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Life of 
 
 James Q. Blaine 
 
 "The Plumed Knight" 
 
 EDITOR, REPRESENTATIVE, SPEAKER, SENATOR, CABINET 
 MINISTER, DIPLOMAT AND TRUE PATRIOT 
 
 A Graphic Record of His Whole 
 
 Illustrious Career, from the 
 
 Cradle to the Grave 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED , 
 
 BY WILLIS FLETCHER JpHNSON, A.M. 
 
 Author of "Life of Sherman," " Stanley and His Adventures, * 
 
 History of the Johnstown Flood," "Sitting Bull and the 
 
 Indian War," " My Country, Tis of Thee," Etc., Etc. 
 
 Copyright, A. R. Kellar, 1892 
 
 SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY 
 
 ATLANTIC PUBLISHING Co, 
 1893 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1893, 
 By D. B. SHEPP, 
 
 an of Congress, at Washington, D. C 
 
 rights reserved. 
 
 S 0. A. 
 
 / 
 
 PRESS OP 
 
 ALFRED M. SLOCUM Co. 
 PHILADA. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Bancroft, writing of the American Revolution, de 
 clares that its history is in the letters of the great men 
 who took part in it. More widely, it is also to be said 
 that the history of any era in any State is in the rec 
 ords, of words and of works, of the great men who fig 
 ured therein. The annals of olden times are largely 
 catalogues of battles. But the story of ancient battle 
 ignores the rank and file, and tells us of the individual 
 combats of the leaders. Of parliamentary battles in 
 later ages the same is true ; and the record of progress, 
 in science and literature and morals and invention, and 
 in all the arts of civilization, has each paragraph adorned 
 and vitalized with the rubricated name of some great 
 man or woman. 
 
 Thus also is it seen that the full history of any im 
 portant individual involves the history of the time 
 and State in which he lived. One could scarcely desire 
 a better history of the Revolution, than must be given 
 in an adequate biography of Washington. A life of 
 Luther is a comprehensive chronicle of the German Re 
 formation. The story of Lincoln is the story of negro 
 emancipation in America. 
 
 M111570 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the present instance it is not intended to attempt 
 a work of such a character. A complete history of any 
 man cannot be written in his own age, A full, impartial 
 and philosophic estimate of his worth, and of the extent 
 and importance and effectiveness of his work in the 
 world, can only be made when he has passed into a more 
 extended prospective than contemporary vision affords. 
 
 It is possible, however, in considerable measure, to 
 separate the individual from his environment, and to tell 
 the simple story of his personal doings. Especially 
 well may this be done in the case of such a forceful and 
 distinct personality at that of James G. Elaine. It will 
 be to paint a panorama, in which the central figure 
 stands forth conspicuously, outlined in bold relief, while 
 his comrades and all the landscape about them, are but 
 faintly sketched. 
 
 James G. Elaine was for many years the most eminent 
 man in American political life. In the National House 
 of Representatives he made an enviable record as a 
 painstaking committeeman, an eloquent orator, an un 
 surpassed debater, and a dignified, commanding and 
 impartial Speaker. In the Senate he easily ranked in 
 the foremost class. As Secretary of State he con 
 ducted the foreign affairs of the nation with a broad 
 and courageous and skillful statesmanship that has won 
 the admiration of the world. As a party leader and 
 Presidential candidate he enjoyed such loving, loyal and 
 enthusiastic following as is scarcely to be paralleled in 
 history. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 To trace the progress of such a career is a most grate 
 ful task to the historian, as it must be fruitful of 
 pleasure and of profit to the reader. It is to furnish a 
 text-book of American patriotism, a picture-book of many 
 of the most thrilling scenes of retent years, a story 
 book of narratives equally truthful and fascinating, 
 equally instructive and entertaining. Such is the task 
 that in these pages is essayed. However far it may fall 
 shorten execution, of the ideal, it is at least undertaken 
 with sincere devotion to the theme and with an earnest 
 purpose to reveal the subject with entire truthfulness 
 and with as much completeness as may be possible within 
 the compass of the present volume. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ANCESTRAL MEMORIES 
 
 The Scotch-Irish Settlers in Pennsylvania The Bkines A Friend of 
 Washington Important Services in the Revolution Country Gentle 
 men of the Old School Founding of the Economite Community 
 Ephraim L. Elaine and Maria Gillespie Their Home on Indian Hill 
 Farm, West Brownsville * 7 
 
 -CHAPTER II. 
 CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 
 
 The Influences of Heredity A Characteristic Incident of Childhood First 
 Studies at Home At School at Lancaster, Ohio Entering Washing 
 ton College The Roll of His Classmates His Leadership in College 
 Life His Rank as a Student Little Participation in Athletic Games 
 Incidents of Student Life An Original Demonstration The Pro 
 gramme of Commencement Day The Prophetic Subject of Hi* Com 
 mencement Oration. 3 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE TEACHER. 
 
 Flans for a Life of Teaching His First Engagement in Kentucky An 
 Entire Change of Environment Difficulties of Flis Position Leader 
 in a Free Fight His Courtship and Marriage I lis Contact with 
 Slavery and His Views Thereof Development of a Strong Anti- 
 Slavery Sentiment His Return to the North Studying Law and 
 Teaching the Blind His First Book Removal to the Pine Tree 
 State 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
 Political Condition of the Country The Slavery Question Dominant Mr. 
 Bl-aine s Removal to Augusta and Editorship There Samples of His 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Vigorous Writing His Share in the Organization of the Republican 
 party A Delegate to Its First National Convention His First Stump 
 Speech Advocacy of the Principles of the New Party Removal to 
 Portland Three Years of Service in the Maine Legislature 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 
 
 Some of His Colleagues in His First Term Relations with President 
 Lincoln Speeches on the Draft, the Enrolment, and Other Topics 
 Defence of the State of Maine Opposition to the Greenback Craze 
 Three Terms in the Speakership A Lively Controversy with General 
 Butler The Salary Grab Leader of the Minority A Strong Declara 
 tion of Political Principles Close of His Career as a Representative. . 101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 
 
 The Debate on the Proposal to Restore Jefferson Davis to Full Citizenship 
 Action of the Forty-third and F"orty-fourth Congresses A Powerful 
 Speech by Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia Mr. Elaine s Reply The 
 Incident that Gave Him the Title of "the Plumed Knight." .... 151 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 DEALING WITH SLANDER. 
 
 A Carnival of Scandal Hunting Newspaper Insinuations Charges in 
 Congress Mr. Elaine s Effective Reply Fresh Accusations The 
 Mulligan Letters Political Objects of the Investigations Mr. Elaine s 
 Recovery of the Letters His Production of Them in the House of 
 Representatives The Suppressed Despatch from Caldwell A 
 Dramatic Scene in the House Mr. Elaine s Triumphant Acquittal at 
 the Bar of Public Opinion. 174 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE SENATOR. 
 
 A Prominent Position Quickly Taken in the Upper Chamber Opposition 
 to the Electoral Commission and to the Southern Surrender Policy of 
 President Hayes Discussion of the Southern Elections Question 
 Opposition to the Bland Silver Bill Restriction of Chinese Immigra 
 tion Defeating a Democratic Conspiracy in Maine The Shipping 
 Interests of the Nation , 209 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 
 
 The Congressional Deadlock and Political Debate of May, 1879 The 
 Question of State Rights versus National Sovereignty at Issue Ad 
 dresses by Great Party Leaders Senator Eaton s Presentation of the 
 Democratic Side Mr. Elaine s Reply Full Text of His Masterly 
 Oration. 222 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1876 AND 1880. 
 
 Interest in the Political Contest of the Centennial Year The Rival Re 
 publican Candidates Mr. Elaine s Prostration Presentation of His 
 Name at the Cincinnati Convention Colonel Ingersoll s Speech 
 " The Plumed Knight" Nomination of Governor Hayes The Con 
 vention of 1880 The Third Term Question Steadfastness of the 
 Grant and Elaine Forces A Long Deadlock The Final Compromise 
 on Garfield 258 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 Appointment to the Chief Portfolio in the Garfield Cabinet Mr. Elaine s 
 Letter of Acceptance Salient Features of His Foreign Policy Con 
 troversy with England over the Neutrality of the Panama Canal 
 Death of Garfield and Accession of President Arthur The Invitation 
 to the American Republics to Hold a Peace Congress Object of 
 these Negotiations Mr. Elaine s Retirement from Office Abandon 
 ment of His Plans by His Successor Mr. Elaine s Vindication of His 
 Policy 283 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 The Eulogy on Garfield An Impressive Scene in the Hall of the House 
 of Representatives at Washington A Distinguished Audience in 
 Attendance Eminent Fitness of the Speaker to the Theme Memo 
 ries of Sixteen Years Eefore An Eloquent Review of the Career of 
 America s Second Martyr President The Full Text of the Oration. . 316 
 
CO v/v -\"fs. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 
 
 Mr. Blaine a Candidate for the Third Time Meeting of the Convention 
 The First Skirmish The Declaration of Principles The Various 
 Candidates Placed in Nomination Speech of Judge West in Behalf 
 of Mr. Blaine Scenes of Unparalleled Enthusiasm Steadfast Sup 
 port for President Arthur Mr. Blaine Nominated on the Fourth 
 Ballot Address of the Committee Informing Him of the Result 
 Mr. Elaine s Reply 365 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 The Opening of Mr. Elaine s Campaign A Statesmanlike Discussion of 
 the Issues of the Day The Revenue Laws and the Protective Tariff- 
 Agricultural Interests of the Nation Foreign and Domestic Commerce 
 Labor and Capital Relations with Foreign Nations The South 
 American Republics The Civil Service The Mormon Question 
 The Freedom and Purity of the Ballot 392 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 
 
 A Bitter and Exciting Political Contest The Standard -Bearers of the Two 
 Parties Personal Attacks upon Mr. Blaine The Mugwump Defection 
 The State Election in Maine Mr. Elaine s Tour through the Coun 
 try His Visit to New York The Delmonico Dinner The Visit of 
 the Clergymen" Rum, Romanism and Rebellion " Some Reckless 
 Lying Effect of the Mischief Result of the Election Mr. Elaine s 
 Comments The Cleveland Administration 421 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 
 
 Free Trade Brought Forward as the Leading Is?"e of the Democratic 
 Party President Cleveland s Message on the oubject in December, 
 1887 Text of the Document that Sounded the Key-note of tne 
 Coming Campaign A Prompt Reply by Mr. Blaine by Cable from 
 Paris Report of the Memorable Interview between Mr. Blaine and 
 Mr. George W. Smalley Its Effect upon Public Opinion and Poli 
 tics in the United States 467 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVri. 
 AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. 
 
 The Convention of 1 888 Mr. Blaine s V\ ork in the Campaign The 
 Harrison Administration Mr. Blaine s Second Term as Secretary of 
 State The Samoan Affair Extradition The Pan American Con 
 ference Reciprocity and its Results American Pork in European 
 Markets The Fisheries Bering Sea Controversies with Chili and 
 with Italy A Notable Chapter in American Diplomacy 514 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE MAN. 
 
 Foreign Travels and Literary Work The London Times Estimate of 
 " Twenty Years of Congress "Mr. Blaine s Home at Augusta - His 
 Washington House Ilis Bar Harbor Cottage The Children of the 
 Household A Brief Glance at Some of Mr. Blaine s Personal Char 
 acteristics 531 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Mr. Blaine Declines Further Political Preferment and Retires from the 
 Cabinet The Minneapolis Convention and the Campaign of 1892 
 Mr. Blaine s Failing Health His Wonderful Struggle Against the 
 Foe His Death 536 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 FINAL TRIBUTES. 
 
 An Outburst of National Grief Words of Tribute from Chauncey M. Depew, 
 Senator Hoar, Ex-Secretaries Fish and Evarts, Henry Watterson and 
 others Dr. MacArthur s Version of the Burchard Incident The 
 Funeral Services at the House At the Church of the Covenant At 
 the Grave in Oak Hill Cemetery The End 552 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 James G. Elaine, Frontispiece 
 
 Birthplace of James G. Blaine, 19 
 
 Burial Place of Elaine s Parents, . 38 
 
 Washington and Jefferson College, 55 
 
 Philadelphia Blind Asylum, 74 
 
 Philadelphia Almshouse, 91 
 
 Elaine s Mansion, Augusta, no 
 
 House of Representatives, 127 
 
 Roscoe Conkling, 146 
 
 Wm. Windom, 163 
 
 U. S. Senate, 182 
 
 Elaine s Mansion, Washington, 199 
 
 Senator Geo. F. Edmunds, . 218 
 
 Robert T. Lincoln, 235 
 
 Blaine Retiring from the Senate, 254 
 
 James A. Garfield, 271 
 
 Chester A. Arthur, 290 
 
 State, Army and Navy Building, 307 
 
 Convention Building, Chicago, 326 
 
 John A. Logan, 343 
 
 Grover Cleveland, 362 
 
 Thos. A. Hendricks, 379 
 
Capitol, . . . . 398 
 
 Rev. Samuel D. Burchard, 415 
 
 Wm. McKinley, 434 
 
 Bar Harbor Cottage, 45 r 
 
 Harrison and Blainc Families at Bar Harbor, . . . 470 
 
 Walter Damrosch, 487 
 
 Benjamin Harrison, 506 
 
 Emmons Blaine, 523 
 
 Walker Blaine, 542 
 
 James G. Elaine s Coffin, 563 
 
 Burial Ground Blaine Family, Augusta, Me., . . - 574 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 
 
 Fhe Scotch-Irish Settlers in Pennsylvania The Blaines A Friend of 
 Washington Important Services in the Revolution Country Gentle 
 men of the Old School Founding of the Economite Community 
 Ephraim L. Elaine and Maria Giilespie Their Home on Indian Hill 
 Farm, West Brownsville. 
 
 Among the many and diverse elements which, 
 during three centuries, have mingled together to 
 form the American Nation, there is none exhibit 
 ing a more persistent and commanding individual 
 ity than the Scotch Irish. The people of that 
 stock, who migrated hither in large numbers 
 before* the Revolution, seemed to possess the 
 very qualities that would insure success and 
 leadership. Their transplantation or that of 
 their ancestors from Scotland to the North of 
 Ireland had imbued them with the colonizing 
 spirit. They had retained the philosophy, the 
 thrift and the energy characteristic of Caledonia, 
 and had added thereto much of the wit, the 
 versatility and the personal magnetism of the 
 best Hibernian types. Less sombre and ascetic 
 than the Puritans, yet far more practical and 
 serious than the Cavaliers; they formed a golden 
 mean between the two. Early in American 
 
 17 
 
1 8 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 y vthy| btfgan to exercise influences greatly 
 dfspfo portiorisrte to their numbers, and down to 
 h e >f<esbot flay, h a-ve continued to be a singularly 
 vital and sYfes sful force, in trades, and businesses, 
 and the learned professions, and also in public life. 
 
 By an interesting coincidence, they not only 
 occupied a place spiritually and intellectually be 
 tween New England and Virginia, but the actual 
 geographical* settlement of many of them was in 
 a similar position. Following after Penn, they 
 made their homes in the fertile valleys and among 
 the picturesque mountain ranges of the region 
 that bore his name ; and by their shrewdness and 
 enterprise largely contributed to the growth of 
 that colony into one of the most important States 
 of the Union. Conspicuous among these makers 
 of Pennsylvania was a family that had enjoyed 
 much prosperity and an enviable social rank in 
 the old country, and that now placed in American 
 history a name already famous in the annals of 
 Scotland the name of Elaine. 
 
 Concerning the first generations of that family 
 in America, little needs here to be said ; or can be 
 said, indeed, because of paucity of information. 
 They were well-to-do people, industrious and 
 progressive; and they possessed themselves of 
 several fine tracts of land, some in the western 
 part of the State, in the neighborhood of Pittsburg 
 and along the Monongahela river, which have 
 since proved rich in iron and coal, and others in 
 

ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 2 I 
 
 that beautiful Cumberland Valley, which is one of 
 the choicest agricultural districts of the State. It 
 was in the latter region that Ephraim Elaine, the 
 first member of the family of especial concern in 
 the present writing, chiefly made his home. 
 
 Ephraim Elaine was a close friend of Washing 
 ton ; a simple, but much-m- aning fact. The 
 Father of His Country was not given to making 
 a public assembly-room of his heart. He guarded 
 the approaches to it with jealous care. No comer 
 who could not give the pass-words of soberness 
 and truth, of loyalty and manhood, might hope 
 for entrance. It may, therefore, well be believed 
 that those who were admitted to his confidence 
 and friendship were men of moral and mental 
 worth; and that such was Ephraim Elaine. He 
 was not only a friend of Washington ; he was his 
 comrade in arms. He was one of the first to 
 join in the armed contest for independence ; he 
 rose to the rank of Colonel in the regular army, 
 and was Commissary-General during the last five 
 years of the war. Nor were his militant services 
 in camp and field, great as they were, the most 
 important that he rendered. He was a man of 
 wealth for those times and of wide influence, 
 and he placed his own fortune, and persuaded 
 many of his friends to place theirs, at the disposal 
 of the Government at a time when dollars were 
 of more value than bullets. On more than one 
 occasion, when the Continental Treasury was 
 
JAMKS (7. BL l!XE. 
 
 empty, he advanced large sums of money for the 
 purchase of supplies for the troops, thus averting 
 discontent and disaster. Especially during that 
 dreadful winter at Valley Forge were his heroism 
 and self-sacrifice of inestimable value to the cause 
 of independence. Washington himself awarded him 
 the credit of saving the army from utter starvation. 
 After the war, the friendship of Washington and 
 Elaine continued, and the first President, together 
 with Hamilton Knox and others, was glad to en 
 joy the hospitalities of the Elaine mansion, at 
 Middlesex, near Carlisle. 
 
 Ephraim Elaine died at his home in the Cum 
 berland Valley in 1804, leaving his eldest son, 
 James, to be the head of the family. The latter 
 was intended by his father for public life. He re 
 ceived a fine education and was then sent abroad 
 to study, to travel, and to gain that cosmopolitan 
 culture that could only be acquired by residence 
 in the European capitals. Having at his disposal 
 a fortune ample for the gratification of his tastes, 
 the young man devoted year after year to this 
 delightful occupation. He had become familiar 
 with every important city of Europe, and a wel 
 come member of its best society, and at the close 
 of the Revolutionary War came home as the 
 bearer of some special despatches of great im 
 portance to the Government. He returned to 
 Carlisle endowed with all the intellectual and 
 social wealth that he had gone to seek, but 
 
ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 23 
 
 without that ambition for political preferment for 
 which his father had hoped. Instead, therefore, 
 of entering the public service, he devoted himself 
 to private interests. His life was that of the 
 country gentleman of the old school ; enjoying 
 to the full the ease and pleasures his wealth could 
 command, exercising a most generous hospitality 
 and offering an ever ready hand and purse to 
 every good cause, of charity or of social weal. 
 He did not, however, lead a life of idleness. 
 Ample as was his fortune, he paid keen attention 
 to its enlargement, and showed himself a shrewd 
 
 o 
 
 and successful business man. He had inherited 
 from his father extensive lands in the western 
 part of the State. Rightly believing that Pitts- 
 burg would become a great centre of trade and 
 manufactures, he increased his holdings there, and 
 became the owner of a tract that now is worth 
 many millions of dollars. 
 
 The eldest son of James Elaine was Ephraim 
 Lyon Elaine, who was born at Carlisle. His 
 education and early training were much like those 
 of his father. After receiving the best instruc 
 tion available at home, he was sent to Europe, 
 and there spent several years in study and plea 
 sure-seeking. Thence he went to South America, 
 and to the West Indies, visiting all important 
 places and familiarizing himself with the life and 
 the interests of each country. His father s death 
 recalled him to Pennsylvania, where he found 
 
24 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 himself the possessor of a great estate. The 
 family home was at Carlisle. But the bulk of his 
 lands lay further west, and as these were con 
 tinually increasing in value, and needed close per 
 sonal attention, he soon found it desirable to re 
 move thither. Accordingly, in 1818, he settled in 
 Beaver County, on the Ohio river. Here, and 
 on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, he 
 owned thousands of acres of land, mostly covered 
 with timber, and at that time giving no indication 
 of the enormous wealth they now represent. 
 
 Five years later Mr. Blaine sold to the com 
 munity known as the Economites for only $25,000 
 the tract of land in Beaver County on which their 
 large and wealthy village of Economy now stands. 
 An interesting account of this transaction has 
 been given by Mr. Jonathan Lenz, one of the 
 principal officers of the Economites, which may 
 properly here be quoted. The community, under 
 the leadership of Frederick Rapp, had first estab 
 lished the town of Harmony, in Butler County, 
 Pennsylvania. Thence they migrated westward, 
 and built the town of Harmony, Indiana, in the 
 Wabash Valley, in 1814, in what was then an un 
 broken wilderness. The location chosen was an 
 unfortunate one, from the fact that it was swampy 
 and unhealthy, and the strength of the colony was 
 greatly reduced by death. Mr. Rapp finally 
 called the people together and suggested that 
 they return to Pennsylvania, but on putting it to 
 
ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 2$ 
 
 a vote it was decided to give the new Harmony a 
 further trial, it being suggested that by clearing 
 away more of the forest they might be relieved 
 from the malaria which was so rapidly thinning 
 their ranks. This was done, but without success, 
 and at the end often years, in 1824, it was de 
 cided to turn their >faces once more toward the 
 Keystone State, but to select a better locality than 
 that first hit upon in Butler County. Mr. Rapp, 
 with a chosen band of men from the colony, started 
 out on- the 6th of May, 1824, and reaching the 
 Ohio river embarked on the steamboat Plowboy 
 for Pennsylvania. The steamboats of those days 
 did not possess the speed of our present river 
 palaces, and it was not until some time in the 
 month of June that they landed at French Point. 
 
 Not far away was the home of Ephraim Lyon 
 Elaine. The house stood well back from the 
 river, in a small clearing, many of the trees cut 
 down to make room for it still lying on the 
 ground unburned. About a hundred yards away 
 from it on the river side the ground was depressed 
 and swampy, the water being at all times knee 
 deep, while further on was the high plateau on 
 the margin of the river, weH drained and in a 
 very rich soil. A bargain was struck by Mr. 
 Elaine for the land, and he gave possession of 
 the house in about two months after the purchase. 
 
 "The Blaines," continues Mr. Lenz, who was 
 a member of the pioneer party of Economites, 
 
26 /AMES G. BLAINE, 
 
 "were liberal livers, fond of good horses and 
 hunting, and men of the best class of those days. 
 The house was comfortably and even elegantly 
 furnished, as you can judge by looking at some 
 ot the articles we purchased from them, and 
 which we have had in constant use ever since. 
 Everybody in the Society thought highly of the 
 Blaines, and were sorry when they left the neigh 
 borhood. We all went to work with a will, and 
 soon had a number of log and frame houses 
 erected and ready for occupancy, the work of 
 clearing the ground having first been done. Our 
 first church was a large structure, built of shell- 
 bark hickory logs fifty feet long, which I myself 
 squared, having while in Indiana learned to use 
 the broad-ax as part of my trade as a wagon- 
 maker. This edifice stood for fifty-five years, and 
 was only torn down then because it had decayed 
 and become shabby looking. When we had 
 sufficient house-room in the settlement Mr. Rapp 
 moved into the great house, and in 1825 the main 
 body of the colony joined us. 
 
 " When Mr. Rapp vacated the old Elaine house, 
 it was determined to take it down and remove it 
 to the village, there to be re-erected. At its 
 former site it stood against an embankment, and 
 the lower story was in the nature of a basement. 
 When set up on level ground it was a large two- 
 story structure, as you now see. It contains all 
 the original material, even to the plastering, and 
 
ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 27 
 
 has been used by us as a school-house. In size 
 of ground it is 45 x 55 feet, with five rooms on 
 each floor, most of them being very large. It 
 had been occupied by the elder Elaine ten or 
 twelve years when we bought it, and consequently 
 must be more than seventy years old, yet is in a 
 good state of preservation." 
 
 The wife of Ephraim L. Blaine was Maria 
 Gillespie. This name indicates Scotch origin. 
 But the Giilespies were not, like the Blaines, 
 Presbyterians in religion, but ardent and devout 
 Roman Catholics. Their home was in Fayette 
 County, Pennsylvania, where they were large 
 land-owners and ranked high among the local aris 
 tocracy. One of them, Neal Gillespie, crossed 
 the Monongahela river into Washington County 
 and built a stone house on his farm at West 
 Brownsville known as Indian Hill farm. Here 
 he exercised a country gentleman s hospitality, 
 like that of the Blaines. The house was large and 
 commodious, and surrounded by gardens and 
 orchards, with vast fields of grain and grass and 
 pasture land extending along the river. Not far 
 away was the old residence of Albert Gallatin, 
 and many other notable men of those days lived 
 near by. 
 
 Maria Gillespie was the daughter of Neal Gil 
 lespie, and was born in this stone mansion at 
 West Brownsville. She was noted all through 
 that region for her remarkable beauty, and was 
 
28 JAMES ,Q. BLAINE. 
 
 still more esteemed by all who knew her for her 
 high intellectual and spiritual gifts. Said one of 
 the "oldest inhabitants" of that neighborhood: 
 " I married the sister of Ephraim L. Elaine, and 
 he and I went to school together, and I knew him 
 nearly all his life. He was a leader in mischief in 
 the school, and always a lover of the good things 
 of the world. He was the handsomest man I 
 ever saw, and his wife was a match for him. She 
 was one of the noblest women I ever knew. She 
 inherited all the sterling traits of character and 
 strength of mind for which the Gillespies were 
 noted." Mr. Elaine and Miss Gillespie had been 
 brought up in the most widely different religious 
 beliefs, and after their marriage they retained 
 those creeds without clashing or controversy. 
 Each respected the conscientious convictions of 
 the other, and to the end of their lives he was a 
 Presbyterian, she a Catholic. By her consent, 
 indeed by her wish, however, their children were 
 instructed in the Presbyterian faith. 
 
 The characteristic thrift of the Scotchman was 
 not conspicuous in Ephraim Lyon Elaine. It was 
 subordinated to the open-handed hospitality and 
 careless ease of the Celt. As a result, his fortune 
 dwindled. From Beaver County he moved down 
 into Washington County, and settled at West 
 Brownsville, and married Maria Gillespie. He 
 owned a considerable tract of land in that neigh 
 borhood. But at his wife s desire they made their 
 
ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 2Q 
 
 home on some of her own property, known as 
 "Indian Hill Farm," adjoining her birthplace. 
 Here they built a substantial wooden house, two 
 stories high, which is still standing, in good repair. 
 It is close to the road, with only a narrow strip of 
 grass in front. At the rear there is an ample gar 
 den, extending almost to the Monongahela river. 
 Here Ephraim Elaine and Maria Gillespie, his wife, 
 lived for many years, and here their child, the 
 famous subject of this history, was born and spent 
 his early years. 
 
 Impaired fortunes presently compelled Ephraim 
 Elaine to seek employment in the public service. 
 For a number of years he was Justice of the 
 Peace at West Brownsville, and was consequently 
 known to his neighbors as "Squire" Elaine. Then, 
 in 1843, he was elected Prothonotary of Washing 
 ton County. This made it necessary for him to re 
 move to Washington, the county seat, taking, of 
 course, his family with him. There he made his 
 home for the remainder of his life. At his death, his 
 remains were interred at West Brownsville, as were 
 also those of his wife ; and at the present time 
 there may be seen, in the shadow of the old, time- 
 beaten village church, two graves marked with a 
 single stone, bearing the inscription, "Ephraim 
 L. Elaine and Maria Gillespie Elaine." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 
 
 The Influences of Heredity A Characteristic Incident of Childhood First 
 Studies at Home At School at Lancaster, Ohio Entering Washing- 
 -ton College The Roll of His Classraates His Leadership in College 
 Life His Rank as a Student Little Participation in Athletic Games 
 Incidents of Student Life An Original Demonstration The Pro 
 gramme of Commencement Day The Prophetic Subject of His Com 
 mencement Oration. 
 
 It has been justly observed that a man s educa 
 tion, to be complete, should begin with his grand 
 parents. In the light of that principle the boy 
 that was born to Ephraim L. and Maria Gillespie 
 Elaine at the Indian Hill farm, West Brownsville, 
 on January 31, 1830, began his education in a 
 most auspicious manner. His ancestry, on both 
 sides, as we have seen, was an admirable one. It 
 united the traits of thrift, sagacity, enterprise, in 
 dustry, loyalty to the State, loyalty to kin and 
 friends, intellectual and physical vigor, love ofcu*lt 
 ure and love of adventure, natural leadership, 
 and indeed all the qualities of the best American 
 manhood and womanhood. Assuredly the child 
 that should inherit such a nature would be well 
 equipped for whatever lot might befall him in life. 
 
 These advantages of heredity, however, cannot 
 be regarded as the sole reason of the distinguished 
 
CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIf-E. 3! 
 
 success attained by the subject of this work. 
 Doubtless hundreds of other children were born 
 in the S tate of Pennsylvania in that same year of 
 equally estimable parentage and with equally 
 favorable influences of ancestry and early environ 
 ment. Nor can we ascribe his high achievements 
 to any fortuitous circumstance of early or later 
 life. There are those who, as has been said, have 
 greatness thrust upon them. Some event, entirely 
 beyond the compass of their own effort, brings to 
 them an opportunity of distinction. And some 
 have even attained eminence who actually had not 
 the readiness of talent to embrace and improve 
 such an opportunity when it was offered to them, 
 but literally had it forced upon them. Such, 
 assuredly, was not the case with James Gillespie 
 Elaine. He was no more born to greatness than 
 a host of his fellow- Americans whose names have 
 remained unknown to public record and to public 
 fame. In no event of his life can it be said that 
 greatness was thrust upon him. Whenever op 
 portunity of meritorious achievement presented 
 itself, he was ready in spirit and able in talent to 
 improve it. But even such circumstances pre 
 sented themselves to him in no extraordinary de 
 gree ; certainly no more than to the average 
 American of his time. Only one alternative is 
 therefore left : to regard him as a man who has 
 achieved greatness by the force of his own inherent 
 genius. As we shall unfold the chapters of his 
 
32 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 life, one by one, and shall review, one by one, his 
 achievements in many departments of human in 
 dustry and public service, this fact will become 
 more and more apparent. 
 
 He was born, as already stated, at West 
 Brownsville, on January 31, 1830. He received 
 in his infancy two names, James, for his accom 
 plished orandfather, and Gillespie, for his mother. 
 Of his childhood years but little can here be re 
 corded. The parents and others who watched 
 over him at that time and observed his growing 
 traits of character and manifestations of spirit and 
 intellect, have passed away, leaving no record of 
 their memories of him. His own recollections of 
 his early years are not sufficiently clear and de 
 tailed to shed any especially interesting light upon 
 that period of his history. There is no reason to 
 suppose that his infancy and childhood were 
 marked by any extraordinary events, or indeed 
 by any unusual manifestations of genius on his 
 part. Like other children, he had his lovable and 
 winning traits, and- now and then his fits of mis 
 chief and naughtiness. He was petted and be 
 loved by his parents, and now and then, doubt 
 less, corrected and chastised. Like other chil 
 dren, he played about the house and garden and 
 along the banks of the river ; he had his cronies 
 among the boys and girls of the village ; he 
 robbed biixls nests, and teased cats and dogs, and 
 set traps for rabbits and squirrels. In fact, he 
 
CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 33 
 
 was probably just an average healthy, happy, in 
 telligent child. 
 
 A single incident of his early years has been 
 put on record, well authenticated. It is worthy of 
 repetition, as indicating the sturdy, self-reliant 
 and aggressive spirit, which has made him in later 
 years such a forceful leader of men in many a 
 hot campaign. When he was some three or four 
 years old, a new well was dug near his father s 
 house. Attracted by the appearance of the work, 
 he toddled up to the spot and peered over the 
 brink into the excavation. One of the workmen, 
 standing below, looked up and saw him, and, with 
 the view of frightening him away, out of possible 
 danger of falling into the well, made an ugly face 
 at him and some menacing gestures with his 
 shovel. But the child was not frightened. To 
 his courageous little mind, it was a case of fight 
 ing, not for running away. Stooping down, he 
 seized from the pile of fresh "earth that had been 
 thrown out of the well clod after clod, as large as 
 he could lift, and hurled them down at the work 
 man, crying, "There ! take that ! and that ! and 
 that ! " This vigorous bombardment discomfited 
 the workman, who feared that the little fellow 
 might begin throwing stones instead of clods, 
 and he was presently glad to shout for help at the 
 top of his voice, until the mother was attracted to 
 the scene and led the pugnacious little fellow 
 away. 
 
34 JAMES G. BLA2NE. 
 
 The account already given of his ancestors for 
 several generations shows that they were a family 
 earnestly given to the acquirement of education 
 and liberal culture. His father s worldly means 
 were now so reduced that it was not practicable to 
 give the boy such educational advantages and 
 experience of foreign travel as his father and 
 grandfather had enjoyed. But all advantages 
 that were within reach were fully and earnestly im 
 proved. James received his first lessons from his 
 father and mother, at home, and they were both 
 eminently well fitted to lay the foundations of his 
 academic education. Next, for a time, he attended 
 the village school at West Brownsville. The 
 third step was a much more important one and 
 probably had some determining influence over his 
 entire career. At between ten and eleven years 
 of age he was sent to Lancaster, Ohio, to live with 
 his uncle, Thomas Evving, then Secretary of the 
 Treasury of the United States. He continued 
 his studies there in company with Mr. Ewing s 
 son, under the direction of William Lyons, 
 an uncle of that Lord Lyons who was after 
 ward for a Dumber of years British Minister at 
 Washington. Mr. Lyons was a scholar of fine 
 attainments and also a cultured and experienced 
 man of the world, and was particularly well fitted 
 to prepare the boys for college. Mr. Ewing s 
 home was, moreover, a very important political 
 headquarters, and a place of resort of many of 
 
CHILBHOOD AND STUDENT LlfE. 35 
 
 the public men of the time. Young Elaine, there 
 fore, gained there his first practical knowledge of 
 politics and public affairs, and his mind received 
 an impulse in that direction which decided the 
 nature of his activities in future life. 
 
 Ephrairn L. Elaine became prothonotary of 
 Washington County, as already recorded, in 1843, 
 and went to live at Washington, the county seat. 
 This town was also the seat of a small institution 
 of higher learning known as Washington College, 
 which had been chartered as an academy in 1787, 
 and in 1 806 had been raised to collegiate rank. 
 
 o 
 
 It was still a small institution, but was well 
 equipped in most respects, having an excellent 
 Faculty, and was probably as good a college as 
 was to be found in that part of the country. Mr. 
 Elaine decided to enter his son there as a student, 
 so that he might live at home while pursuing his 
 college course. This was done in the fall of 1843, 
 James being then only thirteen years old. The 
 class of 1847, which he entered, numbered thirty- 
 three boys, the oldest of them being nineteen, 
 and James G. Elaine, at thirteen, being the 
 youngest. 
 
 The members of this class were, with their 
 subsequent professions, as follows : George Baird, 
 physician ; Andrew Barr, minister ; James G. 
 Elaine, statesman ; Robert C. Colmery, minister ; 
 Josiah C. Cooper, physician ; Thomas Creighton ; 
 George D. Curtis ; Cephas Dodd, physician ; 
 
36 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Hugh W. Forbes, minister ; Alexander M. Gow, 
 president of Dixon College ; John L. Hampton, 
 lawyer John C. Hervey ; R. Campbell Holliday, 
 lawyer John G. Jacob, editor ; Richard H. Lee, 
 lawyer John V. B. Lemoyne, lawyer and mem 
 ber of Congress ; Lafayette Markle, lawyer and 
 editor ; Gasper M. Miller, physician ; James R. 
 Moore, principal of Morgantovvn Academy ; 
 William S. Moore, lawyer and editor ; M. P. Mor 
 rison, physician ; Robert J. Munce, physician ; 
 Edward B. Neely, lawyer ; William M. Orr, law 
 yer; Thomas W. Porter, lawyer; Samuel Power; 
 William H. H. M. Pusey, lawyer and member of 
 Congress; Huston Quail, lawyer; John A. Rankin; 
 Robert Robb, minister ; James H. Smith ; John 
 H. Storer, physician ; and Alexander Wilson, 
 lawyer. 
 
 Young Blaine passed his entrance examination 
 creditably, and quickly took high rank in his class 
 as a student, while personally and socially he was 
 oire of the most popular boys in college. Dur 
 ing his freshman year he was one of the cham 
 pions of the class in resisting the aggressions and 
 hazing inflicted by the sophomores. In the later 
 years he was noted for his kindness and gener 
 osity to the members of the successive freshman 
 classes that followed him. He was always ready 
 to assist and to advise them, to introduce them 
 to the ways of the college, and to make their 
 lives as pleasant as possible. Whenever disputes 
 
CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 39 
 
 arose between the members of his own or of 
 other classes, he was almost certain to be called 
 upon to act as arbiter, and his decision was 
 seldom disputed. In athletic sports he took com 
 paratively little part. He was tall, strong and 
 well developed, and might have been the cham 
 pion of his class on the foot-ball field and else 
 where, had he cared for such distinction. But he 
 did not. Now and then he participated in run 
 ning matches and other simple contests. But 
 from the rougher sports of the athletic field he 
 held aloof. Boating, fishing and hunting were 
 his favorite diversions, and to them his holidays 
 were largely given. 
 
