious
metals. We are increasing our imports -from South
America, and the millions we annually pay for
coffee, wool, hides, guano, cinchona, caoutchouc,
cabinet woods, dye woods, and other articles go for
the ultimate benefit of European manufacturers, who
take the gold from us and send their fabrics to
Spanish America. If we could send our fabrics, our
gold would stay at home and our general prosperity
would be sensibly increased. But so long as we
repel Spanish America, so long as we leave her to
cultivate intimate relations with Europe alone, so long
our trade relations will remain unsatisfactory and
even embarrassing. Those countries sell to us very
heavily. They buy from us Very lightly. And the
amount they bring us in debt each year is larger
tha^ ihe heaviest aggregate balance of trade we ever

President Arthur's Embarrassment. 541
had against us in the worst of times. The average
balance against us for the whole world, in the five
most adverse years we ever experienced, was about one
hundred millions of dollars. This plainly shows that
in our European exchanges there is always a balance
in our favor, and that our chief deficiency arises
from our maladjusted, commercial relations with
Spanish America. .It follows that if our Spanish-
American trade were placed on a better and more
equitable foundation it would be almost impossible,
even in years most unfavorable to us, to bring us in
debt to the world.
" With such heavy purchases as we are compelled
to make in Spanish America, it could hardly be
expected that we should be able to adjust the entire
accounts by exports. But the balance against us of
one hundred and twenty millions in gold coin is far
too large, and in time of stringency is a standing
menace of financial disaster. It should not . be for
gotten that every inillion dollars of products of
fabrics that we sell in Spanish America is a million
dollars in gold saved to our own country. The
immediate profit is to the producer and exporter, but
the entire country realizes a gain in the ease and
affluence of the money market, which is insured by
keeping our gold at home. The question involved
is S0'lar_?e. the obiect to be achieved is so great that

542 Life of James G. Blaine/
no effort on the part of the Government to accom
plish it could be too earnest or too long continued.
" It is only claimed for the Peace Congress designed
under the administration of Garfield that it was an
important and impressive step on the part of the
United States toward closer relationship with oUr
continental neighbors. The present tendency in
those countries is toward Europe, and it is a lament
able fact that their people are not so near to us in
feeling as they were sixty years ago when they threw
off the yoke of Spanish tyranny. We were then a
weak Republic of but ten millions, but we did not hesi
tate to recognize the independence of the new Gov
ernments even at the risk of war with Spain. Our
foreign policy at that time was specially designed to
extend our influence in the Western Hemisphere,
and the statesmen of that era, the era of DeWitt
Clinton and the younger Adams, of Clay and Craw
ford, of Webster and Calhoun, of Van Buren and
Benton, of Jackson and of Edward Livingston, were
always courageous in the inspiring measures which
they advocated for the expansion of our commercial
dominion. " Three-score years have passed. The power of
the Republic, in many directions, has grown beyond
all anticipation, but we have relatively lost ground in
some great fields of enterprise. We have added thou-

President Arthur's Embarrassment. 543
sands of miles to our ocean front, but our commerce
has fallen off, and from ardent friendship with
Spanish America we have jdrifted into indifference
if not into coldness. It is but one step further to
reach a condition of positive unfriendliness, which
may end in what would be equivalent to a commer
cial alliance against us.
" In no event could harm have resulted in the
assembling of the Peace Congress. Failure was next
to impossible. Success might be regarded as certain.
The subject to be discussed was peace, and how it can
be permanently preserved in North and South
America. The labors of the Congress would have
probably ended in a well-digested system of arbitra
tion, 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 selfish
ness of human ambition, av complete triumph of
Christian principles as applied to affairs of nations.
It would have reflected enduring honor on our own
country, and would have imparted a new spirit and
new brotherhood to all America. Nor would its in-

544 Life of James G. Blaine.
fluence beyond the sea have been small. The exam
ple of seventeen nations, solemnly agreeing to abolish
the arbitrament of the sword and to settle every dis
pute 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." What was outlined in this policy as the possibility
of the future was shown to have a correct and solid
basis. Everything predicted by Mr. Blaine in this
opinion was practically and easily carried out under
the Harrison administration. This policy represents
the best of Mr. Blaine. It is broad in its statesman
ship, high and noble in its purpose. Briefly sum
marized, his policy meant the domination of this
country over the entire North American continent
with such trade relations between the countries of
this hemisphere as to_make a perfect unity through
out a chain of Republics. He expected that Canada
would ultimately be annexed to this country through
a voluntary movement upon its part. He favored
such a policy toward her commercially as would
practically force this part of North America into
our hands. A union of the Republics on this con
tinent wonld have represented the greatest force- in
modern politics. It was a blending Of interests
which would in the end have given the law to the

President Arthur's Embarrassment. 545
entire commercial world, and would have transferred
the financial centre from London to New York. The
successful outcome of the Peace Congress, eight years
later, will doubtless have the beneficent results so
confidently predicted by Mr. Blaine when he first
sent out the invitations.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
MR. BLAINE'S LITERARY WORK FOLLOWING HIS RE
TIREMENT FROM THE ARTHUR CABINET. — THE
GREAT SUCCESS OF HIS BOOK.  HIS LITERARY
HABITS. — HIS NOMINATION AT CHICAGO.
After Mr. Blaine's retirement from the Arthur
Cabinet he looked about for something to occupy his
attention. For the first time in his life he had to
consider his health. His friends were anxious con
cerning his condition. He was at times despondent
and subject to deep depression. He began to have
fears himself concerning his health. He was advised
first to go to Europe for a long rest and change.
This he decided against on account of certain busi
ness interests which required his attention. After
giving the subject some thought, he decided upon
writing the political history embracing the period of
his twenty years experience in political life. The
title at first suggested to him was " From Lincoln to
Garfield." But it was afterward changed to Twenty
Years of Congress. The idea of writing this book
came to him one day like an inspiration, and he be
came so interested in it that this change of thought
gave him the necessary diversion and contentment.
546

Mr. Blame's Literay Work. 547
He was confirmed in his resolution by a conversation
with General Francis A. Walker, the then Superin
tendent of the Census. Mr. Walker had called
Mr. Blaine's attention to the fact that at the be
ginning of the Lincoln administration the population
of the country was thirty-one millions ; at the begin
ning of the Garfield administration the population
was fifty millions. Mr. Blaine at. once grasped the
fact that about one-third of the entire population of
the country had grown up since the war, and that
the political history of that period was comparatively
unknown. He saw what a great field this was, and
he at once began to make plans for the writing of
the book.
He gave the subject careful thought, and went
over the Congressional reports during the year fol
lowing his retirement to private life. He went to
New York to find a publisher, and there he made an
arrangement with a great subscription house in
Connecticut. He planned a book of two volumes
containing each six hundred pages.
He was first offered $100,000 for the manuscript
but he preferred to share in the profits of the sale.
A contract was then made with him , giving him a
royalty. This royalty afterward netted him a much
larger sum than if he had accepted the original
proposition.

548 Life of <James G. Blaine..
He began the writing of this work in the winter
of 1882. When once the work was beguh he pursued
it as systematically as he pursued his duties in Con
gress. He eliminated all other considerations from
his daily routine, and laid out his hours according to
a fixed plan. In this work he found great satisfaction
and recovered, to a great degree, his health.
Mr. Blaine before entering public life was a trained
writer. In Congress he " acquired great skill as a
speaker, and developed an extraordinary ability for
expressing himself clearly and readily. From his
skill as a public speaker one would have_^ imagined
that he would have been able to dictate to a stenog
rapher with ease. Mr. Blaine, however, when en
gaged in writing his book said that,- on the contrary,
he could only dictate those chapters of the book
which took a narrative form. For the other portions
he was obliged to compose pen in hand. Mr. Blaine
did not believe that any work of real literary excel
lence could be accomplished by dictation. In wrhV
ing there were three sentinels which stood guard
over the brain — the two eyes and the hand were be
tween the brain and any crude expression. These
restraints had a constant tendency to. check faults
and to polish meritorious sentences. When a writer
dictated there was no special stimulus to high effort
and no restraint.

Mr. Blaine's Literary Work. 549
Mr. Blaine accounted for the fact that in pub
lic speaking where these three sentinels of a neces
sity could not stand guard, he yet was able to
express himself tersely and clearly, and said that
the audience acted as the restraint. He thought
there was all the difference in the world in speak
ing to an audience and dictating to a secretary.
That mysterious something known as the magnetic
influence which always exists between a man who
can move an audience and those addressed, is the
controlling^ influence which shapes thoughts and
forms sentences. No man could produce a real effect
upon an audience without establishing this magnetic
sympathy. The absence of this sympathy betrays
the dull speaker. - A man incapable of moving an
audience could probably dictate as well as he could
write. But, after all, it would be the outpouring of
mere words.
Mr. Blaine said that he had never hoped to attain
in his writing anything like the excellence of style
reached by him in the intense excitement of public
speaking. In his work upon his book he did not
average over One- thousand words a day. He thought
that was all any man should do who aimed at a good
literary style. Some days he wrote more than the
thousand words, but he was always quite content if
he maintained that average. When he was in the

550 Life of James G. Blmne.r
field of mere narrative he had reached eight thousand
words, but he did not believe in doing so much at
one sitting.
Mr. Blaine worked very steadily on his book, and
he was never more contented orin better health than
at that time. He simplified his -manner of living
until he reached a routine as rigid as that of a col
lege professor. He always arose at eight and break
fasted. Then he worked steadily until one o'clock.
The rest of the day he devoted to reading, driv
ing, and visiting. He always retired by eleven
o'clock. During this time Mr. Blaine never visited Con
gress. He had no ambition to join the row of ex-
senators and ex-members who* seem to take such
delight in occupying the seats in the background of
the two Houses of Congress, In the first year that
he was at work on his book he only took a vacation
of three weeks in midsummer. He was most anxious
to have his history a complete and correct picture of
the time of which he wrote. He bestowed as much
care on the chapters which treated of dull subjects as
upon the others. In a great measure he wrote from
memory, though, of course, he had at hand all the
authorities for verifying any of his statements: He
aimed at great impartiality in his treatment of all
questions, and this impartiality is nowhere more

Mr. Blaine's Literary Work. 55i
clearly shown than in the pages devoted to a review
of the tariff agitation in this country.
This book is no dull recital of mere facts, but is a
picturesque story of the time. In it Mr. Blaine
showed his fairness and his kindliness of spirit. His
personal estimate of men throughout that period was
given from the standpoint of an unprejudiced ob
server. He treated Mr. Conkling's position with
even more than fairness. The impartial spirit shown
by him in discussing the political incidents of his
career surprised all of his opponents when the first
chapters of his book were published.
One of the most stirring chapters in the book is
his study of the joint debate between Abraham Lin
coln and Stephen A. Douglas. This is the debate
which was described by Mr. Blaine when he was a
young newspaper writer. Mr. Blaine thought that
as a parliamentary debater Mr. Douglas never had a
superior. At the outbreak of the Rebellion Mr.
Douglas had a following of a million and a half of
voters, men who believed in him absolutely. He
was capable of inspiring a mob to the wildest of
deeds. Had he not been faithful to the Union
cause, the Government would have been easily over
thrown. Mr. Blaine's analysis of the character of
Abraham Lincoln is a very interesting character
study. His knowledge and appreciation of Mr. Lin-

552 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
coin's abilities as portrayed in this book are the re
sults of intimate personal studies.
•It was during his literary work that he was invited
by Congress to deliver a eulogy upon General Gar
field. This was done before a great audience, both
•branches of Congress assembling in the House before
packed galleries to listen to this most eloquent and
warmly colored estimate of Garfield's character.
Mr. Blaine was very particular with his manu
script. He made many changes in the forms of
erasures and interlineations. In working on the
Garfield eulogy, he cut out some . three thousand
words from the manuscript as it was first prepared.
He said during this period of literary work that
it was almost impossible to judge of an article in
manuscript. It was necessary to see it in the rigid
forms Of type. He was so painstaking in making
changes after the proofs had once reached him that
he would often call for two and three revisions.
During the afternoon and evening, his drawing-room
was filled with callers. Tea Was served at eight
o'clock, and generally Mr. "Blaine would then be
found surrounded by a circle engaged in discussing
the current affairs at the Capital. To one of these
callers at this time he said : " You have no idea
how much comfort I find in living quietly and in
sleeping a long number of hours. I eat a goOd
breakfast, work in my library with mv secretarv five

Mr. Blaine's Literary Work. 553
hours, and late in the day I eat a dinner that would
do. credit to a young man. To have plenty of* time
to go about driving with my wife and family is
another, satisfaction."
" How rich are you ?" asked a very wealthy caller
one evening.
"lam richer than you," was the reply.
The many times millionaire visitor looked sur
prised as he asked, " How much ?"
"I have all that I want, and you will never have
that ; therefore I am the richer," was the answer.
Mr. Blaine had a great many political callers in
those days. He was active in asking questions but
evasive in making replies concerning his political
plans. Apparently he had none, although he had
by no means relinquished his ambition for the Presi
dency. During the winter of 1883 and 1884 it was
evident that he was to be the nominee of the party
in the approaching Convention. Mr. Arthur had
lost the support of his old friends, and his character
less administration had won for him no new ones.
General Grant, who visited Washington during
the lAtter part of the winter, became reconciled
to Mr. Blaine. General Logan, who had never
openly broken with him, but who had asso
ciated with Mr. Conkling as one of the stalwarts,
now became intimate with Mr. Blaine.. Both were

554 Life of James G. Blaine.
Presidential candidates, but their interests were made
to harmonize. Mr. Blaine at that time did not fully
believe that the Republican party Was going to win.
In the spring of 1884 he said, " I fear that the nomi
nation is coming to me." When he was asked why
he used the word " fear " in connection with the
nomination, he replied that there was such a feeling
of general dissatisfaction throughout the country with
¦the Republican party, owing to the many former
differences between its leaders, that he did not be-
•lieve the Republican party could win. He showed
himself to be a prophet when he said that if the
Democrats should nominate some conservative
Northern man they would certainly have the better
chance in the coming election. It was this feeling
that made him reluctant to be a candidate. He was
careful to avoid the appearance of seeking the nomi
nation. He was represented as pulling wires to
secure the nomination, but in reality he was inactive
and neutral up to within a very short time before
the meeting of the Republican Convention at Chi-
.. cage. Then he became all at once active and anxious.
Stephen B. Elkins went to Chicago as his personal
representative. Whitelaw Reid was another political
friend who was in Chicago looking after his interests.
The Convention at Chicago proved that the Blaine
Republicans had lost none of their old-time enthu-

*¦««*•*
/
m
*r 1
_tf^ 1
\ '-M
% " -^B
*m_*pp
<? t, *
\,%,
jfc. ' .
DR. W W. JOHNSTON. REV. T. S. HAMLIN,
MR. BLAINE'S PHYSICIAN AND PASTOR.
Mr. Blaine's Literary -Work.

557

siasm. There was a climax in this Convention of
demonstration as yet unsurpassed in the history of
these great gatherings. There was no real contest
against Mr. Blaine. Mr. Arthur's defeat was clearly
indicated on the first ballot, and Mr. Blaine's nomi
nation came on the fourth. General John A. Logan
was nominated for the Vice- Presidency, in accord
ance, undoubtedly, with an understanding had be
tween these two gentlemen in Washington during
the winter. This was the second Convention which
had been controlled by the Blaine Republicans.
The official record of the four ballots taken in
this Convention is as follows :

Candidates

1st ballot.

2d ballot.

3d ballot.

4th ballot

James G. Blaine, . . . .

. . 334*

349

375

541

Chester A. Arthur, . . .

. . 278

276

274

207

George F. Edmunds, . . .

. . 93

85

69

41

John A. Logan, ....

. . 63*

61

53

7

John Sherman,. 

. . 30

28

25

Joseph R. Hawley, . . .

. . 13

13

13

15

Robert E. Lincoln, . . .

. . 4

4

8

2

William T. Sherman, . .

. . 2

2

2

¦ •

Total vote, 

. . 818

818

819

813

Necessary to a choice,

. . 410

410

410

407

CHAPTER XXIX.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1884. — THE ENOR
MOUS ENTHUSIASM OF THE COUNTRY. — THE PER
SONAL SCANDALS RENEWED. — THE CLOSENESS OF
THE RESULT AND THE REASON FOR MR. BLAINE'S
DEFEAT.
The Presidential campaign of 1884 was one of the
most exciting in our history. The personal enthu
siasm in favor of Mr. Blaine has never been surpassed
for any candidate in political campaigns. There was
a series of spectacular demonstrations beginning at
¦ . _ic . .
Mr. Blaine's home in Maine and extending like a
wave over the country.
The Democrats, on the 12th of July, met in Chieago,
in the same Convention hall occupied by the Repub
licans, and nominated Grover Cleveland of New York.
Mr. Cleveland had filled the office of Governor of his
State and had made a reputation for himself while
Mayor of Buffalo, as a reformer. Mr. Cleveland
was then a comparatively young man, being in his
forty-eighth year. He was unknown in National
politics, but his record made in the State of New
York warranted the belief upon the part of the
558

Personal Scandals Renewed. 559
party managers that he would make a strong candi
date. Mr. Cleveland at that time had had no expe
rience in National affairs. His life had been confined
to a very restricted field. He had never been west
of the city of Buffalo. He had visited Washington
only once. He had not seen service during the war
of the Rebellion. The Republicans generally did
not consider him a strong candidate. He had none
of the elements of character to inspire enthusiasm
or great devotion. He had been a lawyer in good
standing, and no one then claimed for him that he
had more than average ability. It was assumed,
however, that he had unusual force of character and
was anxious to secure an honest administration of
public affairs. Few of the Republicans thought that
there could be any real contest between the experi
enced legislator Mr. Blaine with his great and
popular following and the comparatively unknown
and inexperienced New York Governor.
The Democratic situation was very much improved
by two other candidates being brought out. The
Prohibitionists nominated Governor St. John of
Kansas, while the Greenback-Labor party of that
year nominated General Benjamin F. Butler. Gen
eral. Butler retired from the Democratic Convention
at Chicago, which he attended as a delegate, protest- -
;„,» „.„„;«<-,k+i».-. „„k^-— — ^l 0f that Convention

560 Life of James G. Blaine.
by the representatives of "the Eastern money
power." The platform accepted by him was a-corri-
bination of the principles of the Labor party, the
cheap-money principles of the old Greenback party
with the protests against corporations and monopolies
common to-day in Populist Conventions. General
Butler's candidacy was never considered a serious
one. It was believed by many Republicans that
during the campaign he would withdraw in favor
of Mr. Cleveland. General Butler possessed large
means and was able to indulge in the luxury of
conducting his own campaign. This he did with
remarkable vigor, and had throughout the ardent
support of The Sun, one of the most prominent and
brilliant of the New York . Democratic newspapers.
The campaign was noted from the first for its in
tensity. Associated with Mr. Cleveland was Mr.
Hendricks, of Indiana. The two Western represen
tatives of the Democratic and Republican tickets
were experienced political campaigners, and they
early began in the West the work of advancing the
causes of their party. It was a campaign noted for
its severe personalities, and for attacks upon the
characters of the candidates. Mr. Blaine was sub
jected from the first to a renewal of all of the attacks
which were made upon him before Congress and pre
ceding the Presidential Convention of 1876. A small

Personal Scandals Renewed. 561
section of the Republican party calling themselves
Independent Republicans, who were later described
as Mugwumps, bolted the nomination of Mr. Blaine
and transferred their allegiance to Mr. Cleveland.
This bolt was led by Mr. George William Curtis,
of New «York. Mr. Curtis had been a delegate
to the Republican Convention in Chicago. He
was criticised for remaining in the Convention
after Mr. Blaine had been nominated. It has
always been held that a delegate who wishes to
bolt his party should retire after a nomination
objectionable to him is made.. His remaining in
the Convention after that, is practically an as
sent to the ratification of the choice made in
the final ballot. The Independent element .of the
Republican- party had its principal strength in the
City of New York and in the State of Massachu
setts. Mr. Curtis secured very soon the influence of
Henry Ward Beecher. Mr. Beecher had all his life
been a Republican, and his joining the bolt led by
Mr. Curtis had a certain influence on the campaign.
There had been an uneasy feeling throughout the
country in business circles. The quarrels of Re
publican leaders had increased the tendency to in-
. dependence. The Southern issues which had been
made so- prominent, the piblic now called to mind
tfere discussed only in political campaigns. There

562 Life of James G. Blaine.
was an impression that many of the measures pro
posed for the South were in the interest of partisan
ship and not of right and justice.
The personal scandals circulated concerning the
two leading candidates make up a most disgracei il
chapter in the story of bur politics. The. person*.!
abuse became so extreme that it reacted upon its
authors. It is not reasonable to suppose that a vote
either way was affected by the partisan stories pub
lished at this time.
Mr. Blaine was very active and took part in the
campaign from the beginning to the close. He went
to Bar Harbor after he had received the committee
at Augusta, and it was there he prepared his letter
of acceptance. In this letter he made the protection
of American industries and the security of the ballot
iri all parts of the country the two principal issues.
Mr. Blaine remained at Bar Harbor until the cam
paign was opened in August in Maine. The Demo
crats sent down a number of speakers and attempted
to reduce Mr. Blaine's majority in his own State in
the September election. It was thought that if the
vote were reduced in his own home it would show
to the country that Mr. Blaine was a weak candidate
and could, therefore, be easily defeated. Mr. Blaine
,felt that the important part of the canvass to hirn per
sonally was in his own State. He went to the prin-

Personal Scandals Renewed. 563
. »¦ -
cipal towns in Maine and made speeches The audi
ences in that State are not much given to enthusiasm.
They listen respectfully to political discussions, but
rarely applaud or show signs of approval or disap
proval. Mr. Blaine was then in good health and ap
peared after the campaign was fairly open to have
confidence in the outcome. The State of Maine jus
tified his anticipations. It gave him over twenty
thousand plurality. It was understood that the vote
for the State ticket in September was to be the gauge
of Mr. Blaine's strength in the State. It was as
large a vote as had ever been given to the State
ticket. This result following the circulation in every
town in the State. of every form of publication, in
volving scandalous and personal attacks against the
Republican candidate, was most gratifying to the Re
publican managers.
The National Committee then thought it would be
, well for Mr. Blaine to go through the West and to
make a number of campaign speeches in the leading
towns of Ohio. Ohio was to have an October elec
tion, and a victory there following a Republican suc
cess in Maine, if that could be made very decisive,
would have a strong influence upon the general re
sult. The Committee wished to employ Mr. Blaine's;
great popularity for the purpose of increasing the
then greatly awakened enthusiasm of the -masses.

564 Life of James G. Blame.
No great leader ever had a higher personal compli-.
ment paid to him than one paid to Mr. Blaine from
the beginning to the end of his journey. While it
was at first planned to go through the State of Ohio,
his journey was afterward extended to Michigan, In
diana, and Illinois, returning to New York a few
days before the general election. For five weeks
Mr. Blaine was in constant motion, going from town
to town, making from ten to fifteen speeches a day, be
ing greeted everywhere by great hosts of people.
These gatherings were often too large for the speaker
to be heard, except by the few near him, but' yet all
appeared to~be contented with the mere sight of the
Republican candidate. Everywhere he was greeted
with an enthusiasm that was almost fierce in its
character. Mr. Blaine traveled in a special car. Sometimes
this car was attached to regular trains, and then it
would be sent on as a special by itself. It was his
home and office during the five weeks' campaign.
Many of his speeches were made from the platform
of this car. -Notwithstanding the number of speeches ,
he made they were all varied in their form. This
variation Mr. Blaine was able to accomplish by the
aid of information gathered from local committee
men. This gave him the means to make correct
local allusions and to apply the issues under considera-

Personal Scandals Renewed. 565
tion to the best advantage in a particular neighbor
hood. The first stops made on this political tour
were along- the line of the New York Central Rail
road, between New York and Buffalo. At every
manufacturing station great crowds of workmen
came with cheers and words of confidence for the
candidate whom they regarded as the champion of
labor- interests. The greatest gatherings were at
Buffalo and Rochester. The Republicans made an
unusual effort at Buffalo because it was the home of
the Democratic candidate. The entire eity was
aflame with lights the night of Mr. Blaine's arrival,
decorations and bunting adorned every house and
floated in the light, a wilderness of color. The
streets were thronged, while great parades of politi
cal societies, marching with lights and music, were
continually passing through the main thoroughfares. ,
The Ohio campaign was opened with a great meet
ing at Cleveland. The meeting here was in the
public square. A stand had been built where the
candidates were to make short addresses, for it was
here that General Logan joined Mr. Blaine. The
square was filled. The lowest estimate made at that.
time of the number of people who gathered in the
square was one hundred thousand. There was only
the merest pretense., of speech-making, and cer
tainly hot over ten thousand people in this throng

566 Life of James G. Blaine.
. hearu. a single worjd of the political addresses. Mr.,
Blaine and General Logan appeared together, and
afterward drove in an open carriage together through
the streets, the whole town turning out to do them
honor. For eighteen days Mr. Blaine made speeches
in the State of Ohio, going from one prosperous city
to another. The close of the campaign found him
in Cincinnati. From there he took a short run down
into West Virginia, but the reception there was not
satisfactory to the Republican managers on account
yof the intensity of feeling created among Democrats,
and Mr. Blaine returned after a very short visit again
to the State of Ohio. It was noticed that the enthu
siasm stirred up by Mr. Blaine's presence appeared
to an equal degree to arouse the opposition ofthe
Democrats. There was never a harder fought cam
paign. The Republican victory in the State of
Ohio in the month of October was so sharp and de
cisive that it appeared to justify Mr. Blaine's per
sonal appearance in the campaign.
If he had followed his own judgment he would
have returned to the State of Maine after finishing
the Ohio campaign. If he had adhered to this reso
lution it is probable that he would have been elected.
In two States where elections had then been held he
had materially increased the Republican vote. The
independent element which had bolted Mr. Blaine did

W^ • •

f
Personal Scandals Renewed. 567
not appear to have been a factor in Maine or Ohio.
But the managers at the National Committee head
quarters were flushed with the triumphs of Septem
ber and October. Then there were such calls for
Mr. Blaine from the Western States that they urged
upon him to enter on a campaign in Indiana which
was then as now a closely contested State in Pesi-
dential campaigns. Mr. Blaine yielded to this re
quest, and "later went into Michigan and Illinois.
' The campaign in Indiana was even more intense
than that in Ohio. It was at Indianapolis that Mr.
Blaine had been most bitterly attacked. His, en
trance in the State was the signal for the uprising
of all his friends and all of his enemies. Business
during the last month of this campaign was practi
cally suspended throughout the State. In no other
. State in the Union were entire communities so given
up to the passion of political campaigning. Even
the women joined in the political parades. It was
a common occurrence to see uniformed societies of
women, headed by bands of female musicians, parad
ing with energy through the mud and mire of some
of the country towns, keeping in step and line with,
the regular political organizations. It was a fatigu
ing and exhausting journey. Mr. Blaine was con
stantly in the presence of throngs making speeches,
receiving committeemen, and rarely having an oppor-

568 Life of James G. Blaine.
tunity to rest in quiet. He slept in towns gone mad
with party enthusiasm. And it was considered a
point of partisan duty to make demonstrations of
welcome all through the night wherever he stopped.
Notwithstanding this severe draft upon his physical
strength he closed his Western campaign in Chicago
in very good condition. Here he was treated to the
greatest demonstration of the campaign. Chicago,
being the largest city visited, turned out the largest
crowd of enthusiasts. The police had to literally
fight a way for Mr. Blaine and his party between
the hotel and the station, a half-mile away, when he
returned East. At Chicago he had planned to re
turn to Maine. Mr. Medill, the editor of the Chi-
cago Tribune, a life-long friend of Mr. Blaine and
one of his most cordial supporters, advised him to
go home. He said that he had done more than
enough, that the country was aflame with enthusiasm
for him, that the attacks upon him had only en
deared him to his friends, and had appealed to the
sympathies of every fair-minded man without regard
to party. "The country," added Mr. Medill,, "and
particularly the Western country, has no great love
for New York city. I would avoid that city and go
directly home."
The appeals to come to New York were so
persistent that Mr. Blaine, did not see his way to a

Personal Scandals Renewed. 569
refusal. Some of his most vigorous supporters were
there, and when it was proposed by them to give a
banquet in his honor at Delmonico's he accepted the
invitation. This dinner included among its guests
some of the most prominent citizens of New York,
and as a necessary consequence some of its richest
men. Among the guests was Mr. Jay Gould. The
Democratic newspapers described the dinner the next*
morning as a "Relshazzar feast" where capitalists
and corporation owners met to felicitate themselves
upon the coming election of a President who would
represent their Interests and not the people's. This..
was asserted and published with the manifold art of
sensational journalism. It was even declared with
certain circumstantiality that Mr. Gould had at this
dinner contributed a very large check to the cam
paign fund, and the public was then asked to judge
between the administration Mr. Jay Gould wished to
see elected and the administration proposed by the
Democratic candidate. These publications may have
had some effect in the city of New York, where Mr.
Gould was never a popular man.
The one incident of possible ill effect was the
occasion of an address made to Mr. Blaine by the
Rev. Dr. Burchard. In this campaign various asso
ciations of clergymen had met and passed resolutions
indorsing Mr. Blaine, and so when a deputation of