 His favorite studies, and those in which he 
 most excelled, were mathematics and logic. He 
 delighted in close reasoning and cogent argu 
 ment. In mathematics he was the favorite pupil 
 of his teacher, Professor Aldrich, and he easily 
 excelled all his classmates in that important 
 branch of learning. In history and the other 
 English branches he also ranked near the head 
 of his class, and in the classics his work was at 
 least fully up to the average. In general liter 
 ature he was a diligent and earnest reader, and 
 he soon made himself well acquainted with all 
 the standard works of English literature con 
 tained in the college library. Every book and 
 pamphlet relating to American history within his 
 reach he read and re-read, until every fact 
 
4O JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 contained in -it was indelibly recorded upon his 
 memory. In later years, as we shall see, this study 
 of the story of his own country served him most 
 usefully, both in his own historical writings, and 
 also in his debates in Congress. 
 
 If incidents of his childhood are few, such is 
 not the case with stories of his college life. Many 
 of his classmates have told interesting tales of 
 his doings in the class-rooms and in the social 
 gatherings of the students. One of them says 
 that he was, in person, "a raw-boned, angular 
 fellow, with a big nose, and so was familiarly 
 called Nosey Elaine." Another describes him 
 as a boy of pleasing manners and agreeable ad 
 dress. He was a better scholar than student ; 
 that is to say, his natural quickness of perception 
 and power of memory exceeded his ability to 
 apply himself to his text-book. He mastered his 
 lessons far more quickly and more readily than 
 most of his fellows. In the literary society to 
 which he belonged he was always a leader, and 
 he showed himself there a natural politician and 
 parliamentarian. Another of his classmates re 
 members him as having a slight impediment of 
 speech, almost amounting to stuttering. This 
 proved a detriment to him in declamations and 
 debates. One day young Elaine said to his class 
 mate, "Bill, I would like to be president of our 
 literary society. Can t you work it up for me?" 
 The other expressed surprise, saying, "Why, 
 
CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 41 
 
 what do you know about it? You have never 
 taken any part in the debates or other active 
 work of the society, and I don t believe you know 
 anything about parliamentary law." "No," said 
 Elaine, "but that doesn t matter. I can commit 
 Gushing s Manual to memory in one evening." 
 This was no idle boast. Elaine did commit every 
 rule in the Manual to memory in one evening, 
 so thoroughly as to be a complete master of par 
 liamentary practice. At the next election he was 
 chosen president of the society, and was the best 
 presiding officer it ever had. 
 
 During his college life, Elaine lived at home, in 
 his father s family. One morning he was sent to 
 market to buy a turkey. It was early in the 
 morning, before breakfast. When his father came 
 to the breakfast table, the colored cook greeted 
 him with, " Massa Elaine, dat dar turkey what 
 Massa Jim buyed dis morning am de queerest 
 turkey Fs ever see." "Why, what s the matter 
 with it?" asked Mr. Elaine. "Isn t it big enough? 
 It surely ought to be, for Jim paid a dollar for it." 
 "Oh, yes, Massa Elaine, it am big enough, but it 
 am de funniest turkey dis nigger ever see." Mr. 
 Elaine thereupon went to the kitchen to see the 
 fowl, and found it to be a rather venerable goose. 
 He forthwith called James in and told him he 
 ought to be ashamed of himself for being thus 
 imposed upon. " Fifteen years old, Jim, and can t 
 tell a turkey from a goose !" "Well," replied the 
 
42 JAMES (7. BLAINE. 
 
 boy, "I d like to know how you expect me to tell 
 a turkey from a goose when its feathers are off!" 
 
 A characteristic class-room incident, showing 
 his independence and originality of thought, is as 
 follows: One afternoon in May, 1846, in the 
 mathematical room, he went to the blackboard to 
 demonstrate a problem. He drew the correct 
 diagram upon the board, and was proceeding with 
 his oral argument, when Professor Aldrich inter 
 rupted him. "James," he said, "you arc not fol 
 lowing the demonstration of the author at all." 
 Quick as a flash the lad replied, " What difference 
 does that make, Professor ? If I can demonstrate 
 it in some other way, just as positively, isn t it 
 just as well to do so?" The other boys laughed 
 at this, but the Professor, admiring the boy s 
 audacity and unquestioned ability, let him go on 
 with his original method of proving the proposition. 
 
 In social circles in Washington, outside of the 
 college, young Blaine was a great favorite, both 
 among young men and young women. He was 
 always neat and careful in his dress and deport 
 ment, and while fond of fun, was never guilty of 
 any discreditable excesses. Nor did he ever allow 
 his love of social pleasures to lure him away from 
 his duties as a student. Accordingly, when he 
 left Washington, he left behind him in town and 
 college such a reputation for integrity, good 
 behavior, scholarship and manliness, as might 
 have been envied by any of his comrades. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 43 
 
 The Commencement Day, on which he and his 
 classmates were graduated, occurred on Septem 
 ber 25, 1847. He was then seventeen years and 
 eight months old. His scholarship grades placed 
 him almost at the head of his class, and he was 
 chosen for the second place of honor, to deliver 
 the English salutatory address at Commencement. 
 The members of the Faculty, who very gladly 
 granted him his diploma, were as follows : The 
 Rev. David McConaughty, D. D., LL. D., Presi 
 dent ; Rev. Wm. P. Aldrich, D. D., Professor of 
 Mathematics ; Richard H. Lee, Professor of Belles- 
 Lettres ; Rev. David Ferguson, Professor of 
 Languages ; Rev. Nicholas Murray, Professor of 
 Languages ; Rev. Robert Milligan, Professor of 
 English Literature ; John L. Gow, Professor of 
 Municipal Law; James King, M. D., Professor of 
 Physiology and Hygiene. 
 
 The following is a copy of the programme of 
 Commencement exercises, with names of the class: 
 
 ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT 
 
 OF 
 
 WASHINGTON COLLEGE, PA. 
 Wednesday, September 29, 1847. 
 
 GRADUATING CLASS. 
 
 Andrew Barr, John H. Hampton, Edward B. Neely, 
 
 George Baird, R. C. Holliday, William M. Orr, 
 
 James G. Elaine, John G. Jacob, Samuel Power, 
 
 Josiah C. Cooper, Richard H. Lee, William H. M. Pusey, 
 
 George D. Curtis, John V. LeMoyne, T. Wilson Porter, 
 
 Thomas Creighton, LaFayette Markle, Huston Quail, 
 
 R. C. Colmery, G. H. Miller, Robert Robe, 
 
 Cephas Dodd, J. R. Moore, J. A. Rankin, 
 
 Hugh W. Forbes, William S. Moore, James II. Smith, 
 
 Alexander M. Gow, Robert J. Munce, John H. Storer, 
 
 John C. Hervey, M. P. Morrison," Alexander Wilson. 
 
44 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 MATRI ALMA*. SIM US HONOR!. 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES. 
 
 MUSIC PRAYER MUSIC. 
 
 1st. LATIN SALUTATORY John C. Hervey, Brooke Co., Va. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 2d. ENGLISH SALUTATORY AND ORATION, James G. Blaine, 
 
 West Brownville, Pa. 
 MUSIC. 
 
 3d. GREEK SALUTATORY, < T. W. Porter, Fayette Co., Pa. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 4th. ORATION The Sword and the Plough, J. G. Jacob, WellsLurgh, Va. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 5th. ORATION Byron, Huston Quail, Union Valley, Pa. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 6th. ORATION The Era of Napoleon,. LaFayette Markle, Mill Grove, Pa. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 7th. A POEM The Collegian, G. D. Curtis, Grove Creek, Va. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 8th. ORATION Moral Warfare, J. R. Moore, Wellsville, O. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 9th. ORATION Poverty Useful in the Development of Genius, 
 
 R. C. Colmery, Hayesville, O. 
 MUSIC. 
 
 loth.ORATioN The American Boy, . E. B. Neely, Washington City, D. C. 
 MUSIC CONFERRING OF DEGREES MUSIC. 
 
 Hth.VALEDiCTORY . William M. Orr, Wayne Co., O. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 The topic of James G. Elaine s oration was not 
 announced on the printed programme. It was 
 The Duty of an Educated American." This, too, 
 is significant. It showed the trend of his thoughts 
 and purposes, and was in a marked measure pro 
 phetic of the life work upon which he was about 
 to enter. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE TEACHER. 
 
 Plans for a Life of Teaching His First Engagement in Kentucky An 
 Entire Change of Environment Difficulties of his Position Leader 
 in a Free Fight His Courtship and Marriage His Contact with 
 Slavery and his Views Thereof Development of a strong Anti- 
 Slavery Sentiment His Return to the North Studying Law and 
 Teaching the Blind His First Book Removal to the Pine Tree 
 State. 
 
 A great number of young- men in this country, 
 every year, immediately after leaving college, seek 
 employment as school-teachers. Such a record 
 appears in the biography of almost every public 
 man of high rank. It is related of many Presi 
 dents, Senators and Supreme Court Judges. 
 With some, the intention is to make teaching a 
 permanent profession. But the majority enter 
 upon it merely as a temporary makeshift, as a 
 means of support for a year or two, until they 
 can "settle down " in the profession or business 
 chosen as their life-work. It is not surprising that 
 so many young men fresh from the class room 
 seek themselves to be instructors in other class 
 rooms. The very experience of their own 
 school life, so fresh in mind, gives them an espe 
 cial familiarity with the technical details of teach 
 ing. Perhaps, too, the sense of freedom and 
 45 
 
46 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 relief at their emancipation from the authority of 
 their own instructors inspires them, as a sort of 
 poetic vengeance, to seek to exert their authority 
 in turn over other students. In the case of those 
 who really intend to pursue teaching as their life- 
 work, it is probably advantageous to enter upon it 
 immediately afier their own graduation. In the 
 other case, where teaching is a mere makeshift or 
 stepping-stone, the wisdom of the entire proced 
 ure is gravely to be doubted. The profession is 
 fraught with responsibilities too serious and duties 
 too arduous to be undertaken lightly or without 
 that devotion that alone can exist where the work 
 undertaken is of a permanent nature. He who 
 is a teacher merely for a year or two, until he can 
 get anto some better position, is apt to be a per 
 functory time-server, careless of the best interests 
 of his school. 
 
 When James G. Elaine left Washington College 
 he too became a school-teacher. It was necessary 
 for him to enter some profitable employment at 
 once. His father s fortunes had been steadily de 
 clining, and the young man now found himself 
 practically set adrift in the world, with no money 
 or other financial resources, and only a sound 
 mind in a sound body and a well-developed char 
 acter with which to make his way. It is said, ap 
 parently on credible authority, that he had formed 
 a resolution to devote his life to the work of 
 teaching. If such be the case, he probably formed 
 
THE TEACHER. 47 
 
 that resolution under the stress of some momen 
 tary impulse. It could scarcely have been the re 
 sult of deliberate and matured consideration. 
 True, he was physically and mentally well 
 equipped for the work. But the whole trend of 
 his ambitious and masterful disposition was in the 
 direction of some more % extended field of action. 
 There might be before him no career more credit 
 able or more beneficent, in its own compass. The 
 work of the true and conscientious teacher is not 
 to be despised by even the greatest genius. But 
 beside the equipment of a teacher, Mr. Blaine 
 possessed other resources that fitted him for more 
 effective work in another sphere ; and of this fact 
 he could scarcely, even at that early age, have 
 been unconscious. 
 
 It is safe to assume, then, that he was led to the 
 school-teacher s desk partly by the necessity of 
 earning his own living, partly by some half-com 
 prehended impulse that made him think for the mo 
 ment that that was his mission in life, and perhaps 
 in still greater measure by some utterly unrecog 
 nized and indefinable influence, which men may 
 call destiiiy or fate or chance, which in an inscru 
 table manner plays an overruling part in almost 
 every life, and which in this case, altogether unex 
 pectedly and beyond the ken of prophecy, led 
 young Blaine straight into circumstances that un 
 alterably moulded and fixed the whole cast of his 
 life. 
 
48 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Only a few weeks elapsed between the ending 
 of his life as a student and the beginning of 
 of his life as a teacher. He was graduated in the 
 latter part of September. "In October," he says, 
 " I went to Kentucky." Why he went thither is 
 unknown. It may have been merely for the 
 reason that Kentucky was a younger common 
 wealth than Pennsylvania, and that therefore there 
 seemed to him better opportunities of making his 
 way there. Certainly he found social conditions 
 very different from those of his old home. He 
 went from a free State into a slave State ; from a 
 quiet, peaceable community into one where a 
 more restless, aggressive and at times turbulent, 
 spirit prevailed. This very fact was of great ad 
 vantage to him, for it cultivated and developed 
 his spirit of authority and his gift of leadership. 
 He was brought into contact with people of aristo 
 cratic impulses, having an utter disdain of all 
 restriction. For him to establish and maintain 
 authority among them and over them would be 
 no mean task. If he should succeed in it, he 
 would have proven his right to be reckoned as a 
 leader of men wherever he might go. 
 
 The institution in which he became a teacher, 
 or professor, as he was called, was a military 
 school at Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky. It con 
 tained about five hundred young men and boys. 
 They were, nearly all of them, the sons of 
 wealthy slaveholders and planters, imbued with 
 
THE TEACHER. 49 
 
 the characteristic spirit of the Southern aris 
 tocracy. A more difficult body to govern, and 
 especially for a stranger from a Northern State to 
 govern, it would have been difficult to find. It 
 was especially trying for Mr. Elaine, because he 
 was yet barely eighteen years old, no older than 
 many of the lads who were to be under his 
 authority. But he addressed himself to the task 
 most tactfully. He did not allow his authority to 
 be for a moment questioned. His commands 
 must be obeyed with military promptness and 
 precision. At the same time he entered as fully 
 as possible into sympathy with the boys. Within 
 a few days after his arrival at the institute he had 
 fixed in his marvellous memory the name of every 
 one of the five hundred. He could not only call 
 any one of them by his given name, but he 
 knew where his home was, and something about 
 his family, and was able to sympathize with his 
 tastes and feelings and to enter heartily into his 
 ambitions. Thus he made all the students feel 
 that he was not only their teacher and master, 
 but their friend and comrade as well. Under 
 these circumstances it is not to be wondered at 
 that he quickly became the most popular member 
 of the Faculty. 
 
 A few months after his arrival there, an inci 
 dent occurred which greatly tried his temper and 
 which also indisputably established his reputation 
 for coolness and personal courage. A question 
 
5o JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 arose concerning the removal of the school to 
 
 o 
 
 another place, and a bitter dispute resulted be 
 tween the Faculty of the school on the one hand 
 and the property owners of the neighborhood on 
 the other. In those days of so-called "chivalry," 
 a resort to physical violence was apt to be made 
 for the settlement of any seriously disputed 
 matter, and this was done in the present instance. 
 There was a desperate melee, in which all the 
 members of the Faculty participated and in which 
 knives and pistols were freely used. Professor 
 Elaine had earnestly striven to effect a peaceful 
 settlement of the controversy and to avoid a con 
 flict. When the fight actually began, he tried his 
 utmost to restrain the combatants. But seeing 
 that these well-meant efforts- were fruitless, he 
 joined his fellow-members of the Faculty and 
 went in to fight hard and to the bitter end. He 
 used no weapons but his fists, but he employed 
 these with such effect that he was easily the leader 
 of his party, and it was chiefly owing to his 
 prowess that the Faculty came out of the struggle 
 victorious. The prestige which he thus, although 
 reluctantly, acquired, established for him a domi 
 nant authority at the school which was never 
 thereafter called into question. 
 
 After about three years of service at Blue Lick 
 Springs, that is to say, in the fall of 1850, the 
 young professor came to the conclusion that 
 teaching was not the vocation in which he would 
 
THE TEACHER. 5 1 
 
 realize the highest destiny of his life. He had 
 given to the work his most earnest attention and 
 fullest devotion. But the duties were irksome to 
 him, and the petty trials and details of the daily 
 routine were vexing to a man of his high spirit 
 and broad views. Moreover, he was entirely out 
 of sympathy with the social system by which he 
 was surrounded in Kentucky. While he avoided 
 coming into direct conflict with it, he disliked it 
 more and more each day, and each day it became 
 harder for him to conceal that dislike. He there 
 fore determined to return to his native State. 
 But before doing so an event occurred which was 
 one of the most important in his whole career. 
 This was his marriage. 
 
 The president of the institute at Blue Lick 
 Springs \vas Colonel Thornton F. Johnson, whose 
 wife was also an enthusiastic educator. Mrs. 
 Johnson conducted at Millersburg, some miles 
 away, a school for girls. Professor Blaine fre 
 quently visited this school and there became 
 acquainted with one of its teachers, by name 
 Harriet Stanwood. An intimacy soon sprang up 
 between them. Mr. Elaine s visits to Millersburg 
 became more and more frequent, and at about the 
 time when he determined to return to the North, 
 they became engaged. It is not improbable, in 
 deed, that Miss Stanwood had much to do with 
 the forming of his resolution to leave Kentucky. 
 She herself belonged to the North, her former 
 
52 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 home having- been at Augusta, Maine. At any 
 rate, they agreed to return to the North together, 
 and early in 1851, just before Mr. Elaine resigned 
 his post at Blue Lick Springs and left Kentucky, 
 they were married. 
 
 Another circumstance of Mr. Elaine s life in 
 Kentucky that had a lasting influence upon his 
 career was his personal observation of and contact 
 with the institution of human slavery. He had 
 probably grown up through childhood and youth 
 with feelings of comparative indifference if not of 
 tolerance toward it. He had known nothing of it 
 save by hearsay, and there is no indication that 
 his family or friends impressed upon him any very 
 aggressive anti-slavery opinions. His father was 
 undoubtedly an anti-slavery man. But it is not 
 known that he was conspicuously identified with 
 that cause or that he took more than a passive 
 interest in it. Mr. Elaine has truly said that he 
 imbibed anti-slavery opinions from his earliest 
 youth. Pennsylvania was, of course, a free State. 
 But it lay close" to the slave States and its social 
 and business relations with them were most in 
 timate. The Cumberland Valley, in which was 
 situated Carlisle, the old home of the Blaines, was 
 strongly imbued with southern sentiment ; and it 
 was a member of Congress from the western part 
 of the State, Judge Thompson, of Erie, who 
 moved the final adoption of the Fugitive Slave 
 bill. So while young Elaine grew up a lover of 
 
THE TEACHER. 53 
 
 freedom and a disbeliever in slavery, he was con 
 stantly surrounded more or less by upholders and 
 apologists of that institution. And as he and his 
 family did not engage in open controversy on the 
 subject, they probably regarded it with a certain 
 degree of toleration. At any rate, his attitude 
 toward it, down to the time of his residence in 
 Kentucky, was one of passive rather than active 
 hostility. 
 
 Kentucky was, of all the slave States, that in 
 which the condition of the negroes was most 
 tolerable, and in which the institution of slavery 
 assumed its least offensive form. What Mr. 
 Elaine saw and heard, however, was enough. 
 His manhood revolted against it. The anti- 
 slavery sentiments of his childhood and youth 
 were now, in his early manhood, quickened into 
 new and active life. And before he left Kentucky 
 he was possessed of an ardent and unquenchable 
 hatred of slavery, and a fixed purpose both to 
 oppose its further extension and to labor for its 
 total abolition. A few years afterward he had 
 occasion to refer to this incident in his life, in lan 
 guage which may well be quoted here. It was after 
 he had settled in the State of Maine and was 
 editing a newspaper there. In his writings he 
 was outspoken in the cause of freedom. A rival 
 sheet took him to task, therefore, on the ground 
 that, having lived in the South and enjoyed its 
 hospitality, he should not speak against its 
 
54 JAMES G. BLATNE. 
 
 institutions. To this queer attack the young 
 editor made the following vigorous reply : 
 
 "We find the following precious morceau in 
 The Age of Saturday last : 
 
 " One of the editors of the new Morrill organ in this city has too re 
 cently partaken of the " slaveholder s salt," and reposed beneath the 
 shadow of the "peculiar institution," to authorize him to lecture contem 
 poraries on their duty to the cause of " freedom." We would recommend 
 to his consideration Shakespeare s advice to new beginners in the art 
 theatrical. 
 
 "We the editor referred to in this would-be 
 severe paragraph have to plead guilty to a res 
 idence 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 consideration, which we regu 
 larly received, and having to the best of our 
 ability and to the satisfaction of all concerned dis 
 charged our duties, we have been under the im 
 pression that the matter was closed and nothing 
 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 
 administration salt in shutting their own mouths 
 
THE TEACHER. 57 
 
 and 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 ex 
 tension of the withering curse. 
 
 " Our residence in the South gave us, we hope, 
 the advantage of a thorough comprehension of 
 the question of slavery in all its aspects, and of 
 the views of the men who sustain it. It taught 
 us, amon^ other things, that slaveholders, whilst 
 
 C> O 
 
 wholly unreasonable and even perfidious in their 
 aggressions upon freedom, have yet the magna 
 nimity to depise a Northern traitor ; and that all 
 organists and apologists of dough-fa eery, 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 dishing, went it dirt cheap, 
 and have even failed to receive the whole of the 
 
58 JAMES G. BLATNE. 
 
 stipulated compensation. Under this belief the 
 derision which they so richly merited, and at first 
 ,so bountifully received, is rapidly subsiding and 
 giving place to a feeling of pity ; in this, we trust, 
 we have the generosity to share, and cannot, 
 therefore, find it in our heart to add a single taunt 
 or unkind remark." 
 
 If was in the spring of 1851 that Mr. Elaine 
 and his bride turned their faces toward the North. 
 His inteKtion now was to study and engage in the 
 practice of the law. He accordingly returned to 
 his old home in Washington County and for a 
 time read law in the office of his father. In the 
 summer of 1852, however, he removed to Phila 
 delphia to complete his law course under the 
 guidance of Theodore Cuyler, Esq. In order to 
 maintain himself and his family while he was 
 finishing his law studies, fee determined to con 
 tinue work as a teacher. Soon after his arrival in 
 Philadelphia he learned that a new teacher was 
 required in the boys department of the Pennsyl 
 vania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind. 
 Accordingly, he went thither one afternoon at the 
 beginning of August and made application for* the 
 place. There were thirty or forty other appli 
 cants at the same time, and he had no letters of 
 introduction and no influential friends to aid him. 
 His appearance and manner, however, so favora 
 bly impressed the authorities that he was immedi 
 ately engaged to be the principal teacher of the 
 
THE TEACHER. 59 
 
 boys. He brought his young wife and their 
 infant son, Walker, thither, and for two years 
 they made their home in Philadelphia. The insti 
 tution was situated at the corner of Race and 
 Twentieth streets, and both Mr. and Mrs. Elaine 
 devoted themselves earnestly to the welfare of its 
 inmates. He was a teacher of mathematics and 
 other branches, and Mrs. Elaine assisted him and 
 often read aloud to the pupils. She thus read to 
 them nearly all of the works of Dickens. 
 
 There is still to be seen in the office of this in 
 stitution a most interesting memorial of Mr. 
 Elaine s work there. It is his first important 
 literary production, a thick quarto manuscript 
 volume, bound in dark brown leather and lettered 
 " Journal." The title-page bears the following 
 inscription in ornamental penmanship, executed 
 by William Chapin, the principal of the institution : 
 
 JOURNAL 
 
 of the 
 PENNSYLVANIA INSTITUTION 
 
 for the 
 
 INSTRUCTION OF THE BLIND, 
 from its foundation. 
 
 Compiled from official records 
 
 by 
 
 JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 1854. 
 
60 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Mr. Elaine prepared this work with great labor 
 from the minute book of the Board of Managers, 
 giving in it a historical account of the institution 
 from the date of its foundation to that of his 
 departure from it. It is remarkable for the care 
 ful method of its arrangement. At the beginning 
 is a table giving explanatians of all abbreviations 
 used in it. Then come some " Notes in Regard 
 to the Origin of the Pennsylvania Institution for 
 the Instruction of the Blind." There follow 188 
 pages of records, all entered by Mr. Blaine with 
 the utmost neatness and accuracy. At the 
 end of each year s record is an elaborate table, 
 summarizing the statistics given in the preceding 
 pages. There are also alphabetical lists of offi 
 cers of the institution, and the thirteenth name 
 among those of the "principal teachers" is that 
 of James G. Blaine, in his own writing, with the 
 
 .date "from August 5, 1852, to ." The 
 
 record is completed with the date written by 
 another hand, " September 23, 1854." 
 
 Mr. Chapin, the principal who accepted Mr. 
 Blaine s application and who was associated with 
 him during his two years of service, says that 
 while a large number of persons answered his 
 advertisement for a teacher, he had no hesitation 
 whatever in selecting Mr. Blaine, so favorably 
 was he impressed by his manly presence and 
 intellectual features. He was not disappointed 
 in his choice. Mr. Blaine had to teach his pupils 
 
THE TEACHER, 6 1 
 
 chiefly by the oral method, and for this difficult 
 work his brilliant mental powers were exactly 
 suited. He was a good talker ; he was fluent, 
 and his choice of words was admirable. His 
 memory of facts and figures and persons was ex 
 traordinary. He was young and impulsive, and 
 was apt to jump at conclusions, but his conclu 
 sions were usually correct and he was always 
 ready to defend them by argument. 
 
 One of those who were pupils under Mr. Elaine 
 says that they all had a sincere and hearty affec 
 tion for him and for his wife. " They were both 
 always ready to do anything for our instruction 
 or entertainment, and they thus employed a great 
 deal of their leisure time upon which he had really 
 no claim. Mrs. Blaine used to read Dickens to 
 us, and Mr. Blaine often read from a most amus 
 ing work entitled Charcoal Sketches. Now and 
 then we would have a spelling bee. Usually Mr. 
 Blaine gave out the words that were to be spelled. 
 But sometimes he would let one of the older boys 
 do that and would himself take a place among the 
 pupils. Then we would have great fun in trying 
 to spell him down." 
 
 Mr. Blaine completed his law studies in Phila 
 delphia, but did not enter upon the practice of 
 that profession. Nor did he tarry long in that 
 city. He thought he saw in the vast field of 
 journalism ample scope for the exercise of his 
 abilities, and especially for that leadership of 
 
62 JAMES G. ULAINZ. 
 
 thought which was an essential and dominant note 
 of his character. Mrs. Blaine, moreover, had a 
 strong desire to return to her old home in the 
 Pine Tree State. Accordingly, in the summer of 
 1854, to the great regret of all the students and 
 of his associates in the Faculty, he resigned his 
 place in the Institution for the Blind and turned 
 his face aeain toward the North and East. He 
 
 o 
 
 went with his wife and child to the beautiful city 
 of Augusta, on the Kennebec river, there to make 
 their permanent home. Thenceforth his fame 
 was identified with that commonwealth, and he 
 was known as " Blaine of Maine." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
 Political Condition of the Country The Slavery Question Dominant Mr. 
 Elaine s Removal to Augusta and Editorship There Samples of His 
 Vigorous Writing His Share in the Organization of the Republican 
 Party A Delegate to Its First National Convention His First Stump 
 Speech Advocacy of the Principles of the New Party Removal to 
 Portland Three Years of Service in the Maine Legislature. 
 
 Mr. Elaine entered upon his political career, as 
 a journalist, at a singularly important period in 
 the history of the United States. The impend 
 ing crisis," which had been impending since the 
 government was founded, was evidently near at 
 hand. Webster, Clay, Benton, Calhoun, Doug 
 las, Seward, Sumner, Davis and their compeers 
 were the men of the hour at Washington, the 
 leaders of the two great parties. The Mexican 
 War had just been fought, for the benefit of the 
 slaveholding South. The discovery of gold in 
 California had led to the swift establishment of a 
 mighty commonwealth on the Pacific coast. Other 
 territories and States were beinor organized in the 
 
 o o 
 
 West, and the question of the day was whether 
 they should be slave or free. The settlement of 
 th;s question also involved the question of the 
 perpetuity of slavery itself, and the continued 
 dominance of slave-state influence at Washington. 
 63 
 
64 JAMES o. 
 
 If the new States were free, the slave power would 
 soon be in a hopeless minority in Congress and 
 in the Electoral College. The legislation of the 
 Nation would no longer be in the interest of 
 slavery. The Fugitive Slave law would be re 
 pealed. And the " peculiar institution " w r ould be 
 doomed. 
 
 There were still those who looked for a peace 
 ful solution of the problem, and they sought that 
 end by compromises which settled nothing and 
 scarcely postponed the crisis. Others foresaw 
 clearly that an appeal would at last be made to 
 arms. One thing was evident to all, that a con 
 siderable reorganization of parties, largely on 
 sectional lines, must soon be effected. Indeed, it 
 was already in progress. New leaders were com 
 ing forward, new rallying cries were heard. 
 Should slavery be extended or restricted, was the 
 immediate question. Should slavery continue to 
 exist, was heard in its echo ; and beyond that, 
 should the States or the Nation be sovereign. 
 
 Already there had been scenes of violence in 
 many places. Arthur Tappan had been mobbed 
 in New York, Prudence Crandall in Connecticut, 
 William Lloyd Qarrison in Boston, and Orange 
 Scott at Worcester, for daring to speak against 
 the crime of slavery. Scores of other estimable 
 men and women in many places had met with 
 similar ill-treatment. Owen Lovejoy had been 
 murdered in Illinois, and his assassins acquitted. 
 
THE EDITOR. 6$ 
 
 Samuel Hoar had been expelled from South 
 Carolina. By these and other means the slave 
 power gave it to be understood that it would 
 resent and resist with physical force any at 
 tempt even to criticise its conduct. These 
 things occurred in Mr. Elaine s childhood. While 
 he was a student, Texas was annexed, the Mexican 
 War was fought, and the Wilmot Proviso was 
 enacted. 
 
 While he was a teacher in Kentucky, the Free 
 Soil party came into prominence ; Zachary Taylor 
 was elected President by the Whigs on a non 
 committal platform ; the struggle over the ques 
 tion of slavery in the Pacific Coast territories was 
 ended, for the time, at least, by Mr. Clay s cele 
 brated compromise measure of 1850 ; and the in 
 famous Fugitive Slave law was put upon the 
 statute book. This latter act became a law on 
 September 18, 1850, and immediately a National 
 campaign of slave hunting was organized. In 
 Pennsylvania slave hunts were especially numer 
 ous, owing to the proximity of that State to the 
 slave region, and they were conducted with almost 
 incredible brutality. Kentucky, too, witnessed 
 many dreadful scenes, of hunting, torture and 
 murder of negroes who were trying to escape 
 from bondage. These things came directly under 
 Mr. Elaine s observation, and filled his mind with 
 wrath and with a stern determination to make his 
 life-work tell for freedom. 
 
66 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 During his life in Philadelphia, the young profes 
 sor witnessed the triumph of the pro-slavery De 
 mocracy in the National election of 1852, and the 
 commencement of the dreadful struggle in Kan 
 sas. Three of the chief party leaders, Clay, 
 Webster and Calhoun, had died, and others were 
 coming forward to take their places. The Whig 
 party was on the verge of dissolution, and the 
 Republican party was rising into importance. 
 Congress, by its conduct over the Kansas-Ne 
 braska bill, had practically invited a physical con 
 flict in those territories. The invitation was ac 
 cepted. New England colonists flocked thither, 
 as permanent settlers, determined to keep Kan 
 sas free, by force of arms if need be ; and Mis 
 souri "border ruffians" also went thither, equally 
 determined, by force of arms, to impose slavery 
 upon the young Commonwealth. This bloody con 
 flict was just fairly begun when, in 1854, Mr. 
 Blaine removed from Philadelphia to Augusta, 
 and, becoming one of the editors of The Kennebec 
 
 o 
 
 Journal, began to exert upon public affairs the 
 influence of his brain and pen. 
 
 The State of Maine was at that time a more 
 important member of the Union than it is at the 
 present time ; not that it has declined, but that 
 other portions of the country have so greatly in 
 creased in population and influence. Its news 
 papers ranked high as exponents of political prin 
 ciples and leaders of public thought. And among 
 
THE EDITOR. 67 
 
 them The Kennebec Journal occupied a prominent 
 position. It was, indeed, the most important paper 
 in that part of the State. William H. Wheeler and 
 William H. Simpson were its owners, the former 
 being also its chief editor. In the fall of 1854, 
 Mr. Wheeler retired, selling his interest to his 
 partner, and almost immediately afterward, Mr. 
 Simpson disposed of the entire property to Joseph 
 Baker and James G. Elaine. Mr. Elaine w^as as 
 sisted in the operation by his wife s brother, Jacob 
 Stanwood, of Augusta. The new firm took pos 
 session of the paper on November 10, 1854, 
 and made the following editorial announcement 
 of their purposes : 
 
 "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, temper 
 ance, river and harbor improvement within Con 
 stitutional limits, 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 com 
 mon schools of the State and city, * We 
 shall devote a department of our paper each 
 v;eek to religious intelligence of all kinds, and 
 desire that our friends of all denominations will 
 consider themselves invited freely to communicate 
 
68 JAMES G. 8LAINE. 
 
 anything in this department which they wish to have 
 made public, particularly notices of religious con 
 ventions, ordinations and meetings of such kind." 
 
 This editorial was doubtless from the pen of 
 Mr. Elaine, who became the principal leader-writer 
 of The Journal. His articles were, in matter and 
 in style, entirely characteristic. They were 
 marked by the utmost clearness and directness of 
 statement, by cogent and convincing logic, and 
 by great earnestness and courage. He never 
 shrank from controversy on matters of political 
 principle, and he almost never failed to cover his 
 antagonists with confusion. He never waited to 
 see what the drift of public sentiment would be 
 before committing the paper to a certain policy, 
 but unhesitatingly spoke out for the course which 
 he deemed right, regardless of fear or favor. 
 And while his ability to array facts and figures 
 and arguments was extraordinary, he had also the 
 happy gift of inspiring his readers with that in 
 tense earnestness and enthusiasm that dominated 
 his own nature. 
 
 A volume might readily be compiled from his 
 writings in The Journal, a volume of genuine and 
 permanent interest. There is space in the pres 
 ent work for only a few brief quotations. Here 
 is one, introducing the Hon. Cassins M. Clay to 
 the Northern public. Mr. Clay had come to New 
 England to lecture on the question of slavery, 
 and the relation of the Federal Government to 
 
THE EDITOR. 69 
 
 that institution. Mr. Elaine had learned much of 
 him during his residence in Kentucky, and wrote 
 of him in The Journal as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Clay stands in the front rank of the 
 opponents of slavery, and has taken that position, 
 not with the applause of friends and cheers of 
 approbation from the crowd, but with the loss of 
 good name at home and the sundering of many 
 personal ties, and even more, with imminent peril 
 to life and limb, tie braves it all unquailed, 
 though, for he is a man of true moral heroism and 
 undaunted personal bravery. When he first as 
 sumed his anti-slavery position in Kentucky, they 
 tried to bribe him with office and place. The 
 Whigs offered him the Lieutenant- Governorship, 
 and then a seat in Congress as Representative, 
 with the reversion of John J. Crittenden s Sena 
 torial chair. But he scorned their offers, for he 
 was earnest and conscientious in his opposition to 
 slavery. They next tried force, and mobbed his 
 printing office and carried off his press to Cincin 
 nati, like brave men, while Clay was confined to 
 his room with serious illness ; and when all these 
 demonstrations were ineffectual, they resorted to 
 personal violence and hired assassins to seek his 
 blood but all in vain ; he has conquered even 
 Kentucky, and is stronger this day than at any 
 other time of his life. 
 
 "As a speaker, Mr. Clay is very earnest and 
 persuasive ; not polished either in manner or 
 
70 JAMES "G. ELAINE. 
 
 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. 
 
 4< 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 
 resembles ex- Vice-President Dallas, who always 
 ranked as the finest-looking man on Pennsylvania 
 avenue." 
 
 A few days later an act of the Legislature of 
 Indiana, then controlled by the pro-slavery party, 
 roused his ire, and he made these scathing com 
 ments upon it : 
 
 " It is not to be wondered at that a Legislature 
 which would send John Pettitto the United States 
 Senate would perform any other mean act which 
 a dishonest cupidity might instigate or suggest. 
 Accordingly it was reserved for that same honor 
 able body to enact a law in regard to the colored 
 citizens of their State, most oppressive in its daily 
 operations, and most. disgraceful from the motives 
 and reasons which induced its passage. Let us 
 give a brief history of it. 
 
 " Railroad connection between Louisville, Ky., 
 and Cincinnati has long been a desideratum, and 
 would years since have been accomplished but for 
 a jealousy which existed on the part of both cities 
 
THE EDITOR. /I 
 
 as to which side of the Ohio river the road should be 
 built on. For commercial reasons, each city and 
 section desired it should be on their side, while 
 the Kentuckians had an additional objection to its 
 going on the Northern side of the river in the 
 fact that a facility would be thereby afforded for 
 the escape of their slaves. They demanded some 
 security against this terrible danger, and the 
 Indiana Legislature quick to crook the preg 
 nant hinges of the knee that thrift might follow 
 fawning immediately responded to the desire 
 of their Kentucky neighbors by annexing a condi 
 tion to the charter of the railroad company that no 
 colored person should be admitted as a passenger 
 in their cars unless he produce evidence of his 
 freedom. 
 
 "The following account of a recent case under 
 the law, clipped from an exchange, will briefly ex 
 plain its operation and the odious construction by 
 which it is sustained : 
 
 " A colored man in Indiana lately brought suit 
 before a magistrate against the Jeffersonville 
 Railroad Company because they refused to admit 
 him to the cars as a passenger until he produced 
 evidence of his freedom. The justice awarded 
 him twenty dollars damages, but the company ap 
 pealed to the Circuit Court of Clarke county, 
 and a few davs a^o the decision was reversed. 
 
 O 
 
 The Court (which is a free State tribunal) held, 
 although the legal presumption is that all persons 
 
72 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 are free, yet the fact being 1 that some colored per 
 sons are not free, it is reasonable that the matter 
 should be settled in each case at the time the col 
 ored person applies for his seat. 
 
 " Could any argument, pretending to the dig 
 nity of a ground for legal decision, be more shal 
 low or more disgraceful? Admitting, as the judge 
 does, that freedom must be the presumed state of 
 every man, he offsets all advantages arising from 
 that presumption by adding that as some colored 
 persons are not free, it is reasonable that the mat 
 ter should be settled in each case. What is the 
 presumption worth if it must be sustained every 
 time by positive evidence ? 
 
 "Such legislation is in strong contrast with the 
 course pursued by the Ohio Legislature in 1847, 
 when the subject of granting to a company the 
 right to construct a bridge across the Ohio river 
 at Cincinnati, came before them. The Kentucky 
 Legislature, from whom the right had been ob 
 tained, so far as they could grant it, had cum 
 bered the charter with such restrictions in regard 
 to colored people as made the Cincinnati com 
 pany and all their agents regular slave-catchers. 
 But one honorable course was left to the Ohio 
 Legislature, and they followed it manfully. They 
 refused the charter and reprobated in strong 
 terms, expressed in special resolution, an act 
 that would so fir compromise the honor and dig 
 nity of a great free State. Would that their 
 
THE EDITOR. 75 
 
 example had made a deeper impression on their 
 neighbors of Indiana. But we confess that we ex 
 pect little from that free State which will keep in 
 the Senate of the United States a notorious slave 
 holder, Jesse D. Bright, and a still more notorious 
 blackguard, John PetHt. We are really afraid 
 that their repudiation of the Nebraska treachery 
 was only a spasmodic effort, to be followed by a 
 lethargic supineness more fatal than actual wrong 
 doing. " 
 
 In the political campaign of 1852 there were 
 three parties in the field : the Democratic, op 
 posed to the agitation of the slavery question in 
 any form whatever, in Congress or out of it ; the 
 Whig, also discountenancing such agitation, and 
 holding to the Clay Compromise of 1850 as a fi 
 nality ; and the Free Soil, actively hostile to ex 
 tension of slavery and to all pro-slavery compro 
 mises. The Democratic party was well organized, 
 united and vigorous. The Whig party was on 
 the verge of disintegration ; and the Free Soil 
 party showed no promise of gaining ascendency 
 or indeed any important strength. But, as 
 already started, influences were at work, largely 
 in the Whig party in the Northern States, toward 
 the formation- of a new organization, distinctly 
 opposed to slavery and committed to the prohi 
 bition of its extension into any of the territories. 
 
 The Democrats were successful in the Presi 
 dential election of 1852, their candidate, Pierce, 
 5 
 
76 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 receiving 1,601,274 votes, against 1,386,580 for 
 Scott, Whig, and 155,825 for Hale, Free Soil. 
 Thereafter the decline of the Whig party was 
 greatly accelerated, and it did not strongly figure 
 again in a National contest. In 1854 the Ameri 
 can party developed some strength, its chief prin 
 ciple being hostility to the Roman Catholic 
 Church and to foreign influences in politics. Its 
 career was, however, short-lived. At the same 
 time the anti-slavery members of the Whig 
 party, the avowed Abolitionists, and the Free 
 Soilers began to come together on a common 
 platform, denying the right of any territorial Leg 
 islature to establish slavery, and declaring it the 
 right and the duty of Congress to admit Kansas as 
 a free State, and to insist upon freedom in all the 
 territories and in the new States that should 
 thereafter be admitted to the Union. Thus was 
 formed the organization known as the Republican 
 party. During 1854 and 1855 it developed con 
 siderable strength in various Northern States, 
 and in 1856 made its appearance in politics as a 
 National organization. To it Mr. Elaine gave 
 instant and most hearty allegiance. He was one 
 of its two or three chief organizers in the State of 
 Maine, and his newspaper was there its chief pub 
 lic exponent. The new party naturally met with 
 much opposition and incurred much hostile criti 
 cism at the very outset of its career. It was 
 charged with being a sectional organization, and 
 
THE EDITOR. 77 
 
 with threatening the disruption of the American 
 Union. Against these and similar attacks it 
 found in Mr. Blaine one of its most effective de 
 fenders. At the close of 1854, while the new 
 organization was still in a formative condition, he 
 wrote in The Kennebec Journal as follows, in re 
 ply to the comments of a contemporary on "The 
 Permanency of the Republican Party" : 
 
 "The whole history of parties and opinions in 
 the United States conclusively demonstrates that 
 they are of slow growth, and the result of much 
 toilsome effort and patient seed-growing. From 
 the adoption of the American Constitution in 1789 
 to 1 80 1 the same class of political opinions was 
 predominant in this government, and Washington 
 and the elder Adams \vere their exponents. Then 
 there was a revolution, and the Jeffersonian class 
 was inaugurated and continued more than twenty- 
 five years, till the opposition completely died out. 
 Then in 1829 the dynasty of Andrew Jackson 
 commenced, and, with only slight deviations, has 
 continued for about twenty-five years to the pres 
 ent time, till nearly every principle which was 
 originated under his administration has become 
 the settled and permanent judgment of the coun 
 try and been incorporated into its history and 
 practice. Time and experience have demon 
 strated their wisdom, or the elastic spirit of the 
 American people has closed over their scars, and 
 all opposition to them has gradually died out, and 
 
78 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 they have ceased to be issues of the present day. 
 In the meantime, and extending" back about 
 twenty years, new issues have sprung up. Cer 
 tain minds in the free States began to feel the 
 overwhelming influence of slavery in the govern 
 ment and to behold the disproportionate power it 
 wielded in the election and appointment of the 
 highest officers in the gift of the people, and were 
 alarmed at it. They began to raise their voices 
 of remonstrance against it through the press, the 
 pulpit and forum. It was but a small beginning, 
 but the men who conceived the anti-slavery enter 
 prise were not to be daunted by the vastness of 
 the evil they had attacked or the sneers and op 
 probrium that were heaped upon them, but with 
 firm hearts and unquailing faith they toiled on, in 
 the morning sowing the seed and at evening with 
 holding not their hand. At first they used only 
 the power of argument and facts, but by and by 
 the time came to carry this question to the ballot- 
 box and to wield its omnipotence to advance their 
 cause. This was in 1840. And thence taking a 
 new impulse, the movement went on, growing 
 little by little by small accretions as the coral 
 builds its mighty reefs, till the anti-slavery senti 
 ment had permeated and filled every vein and ar 
 tery, and incorporated itself into the whole moral 
 constitution of the free States. While this pro 
 cess was advancing on the one hand, the slave 
 power as if to illustrate the principle of the 
 
THE EDITOR. 79 
 
 ancients, whom the gods wish to destroy they first 
 made mad became, on the other hand, more 
 and more desperate in its demand, and, by the aid 
 of Northern subserviency, pushed its schemes of 
 subjugation from conquest to conquest over the 
 rights and equalities of the North, till at last they 
 culminated in the Nebraska act, that measure of 
 stupendous wrong and perfidy. Then it was that 
 all the anti-slavery seeds which twenty years of 
 toil, sacrifice and patience had disseminated 
 through the public mind burst out into an irre 
 pressible flame. The people had restrained these 
 sentiments for a long time, in hopes that the evil 
 would cease without violent remedies. They had 
 endured the compromise of 1850, bitter as it was, 
 the infamous Fugitive Slave act, and all ; but at last 
 endurance had ceased to be a virtue, and they 
 could endure no longer. They could no longer 
 smother the flame of liberty that \vas burning in 
 their breasts, and that, as The Merciiry says, 
 arises from the deepest-rooted feelings and prin 
 ciples of their natures, and can never go back 
 any more than the water of Niagara, that has 
 once plunged over the precipice, can go back. It 
 must live in the hearts it now animates. Its 
 growth has been slow twenty long years ; its de 
 cay will be equally slow. The great Republican 
 party that has suddenly developed itself on the 
 political theatre, embodying the anti-slavery sen 
 timent of the country as its leading characteristic, 
 
8O JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 when considered in its natural elements, in its his 
 tory and progress, or in the light of experience, 
 has every appearance of permanency and pro 
 gress. 
 
 "It does not, as The Mercury intimates, fore 
 shadow the dissolution of the Union, but its salva 
 tion. The slave States will never dissolve the 
 Union. They have too great a stake in its pres 
 ervation, for the arm of the Federal government 
 is absolutely necessary to keep them from insur 
 rection and massacre by the millions of slaves 
 now groaning under the accursed lash. But dis 
 solution, if it ever come, must come from the free 
 States, stript of their rights and degraded in the 
 government, as they have been for the last twenty 
 years, and goaded on to desperation by a con 
 tinuance and perpetual repetition of these aggres 
 sions. The Union will be saved by arresting the 
 gigantic strides of the slave power towards politi 
 cal supremacy, driving it back into its legitimate 
 sphere and restoring to the North its just and 
 equal rights. But that the other alternative, men 
 tioned by The Mercury, may not in the end result 
 from the permanent dominion of the Republican 
 party we are not prepared to deny ; on the con 
 trary, it is the hope of many an earnest heart, 
 that beats the warmest in this glorious movement, 
 that God in his wise Providence will make it the 
 instrumentality of the final extinction of slavery 
 in this Republic. In this hope we live and labor, 
 
THE EDITOR. 8 1 
 
 and will labor while we live, believing that a 
 country redeemed from the shame .and curse of 
 slavery, purified and restored to the Republi 
 canism of its palmy days, will be the richest legacy 
 we can leav^e to posterity. Drive rum as a bever 
 age from all avenues of society ; place the tide of 
 foreign immigration that is pouring in upon us 
 with such fearful power under proper restrictions 
 and in a course of education that shall prepare it, 
 as. the American citizen is now prepared, for the 
 high functions of freedom ; strike the fetters from 
 the limb of every slave that breathes in all the vast 
 domain, so that, from centre to circumference, 
 only the glad shout of liberty shall be heard, and 
 the smile of Providence will bless this land as it 
 never has been blessed, and the tide of national 
 prosperity and true , glory shall roll on from 
 generation to generation while time shall last." 
 A few weeks later he wrote again : 
 41 It can no longer be questioned that we have 
 in Maine a well-organized and powerful party, 
 which shares the sympathies and influence of a 
 decided majority of the people. That radical and 
 permanent causes have been operating for years 
 to bring about the present condition of things, is 
 so well known as to need no repetition. Ignored 
 and resisted, as those causes were, by selfish 
 schemers, personal aims, and the force of old 
 party watchwords, they increased yearly in 
 breadth and strength, until they have become one 
 
82 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 resistless current of public opinion, fed by the 
 various springs of moral and patriotic feelings, 
 which are so fresh and healthful in the social soil 
 of Maine, on which the ship of State is fairly 
 launched, with the flags of Temperance, Freedom 
 and American enterprise waving proudly at the 
 mast-head. The Republican party, therefore, is 
 not the creation of a few individuals, or the result 
 of tactics ; it is the production of moral ideas 
 which have vegetated in the consciences and 
 hearts of the people. It is pre-eminently the 
 child of ideas and of the people. Strong as these 
 ideas and their friends had shown themselves in 
 the political efforts of the two or three years past, 
 old political organizations had prevented the union 
 of men of like principles in one well-organized 
 party. The men were called by different names, 
 yet they had a common faith and common pur 
 poses. Their principles needed expression in a 
 common platform. The people desired one 
 political family and one organization. Right, ex 
 pediency and necessity called for a Convention. 
 What time more opportune and appropriate than 
 the birthday of Washington ? So ready were the 
 people for action, so manifest the necessity, that 
 a long notice was not required. 
 
 " The Convention of the twenty-second was 
 one of the most remarkable and interesting that 
 ever assembled in our State. The numbers in 
 attendance were very large not less than nine 
 
THE EDITOR. 83 
 
 or ten hundred. It was composed of the true 
 and influential portion of the people from all parts 
 of the State. Its members came in due propor 
 tion from all the former political parties, in names 
 of long-established reputation and worth, known 
 in the State and out of it ; in men possessing the 
 confidence and representing the convictions of 
 their respective vicinities, no political assemblage 
 ever held in the State surpassed the one of 
 last \veek. No body of men could be more 
 united in opinion and resolution. The enthusiasm 
 manifested was not a sudden and transitory feel 
 ing, but was the result of a calm, yet intense con 
 viction that a new era had arrived in the politics 
 of the State and the Nation, that high and solemn 
 duties are now devolving- on our citizens. The 
 
 o 
 
 resolutions and the speeches indicated the spirit 
 and the purpose of the Republican party. The 
 remarks of Edward Kent, the President of the 
 Convention, on taking the chair, were able, well- 
 timed, and square up to the faith and determina 
 tion of a large majority of the people of the 
 State, at the present time. As to the candidate 
 for nomination there was but one opinion. There 
 is one man, who by his past course, his principles 
 and his devotion to them, his courage and iron- 
 willed resolution at the right time, has so endeared 
 himself to a majority of the people that the R& 
 publicans demanded his nomination with an en 
 thusiasm which could not well be surpassed. 
 
84 JAMES C. BLAINE. 
 
 Rightfully, by popular will, is Anson P. Morrill 
 to be the candidate of the Republicans next Sep 
 tember. Even against his strongest personal 
 wishes, the friends of Temperance, Freedom and 
 truly American ideas, would demand that he 
 should be their standard-bearer. As to the prin 
 ciples of the platform, expressed by the Resolu 
 tions, we trust they will meet the warmest ap 
 proval of all true Republicans. They are plainly 
 in consonance with our position as the people of a 
 free State, with our constitutional rights and our 
 relations to the Union. They recognize the laws 
 of God, Liberty and Humanity, as above, yet not 
 in conflict, but in harmony with the laws of the 
 State and all allowable laws of the Nation. They 
 demand that the people, and not the thee hundred 
 and fifty thousand nobles, shall control the Gov 
 ernment of the country. They demand that the 
 freedom, intelligence, moral interests, enterprise, 
 labor and property of twenty millions of citizens 
 shall be the controlling force of the Government, 
 instead of an audacious, haughty and demoral 
 ized class who constitute less than one-sixtieth of 
 the Nation. The doctrines of the Resolutions may 
 strongly resemble the Whig doctrines of the 
 American Resolution. They may be like the 
 Democratic ideas of Thomas Jefferson. They 
 express the principles and the settled determina 
 tion of the Republicans of Maine, and, as we be 
 lieve, of that great and truly national party which 
 
THE EDITOR. 85 
 
 is so rapidly gathering numbers, strength and 
 prestige, which is to march into power in 1856, 
 and bring the Government back to the purity and 
 the ideas of its founders, and thus demonstrate to 
 the world that the American people have not for 
 gotten their history, are not blind to what should 
 be the solution of the problem of American des 
 tiny." 
 
 The first National Convention of the Republi 
 can party was held in June, 1856, in the city of 
 Philadelphia. Mr. Elaine was fittingly sent to it 
 as a delegate from the State of Maine and he was 
 chosen one of its Secretaries. The Convention 
 was a heterogeneous body, comprising members 
 of both the old parties and representing all shades 
 of anti-slavery opinion. But it met for a single 
 purpose, upon which all its members were heartily 
 agreed, and to which not one of them was more 
 earnestly devoted than was the brilliant young 
 editor from Augusta. Nor was there much con 
 troversy concerning the candidate who should be 
 put forward for the Presidency. William H. 
 Seward, of New York, was the most conspicuous 
 man there and was the undisputed leader of the 
 anti-slavery Whigs. But he did not desire the 
 nomination, nor did his friends desire to urge it 
 upon him. He and they were agreed that it was 
 best for him and for the new party that he should 
 remain in the United States Senate. Salmon P. 
 Chase was also a conspicuous leader of the young 
 
86 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 party, but neither did he desire to be its candidate 
 for the Presidency at that time, preferring to fill a 
 chair in the Senate. Justice McLean, of the 
 Supreme Court, was mentioned as a candidate, 
 especially by the older and more conservative 
 element. But the majority of the Convention 
 regarded him as belonging too much to the past. 
 A young and energetic man, a man who belonged 
 to the future, was required. Such a candidate 
 was found in John Charles Fremont, an anti- 
 slavery Democrat, a Senator from California, a 
 gallant army officer, and a noted explorer of the 
 Rocky Mountain region. He was nominated on 
 the first ballot, and the ticket was completed by 
 the nomination, also on the first ballot, of William 
 L. Dayton for Vice-President, his principal rival 
 being Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The work of the Convention was eminently 
 satisfactory to the adherents of the Republican 
 party throughout the Union, and its nominations 
 were ratified by public mass-meetings in almost 
 every city and town throughout the North. Gov 
 ernor Morrill and Mr. Elaine, the leaders of the 
 Maine delegation, were greeted with such a dem 
 onstration on their return to Augusta, on Satur- 
 
 o 
 
 day, June 2ist. At that meeting Mr. Morrill made 
 the principal address. After him came Mr. 
 Blaine, who on that occasion made his first impor 
 tant public speech. He took his place at the 
 front of the platform with considerable trepidation. 
 
THE EDITOR. 87 
 
 But after his first few sentences he became 
 fired with enthusiasm for his subject, and for half 
 an hour he spoke fearlessly and eloquently. He 
 arraigned both of the old parties mercilessly for 
 their attitude on the slavery question, and por 
 trayed the Republican party as the organization 
 that must thenceforth dominate National politics, 
 creditably solve the great issue of the day, and 
 make the American Union in fact as well as in 
 name a land of universal freedom. This speech 
 inspired every member of the audience with the 
 enthusiasm that the speaker himself so evidently 
 felt, and it marked Mr. Elaine at once as a 
 natural orator who was destined to be as much a 
 leader of thought upon the platform as he was 
 already in the editorial columns of his newspaper. 
 During all that campaign Mr. Elaine was one of 
 the most effective workers for the Republican 
 ticket, both with pen and voice. Young as he 
 was, he made himself the most conspicuous party 
 leader in the State. And although, as indeed 
 was expected, Fremont and Dayton were defeated, 
 the Republican party was established on a perma 
 nent foundation, with a bright promise of success 
 in the next National contest ; and in no State was 
 its organization made more complete or more effi 
 cient than in Maine, under the guidance and inspi 
 ration of the editor of The Kennebec Journal. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1855, Mr. Eaker 
 sold his share in The Kennebec Journal to Mr. 
 
88 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 John L. Stevens, with whom Mr. Elaine at once 
 formed a new partnership. Mr. Stevens assumed 
 the business management of the paper and Mr. 
 Blaine remained in the editorial chair. In addi 
 tion to his strictly editorial duties Mr. Blaine also 
 undertook to report the proceedings of the State 
 Senate for the paper, and in that difficult task was 
 eminently successful. He showed himself a per 
 fect master of all the details of Legislative work 
 in every department, and gave to his readers a 
 lucid and comprehensive account of everything of 
 importance that was done. At the same time he 
 maintained the full vigor of his editorial writings, 
 as may be seen from the following, which was 
 printed in February, 1855, on the re-election of 
 Mr. Seward as United States Senator from New 
 York : 
 
 " The prayer of the freeman is answered. A 
 question of the highest importance, the right de 
 cision of which for months has excited the deep 
 est solicitude, has been solved to the joy of pa 
 triotic Americans and for the welfare of the 
 public. By the force of his own character as a 
 man and a statesman, and of the moral and 
 political principles which he represented and in 
 him centred, William H. Seward has been re- 
 elected to the American Senate by the State 
 which in her earlier days gave the Nation a Clin 
 ton, a Livingston, a Jay, a Hamilton, and which now 
 with her population, her resources and strength 
 
THE EDITOR. 89 
 
 increased twenty-fold, bears up in her arms 
 freedom s great leader against traitors at home 
 and storms of relentless opposition from abroad. 
 The heart of the nation throbs at the event which, 
 amid exultation and congratulations, lightning and 
 steam are announcing to the true men of this 
 whole continent and of the civilized world. The 
 contest through which he has passed is without 
 parallel in the history of this country. We have 
 waited until the clouds of the conflict were passing 
 away and the cannon of rejoicing had ceased, to 
 express our exultant gratitude at the event to which 
 we have looked forward with the strongest hope 
 and in regard to which, for a brief hour, we had 
 fears. It was our fortune to be in New York city 
 last October when the Union Convention had its 
 session. Mingling quietly with the throngs that 
 crowded the hotels from all parts of the Empire 
 State, we learned much of the real purpose of 
 the men who controlled the deliberations and 
 plans of that Convention. We became satisfied 
 that the guiding purpose of the combinations there 
 made was not love for American principles, not 
 reform in the naturalization laws, but the defeat 
 of Myron H. Clark, and through that result the 
 political annihilation of William H. Seward. 
 Hards, Softs and Silver Grays joined hands, with 
 nothing else to unite them but indifference to 
 freedom and a common hatred of its leading 
 champion. We saw that the influence of tens of 
 
90 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 thousands of good men was to be converted to 
 uses foreign to true American principles, and, if 
 successful, disastrous to the position which New 
 York holds among her sister States, in respect 
 to that great issue now before us, whether free 
 dom or slavery shall rule the destiny of this 
 nation. 
 
 " Reviewing the field, we saw that nothing but 
 Mr. Se ward s naked strength and the devotion of 
 the people of the Empire State to him and to his 
 principles could rescue him from the combined 
 array against him. We watched the contest with 
 the deepest solicitude. Four months have passed. 
 The coalition of wickedness culminated. The bat 
 tle is over. The great American statesman is 
 unscathed, and now occupies a prouder elevation 
 before his countrymen than ever before, and a 
 serener and broader future is his secure. Never 
 since the establishment of the Republic has there 
 been a greater necessity for a leading statesman 
 of far-seeing vision, of heroic, unyielding will, of 
 courage that no threat or danger can blanch, 
 of genius to organize and guide. God s neces 
 sity in the affairs of men is always realized in his 
 tory. We trust the friends of Mr. Seward will 
 not misunderstand the cause and the meaning of 
 his triumph. His election is not the success or the 
 defeat of the old political organizations. His bit 
 terest and ablest foes are among those who claim 
 to belong to the party with which he labored from 
 
THE EDITOR. 93 
 
 its formation to the hour of its final overthrow. 
 Many of his ablest and most devoted friends and 
 supporters have belonged to the Democratic 
 party. In reality his election has been secured 
 by that party which has been gathering 1 numbers 
 and strength from all former organizations, 
 which has arisen a young giant, soon to be the 
 Hercules to drive the monsters from the national 
 capital and trample under its feet the serpents 
 and vipers which have alarmed and bitten the 
 sons of liberty and poisoned and checked the 
 growth of the best plants of American civiliza 
 tion. Not as the champion of an effete and a 
 rapidly dissolving party, but as a great statesman 
 and sworn defender of freedom and the Union, 
 he finds congenial fellowship with Chase, Sum 
 mer, Wade, Fessenden, Hamlin, King, Johnson, 
 Wilson, Strong, Hall, Durkee and that whole 
 school of vigorous and determined men of com 
 mon blood and aim, who are by the will of God 
 and the people to make it historical fact, ere 1860, 
 that slavery is sectional and temporary, that free 
 dom is national and universal, and that American 
 principles shall rule to the exclusion of ideas and 
 elements which had their birth amid the feudal 
 institutions and the despotism of the old world/ 
 The caustic quality of the same pen is strik 
 ingly observable in an editorial published a month 
 later on the adjournment of the Thirty-third Con 
 gress. That body had been dominated by the 
 
94 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 pro-slavery element, and had committed many 
 acts that were most repugnant to public sentiment 
 throughout the free States. Of it and of its re 
 cord, and of the prospects for the future, Mr. 
 Elaine wrote : 
 
 " The first days of March have been auspicious 
 not alone as indicating a pleasant spring and a 
 favorable season for the husbandman, but they 
 came loaded w r ith providential blessings to the 
 American people in that they give riddance to 
 that body of men whom, by the necessities of the 
 case, we must denominate the Thirty-third Con 
 gress of the United States. It is an event that 
 should give the nation mingled feelings of shame 
 and rejoicing shame that the free suffrages of 
 the people should have elected to high and sol 
 emn trusts men so wanting in right qualification, 
 true patriotism and elevated characters as a ma 
 jority of that body has shown itself rejoicing 
 that it is beyond their power longer to disgrace the 
 capitol by their corruptions, their reckless auda 
 city, and their conspiracies against liberty and 
 the broadest and best interests of the Union. If 
 the people of England had reason for joy when 
 Oliver Cromwell drove the rump Parliament out 
 of doors and told its members to begone to their 
 homes, how much more should the citizens of free 
 America manifest their pleasure that time in its 
 long-suffering mercy had put an end to the power 
 of the men who have violated solemn compacts, 
 
THE EDITOR. 95 
 
 struck down the sacred landmarks established by 
 the fathers of the Republic, and committed the 
 government of the country to the principles and 
 policy of a depotism worthy of Rome in her dark 
 est days. A Congress that passed the Kansas 
 and Nebraska bill, and gave so many proofs of a 
 want of elevated patriotism as the one just termi 
 nated, would have been ready to elect a monarch 
 or surrender the Republic for an empire, if sur 
 rounded by circumstances and pressed by events 
 favoring the exchange. How much of infamy be 
 longs to the existing National Administration we 
 need not now affirm. Enough and dark as night 
 is the part for which God and history will hold it 
 responsible. Two long years more we must en 
 dure its power and its debasement, though it may 
 be hoped that a righteous discipline and the nerve 
 and high resolves of the new Republican House 
 of Representatives may keep it from going fur 
 ther down those deeps to which its present ani 
 mus and impetus would carry it. But our remarks 
 now respect the termination of the Thirty-third 
 Congress. Only of that can we say our sorrows 
 are past. How many and deep these sorrows 
 how much the nation has lost by the littleness and 
 want of political justice and true statesmanship on 
 the part of the controlling majority of the Con 
 gress just closed, posterity and the future histo 
 rian alone can tell. Sufficient unto the day is the 
 evil thereof. Our hope for the future is that the 
 
g6 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 evil will cure itself, that the wickedness has cul 
 minated, ?nd the reaction is fast bringing the con 
 trol of the iiati jn into purer and stronger hands. 
 Did we not so hope, we should regard the days 
 of the Republic numbered. For such utter defi 
 ance of the laws of humanity ; such prostitution 
 of solemn trust and opportunities ; such open and 
 unblushing violations of the spirit and intent of 
 our American institutions, unless arrested by the 
 might of the people s will and the strong arms of 
 patriotic statesmen, must end in the nation s night 
 and desolation. In speaking as we have of the 
 majority of Congress just passed from power, of 
 course we design no reflection on those true men 
 
 o 
 
 who have stood up manfully against threats and 
 bribes in the defence of the Constitution and the 
 law? ; sacred engagements and the assaulted and 
 scouted principles of liberty and humanity, on 
 which the Republic is based, and in love of which 
 only it can endure. All praise to that noble band 
 whose names we need not call. The nation will 
 remember them. An approving constituency 
 will receive them warmly to their homes and 
 give them the meed of approbation for labors 
 well performed and solemn trusts faithfully 
 held." 
 
 At about the same time he wrote as follows of 
 the troubles in Kansas, for which that same 
 Thirty-third Congress had been chiefly respon 
 sible : 
 
THE EDITOR. 97 
 
 " The opening spring and coming summer will 
 be important and exciting eras in the history of 
 Kansas Territory, and will probably witness the 
 close of the struggle which is to consign that fine 
 land to the curse of human slavery or dedicate it 
 forever to freedom. The newspapers established 
 at different points in the territory are already 
 waging war fiercely the free press battling man 
 fully for the rights of humanity, and the slave 
 press as earnestly, if not as ably and honestly, 
 working for the introduction and permanent en- 
 graftment of the peculiar institution. The pro- 
 slavery party are very bitter against Governor 
 Reeder. They cannot forgive him for showing 
 the impulses of an honest heart, and the courage 
 of a bold one, in the stand he took in regard to 
 the frauds practised in the election of congress 
 ional delegate last fall. They find to their sore 
 discomfiture, that in the Governor they have 
 caught a tartar when they were least looking 
 for one. Identified, as Reeder always was in 
 Pennsylvania, with the hardest of the hard-shell 
 Democrats, and appointed to his present place at 
 the solicitation and by the influence of Senator 
 Broadhead, who voted in favor of the Nebraska 
 bill, the Southern party thought they had secured 
 the game in their own hands, when such a man 
 was selected for Governor. Such also we know 
 was the prevalent belief in Pennsylvania at th~ 
 time of Reeder s appointment. The more credit, 
 
98 JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 
 therefore, is due to him for breaking away from 
 the corrupt influences which pressed upon him 
 and coming out boldly in favor of freedom. 
 
 " Atchison, who is the recognized leader of the 
 
 o 
 
 pro-slavery forces, is again in the territory at 
 tending to the spring elections, and using all his 
 efforts to have them carrie.l, as they were in the 
 past autumn, by the imported desperadoes of 
 Missouri. As an offset to these adverse forces, 
 we have encouraging accounts of the success of 
 
 o r> 
 
 the emigration societies, who have great hopes of 
 throwing into the territory, during the approach 
 ing summer, a sufficient number of earnest 
 
 o 
 
 Northern freemen to counterbalance all the cor 
 rupt influence of the Missouri frontiersmen, and 
 to outvote them at the election in the fall. A 
 party of seventy-six left Boston on the 6th inst., 
 and are already in the territory. A much larger 
 party, though we do not know the exact number, 
 was to have left on Tuesday, to be followed by a 
 third on Friday. These emigrants will meet large 
 numbers from the^ States of New York, Pennsyl 
 vania and Ohio, who will reach the territory even 
 in advance of them, and unite cordially with them 
 in their labors in behalf of freedom. These 
 emigration societies form the strong lever with 
 which the North must work to keep the slave 
 power from our territories. They deserve at our 
 hands aid and encouragement not that we would 
 advise any one to leave our own good State or a 
 
THE EDITOR. 99 
 
 comfortable home and prosperous business else 
 where, but merely to direct those who are already 
 seeking a location in the far West, to the fertile 
 plains of Kansas, where, with unexcelled oppor 
 tunities for improving their personal condition, 
 they will find also the largest field for benefiting 
 their fellow-men by assisting in the foundation of 
 a great and freejState." 
 
 In the summer of 1858, Mr. Elaine retired from 
 the editorship of The Kennebec Journal, and re 
 moved for a short time from Augusta to Portland, 
 where he became the editor of The Portland Ad 
 vertiser, an important and influential paper. Here 
 his work was characterized by the same features 
 that had marked it at Augusta, and he showed 
 himself possessed of all the qualities that go to 
 make up a successful journalist. - His remarkable 
 memory of facts, figures, names and places was 
 of immense service to him ; so were his quickness 
 and accuracy of judgment ; so were his earnest 
 ness and enthusiasm ; so were his courage, his 
 fair-mindedness, and the aggressive spirit that 
 made him such a successful leader of his own 
 party and such a terror to his foes. 
 
 The days of his life in the sanctum were, how 
 ever, numbered. The people of Augusta were 
 too strongly attached to him to allow him to re 
 main long at Portland. If they could not have 
 him among them as an editor, they whould have 
 him as a legislator. Accordingly, in September, 
 
100 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 1858, they elected him as their representative in 
 the State Legislature ; and they re-elected him 
 again in 1859 and 1860 ; so that he served in the 
 three Legislatures of 1859, 1860, 1861, in the last 
 two being -Speaker of the House of Representa 
 tives. The same qualities which had given him 
 success as a teacher, and as an editor, also gave 
 him success as a legislator. He showed himself 
 a master of Parliamentary law, a close student of 
 public affairs, an unerring judge of men and 
 of measures, an eloquent orator, and an irresist 
 ible debater. As the presiding officer of the 
 House, he was eminently dignified, impartial and 
 authoritative. He never hesitated in making his 
 decisions on points of order, and the justness of 
 them was seldom disputed. When he retired 
 from the State capitol to enter the more import 
 ant field offered by the National Legislature, he 
 carried with him the respect and the good wishes 
 of all his associates. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 
 
 Some of His Colleagues in His First Term Relations with President 
 Lincoln Speeches on the Draft, the Enrolment, and Other Topics 
 Defence of the State of Maine Opposition to the Greenback Craze 
 Three Terms in the Speakership A Lively Controversy with General 
 Butler The Salary Grab Leader of the Minority A Strong Declara 
 tion of Political Principles Close of His Career as a Representative. 
 
 " It is not a good thing," said Abraham Lincoln, 
 "to swap horses while crossing a stream." The 
 observation is as truthful as it is simple, and as im 
 portant as it is homely. Its original application was 
 to the Chief Executive, and to the general policy of 
 the Administration. But it might have been ap 
 plied with equal fitness, and indeed was in great 
 measure tacitly applied, to leadership in the Na 
 tional Legislature. During the War of the Rebel 
 lion, the Republican party dominated all branches 
 of the Government. It had elected its Presidential 
 candidate, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860. It had also 
 elected a majority of each House of Congress, a 
 majority that was greatly strengthened by the 
 resignation and departure of the disloyal mem 
 bers from the seceding States. These Republican 
 Senators and Representatives included, naturally, 
 many who were new to public life ; and other new 
 recruits were returned at the elections of 1862. 
 
 101 
 
102 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 They included, however, a considerable number 
 of experienced, meri/who, as members of one or 
 the other of the old parties, had for years been 
 eminent in the public service. These latter were 
 in office both before and at the outbreak of the 
 war; they were responsible for the policy of the 
 dominant party, and for the attitude it had as 
 sumed and had caused the Government to assume 
 toward the insurgents ; and it was, therefore, most 
 wise and fitting that they should retain the leader 
 ship until the restoration of peace, and that their 
 younger colleagues, no matter how great their 
 ability, should be content for the time to follow 
 them, rather than strive for the supreme 
 command. 
 
 Thus it came to pass that Mr; Elaine, who was 
 elected in 1862, and in 1863 took his seat as a 
 Representative in the Thirty-eighth Congress, did 
 not at once spring into that prominence for which 
 his genius amply fitted him. The files of The 
 Congressional Globe, for that Congress and the 
 succeeding Congress, contain few speeches made 
 by him ; and the few that he did make were brief, 
 though always pointed and effective. Yet it was 
 evident to the careful observer that he was stand 
 ing for a time in the background only through 
 personal choice, and that presently, when he 
 deemed the occasion propitious, he would easily 
 step at once into the foremost ranks of co ntem- 
 porary statesmen. 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 103 
 
 In 1 862, the affairs of the Nation were in a most 
 critical condition, and loyal men everywhere 
 throughout the country saw that it was necessary 
 to send only the ablest and staunchest patriots to 
 Washington to conduct the affairs of the Govern 
 ment. Accordingly, the Republicans of the 
 Kennebec district of Maine unanimously selected 
 Mr. Elaine as their candidate for Congress. It 
 was largely owing to his own leadership that that 
 district, and indeed the entire State, had been 
 made overwhelmingly Republican, and it was, 
 therefore, only a fitting recognition of his services 
 that he was elected by a majority of 3,422. 
 Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, was then the 
 unchallenged leader of the House, and amon^ 
 
 O > 
 
 Mr. Blaine s colleagues were Roscoe Conklino-, 
 
 o i> 
 
 Schuyler Colfax, James F. Wilson, William B. 
 Allison, James A. Garfield, Samuel J. Randall, 
 William D. Keiley, Elihu B. Washburne, Owen 
 Lovejoy, George W. Julian, Godlove S. Orth, John 
 A. Kasson, Henry L. Dawes, William Windom, 
 Alexander H. Rice, Frank P. Blair, Jr., Erastus 
 Corning, James Brooks, Robert C. Schenck, 
 Reuben E. Fenton, George H. Pendleton, Francis 
 Kernan, G. W. Scofield, and many others who 
 have since been eminent in the councils of the 
 Nation. 
 
 During his first term in Congress, Mr. Blaine 
 was a member of four committees, those on Rules, 
 Appropriations, Military Affairs, and the Post- 
 
104 /AMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Office, and he quickly won a reputation as an ex 
 ceedingly careful and industrious committeeman. 
 He paid close attention to the practical work of 
 framing legislation in the committee-rooms, and 
 in debate on the floor of the House proved him 
 self a worthy compeer of his associates. His first 
 important speech was on the subject of the as 
 sumption by the General Government of the war 
 debts of the States. He took the ground that 
 the North was abundantly able to prosecute the 
 war to a successful issue, and so highly esteemed 
 was this speech that 200.000 copies of it were 
 circulated in 1864 as a campaign document. Re 
 ferring to the same speech, Thaddeus Stevens 
 said that during his own period of service at 
 Washington, no man had come to Congress 
 showing, in his opinion, as great ability for the 
 higher walks of public life as James G. Elaine. 
 
 The young representative from Maine was of 
 course an earnest supporter of the Administra 
 tion, and was a strong advocate of the renomina- 
 tion of President Lincoln. In respect to his re 
 lations with the President, Mr. Ward H. Lamon, 
 who was Marshal of the District of Columbia and 
 on terms of especial intimacy with Mr. Lincoln, 
 makes the following statement : 
 
 o 
 
 " I knew those who were Mr. Lincoln s friends 
 and those who were plotting against him, and I 
 am sure that there was no one among the younger 
 members of Congress on more intimate, cordial 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. IO$ 
 
 and confidential terms with him than Mr. Elaine, 
 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 campaign 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 Douglas, but would 
 beat Douglas for President in 1860. This letter 
 was copied in several Illinois papers, and Mr. 
 Lincoln cut it out and carried it in his small 
 memorandum book until long after he was inau 
 gurated as President. It naturally laid the founda 
 tion for cordial friendship between the two." 
 