570 Life of James G. Blaine. ,
them came to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where Mr.
Blaine was stopping, and asked to be received their
request was at once granted. This was the day after
the banquet. Mr. Blaine had been fatigued by his
long campaign and by his being up late the night
before. He was not in his usual alert condition.
When Mr. Burehard made his address he listened to
it with apparent interest, but as he* said afterward
his thoughts were elsewhere and he really heard not
a word of it. In this address Mr. Burehard spoke
of the Democratic party as the party of "Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion," and because Mr. Blaine
did not then and there make some response signifying
his disapproval of this- slur upon the Catholic church,
he was held responsible for the opinion of Dr. Bur
ehard. This phrase ^as printed on various small
cards as Mr. Blaine's utterance, and these cards,
according to trustworthy reports, were handed out
to the members of various Catholic congregations
throughout the country on the Sunday preceding
election. It was a most ingenious method of circu
lating this charge. There was no way of meeting
it, because the ill effect was accomplished before
it was known that such methods had been em
ployed. Mr. Blaine left for home just before the election
day. He made brief speeches on his way and stopped

Personal Scandals Renewed. 571
for the night on the journey at Boston. He was in
Augusta the morning of election day.
Mr. Blaine did not learn of the evil effect sought
to be produced by Dr. Burchard's address until just
before he left New York. At New Haven, td the
inquiry- of some one in the audience concerning his
responsibility for the sentiment expressed by Dr.
Burehard, Mr. Blaine said :
" I am sure that I am the last man in the United
States who would make* a disrespectful allusion to an
other man's religion. The United State guarantees
-freedom of religious opinion, and before the law and
under the Constitution the Protestant and the Catho
lic and the Hebrew stand entitled to absolutely the
same recognition and the same protection (loud
cheering) ; and if disrespectful allusion is here to be
made against the religion of any man, as I have said, .
I am the last man to make it; though Protestant by
conviction and connected with a Protestant church, I
should esteem myself of all men the most degraded
if, under any pressure or under any temptation, 1
could in any presence make a disrespectful allusion to
that ancient faith in which my mother lived and died."
This should have been enough to have satisfied
any one, but this answer came too late to reach the
people who had been influenced by the first declara
tion, i

572 Life of James G. Blaine:
Mr. Blaine at no time during the campaign made
any reflections upon the character of the Democratic
candidate. He noticed in no way any of the scan
dals charged against Mr. Cleveland. He discoun
tenanced their use, and in the discussion of the
issues of the day avoided, so far as he could, person
alities of all kinds.
As it proved, the vote of the State of New York
decided the Presidential contest in favor of Mr.
Cleveland. The margin was so narrow that for
several days the result was considered doubtful, and
so doubtful that it was feared that we would have
again a contested election as in 1876. The actual
plurality of Mr. Cleveland in the State of New York
¦ was only a little over eleven hundred. The result
was a surprise even to the Democrats, as the general
enthusiasm through the country for Mr, Blaine had
led nearly every one to expect his election. There
were a great many factors which contributed at the
end to his loss of the State of New York and conse
quently the loss of the election. In the first place,
the Prohibition candidate polled over forty thousand
votes in the State ; nearly all of these votes came
from the Republican party. Then the Independents,
led by Mr. Curtis and Mr. Beecher, had been sup
ported throughout the campaign by the most promi
nent New York newspapers. The "New York Tri-

CHURCH OF THE COVENANT, WASHINGTON, D. C
(From which Mr. Blaine was buried.)

Personal Scandals Renewed: 575
bune and* The Mail and Express were almost the only
ones of the great New York newspapers which sup
ported Mr. Blaine. The opposition of such a large
portion of the press of New York had its influence.
General Butler polled more than enough votes to
defeat Mr. Blaine. Mr. Blaine believed that some
of these votes given in the city of New York for
General Butler were deflected from the credit of
General Butler, where they availed nothing, and
were transferred by the Democratic managers, who
had control of the party machinery in the city of
New York, to 'the credit of Mr. Cleveland. This
was an opinion which he expressed just after the
election, when he was laboring under the. disappoint
ment of defeat. This supposition on his part never
was confirmed by any form of official evidence.
The country generally accepted the result as a
Deniocratic victory. And after the first few days
no one questioned further the result of the elec
tion. When the official returns were published the close
ness of the, result was further demonstrated. Mr.
Blaine received 4,851,981 votes, while Mr. Cleveland
received 4,874,986 votes. The vote in favor of Mr.
Cleveland over that received by Mr. Blaine was only
twenty-six one-hundredths of one per cent. In the
Electoral College Mr. Cleveland received two hun-

576 Life of James G. Blaine.
dred and nineteen votes to one hundred and eighty
votes cast for Mr. Blaine.
Mr. Blaine was very much disappointed. The
fatigue and weariness of the long campaign preced
ing the' climax, of defeat made him ill. After a few
days he became rested and accepted the result with
his customary fortitude. Upon the 18th of Novem
ber he made an address to the citizens of Augusta, in
which he spoke of the campaign and its results. In
this speech he spoke of the undue influence of the
South in politics, and the Democratic papers after
ward said that these expressions of opinion concern
ing the South were the results of Mr. Blaine's per
sonal disappointment. They called attention to the
fact that he had not made the Southern issue a
prominent one in the campaign. Mr. Blaine
during the campaign had devoted most of his
speeches to the issue of protection, because he was
nearly always speaking in manufacturing centres,
and the Southern issue at that time did not appear
to him a subject which would interest his audiences.
There is nothing that he said at Augusta that indi
cated any change of opinion or any new view upon
his part of the evil results of Southern domination
in National affairs. He returned only to a free ex
pression of opinions frequently uttered by him in
presenting the Southern question in Congress.

Personal Scandals Renewed. 577
The portion of his speech which came back to the
Southern question was the last public utterance of
Mr. Blaine upon this distinct issue in our politics.
In the course of his address he said :
" The result of the election, my friends, will be re
garded in the future, I think, as extraordinary.
The Northern States, leaving out the cities of New
York and Brooklyn from the count, sustained the
Republican cause by a majority of more than 400,000
— almost half a million, indeed — of the popular vote.
The cities of New York and Brooklyn threw their
great strength and influence with the solid South,
and were the decisive element which gave to that sec
tion the control of the National Government. Speak
ing now not at all as a defeated candidate, but simply
as a loyal and devoted American, I think the trans
fer ofthe political power of the Government to the
South is a great National misfortune. It is a mis
fortune because it introduces an element which can
not insure harmony and prosperity to the people, be
cause it introduces into a Republic the rule of a mi
nority. The first instinct of an American is equality.
—equality of right, equality of privilege, equality of
political power — that equality which says to every
citizen, ' Your vote is just as good, just as potential,
as the vote of any other citizen.' That cannot be said
to-day in the United States.

578 Life oj James G. Blaine.
" The course of affairs in the South has crushed
out the political power of more than 6,000,000
American citizens, and has transferred it by violence
to others. Forty-two Presidential electors are as
signed to the South on account of the colored popula
tion, and yet the colored population, with more than
1,100,000 legal votes, have been unable to choose a
single elector. Even in those States where they
have a majority of more than a hundred thousand
they are deprived of free suffrage, and their rights as
citizens are scornfully trodden under foot. The
eleven States that comprised the Rebel Confederacy
had, by the census of 1880, 7,500,000 of white popu
lation and 5,300,000 colored population. The col
ored population, almost to a man, desire to support
the Republican party, but by a system of cruel in
timidation and by violence and murder, whenever
violence and murder are thought necessary, they are
absolutely deprived of all political power. If the out
rage stopped there, it would be bad enough ; but it
does not stop there, for not only is the negro popula
tion disfranchised, but the power which rightfully
and constitutionally belongs to it is transferred to
the white population, enabling the white population
of the South to exert an Electoral influence far be
yond that exerted by the same number of white peo
ple in the North.

Personal Scandals. Renewed. 579
" To illustrate just how it works to 'the destruc
tion of all fair elections, let me present to you five
States in the late Confederacy and five loyal
States of the North, possessing in each section
the same number of Electoral votes. In the South
the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Geor
gia, and South Carolina have in the aggregate forty-
eight "Electoral votes. They have 2,800,000 white
people, and over 3,000,000 colored people. In the
North the States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa,
Kansas, and California have likewise in the aggregate
forty-eight Electoral votes, and they have a white
population of 5,600,000, or just double the five
Southern States which I have named. These
Northern States have practically no colored popu
lation. It is therefore evident that the white men in
those Southern States by usurping and absorbing the
rights of the colored men are exerting just double
the political power of the white men in the Northern
States. I submit, my friends, that such a" condition
of affairs is extraordinary, unjust, and derogatory to
the manhood of the North. Even those who are
vindictively opposed to negro suffrage will not deny
that if Presidential electors are assigned to the
South by reason of the negro population that popu
lation ought to be permitted free suffrage in the
election. To deny that clear proposition is to affirm

580 Life of James G- Blaine.
that a Southern white man in the Gulf States is
entitled to double the political power of a Northern
white man in the Lake States. It is to affirm that a
Confederate soldier shall wield twice the influence in
the Nation that a Union soldier can, and that a per
petual and constantly increasing superiority shall be
conceded to the Southern white man in the Govern
ment of the Union. If that be quietly conceded in
this generation it will harden into custom, until the
badge of inferiority will attach to the Northern
-white man as odiously as ever Norman noble stamped
it^upon Saxon churl.
" This subject is of deep interest to the laboring
men of the North. With the Southern Democracy
triumphant in their States and in the Nation, the
negro will be compelled to work for just such wages
as the whites may decree ; wages which will amount,
as did the supplies of the slaves, to a bare subsistence,
equal in cash to perhaps thirty-five cents per day, if
averaged over the entire South. The white laborer
in the North will soon feel the distinctive effect of
this upon his own wages. The Republicans have
clearly seen from the earliest days of reconstruction
that wages in the South must be raised to a just
recompense of the laborer or wages in the North
ruinously lowered, and the party have steadily
worked for the former result. The reverse influence

Personal Scandals Renewed. 581
will now be set in motion, and that condition of
* *
affairs produced which years ago Mr. Lincoln
warned the free laboring men of the North
would prove hostile to their independence, and would
inevitably lead to a ruinous reduction of wages.
A mere difference of the color of the skin will
not suffice to maintain an 'entirely different standard
in wages of contiguous and adjacent States, and the
voluntary will be compelled to yield to the involun
tary. So completely have the colored men in the
South been already deprived by the Democratic
party of their constitutional and legal rights as citizens
of the United States that they regard the advent of •
that party to National power as the signal of their
enslavement, and are affrighted because they think
all legal protection for them is gone.
" Few persons, in the North realize how completely
the-chiefs of the Rebellion wield the political power
which -has triumphed in the late election. It is a
portentous fact that the Democratic Senators who
come from the States ofthe late Confederacy, all—
and I mean all without a single exception — person
ally participated in the Rebellion against the National
Government. It is still a more significant fact that
in those States no man who was loyal to the Union,
no matter how strong a • Democrat he may be to-day,
has the slightest chance of political promotion. The

582 Life of James G. Blaine.
one great avenue to honor in that section is the re
cord of zealous service in the war against the Gov
ernment. It is certainly an astounding fact that the
section in which friendship for the Union in the day
of its trial and agony is still a political disqualifica
tion should be called now to rule over the Union.
All this takes place during the lifetime of the gen
eration that fought the war, and elevates into practi
cal command of the American Government the
identical men who organized for its destruction and
plunged us into the bloodiest contest of modern times.
" I have spoken of the South as placed by the late
election in possession of the Government," and I mean
all that my words imply. The South furnished
nearly three-fourths of the Electoral votes that de
feated the Republican party, and" they will step
to the command of the Democrats as unchallenged
and as unrestrained as they held the same position
for thirty years before the war.
" Gentlemen, there cannot be political inequality
among the citizens of a free Republic ; there cannot
be a minority of white men in the South ruling a
majority of white men in the North. Patriotism,
self-respect, pride, protection for person and safety
for country all cry out against it. The very thought
of it stirs the blood of men who inherit equality from
the Pilgrims who first stood on Plymouth Rock, and

Personal Scandals Renewed. 583
from liberty -loving patriots who came to the Dela
ware with William Penn. It becomes the primal
question of American manhood. It demands a hear
ing and a settlement, and that settlement will vindi
cate the equality of American Citizens in all personal
and civil rights'. It will, at least, establish the
equality of white men under the National Govern
ment, and will give to the Northern man, who fought
to preserve the Union as large a voice in its govern
ment as maj be exercised by the Southern man who
fought to destroy the Union.
"The contest just closed utterly dwarfs the. for
tunes and fates of the candidates, whether successful
or unsuccessful. Purposely — I may say instinct
ively — I have discussed the issues and consequences
of that contest without reference to my own defeat,
without the remotest reference to the gentleman who
is elevated to the Presidency. Toward him person
ally I have no cause for the slightest ill-will, and it
is with cordiality I express the wish that his official
career may prove gratifying to himself and beneficial
to the country, and that his administration may over
come the embarrassments which the peculiar source
of its. power imposes upon it from the hour of its
birth." It has been frequently charged that Mr. Blaine
was so dissatisfied with the result of the election that

584 f Life of James G. Blaine.
he telegraphed to New York . to the National Head
quarters for them to claim everything and to make a
contest. These charges were circulated by people
who represented Mr. Blaine as "a man so ambitious
and so unpatriotic that he would run the risk of cre
ating another civil war rather than suffer defeat,
Mr. Andrew Devine, who accompanied Mr. Blaine
throughout his entire campaign, and who is to-day
one of the official reporters of the House of Repre
sentatives, was in Mr. Blaine's house during the days
of doubt and dispute concerning the election. Mr.
Devine says that the National Committee Headquar
ters were connected with a direct wire with Mr.
Blaine's library at Augusta. There Mr. Sherman,
afterward Consul-General at Liverpool, was the tele
graph operator. None of the telegraphic -messages
were written out, but were dictated to the operator as
they were sent. During this entire time, Mr. Blaine
did not seek to give any orders. Mr. Devine says
, the only message that looked at all like a direction
was sent late one night when the excitement in New
York city was at its height. A message came to
the Blaine house from headquarters which said :
, " Have just got wind of a precinct in Brooklyn where
it is stated that some seven hundred Butler votes
have been counted for Cleveland. Will investigate.
From the returns so far received, we estimate that

Personal Scandals Renewed. 585
you have carried the State by from seven hundred to
a thousand votes, but public feeling here is so excited
that we don't know what will be the result."
Mr. Blaine walked the- floor for about a minute in
profound thought, and then turned to Mr. Sherman
and said : " Tell him this : ' I note what you say
about Butler votes in Brooklyn. Also about public
feeling in New York. I do not understand. To
my mind this is not a question of public feeling, it is
a question of arithmetic. If Mr. Cleveland has seven
hundred votes or seven votes or one vote more in
New York than I have, I want his votes counted for
him., If I have seven hundred votes or seven votes
or one vote in New York more than Mr. Cleveland,
I want my votes counted for me. And I rely on
you to see that it is done.' " Then turning to those
who were present, he remarked : " That is right, is
it not ?"
Mr. Blaine returned to Washington soon after Mr.
Cleveland's inauguration. He called upon Mr.
Cleveland soon after the latter was inaugurated to
pay a visit of respect. He continued to live quietly
in Washington during the winter, and in Maine
during the summer, until 1887, when he went to
Europe.

CHAPTER XXX.
THE TRIP TO EUROPE.— THE PRINCIPAL INCIDENTS OF
_ THE YEAR'S VISIT. — THE ILLNESS AT MILAN WHICH
LEAD TO THE FORMAL DECLARATION OF WITH
DRAWAL AT FLORENCE.  THE PEREMPTORY DEC
LINATION OF THE PRESIDENCY AND THE REASONS
THEREFOR.
, Mr. Blaine, accompanied by. his wife and his
two daughters, Margaret and Harriet, and Miss
Dodge, went to Europe in the spring of 1887. They
went directly to- England. They were met on land
ing at Southampton by the United States Consul and
a party of friends. Mr. Blaine went to London,
where he spent several weeks. He was then in a
very fair condition of health. He already knew the
character of the malady from which he suffered.
He had been told by his physicians that he must
exercise great care and avoid excitement as much as
possible. He came to Europe for the purpose of
avoiding politics. He wished to be free from the
criticisms and comments of the politicians. During
every preceding campaign of his late career his
movements had been so carefully watched and his
586

The Trip to Europe. 587
desires made so much the subject of exaggeration
that he wished to be free. In Europe he declined
even to discuss American politics during the first
few months after his arrival. He had not at that
time wholly renounced his ambition and wish to
become President. As Mr. Blaine came to London
in no official capacity he was "not presented to any
of the great. dignitaries. As a distinguished citizen
of America he was invited to the principal enter
tainments of London, and in that way saw a number
of the leading personages of the day. He did not
then meet any members of the English royal family,
but was present at a garden party at Buckingham
Palace given by the Queen. There, he saw the
Queen and the leading members of the reigning
family of England. Mr. Blaine was very observant
of and interested, in the character of the prominent
people of England. He met the then Prime Minis
ter, the Marquis of Salisbury, in his own house, and
at nearly the same time met Mr. Gladstone even
more intimately. Mr. Blaine was a frequent visitor
at the Houses of Parliament. The Irish members
at first attempted to made a good deal of him, but he
avoided mingling in their politics, as he did in poli
tics" at home. T. P. O'Connor, the leading Irish
member, was the only one of the representatives with
whom Mr. Blaine had much to do. Mr. Blaine

588 Life of James G. Blaine. "
thought that Mr. Gladstone was the greatest acces
sion to the Irish cause, and he then expressed confi
dence that if Mr. Gladstone should live long enough
he and he alone would be able to work out a success
ful plan for home rule in Ireland. ,
The debates in the House of Parliament are very
different from the debates in our House, on account
of the, presence of Ministers on the floor. Mr. Blaine
was asked at the time that he was making this close
observation of the methods of procedure in the
House Of Commons if he did not think it would be a
good idea for us to have members of our Cabinet
with seats in our House of Representatives; if he
did not think it would give more life and character
to the debates to have the representatives of the
various branches of the administration on the floor
each day for the purpose of explaining Or, if need
be, defending their course. Could they not be
held to a stricter accountability, and would it not
necessitate the selection of stronger men than are
often placed in the -Cabinet by a President?
He replied that he saw nothing in the British sys
tem to commend itself for adoption in our House.
The theory of our government is different. It was
the intention of the authors of the Constitution to
keep the three branches of the Government, the ex
ecutive, legislative, and the judicial, as separate and

,,The Trip to Europe. 589
distinct as possible. This had been our policy ', and
any change in the direction proposed would result in
a contrary effect from what was suggested. In
stead of the executive authority being held to a
stricter accountability by such a course, he was
clearly of the opinion that it would extend the
power of the executive to such an extent that it
might soon coerce Congress. «
The presence and mingling of Cabinet officers in
the debates of the House/ with the powers of patron
age which they have at their disposal, would produce
an undue influence. A Cabinet officer would not be
on a footing of equality with the other members. He
was certain that no such policy would ever prevail in
this country.
When Mr. Blaine left London first he went on a
visit to Mr. Carnegie in Scotland. Here he appeared
to regain all of the health and vigor of ten years ago.
He was out doors nearly every day, and endured the
longest of rides without fatigue. From Scotland he
went through Ireland, avoiding there any public re
ception, and then crossed from Queenstown, through
England, via Queensboro Flushing, to the mouth of
the Rhine. He spent a short time in the Rhine
country, and then made quite a long stop at the
fashionable watering-place, Homburg.
It was here that he met the Prince of Wales. The

590 Life of James G. Blaine.
Prince heard of his presence there, and first invited
him to lunclb. He became very much interested in
him, and had him come and see him a number of
times. The Prince was very curious about America,
and he asked many questions of Mr. Blaine. Mr.
Chauncey Depew was in Homburg at the same time.
He, too, became acquainted with the Prince, and was
also his guest from time to time.
It was noted there as a curious thing that the
Prince never invited the two together, or the same
day. He found them both such agreeable conversa
tionalists that he did not care to have them together
so that he would have to divide his attention.
From this place Mr. Blaine went to Vienna and
afterward to Budapest. He was especially charmed
with the Hungarian capital. He did not appear to
f take much interest in Vienna, and made only a short
stay there.
He came back to Paris during the fall, and re-
mained there until Mr. Cleveland sent in his famous
tariff message to Congress. Mr. Blaine saw at once
what an opportunity there was for the Republican
party, and he at once took steps to make the tariff
issue the coming issue of the campaign. Instead of
writing a letter to some one ofhis prominent friends,
he sat down and prepared his views in the form of an
interview. He wrote himself both the question? and

The Trip to Europe. 591
answers of this interview, and when he had com-
pleted the article gave it to Mr. Smalley, of the New
York Tribune, who was in Paris at that time. This
was cabled to America, where the publication was
considered by many as the positive indication that
Mr. Blaine was again to be a candidate.
During the early part of the winter he left Paris
to spend the winter in Italy. It was in going through
the Alps that he caught cold through having to spend
the night in an unheated railway compartment. His
cold led to a severe illness. It was the beginning of
the series of attacks which cfosed his life. After re
covering from this attack he went to Florence. He
remained there in seclusion for nearly three weeks,
seeing no one, and it was during this seclusion that
he prepared his letter of withdrawal.
In Rome, where he went later, he was conspicuous
for a few Weeks in the gay society of that capital.
He again appeared- to be in good health 'and good
spirits. It was reported at the time that he was pre
sented to the Pope, but this was untrue. This report
was based upon the fact that he was present in the
Vatican one day when the Pope received a deputa
tion of pilgrims. Mr. Blaine went there for the pur
pose of seeing him, and observed him, as would any
tourist, from a respectful distance. The only reign
ing sovereign of Europe to whom he was presented

592 Life of James G. Blaine.
was the King of Italy. King Umberto impressed
Mr. Blaine as being very democratic and as posses
sing extraordinary qualities as a business man. He
always spoke of him as the business King.
At Florence Mr. Blaine made up his mind that his
health would not permit his be,coming again a candi
date for the Presidency. The illness which was so
prolonged at Milan told him that his only hope to
prolong his life was to live as quietly as possible. It
is fair to assume that he kept to himself the full
knowledge of his serious condition, because his reso
lution to retire was not fully approved by his family.
At Florence he said, without giving fully his private
reasons of health, and in further explanation of his
determination : "I hold that I haVe no right to be a
candidate again. A man who has once been the
candidate of his party and is defeated owes it to his
party to withdraw, and not be a candidate the second^
time. More than this, there is another plain reason -
for my withdrawing. I could not go through the
burden and fatigue of another Presidential canvass,
such a one as the canvass of the last campaign. To
accept a nomination and to do less than before would
be impossible. It would look as if I had, no faith
myself in the success of the party."
He had enjoyed his European visit in a moderate
degree, but he vould have preferred, after the first

The Trip to Europe. 593
six months, to be at home. He was willing, how
ever, to defer to the pleasure and profit that his
daughters were deriving frOm the visit to prolonging
his stay. He decided, when he firsir went away, not
to return until after the Republican Nominating
Convention of 1888. In his expression of views at
Florence, Mr. Blaine indicated no preference for any
candidate. He was tempted in many ways to make
a favorable response to the request for him to run
again. He was told that he need do nothing. He
could live quietly at his home at Bar Harbor, Maine,
and not even make a speech or answer a letter. The
sentiment in the party had so Crystallized . in his
favor that he would be nominated on the first ballot
in the approaching Convention. Mr. Cleveland's
tariff message had alarmed the country, and the
Republican party could surely elect him. To this
Mr. Blaine said, in clear and explicit languge : "I
could not go through another contest even with the
certainty of a Presidency at the end of it. The .
struggle is too great, and there is nothing in life worth
such a contest.^
This declaration was generally regarded in America
as definite. Mr. Blaine's health was apparently good
enough to warrant his being a candidate, and so his
friends in America thought that the reason that he
withdrew was on aocoimt of hie dislike to undergo

694 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
another year of such fierce personal attack as had
been waged on him four years before.
It was at Florence, in the course of a general con
versation upon Europe, that Mr. Blaine expressed
himself upon the habit of certain Americans mak
ing their home in foreign countries. He said : " I
do not understand how Americans, unless they are
called over here on business, can be contented to set
tle down in Europe without any aim or object beyond
that of getting into foreign society or' being taken
up by some of the hangers-on of foreign courts.
These people are in exile and do not appear to un
derstand that they are practically banished. They
lead lazy lives and amount to nothing. They end
in losing their own nationality and do not acquire
that of any other country. They lose their chance
of becoming some one at home and never succeed
in becoming anything over here. At best they -
are only tolerated in foreign society, and rarely, if
ever, become intimate therewith. It is especially
cruel upon their children to be brought into such
an aimless and characterless life."
Just before leaving Florence Mr. Blaine said, to a
visitor : " You have no idea what a relief it is to me
to think that I am now out of the canvass, and that
when I come back to New York in the summer I
shall not be going back there to face reception after

. The Trip to Europe. ' 595
reception,. and to enter into the turmoil and excitement
of a political canvass. I can now come back
quietly after the Convention has once decided the
result and enjoy my own life in my own way, free* 1
hope, from further criticism or comment."
Mr. Blaine's letter from Florence, and the reports
of his private opinions, which were freely cabled to
America at that time, were very convincing to the
majority of the American public. Mr. Blaine's
enemies, however, who never would, allow that he
could do anything without an ulterior motive, re
garded these frank utterances as only so many bits
of strategy in the direction of another campaign.
Mr. Blaine's attitude during this year, from first to
last, was one of the most positive sincerity. He had
a passionate love of life. Nothing depressed him
so much as the thought of illness, and his condition
at that time is the best guarantee of his sincerity.
From the attitude taken at Florence he never
wavered. When he returned to Paris, in the spring
of 1888, he found that the disappointment in the
United States was so great over his resolution not to
be a candidate that there was a movement to make
him a candidate whether he wished to be or not. It
was to meet this movement that Mr. Blaine wrote
his letter to Mr. Whitelaw Reid.' In this letter he
repeated as clearly and as explicitly as he could his

596 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
decision. He said then in private conversation that
no consideration now could tempt him, as he had
pledged his honor and good faith to the public not
to be a candidate. After that he said : " If I should
change my mind every one of the criticisms of my
enemies would be fully justified." He was very
well at Paris and appeared to have recovered from
the evil effects of his illness in Italy. He drove
about in the Bois de Boulogne nearly every day, in
terested and amused in the gay and orderly throngs
which pass in review in the afternoon of each pleas
ant day. He spent some time in the shops and book
stalls making purchases.
He talked freely concerning foreign affairs, much
more freely than. upon the subject of American poli
tics. He again showed himself in Paris to be a
good political prophet. Four years before, at his
house in Washington, just before liis own nomina
tion, he had predicted the defeat of the Republican
party. Now he was equally confident of its success
in the coming election. So his refusal to be a candi
date was, to all intents and purposes, in' his mind, a
declination of the great office of the Presidency of
the United States, which had been hitherto the laud
able object of his ambition.
In discussing the Irish question at Paris, he said :
" Within two years what we term the Irish question

The Trip to Europe. . 597
has been radically changed in its political bearings
in Great Britain by the fact that a great party in
England had assumed its advocacy. For many
years it was a case of divided Ireland against a
united England, but now it is practically a united
Ireland against a divided England."
Mr. Blaine attached the greatest importance to
Mr. Gladstone's advocacy of the Irish cause. He
' ft
said : " Think of it ! Here is the first statesman of
England, the .greatest Parliamentary leader since the
death of the younger Pitt, standing at the bar of the
House- of Commons pleading the cause of Ireland!
Ten years ago, even five years ago, no one antici
pated such a remarkable turn of events." Continu
ing, he added : " He has already effected a great deal,
though, of course, it does not as yet appear in the
enactments of a hostile Parliament. He has already
brought about a community of feeling, a genuine
cordiality, and co-operation between a large section
of the Irish people and a large section of the Eng
lish people. For the first time we see Irish speakers
crossing the Channel and taking part in English
Parliamentary elections, and English speakers cross
ing the Channel and taking part in the Irish strug
gle, doing this even at the hazard of being arrested
and imprisoned under the provisions of the Coercion
Act. All this implies a prodigious change of public

598 Life of James G- Blaine.
opinion and the working of influences of which no
man can yet measure the force of the final effect.
This is the direct outgrowth of Mr. Gladstone's great
leadership, and, perhaps, the result could have been
obtained under the leadership of no other man at
this particular epoch."
He thought there was a great gain in the inter
change of speakers. He said: " You must remem
ber that an Irishman is a better stump speaker than
an Englishman of the same general capacity. The
Irishman has the quickness, the wit, the humor, the
repartee, which make a stump speech .attractive and
effective in a higher degree than an Englishman,
though in a solid logical argument in the House of
Commons the Englishman might be the strongerman."
Mr. Blaine accounted for the increase of the lib
eral strength in England by the extension of suffrage.
He said : " This extension has added a large num
ber of agricultural laborers to the list of voters.
These men readily listen to the Irish speakers, be
cause they think the Irish sympathize with their
poverty and would gladly remove burdens . in Eng
land as well as in Ireland. On the other hand, the
agricultural laborers associate the majority of the
English speakers with the aristocratic classes and as
living beyond the sphere of sympathy with them
selves."