 A few extracts from Mr. Elaine s remarks in 
 Congress during 1863 and 1864 will show his 
 patriotic attitude towards the great question of 
 the day. Regarding the draft of troops, for ex 
 ample, while he recognized the necessity of the 
 thing and supported the Government in its efforts 
 to bring the army up to the necessary size, he 
 deprecated the unnecessarily harsh provisions 
 
io6 AMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 advocated by some of his more extreme col 
 leagues, speaking on the subject as follows : 
 
 "A conscription is a hard thing at best, Mr. 
 Speaker, but the people of this country are patrioti 
 cally willing to submit to one in this great crisis 
 for the great cause at stake. There is no neces 
 sity, however, for making it absolutely merciless 
 and sweeping. I say, in my judgment, there is 
 no necessity for making it so, even if there were 
 no antecedent questions as to the expediency and 
 practicability of the measure. I believe the law 
 as it stands, allowing commutation and substitu 
 tion, is sufficiently effective, if judiciously enforced. 
 It will raise a large number of men by its direct 
 operation, and it will secure a very large amount 
 of money with which to pay bounties to volunteers. 
 
 "I cannot refrain from asking gentlemen 
 around me whether in their judgment the pending 
 measure, if submitted to the popular vote, would 
 receive the support of even a respectable minority 
 in any district in the loyal States? Just let it be 
 understood that whoever the lot falls on must go, 
 regardless of all business considerations, all 
 
 o 
 
 private interests, all personal engagements, all 
 family obligations ; that the draft is to be sharp, 
 decisive, final and inexorable,, without commuta 
 tion and without substitution, and my word for it 
 you will create consternation in all the loyal 
 States. Such a conscription- was never resorted 
 to but once, even in the French Empire under the 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. IO/ 
 
 absolutism of the first Napoleon, and for the Con 
 gress of the United States to attempt its enforce 
 ment upon their constituents is to ignore the first 
 principles of Republican and Representative 
 Government." 
 
 On an occasion near the close of the war, in a 
 speech on the Enrolment Bill, in February, 1865, 
 he spoke as follows in behalf of the soldiers in the 
 field: 
 
 "Nothing so discourages and disheartens the 
 
 C> O 
 
 brave men at the front as the belief that proper 
 measures are not adopted at home for re-enforcing 
 and sustaining them. Even a lukewarmness or 
 
 o 
 
 a backwardness in that respect is enough ; but 
 when you add to that the suspicion that unfair 
 devices have been resorted to by those charged 
 with filling quotas, you naturally influence the 
 prejudices and passions of our veterans in the 
 field, in a manner calculated to lessen their per 
 sonal zeal, and generally to weaken the discipline 
 of the army. After four years of such patriotic 
 and heroic effort for National unity as the world 
 has never witnessed before, we cannot now afford 
 to have the great cause injured, or its fair fame 
 darkened by a single unworthy incident connected 
 with it. The improper practices of individuals 
 cannot disgrace or degrade the Nation ; but after 
 these practices are brought to the attention of 
 Congress, we shall assuredly be disgraced and 
 degraded if we fail to apply the requisite remedy 
 
108 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 when that remedy is in our power. Let us, then, 
 in this hour of triumph to the National arms, do 
 our duty here, our duty to the troops in the field, 
 our duty to our constituents at home, and our 
 duty, above all, to our country, whose existence 
 has been in such peril in the past, but whose 
 future of greatness and glory seems now so as 
 sured and so radiant." 
 
 The following extract is from a speech on the 
 duties of the Federal Government toward the 
 Unionists in the rebel States : 
 
 "Among the most solemn duties of a sovereign 
 government is the protection of those citizens 
 who, under great temptations and amid great 
 perils, maintain their faith and their loyalty. The 
 obligation on the Federal Government to protect 
 the loyalists of the South is supreme, and they 
 must take all needful means to assure that pro 
 tection. Among the most needful is the gift of 
 free suffrage, and that must be guaranteed. 
 There is no protection you can extend to a man 
 so effective and conclusive as the power to protect 
 himself. And in assuring protection to the loyal 
 citizen, you assure permanency to the govern 
 ment, so that the bestowal of suffrage is not 
 merely the discharge of a personal obligation 
 toward those who are enfranchised, but it is the 
 most far-sighted provision against social disorder, 
 the surest guarantee for peace, prosperity and 
 public justice," 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. I I I 
 
 In one of the political controversies that marked 
 the proceedings of Congress in the summer of 
 1864, the Hon. S. S. Cox, then of Ohio, but after 
 ward of New York, made some remarks criticising 
 the State of Maine. Mr. Elaine considered them 
 most unjust, and quickly rose to the defence of 
 his adopted home. In the course of his reply to 
 Mr. Cox he said : 
 
 " If there be a State in this Union that can say 
 with truth that her federal connection confers no 
 special benefit of a material character, that State 
 is Maine, and yet, sir, no State is more attached 
 to the Federal Union than Maine. Her affection 
 and her pride are centred in the Union, and God 
 knows she has contributed of her best blood and 
 treasure without stint in supporting the war for 
 the Union, and she will do so to the end. But 
 she resents, and I, speaking for her, resent the 
 insinuation that she derives any undue advantage 
 from Federal legislation, or that she gets a single 
 dollar that she does not pay back. * * j have 
 spoken in vindication of a State that is as indepen 
 dent and as proud as any within the limits of the 
 Union. I have spoken for a people as high-toned 
 and as honorable as can be found in the wide world 
 many of them my constituents, who are as many 
 and as brave as ever faced the ocean s storms. So 
 long, sir, as I have a seat on this floor, the State 
 of Maine shall not be slandered by the gentleman 
 from Ohio, or by gentlemen from any other State." 
 
112 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 At another time, another attack was made upon 
 the State of Maine, in the Senate as well as in the 
 House, during a debate on the bill granting 
 bounties to the fisheries. On this occasion Mr. 
 Elaine said : 
 
 " A great deal has been said recently in the 
 other end of the capitol in regard to the fishing 
 bounties, a portion of which is paid to Maine. I 
 have a word to say on that matter, and I may as 
 well say it here. According to the records of 
 the Navy Department, the State of Maine has 
 sent into the naval service since the beginning of 
 this war, six thousand skilled seamen, to say 
 nothing of the trained and invaluable officers she 
 has contributed to the same sphere of patriotic 
 duty. For these men the State has received no 
 credit whatever on her quotas for the army. If 
 you will calculate the amount of bounty that 
 would have been paid to that number of men had 
 they enlisted in the army instead of entering the 
 navy, as they did without bounty, you will find 
 that it will foot up a larger sum than Maine has 
 received in fishing bounties for the past twenty 
 years. Thus, sir, the original proposition on 
 which fishing bounties were granted that they 
 would build up a hardy and skilled class of 
 mariners for the public defence in time of public 
 danger has been made good a hundred and a 
 thousand-fold by the experience and the develop 
 ments of this war." 
 
REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 1 1 3 
 
 In the fall of 1864, Mr. Elaine was elected for 
 a second term in Congress by a majority of 
 4,328. During this Thirty-ninth Congress he was 
 a member of several important committees and 
 took a more active and conspicuous part in the 
 business of the House than during his first term 
 Reconstruction of the Southern States came for 
 ward as a leading topic of legislation, and in 
 consideration and discussion of it he played an 
 important part. Early in January, 1866, he intro 
 duced a resolution on the subject of Congres 
 sional representation, which afterward became the 
 basis of that part of the Fourteenth Amendment 
 to the Constitution bearing upon that subjec- 
 Before that time, the tendency had been to appo 
 don Representatives according to the number c. 
 ictual voters. The change proposed and largel} 
 achieved by Mr. Elaine, based the apportionment 
 jf Representatives and direct taxes upon the 
 \vhole number of persons in each State, excluding 
 Indians not taxed. 
 
 Mr. Elaine s services at Washington more and 
 more commended him to the confidence of his 
 constituents in Maine ; and in the fall of 1866, he 
 was elected for a third term by the great majority 
 of 6,591. In the Fortieth Congress, which he thu<; 
 entered in the fall of 1867, he was a very conspicu^ 
 ous figure, and was occasionally called to occib 
 py temporarily the Speaker s chair. Said an 
 observant newspaper writer at this time : " Mr. 
 
114 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 
 
 Elaine is metallic ; you cannot conceive how a 
 shot should pierce him, for there seem 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 i6th 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 any 
 body else would stagger under. How he does 
 it, nobody knows. He is always in his place. 
 He must absorb details by assimilation at his 
 finger ends. As I said, he is clear metal. His 
 features are made in a mould ; his attitudes are 
 those of a bronze figure ; his voice clinks ; and 
 he has ideas fixed as brass." 
 
 At the very opening of this Congress, ques 
 tions of national finance became prominent. Mr. 
 Pendletori, of Ohio, proposed the payment of the 
 national bonds in greenbacks, thus beginning 
 what afterwards became the " greenback craze." 
 Mr. Elaine promptly took the floor in opposition 
 to this financial heresy, making the following 
 statesmanlike declaration of principles in favor of 
 upholding inflexibly the public credit and the 
 national faith : 
 
 "The remedy for our financial troubles, Mr. 
 Chairman, will not be found in a superabundance 
 of depreciated paper currency. It lies in the 
 
REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. I I 5 
 
 opposite direction ; and the sooner the Nation finds 
 itself on a specie basis, the sooner will the public 
 Treasury be free from embarrassment, and private 
 business relieved from discouragement. Instead, 
 therefore, of entering- upon a reckless and bound 
 less issue of legal tenders, with their consequent 
 depression, if not destruction of value, let us set 
 resolutely to work and make those already in cir 
 culation equal to so many gold dollars. When 
 that result shall be accomplished, we can proceed 
 to pay our five-twenties either in coin or paper, 
 for the one would be the equivalent of the other. 
 But to proceed deliberately on a scheme of de 
 preciating our legal tenders, and then forcing the 
 holders of Government bonds to accept them in 
 payment, would resemble in point of honor the 
 policy of a merchant who, with abundant resources 
 and prosperous business, should devise a plan for 
 throwing discredit on his own notes with the view 
 of having them bought up at a discount ruinous 
 to the holders and immensely profitable to his own 
 knavish pocket. This comparison may faintly 
 illustrate the wrongfulness of the policy, but not 
 its consummate folly ; for in the case of the Gov 
 ernment, unlike the merchant, the stern necessity 
 would recur of making good in the end, by the 
 payment of hard coin, all the discount that might 
 be gained by the temporary substitution of paper. 
 " Discarding all such schemes as at once un 
 worthy and unprofitable, let us direct our policy 
 
Il6 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 steadily, but not rashly, toward the resumption of 
 specie payment. And when we have attained 
 *Jiat end easily attainable at no distant day if the 
 proper policy be pursued we can all unite on 
 some honorable plan for the redemption of the 
 five-twenty bonds, and the issuing instead thereof 
 a new series of bonds which can be more favor 
 ably placed at a lower rate of interest. When 
 we shall have reached the specie basis, the value 
 of the United States securities will be so high in 
 *he money markets of the world, that we can 
 Command our own terms. We can then call in 
 rrr five-twenties according to the very letter and 
 \y-irit of the bond, and adjust a new loan that will 
 l^ eagerly sought for by capitalists, and will be 
 Nee from those elements of discontent, that in 
 some measure surround the existing funded debt 
 of the country." 
 
 When the political treason of President John 
 son precipitated a bitter conflict between him and 
 Congress, Mr. Elaine stood with his party against 
 the Administration, and favored the impeachment 
 of the President. He was a cordial supporter 
 of the Republican National Ticket in 1868, and 
 ;ifier its election made, on December 10, 1868, in 
 the House of Representatives, the following 
 prophecy and pledge of loyalty to the incoming 
 Executive : 
 
 " General Grant s Administration will have high 
 vantage ground from the day of its inauguration. 
 
REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 1 1 ; 
 
 Its responsibilities will indeed be great, its power 
 will be large, its opportunities will be splendid ; 
 and to meet them all we have a tried and true 
 man, who adds to his other great elements of 
 strength that of perfect trust and confidence on 
 the part of the people. And to reassure ourselves 
 of his executive character, if reassurance were 
 necessary, let us remember that great military 
 leaders have uniformly proved the wisest, firmest 
 and best of civil rulers. Cromwell, William III., 
 Charles XII., Frederick of Prussia, are not more 
 conspicuous instances in monarchical governments 
 than Washington, Jackson and Taylor have proved 
 in our own. Whatever, therefore, may lie before 
 us in the untrodden and often beclouded path of 
 the future whether it be financial embarrassment 
 or domestic trouble of another and more serious 
 type, or misunderstandings with foreign nations, 
 or the extension of our flag and our sovereignty 
 over insular or continental possessions, North or 
 South, that fate or fortune may peacefully offer to 
 our ambition let us believe with all confidence 
 that General Grant s Administration will meet 
 every exigency, with the courage, the ability and 
 the conscience which American nationality and 
 Christian civilization demand." 
 
 Mr. Elaine s election to a fourth term in Con 
 gress, in 1868, was a matter of course and was 
 effected by a majority of 3,346. When the new 
 House was organized on March 4, 1869, he was 
 
Il8 JAMES G. J3LAINZ. 
 
 the unanimous choice of the Republican members 
 for the Speakership and was promptly elected to 
 it by 135 votes against 57 for the Hon. Michael C. 
 Kerr, of Indiana, the Democratic candidate. Mr. 
 Elaine was at that time only thirty-nine years old. 
 But he had already shown himself the possessor 
 of those qualities of dignity, firmness, fairness, 
 readiness of decision, and complete knowledge of 
 parliamentary law and practice essential for the 
 correct performances of the duties of that respon 
 sible and exalted office. On taking the chair he 
 addressed his colleagues in the following terms : 
 " I thank you profoundly for the great honor 
 which you have just conferred upon me. The 
 gratification which this signal mark of your confi 
 dence brings to me finds its only drawback in the 
 dihidence with which I assume the weighty duties 
 devolved upon me. Succeeding to a chair made 
 illustrious by the services of such eminent states 
 men and skilled parliamentarians as Clay and 
 Stevenson, and Polk, and Winthrop, and Banks, 
 and Grow, and Colfax, I may well distrust my 
 ability to meet the just expectations of those who 
 have shown me such marked partiality. But relying, 
 gentlemen, on my honest purpose to perform all 
 my duties faithfully and fearlessly, and trusting in a 
 large measure to the indulgence which I am sure 
 you will always extend to me, I shall hope to re 
 tain, as I have secured, your confidence, your 
 kindly regard and your generous support. 
 
REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. I I 
 
 " The Forty- first Congress assembles at an aus 
 picious period in the history of our government. 
 The splendid and impressive ceremonial which 
 we have just witnessed in another part of the capi- 
 ol, appropriately symbolizes the triumphs of the 
 past and the hopes of the future. A great chief 
 tain, whose sword, at the head of gallant and vic 
 torious armies, saved the Republic from dismem 
 berment and ruin, has been fitly called to the 
 highest civic honor which a grateful people can 
 bestow. Sustained by a Congress that so ably 
 represents the loyalty, the patriotism and the 
 personal worth of the nation, the President this 
 day inaugurated will assure to the country an 
 administration of purity, fidelity and prosperity ; 
 an era of liberty regulated by law, and of law 
 thoroughly inspired with liberty. 
 
 " Congratulating you, gentlemen, upon the 
 happy auguries of the day, and invoking the 
 gracious blessing of Almighty God on the ardu 
 ous 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." 
 
 His performances of the duties of the Speaker- 
 ship amply justified the expectations and the 
 confidence of those who elected him to the office. 
 It was a period when political feeling ran high and 
 when the post of presiding officer was a difficult 
 one to fill Mr. Elaine succeeded in giving 
 
120 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 entire satisfaction to his own party, and at the 
 same time in giving" the opposition minority no 
 cause to complain. At the end of his two years of 
 service, his old opponent, Mr. Cox, who had now 
 become a representative from New York, offered 
 the following resolution: "In view of the diffi 
 culties involved in the performance of the duties 
 of the presiding officer of this House, and of the 
 able, courteous, dignified and impartial discharge 
 of those duties by the Hon. J. G. Elaine, during 
 the present Congress, it is eminently becoming 
 that our thanks be, and they hereby are tendered 
 to the Speaker thereof." In reply, Mr. Elaine 
 said : 
 
 " Our labors are at an end ; but I delay the final 
 adjournment long enough to return my most pro 
 found 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 assur 
 ance 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 the States have been represented 
 
REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. \ 2 1 
 
 on this floor since the baleful winter that pre 
 ceded our late bloody war. Ten years have 
 passed since then years of trial and triumph ; 
 years of wild destruction and years of careful re 
 building ; and after all, and 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. 
 
 "And now, gentlemen, with one more expres 
 sion of the obligation I feel for the considerate 
 kindness with which you have always sustained me, 
 I perform the only remaining duty of my office in 
 declaring, as I now do, that the House of Repre 
 sentatives of the Forty-first Congress is adjourned 
 without day." 
 
 The election of 1870 sent Mr. Blaine to the 
 House for a fifth term by a majority of 2,320, and 
 he was again made Speaker by the unanimous 
 vote of his party associates. He received 12^ 
 votes against 92 passed for George W. Morgan, 
 the Democratic candidate. His words on taking 
 the chair were as follows : 
 
 " The Speakership of the American House of 
 Representatives has always been esteemed as an 
 enviable honor. A re-election to the position 
 carries with it peculiar gratification, in that it 
 
122 JAMES G. flLAIXE. 
 
 implies an approval of past official bearing. For 
 this great mark of your confidence I can but re 
 turn to you my sincerest thanks, with the assur 
 ance of my utmost devotion to the duties which 
 you call upon me to discharge. 
 
 14 Chosen by the party representing the political 
 majority in this House, the Speaker owes a faith 
 ful 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 wholesome legislation 
 which this House produces and perfects is that 
 which results from opposing forces mutually 
 eager and watchful and well-nigh balanced in 
 numbers. 
 
 "The Forty-second Congress assembles at a 
 period of general content, happiness and pros 
 perity throughout the land. Under the wise 
 administration of the National Government peace 
 reigns in all our borders, and the only serious 
 misunderstanding with any foreign power is, we 
 may hope, at this moment in process of honor 
 able, cordial and lasting adjustment. We are 
 fortunate in meeting at such a time, in represent 
 ing such constituencies, in legislating for such a 
 country. 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 123 
 
 " Trusting, gentlemen, that our official inter 
 course may be free from all personal asperity, be 
 lieving 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 Constitu 
 tion and laws." 
 
 The activities of Mr. Elaine were by no means 
 confined to the Speaker s chair. He could not 
 properly go upon the floor of the House to take 
 part in debate and in shaping legislation, but he 
 was still a leader in the councils of his party. 
 Early in the first session^ of the Forty-second 
 Congress General Benjamin F. Butler, then a 
 Representative from Massachusetts, made a 
 bitter attack upon him for being the author 
 of a resolution just introduced, "providing for 
 an investigation into alleged outrages perpe 
 trated upon loyal citizens of the South." Mr. 
 Blaine at once left the chair and made reply, 
 and the colloquy that followed shows well his 
 readiness of repartee and the effective manner in 
 which he dealt with his opponents. Mr. Wheeler, 
 of New York, took the chair temporarily and 
 Mr. Blaine said : 
 
 " I desire to ask the gentleman from Massachu 
 setts (Mr. Butler) whether he denies to me the 
 right to have drawn that resolution ?" 
 
124 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 Mr. Butler. I have made no assertion on that 
 subject one way or the other. 
 
 Mr. Elaine. Did not the gentleman distinctly 
 know that I drew it? 
 
 Mr. Butler. No, sir. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. Did I not take it to the gentle 
 man and read it to him ? 
 
 Mr. Butler. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. Did I not show him the manu 
 script ? 
 
 Mr. Butler. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. In my own handwriting ? 
 
 Mr. Butler. No, sir. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. And at his suggestion I added 
 these words : " And the expenses of said com 
 mittee shall be paid from the contingent fund of 
 the House of Representatives" (applause), and 
 the fact that ways and means were wanted 
 to pay the expenses was the only objection he 
 made to it. 
 
 Mr. Butler. What was the answer the gentle 
 man made ? I suppose I may ask that, now that 
 the Speaker has come upon the floor. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. The answer was that I imme 
 diately wrote the amendment providing for the 
 payment of the expenses of the committee. 
 
 Mr. Butler. What was my answer ? Was it 
 not that under no circumstances would I have 
 anything to do with it, being bound by the action 
 of the caucus ? 
 
RE PRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 1 2 5 
 
 Mr. Blame. No, sir ; the answer was that 
 under no circumstances would you serve as chair 
 man. 
 
 Mr. Butler. Or have anything to do with the 
 resolution. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. There are two hundred and 
 twenty-four members of the House of Representa 
 tives. A committee of thirteen can be found 
 without the gentleman from Massachusetts being 
 on it. His service is not essential to the constitu 
 tion of the committee. 
 
 Mr. Butler. Why did you not find such a 
 committee, then ? 
 
 Mr. Blaine. Because I knew very well that if 
 I omitted the appointment of the gentleman it 
 would be heralded throughout the length and 
 breadth of the country, by the claquers who have 
 so industriously distributed this letter this morn 
 ing, that the Speaker had packed the committee, 
 as the gentleman said he would, with 4< weak- 
 kneed Republicans," who would not go into an 
 investigation vigorously, as he would. That was 
 the reason. (Applause.) So that the Chair laid 
 the responsibility upon the gentleman of declin 
 ing the appointment. 
 
 Mr. Butler. I knew that was the trick of the 
 Chair. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. Ah, the " trick!" We now know 
 what the gentleman meant by the word " trick." 
 I ara very glad to know the "trick" was successful. 
 
126 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Mr. Butler. No doubt. 
 
 Mr. Elaine. It is this " trick" which places the 
 gentleman from Massachusetts on his responsibil 
 ity before the country. 
 
 Mr. Butler. Exactly. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. Wholly. 
 
 Mr. Butler. Wholly. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. Now, sir, the gentleman from 
 Massachusetts talks about the coercion by which 
 fifty-eight Republicans were made to vote for the 
 resolution. I do not know what any one of them 
 may have to say, but if there be here to-day a 
 single gentleman who has given to the gentleman 
 of Massachusetts the intimation that he felt 
 coerced that he was in any way restrained from 
 free action, let him get up now and speak, or 
 forever after hold his peace. 
 
 Mr. Butler. Oh, yes. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. The gentleman from Massachu 
 setts says : " Having been appointed against my 
 wishes, expressed both publicly and privately, by 
 the Speaker, as chairman of a committee to 
 investigate the state of affairs in the South, 
 ordered to-day by Democratic votes, against the 
 most earnest protest of more than a two-thirds 
 majority of the Republicans of the House." 
 
 Mr. Butler. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. This statement is so bold and 
 groundless that I do not know what reply to make 
 to it. It is made in the face of the fact that on 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 129 
 
 the roll-call fifty-eight Republicans voted f>r the 
 resolution, and lorty-nine, besides the gentleman 
 from Massachusetts, against it. I deny that the 
 gentleman has the right to speak for any member 
 who voted for it, unless it may be the member 
 from Tennessee (Mr. Maynard), who voted for 
 it, for the purpose, probably, of moving a recon 
 sideration a very common, a very justifiable and 
 proper course whenever any gentleman chooses 
 to adopt it. I am not criticising at all. But if 
 there be any one of the fifty-eight gentlemen who 
 voted for the resolution under coercion I would 
 like the gentleman from Massachusetts to desig 
 nate him. 
 
 Mr. Butler. I am not here to retail private 
 conversations. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. Oh, no ; but you will distribute 
 throughout the entire country unfounded calum 
 nies purporting to rest upon assertions made in 
 private conversations, which, when called for, can 
 not be verified. 
 
 Mr. Butler. Pardon me, sir. I said there was 
 a caucus 
 
 Mr. Blaine. I hope God will pardon you ; but 
 you ought not to ask me to do it ! (Laughter.) 
 
 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. And let me say that the caucus agreed 
 upon a definite mode of action. 
 
130 JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 
 Mr. Blaine. The caucus ! Now, let me say 
 here and now, that the Chairman of that caucus, 
 sitting on my right, "a chevalier" in legislation, 
 " sans pcur et sans reproche" the gentleman from 
 Michigan (Mr. Austin Blair) stated, as a man of 
 honor, as he is, that he was bound to say officially 
 from the chair, that it was not considered, and 
 could not be considered binding upon gentlemen. 
 And more than that. Talk about tricks ! Why, 
 the very infamy of political trickery never com 
 passed a design so foolish and so wicked as to 
 bring together a caucus, and attempt to pledge 
 them to the support of measures which might 
 violate not only the political principles, but the 
 religious faith of men to the support of the bill 
 drawn by the gentleman from Massachusetts, 
 which might violate the conscientious scruples of 
 men. And yet, forsooth, he comes in here and 
 declares that whatever a caucus may determine 
 upon, however hastily, however crudely, however 
 wrongfully, you must support it ! Why, even in 
 the worst days of the Democracy, when the 
 gentleman himself was in the front rank of the 
 worst wing of it, when was it ever attempted to 
 say that a majority of a party caucus could bind 
 men upon measures that involved questions of 
 constitutional law, of personal honor, of religious 
 scruple ? The gentleman asked what would have 
 been done he asked my colleague (Mr. Peters) 
 what would have been done in case of members 
 
K A / Vv E SENT A TIVE IN CONGRESS. \ \ \ 
 
 of a party voting- against the caucus nominee for 
 Speaker. I understand that was intended as a 
 thrust at myself. Caucus nominations of officers 
 have always been held as binding. But, just here, 
 let me say, that if a minority did not vote against 
 the decision of the caucus that nominated me for 
 Speaker, in my judgment it was not the fault of 
 the gentleman from Massachusetts. (Applause.) 
 If the requisite number could have been found to 
 have gone over to the despised Nazarenes on the 
 opposite side, that gentleman would have led 
 them as gallantly as he did the forces in the 
 Charleston Convention. (Renewed applause and 
 laughter.) 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, in old times, it was the ordi 
 nary habit of the Speaker of the House of Repre 
 sentatives to take part in debate. The custom 
 has fallen into disuse. For one, I am very 
 glad that it has. For one, -I approve of the 
 conclusion that forbids it. The Speaker should, 
 with consistent fidelity to his own party, be the 
 impartial administrator of the rules of the House, 
 and a constant participation in the discussions of 
 members would take from him that appearance of 
 impartiality, which it is so important to maintain 
 in the rulings of the Chair. But at the same time 
 I despise and denounce the insolence of the 
 gentleman from Massachusetts, when he attempts 
 to say that the Representative from the Third 
 District of the State of Maine has no right to 
 
132 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 frame a resolution ; has no right to seek that 
 under the rules that resolution shall be adopted ; 
 has no right to ask judgment of the House upon 
 that resolution. Why, even the insolence of the 
 gentleman himself never reached that sublime 
 height before. 
 
 o 
 
 "Now, Mr. Speaker, nobody regrets more 
 sincerely than I do, any occurrence which calls me 
 to take the floor. On questions of propriety, I 
 appeal to members on both sides of the House, 
 and they will bear witness, that the circulation of 
 this latter in the morning prints ; its distribution 
 throughout the land by telegraph ; the laying it 
 upon the desks of members, was intended to be 
 by the gentleman from Massachusetts, not openly 
 and boldly, but covertly I will not use a stronger 
 phrase an insult to the Speaker of this House. 
 As such I resent it. I denounce it in all its 
 essential statements, and in all its misstatements, 
 and in all its mean inferences and meaner innuen 
 does. I denounce the letter as groundless, with 
 out justification ; and the .gentleman himself, I 
 trust, will live to see the day when he will be 
 ashamed of having written it." 
 
 At the close of this Congress, on motion of the 
 leader of the Democratic members, Mr. Elaine 
 was heartily thanked for the able and impartial 
 manner in which he had discharged his duties, and 
 responded as follows : 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 133 
 
 <( For the forty-second time since the Federal 
 Government was organized, its great representa 
 tive body stands on the eve of dissolution. The 
 final word which separates us is suspended for a 
 moment, that I may return my sincere thanks for 
 the kind expressions respecting my official con 
 duct, which, without division of party, you have 
 caused to be entered on your journal. 
 
 " At the close of four years service in this re 
 sponsible and often trying position, it is a source 
 of honorable pride that I have so administered my 
 trust as to secure the confidence and approbation 
 of both sides of the House. It would not be 
 strange if, in the necessarily rapid discharge of 
 the daily business, I should have erred in some of 
 the decisions made on points, and often without 
 precedent to guide me. It has been my good 
 fortune, however, to be always sustained by the 
 House, and in no single instance to have had a 
 ruling reversed. I advert to this gratifying fact, 
 to quote the language of the most eloquent of my 
 predecessors, in no vain spirit of exaltation, but 
 as furnishing a powerful motive for undissembled 
 gratitude. 
 
 11 And now, gentlemen, with a hearty God bless 
 you all, I discharge my only remaining duty in de 
 claring that the House of Representatives for the 
 Forty-second Congress is adjourned without day." 
 
 There was, in 187 2, a considerable secession from 
 the ranks of the Republican party, many of its 
 
134 JAto~S G. BLAItfh. 
 
 members, styling themselves Liberal Republicans, 
 forming a fusion with the Democrats. Mt. Elaine 
 discountenanced this movement and stood by the 
 old party, and was re-elected to Congress for a 
 sixth term by 3,568 majority. Again he was the 
 choice of his party for the Speakership, and was 
 elected to that office for the third time, receiving 
 189 votes against 80 cast for all others. His ad 
 dress at the beginning of the third term of his 
 Speakership w r as as follows : 
 
 "The vote this moment announced by the clerk 
 is such an expression of your confidence as calls 
 for my sincerest thanks. To be chosen Speaker 
 of the American House of Representatives is al 
 ways an honorable distinction ; to be chosen a 
 third time enhances the honor more than three 
 fold ; to be chosen by the largest body that ever 
 assembled in the capitol imposes a burden of 
 responsibility wnich only your indulgent kindness 
 cr>vild embolden me to assume. 
 
 "The first occupant of this chair presided over 
 a House of sixty-five members, representing a 
 population far below the present aggregate of the 
 State of New York. At that time in the whole 
 U nited States there were not fifty thousand civilized 
 inhabitants to be found one hundred miles dis 
 tant from the flow of the Atlantic tide. To-day, 
 gentlemen, a large body of you come from beyond 
 that limit, and represent districts then, peopled 
 only by the Indian and adventurous frontiersman. 
 
REPKESENTA TIVE IK CONGRESS. 1 3 $ 
 
 The National Government is not yet as old as 
 many of its citizens ; but in this brief span of time, 
 less than one lengthened life, it has, under God s 
 providence, extended its power until a continent 
 is the field of its empire and attests the majesty 
 of its law. 
 
 " With the growth of new States and the re 
 sulting changes in the centres of population, new 
 interests are developed, rival to the old, but by 
 no means hostile, diverse but not antagonistic. 
 Nay, rather are all these interests in harmony ; 
 and the true science of just government is to give 
 to each its full and fair play, oppressing none by 
 undue exaction, favoring none by undue privi 
 lege. It is this great lesson which our daily 
 experience is teaching us, binding us together 
 more closely, making our mutual dependence 
 more manifest, and causing us to feel, whether 
 we live in the North or in the South, in the East 
 or in the West, that we have indeed but one 
 country, one Constitution, one destiny. 
 
 Two notable incidents marked the record of 
 this Congress, especially affecting Mr. Elaine. 
 One was the famous bill increasing the salaries 
 
 o 
 
 of the President, Members of Congress and 
 others. It has been, not unjustly, termed the 
 salary- grab" bill, since by its adoption the very 
 men who enacted it voted to themselves an 
 increase of pay for the terms of office they were 
 then occupying. Mr. Elaine looked upon this 
 
136 JAMES G. &LAINE. 
 
 with great disfavor. Asking permission to make 
 a personal statement concerning a certain amend 
 ment to it, he said: The Chair presumes the 
 language of this amendment would make the 
 Speaker s salary $10,000 for this Congress. The 
 salary of the Speaker, the last time the question 
 of pay was under consideration, was adjusted to 
 that of the Vicc-President and members of the 
 Cabinet. The Chair thinks that adjustment 
 should not be disturbed, and the question which 
 he now raises does not affect the pay of other 
 members of the House. He asks unanimous 
 consent to put in the word hereafter, to follow 
 the words shall receive. This will affect who 
 ever shall be Speaker of the House of Repre 
 sentatives hereafter, and does not affect the 
 Speaker of this House." This bill was repealed 
 at the next session, the repeal being carried by 
 the deciding vote of the Speaker. 
 
 At the close of this Congress it was known 
 that Mr. Elaine would not again occupy the 
 Speaker s chair, since an overwhelming Demo 
 cratic majority had been elected for the next 
 House. A resolution cordially thanking him for 
 his conduct in the chair was unanimously adopted, 
 on motion of Mr. Potter, Democrat, of New 
 York, and Mr. Blaine made the following farewell 
 address on leaving the position he had filled with 
 such distinguished ability for the unusually long 
 term of six years : 
 
REPRESENTA TIVE Itf CONGRESS. \ 3 7 
 
 "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 mutations of personal and political 
 fortunes in this country 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 hon 
 ors 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 political associates. I desire in this last 
 moment to renew to them, one and all, my thanks 
 and my gratitude. 
 
 "To those from whom I differ in my party 
 relations the minority of this House I tender 
 my acknowledgments for the generous courtesy 
 with which they have treated me. By one of 
 those sudden and decisive changes which distin 
 guish popular institutions, and which conspicuously 
 mark a free people, that minority is transformed 
 in the ensuing Congress to the governing power 
 of the House. However it might possibly have 
 been under other circumstances, that event ren 
 ders 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 
 complex and continuous ; they are both onerous 
 
138 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 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 peremptory ; almost ab 
 solute in authority and instantaneous 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 
 
 o 
 
 duty and policy. 
 
 " Thanking you once more, and thanking you 
 most cordially for the honorable testimonial you 
 have placed on record to my credit, I perform my 
 only remaining duty in declaring that the Forty- 
 third Congress has reached its constitutional 
 limit, and that the House of Representatives 
 stands adjourned without day." 
 
 As the Speaker closed his address and walked 
 down from the chair, says a newspaper observer, 
 an outburst of handclapping and cheers broke 
 from the upstanding members, and was joined in 
 by the immense assemblage on the floor and in 
 the galleries. Never before was witnessed such 
 a scene at the close of a Congress. 
 
 The elections of 1874 amounted to a political 
 revolution, the Democratic party gaining control of 
 the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 
 
KEPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 1 39 
 
 majority. Thereupon Mr. Elaine, who had 
 b :cn elected for a seventh term by a majority 
 of 2,830, became the leader of the Republican 
 minority on the floor, and showed himself one of 
 the most brilliant and effective leaders ever pos 
 sessed by a minority party. The two leading 
 incidents of his career in this Congress must be 
 separately considered. It will here be necessary 
 only to refer to his effort, in 1875 and 1876, to 
 secure the adoption of the following amendment 
 to the Constitution : " No State shall make any 
 law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
 prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and no 
 money raised by taxation in any State for the 
 support of public schools, or derived from any 
 public fund therefor, nor any public lands devoted 
 thereto, shall ever be under the control of any 
 religious sect ; nor shall any money so raised or 
 lands so devoted be divided between religious 
 sects or denominations." Mr. Elaine, in publk 
 and in private, strongly urged the adoption of this 
 measure, but did not succeed. 
 
 His career as a Representative in Congress 
 came to an end in June, 1876, when he was 
 appointed to fill an unexpired term in the United 
 States Senate. As his own expression of the 
 principles that governed him on great questions of 
 public policy during his career in the House, the 
 following quotation may well be made. It is 
 taken from the letter written by him on July 3, 
 
140 JAMES G. 
 
 1874, accepting the nomination for his seventh and 
 last term in Congress. In this letter Mr. Elaine 
 wrote : 
 
 "The resolutions to which you invite my at 
 tention are so generally acceptable to the people 
 of the district that no issue will be made on the 
 matters embraced in them. The currency ques 
 tion at one time threatening to divide parties, and 
 what would be far more serious, to divide sections, 
 is in process of a happy adjustment, partly by wise 
 and temperate enactment passed by a large 
 majority in both branches of Congress and ap 
 proved by the President, but in a far greater de 
 gree by the operation of causes more powerful 
 than any legislation can be. In these remarks I 
 am, indeed, but repeating, in substance, the reso 
 lutions of your Convention, and I gladly adopt 
 as my own the leading declaration of the series that 
 it is the imperative duty of the National Govern 
 ment to return to specie payment as soon as wise 
 statesmanship can safely reach that result. 
 
 " But while our political opponents in Maine 
 will not seriously contest any position taken by 
 us, they have themselves chosen to raise another 
 issue on which we will not be slow to differ from 
 them. The Democratic State Convention, in re- 
 nominating their respectable candidate for Gov 
 ernor, adopted with suggestive unanimity the fol 
 lowing resolution as the leading article in their 
 revised political creed : 
 
REPRESENTA TI VE IN CONGRESS. \ 4 1 
 
 " Resolved, That a Protective Tariff is a most 
 unjust, unequal, oppressive and wasteful mode of 
 raising the public revenues. It is one of the most 
 pregnant and fruitful sources of the corruptions in 
 administration. We therefore, the democracy of 
 Maine, in Convention assembled, declare for 
 Free Trade, and in favor of an unfettered and 
 unrestricted commerce. 
 
 "This advanced position, now formally and 
 boldly taken by the Maine Democracy, in their 
 State Convention, receives additional point and 
 meaning by the letter of their gubernatorial 
 candidate, Mr. Titcomb, who in accepting the 
 nomination specially approves the foregoing reso 
 lution, and intimates his endurance of the lowest 
 form of Revenue Tariff, only * until we shall be 
 educated up to the idea of equal, direct, and 
 therefore moderate taxation for the support of 
 Government, and until this idea shall be brought 
 info practical operation. I have quoted Mr. 
 Titcomb s own words, and it is quite evident that 
 the startling dogma to which he commits himself, 
 is in sympathy with more impressive movements 
 to be made elsewhere in the same direction, and 
 is first thrown out in Maine as an experiment on 
 public opinion. If there were the slightest dan 
 ger of the Democratic party, with this avowed 
 policy, coming into power, the dangers ahead 
 would be truly appalling ; but as no such calamity 
 impends, we may be allowed to examine with 
 
142 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 more coolness the wild absurdity of the proposi 
 tion. 
 
 " You will observe that the issue proposed is 
 not the old and familiar one between those who 
 advocate a Tariff for Protection, and those who 
 wish duties imposed only for Revenue. That 
 is an issue as old as the levying of imposts, and, 
 with occasional exceptions, has been determined 
 largely by latitude and longitude, or by the differ 
 ing interests which change of section and varying 
 forms, of industry have developed. But the 
 Maine Democracy assumes that all Tariffs are 
 more or less Protective, and hence they are hostile 
 to them, and pronounce for Free Trade, pure 
 and simple, absolute and without qualification, or 
 to quote their own words, for an unfettered and 
 unrestricted commerce. 
 
 " Without attempting to argue the question in its 
 relation to the whole country, let us see how this 
 new doctrine would affect Maine. The process 
 would be simple, the results readily deduced, 
 the effect blighting and disastrous to the last de 
 gree. For some years past, to deal in round 
 numbers, the Federal Government has been 
 collecting a revenue of three hundred millions 
 of dollars one-third from internal taxes, two- 
 thirds from tariff duties. It is now proposed 
 by the Maine Democracy to abolish all these 
 duties, have absolute Free Trade with an 
 unfettered and unrestricted commerce. In 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 143 
 
 other words, the Maine Democracy propose to 
 raise the two hundred millions of dollars in gold 
 coin, now obtained from tariff duties, by direct 
 taxation, or by a system of excises which 
 might prove even more oppressive than direct 
 taxation itself. There is no other mode open 
 under the Constitution by which the money can 
 be raised than the two named, if the tariff be 
 abandoned, and Mr. Titcomb declares for direct 
 taxation. Now if the money is to be secured by 
 direct taxation, as Mr. Titcomb proposes, it 
 will be found to be Maine s great misfortune, 
 that the Constitution requires the tax to be 
 levied in proportion to population and not ac 
 cording to wealth. By the ninth census, Maine 
 has about one-sixtieth of the total population of 
 United States, and her share of two hundred 
 millions of direct taxation would be something 
 over three and a quarter millions of dollars in 
 gold coin the single Congressional District 
 whose constituents I am addressing, would be 
 called upon for seven hundred thousand dollars. 
 The peculiar hardship of raising taxes in this way 
 is made manifest by the simple fact that Maine 
 would be compelled to pay nearly one-half as 
 much as Massachusetts, while in fact she has but 
 one-seventh of the wealth of that highly-favored 
 and prosperous Commonwealth. To properly 
 estimate the exhausting and oppressive nature of 
 this enormous tax, you have but to consider 
 
144 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 that it would be three times as large as the pres 
 ent State tax, and would necessarily be levied in 
 addition thereto. 
 
 " But if against Mr. Titcomb s policy the direct 
 tax were avoided, it would be necessary to have 
 instead of it a system of excises as onerous and 
 as odious as human ingenuity could devise. A 
 heavy internal tax would inevitably be levied on 
 all manufactures and indeed upon all the pro 
 ducts of the field and the forest, the shipyard and 
 the quarry ; and every form of industry would be 
 burdened and borne down by the exactions of the 
 tax-gatherer. And these grievous hardships 
 would be imposed on our own people, in order 
 that foreign countries might have the benefit of 
 our markets for their products, without duty and 
 without tax. Our lumber interests, embarrassed 
 and oppressed, would have to compete with the 
 untaxed products of the Canadian forest ; our 
 manufactures would pay taxes * for the benefit 
 of European fabrics ; our ship-building would 
 be destroyed by the taxation, which would ren 
 der it incapable of competing with provincial 
 bottoms, and under the magic spell of Dem 
 ocratic free trade our coasting and lake 
 commerce, confined to our own people since the 
 foundation of the government, would be thrown 
 open to the whole world. Taxation in all forms 
 is one of the burdens of civilization, but instead of 
 ameliorating its seventy and, if possible, getting 
 
ffr 
 
 ROSCOE CONKLING. 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 147 
 
 from it such compensating advantages as wise 
 legislation can provide, our Maine Democrats 
 propose to make it to the last degree oppressive 
 to our own people and beneficial only to the alien 
 and the stranger. 
 
 "To the people of Maine, at this very moment, 
 these extravagant declarations of the Democratic 
 party have a painful significance, for it is well 
 known that the authorities of Canada are trying 
 to negotiate with our government a reciprocity 
 treaty, which, like its illustrious predecessor and 
 namesake, maintains the reciprocity all oil one 
 side. The treaty of that name, which was termi 
 nated in 1866, was cruelly oppressive to the 
 people of Maine, and inflicted upon our State, 
 during the eleven years of its existence, a loss of 
 fifty millions of dollars. It presented the very 
 singular anomaly of giving to the Canadians the 
 control in our own markets of certain leading ar 
 ticles, on terms far more favorable than our own 
 people had ever enjoyed. The utmost stretch of 
 the Divine command is to love our neighbor as 
 ourselves, and I can certainly see nothing in per 
 sonal duty or public policy which should lead us 
 to prefer our Canadian neighbors to our own 
 people. 
 
 "The treaty of reciprocity, now proposed, is 
 understood to embrace the admission of Canadian 
 vessels to free American Registry, and the full en 
 joyment of our coasting and lake trade. Thus 
 
I4<S JAMES G. BLA1NE. 
 
 the ship-building and commercial interests of the 
 United States, reviving so prosperously of late, 
 and just recovering from the terrible blows dealt 
 by British-built cruisers during the war, are again 
 to be struck down by giving advantages, hitherto 
 undreamed of, to the ships of the very power 
 that inflicted the previous injury. And the Dem 
 ocratic party of Maine have pledged themselves, 
 in their State Convention, to the policy that in 
 cludes this disastrous attack upon the interests of 
 our State, and their candidate for Governor has 
 fully committed himself to the extreme doctrine 
 announced by the Convention. 
 
 "The form of Reciprocity proposed by the 
 Government of the Dominion of Canada lacks 
 every element of the seductive title, by which it 
 is sought to. commend it to our people. What is 
 it ? Why, simply this : That if the United States 
 will agree to admit certain Canadian products free 
 of duty, Canada in turn will agree to admit cer 
 tain American fabrics free of duty. But the class 
 of men to be benefited, and the class to be in 
 jured, in the United States, are entirely distinct 
 and separate, having nothing in common, either 
 in 1 ^cality, industry or investment. To compen 
 sate the surrender of ons interest in this way by 
 the advancement of another, has no more element 
 of reciprocal justice in it, than for A to take a 
 pair of horses from B, because C took possession 
 of a yoke of oxen belonging to D. To illustrate : 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 149 
 
 If the United States will agree to admit Canadian 
 vessels to American Registry and the coasting- 
 trade, Canada will admit straw hats, mule harness, 
 and rat-traps, free of duty. In this you will ob 
 serve that Canada gets the full advantage both 
 ways, while the United States, for a possible en 
 largement of petty trade, consents to subordinate 
 and sacrifice an interest that represents our^dis- 
 tinctive nationality, in all climes and upon all seas ; 
 an interest that has given more and asked less of 
 the Government than any other of similar magni 
 tude ; an interest, more essentially American, in 
 the highest and best sense, than any other which 
 falls under the legislative power of the Govern 
 ment, and which asks only to-day, to be left where 
 the founders of the Republic placed it nearly a 
 century ago. 
 
 " Against the whole policy of adjusting Revenue 
 questions by the Treaty-making power, I desire to 
 enter, on behalf of my constituents, an emphatic 
 protest. The Constitution gives to the House .of 
 Representatives the sole and exclusive right to 
 originate Bills of Revenue, and- this great power 
 should be kept where it can be controlled by the 
 direct vote of the people every two years It may 
 very well be that sundry articles of Canadian 
 product should be admitted free, or with diminished 
 duty ; it may well be, also, that Canada would find 
 it advantageous to admit certain articles from us 
 free of duty. Let each country decide the 
 
150 JAMES G. BLAINE, 
 
 question for itself independently, and avoid the 
 log-rolling feature of a Treaty, in which it will 
 inevitably happen that certain interests will be 
 sacrificed in order that others may be promoted. 
 Let us simply place Canada on the same basis 
 with other foreign countries taxing her products, 
 or admitting them free, according to our own 
 judgment of the interest of our Revenue, and 
 the pursuits and needs of our people always 
 bearing in mind, that in Governmental, as in 
 family matters, charity begins at home, and that 
 * he who provideth not for those of his own house, 
 is worse than an infidel. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 
 
 The Debate on the Proposal to Restore Jefferson Davis to Full Citizenship 
 Action by the Forty-third and Foity-fourth Congresses A Powerful 
 Speech by Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia Mr. Elaine s Reply The 
 Incident that Gave Him the Title of " the Plumed Knight." 
 
 In the Forty-third Congress, the House COITK 
 mittee on Rules, of which Mr. Elaine was Chain 
 man, reported a General Amnesty bill so com 
 prehensive and generous that even Jefferson 
 Davis, the -ex-President of the Rebel Confederacy, 
 was included within the scope of its benevolence ; 
 and the House, of which Mr. Elaine was Speaker, 
 adopted it almost unanimously without the for- 
 mality of a roll-call. In the House of Representa 
 tives of the next Congress, the Hon. Michael C. 
 Kerr, a Democrat, was Speaker; the Hon. Samuel 
 J. Randall was the Democratic leader on the 
 floor of the House ; and Mr. Elaine was the 
 leader of the Republican minority. The question 
 of amnesty again came up, in January, 1876, the 
 chief point at issue being whether Jefferson Davis 
 should be restored to all the rights of citizenship, 
 or should, alone of all the ex-rebels, be denied 
 such favor. 
 
IJB JAMES o\ BLA1NE 
 
 The debate that ensued was fierce and bitter in 
 an extreme degree. The War of the Rebellion 
 was fought over again, in words. The infamies 
 of the Southern prison-pens, in which captive 
 Northern troops were starved and murdered, 
 formed, a conspicuous theme. Among the leaders 
 of debate on the Democratic side was the Hon. 
 Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, who had been op 
 posed to secession before the war, but had quickly 
 joined the movement when once it actually begun, 
 and had been thereafter one of the foremost 
 spirits of the Confederacy. On January n, 1876, 
 he made a powerful and eloquent address in the 
 House, especially on the subject of Anderson- 
 ville, in which he defended the Confederate 
 authorities against the charges of cruelty that had 
 been made, and actually declared that the United 
 States Government was responsible for what its 
 captive soldiers suffered in that prison. Two days 
 later, Mr. Elaine made reply. It was the culmi 
 nating point of the debate, and the interest of the 
 House, and of the whole Nation, was at the high 
 est tension. 
 
 It was this speech that impelled Colonel R. G. 
 Ingersoll, a few months later, to fix upon Mr. 
 Elaine the title of "the Plumed Knight." An 
 other observer likened him to a gladiator in the 
 midst of an arena. " He taunted and worried 
 his enemies until he provoked them to strike, and 
 then sprang upon them and tore them to pieces." 
 
rIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 153 
 
 In Mr. Hill he had a mighty antagonist ; but he 
 utterly vanquished him, and hopelessly destroyed 
 his prospects of gaining the Democratic leader 
 ship. The text of this speech, one of the most 
 noteworthy ever made in the House of Repre 
 sentatives, is as follows : 
 
 "MR. SPEAKER: Before proceeding with the 
 remark which I shall address to the questions be- 
 fo -e the House, I desire to say that in the dis 
 cussion on the point of order that was raised just 
 prior to the adjournment last evening, I did not 
 intxMid to be; understood, and hope no gentleman 
 understood me, as implying that the honorable 
 Speaker intended in any way to deprive me of the 
 right to speak. I did not so understand the 
 Speaker, nor did I understand it to be the motive 
 or object of the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
 (Mr. Randall). I say this much in justice to my 
 self and in justice to the honorable incumbent of 
 the chair. 
 
 " From the tone of the debate on the oppo 
 site side of the chamber, Mr. Speaker, one 
 would certainly imagine that the Republican 
 party, as represented in Congress, was trying 
 to inflict some new punishment or add some 
 fresh stigma to the name of Jefferson Davis, as 
 well, indeed, as to lay some additional burden 
 on those other citizens of the South who are 
 not yet fully amnestied. It may therefore not 
 bz unprofitable just to recall to the attention of 
 
154 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 the House the precise question at issue, and 
 how it came here, and who it was that brought 
 it here. 
 
 " The gentleman from Pennsylvania introduced 
 a bill to confer special honor on Jefferson Davis ; 
 for what honor can be higher than the full 
 panoplied citizenship of the United States of 
 America ? He has lost it by his crime, and the 
 gentleman from Pennsylvania proposes in hot 
 haste, without debate, without amendment, to 
 drag every gentleman up to say Aye or * No 
 upon a bill declaring him to be entitled now and 
 henceforth to all the rights and all the honors of 
 American citizenship. From that we dissent. 
 "We did not bring the question here. We are not 
 seeking to throw any fresh element of an in 
 flammatory kind into any discussion or differ 
 ence that may be between two parties or two 
 sections, and whatever of that kind has grown 
 from this discussion lies at the door of the gentle 
 man from Pennsylvania and those who stand 
 with him. 
 
 " Remember, Mr. Speaker, it is no proposition 
 to punish, but a proposition to honor, and while 
 we disclaim any intention or desire to punish 
 Jefferson Davis, we resist the proposition to 
 honor him. And right here, as a preliminary 
 matter, I desire to address myself for a moment 
 to the constitutional point suggested by the 
 honorable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 155 
 
 Seelye), who addressed the House last evening. 
 He sees and appreciates the magnitude of the 
 crime laid at the door of Jefferson Davis, and he 
 clearly pointed out that neither the gentleman 
 from New York nor the gentleman from Georgia 
 had palliated or dared to palliate the crimes with 
 which I charged him. But he is bothered by the 
 scruple that because we are permitted to punish 
 for participancy in insurrection or rebellion we 
 cannot make any discrimination or distinction. 
 Why, the honorable gentleman must have for 
 gotten that this is precisely what we have been 
 doing ever since the disability was imposed. We 
 first removed the disabilities from the least offen 
 sive class ; then in the next list we removed those 
 next in order of guilty participancy, and so on, 
 until in 1872 we removed the disability from all, 
 except the army and navy officers, members of 
 Congress, and heads of departments. Why, sir, 
 are we not as much justified to-day in excepting 
 Jefferson Davis as we were in 1872 in excepting 
 the seven hundred and fifty of whom he con 
 stitutes one ? Therefore I beg to say to my 
 honorable friend, whose co-operation I crave, 
 that that point is res adjudicate by a hundred 
 acts upon the statute book. We are entirely 
 competent to do just what is proposed in my 
 amendment. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Speaker, on the question of the 
 treatment of our prisoners and on the great 
 
156 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 question as to who was to blame for breaking 
 exchange, the speech of the honorable gentleman 
 from Ohio (Mr. Garfield) has left me literally 
 nothing to say. He exhausted the subject. His 
 speech was unanswerable, and I undertake to say 
 that as yet no gentleman has answered one fact 
 that he alleged no gentleman in this House can 
 answer one fact presented by him. I shall not 
 therefore at any length dwell upon that. But in 
 connection with one point in history there is some 
 thing which I should feel it my duty, not merely 
 as a member of the Republican party which up 
 held the administration that conducted the war, 
 but as a citizen of the American Union, to resist 
 and resent, and that is, the allegations that 
 were made in regard to the manner in which 
 Confederate prisoners were treated in the 
 prisons of the Union. The gentleman from 
 Georgia says : I have also proved that with all 
 the horrors you have made such a noise about as 
 occurring at Andersonville, greater horrors 
 occurred in the prisons where our troops were 
 held. 
 
 " And I could not but admire the our and the 
 your with which the gentleman conducted the 
 whole discussion. It ill comported with his later 
 profession of Unionism. It was certainly flinging 
 the shadow of a dead confederacy a long way over 
 the dial of the National House of Representatives ; 
 and I think the gentleman from New York 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS, 157 
 
 fell into a little of the same line. Of that 1 shall 
 speak again. 
 
 ********* 
 
 "I am quoting the gentleman s speech as he 
 delivered it. I quote it as it appeared in The 
 Daily Chronicle and the Associated Press report. 
 I do not pretend to be bound by the version which 
 may appear hereafter, because I observed that 
 the gentleman from New York (Mr. Cox) spoke 
 one speech and published another (great laugh 
 ter), and I suppose the gentleman from Georgia 
 will do the same. I admit that the gentleman 
 has a difficult role to play. He has to harmonize 
 himself with the great Northern Democracy and 
 keep himself in high line as a Democratic candi 
 date for Senator from Georgia ; and it is a very 
 difficult thing to reconcile the two. (Laughter.) 
 The barn-burner Democrats in 1853 tried very 
 hard to adhere to their anti-slavery principles in 
 New York and still support the Pierce administra 
 tion ; and Mr. Greely, with that inimitable humor 
 which he possessed, said that they found it a very 
 hard road to straddle, like a militia general on 
 parade on Broadway, who finds it an almost impos 
 sible task to follow the music and dodge the omni 
 buses. (Laughter.) And that is what the gentleman 
 does. The gentleman -tries to keep step to the 
 music of the Union and dodge his fire-eating con 
 stituency in Georgia. (Great laughter.) Then here 
 is another quotation : We know our prisoners 
 
158 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 suffered in Federal hands, and we know how, if 
 we chose to" tell, thousands of our poor men came 
 home from Fort Delaware and other places with 
 their fingers frozen off, with their toes frozen off, 
 with their teeth fallen out. 
 
 %. * * * * * * 5JS * 
 
 "The gentleman from New York stated that 
 he had it on the authority of sixty and odd gen 
 tlemen here, many of them having been in the 
 service of the Confederacy during the war, that 
 no order was issued at any time in the South rel 
 ative to prisoners who were taken by the South 
 as to rations or clothing that did not apply equally 
 to their own soldiers, and that any *ex parte state 
 ments taken by that humbug committee on the 
 conduct of the war could not controvert the facts 
 of history. The gentleman therefore stands up here 
 as denying the atrocities of Andersonville. He 
 seconds the gentleman from Georgia and gives 
 the weight of whatever may be attached to his 
 word to denying that fact. Now, the gentleman 
 himself did not always talk so. I have here a 
 debate that occurred on the twenty-first of 
 December, 1864, in which, while the proposition 
 was pending in the House for retaliation, the gen 
 tleman, then from Ohio, said: This resolution 
 provides for inflicting upon the rebel prisoners 
 who may be in our hands the same inhuman, 
 barbarous, horrible treatment which has been 
 inflicted upon our soldiers held as prisoners by 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 159 
 
 the rebels. Now, Mt\ Speaker (continued the 
 enraged gentleman at that time), ft does not 
 follow that because the rebels have made brutes 
 and fiends of themselves that we should do like 
 wise. 
 
 " There is, he says, a certain law of retalia 
 tion in war, I know ; but (continued the gentle 
 man) no man will stand up here and say, after 
 due deliberation, that he would reduce these pris 
 oners thrust into ourhands into the same condition 
 exhibited by these skeletons, these pictures, these 
 anatomies brought to our attention and laid upon 
 the desks of members of Congress. Then the 
 
 o 
 
 gentleman says : It does not follow because our 
 prisoners are treated in the way represented, and 
 no doubt truthfully represented. That is what 
 the gentleman said in 1 864 ; but when a solemn 
 committee of Congress, made up of honorable 
 gentlemen of both sides of the House, bring in 
 exactly the statements which verify all this, then 
 the gentleman states that the authority was a 
 
 humbug committee. 
 
 * * # * *# # * * 
 
 " Senator Hill, of Georgia, introduced the fol 
 lowing resolution in the Confederate Congress in 
 October, 1862 : "That every person pretending 
 to be a soldier or officer of the United States, 
 who shall be captured on the soil of the Confede 
 rate States after the first day of January, 1863, 
 shall be presumed to have entered the territory 
 
l6o JAMES G. BLAINE, 
 
 of- the Confederate States with intent to incite 
 insurrection and to abet murder ; and unless 
 satisfactory proof be adduced to the contrary 
 before the military court before which the trial 
 shall be had, he shall suffer death. And this sec 
 tion shall continue io force until the proclamation 
 issued by Abraham Lincoln, dated Washington, 
 September 22, 1862, shall be rescinded"/ 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, what does this mean? What 
 did the gentleman from Georgia mean when, 
 from the Committee on the Judiciary, he intro 
 duced the following : 2. Every white person who 
 shall act as a commissioned or non-commissioned 
 officer, commanding negroes or mulattoes against 
 the Confederate States, or who shall arm, organ 
 ize, train or prepare negroes or mulattoes for 
 military service, or aid them in any military enter 
 prise against the Confederate States, shall, if 
 captured, suffer death. 3. Every commissioned 
 or non-commissioned officer of the enemy who 
 shall incite slaves to rebellion, or pretend to give 
 them freedom, under the aforementioned Act of 
 Congress and proclamation, by abducting, or 
 causing them to be abducted, or inducing them to 
 abscond, shall, if captured, suffer death/ Now, 
 Mr. Speaker, I have searched somewhat, but in 
 vain, for anything in the world that rivals this. 
 I did find, and have here in my minutes, the 
 proclamation of Valmeseda, the Captain-General 
 of Cuba, who was recalled by Spain because of 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. l6l 
 
 his atrocious cruelties to the inhabitants of that 
 island ; and the worst thing in all the atrocities 
 laid to his charge was that he proclaimed that 
 every man or boy over fifteen years found away 
 from his house, not being able to give a satisfac 
 tory reason therefor, should suffer death. He 
 copied it from the resolution of the gentleman 
 from Georgia. 
 
 o 
 
 " Now, Mr. Speaker, I hold in my hand a copy 
 of the Atlanta Constitution, printed on the twenty- 
 fourth .of January, 1875. We are told that all 
 these allegations against Jefferson Davis should 
 be forgiven because they are all of the dead past. 
 
 l \Ye are told that we should not revive them, 
 that there should be nothing in the world brought 
 up in any way to disturb the beautiful serenity of 
 the centennial year, and that to make any allusion 
 to them whatever is to do an unwelcome and un 
 patriotic act. The very last declaration we have 
 from Jefferson Davis authentically, in the life 
 which the gentleman from Georgia held the other 
 day as a text book, reads thus : 
 
 " Time will show, however, the amount of 
 truth in the prophecy of Jefferson Davis (says 
 the biographer, made in reply to the remark that 
 the cause of the Confederacy was lost. Mr. 
 Davis said) : It appears so, but the principle for 
 which we contended is bound to reassert itself, 
 though it may be at another time and in another 
 form. 
 
1 62 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 " Now, I have here, of the date of January 24, 
 1875, a speech by the Hon. B. H. Hill, in the 
 Atlanta Constitution, and it is said to have been 
 the grandest speech he ever delivered. 
 
 " I quote from him : * Fellow-citizens : I look to 
 the contest of 1876 not only as the most impor 
 tant that ever occurred in American history, but 
 as the most important in the history of the world ; 
 for if the people of the country cannot be aroused 
 to give an overwhelming vote against this Repub 
 lican party, it will perpetuate itself in power in the 
 United States by precisely the same means that the 
 President has taken in Louisiana, and the people 
 will be powerless to prevent it except they go to 
 war. (Applause.) If we fail with the ballot-box in 
 1876 by reason of force, a startling question will 
 present itself to the American people. I trust we 
 will not fail. I hope the Northern people have 
 had a sufficient subsidence of passion to see this 
 question fairly. 
 
 " The gentleman says : If we must have war ; 
 if we cannot preserve this Constitution and con 
 stitutional government by the ballot ; if force is to 
 defeat the ballot ; if the war must come God 
 forbid that it should come but if it must come ; 
 if folly, if wickedness, if inordinate love of power, 
 shall decree that America must save her Consti 
 tution by blood, let it come ; I am ready/ 
 (Laughter.) And then the ge<ntleman said, in 
 another speech, of May I2th: He impressed 
 

 WM. WINDOM. 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 165 
 
 upon the colored men of the country the truth 
 that, if the folly and wickedness were consum 
 mated in war, they would be the greatest sufferers. 
 If peace was preserved, they were safe, but as 
 sure as one war had freed them, just as sure 
 another war would re- enslave them/ Now that 
 was precisely the kind of talk we had here by 
 folios and reams before the Rebellion. Oh, yes, 
 you were for war then. The gentleman, in his 
 speech, says that the Union now is an unmixed 
 blessing, providing the Democratic party can rule 
 it, but that if the Republican party must rule it, 
 he is for war. Why, that is just what Jefferson 
 Davis said in 1861. 
 
 " I have here very much more of the same kind. 
 I have been supplied with very abundant literature 
 emanating from the gentleman, more, indeed, 
 than I have had time to read. He seems to have 
 been as voluminous as the Spanish Chroniclers. 
 In one speech he says : I must say a word about 
 this list of disabilities removed. I would rather 
 see my name recorded in the Georgia penitentiary 
 than to find it on a list of the removal of disabili 
 ties. Why, my friends, do you not know that 
 when you go to that Congress and ask for a re 
 moval of disabilities, you admit that you are a 
 traitor? " 
 
 Mr. Hill. What do you read from ? 
 
 Mr. Elaine. From a report in a Cincinnati 
 Daily Gazette giving an account of a great 
 
 10 
 
1 66 J.IMES G. BLAJM . 
 
 meeting in 1868, at which Howell Cobb, Robert 
 Toombs and the Hon. B. H. Hill made speeches. 
 And there the gentleman declared that he would 
 rather have his name on the list of the Georgia 
 penitentiary than on the list of the removal of 
 disabilities. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, I do not desire to stir up more 
 needless ill-blood, but the gentleman from Ohio 
 (Mr. Garfield) yesterday, apparently without 
 much thought, spoke of a class of men in the 
 Southern States who had committed perjury, and 
 I would like to address the gentleman a question 
 that he can answer when he gets the floor." 
 
 Mr. Hill. Will you not allow me to answer 
 it now ? 
 
 Mr. Elaine. No, sir, not now. Suppose you 
 inaugurate a great war if the Republican party 
 retains power, and you and all these gentlemen 
 who sympathize with you upon this floor, and 
 who had taken an oath to bear true allegiance to 
 the government of the United States, and that you 
 took that oath without mental reservation, then 
 revolt against the country ; what would that be? 
 Would it have any relation to perjury? 
 
 " But, Mr. Speaker, you see the effect of the 
 speeches of the gentleman from Georgia. They 
 are very tremendous down there. The very earth 
 quakes under him. One of his organs says : We 
 assert without fear of contradiction that Mr. Hill 
 in his bitter denunciation of scalawags and 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. l6/ 
 
 carpet-baggers has deterred thousands of them 
 from entering the ranks of the Radical party. 
 They dare not do so for fear of social ostracism, 
 and to-day the white population of Georgia are 
 unanimous in favor of the Democratic party. 
 
 " And when he can get the rest of the States to 
 the same standard he is for war. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman cannot, by 
 withholding his speech here and revising it and 
 adapting it to the Northern Democracy, erase his 
 speeches in Georgia. I have quoted from them. 
 I have quoted from Democratic papers. There is 
 no accusation that there is any perversion in Re 
 publican papers or that he was misrepresented. 
 But the gentleman deliberately states that in a 
 certain contingency of the Republican party hav 
 ing power he is for war ; and I undertake here to 
 say that, in all the mad, hot wrath in the Thirty- 
 sixth Congress that precipitated the revolt in this 
 country, there is not one speech to be found that 
 breathes a more determined rebellion against law 
 ful authority or a guiltier readiness to resist it 
 than the speech of the gentleman from Georgia. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, I have not much time left. I 
 said briefly in my first speech, that God forbid I 
 should lay at the door of the Southern people, as 
 a people, these atrocities. I repeat it, I lay no 
 such charge at their door. Sir, I have read in this 
 1 ex parte humbug report that there were deep 
 movements among the Southern people about 
 
JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 
 these atrocities ; that there was a profound sensi 
 bility. I know that the leading officers of the 
 Confederacy protested against them ; I know that 
 many of the subordinate officers protested against 
 them. I know that an honorable gentleman from 
 North Carolina, now representing his State in the 
 other end of the capitol, protested against them. 
 But I have searched the records in vain to find 
 that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Hill) pro 
 tested against them. 
 
 "They were known to the Confederate Con 
 gress ; they were known at the doorway of your 
 Senate and along the corridors .of your capitol. 
 The honorable and venerable gentleman in my 
 eye at this moment, who served in the Confede 
 rate Congress, and who had before served in the 
 Senate of the United States, himself brought them 
 to the attention of the Confederate Congress, and 
 I class him with great gladness among those 
 whose humanity was never quenched by the fires 
 of the rebellion. I allude to the Honorable 
 Henry S. Foote. 
 
 "My time is running and I have but very little 
 left. I confess and I say it to the gentleman from 
 Georgia, with no personal unkindness I confess 
 that my very blood boiled, if there was anything 
 of tradition, of memory, of feeling, it boiled when 
 I heard the gentleman, with his record, which I 
 have read, seconded and sustained by the gentle 
 man from New York, arraigning the administration 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 169 
 
 of Abraham Lincoln, throwing obloquy and slander 
 upon the grave of Edwin M. Stanton, and de 
 manding that Jefferson Davis should be restored 
 to full citizenship in this country ! Ah, that is a 
 novel spectacle ; the gentleman from Georgia 
 does not know how novel. The gentleman from 
 Georgia does not know, and he cannot know, how 
 many hundred thousand of Northern bosoms ivere 
 lacerated by his course. 
 
 #####**## 
 
 "I repeat, that proposition strikes I might say 
 almost terror into Northern hearts ; that here, in 
 an American Congress , the gentleman who offered 
 that resolution in the Confederate Congress, who 
 in his campaign for a seat in this House comes 
 here breathing threatenings and slaughter, who 
 comes here telling you that in a certain contin 
 gency he means war, advising his people to be 
 ready for it that gentleman, profaning the very 
 altar of patriotic liberty with the speech that sends 
 him here, arraigning the administration that con 
 ducted the war and saved the Union that gentle 
 man asks us to join with him in paying the last full 
 measure of honor that an American Congress can 
 pay to the arch enemy of the Union, the arch 
 fiend of the rebellion. 
 
 " Suppose Jefferson Davis is not pardoned ; 
 suppose he is not- amnestied. Oh, you cannot 
 have a centennial year without that ! No man on 
 this side has ever intimated that Jefferson Davis 
 
I/O JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 should be refused pardon on account of any 
 political crimes ; it is too late for that ; it is be 
 cause of a personal crime. If you ask that there 
 may be harmonious and universal rejoicing over 
 every forgiven man, release all your criminals ; 
 set free every man who has been sentenced for 
 piracy or for murder by your United States 
 
 Courts-; proclaim the jubilee indeed. 
 
 ********* 
 
 " But I am authorized, if the gentleman desires 
 it not authorized especially to mention it here, 
 but I mention it on the authority of General 
 Grant, whom the gentleman from Georgia im 
 pugned in connection with the exchange of pris 
 oners to say that one thing touching the 
 exchange of prisoners was that the Davis govern 
 ment observed no honor in regard to it ; and 
 General Grant states that the brigade of Carter 
 L. Stephenson, that was dislodged at Chattanooga, 
 was made up of paroled prisoners from Vicksburg, 
 and that Stephenson himself was one of them. 
 He states that the paroled prisoners of one day 
 in front of his line were taken the next. But in 
 stating this he was careful to say that, as to Lee 
 and the two Johnsons and Pemberton, and the 
 other leading Confederate generals, their word 
 was honor itself; but that for the Davis executive 
 government, there was no honor in it none what 
 ever. The gentleman has got enough of General 
 Grant by this time, I hope. 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 171 
 
 "Now, in regard to the relative number of 
 prisoners that died in the North and the South 
 respectively, the gentleman undertook to show that 
 a great many more prisoners died in the hands of 
 the Union authorities than in the hands of the 
 rebels. I have had conversations with surgeons 
 of the army about that, and they say that there 
 were a large number of deaths of rebel prisoners, 
 but that during the latter period of the war they 
 came into our hands very much exhausted, ill-clad, 
 ill-fed, diseased so that they died in our prisons of 
 diseases that they brought with them. And one 
 eminent surgeon said, without wishing at all to be 
 quoted in this debate, that the question was not 
 only what was the condition of the prisoners when 
 they came to us, but what it was when they were 
 sent back. 
 
 "Our men were taken in full health and strength ; 
 they came back wasted and worn mere skeletons. 
 The rebel prisoners, in large numbers, were, when 
 taken, emaciated and reduced; and General Grant 
 says that at the time, such superhuman efforts 
 were made for exchange, there were 90,000 men 
 that would have re-enforced your armies the next 
 day, prisoners in our hands who were in good 
 health and ready for fight. This consideration sheds 
 a great deal of light on what the gentleman states. 
 
 "The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hurlbut) 
 puts a letter into my hands. I read it without 
 really knowing what it may show : 
 
1/2 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 " CONFEDERATE STATES OK AMERICA, 
 
 " *WAR DEPARTMENT, 
 " RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, March 21, 1863. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR : If the exigencies of our army require the use of 
 trains for transportation of corn, pay no regard to the Yankee prisoners ; I 
 would rather that they should starve than our own people suffer. 
 
 " I suppose I can safely put in writing: "Let them suffer." The 
 words are memorable, and it is fortunate that in this case they can be ap 
 plied properly and without the intervention of a lying quartermaster. 
 
 " Very truly your faithful friend, 
 
 " ROBERT OULD. 
 " COLONEL A. C. MYERS." 
 
 " That is a good piece of literature in this con 
 nection. Mr. Ould, I believe, was the rebel 
 commissioner to exchange. " When the gentleman 
 from Georgia next takes the floor I want him to 
 state what excuse there was for ordering the 
 Florida artillery, in case General Sherman s army 
 got within seven miles of Andersonville, to fire on 
 that stockade. 
 
 * # * jjs :jc * * * * 
 
 "Why, 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 because it had ventured to hunt 
 the Seminoles in the swamps of Florida with 
 bloodhounds. * * Bloodthirsty dogs were sent 
 after the hiding savages, and the civilization of 
 the nineteenth century and the -Christian feeling 
 of the American people revolted at it. And I 
 state here, and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
 Hill) cannot deny it, that upon the testimony of 
 
FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 
 
 witnesses as numerous as would require me all 
 day to read, bloodhounds were used ; that large 
 packs of them were kept, and Georgia officers 
 commanded them ; that they were sent after the 
 poor unfortunate, shrinking men who by any acci 
 dent could get out of that horrible stockade. I 
 state, sir, that the civilization of the world stands 
 aghast at what was done at Andersonville. And 
 the man who did that was sustained by Jefferson 
 Davis, and promoted. Yet the gentleman says 
 that was analogous to General Grant sending 
 McDonald to the penitentiary. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, in view of all these facts I have 
 only to say that if the American Congress, by a 
 two-thirds vote, shall pronounce Jefferson Davis 
 worthy to be restored to the full rights of Ameri 
 can citizenship, I can only vote against it and 
 hang my head in silence, and regret it." (Ap 
 plause.) 
 
 The result of this debate was a "draw." But 
 Mr. Elaine won enormous prestige by it, and was 
 thereafter the idol of the millions who were appre 
 hensive of the returning power of the South and 
 were resolved to resist it by all lawful means. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DEALING WITH SLANDER. 
 
 A Carnival of Scandal Hunting Newspaper Insinuations Char^vs in 
 Congress Mr. Elaine s Effective Reply Fresh Accusations The 
 Mulligan Letters Political Objects of the Investigations Mr. Brine s 
 Recovery of the Letters His Production of Them in the House of 
 Representatives The Suppressed Despatch from Caldwell A 
 Dramatic Scene in the House Mr. Elaine s Triumphant Acquittal at 
 the Bar of Public Opinion. 
 
 At the Congressional elections of Nr A r ember, 
 1874, a political revolution was effected. For the 
 first time since the outbreak of the War of the 
 Rebellion, an overwhelming Democratic majority 
 was returned to the House of Representatives. 
 That majority immediately set itself to the task 
 of investigating the record of the Republicans, 
 who had held practically undisputed control in all 
 branches of the Government for many years. 
 Dozens of investigating committees were ap 
 pointed, to pry into all branches of the Adminis 
 tration, and into the personal conduct of all the 
 leaders of the Republican party. The era under 
 investigation comprised the years of the war and 
 the reconstruction period, immediately following. 
 This was a time of large and lavish expenditures, 
 and unquestionably of considerable looseness and 
 174 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. ^5 
 
 corruption in various quarters. The numerous 
 committees did succeed in exposing some abuses 
 and dishonesty, and not a few prominent politicians 
 were permanently retired with hopelessly be 
 smirched reputations. But in the great majority 
 of instances, the quest of the investigators was 
 fruitless. 
 