The Trip to Europe. 599
" How then do the English speakers in Ireland aid
the cause ?" was asked.
Mr. Blaine replied : " They are of a cooler tem
perament than the Irish, and thus impart discretion
to Irish courage, which latter often runs to rashness.
At the same time they exhibit to the popular mind
of Ireland the essential community of feeling between
large masses of men in the two countries."
He thought that the Irish policy of the future
"should a,nd will be to sustain Mr. Gladstone.
Whatever strengthens his position strengthens the
Irish cause and adds to the number of Englishmen
who will espouse it and make it the first of all im
perial questions, until it is settled. The friends of
Ireland in America should therefore keep this point
steadily in view. Mr.. Gladstone believes that
Home Rule, for Ireland on Irish questions, is just
as reasonable as Home Rule for England on
English questions, and that both Can and shall
be maintained under the flag of the same
Empire in peace, in harmony, and in prosperity.
Under Mr. Gladstone's lead this question, to use a
phrase of Mr. Webster, is taking hold upon the
hearts and consciences of a large and leading class
of Englishmen, who are ready and eager to do
justice to a long oppressed people. As the confi
dence grows and strengthens between the Irish

600 Life of James G. Blaine.
Home Rulers and the Liberals of England, a very
strong party will be organized which they will
endeavor to make under Mr. Gladstone's leader
ship the van guard of an enlightened opinion for
the British Isles."
During the call of several visitors upon Mr.
Blaine one day he was asked about his acquaintance
with the Prince of Wales at Homburg. He said :
"All there was of the whole affair which some of our
papers so greatly magnified was that the Prince of
Wales requested that I should be presented to him,
and I was presented accordingly, and afterward I
had a few informal conversations with his Royal
Highness which are of no political signification
whatever." He was then asked to give .his opinion of the Prince
of Wales. He replied: "It would of course be
absurd and even offensive for me to give an estimate of
the heir to the English throne on such slight grounds
as those on which my acquaintance with the Prince
of Wales rests. I may say, however,- that in my
brief conversation with him he impressed me, as he
has so many others, with being a man of great tact
in personal intercourse, exceedingly affable, and
ready in conversation, enjoying humor, and possess
ing it, and able in a singular degree to make his
guests feel at perfect ease. He shows a friendly

The Trip to Europe. 601
regard for Americans, and is very cordial to those of
our countrymen with whom he becomes acquainted.
He is unaffectedly and outspokenly desirous of
kindly relations between the two countries."
It was during another conversation that some one
spoke to Mr. Blaine concerning the attitude of some
of his old opponents and asked him if he had been
elected in 1884 would he not have punished those
pf his party who had attempted to defeat him. Mr.
Blaine replied in the most positive negative. He
said that he knew of nothing so degrading as the culti
vation of the feeling of revenge, or nothing so empty
as a life devoted to the pursuit of a policy of retalia
tion. _ " Life " said he, " is too short for anything of
this kind." This expression of opinion really pre
sented his Character. He could be very fierce and
resentful during a gust of passion, but when the
feeling of temper had passed the feeling of resent
ment went with it.
He crossed the Channel from Paris to England
early in June. There he joined Mr. Andrew Car
negie's coaching party which had planned to drive
from London to Mr. Carnegie's place in Scotland. It
was a long journey and one that required a certain
amount of physical strength to endure. Each day
was passed upon the top of an open coach. There was
an average of about twenty miles a day drive. It

602 Life of James G. Blaine.
was one of the pleasantest experiences of Mr. Blaine'ti
life. June in England is the pleasantest month in
the year. The country was like a private garden ;
the perfect roads and the comfortable little inns, the
cool and invigorating atmosphere, and the free out
door life contributed greatly to Mr. Blaine's enjoy
ment. He endured the incidental fatigue of the
journey as well as any member of the party. They
arrived at Edinburgh on the Saturday evening pre
ceding the Monday when the nomination of Mr.
Harrison Was made. Sunday the party rested
at the Royal McGregor Hotel in Edinburgh.
During that day Mr. Blaine - received a number
of fervent appeals by cable from his friends in
Chicago. They begged him to^ say nothing but
to leave them free to act. They could nominate
him on the following Monday on the opening
.ballot. Numerous pledges were cabled him from
representatives in the Convention. Nothing was
clearer then than that he could have the nomination.
He sent back one cable reaffirming positively his de
cision made at Florence and repeated at Paris. He
even added that if he were nominated in spite of this
decision he would not accept the nomination. Mr.
Blaine said, after sending the cable, to a visitor who
came into his drawing-room ofthe hotel, that he had
again directed his friends to keep his name out of

The THpto Europe 603
the Convention. He was then asked whom he
thought would be nominated. He replied without
any hesitation that General Benjamin Harrison
would be nominated on the opening ballot. This
positive declaration upon his part shows the part that
Mr. Blaine had in directing the will of this Conven
tion. It was plainly to be inferred from this positive
Opinion that he had asked his friends who controlled
the Convention to give their support to Mr. Harri
son. .
The news of the result of the Convention was
handed to Mr. Blaine the following evening at Lin
lithgow. He was then engaged, in company with the
members ofthe coaching party, in examining the ruins
of an old castle near the town. He did not look at
the dispatch which was offered to him, but asked
" Who was nominated ? " The reply was " General
Benjamin Harrison." Mr. Blaine replied : "Avery
good nomination indeed," and then picked up the
thread of the conversation concerning the character
of this ruin, which had been interrupted by the arri
val of the dispatch. He showed then no regret and
expressed none afterward. Mrs. Blaine said very
frankly that she was very sorry that it could not have
been Mr. Blaine. This opinion shows clearly thai
Mr. Blaine had not at that time confided in her a
complete knowledge of the state of his health.

604 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
Mr. Blaine remained with Mr. Carnegie for a few
days after the decision of the Convention. He then
returned to London, and, upon the invitation of Mr.
Clement A. Griscom, of Philadelphia, the President of
the Inman and International Steamship Company,
he took passage upon the new steamship the " City of
New York," which was to make her trial trip to New
York. In accepting this invitation he gave up his
quarters which he had engaged for his return on the
" Trave," of the German Lloyd.
He sailed upon the first day of August, 1888, for
home. He was much interested in the new ship. It
was one of the first of the great modern steamers
now so common in the trans-Atlantic passenger-car*'
rying trade. A number of Americans came up to"
Liverpool to see him off. It was observed that Mr.
Blaine went on board ship without even one back
ward glance toward England. The voyage was com
paratively uneventful except the two days' delay in
her passage occasioned by the over-heating of some -
of her new machinery. Mr. Blaine was not a very
good sailor. He was on deck nearly every day, but
it was only toward the latter part of the voyage
that he felt at his ease and enjoyed conversation with
his fellow-passengers.
Upon the occasion of the charitable entertainment
which is given during the voyage of every one of the

The Trip to Europe. 605
large steamers Mr. Blaine was selected as Chairman.
The handsome dining-room was filled with a large
and agreeable company. Mr. Blaine presided with
great dignity and grace. The performance given was
above the average on account of the presence of a
number of theatrical people who all contributed to
the programme. Mr. Blaine made friends with ,
every one on board ship. He was the constant sub
ject of attention, and when on deck was nearly always
the centre of an amiable group. To every one he
was ready to talk upon any subject. He appeared to
have lost all reserve, now that he was personally out
of politics.
Lie was greeted at New York by a great demon
stration upon the part of his friends. He found that
it was difficult for him even as a private citizen to
escape the attentions of the party managers. He
returned to Maine very soon after his landing, arid
took but little part in the campaign beyond making
one or two very cordial speeches wherein he indorsed
with all sincerity the Republican candidate.

CHAPTER XXXI.
MR. BLAINE ACCEPTS THE OFFICE OF SECRETARY OP
STATE UNDER PRESIDENT HARRISON. — HIS RELA
TIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT AGREEABLE UNTIL
SHORTLY BEFORE HIS RESIGNATION. — THE PAN-
AMERICAN CONFERENCE. — THE OBJECTS OF THTS
NOTABLE GATHERING.
President Harrison, who was elected by a de
cided majority iri the campaign of 1888, offered Mr.
Blaine, directly after election, the office of Secretary
of State. Mr. Blaine, through his two years of rest,
now felt equal to the work of the State Department,
and to try to carry out the main object of his politi
cal ambition, his South American policy. He was
left comparatively free from any demands upon the
part of office-seekers.
The great appointments in the Department are
nearly always made up at the time of the formation
of the Cabinet. Mr. Blaine appointed to three of the
leading missions some of the prominent journalists
of the country. He sent Mr. Whitelaw Reid to Paris,
Mr. Charles Emory Smith to St. Petersburg, and
offered to Mr. Murat Halstead the Mission to Berlin.
606

w.

Pan-American Conference. 607
Through the influence of Mr. John Sherman Mr.,
Halstead's appointment was not confirmed by the
United States Senate. Mr. Blaine again turned to
the son of his old friend when he sent Mr. Lincoln
to. England.
The relations between Mr. Blaine and the President
were always agreeable up to the few days preceding
the former's resignation from the Cabinet.
President Harrison was fifty-seven years of age
when he came to the Presidential office. He was
three years younger than Mr. Blaine. They had
known each other in the Senate, and Mr. Harrison
had been one of the conspicuous speakers for Mr.
Blaine in the campaign of 1884. Mr. Harrison is
of medium height with a powerful, thick-set figure.
His early and happy marriage gave him the most
elevated ideas concerning domestic purity. When
ever an applicant for office was found to have led an
immoral life, or who had even had an unfortunate
domestic career, the President always passed him by.
He has held that there are enough good men in
every community about whom there can be no ques
tion from whom selections for public offices should
be made. *r
Mr. Harrison always showed great appreciation
of Mr. Blaine, and cordially co-operated with him
•in carrying out the policy of the State Department,

608 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
and never showed any jealousy of his popularity
nor of his prominence. Mr. Blaine became absorbed
in the work of the State Department, and for a time
was as cheerful and in as good spirits as when en
gaged upon his literary work. The duties of the
post were very congenial to him. He had but little to
do with office-seekers. He came but little in contact
with the public at this time. He did most of the
work of his diplomatic correspondence at his home.
Up to the day of his resignation from Mr. Har
rison's Cabinet there was no point of serious differ
ence between them. President Harrison has such a
positive character that friction might have been
possible had it not been for his high regard and ap
preciation of Mr. Blaine. Mr. Harrison is one of
the best equipped men who ever held the Presidential
office. Mr. Blaine moved with his customary promptness
when he began to develop his South American policy.
He acted with the energy of a man who was con
scious of the brevity of time left to him.
Under the Garfield administration Mr. Blaine had
sought to get the representatives of the South Ameri
can Republics to meet in Washington in a Peace
Conference. Now- they were to be convened in a Pan-American
Congress with really the same objects in view, al-'

Pan-American Conference. 609
though the scope of the Congress was made officially
wider. The invitation to this Pan-American Con
gress was issued under the authority of a law passed
by the Fiftieth Congress. This law was the out
growth of public agitation upon the subject of this
policy as proposed by Mr. Blaine in 1881.
The objects of this Congress, as officially declared,
were: First. —Measures that shall tend to preserve and promote
the prosperity of the several American States.
Second. — Measures toward the formation of American cus
toms union, under which the trade of the American nations
with each other shall, so far as possible and profitable, be
promoted. Third.-r-The establishment of regular and frequent com
munication between the ports of the several American State*
and the ports of each other.
, Fourth. — The establishment of a uniform system of customs
regulations in each of the independent American States to
govern the mode of importation and exportation of merchan
dise and port dues and charges, a uniform method of de
termining the classification and valuation of such merchan
dise in the ports of each country, and a uniform system of
invoices, and the subject of the sanitation of ships and
quarantine. '
Fifth. — The adoption of a uniform system of weights and
measures, and laws to protect the patent-righte, copyrights,
and trade-marks of citizens of either country in the other,
and for the extradition of criminals.
Sixth. — The adoption of a common silver coin, to be issued
bv each Government, the same- to be legal tender in all com
mercial transactions between the citizens of all of the Ameri
can States.