 The most notable of these investigations, and 
 the one which was most productive of results, was 
 that into the operations of the Credit Mobilier of 
 the Union Pacific Railroad. This -had come up 
 before, while the Republicans were still in control 
 of Congress, and while Mr. Elaine was Speaker 
 of the House. Mr. Elaine had himself moved for 
 the investigation, for the reason that he had been 
 charged with complicity in the corrupt practices. 
 The result was his most complete exoneration. 
 Down to the "beginning of 1876, therefore, Mr. 
 Elaine s reputation was above reproach and above 
 suspicion. But the mania for investigation, and 
 for assaults upon character, which now set in, was 
 not inclined to spare so conspicuous a mark. He 
 was, moreover, a leading candidate for the Presi 
 dency, and popular enthusiasm in his support was 
 every day growing more intense. The leaders of 
 the opposing party were, therefore, naturally most 
 anxious to destroy his prestige, and this could 
 most effectually be done, they thought, by fasten 
 ing upon him the odium of some questionable 
 or dishonest conduct in public affairs. 
 
176 JAMS G. BLAINE. 
 
 The campaign against him was begun outside 
 of Congress. A not greatly important Western 
 newspaper first printed a scandalous attack upon 
 him, more in the form of innuendo and suggestion 
 than specific indictment. Day by day the attacks 
 were continued, constantly growing more definite 
 in tone, but constantly hinting at some most as 
 tonishing and damning revelations that would 
 presently be made. The gist of the whole matter 
 seemed to be, not that he had outright stolen 
 public money, or committed perjury or forgery, or 
 robbed the church poor-box, or murdered his ven 
 erable grandmother, but that he had used his 
 official position as Speaker of the House for the 
 furtherance of legislation in the interest of certain 
 Western railroads, and had, on that account, be 
 come the possessor of stock in those companies, 
 oh exceptionally favorable terms. Finally the 
 matter was brought to the attention of the House 
 of Representatives, of which Mr. Elaine was a 
 member in the Republican minority, and of which 
 the Hon. Michael C. Kerr, *of Indiana, a high- 
 minded and honorable Democrat, was Speaker. 
 The Hon. Proctor Knott, of Kentucky, one of the 
 most conspicuous Democratic members, was put 
 forward as the leader of the investigation into and 
 attack upon Mr. Elaine s record. The first im 
 portant passage of arms in the House occurred 
 on April 24, 1876, when Mr. Elaine made a pow 
 erful and comprehensive speech, most effectively 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. \JJ 
 
 disposing* of and sweeping away the charges 
 against him. These charges were that he had 
 received a considerable sum of money from the 
 Union Pacific Railroad Company in reward for 
 his official influence in its behalf, and that he had 
 similarly received some shares of stock in an 
 Arkansas railroad company. Mr. Elaine s speech 
 v/as as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, with the leave of the House so 
 kindly granted, I shall proceed to submit certain 
 facts and correct certain errors personal to myself. 
 The dates of the correspondence embraced in my 
 statement will show that it was impossible for me 
 to make it earlier. I shall be as brief as the cir 
 cumstances will permit. For some months past a 
 charge against me has been circulating in private 
 and was recently made public designing to 
 show that I had in some indirect manner received 
 the large sum of $64,000 from the Union Pacific 
 Railroad Company in 1871, for what services or 
 for what purpose has never been stated. The 
 alleged proofs of the serious accusation were based, 
 according to the original story, upon the author 
 ship of E. H. Rollins, treasurer of the Union 
 Pacific Company, who, it is averred, had full 
 knowledge that I got the money, and also upon 
 the authority of Morton, Bliss & Company, 
 bankers of New York, through whom the draft 
 for 64,000 was said to have been negotiated for 
 my benefit, as they confidently knew. Hearing 
 
1/8 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 of this charge some weeks in advance of its 
 publication, I procured the following statement 
 from the two principal witnesses, who were quoted 
 as having such definite knowledge against me : 
 
 "UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY. 
 
 " BOSTON, March 31, 1876. 
 
 " Dear Sir : In response to your inquiry, I beg leave to state that I 
 have been treasurer of the Union Pacific Railroad Company since April 8 
 1871, and have necessarily known of all disbursements made since that 
 date. During the entire period up to the present time I am sure that no 
 money has been paid in any way or to any person by the company in which 
 you were interested in any manner whatever. I make the statement in 
 justice to the company, to you, and to myself. 
 
 " Very respectfully yours, 
 
 " B. H. ROLLINS. 
 " HON. JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 " NEW YORK, April 6, 1876. 
 
 " Dear Sir : In answer to your inquiry, we beg to say that no draft, 
 note, or check, or other evidence of value has passed through our books in 
 which you were known or supposed to have any interest of any kind, direct 
 or indirect. 
 
 " We remain, very respectfully, your obedient servants, 
 
 " MORTON, BLISS & CO. 
 "HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 " WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 " Some persons on reading the letter of Morton, 
 Bliss & Company said that its denial seemed to be 
 confined to any payment that had passed through 
 their books, whereas they might have paid a draft 
 in which I was interested and yet no entry made of 
 it on their books. On the criticism being made 
 known to the firm, they at once addressed me the 
 following letter : 
 
 " NEW YORK, April 13, 1876. 
 
 " Dear Sir : It has been suggested to us that our letter of the 6th 
 instant was not sufficiently inclusive or exclusive. In that letter we stated 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 1/9 
 
 "that no draft, note, or check, or other evidence of value has ever passed 
 tluough our books in which you were known or supposed to have any 
 interest, direct or indirect." It may be proper for us to add tint nothing has 
 been paid to us in any form, or at any time, to any person or any corporation 
 in which you were known, believed, or supposed to have any interest 
 whatever. 
 
 " We remain, very respectfully, your obedient servants, 
 
 " MORTON, BLISS & CO. 
 " HON. JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 . " WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 "The two witnesses quoted for the original 
 charge having thus effectually disposed of it, the 
 charge itself reappeared in another form to this 
 effect, namely : That a certain draft was negotiated 
 at the house of Morton, Biiss & Company in 1871, 
 through Thomas A. Scott, then president of the 
 Union Pacific Railroad Company, for the sum of 
 $64,000, and that $75,000 of the bonds of the 
 Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Company 
 were pledged as collateral ; that the Union Pacific 
 Company paid the draft and took up the collateral : 
 that the cash proceeds of it went to nre, and that 
 I had furnished, or sold, or in some way conveyed 
 or transferred to Thomas A. Scott, these Little 
 Rock and Fort Smith bonds which had been used 
 as collateral ; that the bonds in reality had be 
 longed to me or some friend or constituent of 
 mine for whom I was acting. I endeavor to state 
 the charge in its boldest form and in all its phases. 
 
 "I desire here and now to declare that all and 
 every part of this story that connects rny name 
 with it, is absolutely untrue, without a particle of 
 
JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 foundation in fact, and without a tittle of evidence 
 to substantiate it. I never had any transaction of 
 any kind with Thomas A. Scott concerning bonds 
 of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Road, or the 
 bonds of any other railroad, or any business in 
 any way connected with railroads, directly or indi 
 rectly, immediately or remotely. I never had any 
 business transactions whatever with the Union 
 Pacific Railroad Company, or any of its officers 
 or agents or representatives, and never, in any 
 manner, received from that Company, directly or 
 indirectly, a single dollar in money, or stocks, or 
 bonds, or any other form of value. And as to 
 the particular transaction referred to, I never so 
 much as heard of it until nearly two -years after 
 its alleged occurrence, when it was talked of, at 
 the time of the Credit Mobilier investigation, in 
 1873. But while my denial ought to be conclusive, 
 I should greatly regret to be compelled to leave 
 the matter -there. I am fortunately able to sustain 
 my own declaration by the most conclusive evi 
 dence that the case admits of, or that human 
 testimony can supply. If any person or persons 
 know the truth or falsity of these charges, it must 
 be the officers of the Union Pacific Railroad Com 
 pany. I accordingly addressed a note to the 
 president of that company, a gentleman who has 
 been a director of the company from its organiza 
 tion, I believe, who has a more thorough acquaint 
 ance with its business transactions, probably, than 
 
w 
 
 H 
 
 55 
 
 W 
 
 CO 
 CO 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 183 
 
 any other man. The correspondence, which I 
 here submit, will explain itself, and leave nothing 
 to be said. I will read these letters in their proper 
 order. They need no comment. 
 
 " WASHINGTON, D. C., April 13, 1876. 
 
 " Dear Sir ; You have doubtless observed the scandal now in circula 
 tion in regard to my having been interested in certain bonds of the Little 
 Rock and Fort Smith Road, alleged to have been purchased by your com 
 pany in 1871. It is due to me, I think, that some statement in regard to 
 the subject should be made by yourself, as the official head of the Union 
 Pacific Railroad Company. 
 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 "J. G. ELAINE. 
 " SIDNEY DILLON, ESQ., 
 
 " President Union Pacific Railroad Company. 
 
 " * OFFICE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, 
 
 " < NEW YORK, April 15, 1876. 
 
 " * Dear Sir : I have your favor of the I3th instant, and in reply desire 
 to say that I have this day written Colonel Thomas A. Scott, who was 
 president of the Union Pacific Company at the time of the transaction 
 referred to, a letter, of which I send a copy herewith. On receipt of this 
 reply, I will enclose it to you. 
 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 "< SIDNEY DILLON, 
 
 " President. 
 " HON. JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 
 " Washington, D. C. 
 
 "OFFICE OF THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD Co., 
 
 " NEW YORK, April 15, 1876. 
 
 " Dear Sir : The press of tie country are making allegations that cer 
 tain bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Company, in 1871, 
 were obtained from Hon. James G. Elaine, of Maine, or that the avails, in 
 some form, \veni to uis benefit, and that the knowledge of those facts rests 
 with the officers of the company and with yourself. These statements are 
 injurious Doth to Mr. Elaine and to the Union Pacific Railroad Company. 
 There were never any facts to warrant them, and I think that a statement 
 to the public is due both from you and myself. I desire, as president of the 
 II 
 
JAMES G, ELAINE. 
 
 company, to repel any sj.cn. inference in the most emphatic manner, and 
 would be glad to hear from you on the subject. 
 " * Very respectfully, 
 
 " SIDNEY DILLON, 
 
 " President, 
 COL. THOMAS A. SCOTT, 
 
 " Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 " OFFICE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY. 
 
 " NEW YORK, April 22, 1876. 
 
 " Dear Sir : As I advised you some days ago, I wrote Colonel Thomas 
 A. Scott, and begged leave to enclose you his reply. I desire further to say 
 that I was a director of the company and a member of the executive com 
 mittee in 1871, and to add my testimony to that of Colonel Scott in verifica 
 tion of all that he has stated in the enclosed letter. 
 " Truly yours, 
 
 " SIDNEY DILLON, 
 
 " President. 
 
 " HON. JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 " WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 " PHILADELPHIA, April 21, 1876. 
 
 " l My Dear Sir : I have your letter under date Is ew York, April 15, 
 1876, stating that the press of the country are making allegations that certain 
 bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad, purchased by the Union 
 Pacific Railroad Company in 1871, were obtained from Hon. J. G. Elaine, 
 of Maine, or that the avails in some form went to his benefit ; that there 
 never were any facts to warrant them; that it is your desire as president of 
 the company to repel any such influence in the most emphatic manner, and 
 asking me to make a statement in regard to the matter. 
 
 " In reply, I beg leave to say that much as I dislike the idea of entering 
 into any of the controversies that are before the public in these days of 
 scandal from which but few men in public life seem to be exempt, I feel it 
 my duty to state : 
 
 " That the Little Rock and Fort Smith bonds purchased by the Union 
 Pacific Railroad Company in 1871 were not purchased or received from 
 Mr. Elaine, directly or indirectly, and that of the money paid by the Union 
 Pacific Railroad Company, or of the avails of said bonds, not one dollar 
 went to Mr. Elaine or to any person for him, or for his benefit in any form. 
 
 " All statements to the effect that Mr. Elaine ever had any transactions 
 with me, directly or indirectly, involving money or valuables of any kind, 
 are absolutely without foundation in fact. 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 185 
 
 I take pleasure in making this statement to you, and you may use it in 
 any manner )ou deem best for the interest of the Union Pacific Railroad 
 <. ompany. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " THOMAS A. SCOTT. 
 " SIDNEY DILLON, ESQ., President, 
 
 "UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, New York. 
 
 "Let me now, Mr. Speaker, briefly summarize 
 what I presented : First, that the story of my 
 receiving $64,000 or any other sum of money, or 
 anything of value, from the Union Pacific Railroad 
 Company, directly or indirectly, or in any form, is 
 absolutely disproved by the most conclusive testi 
 mony. Second, that no bond of mine was ever 
 sold to the Atlantic and Pacific, or the Missouri, 
 Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, and that not 
 a single dollar of money from either of these 
 companies ever went to my profit or benefit. 
 Third, that instead of receiving bonds of the Little 
 Rock and Fort Smith Road as a gratuity, I never 
 had one except at the regular market price ; and 
 instead of making a large fortune off that company, 
 I have incurred a severe pecuniary loss from my 
 investment in its securities, which I- still, retain ; 
 and out of such affairs as these grows the popular 
 gossip of large fortunes amassed in Congress. I 
 can hardly expect, Mr. Speaker, that any statement 
 from me will stop the work of those who have so 
 industriously circulated these calumnies. For 
 months past the effort has been energetic and 
 continuous to spread these stories in private 
 
1 86 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 circles. Emissaries of slander have visited 
 editorial rooms of leading Republican papers 
 from Boston to Omaha, and whispered of revela 
 tions to come that were too terrible even to be 
 spoken in loud tones, and at last, the revelations 
 have been made. I am now, Mr. Speaker, in the 
 fourteenth year of a not inactive service in this hall ; 
 I have taken and have given blows ; I have no 
 doubt said many things in the heat of debate that 
 I would gladly recall ; I have no doubt given votes 
 which in fuller light I would gladly change ; but I 
 have never done anything in my public career for 
 which I could be put to the faintest blush in any 
 presence, or for which I cannot answer to my 
 constituents, my conscience, and the Great 
 Searcher of Hearts." 
 
 This speech was considered, by the majority of 
 unprejudiced persons, to settle the whole matter 
 in Mr. Elaine s favor. His explanations were so 
 full and frank as, apparently, to leave nothing 
 more to be desired for his entire vindication against 
 the charges preferred. One of the foremost New 
 York journals, Harper s Weekly, which was by no 
 means friendly to Mr. Elaine, said, in commenting 
 upon his speech and the accusation to which it 
 was an answer : 
 
 "If nobody now appears to justify this accusa 
 tion, it must be considered merely one of the 
 reckless slanders to which every prominent public 
 man is exposed, and no charge that may be 
 
D EAST KG WITH SLANDER. 1 87 
 
 hereafter in;ido against Mr. Blaine, unaccompa 
 nied by weighty testimony, will deserve any at 
 tention whatever." 
 
 Nobody who did appear, succeeded in justify 
 ing the accusation. Nevertheless, attacks were 
 persistently made upon him, with a relentless 
 malice that has seldom been equalled in the history 
 of American politics. As the date of the Repub 
 lican National Convention drew nearer, and all 
 signs pointed more certainly to the choice of Mr. 
 Blaine as its candidate for Presidency, the at 
 tacks upon him increased in intensity and virulence. 
 On May ist, a leading New York newspaper pub 
 lished a statement to the effect that Mr. Blaine had 
 received, as a gift, certain shares in the Kansas 
 Pacific Railroad, and it was added that there were 
 positive and authentic witnesses to that effect, and 
 that, at that very time, he was concerned in a law 
 suit regarding the matter, in a Kansas court. Mr. 
 Blaine immediately secured letters from the wit 
 nesses referred to, who were well-known lawyers 
 and newspaper correspondents, explicitly denying 
 that they had any knowledge of the affair what 
 ever. He also proved, conclusively, that the Mr. 
 Blaine who was interested in the Kansas lawsuit, 
 was not himself, but his brother, John E. Blaine, 
 who had settled in that State many years ago, and 
 who had purchased the stock in dispute long be- 
 fjre James G. Blaine had even been nominated 
 for Congress. Thus Mr. Blaine completely refuted 
 
1 88 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 this second charge against him, concluding his 
 personal explanation in the House as follows : 
 
 "Having now noticed the two charges that 
 have been so extensively circulated, I shall refrain 
 from calling the attention of the House to any 
 others that may be invented. To quote the lan 
 guage of another, I do not propose to make my 
 public life a perpetual and uncomfortable flea-hunt, 
 in the vain efforts to run down stones which have 
 no basis in truth, which are usually anonymous, 
 and whose total refutation brings no punishment 
 to those who have been guilty of originating 
 them. " 
 
 Thus far the campaign against Mr. Elaine had 
 only succeeded in increasing his popularity and 
 his strength as a Presidential candidate. But his 
 enemies did not slacken their hostile efforts. On 
 the very next day, Mr. Tarbox, of Massachusetts, 
 introduced in the House a resolution, calling for 
 an investigation of an alleged purchase by the 
 Union Pacific Railroad Company of certain bonds 
 of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Com 
 pany, fora price much greater than their real value. 
 The Judiciary Committee, of which Mr. Proctor 
 Knott was chairman, was instructed to conduct 
 the investigation. Mr. Tarbox explicitly declared 
 that this resolution was not aimed at Mr. Elaine, 
 and thus secured its adoption without objection. 
 The moment the committee began its work, how 
 ever, it was evident that Mr. Elaine was the one 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 189 
 
 person held in view, and the investigation was 
 conducted with the sole object of injuring his 
 political prospects. He did not complain of the 
 investigation. He did demand that it should be 
 pushed forward promptly and thoroughly. This 
 demand was not, however, granted. The investi 
 gation was made to drag along wearily, with the 
 evident intention of postponing the final result 
 until after the Republican Convention. It was 
 reckoned that that body would not nominate Mr. 
 Elaine for the Presidency while his conduct was 
 actually under official investigation. Newspaper 
 reports, connecting Mr. Elaine with certain trans 
 actions of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, 
 were taken up, and a third issue against him was 
 sought in what was known as the " Real Estate 
 Pool." 
 
 The most striking feature of this whole business 
 was the bringing forward of some of Mr. Elaine s 
 private correspondence. Two witnesses, named 
 Fisher and Mulligan, were brought on from Bos 
 ton, to tell what they knew. Mulligan had been 
 a confidential clerk, and had abstracted from 
 among a mass of papers to which he had access 
 a number of Mr. Elaine s letters, which were said 
 to be fatally incriminating. The lovers of scandal 
 at Washington and throughout the country were 
 wild with delight at what promised to be a fatal 
 blow at Mr. Elaine s reputation. Then it was 
 suddenly announced that Mr. Elaine had rescued 
 
190 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 his letters from the grasp of Mulligan, and now 
 had them in his own pocket. This changed the 
 aspect of the whole affair. It was thought that he 
 had secured the letters in order to prevent their 
 contents from being made public. His enemies 
 exultantly declared that this was positive proof of 
 his guilt, and his friends, for the moment, were 
 filled with dismay. The Judiciary Committee im 
 mediately made a demand upon him that he give 
 up the letters. This he refused to do, and in sup 
 port of his refusal, produced the opinions of two 
 of the most eminent lawyers of the day, ex-Judge 
 Black, a Democrat, and the Hon. Matthew H. 
 Carpenter, a Republican, to the effect that the 
 letters were his own, and that no power could 
 rightfully compel him to give them up. The com 
 mittee did not venture to insist further upon their 
 demand, nor even to report to the House his 
 refusal to surrender the letters. The demand and 
 the refusal were, however, known to everybody, 
 and the air was filled with innumerable stories of 
 the most outrageous character, all hostile to Mr. 
 Elaine. The most extravagant statements were 
 made concerning the contents of the letters, and 
 since Mr. Elaine had refused to let the letters be 
 made public, no denial of these charges could be 
 made by his friends. 
 
 The 5th of June had now arrived. In a few 
 days the National Republican Convention would 
 meet at Cincinnati. Mr. Elaine s enemies were 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. \g\ 
 
 full of exultation, and his friends were equally 
 full of doubt and dismay. Neither friends nor 
 foes had any idea of the startling- stroke which he 
 was about to deal On that day he quietly arose 
 in the House of Representatives, and said : " Mr. 
 Speaker, if the morning hour has expired, I desire 
 to speak on a question of privilege." The 
 Speaker pro tern, replied that the morning hour 
 had expired ; whereupon Mr. Elaine proceeded 
 as follows : 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, on the second day of May this 
 resolution was passed by the House : 
 
 " \VHEREAS, it is publicly alleged, and is not 
 denied by the officers of the Union Pacific Rail 
 road Company, that that corporation did, in the 
 year 1871 or 1872, become the owner of certain 
 bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad 
 Company, for which bonds the said Union Pacific 
 Railroad Company paid a consideration largely in 
 excess of their market or actual value, and that 
 the board of directors of said Union Pacific Rail 
 road Company, though urged, have neglected to 
 investigate said transaction ; therefore, 
 
 " Be it resolved, That the Committee on the 
 Judiciary 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 consideration, and whether the trans 
 action was from corrupt design or in furtherance 
 
jQ 2 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 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 improper thing had been done by the Union 
 Pacific Railroad Company ; and of course, inci 
 dentally thereto, to find out with whom the trans 
 action 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, insignificant 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 ac 
 cusation 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 Government director of the Union 
 Pacific Road, and finally Thomas A. Scott. The 
 testimony was completely and conclusively in 
 disproof of the charge that there was any possi 
 bility that I could have had anything to do with 
 the transaction. When the famous witness 
 
DEALIXG WITH SLANDER. - 193 
 
 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 mem 
 oranda being allowed to be exhibited by that man 
 in reference to business that had no more connec 
 tion, 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 riidit to 
 
 o 
 
 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 
 wrongfully. 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 
 
JAMES G. J3LAINE. 
 
 American citizen. I wanted the gentleman from 
 Kentincky and the gentleman from Virginia to 
 introduce that question upon this floor, but they 
 did not do it. 
 
 "I stood up and declined, not only on the con 
 clusions of my own mind, but by eminent legal 
 advice. I was standing behind the rights which 
 belong to every American citizen, and if they 
 wanted to treat the question in my person any 
 where in the legislative halls or judicial halls, I 
 was ready. Then there went forth everywhere 1 
 the idea and impression that because I w r ould 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 some 
 thing deadly and destructive to my reputation. 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 
 guilt? 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 
 
DEAIJXG WITH SLANDER. 195 
 
 them. But I say that this House has no more 
 power to order what shall be done or not done 
 with rny private correspondence, than it has with 
 what I shall do in the nurture and education of my 
 children, not a particle. The right is as sacred in 
 the one case as it is in the other. But, sir, having 
 vindicated that right, standing by it, ready to make 
 any sacrifice in defence of it, here and now, if any 
 gentleman wants to take issue with me on 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 countrymen, while I 
 read those letters from this desk. (Applause.) 
 
 :: :: & * :: :: # 
 
 " This is the letter in which Mulligan says, and 
 puts down in his abstract, that I admitted the sixty- 
 four thousand dollar sale of bonds : 
 
 "WASHINGTON, D. C, April 18, 1872. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Fisher : I answered you very hastily last evening, as 
 you said you wished for nn immediate reply, and perhaps in my hurry I 
 did not make myself fully understood. You have been, for some time, 
 laboring under a toia ly erroneous impression in regard to my results in the 
 Fort Smith matter. The sales of bonds which you spoke of my making, 
 
J9 6 fAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 and which you seem to have thought were for my own benefit, were entirely 
 otherwise. I did Dot have the money in my possession forty-eight hours* 
 but paid it over directly to the parties whom I tried, by every means in my 
 power, to protect from loss. I a:n very sure that you have little id:a of the? 
 labors, the losses, the efforts and the sacrifices I have made within the past 
 year to save those innocent persons, who invested on my request, from per 
 sonal loss. 
 
 " And I say to you to-night, that I am immeasurably worse off than if 
 I had never touched the Fort Smith matter. The demand you m ike upon 
 me now is one which I am entirely unable to comply with. I cannot d > il. 
 It is not in my power. You say that necessity knows no law/ Th it 
 applies to me as well as to you, and when I have reached the point I am 
 now. at, I simply fall back on that law. You are as well aware as I am, that 
 the bonds are due me under the contract. Could I have them, I could a. just 
 many matters not now in my power, and as long as this and other ma tcrs 
 remain unadjusted between us, I do not recognize the equity, or the lawful 
 ness, of your calling on me for a partial settlement. I am re a y nt any 
 moment to make a full, fair, comprehensive settlement with you, on the most 
 liberal terms. I will not be exacting or captious or critical, but am ready 
 and eager to make a broad and generous adjustment with you, and if we 
 can t agree ourselves, we can select a mutual friend who can easily com 
 promise c.11 points of difference between us. 
 
 " You will, I trust, see that I arn disposed to meet you in a spirit of 
 friendly cordiality, and yet wi .h a sense of self-defence that impels me to be 
 frank and expose to you my pecuniary weakness. 
 
 " * With very 1 ind regards to Mrs. Fisher, I am yours truly, 
 
 " J. G. BLAINE. 
 
 W. FISHER, JR., ESQ. 
 
 r * 
 
 "I now pass to a letter dated Augusta, Me., 
 October 4, 1869, but I read these letters now 
 somewhat in their- order. Now to this letter I ask 
 the attention of the House. In the March session 
 of 1869, the first one at which I was speaker, the 
 extra session of the Forty-first Congress, a land 
 grant in the State of Arkansas to the Little Rock 
 Road was reported. I never remember to have 
 heard of the road, until at the last night of the 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 197 
 
 session, when it was up here for consideration. 
 The gentlemen in Boston with whom I had rela 
 tions did not have anything to do with that road 
 for nearly three or four months after that time. It 
 is in the light of that statement that I desire that 
 letter read. 
 
 "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 came across it, all the facts came back to 
 me fresh, and I wrote this letter : 
 
 (Personal.) 
 
 " AucusTA, ME., October 4, 1869. 
 
 "*My Dear Sir: I spoke to you a short time ago about a point of 
 interest to your railroad company that occurred at the last session of the 
 Congress. 
 
 " It was on the last night of the session, when the bill renewing the 
 land grant to the State of Arkansas for the Little Rock Road was reached, 
 and Julian, of Indiana, chairman of the Public Lands Committee, 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. Cald- 
 well. 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, and the other members from Arkansas, \vho 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 P>emont 
 scheme, and if the Arkansas bill had gone back to the Senalfe with Julian s 
 amendments, the whole thing could have gone on the table and slept the 
 sleep of death. 
 
 " 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 know., 
 edge of the rules to make the point, but he said General Logan was opposed 
 
198 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 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. ELAINE. 
 " 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. 
 
 " There is mentioned in another letter $6,000 
 of land-grant bonds of the Union Pacific Railroad 
 for which I stood as only part owner; these were 
 only in part mine. As I have started to make a 
 personal explanation, I want to make a full ex 
 planation 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 
 
C/ 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 2 OI 
 
 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 that sense only, were mine that they were 
 security for the loan which I had made. They 
 were all literally hers ; they were all sold finally 
 for her account not one of them for me. I make 
 this statement in order to be perfectly fair. 
 
 " I have now read these fifteen letters, the whole 
 of them ; the House and the country now know 
 all there is in them. They are dated, and they 
 correspond precisely with Mulligan s memorandum 
 which I have here. 
 
 " I do not wish to detain the House, but I have 
 one or two more observations to make. The 
 specific charge that went to the committee, as it 
 affects me, is whether I was a party in interest to 
 the $64,000 transaction ; and I submit that up to 
 this time there has not been one particle of proof 
 
 before the committee, sustaining that charge. 
 12 
 
202 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Gentlemen have said that they heard some 
 body else say, and generally, when that somebody 
 else was brought on the stand, it appeared that he 
 did not say it at all. Colonel Thomas A. Scott 
 swore very positively and distinctly, 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 attention, 
 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 evi 
 dence, over and over again, that the bonds which 
 went to the Union Pacific Road were land-errant 
 
 o 
 
 bonds. Therefore, it is a moral impossibility that 
 the bonds taken up to Maine should have gone to 
 the Union Pacific Railroad. They were of differ 
 ent series, different kinds, different colors, every 
 thing different, as different 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. Mul 
 ligan was contradicted by Fisher, and Atkins and 
 Scott swore directly against him. Morton, of 
 Morton, Bliss & Co., never heard my name in the 
 matter. Carnegee, who negotiated the note, 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 303 
 
 never heard my name in that connection. Rollins 
 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 intangible rumors get very considerable cir 
 culation here ; and if a man is to be held account 
 able 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 correspondence of my life. I ask, gen 
 tlemen, if any of you, and I ask it with some 
 feeling, can stand a severer scrutiny of, or more 
 rigid investigation into, your private correspond 
 ence ? That was the worst he could do. 
 
 "There is one piece of testimony wanting. 
 There is but one thing to close the complete circle 
 of evidence. There is but one witness whom I 
 could not have, to whom the Judiciary Committee, 
 taking into account the great and intimate connec 
 tion he had with the transaction, was asked to 
 send a cable despatch, and I ask the gentleman 
 from Kentucky if that cable despatch was sent 
 to him?" 
 
 Mr. Frye. Who ? 
 
 Mr. Elaine. To Josiah Caldwell. 
 
 Mr. Knott. I will reply to the gentleman that 
 Judge Hamton and myself have both endeavored 
 
204 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 to get Mr. Caldwell s address, and have not yet 
 got it. 
 
 Mr. Elaine. Has the gentleman from Kentucky 
 received a despatch from Mr. Caldwell ? 
 
 Mr. Knott. I will explain that directly. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. I want a categorical answer. 
 
 o 
 
 Mr. Kn0tt. I have received a despatch pur 
 porting to be from Mr. Caldwell. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. You did ? 
 
 Mr. Knott. How did you know I got it ? 
 
 Mr. Blaine. When did you get it ? I want the 
 gentleman from Kentucky to answer when he 
 got it. 
 
 Mr. Knott. Answer my question first. 
 
 Mr. Blaine. I never heard of it until yesterday. 
 
 Mr. Knott. How did you hear it ? 
 
 Mr. Blaine. I heard that you got a despatch 
 las* Thursday morning, at eight o clock, from 
 Josiah Caldwell, completely and absolutely ex 
 onerating me from this charge, and you have 
 suppressed it. (Protracted applause upon the Moor 
 and in the galleries.) I want the^ gentleman to 
 answer. (After a pause.) Does the gentleman 
 from 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 despatch was obtained. I 
 have had no communication with Josiah Caldwell. 
 I have had no means of knowing from the telegraph 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 205 
 
 office whether the despatch was received. But 
 I tell the gentleman from Kentucky that mur 
 der 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 
 Kentucky received and receipted for a message 
 addressed to him from Josiah Caldwell, in London, 
 entirely corroborating and substantiating the 
 statements 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.) 
 No description can do justice to the tremen 
 dous scene in the House of Representatives at the 
 culmination of this address, or to the profound 
 impression produced by it throughout the country. 
 The House was literally thunderstruck at Mr. 
 Elaine s magnificent courage and audacity, as 
 well as by his frankness, in thus producing and 
 publicly reading the suppressed letters, the very 
 letters that the man Mulligan had abstracted and 
 had brought to Washington with such a prodigious 
 flourish of trumpets, the very letters which Mr. 
 Elaine had recovered from him and for the time 
 being had sternly suppressed, the very letters 
 which, whi T e they were suppressed, had been 
 advertised by Mr. Elaine s enemies as teeming 
 
JAMES G. 8LAINE. 
 
 with indubitable evidence of his guilt. It was 
 clear to every fair-minded man, as he read them, 
 one by one, that there was not a word in them in 
 the least degree reflecting upon his absolute 
 integrity. These letters had been picked, with 
 almost devilish ingenuity, out of a voluminous 
 correspondence extending over many years, and 
 had been carefully separated from the context of 
 correspondence that would explain them and show 
 their innocent nature. "The man," said Mr. 
 Elaine justly, "did his worst, the very worst he 
 could do." But that worst not only fell harmless : 
 it rebounded with fatal force against its malicious 
 and despicable author. 
 
 The climax of the scene, however, was in the 
 direct passage of arms with Mr. Knott. There 
 was lacking one witness who could affirmatively 
 have proved Mr. Elaine s entire innocence. This 
 was Mr. Josiah Caldwell, who was then travelling 
 in Europe. He possessed exact knowledge of all 
 the transactions in question, and was able abund 
 antly to vindicate Mr. Elaine s integrity. Mr. 
 Elaine did not know his address, and therefore 
 could not communicate with him by cable. Eut 
 Mr. Knott had ascertained his address, and had 
 communicated with him in hope that his evidence 
 would be hostile to Mr. Elaine. It proved to be 
 exactly the reverse, and the Judiciary Committee 
 thereupon suppressed his despatch. When Mr. 
 Elaine asked Mr. Knott if he had not received 
 
DEALING WITH SLANDER. 2 O/ 
 
 such a despatch, Mr. Knott endeavored to evade 
 the question. But the question, and Mr. Knott s 
 evident disinclination to answer it, wrought the 
 interest of the Members of the House and the 
 spectators in the galleries up to the highest pitch. 
 And when, at last, Mr. Elaine, all ablaze with 
 righteous wrath, strode down the aisle of the 
 House, and launched full in the faces of his per 
 secutors the tremendous accusation, "You have 
 received from Josiah Caldwell a despatch com 
 pletely and absolutely exonerating me, and you 
 have suppressed it ! the words, the gesture, 
 the expression of the indignant and triumphant 
 man on trial, and the confusion of his overwhelmed 
 prosecutor, all together formed a dramatic scene 
 without parallel in the history of the House. A 
 wild storm of applause broke from the floor and 
 the galleries, which the presiding officer was pow 
 erless to quell. All the proceedings that followed 
 were merely perfunctory. That one supreme 
 moment settled the controversy. Thereafter Mr. 
 Elaine s enemies. growled and carped against him 
 in impotent rage. The verdict of the Committee 
 was a negative one, instead of the affirmative 
 acquittal to which Mr. Elaine was evidently en 
 titled. But the unanimous verdict of unprejudiced 
 public opinion was overwhelmingly, affirmatively 
 and enthusiastically in Mr. Elaine s favor. The 
 envenomed attacks upon Mr. Elaine, with which 
 the press had teemed, were now rivalled by the 
 
2o8 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 ridicule, contempt and denunciation that were 
 poured upon Knott and Mulligan. And while 
 Mr. Elaine failed to receive the Presidential nomi 
 nation at Cincinnati, he had the satisfaction of 
 securing, at Washington, such a vindication as few 
 public men under serious charges have ever 
 enjoyed, and of bringing upon his enemies a con 
 fusion, a confutation, and a dishonor, from which 
 they have never recovered. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE SENATOR. 
 
 A. Prominent Position Quickly Taken in tke Upper Chamber Opposition 
 to the Electoral Commission and to the Southern Surrender Policy of 
 President Hayes Discussion of the Southern Elections Question 
 Opposition to the Bland Silver Bill Restriction of Chinese Immigra 
 tion Defeating a Democratic Conspiracy in Maine The Shipping 
 Interests of the Nation. 
 
 Senator Morrill, of Maine, resigned his place in 
 Congress in July, 1876, in order to become Sec 
 retary of the Treasury, and on the tenth of that 
 month the Governor appointed Mr. Elaine to suc 
 ceed him in the Senate. There were many among 
 his friends who at first regretted this transfer of the 
 brilliant Representative to the Upper House. In 
 his old place he was the unrivalled leader of his 
 party, and his talents shone their brightest in the 
 fierce battles that raged in the popular assembly. 
 But in the more conservative and dignified Senate, 
 it was thought, he would be at a disadvantage. 
 His dashing style would be out of place there, 
 and he would be outranked and cast into the 
 shade by the accomplished statesmen who held 
 sway there. 
 
 But they were ill-advised who had such fears. 
 They underrated their man. They failed to do 
 justice to his versatility, and to the substantial 
 209 
 
2 JO JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 foundation of thorough scholarship that underlay 
 the dazzling superstructure of his popular fame. 
 And they were soon undeceived. Mr. Elaine did 
 not wait long before he showed himself the pos 
 sessor of a full degree of Senatorial dignity, and 
 compelled doubters and critics to recognize in 
 him a statesman as sagacious as he was brilliant, 
 and well worthy to rank among the greatest of 
 those who have made the Senate of the United 
 States illustrious. 
 
 There is an unwritten law of the Senate that 
 requires a new member to remain for a time in 
 the background ; perhaps seen, but surely not 
 heard. He must sit at the feet of his elders and 
 learn of them, before he may rise and take part 
 in the grave deliberations of that august body. 
 Mr. Elaine did not heed this rule. He did not 
 make haste to place himself conspicuously before 
 the Senate. But the moment there was need of 
 him, the moment his duty to his country prompted 
 him to participate in debate, he did so without 
 hesitation. He spoke, moreover, not as a nov 
 ice, but as an "old Parliamentary hand." His 
 air was that of a Senator of more years service 
 than he had seen weeks. And so did he acquit 
 himself, with such modesty, yet authority, with 
 such force, yet dignity, that his appearance was 
 welcomed by even the greatest sticklers for prece 
 dent, and he was at once recognized as a leader in 
 the Senate, as he had been in the Ho % use. 
 
THE SENATOR. 211 
 
 One striking- episode of his Senatorial career is 
 treated in a separate chapter his participation 
 in the deadlock debate over the President s right 
 to employ the army to keep the peace and to 
 enforce the laws at the polls when a Federal 
 election was in progress. During his service in 
 the Senate many important measures came before 
 that House for consideration, and upon the mall 
 he expressed himself with his accustomed frank 
 ness and force. 
 
 When the famous dispute arose over the count 
 ing- of the electoral votes for President and Vice- 
 President, he was a steadfast believer in the 
 rightful triumph of the Republican candidates. 
 He looked with pronounced disfavor, however, 
 upon the Electoral Commission, as a device not 
 warranted by the Constitution, and beyond the 
 authority of Congress to create. "lam not pre 
 pared," he said, "to vest any body of men with 
 the tremendous power which this bill gives to 
 fourteen gentlemen, four of whom are to com 
 plete their number by selecting a fifteenth. I do 
 not believe that Congress itself has the power 
 which it proposes to confer on these fifteen gen 
 tlemen." The bill establishing the Electoral 
 Commission was, however, adopted and Mr. 
 Elaine cordially concurred in the result. 
 