610 Life of James G. Blaine.
Seventh. — An agreement upon and recommendation for
adoption to their respective Governments of a definite plan
of arbitration of all questions, disputes, and differences that
may now or hereafter exist between them, to the end that all
difficulties and disputes between such nations may be peace
ably settled and wars prevented.
Eighth,— And to consider such other subjects relating to
the welfare of the several States represented as may be pre
sented by any of said States which are hereby invited to
participate in said Conference.
The countries that accepted invitations and sent
delegates were : Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica,
Uruguay, Argentine Republic, Nicaragua, Salvador,
Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela,
San Domingo, Paraguay, Columbia, Hay ti, and the
Hawaiian Islands.
The conference met in the diplomatic room of the
State Department on the 2d of October, 1889, the first
year of the Harrison administration.
Mr. Blaine was elected President of, the confer
ence. His brief address of welcome to the delegates
shows clearly what he hoped to accomplish by the
influence of the countries represented by them. He
said :
" Gentlemen of the International American Conference :
Speaking for the Government of the- United States, I bid you
welcome to this Capital. Speaking for the people of the
United States, I bid you welcome to every section and to
every State of the Union. You come in response to an invi
tation extended by the President on the special authorization

Pan-American Conference. 611
6f Congress. Your presence here is no ordinary event. It
signifies much to the people of all America to-day. It may
signify far more in the days to come. No conference of,
nations has ever assembled to' consider the welfare of terri
torial possessions so vast and to contemplate the possibilities
of a future so great and so inspiring." Those now sitting.
within these walls are empowered to speak for nations whose
borders are on both the great oceans, whose northern limits
are touched by the Arctic waters for a thousand miles beyond
the Straits of Behring and whose southern extension fur
nishes human habitations farther below the equator than is
elsewhere possible on the globe.
" The aggregate territorial extent of the nations here repre
sented falls but little short of 12,000,000 of square miles —
more than three times the area of all Europe, and but little
less than one-fourth part of the globe; while in respect to
the power of producing the articles which are essential to
human life and those which minister to life's luxury, they
constitute even a larger proportion of the entire world.
These great possessions to-day have an aggregate population
approaching 120,000,000, but if peopled as densely as the
average .of Europe, the total number would exceed
1,000,000,000. While considerations of this character must
inspire Americans, both South and North, with the liveliest
.anticipations of future grandeur and power, they must also
impress them with a sense of the gravest responsibility
touching the character and development of their respective
nationalties. " The Delegates I am addressing can do much to establish
permanent relations of confidence,, respect, and friendship
between the .nations which they represent. They can show
- to the world an honorable, peaceful conference, of eighteen
independent American Powers, in which all shall meet to
gether on terms of absolute equality ; a conference in which
there «an be no attempt to coerce a single Delegate against
his own conception of the interests of his nation ; a conference

612 Life of James G. Blaine.
which will permit no secret understanding on any subject,
but will frankly publish to the world all its conclusions ; .a
conference which will tolerate no spirit of conquest, hut will
aim to cultivate an American sympathy as broad as both
continents ; a conference which will form no selfish alliance
against the older nations from which we are proud to claim
inheritance — a conference, in fine, which will seek nothing,
propose nothing, endure nothing that is not, in the general
sense of all the Delegates, timely and wise and peaceful.
" And yet we cannot be expected to forget that our common
fate has made up inhabitants of the two continents which, at
the close of four centuries, are still regarded beyond the seas
as the New World. Like situations beget like sympathies
and impose like duties. We meet in firm belief that the
nations of America ought to be and can be more helpful,
each to the other, than they now are, and- that each will find
advantages and profit from an enlarged intercourse with the
others. " We believe that we should be drawn together more closely
by the highways of the seas, and that at no distant day the
railway systems of the North and South will meet upon the
isthmus and connect by land routes the political and com
mercial capitals of all America.
"We believe that hearty co-operation, based on hearty con
fidence, will save all American States from the burdens and
evils which have Jong and cruelly afflicted the older nations
of the world.
¦',' We believe that a spirit of justice, of common and equal
interest between the American States will leave no room for
an artificial balance of power like unto that which has led to.
wars abroad and drenched Europe in blood.
"We believe that friendship, avowed with candor and
maintained with good faith, will remove from American
States the necessity of guarding boundary lines between
themselves with fortifications and military force.
" We believe that standing armies, beyond those which are

Pan-American Conference. 613
needful for public order and the safety of internal adminis
tration, should be unknown on both the American continents.
" We believe that friendship and not force, the spirit of just
law and not the violence of the mob, should be the recog
nized rule of administration between American nations and
in American nations.
" To these subjects, and those which are cognate thereto, the
attention of this Conference is earnestly and cordially invited
by the Government of the United States. It will be a great
gain when we shall acquire that common confidence on which
all international friendship must rest. It will be a greater
gain when we shall be able to draw the people of all Ameri
can nations into close acquaintance with each other, an end
to be facilitated by more frequent and more rapid intercom
munication. It will be the greatest gain when the personal
and commercial relations of the American States, south and
north, shall !be so developed and so regulated that each shall
•acquire the highest possible advantage from the enlightened
and enlarged intercourse of all.
" Before the Conference shall formally enter upon the dis
cussion of the subjects to be submitted to it I am instructed
by the President to invite all the Delegates to be the guests
of the Government during a proposed visit to various
sections of the country, with the double view of showing to
our friends from abroad the condition of the United States,
and of giving to our people in their homes the privilege and
pleasure of extending the warm welcome of Americans to
Americans." The work of this Conference was most important
in its after results. The delegates after their meeting
at Washington were taken about the country under
the supervision of. Mr. W. E. Curtis, who repre
sented, the State Department. The delegates were

614 Life of James G. Blaine.
entertained by the leading chariibers of commerce in
the country.
One of the immediate results was the establishment
of the Bureau of South American Republics in the
State Department for the purpose of disseminating
information concerning these countries. Another
was the development of the project for the Pan-
American railroad, which is to complete a ehain of
railroads between this country and all the countries
of South America. The preliminary surveys of this
Continental railroad are nearly completed, and it is
believed that the future will see the early building
of the road. The united aid of the Governments of
the countries interested will be enough to make such
building certain.

CHAPTER XXXII.
MR. BLAINE'S FAILING HEALTH. — HIS RELATIONS
WITH THE PRESIDENT.  REASONS FOR HIS RETIRE
MENT FROM THE CABINET.  HIS PART IN THE
CAMPAIGN OF 1888. — HIS MANY DOMESTIC SOR
ROWS. — HIS DEATH AND FUNERAL.
Mr. Blaine's general break-down of health and
final death were undoubtedly hastened by a series of
domestic misfortunes. He was extremely devoted to
his family. On the 15th of January, 1890, his oldest
son, Walker Blaine, a brilliant and' highly accom
plished man, upon whom he relied implicitly for aid
in all of his diplomatic work, died suddenly from an
attack of pneumonia. The suddenness of his death,
which came after only a few days' illness, came like
a crushing blow upon the Secretary. Within a
month his oldest daughter Alice, the wife of Colonel
Coppinger of the army, died. A few weeks later
Mr. Blaine had an attack of what afterward proved
to be paralysis. He fell down at the State Depart
ment, and for a short time was unconscious. He
recovered sufficiently to- walk, with the aid of an
assistant, to his carriage, but the doctors advised him
.615

616 Life of James G. Blaine.
to at once give up his work at the State Depart*
ment. The most agreeable and brilliant year of his public
life was the first one of the Harrison administration.
In this year he saw the meeting of the Pan-American
Conference, and saw fully developed the policy of
peace and of commercial unity which he had sought
to accomplish under the Garfield administration.
He witnessed also the successful accomplishment of
legislation to carry out this policy. Mr. Blaine pro
tested before two committees of Congress against the
McKinley Bill. He held that this measure was
faulty, and one that would not be approved by the
public. He had always been a friend ofthe protective
system, but he knew that any proposition to increase
the duties during a time of peace would result only
in injury to the system. He held that it would have
been a very simple matter to have retained all of '•. the
essential features of the protective system and yet
have made a general modification of the tariff duties.
Then the party could have gone to the country with
taxes reduced, and would, in his judgment, have been
invincible. The reciprocity measure which he had
proposed was in mitigation of what he deemed the
bad features of the new tariff measure.
His absence from the State Department during
the summer of 1891 left the matter in the hands of

His Death and Funeral. 617
the President. Mr. Blaine was able from his Maine
home, through letters to the public, to contribute in
a very marked degree to the final success of this
measure. Mr. Blaine returned to Washington in the
fall and resumed his State Department work. The
Chilian affair had occurred during the early fall of
that year, before Mr. Blaine's return to Washington.
The President had committed the Department to a
very positive policy. Mr. Blaine did not apparently
realize the importance Of the situation, and thought
that the President had been too extreme. This was
the first marked indication that Mr. Blaine no longer
had the same appreciation of public questions as be
fore his last illness. He yielded, however, to the
President's judgment in the matter and prepared the
dispatches which were finally sent. This was really
his last important public work.
In February of 1892 he wrote a letter to the Chair
man of the National Republican Committee an
nouncing that he would not be a candidate for the
Republican nomination for the Presidency, before
the Convention which was to be held during the next
summer. The writing of this letter was deemed ab
solutely essential for the reason that the demand
throughout the country for his becoming a candidate
was again almost universal in the Republican ranks.
The fact that he was physically not able to take part

618 Life of James G.Blaine.
in any canvass, and that he was then fighting against
the rapid encroachments of a mortal malady had been
kept from the public. Mr. Blaine was very sensi
tive upon the subject of his health. Even after this
letter was written his enemies charged that it was not
written in good faith, and that he was using his place
in the Cabinet to intrigue for the Presidential nomi
nation. These suggestions disturbed in no way the,
relation between the President and Mr. Blaine until
a very short time before the Convention met, Then.
there occurred a point of friction between them of a
personal character and having no relation to politics,
for which neither the President nor Mr. Blaine was
to blame.
This led to Mr. Blaine's going away from Wash
ington to New York for a short visit.. While there
all of the Republican wire-pullers who were seeking1 -
to defeat Mr. Harrison for renomination gathered
about Mr. Blaine and sought permission to use his
name as a candidate. Certain influences about him
led these politicians to believe that Mr. Blaine would
not refuse their request. His health had now made
him nervous and irritable. He was not in a normal
Condition. He did not absolutely say " no " to them,
and when he came to return to Washington after the .
New York visit he found the papers filled with;
stories of his treachery to jthe President, who was a

His Death and Funeral. 619
candidate, and he was led to believe that the Presi
dent had countenanced some of these publications.
With the nervous irritability of a sick man who
wishes to escape from a disagreeable subject he wrote
on the Saturday preceding the Convention his ill-
timed resignation from the Cabinet. It was said at
tlie time that the President had taken pains to show
to Mr. Blaine after his return from New York that
he was displeased with him, and had discredited him
and his authority' before a meeting of the "High
Commissioners from Canada who had come to. Wash
ington for the purpose of negotiating a commercial
treaty. This report had no foundation. The Presi
dent treated Mr. Blaine from first to last with marked
courtesy, and at no time during their official inter
course was there one word of unkindness exchanged.
Mr. Harrison appreciated thoroughly Mr. Blaine's
abilities, and understood the changes which were
produced by his failing health. No one could have
been more patient or could have expressed more
sincere sympathy than did the President when Mr.
Blaine was suffering from his domestic sorrows.
Mr. Blaine's name was used before the Minne
apolis Convention without any real authority and to
the sorrow of his best friends. Mr. Harrison was
renominated after a strong fight, and Mr. Blaine him-
¦self congratulated him and so far as his strength per-

6!&0 Life of James G. Blame.
mitted exercised his influence to secure his election.
His illness throughout the summer and fall of 1892
increased his feebleness. Mr. Emmons Blaiiie, who
was at Minneapolis during the Convention, and who
wished to see his father nominated, through over
work and fatigue caught a severe cold. He died
within a week after the adjournment of the Conven
tion. This death was as unexpected as was that of
Mr. Walker Blaine. Mr. Blaine was at Bar Har
bor at the time of the death. It was the climax of
numerous misfortunes.
Mr. Blaine returned to Washington late in the fall
of 1892, after Mr. Cleveland's election. He soon
called upon the President, and if there had been any
real difference between the two gentleman it was
then cleared away. Mr. and Mrs. Blaine attended
the funeral of Mrs. Harrison at the White House a
short time after. He was now very feeble. He had
intended to spend the winter in California. But
a cold taken in the month of December confined him
to his bed, and from the first- the doctors gave no
hope of his recovery. He gradually grew weaker
and weaker and suffered from continued derange
ment of the action of the heart. He died quietly at
eleven o'clock the morning of the 27th of January,
1893, at his Washington home. There were present
with him at his death, Mrs. Blaine, Miss Harriet

His Death and Funeral. 621
Blaine, James G. Blaine, Jr., Mrs. Walter Damrosch,
and Mrs. Blaine's cousin Miss Dodge (Gail Hamil7
ton). President Harrison was the first to be notified
of his death.
The President, upon the reception of the news of
Mr. Blaine's death, hastened at once to the house to
pay a visit of condolence. Upon his return to the
White House he issued the following proclamation
to the country announcing Mr. Blaine's death :

J .

" Executive Mansion,
Washington, January 27th.
" It is my painful duty to announce to the people of the
United States the death of James Gillespie Blaine, which oc
curred in this city to-day at eleven o'clock.
" For a full generation this eminent citizen has occupied a
conspicuous and influential position in the Nation. His first
public ..service was in the Legislature of his State. After
ward, for fourteen years he was a member of the National
House of Representatives, and was three times chosen its
Speaker. " In 1876 he was elected to the Senate. He resigned his
seat in that body in 1881 to accept the position of Secretary
of State in the Cabinet of President Garfield. After the
tragic death of his chief he resigned from the Cabinet, and,
devoting himself to literary work, gave to the public, in his
Twenty Years in Congress, a most valuable and enduring con
tribution to our political literature. In March, 1889, he
again became Secretary of State, and continued to exercise
this office until June, 1892.
" His devotion to the public interests, his marked ability,
and his exalted patriotism have won for him the gratitude

622 Life of James G. Blaine.
and affection of his countrymen and the admiration of the
world. In the various pursuits of legislation, diplomacy,
and literature his genius has added new lustre to American
citizenship. " Aa a suitable expression of the national appreciation of
his great public services and of the general- sorrow caused by
his death, I direct that on the day of his funeral all the de- >'
partments of the Executive branch of the Government at -
Washington be closed, and that on all public buildings
throughout the United States the National flag shall be
displayed at half staff, and that for a period of thirty days
the Department of State be draped in mourning.
" By the President : " Benjamin Harrison.
" John W. Poster,
" Secretary of State."
The city had been prepared for Mr. Blaine's
death by his prolonged illness. There had been
crowds of watchers about the house on Lafayette
Square for weeks. The demonstration Of grief
throughout the country could not have been greater
if Mr. Blaine had been President. The members
of the diplomatic colony at Washington were , espe
cially affected. All during the day following Mr.
Blaine's death there was a long procession of official
callers who came to leave messages of condolence.
Telegraph messages came from all parts of the
world. The expressions of sympathy were univer-.
sal. Within a few hours following Mr. Blaine's death

His Death and Funeral. 623
the physicians, who had been forbidden up to that
time to speak of the character of his malady, were
given permission to make a statement to the public.
Their declaration concerning his illness and the
causes which led to his. death was as follows: >
" The beginning of Mr. Blaine's illness dates back some
years. The earliest signs of ill-health were associated with,
and no doubt due to, a gouty tendency which manifested
iteelf in subacute attacks of gout, disturbances of digestion,
and progressive innutrition and anaemia. Subsequent events
prove that at this time changes were going on in the arteries
of the body, which resulted later in symptoms of obliteration
of vessels and in chronic disease of the kidneys. The attack
of the paralysis in 1887 was connected with similar altera-'
tions of the blood-vessels ofthe brain.
" During the summer of 1892 the evidences of failing
health were more decided, and in November, after his return
to Washington, his symptoms suddenly assumed an aggra
vated form. From this time, although there were periods of
apparent improvement, he continued to grow worse from
week to week. The symptoms were at first more directly
connected with the kidneys, and examinations of the urine
shows that there was a progressive interstitial change going
on in that organ, and that he had a form of chronic Bright's
disease. In December, signs of lung complication appeared;
which were no doubt connected with the general disease, but
as tubercle . bacilli were found in the sputa, it is probable
that there was some tubercular infection as well. Much of
the distress which Mr. Blaine suffered was associated with
this disease of the lungs, and his death was certainly hastened
by it.
" Toward the end of December the heart began to show
signs of unusual weakness from cardiac degeneration and
dilatation, and on December 18th he had an alarming attack