 He was in general a supporter of the adminis 
 tration of President Hayes, but he strongly dis 
 approved its policy in recognizing the Democratic 
 
212 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 State Governments in South Carolina and Lou 
 isiana in the spring of 1877. In his view of the 
 case, that was a surrender of the rights of the 
 majority to the demands of an aggressive and 
 law-defying minority. On this subject he spoke 
 more than once in the Senate in no uncertain 
 tones. In December, 1878, he brought forward 
 and supported in a powerful speech a resolution 
 which had the two- fold purpose of placing on 
 record, in a definite and authentic form, the frauds 
 and outrages by which some recent elections had 
 been carried by the Democratic party in the 
 Southern States, and of finding if there were any 
 method by which a repetition of these crimes 
 against a free ballot might be prevented. "We 
 know," he said, "that one hundred and six Rep 
 resentatives in Congress were recently chosen in 
 the States formerly slave holding, and that the 
 Democrats elected one hundred and one, or pos 
 sibly 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 popula 
 tion, and that the entire political power thus found 
 ed on the numbers of the colored people has 
 been seized and appropriated to the aggrandize 
 ment of its own strength by the Democratic party 
 of the South. 
 
 "The issue thus raised before the country is 
 not one of mere sentiment for the rights of the 
 
THE SENATOR. 213 
 
 negro ; though far distant be the day when the 
 rights of any American citizen, however black or 
 however poor, shall form the mere dust of the 
 balance in any controversy ; nor is the issue one 
 that involves the waving of the bloody shirt , to 
 quote the elegant vernacular of Democratic vitu 
 peration ; nor still further is the issue only a ques 
 tion of the equality of the black voter of the South 
 with the white voter of the South. The issue has 
 taken a far wider range, one of portentous magni 
 tude, and that is, 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. 
 
 "Let me illustrate my meaning. South Caro 
 lina, Mississippi and Louisiana send seventeen 
 Representatives to Congress. Their aggregate 
 population is 1,035,000 whites and 1,224,000 col 
 ored. Of the seventeen Representatives, nine 
 were apportioned to these States by reason of 
 their colored population and only eight by reason 
 of their white population ; and yet, in the choice 
 of the entire seventeen Representatives, the col 
 ored voters had no more voice or power than 
 their remote kindred on the shores of Senegam- 
 bia. In contrast, take two States in the North, 
 Iowa and Wisconsin, with seventeen Representa 
 tives. They have a white population of 2,247,- 
 ooo, considerably more than double the entire 
 white population of the three Southern States I 
 
214 JAMES G. BLAJNE. 
 
 have named. In Iowa and Wisconsin, therefore, 
 it takes 132,000 white population to send a Rep 
 resentative to Congress, but in South Carolina, 
 Mississippi and Louisiana every 60,000 white 
 people send a Representative. In other words, 
 60,000 white people in the Southern States have 
 precisely the same political power in the govern 
 ment of the country that 132,000 white people 
 have in the North. In levying every tax, there 
 fore, in making every appropriation 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 powerful and twice as in 
 fluential as the vote of the Union soldier 
 North. 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 de 
 fiance of both. 
 
 " The seizure of this power is wanton usurpa 
 tion ; it is flagrant outrage ; it is violent perver 
 sion of the whole theory of Republican govern 
 ment. And this injustice is wholly unprovoked. 
 * * But whenever a protest is made against 
 such injustice, the response we get comes to us 
 in the form of a taunt, * What are you going to do 
 about it? and How do you propose to help 
 yourselt ? This is the stereotyped answer of de 
 fiance which intrenched Wrong always gives to 
 inquiring Justice ; and those who imagine it to be 
 
THE SENATOR. 21$ 
 
 conclusive do not know the temper of the Ameri 
 can people. " 
 
 Early in his Senatorial career the currency 
 question, which he had already discussed in the 
 House, came up. The Senate had under con 
 sideration the bill originated by Mr. Bland in the 
 House of Representatives, providing for the 
 coinage of silver dollars of 412*^ grains, the same 
 to be legal tender. To this measure Mr. Elaine 
 expressed strong opposition, although many of 
 his party associates favored it. He argued that 
 it was grossly unjust to coin a dollar of such a 
 weight, containing only 90 or 92 cents worth of 
 silver, and make it a legal tender for debts con 
 tracted to be paid in dollars of 100 cents. Seeing 
 that the bill was bound to pass, he strove to 
 amend it so as to provide for a dollar of 425 
 grains. Speaking in support of this amendment 
 he said : " We hear it proclaimed that the people 
 demand cheap money. I deny it. 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." 
 
 Mr. Elaine s amendment was rejected and the 
 bill in its original form was passed. The President 
 
2l6 , JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 vetoed it, on the very grounds expressed by 
 Mr. Elaine in his speeches against it. But Con 
 gress passed the bill over the President s veto 
 and it became a law. 
 
 A third question on which Mr. Elaine took 
 pronounced and conspicuous ground in the Senate 
 was that of limiting Chinese immigration. About 
 1877, agitation of this matter assumed in Cali 
 fornia a violent form. Mass meetings were held 
 frequently in Sari Francisco and elsewhere, at 
 which the Chinese were bitterly denounced and a 
 demand was made for their exclusion from the 
 country. It was found that no action by the State 
 would be sufficient to attain this object, and the 
 voice of the people called to Congress for relief. 
 A bill was accordingly introduced restricting the 
 number of Chinese passengers on any one incom 
 ing vessel to fifteen. To this measure Mr. Elaine 
 gave hearty support, although he was at first 
 sharply criticised for so doing by many of his 
 warmest friends in New England and the Middle 
 States. Speaking on this subject, in February, 
 1879, he said : 
 
 " Ought we to exclude them ? The question 
 lies in my mind thus : Either the Anglo-Saxon 
 race will possess the Pacific coast, or the Mongo 
 lians will possess it. You give them the start to 
 day, with the keen thrust of necessity behind 
 them, and with the ease of transportation before 
 them, and it is entirely inevitable that they will 
 

 SENATOR GEO. F. EDMUNDS. 
 
THE SEX A TOR. 219 
 
 occupy that great space of country between the 
 Sierras and the Pacific coast. * * The immigrants 
 that come to us from all portions of Europe come 
 here with the idea of the family as such engraven 
 on their minds and in their customs and in their 
 habits, as we have it. The Asiatic cannot go on 
 with our population and make a homogeneous 
 element. The idea of comparing European 
 immigration with an immigration that has no re 
 gard for family, that does not recognize the rela 
 tion of husband and wife, that does not observe 
 the tie of parent and child, that does not have in 
 the slightest degree the ennobling and civilizing 
 influences of the hearthstone and the fireside ! 
 There is not a peasant s cottage inhabited by a 
 Chinaman ; there is not a hearthstone, in the 
 sense we understand it. There is not a domestic 
 fireside in that sense. 
 
 " I have heard a great deal about their cheap 
 labor. I do not myself believe in cheap labor. I 
 do not believe that cheap labor should be an 
 object of legislation. There is not a laborer on 
 the Pacific coast to-day who does not feel 
 wounded and grieved and crushed by the com 
 petition that comes from this source. It is 
 servile labor. It is not free labor such as we in 
 tend to develop and encourage and build up in 
 this country. It is labor that comes here under a 
 mortgage. We can choose here to-day whether 
 our legislation shall be in the interest of the 
 13 
 
220 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 American free laborer or of the servile laborer 
 from China." 
 
 The bill which Mr. Elaine thus advocated was 
 passed by both Houses of Congress, but was 
 vetoed by President Hayes on the ground that it 
 was a violation of treaty obligations. A few 
 years later another and still more rigorous bill 
 was introduced and adopted, but Mr. Elaine wa^s 
 not then in the Senate. 
 
 The attitude taken by Mr. Elaine in advocacy 
 of the protective tariff system is fully set forth 
 elsewhere. One other striking incident of his 
 Senatorial career, although not directly pertain 
 ing to the business of that House, occurred in the 
 winter of 1879 and 1880. The State election in 
 Maine in the fall of 1879 was bitterly contested 
 and the result was very close. There was no 
 reasonable doubt, however, that the Republicans 
 had won. But the Democrats, who had for the 
 preceding year had possession of the State Gov 
 ernment, expressed the determination to continue 
 in office. They based their claim to do so on 
 certain alleged defective returns. Their attempt 
 might have been successful, had not Mr. Elaine, 
 with characteristic promptness and firmness, set 
 on foot active measures to defeat it. He made 
 at his home in Augusta an indignant speech, de 
 nouncing the Democratic plot in unsparing terms. 
 In the end the Democrats were compelled to 
 abandon their unlawful position and to surrender 
 
THE SENATOR. 221 
 
 the State government to the rightfully-elected 
 Republican officers. It was recognized that this 
 result was due almost entirely to Mr. Elaine s 
 endeavors, and thus a great addition was made to 
 the debt of gratitude which the people of Maine 
 already owed to him. 
 
 Mr. Elaine also distinguished himself in the 
 Senate by his advocacy of measures for the bene 
 fit of American commercial and shipping interests, 
 making several important speeches on the sub 
 ject. At the expiration of the fragmentary term 
 for which he was appointed, he was elected by 
 the Maine Legislature for another full term. He 
 did not serve during the whole of the latter, how 
 ever, being summoned in 1881 to another posi 
 tion, in the Executive Department of the Gov 
 ernment. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 
 
 The Congressional Deadlock and Political Debate of May, 1879 The 
 Question of State Rights versus National Soverignty at Issue Ad 
 dresses by Great Party Leaders Senator Eaton s Presentation of the 
 Democratic Side Mr. Elaine s Reply Full Text of his Masterly 
 Oration. 
 
 The spring- of 1879 was marked in Congress 
 by a long and bitter political struggle. The 
 Democrats had a majority in each House, while 
 a Republican, Mr. Hayes, was in the Presidential 
 chair. A strong effort was made by the Demo 
 crats, under the lead chiefly of Southern mem 
 bers, formerly identified with the Rebellion, to 
 enact legislation impairing the authority of the 
 Federal Government in electoral matters. A bill 
 was passed forbidding the use of United States 
 troops to preserve the peace or for any other pur 
 pose at the polls. This was so framed as to de 
 stroy the right of the Federal Government to 
 maintain its own lawful authority, which it had 
 exercised without question for a hundred years. 
 The President promptly vetoed this measure on 
 constitutional grounds ; whereupon the Demo 
 crats threatened to withhold the appropriations 
 necessary for the conduct of the government. 
 Thus a deadlock ensued, the Republican minority 
 
 222 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 223 
 
 standing firmly by the President and preventing 
 the passage of the bill over his veto. There was 
 a long and acrimonious debate, in which the whole 
 question of State Rights and National Sovereign 
 ty was discussed. Senator Conkling, Senator 
 Edmunds and others made important speeches 
 on the Republican side, and Senator Hill, Senator 
 Hampton and others upheld the Democratic side. 
 Conspicuous among the Democratic leaders 
 was Senator Eaton, of Connecticut. Early in the 
 debate it was announced that he would presently 
 make a great speech, which would cover the Re 
 publican leaders with confusion, and which would 
 especially disconcert Mr. Elaine. This announce 
 ment was fulfilled on May i6th, so far as Mr. 
 Eaton was able to fulfil it. He made on that day 
 an eloquent speech, in which he made perhaps 
 the best presentation of the Democratic side of 
 the case that was heard during the debate. But 
 he did not make the pointed and vigorous attack 
 upon Mr. Elaine which had been expected. An 
 immediate reply was made by Senator Conkling, 
 and it scarcely seemed necessary for Senator 
 Elaine to take any especial notice of Mr. Eaton s 
 remarks. He decided to do so, however, and 
 announcement was made that he would speak to 
 the question on May igth. On that date a crowded 
 and distinguished audience gathered in the Senate 
 Chamber to hear him ; and it was not disap 
 pointed. He traversed in a most effective manner 
 
224 JAMES G. 
 
 the whole ground of the debate, addressing 
 himself not only to the answering of Senator 
 Eaton, but Senator Hill, Senator Bayard and 
 Senator Hampton as well. Historical argu 
 ments had entered largely into the debate, and 
 on this ground Mr. Elaine showed himself to be 
 
 o 
 
 entirely at home. The familiarity with political 
 and constitutional history which he displayed de 
 lighted his friends and dismayed his enemies, 
 while it astonished both. And when he took his 
 seat, it was felt on both sides that no further dis 
 cussion could, after his address, adduce any new 
 fact or argument of importance in behalf of the 
 National cause. 
 
 Mr. Elaine s speech on this occasion is here re 
 produced in full, as an essential part of the stir 
 ring political history of those times, and as a com 
 plete expression of his views on a constitutional 
 question of the greatest importance. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT : Whether the honorable Sena 
 tor from Connecticut (Mr. Eaton) or myself should 
 the more correctly remember a quotation from 
 Mr. Webster s speeches is a matter of very 
 small personal consequence, and of no public im 
 portance whatever. It is not, therefore, with any 
 intention of indicating a better memory or a more 
 accurate quotation that I refer to this subject ; but 
 it is because there has been a labored and per 
 sistent attempt, in which I am sorry the Senator 
 from Connecticut has taken part, to misrepresent 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 22$ 
 
 Mr. Webster and declare that near the close of 
 his life and at the end of his political career he 
 changed his views, and that he had somewhere to 
 
 o 
 
 some public assemblage practically retracted the 
 great arguments he had made against the State- 
 rights heresies and in behalf of the Constitution 
 and the Union. The honorable Senator from 
 Connecticut on the occasion to which he has him 
 self made reference spoke thus : "I said that 
 Mr. Webster called this a confederacy of States. 
 I say he called it not only a confederacy of States, 
 but a confederation of States." 
 
 Further down, during a little colloquy between 
 the Senator and myself, he said : "When he 
 reads a few words from a certain speech of Mr. 
 Webster, does the honorable Senator from Maine 
 undertake to assert on this floor that Mr. Web 
 ster did not again and again call this government 
 not only a confederation of States but a compact 
 between States ? I say he did." 
 
 Further on the Senator said : " When the 
 proper time arrives I have not the library of Mr. 
 Webster in my pocket, I do not carry it around 
 with me (laughter) when the proper time arrives 
 I will show that Mr. Webster called this a con 
 federacy and the Constitution a compact." 
 
 The honorable Senator came into the Senate 
 on Friday last and very fully and magnanimously 
 admitted that he had not been able to find, any 
 where, in Mr. Webster s speeches, that he had 
 
220 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 called this government a confederacy of States, ft 
 but he was very sure he had called it a com 
 pact and " a compact between the States." 
 Let me read what the honorable Senator said : 
 "In 1851, in his celebrated Capon Springs speech, 
 the language of Mr. Webster admits of no dis 
 pute. Whatever he may have said on other 
 occasions, whatever he said in his great discus 
 sion on the floor of the Senate with Mr. Hayne or 
 with Mr. Calhoun, on the occasion of this speech, 
 in the most unqualified manner he asserted the 
 fact for which I contend, that the Constitution is a 
 compact between parties competent to enter into 
 a compact, to wit, the States." 
 
 The honorable Senator held in his hand at that 
 time a very mischievous book, and I may say he 
 derived his facts, if not his inspiration, from that 
 book, which I have now before me. It is a book 
 written by a gentleman of great influence in the 
 Southern country, of acknowledged ability, of 
 long and eminent service in the public councils . 
 Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia. It is, 
 as I have said, a mischievous book. It is mis> 
 chievous in its title, it is mischievous in its pre^ 
 face, it is mischievous in every word from the 
 opening to the closing chapter ; and it is mischiev 
 ous because, although a sincere man himself, 1 
 believe it is an elaborate tissue of absolute mis 
 representations, and misrepresentations from a 
 sincere man are much more mischievous than 
 
MA-T10NAL SOVEREIGNTY. 
 
 misrepresentations from one who designs to mis 
 represent. 
 
 In this book, which the honorable Senator from 
 Connecticut then held in his hand, Mr. Stephens 
 takes the ground that Mr. Webster had recanted 
 and changed his views in regard to the nature of 
 our government. On the four hundred and third 
 page of the first volume he says : "But besides 
 all this, as a further proof of Mr. Webster s 
 change of views as to the Constitution being a 
 compact between the States, I cite you to a later 
 speech made by him at Capon Springs, in Vir 
 ginia, on the 28th of June, 1851." 
 
 And he quotes then what the Senator from 
 Connecticut quoted. Then Mr. Stephens says : 
 " In this speech Mr. Webster distinctly held that 
 the Union was a union of States. That the Union 
 was founded upon a compact." 
 
 Further on Mr. Stephens says : "I did not 
 agree with him (Mr. Webster) in his expo 
 sition of the Constitution in 1833, but I did 
 fully and cordially agree with him in his expo 
 sition in 1839 and 1851. According to that, 
 the Constitution was and is a compact between 
 the States." 
 
 And in the ingenious attempt to justify the 
 secession that took place in 1861, handing it down 
 to posterity in a history entitled <k The War 
 between the States," instead of a rebellion against 
 the Government, Mr. Stephens endeavors to 
 
228 /AMES G. BLAME. 
 
 enlist Mr. Webster as one .of the witnesses that 
 justified that line of proceeding". 
 
 Mr. President, mere definition is not a matter on 
 which time can be profitably spent, much less on 
 the rhetorical use of a word. When a man speaks 
 of a " compact " rhetorically, when he speaks of a 
 " continental empire " rhetorically, or when he 
 speaks of an "imperial republic" rhetorically, or 
 when, like the Senator from Connecticut, he 
 speaks of a " representative republic of sovereign 
 States," I do not expect to hold him very closely 
 to the line of the definition ; and if it were a mere 
 matter of words as to how this man or that man 
 happened in a piece of public declamation to de 
 fine the nature of the Government, it would not 
 be worth while here to spend the time of the 
 Senate upon it. But the honorable Senator from 
 Connecticut knows, and all with whom he is asso 
 ciated in the political revolution now attempted 
 in this country know, that upon the line of divis 
 ion involved in these words is wacred the contest 
 
 o 
 
 between the two great parties that are contend 
 ing for mastery in this country ; that here is in 
 volved the true construction under which this 
 government is to be administered whether the 
 Government of the United States shall have the 
 power to uphold itself, or whether it shall be the 
 mere creature of the States, living and breathing 
 and moving at their will and pleasure. On 
 that line the two parties in this country divide ; and 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 22g 
 
 I have never known a more extraordinary at 
 tempt I will not say disingenuous, for that 
 would imply motive I have never known a 
 more extraordinary attempt to twist or turn or 
 confound distinctions than the attempt to make 
 Mr. Webster s speech at Capon Springs the basis 
 on which this revelation of his change of view 
 should be established. Both Mr. Stephens in his 
 history and the honorable Senator from Connecti 
 cut in his speech quoted from a pamphlet copy of 
 Mr. Webster s Capon Springs address. I thought 
 I discovered when the honorable Senator was 
 speaking, that he was not especially familiar with 
 the writings of Mr. Webster. I hope he will not 
 think me scant in courtesy if I say that I have 
 discovered still less familiarity now, because he 
 need not have gone to Mr. Stephens s history to 
 get these extracts nor need he have referred to 
 lost pamphlets, containing the whole speech, for 
 here in the authentic life of Mr. Webster, the 
 biography to which Mr. Webster s friends are 
 willing to trust his fame, his life by George T. 
 Curtis, the speech is given in full. And just 
 after that speech was delivered this same de 
 lusion which the Senator from Connecticut indi 
 cates went all over the South. It was everywhere 
 heralded in the South that Mr. Webster had de 
 fined the Union as "a compact," and here is what 
 his eminent biographer says in regard to the 
 report : 
 
230 JAAtZS C. 11LAL\ E. 
 
 " What Mr. Webster had said at Capon Springs, 
 in speaking 1 of one of the compacts or compro 
 mises between the Northern and Southern sections 
 of the Union, on which the Constitution was 
 founded, was at once misrepresented, especially 
 in North Carolina" (there was an important elec 
 tion pending in that State at the time, I believe), 
 "as a confirmation by him of the doctrine that 
 the Constitution itself is a compact between 
 sovereign States, and as drawing after it, as a re 
 sulting right, the right of State secession from 
 the Union. A citizen of North Carolina accord 
 ingly wrote to Mr. Webster on this subject, and 
 received from him the following answer, which 
 
 o 
 
 was immediately made public." 
 
 I will not read the whole of it, but Mr. Webster 
 says, speaking of the government : "It is not a 
 limited confederation, but a government ; and it 
 proceeds upon the idea that it is to be perpetual, 
 like other forms of government, subject only to 
 be dissolved by revolution. What I said at Capon 
 Springs was an argument addressed to the North, 
 and intended to convince the North that if, by its 
 superiority of numbers, it should defeat the oper 
 ation of a plain, undoubted and undeniable in 
 junction of the Constitution, intended for the 
 especial protection of the South, such a pro 
 ceeding must necessarily end in the breaking 
 up of the government ; that is to say, in a revo 
 lution." 
 
NA T10XA I SO I -KREIGNT\. 2 3 I 
 
 Here is what Mr. Webster, in the speech itself, 
 said in reviewing the condition of public sentiment 
 then threatening, as it afterward broke out in 
 revolution; and here is what Mr. Stephens is careful 
 not to quote, and what, therefore, my honorable 
 friend in his speech could not have been expected 
 to quote. Mr. Webster, in referring to the dis 
 union movement found in the South, the State- 
 rights movement then running all over the South, 
 said: 
 
 "I make no argument against resolutions, con 
 ventions, secession speeches, or proclamations. 
 Let these things go on. The whole rgatter, it is 
 to be hoped, will blow over, and men will return 
 to a sounder mode of thinking. But one thing" 
 (and this is put in italics here, as it was in the 
 National Intelligencer, which was Mr. Webster s 
 immediate organ in those days), "But one thing, 
 gentlemen, be assured of, the first step taken in 
 the programme of secession, which shall be an 
 actual infringement of the Constitution or the 
 laws, will be promptly met. (Great applause.) 
 And I would not remain an hour in any adminis 
 tration that should not immediately meet any such 
 violation of the Constitution and the law effect 
 ually and at once. (Prolonged applause.)" 
 
 Mr. Stephens does not quote that. But, Mr. 
 President, how absurd, how unjust, is the idea of 
 going around and catching up a chance speech at 
 a watering-place in order to convince a certain 
 
232 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 section of this country which drifted into war in 
 support of a bad theory, and which is drifting 
 back into that theory as fast as it can ! How ab 
 surd, how unjust, is the idea of picking up a 
 chance speech delivered in answer to a serenade 
 as the conclusive constitutional opinions of Mr. 
 Webster, when Mr. Webster himself had left in 
 the very last year of his life, and after that speech 
 was delivered, six volumes of his works, on which 
 he desired to go down to posterity, on which he 
 rested his fame, and on which he inscribed formal 
 introductions ; from which I quote the following : 
 "The principles and opinions expressed in these 
 productions are such as I believe to be essential 
 to the preservation of the Union, the maintenance 
 of the Constitution, and the advancement of the 
 country to still higher stages of prosperity and 
 renown. These objects have constituted my 
 polar star during the whole of my political life, 
 w r hich has now extended through more than half 
 the period of the existence of the government." 
 On these speeches, delivered by Mr. Webster, 
 in the Senate and in the House and on great pub 
 lic occasions, revised by himself, published under 
 his auspices, he committed himself to history ; 
 and from these neither Mr. Stephens, in his mis 
 chievous history, nor the honorable Senator from 
 Connecticut affects to quote anything at all. You 
 can hardly open a solitary page in the whole six 
 volumes that does not contain a startling refutation 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 233 
 
 of all the theories that they now pretend Mr. 
 Webster had admitted in the closing days of his 
 life. Let me pick out one instance at random. 
 
 In some very brief remarks that I made the 
 other afternoon, when the bill was about to be 
 voted upon which the President vetoed, I stated 
 that the Democratic party of to-day as represented 
 in this chamber were the followers of the State- 
 rights school of Democracy represented by Mr. 
 Calhoun and Mr. Breckinridge. I believe I was 
 correct in stating that ; I believe I was quite 
 within the facts. I read now from Mr. Calhoun s 
 own definition in his celebrated discussion with 
 Mr. Webster, and I think the resolution exactly 
 fits and fills the idea of the Senator from Connec 
 ticut as to the true theory of this Government, if 
 I understood him aright. Mr. Calhoun submitted 
 the following : " Resolved, That the people of the 
 several States composing these United States are 
 united as parties to a constitutional compact, to 
 which the people of each State acceded as a sepa 
 rate sovereign community, each binding itself by 
 its own particular ratification ; and that the Union, 
 of which the said compact is the bond, is a Union 
 between the States ratifying the same." 
 
 That is the Democratic theory to-day. I doubt 
 if there is a Senator on the other side of the 
 chamber who will controvert these words of Mr. 
 Calhoun ; the Senator from Connecticut asserts 
 the same doctrine in terms. Mr. Calhoun then 
 
234 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 goes on in a long series of resolutions controvert 1 
 ing the idea that we constitute a nation. In an 
 swer, Mr. Webster, after an elaborate speech, 
 sums up and says: "And now, sir, against all 
 these theories and opinions, I maintain, first : That 
 the Constitution of the United States is not a 
 league, confederacy or compact between the peo 
 ple of the several States in their sovereign capa 
 cities, but a Government proper, founded on the 
 adoption of the people, and creating direct rela 
 tions between itself and individuals." 
 
 I know you will not get tired hearing Mr. Web 
 ster. I am making a very good speech out of his 
 works, far better than anything I could say myself. 
 The honorable Senator dwelt at length, and 
 dwelt with that modest form of affirmation which 
 sometimes distinguishes his utterances, upon the 
 idea that no man could deny that it was the States 
 that formed the Constitution, and he quoted as 
 conclusive on that point the provision that it 
 should go into effect upon the ratification of nine 
 States. Mr. Webster, in his second speech on 
 Foote s resolution, spoke thus : "Sir, the opinion 
 which the honorable gentleman (Mr. Calhoun) 
 maintains is a notion founded in a total misappre 
 hension, in my judgment, of the origin of this 
 Government, and of the foundation on which it 
 stands. I hold it to be a popular Government, 
 erected by the people ; those who administer it, 
 responsible to the people ; and itself capable of 
 
ROBERT T. LINCOLN. 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 237 
 
 being amended and modified, just as the people 
 may choose it should be. It is as popular, just as 
 truly emanating from the people, as the State 
 governments. It is created for one purpose ; the 
 State governments for another. It has its own 
 powers ; they have theirs." And then Mr. Web 
 ster adds : " We are here to administer a Consti 
 tution emanating immediately from the people 
 and trusted by them to our administration. It is 
 not the creature of the State governments. It is 
 of no moment to the argument, that certain acts 
 of the State Legislatures are necessary to fill our 
 seats in this body. That is not one of their origi 
 nal Sate powers, a part of the sovereignty of the 
 State. It is a duty which the people by the Con 
 stitution itself have imposed on the State Legisla 
 tures ; and which they might have left to be per 
 formed elsewhere, if they had seen fit." He says 
 in another speech : " So much, sir, for the argu 
 ment, even if the premises of the gentleman were 
 granted or could be proved. But, sir, the gentle 
 man has failed to maintain his leading proposi 
 tion. He has not shown, it cannot be shown, that 
 the Constitution is a compact between State 
 governments. The Constitution itself in its very 
 front, refutes that idea. It declares that it is 
 ordained and established by the people of the 
 United States." 
 
 And yet Mr. Stephens solemnly represents and 
 asserts that Mr. Webster recanted that opinion. 
 14 
 
238 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 "The Constitution itself, in its very front, refutes 
 that idea. It declares that it is ordained and 
 established by the people of the United States. 
 So far from saying that it is established by the 
 governments of the several States, it does not even 
 say that it is established by the people of the 
 several States ; but it pronounces that it is estab 
 lished by the people of the United States in the 
 aggregate. The gentleman says it must mean no 
 more than the people of the several States. 
 Doubtless the people of the several States, taken 
 collectively, constitute the people of the United 
 States ; but it is in this their collective capacity, 
 it is as all the people of the United States, that 
 they establish the Constitution. So they declare, 
 and words cannot be plainer than the words used. 
 When the gentleman says the Constitution is a 
 compact between the States he uses language 
 exactly applicable to the old confederation. He 
 speaks as if he were in Congress before 1789. 
 He describes fully that old state of things then 
 existing. The confederation was in strictness a 
 compact ; the States, as States, were parties to it. 
 We had no other general government." 
 
 The other allegation of Mr. Stephens was that 
 Mr. Webster, in 1838, five years after his speeches 
 of 1833, had refused to vote against certain resolu 
 tions of Mr. Calhoun, and that this refusal was a 
 very pregnant suggestion that he had then 
 changed his mind. He makes a very solemn 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 239 
 
 presentation of the fact that in a series of five reso 
 lutions which Mr. Calhoun introduced in 1838, 
 involving all the heretical doctrines of the State- 
 rights, pro-slavery democracy, Mr. Webster had 
 not voted. He does not say that Mr. Webster 
 voted for them, but that he had not voted against 
 them. Those resolutions of Mr. Calhoun were 
 introduced in December, 1837. They went on, 
 as such resolutions will, being a foot-ball for politi 
 cal debate, for some months. On the 22d of 
 March, 1838, after they had been passed upon by 
 the Senate, Mr. Webster referred to them as fol 
 lows, in regard to the slavery question : " Sir, 
 this is a very grave matter; it is a subject very 
 exciting and inflammable. I take, of course, all the 
 responsibility belonging to my opinions ; but I 
 desire those opinions to be understood, and fairly 
 stated. If I am to be regarded as an enemy to 
 the South because I could not support the gentle 
 man s resolutions, be it so. I cannot purchase 
 favors from any quarter by the sacrifice of clear 
 and conscientious convictions. The principal 
 resolution declared that Congress had plighted 
 its faith not to interfere either with slavery or the 
 slave trade in the District of Columbia. Now, 
 sir, that is quite a new idea. I never heard it 
 advanced until this session." Mr. Webster then 
 proceeds to argue still further : " On such a 
 question, sir, when I am asked what the Constitu 
 tion is, or whether any power granted by it has 
 
240 JAMES G. BLAIXJ-:. 
 
 been compromised away, or, indeed, could be 
 compromised away, I must express by honest 
 opinion, and always shall express it if I say any 
 thing, notwithstanding it may not meet concurrence 
 either in the South, or the North, or the East, 
 or the West. I cannot express by my vote 
 what I do not believe. The gentleman has 
 chosen to bring that subject into this debate, 
 with which it has no concern, but he may 
 make the most of it, if he thinks he can pro 
 duce unfavorable impressions against me at the 
 South for my negative to his fifth resolution. As 
 to the rest of them, they were commonplaces 
 generally or abstractions, in regard to which one 
 may well feel himself not called on to vote at all." 
 
 And with that record right before him Mr. 
 Stephens writes that Mr. Webster s ominous 
 refusal to vote on the resolutions indicated a 
 change of mind, when here was his defiant review 
 of the whole subject of Mr. Calhoun s heresies. 
 And then Mr. Webster proceeded with some 
 remarks which I am disposed to think might now 
 be addressed to the ether side of the chamber, 
 mutatis mutandis, and we should Hardly realize 
 that forty years had gone by. Let me read a 
 single paragraph I wish it were original with me, 
 addressed as Mr. Webster then addressed it to 
 the opposite side of the chamber : 
 
 " The honorable member from Carolina himself 
 habitually indulges in charges of usurpation and 
 
NA TIONAL SO VERE1GNTY. 
 
 241 
 
 oppression against the government of his country. 
 He daily announces its important measures in 
 the language in which our revolutionary fathers 
 spoke of the oppressions of the mother country. 
 Not merely against executive usurpation, either 
 real or supposed, does he utter these sentiments, 
 but against laws of Congress, laws passed by large 
 majorities, laws sanctioned for a course of years 
 by the people. These laws he proclaims, every 
 hour, to be but a series of acts of oppression. 
 He speaks of them as if it were an admitted fact 
 that such is their true character. This is the 
 language he utters, these are the sentiments he 
 expresses, to the rising generation around him. 
 Are they sentiments and language which are 
 likely to inspire our children with the love of 
 union, to enlarge their patriotism, or to teach them, 
 and to make them feel that their destiny has made 
 them common citizens of one grand and glorious 
 Republic? A principal object in his late political 
 movements, the gentleman himself tells us, was 
 to unite the entire South ; and against whom or 
 what does he wish to unite the entire South ? Is 
 not this the very essence of local feeling and local 
 regard? Is it not the acknowledgment of a wish 
 and object to create political strength by uniting 
 political opinions geopraphically ? Finally, the 
 honorable member declares that he shall now 
 march off under the banner of State rights. 
 March off from whom ? March off from what ? 
 
242 JAMES G. 
 
 We have been contending for great principles. 
 We have been struggling to maintain the liberty 
 and to restore the prosperity of our country. We 
 have made these struggles here in the national 
 councils, with the old flag the true American flag, 
 the eagle and the stars and stripes waving over 
 the chamber in which we sit. He now tells us, 
 however, that he marches off under the State- 
 rights banner. Let him go. I remain. I am 
 where I have ever been, and ever mean to be." 
 
 The honorable Senator from Georgia the other 
 day made a speech that was somewhat remark 
 able! Among other things, he depicted the over 
 whelming grief he had at the secession of the 
 Southern States ; and when he was called upon 
 by the independent voters of the country of Troup 
 to represent them in the secession convention, he 
 wrote this letter to them as he says : " I will 
 consent to the dissolution of the Union as I would 
 consent to the death of my father, never from 
 choice, only from necessity, and then in sorrow 
 and sadness of heart." 
 
 Well, he was elected on that platform, and he 
 went to the convention, and the convention, as we 
 all know, passed the ordinance of secession. And 
 in the evening of January 19, 1861, he writes to a 
 friend a letter which he quotes himself: " Dear 
 Sir : The deed is done. Georgia this day left the 
 Union. Cannon have been firing and bells tolling. 
 At this moment people are filling the streets 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNS. 243 
 
 shouting vociferously. A large torchlight pro 
 cession is moving from house to house and calling 
 out speakers. The resolution declaratory passed 
 on yesterday, and similar scenes were enacted last 
 night. The crowd called loudly for me, but my 
 room was dark, my heart was sad, and my tongue 
 was silent. Whoever may be in fault is not now 
 the question. Whether by the North or by the 
 South or by both, the fact remains : the Union 
 has fallen. The most favored sons of freedom 
 have written a page in history which despots will 
 read to listening subjects for centuries to come to 
 prove that the people are not capable of self- 
 government. How can I think thus and feel 
 otherwise than badly?" 
 
 Here is the " ordinance to dissolve the Union 
 between the State of Georgia and other States 
 united with her under a compact of government 
 entitled the Constitution of the United States." 
 This is the original journal of the Georgia con 
 vention ; it is a rare book. The literature of that 
 section from some cause is very hard to procure. 
 
 " We, the people of the State of Georgia, in 
 convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and 
 it is hereby declared and ordained, That the 
 ordinance adopted by the people of the State of 
 Georgia in convention on the second day of Janu 
 ary, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the 
 Constitution of the United States of America was 
 assented to, ratified and adopted ; and also all 
 
244 JAMES G. BLAIN&. 
 
 acts and parts of acts by the General Assembly of 
 this State, ratifying and adopting amendments of 
 the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, 
 rescinded and abrogated. We do further declare 
 and ordain, That the union now subsisting be 
 tween the State of Georgia and other States, 
 under the name of United States of America/ is 
 hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is 
 in the full possession and exercise of all those 
 rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain 
 to a free and independent State." 
 
 That was the ordinance which the Senator from 
 Georgia said to the people of Troup he would 
 consent to, as he would to the death of his father, 
 and the ordinance which the evening after it was 
 passed so filled his heart with sadness that he put 
 out the lights in his room and would not make a 
 speech to a crowd outside serenading him. I have 
 read the yeas and nays on that and what is my 
 unbounded surprise to find that the Senator from 
 Georgia himself voted for the ordinance. Here 
 he is, " Hill, of Troup." I believe I am right in 
 saying that he is the man. There were two or 
 three Hills, all voting for it, but " Hill, of Troup," 
 voted for it, and he cannot say in defence of that 
 vote, that he did it because there was one of those 
 tempestuous and tumultuous rushes of public 
 opinion which bear everything before it, and 
 which no man could resist. We know what that 
 is. It sometimes assumes such positive and 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 2 .- 
 
 portentous force as to have moblike violence. 
 That was not so in this convention. On the call 
 of the yeas and nays, there were 208 in favor of 
 the ordinance of secession and 89 against it, and 
 in the 89 were Alexander H. Stephens and Her- 
 schel V. Johnson, who had that very year run for 
 Vice-President on the Douglas ticket. The Sena 
 tor from Georgia (Mr. Hill), who would consent 
 to it, just as he would to the death of his father, 
 made up his mind that if two hundred and eight 
 men wanted to murder the old man he would join 
 with them. (Great laughter and applause.) 
 Rather than be in a minority he would join the 
 murderous crowd (laughter) and be a parricide. 
 
 Nobody would possibly infer from the speech 
 the honorable Senator made the other day, that 
 he had voted for the ordinance ; and I do not say 
 this with any feeling, because I have none. It is 
 now indeed a most extraordinary thing to find a 
 gentleman from the South who was originally for 
 secession. I do not know who was. I see very 
 pleasant and complimentary biographies of the 
 various Senators on that side, and they were all 
 dragged into secession. 
 