624 Life of James G. Blaine.
of heart exhaustion. From this he rallied, but others of the
same nature occurred on several occasions. From the mid
dle of January these attacks ceased, and the action of the
heart was more uniformly good. There was, however, a
dfjily loss of flesh and strength.
" For three days before Mr. Blaine's death there was no
marked change in his condition ; each day he seemed some
what more feeble than on the day before, and on the night
before his death he did not seem to be in any immediate
danger. Toward the morning of the 27th inst. his pulse was
observed to be very feeble and his breathing more embar
rassed. As a result of the failing heart action oedema of the
lungs occurred, and he died without much suffering at eleven
o'clock. " During the whole of Mr. Blaine's illness the -digestion was
well performed, and liquid food (chiefly milk) was taken in
full quantities. His mind was generally clear, .except when
clouded by uraemia and disturbed brain circulation, and al
though unable to express himself in words, he recognized
ah the members of his family up to within a few moments
• of his death.
" Doctors Janeway and Loomis, of New York, were called
in consultation, and rendered important services by their
advice.
" William W. Johnston, M. D„
" France Hyatt, M. D."
According to the wishes of Mrs. Blaine, the funeral
was a private one. The funeral took place on the
Monday of January 30th, within one day of Mr.
Blaine's sixty-third birthday. The funeral cere
monies were conducted in the Church of the Cove
nant, the Presbyterian Church that Mr. Blaine at
tended. The Rev. Dr. Hamlin officiated. He was

His Death and Funeral. 625
buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, at Washington,
near the graves of his son, Walker, and his daugh
ter, Alice. He died a member of the Church with
which he had been connected all his life, although
his regard for the Church of his mother was marked.
This was shown by his receiving a few weeks" be
fore his death Cardinal Gibbons in his sick-room,
where only his most intimate friends and members of
the family had been permitted to come.
The funeral, although private in character, was
official in appearance. The President, the entire
Cabinet, all ofthe great officials of the Government,
and the leading diplomats crowded into the church
to pay a tribute of respect to the 'memory of Mr.
Blaine

CHAPTER XXXIII.
SUMMARY OF MR. BLAINE'S CAREER. — HIS PLACE IN
HISTORY.
Mr. Blaine in his life reached an eminence which
would not have been surpassed if he had been elected
to the high office of President of the United States.
He earned the right to be classed with the greatest
of the statesmen of the country. He lived long
enough to gain even the esteem and respect of his
enemies, and no "man has ever had more prejudiced
opponents than he.
He reached a popularity as great as that of Henry
Clay, and in the record of results achieved he even
surpassed him.
Mr. Blaine was always original and a leading force
in every work in life to which his talent and genius
guided him. It can be said of him that he was al
ways interesting and what he did constantly challenged
attention. Because of his originality and his readi
ness to depart from established precedents he won
early the reputation of being brilliant. The bril
liant, man, in the estimation of people who are not
original, is, to use the mildest phrase, unsafe. Dull-
626

His Place in History. 627
ness is often translated safe. Mr. Blaine's brilliancy
consisted largely in his possessing a Clear mind and
great ability to work joined to a high ambition. He
had also great self-reliance, and as he matured there
came to him the breadth of view which alone can
class a public man as a statesman.
It will be observed that from his first entry into
public life he had a model before him for high achieve
ment. He did not think it beneath him to study
the career of the statesman whose character was most
in sympathy with his. For Mr. Clay Mr. Blaine
always retained the admiration of his youth. If
anything this regard deepened as he grew older.
He had the wholesome quality of admiring some one
beside himself, an unusual trait among striving poli
ticians. He never reached the critical stage where
he lacked belief in men. To the last he retained his
ability to admire and to become enthusiastic.
When in public life his brilliancy was always
tempered by a judgment of singular clearness, won
derfully free from prejudice. After long years of
public service ' the public began to learn that
.this statesman who had so often carried origi
nality to the verge of daring possessed one of the
most conservative minds in the country.
In his anxiety to hold high the standard of
American citizenship his life will warrant patriotic

628 Life of James G. Blaine.
study. His observations upon the dangers of the
Southern political element in our country may give
some future student the material to make as great a
name and fame as he did in seeking to continue the
work begun by Henry Clay. The unjust share of
political power held by the South led to one civil
war and the threatened ruin of the country. So
long as this injustice stands, Mr. Blaine believed re
publican institutions in this country were not secure.
In the development of his South American policy he
showed himself a publicist of imperial rank. He
aimed at the domination of this country over* the
entire Continent. But it was not as a murderous
conqueror that he sought conquest. It was by the
peaceful means of commercial treaties, by the friendly
settlement of disputes and arbitration that Mr. Blaine
sought to establish the domination of this country in
the New World. It was to establish the domination
of Right in the place of Might. It was to give this
country a superior position only through its deserv
ing it through superior conduct in its relations with
its sister Republics. It was a policy that will aid
the weakest of the nations,, and which, carried out as
it was begun, must soon abolish the revolutions and
consequent disturbances in the countries south
of us.
His ambition aimed to save lives needlessly wasted

His Place in History. 629
in foolish internecine wars, and to give prosperity to
countries where uncertainty and 'disorder have
checked progress" and development. It was a policy
in accord with the future fraternity of nations to
which the highest statesmanship should be directed.
It was in this larger plan of Mr. Blaine's that he
hoped to find a new solution of the Southern ques
tion. To build up the South and increase its pros
perity would soon have introduced such a wide variety
of material interests that these new influences would
have soon been at work to counteract the rule-or-ruin
policy of_ political autocrats, who, while building a
system of power for themselves, have retarded the
progress of their section, until it has lost step with
modern civilization, and lags behind the other por~
tions of the country.
These noble and high-minded aspirations of Mr.
Blaine made up the essential creed of his politics.
He always worked by party methods to accomplish de
sired results. He believed he could do more moving
with the party as a whole, acting in loyalty with it,
than by taking an outside position of a mafcontent in
any impotent minority, puffing himself up with the
vanity of an inflated self-esteem. To be a parlia
mentary or a party leader one has to be a partisan,
a party man. He contented himself as a practical
man in doing what he could within party lines.

630 , Life of James G. Blaine.
He wasted no time in spinning idle theories, im
possible to carry out.
His capacity to impress men came from the sin
cerity of his convictions. It can be declared as a po
litical axiom that no leader can impart conviction
and enthusiasm unless he has himself sincerity and
the fervor of actual belief upon his own part. There
is no other explanation of the passionate devotion,
enthusiasm, and loyalty of Mr. Blaine's friends, than
the fact that he himself possgssed the same quali
ties for the cause advocated by him.
It falls to the lot of every one to make mistakes.
The life of every man, when measured at its close as
to the result of actual achievement, in relation to
what he sought to accomplish is at best small.
Mr. Blaine's life, though clouded through its latter
years by deep sorrows and many bitter disappoint
ments, yet left behind in its record of statesmanship,
in its step upward'toward the higher civilization of
peace on earth and good-will toward men, a name
that will be imperishable in our., history.

THE END.

APPENDIX.
MR. BLAINE'S RECIPROCITY POLICY.
The most important result of the Pan-American Conference
Was in educating the public mind so that the reciprocity policy
was made earlier possible. This already secured increase of
our South American trade is one of the most notable achieve
ments of Mr. Blaine's career. Its successful accomplishment
within so short a time indicates his force and talent as a
leader, and entitles him to rank the equal of any statesman
of modern times.
At the time of his death this policy had included success
ful treaties with Spain for Cuba and Porto Rico, with the
United States of Brazil, with Guatemala, with Salvador, the
Republic of Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.
¦ The President of the United States, upon the 19th of June,
1890, sent a brief but most important message to the Con
gress of the United States; transmitting papers prepared in
the Department of State by Mr. Blaine, outlining the great
possibilities to be secured to this country through the develop
ment of a reciprocity policy with the countries of Latin
America. In this brief message the President called attention
to the fact that of the products sent to us from these countries
eighty-seven per cent, of them paid no duty. Ofthe remain
ing thirteen per cent, of articles taxed it was proposed at the
time of the transmission of this message to Congress to re
move, the tax on sugar. This would have practically made
all imports from the Southern countries free, and without
the slightest corresponding advantage to us. In the majority
of the countries to the south the tariffs upon articles pro
duced or grown in this country are so great as to be almost
631

632 Life of James G. Blaine:
prohibitive. The tax collected upon sugar had now reached
the. sum* of $58,000,000 annually. It was argued at the time
that if this tax were given up without any concession from
the sugar-producing countries that we would thus foolishly
give up a large sum of money withouUreceiving anything in
the form of an equivalent. More than this, it was believed
by many that the reduction of the sugar tax would result in
no advantage to the consumer, and would in the end be
nothing but a present to the manufacturers represented m
the sugar trust. Cuba, which had produced for years the
bulk of the sugar admitted to this country, had her ports
"closed against us by a rigorous Spanish tariff, so that the sup
plies which we should have been sending to her in return for
sugar were being furnished by other nations. That Con
gress should for a moment have considered the feasibility of
giving up this enormous advantage of the sugar tax without
attempting to obtain some return is one of the wonders of
modern legislation.
Had it not been for the active energy of Mr. Blaine, for his
vigorous personal ¦ assertion of the importance of this ques
tion, for his personal appeals to the committees of Congress,
and finally through appeals directly to the public, Congress
would have refused to listen to the words of common sense,
and would have persisted in the folly of giving something
for nothing, with the hope that good might result from such
a policy .-
In order to comprehend fully the situation, and to under
stand the possibilities of the future of this policy, it is neces
sary to go back over the century and to examine carefully
the march of progress in the two sections of the North and
South on this continent. These countries have apparently
proceeded upon parallel lines with a barrier between Inti
macy and prosperous commerce. , To illustrate the small
share we have had in the great trade to the .south of us, it is
necessary to take only the figures of one year, such as 1888.
In that year the united imports of Chile and the Argentine

Reciprocity Policy, 633
Republic reached the sum of $233,127,698. This represents
money paid out for articles of foreign production. Nearly
all of the articles of this class are produced in this country,
and could have been furnished by us if we had had favorable
trade relations with the two countries. As it actually was,
we furnished only $13,000,000 out of the great sum of im
ports of these two countries alone.
Two other years taken as an illustration are enough to in
dicate clearly our meagre share in the great trade 1o the south
of us. In 1868 we exported to the foreign markets products
to the amount of $375,737,000. Of this amount only, four
teen per cent, went to the south. In 1888 our exports, had
increased over a hundred per cent.., and yet only nine-per
cent, went to the south.
In South America there are to-day forty millions of people,
and the problem of modern statesmanship, as outlined in
the reciprocity policy, is to establish such relations as will
enable us to furnish to these forty millions tbe bulk of the
articles which -they have for so many years sought in Euro/-
pean markets.
It was the dream of Henry Clay to establish intimate
relations with the people of the Southern Republics. It was
a subject upon which he used to wax eloquent. He was the
first statesman produced in this country who had the com
prehension of home affairs and the breadth of view in the
afield of foreign statesmanship necessary to enable him to
understand the possibilities in the "development of intimate
trade relations between the Republics on this continent. Mr.
Clay was a protectionist out and out, and one of the strongest
advocates in Congress of this system. His policy toward the
south was then known as the American system. It was the
beginning of the reciprocity policy of to-day. At various
times individual members have taken up Mr. Clay's ideas,
and have attempted to embody them in legislation. But
none of them have ever succeeded. The adoption by Con
gress of this reciprocity policy, through the masterly cam-

634 Life of James G. Blaine.
paign begun and carried out by Mr. Blaine, is the first direct
practical result of the ideas originally propounded by Henry
Clay. In a speech made by Mr.- Clay in Congress on the 10th
of May, 1820, he gave a picture at that time which is a very
fair miniature of the present situation. Mr. Clay bad always
been a friend of the South American countries. He was an
advocate in 1818 of the policy of recognizing the South
American Republics without delay, as soon as they threw off
the yoke ot Spanish domination. In his advocacy of a
mission to South America he dwelt upon the importance of
the commerce of that section, and said : " What would I give
could we appreciate the advantages which may be realized
by pursuing the course which I propose ! It is in our power
to create a system of which we shall be the centre and in
which all South America will act with us. In respeet to
commerce we shall be most benefited. This country will be
come the place of deposit of the commerce of the world.
Our citizens engaged in foreign trade at present are disheart
ened by the condition of 'that trade. They must take new
channels for it, and none so advantageous could be found as
those which a trade with South America could afford."
At the time that Mr. Clay spoke the population of South
America was estimated at eighteen million. The United
States had at that time a population of ten millions. Mr.
Clay predicted that within fifty years the population to the
south might reach seventy millions, while he thought it not
unreasonable to hope that the population of the United
States might reach forty millions. This prediction shows that
Mr. Clay had an exaggerated idea of the rapidity of the pos
sible growth of the south, while his estimate of the popula
tion of the United States was very nearly a correct one for
the period named by him, 1870.
It is hardly worth while to go through the history of all
the attempts that have been made in this direction, because
without exception they have failed, and until the adoption
ofthe reciprocity policy outlined by Mr. Blaine Congress has

Reciprocity Policy. 635
never done anything which would permit the Government to
increase in any way the trade possibilities with the south.
As has been shown by the figures, our exports of late years
in that direction have steadily declined. This has been
owing to -the aggressions of foreign countries ; to their policy
of extending by every possible means their trade with South
America, so that it would have been a very short time when
not a dollar's worth of our imports would have gone to the
south. The narrowing of our foreign market should have.
opened the eyes of some of the legislators of modern times.
But they have- been too busy studying local issues to look \>e-
yond the range of what was near at hand, and the result has,
been that to Mr. Blaine alone should be given the credit for
inaugurating, in the first place, the .-policy, while too much
-credit cannot be given to the President .for his cordial and
hearty support to the policy so clearly begun and so forcibly
carried out by bis former Secretary of State. >
Congress had permitted the old policy to go on for many
years, had stubbornly refused to make any changes, and had
it not been for the storm of public opinion represented by
protests of chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and like
associations, would have refused to change this policy of
giving something for nothing. This storm of protest was
awakened by the explanations of Mr. Blaine. It was a very
daring act upon his part to come to the front as he did. The
majority of the members of both parties were against him in
the matter. This fact can only be explained upon the theory
that the majority of members of Congress are lawyers, and
have no real practical knowledge of business affairs. The
popularity of the reciprocity policy throughout the country
without regard to party is owing to the fact that it is based
upon plain common-sense business principles.
When Mr.. Blaine was the second time called to the De
partment of State he took up once more his task of uniting
the Republics on this Continent in intimate, political and
commercial relations. It is really wonderful the results that

636 Life of James G. Blaine.
/have been accomplished by him in so short a time. ' Ordi
narily the trade channels of the world are very conservative
and are diverted with great difficulty. . In the channels of .
legislation there is the same conservatism. Every one shrinks
from anything new. Originality is always met by the criti
cisms and the opposition of the timid and the jealous. The
first step taken by Mr. Blaine in the direction of developing
this policy was met by the usual talk of idle men who did
not comprehend the results that might be accomplished.
The Pan-American Conference reported against a customs
union. It was declared that any customs union would in
volve too much of a breaking down of the tariff systems of
the various countries, and that the formation of any customs
union would lead to such complications as to be practically
impossible. They, however, recommended a policy of reci
procity, or, in other word's, the admission to our ports of
.certain articles from countries which admitted into; their
ports~ in return our products. There was to be always a
business basis for concessions pffered and given. The adop
tion of a customs union pure and simple would have meant
the practical abolishment of the protection policy in many
countries where it has firmly taken root, and would, there
fore, have secured its rejection in the United States. The
conference thought that reciprocity could not only be accom
plished in a moderate .and partial way, at the beginning. It
said in its report : " The first and most efficient step in that
direction is the negotiation of partial reciprocity treaties
among the American nations, whereby each may agree to
remove or diminish their respC +ive import duties on some
of the natural or manufactured products of one or more of
the other nations for similar and equivalent advantages. As,
if the mutual concessions were not equivalent, the treaties
would soon become odious, and could not last but a limited
time, and would discredit the. system."
All of these facts were clearly presented by the conference.
The delegates from the various countries showed the"he"arti-

^Reciprocity Policy. 637
est 'desire to co-operate with this country in the direction of
reciprocal trade. The delegates from Chile and the Argentine
Republic .alone stood out, and that was because Congress,'
pending these very negotiations, sought to lay a heavy duty
upon two articles of production of these two countries — viz.,
hides and the cheap low grade of wools used in the United
States only for the manufacture of the cheapest of our car
pets, and coming* in competition in no way with our higher-
grade wools. This was a fair illustration of the spirit of
Congress. It does not appear to have arisen from any oppo
sition to the idea of extending our trade relations with the
south, but rather on account of a lack of comprehension of
the possibilities involved and a carelessness in not avoiding
what would offend or drive off friends in the Pan-American,
Conference. • .
-. As a further illustration ofthe lack of comprehensionin Con
gress of the necessities of the time, the party leaders prepared
a tariff bill which increased taxes. The country for some time
had been suffering from hard times. In the West the crops
had been poor, and the prices of agricultural products had
been very much reduced. Owing to the monetary stringency in
London this country was becoming financially embarrassed.
This embarrassment almost led to a panic later in the fall,
after Congress had done its work. None of the leaders dur
ing that summer read carefully the signs of the times. In
this Tariff Bill to increase taxes the ¦ Republican leaders
aimed simply to produce the appearance of reducing reve
nues. There had been much talk about a surplus in the
Treasury, and the consequent necessity- of reducing tariff
taxes. It had been Urged in the opposition press that the
Government was collecting more money than was needed
and that the burdens of taxation, therefore, should be light
ened. Mr. McKinley, the originator of the Tariff Bill, in
spite of this went to work to increase taxes, and then sought
to accomplish a reduction of the result by throwing off en
tirely the taxes on sugar. This proposition would have at

638 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
once put an end to the possibility of continuing Mr. Blaine's
project. With one sweep the last advantage that we had
would have been given away. Upon "what basis could we
have stood to make a demand for the admission of our pro
ducts in South American countries, after we had given away
everything that we had to give, with our ports open to the
sugar and to all of the productions of the south ? To further
intensify the situation, Spain had at this very time adopted
regulations which practically shut out our flour from Cuba.
This was a great blow to the milling trade, and yet protests
and appeals made to Congress by Mr. Blaine availed nothing. -
He appeared before the Ways and Means Committee of the
House and made a speech, but they listened to him with
glazed eyes and deaf ears. Doubtless they said to themselves,
" This is a policy which Mr. Blaine wishes to be carried out
to advance his own personal fortunes." Such is the personal,
jealousy and rivalry of modern politics that Mr. Blaine could
not find in the House a single man to come forward and, ad
vocate this plain proposition of common sense. In their
mad haste to give something away for nothing they refused •
to listen to him, and insisted on abolishing the tax on sugar
before demanding any concessions upon the part of the sugar-
producing countries. This haste to give away $58,000,000
of revenue for nothing, under the plea of making sugar
cheap for the people is such an extraordinary proposition
that it could not bear the light of public exposure.
But before going to the public Mr. Blaine made an appeal
to the Senate Appropriation Committee. There he said that
if sUgar was placed upon the free list in advance of any
treaties the whole results of the international conference,
would be sacrificed. He even went farther, in saying that it
would be the most inexcusable piece of folly the Republican
party was ever guilty of, and that it would realize the results
of its folly within a very short time. He also said that he
wished that he could have two hours upon the floor of the
Senate when the sugar schedule of the Tariff Act was up

Reciprocity Policy. 639

for consideration. " Forty miUions of people," said he,
" have expressed a willingness through their delegates to
take our food products free, and the compensation for such
a great concession," Mr. Blaine added, " you are about to
throw away." " While he received more respectful attention
upon the Senate side, and had the individual support of
such Senators as Aldrich, Sherman, and Hale, he yet could
not secure the adoption of any amendment to the Tariff Bill
until he made an appeal to the country. This appeal which
he made was in the form of two letters written to Senator
Frye. In these Mr. Blaine briefly summarized the situation.
He called attention to the fact that we were about to do
what we had done in the case of taking off the tax on coffee-
There we lost a great sum without receiving anything in
return. Since the duty of coffee was repealed in 1872 we
have sold to Brazil $156,135,000, while we have received from
her $821,806,000. The difference, $665,671,000, he said, had
.been paid but to Brazil in gold, and had been expended by
her' in the markets of Europe.' Had we at that time insisted
upon some concession in return for the repeal of the tax
upon coffee, then this large sum of six' hundred odd millions
would not have been lost to this country, and our market
would have been the gainer. Mr. Blaine asked Congress to
give the President authority to negotiate with the countries
which had previously expressed their willingness to nego
tiate for certain trade concessions; for the advantages we had
proposed to throw away. He showed that Spain would be
obliged to make a reciprocity treaty. The mere putting the
tax upon sugar in Cuba and leaving it off in the other
South American countries would absolutely ruin Cuba and
throw it into our hands. In other words, we were the master
of the trade situation to a great extent, and nothing but the
most stupendous folly could by any possibility deprive us of
this power. The proposition to give away sugar would have
been an end to our position,, and the end to all possible' in-
n^aaan <vf 4»it» +ra/4«j i« +K<» direction of the south.

640 Life of James G. Blaine.
The mere statement, as presented by Mr. Blaine, was suffi
cient to produce a storm of public opinion throughout the
country ; this, too, without any regard for party. This storm
of public opinion produced a great impression, and forced
Congress to accept the offer of compromise submitted by the
President. Of this there is no doubt. Congress had stub
bornly refused, up to the time that Mr. Blaine made the ap
peal to the public, to take any action. If the tariff bill had
passed without this feature the Republican party would have
been left without anything to stand upon. The opposition
could have shown that it had willfully increased taxes, while
it had at the same time ruthlessly sacrificed the last oppor
tunity for extending our trade relations with the countries
with which we should naturally have close relations.
The House, when it had committed itself to taking off the
tax on sugar, would not listen to any proposition to restore
it. The argument of Mr. Blaine that he no longer had any
thing upon which he could treat produced no effect. Free
sugar for the workingman's breakfast table was a phrase
which closed the ears of members to Mr. Blaine s arguments.
The President is entitled to the full credit of coming to the
rescue of the reciprocity policy and saving it. When Mr.
Blaine was absent from Washington at Bar Harbor, having
practically given up for the time any hope of convincing the '
House, or overcoming the jealousy of the Republican leaders
there, the President summoned around him a council of lead
ing Republicans from both branches of Congress and submitted
a compromise which, afterward incorporated in the Aldrich
. amendment, was ratified in the conference committee between
the two Houses, and so became a law. This compromise
proposition gives the President authority to f e-impose the tax
taken off sugar, coffee, and hides with countries which de-'
cline to give us favorable conditions for our products. The
advantage of this situation is this : The President is given
this authority to treat without going to Congress for any fur
ther ratification of what he might do. It would have been

Reciprocity Policy. 641
unconstitutional to have given him power to remit a tax in
favor of a special country, but Congress had the full right to
repeal taxes subject to a certain condition ; and this condition
permitted the President to re-impose these customs taxes on
the products of countries which fail to admit our goods into
their ports under equally favorable conditions. It is this*
plan of the President which has made the reciprocity policy
prepared by Mr. Blaine possible and practical, if it had not .
been for this, with all the animosities and divergent interests
in Congress, it is almost certain that no commercial treaty
ratified with any of the Latin-American countries would have
received approval. The fact that similar treaties have been
rejected by the Senate is a proof of this. The Spanish treaty,
negotiated by Minister Foster, and which was rejected by the
Senate, could now be re-negotiated by the President under
the personal power given to him by Congress. It is a further
interesting fact that the Senate has not agreed to a single
commercial treaty since the Hawaiian negotiation was ap
proved some years ago.
At the same time that this policy was accepted by Congress
other recommendations were .made ; for it was a recognized
fact, that, whatever Congress might do, whether willingly
or otherwise, it was necessary to have much done in
order to place the United States on the, same footing
with the European nations when competing for the
trade of the south. It would not be enough to have
treaties admitting our articles of product under specially
favorable conditions. But it was highly important to
have such means of communication as would- enable the
trade, once established, to be swiftly and economically car
ried. To this end it was deemed necessary to encourage the
establishment of steamship lines, and to do that it would be
necessary to grant subsidies, as foreign nations have done
which seek to obtain" the trade of South America. France,
Germany, and England, the three great powers which are
struaaling for the trade of these southern countries, have

642 Lifa of James G. Blaine.
swift and effective merchant lines of steamers supported < by
generous subsidies. It was further proposed to connect the
United States with the south by a Pan-American railroad.
This road was to traverse the entire length of the South
American Continent like a backbone, with branches radiat
ing to the commercial capitals.
Yet Congress has stubbornly fought even this proposition
to establish swift communication for the carrying of the trade
to be developed under this new policy. The Shipping Bill
was practically defeated, and it was only in the last hours of
a recent Congress, in the face of fiercest fights, that a postal
subsidy was carried through.
The President, under the Act approved October 1st, 1890, -
section 3, has the right to exempt the following articles from
duty upon their importation into the United States of
America : Sugar, molasses, coffee, and hides. He has also
the right to leave the duty upon these articles when imported
from countries which refuse to make concessions of a trade
advantage. Under the treaty, in return for the admission free into this
country of sugars and molasses, coffee, and hides, Brazil agrees
to admit free into her ports the following productions of this
country: Wheat; wheat flour; corn or maize, and the manu
factures thereof, including corn-meal and starch ; rye, rye
flour, buckwheat, buckwheat flour, and barley; potatoes,
beans, and peas; hay and oats; pork, salted, including
pickled pork and bacon, except hams ; fish, salted, dried, or
pickled ; cotton-seed oil ; coal, anthracite and bituminous ;
rosin, tar, pitch, and turpentine ; agricultural tools, imple
ments, and machinery ; mining and mechanical tools, im
plements, and machinery, including stationary and portable
engines, and all machinery for manufacturing and industrial
purposes, except sewing-machines; instruments and books
fpr the arts and sciences ; railway-construction material and
equipment. In addition to this concession Brazil makes a reduction of

Reciprocity Policy-. 643
twenty-five per cent, of the duty previously charged upon
the following articles : Lard, and substitutes therefor ; bacon,
hams ; butter and cheese ; canned and preserved meats, fish,
fruits, and vegetables ; manufactures of cotton, including
cotton clothing • manufactures of iron and steel, single
or mixed, not included in the foregoing free schedule ; leather
and manufactures thereof, except boots and shoes ; lumber,
timber, and the manufactures of wood, including cooperage,
furniture, wagons, carts, and carriages ; manufactures of
rubber. From a classified table furnished by Seiior Mendonca, the
Minister from Brazil to this country, it appears that the arti
cles admitted free of duty from this country into Brazil have
paid an average customs tax of $20,003,939.76.
Of these articles now admitted free there have been im
ported into Brazil annually to the amount of $20,000,000.
Of this amount the United States has furnished something
•over $3,000,000. Under the second class, upon which the
duty has been reduced twenty-five per cent., the average im
portations into Brazil have reached the sum of $38,631,242.70.
Of these articles the United States has furnished only a small
fraction of over $2,000,000. The two schedules taken together
represent an average of foreign importation into Brazil of
over $58,000,000. Of this amount the United States has
furnished only about $5,500,000. It will be seen at a glance
that, if this country has the advantage of sending these
articles into Brazil free of customs duty, they immediately
become formidable competitors for the remaining $53,000,000
of foreign purchase, aiid that with swift means of communi
cation it will be certain to obtain the whole of it. In return
for this we simply give what Congress was going to throw*
away, with the addition of the duty on molasses, coffee,
which are not produced in this country, and hides.
Up to the present time our four largest exports in the
direction of South America are breadstuffs, provisions, refined
petroleum, and lumber. Of these iviyo of the products repre-

/

644 Life of James G. Blaine.
sent agricultural industry, and none of them represent a pro
duct of manufacturers. Of these articles the following table
represents the total. exported by us in 1889, and the propor
tion sent to Latin America :. m  , _. t. „,,  , Exported TO
Total Exports. Lat_n America.
Breadstuflfe,  $123,876,423 $5,123,528 -
Provisions  . 104,122,328 2,507,375
Refined petroleum  44,830,424 2,948,149
Wood and lumber, ....... . 26,907,161 5,039.886
The detailed story of the trea'ty with Brazil illustrates the
nature and character of the treaties with the other countries
mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. It is now be
lieved that the near future will see our trade to the south
increased by the new treaties to the amount of one hundred
and fifty rnillons.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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