 I was referring to the fact that the honorable 
 Senator from Georgia at the time he rested his 
 eye directly on the Senator from Connecticut, 
 whose pleasant face I love to look into gave us 
 the assurance on this side, that we were tremen 
 dously mistaken in supposing the Republicans had 
 
2^6 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 done anything toward saving the Union ; it was 
 the Democrats that had saved it, the Northern 
 Democrats. Well, I said, if that be so, Mr. Lin 
 coln was the victim of a prodigious delusion. Mr. 
 Lincoln did not think so. It happened under the 
 authority of a military officer who now graces this 
 body with his presence, the Senator from Rhode 
 Island (Mr. Burnside), that Mr. Vallandigham was 
 arrested. His release was sought by a committee 
 of a great convention of the Democrats of Ohio. 
 They had a very notable interview, and a very 
 notable correspondence with Mr. Lincoln, and I 
 beg after the lapse of fifteen or sixteen years to 
 refer to that correspondence. I will read an ex 
 tract, the moral of which will explain itself: "At 
 the same time" (says Mr. Lincoln) "your nomi 
 nee for Governor, in whose behalf you appeal, is 
 known to you and to the world to declare against 
 the use of an army to suppress the rebellion. 
 Your own attitude, therefore, encourages deser 
 tion, resistance to the draft, and the like, because 
 it teaches those who incline to desert and to es 
 cape the draft, to believe it is your purpose to 
 protect them, and to hope that you will become 
 strong enough to do so. After a short personal in 
 tercourse with you, gentlemen of the committee, I 
 cannot say I think you desire this effect to follow 
 your attitude ; but I assure you that both friends 
 and enemies of the Union look upon it in this 
 
 light. " 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 247 
 
 Mr Lincoln distinctly understood how the 
 South regarded it. " Both friends and enemies of 
 the Union look upon it in this light. It is a sub 
 stantial hope, and by consequence a real strength 
 to the enemy. It is a false hope, and one which 
 you would willingly dispel. I will make the way 
 exceedingly easy. I send you duplicates of this 
 letter in order that you, or a majority, may, if you 
 choose, indorse your names upon one of them, 
 and return it thus indorsed to me, with the under 
 standing that those signing are thereby committed 
 to the following propositions, and to nothing else." 
 
 Now, mark you, he was addressing a committee 
 that represented the Democratic party of Ohio, 
 speaking for the whole party. Mr. Lincoln says 
 I want you to commit yourself just to this, gentle 
 men, nothing else : " i. That there is now a re 
 bellion in the United States, the object and ten 
 dency of which is to destroy the National Union ; 
 and that in your opinion, an army and navy are 
 constitutional means for suppressing that rebel 
 lion ; 2. That no one will do anything which, in 
 his own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase 
 or favor the decrease or lessen the efficiency of 
 the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to 
 suppress that rebellion ; and 3. That each of you 
 will, in his sphere, do all he can to have the of 
 ficers, soldiers and seamen of the army and navy, 
 while engaged in the effort to suppress the rebel 
 lion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well provided 
 
24 3 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 for and supported. And with the further under 
 standing that, upon receiving the letter and names 
 thus indorsed, I will cause them to be published, 
 which publication shall be, within itself, a revoca 
 tion of the order in relation to Mr. Vallandig- 
 ham." 
 
 And this party, this Northern Democratic party 
 that fought out the rebellion and restored the 
 Union, would not put their names to these prop 
 ositions. These representatives of a State con 
 vention that spoke for the entire party would not 
 acknowledge that there was a rebellion, would 
 not acknowledge that an army and navy could be 
 used to suppress it, would not acknowledge that 
 they would clo anything whatever to aid in paying or 
 feeding or clothing or supporting that army. So 
 Mr. Lincoln has given them, in another letter on 
 the same subject, a letter addressed to Mr. Cor 
 ning, of New York, a little advice, applicable to 
 both advice which I think will live for its patriot 
 ism and eloquence almost as long as his Gettys 
 burg speech. He wrote to Mr. Corning : "Long 
 experience has shown that armies cannot be main 
 tained unless desertion shall be punished by the 
 severe penalty of death. The case requires, and 
 the law and Constitution sanction, this punishment. 
 Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who de 
 serts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agi 
 tator who induces him to desert ? This is none 
 the less injurious when effected by getting a 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 249 
 
 father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting-, 
 and there working" upon his feelings until he is 
 persuaded to write the soldier-boy that he is fighting 
 in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a 
 contemptible government, too weak to arrest and 
 punish him if he shall desert. I think that, in 
 such a case, to silence the agitator and to save the 
 boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great 
 mercy." 
 
 That is what he did. He sent a good many of 
 the Democratic agitators to Fort Lafayette and 
 saved the boys. 
 
 Mr. President, I do not think that the evil that 
 has been done to this country, by publications like 
 the one I referred to from Mr. Alexander H. Ste 
 phens, has yet been measured. I do not think the 
 evil that has been done to the Southern country 
 by the school-books in the hands of their children 
 has been measured. Many of the books put 
 into the hands of the rising generation of the 
 South are tinctured all through with prejudice 
 and misrepresentation and with a spirit of 
 hatred. 
 
 We are accused by our friends on the opposite 
 side of the chamber of stirring up strife and gen- 
 crating hatred. I do not believe it would be pos 
 sible to find in all the literature of the North fof 
 the schools and for the young a solitary paragraph 
 intended or calculated to arouse hatred or suggest 
 unpatriotic feelings toward any portion of 
 
250 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Union. A large portion of the South has been 
 furnished with special school-books calculated for 
 the meridian, with the facts appended to suit that 
 particular locality. It was said that for two gen 
 erations a large portion of the English people 
 believed that the American colonies had never 
 achieved their independence but had been kicked 
 off as a useless appendage to the British Empire, 
 and that they were glad to be rid of us. There 
 is a large number of school-children in the South 
 who are educated with radically wrong notions 
 and radically erroneous facts, I saw an arithme 
 tic that was filled with examples think of putting 
 politics into arithmetic such as this : If ten cow 
 ardly Yankees had so many miles the start, and 
 five brave Confederates were following them, the 
 first going at so many miles an hour, and the others 
 following at so many miles an hour, how long before 
 the Yankees would be overtaken ? Now think of 
 putting that deliberately in a school-book and hav 
 ing school histories made up on that basis for 
 children. I have here from a gentleman who, I 
 believe, is a man of high position, an extract which 
 is so pertinent that I desire to read it. It is from an 
 address before the literary societies of the Virgin 
 ia University, by Mr. John S. Preston, a gentleman 
 of distinction, I believe, in the State of South Car 
 olina. I want to read this merely to put it on 
 record to show the pabulum on which the South 
 ern mind feeds : "The Mayflower freight under 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 
 
 the laws of England was heresy and crime. The 
 Jamestown emigrant was an English freeman, 
 
 Jo <;> 
 
 loyal to his country and his God, with England s 
 honor in his heart and English piety in his soul, 
 and carrying in his right hand the charters, usages 
 and the laws which were achieving the regen 
 eration of England. * These two people 
 spoke the same language, and nominally read the 
 same Bible ; but like the offspring of the Syrian 
 princes, they were two manner of people, and 
 they could not coalesce or commune. Their feud 
 began beyond the broad Atlantic, and has never 
 ceased on its Western shores. Not space, or 
 time, or the convenience of any human law, or 
 the power of any human arm, can reconcile insti 
 tutions for the turbulent fanatic of Plymouth Rock 
 and the God-fearing Christian of Jamestown. 
 You may assign them to the closest territorial 
 proximity, with all the forms, modes and shows of 
 civilization ; but you can never cement them into 
 the bonds of brotherhood. Great Nature, in her 
 supremest law, forbids it. Territorial localization 
 drove them to a hollow and unnatural armistice in 
 effecting their segregation from England the one 
 for the lucre of traffic, the other to obtain a more 
 perfect law of liberty ; the one to destroy foreign 
 tea, the other to drive out foreign tyrants ; the 
 one to offer thanksgiving for the fruit of the 
 earth, the other to celebrate the gift of grace by 
 the birth of Christ." 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 I havejiere also a speech delivered by the hon 
 orable Senator from Soutk Carolina, the junior 
 Senator from that State (Mr. Hampton), before 
 the Historical Society, I believe, of the South, and 
 this has arrested my attention. Of course, I read 
 it in no spirit of captious or personal criticism, 
 but as a great public document ; and if what I 
 read means anything, it means a great deal: 
 
 " LESSONS FROM HISTORY. These are the lessons 
 our children should learn from their mothers. 
 Nor are these the only ones which should be in 
 culcated, for the pages of history furnish many 
 which should not be overlooked. These teach, 
 in the clearest and most emphatic manner, 
 that there is always hope for a people who 
 cherish the spirit of freedom, who will not 
 tamely give up their rights, and who amid 
 all the changes of time, the trials of adversity, re 
 main steadfast to their convictions that liberty is 
 their birthright. 
 
 "THE SOUTH COMPARED TO PRUSSIA AND THE 
 NORTH TO FRANCE. When Napoleon, in that 
 wonderful campaign of Jena, struck down in a 
 few weeks the whole military strength of Prussia, 
 destroyed that army with which the great Frede 
 rick had held at bay the combined forces of Eu 
 rope, and crushed out, apparently forever, the 
 liberties, seemingly the very existence of that 
 great State, but one hope of her disenthralrnent 
 and regeneration was left her the unconquered 
 
w 
 < 
 
 w 
 
 in 
 
 W 
 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 255 
 
 and unconquerable patriotism of her sons. As far 
 as human foresight could penetrate the future, this 
 hope appeared but a vain and delusive one ; yet 
 only a few years passed before her troops turned 
 the scale of victory of Waterloo, and the treaty of 
 Paris atoned in part for the mortification of that of 
 Tilsit. She educated her children by a system 
 which made them good citizens in peace and for 
 midable soldiers in war ; she kindled and kept 
 alive the sacred fire of patriotism ; she woke the 
 slumbering spirit of the Fatherland ; and what has 
 been the result of this self-devotion of a whole 
 people for half a century? Single-handed, she has 
 just met her old antagonist. The shame of her 
 defeats of yore has been wiped out by glorious 
 victories ; the contributions extorted from her have 
 been more than repaid ; her insults have been 
 avenged, and her victorious eagles, sweeping over 
 the broken lilies of her enemy, waved in triumph 
 from the walls of conquered Paris, while she dic 
 tated peace to prostrate and humble France. Is 
 not the moral to be drawn from this noble dedica 
 tion of a people to the interests and honor of their 
 country worth remembering? Hungary, in her re 
 cent struggle to throw off the yoke of Austria, 
 was crushed to the earth, and yet to day the Hun 
 garians, as citizens of Austria, exercise a con 
 trolling power in that great empire. " 
 
 If the Senator speaks of a revival of a power 
 that was once conqured, to be victorious at 
 5 
 
256 JAMES G. BLA1NE. 
 
 another Waterloo, with a crowning peace in Paris 
 to atone for the humiliation of Tilsit if that means 
 anything by analogy at all, it has a deep and far- 
 reaching significance. 
 
 o o 
 
 MR. HAMPTON: 
 
 " Peace hath her victories 
 No less renown d than war." 
 
 MR. ELAINE. But peace does not celebrate her 
 victories on the plains of Waterloo. That is where 
 war celebrates its triumphs. Peace does not cele 
 brate itself by great armed hosts that are employed 
 and marshalled for avenging result, to which 
 the honorable Senator called attention. That is 
 not the language of peace, and without the slight 
 est intention to say anything discourteous, I say it 
 is mere rhetoric I leave out the adjective it is 
 mere rhetoric, or it is a prodigious menace. It is 
 the one or the other. 
 
 As to the pending bill, I need only to say that 
 the laws proposed to be repealed are precisely 
 the kind which Mr. Webster alluded to when he 
 addressed Mr. Calhoun ; laws that have received 
 the sanction of Congress and been for years on 
 the statute book. They are there properly. They 
 have secured justice ; they have assured fair and 
 equal elections ; they ought to be upheld ; and to 
 this hour not one solitary reason has been shown 
 for their repeal, with the single exception of a de 
 sire to grasp partisan power. It all moves in one 
 direction Every step has been taken since the 
 
NATIONAT. SOVEREIGNTY. 257 
 
 Democratic party got into power in the House 
 and in the Senate in one direction, and that direc 
 tion has been to the striking down of the Fed 
 eral power and the exaltation of the State power. 
 This measure is but one. Others have gone before 
 it ; others are to follow it. What may be their 
 fate I do not know. We on this side will resist by 
 every constitutional means, and you on that side, 
 despite the threats of the Senator from Connecti 
 cut, will be obliged to submit in the end, and the 
 power of this Government will not be put down 
 by a threat ; it will not be put down by a combi 
 nation ; it will not be put down by a political 
 party. It was not put down by a rebellion. It 
 can meet another, either in the form of organized 
 resistance in withholding supplies or in the more 
 serious form which the language of the Senator 
 from South Carolina seemed to foreshadow. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 1876 AND I880. 
 
 Interest in the Political Contest of the Centennial Year The Rival Re 
 publican Candidates Mr. Elaine s Prostration Presentation of His 
 Name at the Cincinnati Convention Colonel Ingersoll s Speech 
 "The Plumed Knight" Nomination of Governor Hayes The Con 
 vention of 1880 The Third Term Question Steadfastness of the 
 Grant and Elaine Forces A Long Deadlock The Final Compromise 
 on Garfield. 
 
 There is no need of dwelling in detail here 
 
 o 
 
 upon the extraordinary interest that invested 
 the Presidential campaign of 1876 and the causes 
 thereof. It must all be perfectly clear to every 
 reader of the history of those times. It was 
 really the first serious contest since the advent of 
 the Republican party to power, immediately be 
 fore the War of the Rebellion. The re-nomination 
 of Lincoln in 1864 was a matter of course, and 
 his re-election was almost equally so. In 1868 
 there was only one possible candidate, Grant ; and 
 his re-nomination and re-election in 1872 were, 
 despite a considerable revolt within the party, a 
 foregone conclusion. 
 
 Now, however, there was no one dominant can 
 didate in the Republican party. A third term for 
 Grant was out of the question, and there was a 
 general feeling that the next President would best 
 be chosen from civil rather than from military life. 
 Moreover, the Republican candidate would not 
 
 258 
 
AND 1880. 259 
 
 have such an easy campaign and such a sure 
 victory as Grant had enjoyed. The revolt of 
 1872 had materially weakened the party, in num 
 bers and discipline. In the South the former 
 Rebels had regained political power and were, by 
 various extra-legal means, making their States 
 surely Democratic. The financial distress of 1873 
 had affected the whole nation, and naturally in- 
 spired many people with an idea that a change in 
 the politics of the National Administration would 
 be a good thing. Various departmental scandals at 
 Washington had brought discredit upon the party 
 in power. The great victories of the Democrats 
 in the Congressional .elections of 1874 had en 
 couraged the hope that they would win the Presi 
 dency in 1876 ; especially should they nominate 
 as they did Mr. Tilden, who, as Governor of 
 New York, had won national fame and favor as a 
 reformer and a wise statesman. It was evident, 
 therefore, that the battle would be almost unpre- 
 cedentedly hot and close, and it was most desir 
 able to put forward the very strongest candidate 
 that could be found. 
 
 The foremost candidate for the nomination was 
 unquestionably Mr Elaine. There was no man 
 in the party better known or more admired than 
 he. His distinguished services in the House of 
 Representatives had placed him in the foremost 
 rank of statesmen and of party leaders. His vigor 
 ous speeches, of recent date, upholding the 
 
260 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 sovereignty of the Nation against the attacks of the 
 ex-Rebels in Congress, had greatly endeared him 
 to the North, already anxious over the returning 
 power of the Southern Democrats. Long before 
 the Convention opened, it was evident to all well- 
 informed observers that he would have by far the 
 strongest following in that body. He represented 
 civil, not military, life ; and while generally a stead 
 fast supporter of the Republican Administration, 
 he was by no means so closely identified with its 
 interests as to share in the odium of its various 
 scandals. For this reason he was held by a very 
 considerable portion of the party to be the strong 
 est candidate that could be chosen. 
 
 His chief rival was Roscoe Conkling, of New 
 York, the leader of the Republican party in the 
 National Senate. This brilliant and eloquent 
 statesman was the most intimate friend of Grant, 
 and had as his support the Administration wing" 
 of the party. At the same time his austere virtue 
 held him free from any suspicion of complicity in 
 die jobbery that prevailed in some of the depart 
 ments at Washington. His character was snot- 
 less, his services to the State were distinguished, 
 his abilities were of the highest order, and he was 
 one of the most astute and successful of party 
 leaders. 
 
 Other conspicuous candidates were Senator 
 Morton, the famous " War Governor " of Indiana ; 
 Benjamin H. Bristow, of Kentucky, who had 
 
iS?b AND iSSo. 26l 
 
 achieved an enviable record as Secretary of the 
 Treasury; Governor Hartranft, of Pennsylvania, 
 who had also a fine record of military service ; 
 Governor Jewell, of Connecticut, who had served 
 the Nation in various important offices, at home 
 and abroad ; and Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, 
 who had served with distinction in the war, and 
 who had won a splendid victory at the polls in 
 Ohio, being elected Governor on an "honest 
 money " platform, against the " fiat money " craze 
 which was then raging in that State with especial 
 virulence. 
 
 The " Mulligan letters" affair, already recorded 
 in this volume, had been threshed out in Congress 
 
 o 
 
 and in the newspaper press of the country, just 
 before the meeting of the Convention. It is not 
 likely that it had much effect upon the action of 
 the latter body. Mr. Elaine had splendidly vindi 
 cated himself and thrown his enemies into dire 
 confusion. There was, therefore, no reason for 
 the alienation of any of his supporters, nor does 
 it appear that any of them were alienated. On 
 the contrary, there was reason for regarding him 
 with sympathy and admiration ; and doubtless 
 those feelings toward him were considerably in 
 creased. Yet such considerations were not 
 greatly calculated to influence votes in the Con 
 vention. 
 
 On the very eve of the gathering at Cincinnati, 
 however, another event occurred of much more 
 
2 62 JAMES G. BLA2NE. 
 
 grave importance than the attacks of political foes. 
 For many weeks Mr. Elaine had been exceedingly 
 busy. He had been busy with his work as a Rep 
 resentative in Congress one of the most active 
 and industrious men in the House. He had been 
 busy repelling the assaults of those who strove to 
 defame him and to effect his political destruction. 
 He had been busy, too, with the furtherance of 
 his own ambition, that most exalted and most 
 laudable ambition of American citizenship, to be 
 chosen by the free suffrages of the Nation to be 
 its Chief Executive. Mr. Blaine doubtless at this 
 time, as at other times since, earnestly desired to 
 become President. For that desire, no apologies 
 need ever to be made. The man who seeks such 
 office basely and by unworthy means, deserves 
 only the uttermost condemnation. But the man 
 who, like Mr. Blaine, seeks it by making himself 
 worthy of it, by cherishing high character and 
 achieving noble deeds for the public weal, is in 
 even that very ambition a most admirable example 
 and pattern for the moulding of American citizen^ 
 ship. 
 
 But these manifold activities and anxieties told 
 seriously upon Mr. Elaine s physical condition. 
 More, perhaps, than he was aware, his nerves were 
 strained, his brain wearied, his constitution weak 
 ened in all its vital energies. At the middle of June 
 the weather became intensely hot. Sunday, the 
 nth, was a particularly oppressive day, and the 
 
1876 AND 1880. 263 
 
 streets of Washington were like the mouths of a 
 furnace. That day, when the sun was approaching 
 his meridian fervor, Mr. Elaine set out for church, 
 accompanied by four ladies of his family. The dis 
 tance was about half a mile. As they walked 
 along, the ladies, under their sun umbrellas, com 
 plained much of the heat ; but Mr. Elaine, not 
 thus protected, scarcely seemed to notice it. He 
 was apparently in perfect health, and certainly in 
 splendid spirits. The church which they attended 
 was Dr. Rankin s, a Congregational church, at 
 Tenth and D streets. Just as the party reached 
 the church door, Mr. Elaine stopped suddenly, 
 and pressed a handkerchief upon his eyes. Mrs. 
 Elaine laughingly asked him what was the matter, 
 if he had got some dust in his eyes. 
 
 " No," he said, gasping for breath, but I I 
 think I am sunstruck. Oh, my head !" 
 
 With that he sunk down upon the church steps, 
 insensible. Mrs. Elaine supported his head in her 
 arms, while their little daughter Hattie, five years 
 old, ran into the church and called some friends 
 to their assistance. A passing omnibus was 
 hailed, and the prostrate man was lifted into it 
 and carried to his home. On being carried into 
 the house he revived sufficiently to say, "Lay me 
 on the floor." He was accordingly placed upon 
 the parlor floor, with a pillow beneath his head, 
 and a little later a bed was arranged in that room 
 and he was laid upon it. 
 
264 JAMES G. ftLAIXE. 
 
 Thus he lay, from eleven o clock in the morn 
 ing until a quarter past four in the afternoon, 
 speechless and almost lifeless. For the first two 
 hours he was apparently insensible ; his eyes wide 
 open but expressionless and immovable, his limbs 
 limp but motionless, and only a weak breathing 
 to indicate the presence of life. Gradually, how 
 ever, intelligence returned to his eyes, and it was 
 evident that consciousness had returned. Now 
 and then he groaned slightly, and his eyelids 
 moved. He remained speechless, however, and 
 made no response to any questions put to him by 
 his attendants. Late in the afternoon Mrs. Elaine 
 asked him earnestly, " James, do you not know 
 me ?" and to her delight he uttered her name in re 
 ply. Presently he asked, " What is it ?" and then, as 
 if only half conscious, "Where am I?" All the 
 evening he lay, conscious but motionless ; and at 
 ten o clock fell asleep. During Monday he con 
 tinued to improve, and on Tuesday was able to sit 
 up and read and write. That evening he wrote 
 with his own hand this despatch to his friend the 
 Hon. Eugene Hale, at Cincinnati : 
 
 " EUGENE HALE: I am entirely convalescent, suffering only, from 
 physical weakness. Impress upon my friends the great depth of gratitude 
 I feel for the unparalleled steadfastness with which they have adhered to 
 rnu in my hour of trial. J. G. ELAINE." 
 
 No description can do justice to the excitement 
 that prevailed in Washington when the news of 
 Mr. Elaine s prostration became known. The fall 
 
1876 AND iSSo. 265 
 
 of the President himself could scarcely have 
 created a greater sensation. All Sunday afternoon 
 and evening crowds of thousands of people gath 
 ered about his house, waiting for tidings from his 
 
 O > 
 
 bedside. At the hotels and clubs and wherever 
 people met, there was but one topic of conversa 
 tion. All sorts of rumors were extant : that he 
 was dying, or dead ; that he was hopelessly para 
 lyzed ; that his mind was lost and could never be 
 regained. 
 
 In Cincinnati, too, the interest was equally 
 great. Already most of the delegates were there, 
 ready for the Convention which was to open on 
 Wednesday. When news of Mr. Elaine s pros 
 tration was received, his supporters and friends 
 were stricken with consternation. It seemed a 
 death-blow to his candidacy. Even when it was 
 known that he was rapidly recovering, his oppo 
 nents did not cease to make malevolent use of the 
 incident. They argued that his physical health 
 was probably much impaired, so that he could not 
 stand the strain of a Presidential campaign ; even 
 that his mind was permanently affected, and that 
 he would never display again that vigor and ac 
 tivity of intellect that had made him a giant in 
 debate. These considerations were pressed home 
 to his supporters unceasingly, and still more per 
 sistently to those uncommitted delegates who 
 were likely to be won over to his side. How little 
 effect these arguments had, may be seen in the 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 result of the balloting in the Convention. Before 
 the "Mulligan letters" had been brought out, 
 and before his illness, it was estimated that he 
 would have 286 votes on the first ballot. He act 
 ually received 285, and on the second, imme 
 diately afterward, 296. 
 
 The Convention met on Wednesday, June I4th, 
 with the Hon. Edward McPherson as presiding 
 officer. On Thursday the Declaration of Princi 
 ples was adopted, and the candidates were placed 
 formally in nomination. The roll of States was 
 called, alphabetically, and each named its choice. 
 Connecticut put forward Marshall Jewell ; Indiana, 
 Oliver P. Morton. Kentucky s choice, Benjamin 
 H. Bristow, was eloquently introduced by George 
 William Curtis, of New York. James G. Blaine, 
 of Maine, was named by Robert G. Ingersoll, of 
 Illinois. New York nominated Roscoe Conkling; 
 
 O 
 
 Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes ; and Pennsylvania, 
 John F. Hartranft. 
 
 The speech of Colonel Ingersoll, nominating 
 Mr. Blaine, was singularly effective and inspiring. 
 One phrase in it, especially, has become historic, 
 and has fixed upon Mr. Blaine a popular title, by 
 which he will ever be known "the Plumed 
 Knight." The speaker immediately preceding Col 
 onel Ingersoll was from Massachusetts, and spoke 
 in favor of Bristow, dwelling upon the confidence 
 which the people of the Old Bay State had in his 
 ability, integrity and loyalty. While those words 
 
i*?6 AND jSSo. 267 
 
 were yet echoing in the ears of the Convention, 
 Colonel Ingersoll arose, and spoke as follows : 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Mas 
 sachusetts 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 Common 
 wealth of Massachusetts by seventy-five thousand 
 majority, I would advise them to sell out Faneuil 
 Hall as a Democratic headquarters. I would ad 
 vise them to take from Bunker Hill that old mon 
 ument of glory. 
 
 "The Republicans of the United States de 
 mand 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 re 
 former 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 af 
 fairs, with the wants of the people ; with not only 
 the requirements of the hour, but with the de 
 mands of the future. (Applause.) 
 
 "They demand a man broad enough to com 
 prehend the relations of this government to the 
 other nations of the earth. They demand a man 
 well versed in the powers, duties and prerogatives 
 
268 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 of each and every department of this govern 
 ment. They demand a man who will sacredly 
 preserve the financial honor of the United States ; 
 one who knows enough to know that the national 
 debt must be paid through the prosperity of 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 in 
 dustry 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 de 
 mand a man w r ho knows that prosperity and 
 resumption, when they come, must corne 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 chimneys filled with eager fire, 
 greeted and grasped by the countless sons of toil. 
 This money has to be dug out of the earth. You 
 cannot make it by passing resolutions in a polit 
 ical Convention. (Applause.) 
 
 "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 defenders, and protect its protectors, is a 
 
iSfb AND jSSo. 269 
 
 disgrace to the map of the world. They demand a 
 man who believes in the eternal separation and 
 divorcement of church and school. They de 
 mand a man whose political reputation is as spot 
 less as a star ; but they do not demand that their 
 candidate shall have a certificate of moral char 
 acter signed by a confederate Congress. The 
 man who has, in full, heaped and rounded meas 
 ure, all these splendid qualifications, is the present 
 grand and gallant leader of the Republican party 
 James G. Blaine. (Great applause.) 
 
 " Our country, crowned with the vast and mar 
 velous achievements of its first century, asks for 
 a man worthy of the past, and prophetic of her 
 future ; asks for a man who has the audacity of 
 genius ; asks for a man who is the grandest com 
 bination of heart, conscience and brain beneath 
 her flag such a man is James G. Blaine. (Ap 
 plause.) 
 
 "For the Republican host, led by this intrepid 
 man, there can be no defeat. 
 
 "This is a grand year a year filled with rec 
 ollections 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 enthusi 
 asm ; 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 ot treason 
 
27Q JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 the tongue of slander for the man who has 
 snatched the mask of Democracy from the hid 
 eous face of rebellion ; for this man who, like an 
 intellectual athlete, has stoo 1 in the arena of de 
 bate and challenged all comers, and who is still a 
 total stranger to defeat. (Applause.) 
 
 "Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, 
 James G. Elaine 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 of 
 the great Republic, the only Republic that ever 
 existed upon this earth ; in the name of all her 
 defenders and of all her supporters ; in the name 
 of all her soldiers living ; m the name of all her 
 soldiers dead upon the field of battle, and in the 
 name of those who perished in the skeleton clutch 
 of famine at Andersonville and Libby, whose suf 
 ferings he so vividly remembers, Illinois Illinois 
 nominates for the next President of this country 
 
JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
AND 
 
 273 
 
 that prince of parliamentarians that leader of 
 leaders James G. Elaine." 
 
 The next day, Friday, came the balloting. 
 There were in all 756 votes, and 379 were neces 
 sary to make a choice. The first ballot was 
 chiefly complimentary in character. It showed 
 the initial strength of the various candidates, how 
 ever, and gave some indication of the combi 
 nations that might be made to secure to one of 
 them a majority of all the votes. On that first 
 ballot Mr. Blaine easily led all competitors. He 
 had 285 votes. Morton had 125, Bristow 
 113, Conkling 99, Hayes 61, Hartranft 58, Jewell 
 n, and William A. Wheeler, of New York, 3. 
 The second ballot differed little from the first. 
 Jewell was withdrawn and his 1 1 votes cast for 
 Blaine, giving him 296. Conkling fell from 99 to 
 93, and Morton from 125 to 120. These votes 
 went to swell Hayes s following from 61 to 64, 
 Bristow s from 113 to 114, and Hartranft s from 
 58 to 63 ; and one was cast for Elihu B. W r ash- 
 burne. 
 
 The third ballot began amid intense anxiety. 
 Important changes were expected. But the vote 
 proceeded almost without change, only wavering 
 a little, here and there. Hayes gained three, 
 reaching 67 ; and Blaine lost three, falling to 293, 
 to the deep disappointment of his friends. Mor 
 ton lost seven, falling to 113, and Bristow gained 
 seven, reaching 121. Conkling lost three, falling 
 
 16 
 
JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 to 90. Hartranft gained five, reaching 68 ; and 
 Wheeler got two and Washburne one. The Con 
 vention seemed no nearer a choice than at first. 
 Mr. Elaine was 90 votes away from the nomina 
 tion, and the New York and Pennsylvania dele 
 gations, which seemed to be masters of the situa 
 tion, showed no sign of abandoning the candidates 
 for whom they were casting merely complimentary 
 votes. Pennsylvania was voting for General 
 Hartranft, whom no one expected to see chosen, 
 and all the New York delegates, except one, 
 were holding out steadily for Senator Conkling, 
 who was a strong and implacable opponent of 
 Mr. Blainc. 
 
 The fourth ballot was taken, and it also showed 
 little change. Mr. Elaine s friends stood by him 
 firmly. He lost one vote in Alabama, one in 
 Iowa, one in Texas, one in Vermont, and two in 
 Michigan. Eut elsewhere he gained a number of 
 votes, so that his net loss on this ballot was only 
 one, his total vote standing at 292. It looked as 
 if this deadlock might continue all day, and in 
 deed for many days. Eut the opponents of Mr. 
 Elaine were uneasy. His great strength in the 
 Convention, and the steadfastness of his support 
 ers, alarmed them. They began planning to form 
 some compromise and combination to defeat him. 
 Many such schemes had already been broached, 
 but nothing had yet come of them. Governor 
 Hayes, of Ohio, had been the central figure of 
 
1876 AXD 1880. 275 
 
 most of them, and now, on the fifth ballot, he was 
 definitely chosen as the candidate upon whom an 
 attempt would be made to unite the elements hos 
 tile to Mr. Blaine. It was, of course, a delicate 
 and difficult task to transfer votes from one can 
 didate to another. The various delegations had 
 come to the Convention pledged or instructed to 
 vote for such or such a candidate. As soon as it 
 was decided to annul those pledges, the delegates 
 would be free to follow their own individual choice, 
 and it was not unlikely that there would be a con 
 siderable stampede in the direction of Mr. Blaine. 
 The plan was executed, however, with singular 
 tact and entire success. The venerable Governor 
 Howard, of Michigan, was chosen to lead the 
 movement. On the fifth ballot he hobbled on his 
 crutches to the front of the hall and said, in a 
 voice tremulous both with age and emotion, that 
 there was one candidate before the Convention 
 who had already defeated three Democratic aspi 
 rants for the Presidency Allen G. Thurman, 
 George H. Pendleton and William Allen and 
 who seemed to have a habit of defeating distin 
 guished Democrats. It would be the part of wis 
 dom to give him an opportunity once more to de 
 feat whatever candidate the Democrats might place 
 in nomination for the Presidency. Michigan, 
 therefore, cast her whole 22 votes solidly for 
 Rutherford B. Hayes. This announcement, al 
 though not unexpected, came upon the Convention 
 
j A:\IKS G. BLAINE. 
 
 with the sudden energy of an electric shock. 
 A tremendous tidal wave of enthusiastic applause 
 swept over the entire assemblage again and again. 
 For a moment it looked as though there would 
 be a general stampede toward Hayes. But Mr. 
 Elaine s supporters stood firm as ever. The roll 
 call proceeded. The next State, Minnesota, cast 
 her vote, as before, for Mr. Blaine, and Missouri, 
 coming next, gave him 20 votes, where before 
 she had only given him 1 8. But then North Caro 
 lina abandoned him and voted for Hayes. So it 
 went on to the end of the fifth ballot. Mr. Blaine 
 was not yet nominated, but he was still the leader 
 among the candidates. A rival was coming for 
 ward, however,* at a dangerous rate. On this 
 ballot Mr. Blaine had 286 votes. Mr. Bristow 
 stood second with 114. Governor Hayes had 
 risen to 104. Senator Morton had 95, Senator 
 Conkling 82, and General Hartranft 69. 
 
 The sixth ballot was ordered. Down to the 
 point where North Carolina was reached on the 
 roll call there \vas no material change from the 
 former ballot. But the Tar Heel State, which 
 had deserted Mr. Blaine on the fifth ballot, now 
 came back to him solidly with 12 votes, and a 
 mighty burst of cheering rent the air. Presently 
 Pennsylvania was reached, and for the first time 
 its delegation was divided. Fourteen of its votes 
 were announced for Mr. Blaine, and there was 
 another scene of great enthusiasm among his 
 
8?6 AND 1880. 277 
 
 supporters. South Carolina also swung into line 
 for him, and he now had 308 votes. Governor 
 Hayes, meantime, had gained only 9 votes, stand 
 ing now at 113, while Bristow had fallen to in. 
 Mr. Elaine s supporters were now confident 
 and jubilant. His opponents saw that something 
 must be done immediately if he was to be de 
 feated. For a space the Convention became a 
 disorganized mob, a dozen men speaking at once 
 and the various leaders earnestly and desperately 
 consulting together. Then the Indiana delegation 
 marched out of the hall for consultation. The 
 New York delegation followed, and then Penn- 
 
 o 
 
 ^ylvania went too. It was evident that these 
 three great bodies would decide the result on the 
 next ballot. And so they did. The seventh bal 
 lot was called. The names of Morton, Conklino- 
 
 ^_> 
 
 and Hartranft were withdrawn, and the support 
 ers of their candidates went over in a body to 
 Governor Hayes. The bulk of Mr. Bristow s 
 supporters also abandoned him, many of them 
 going to Mr. Blaine and the rest to Governor 
 Hayes. On the seventh ballot 756 votes were 
 cast, and 379 were necessary to a choice. Gov 
 ernor Hayes received 384, Mr. Blaine 351, and 
 Mr. Bristow 21. Thus Mr. Blaine was defeated 
 and Governor Hayes was nominated as the candi 
 date of the Republican party for President in the 
 centennial year of the Union. But Mr. Blaine 
 had the consolation of knowing that his friends 
 
2/8 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 had supported him with a fervent loyalty such as 
 few candidates had ever before enjoyed. 
 
 The record of Mr. Elaine s activities during the 
 four years that followed is given elsewhere. As 
 the administration of President Hayes approached 
 its close it became evident that Mr. Elaine would 
 again be a leading candidate for the Republican 
 nomination. His popularity in the party and 
 throughout the Nation had been steadily increas 
 ing, and his support was stronger and more en 
 thusiastic than before. He entered the Conven 
 tion of 1880, at Chicago, with almost exactly the 
 same number of supporters that had striven in 
 his behalf so earnestly in 1876. The opposition 
 to him was now more united and better organized 
 than before. Its leader was Senator Conkling, 
 and its candidate was General Grant, who was 
 now put forward for a third term in the White 
 House. At the opening of the Convention, on 
 June 2d, there was a determined struggle over 
 what was known as the "unit rule." The oppo 
 nents of Mr. Elaine contended that each State s 
 vote should be cast without division for the can 
 didate favored by the majority of the delegation. 
 Mr. .Elaine s supporters contended that the vote 
 of a delegation might be divided according to the 
 individual preferences of its members. Finally 
 General James A. Garfield, of Ohio, was made 
 chairman of the Committee on rules, and in the 
 code which he reported to the Convention the 
 
1876 AND 1880. 2/9 
 
 unit rule was disregarded, thus leaving the dele 
 gates free to vote according to their individual 
 preferences. This was properly regarded as a 
 victory for the Biaine forces and a defeat for the 
 supporters of Grant. 
 
 On the roll call of States for nomination of 
 candidates the name of Mr. Biaine was presented, 
 in behalf of the State of Maine, by James F. 
 Joy, chairman of the Michigan delegation. Gen 
 eral Grant was nominated by Senator Conkling, 
 and the other candidates named were John Sher 
 man, E. B. Washburne, George F. Edmunds and 
 William Wiridom. 
 
 On the first ballot 755 votes were cast, and 378 
 were necessary to a choice. General Grant re 
 ceived 304, Mr. Biaine 284, John Sherman 93, E. 
 B. Washburne 31, George F. Edmunds 34, and 
 William Winclom 10. Thenceforward to the 28th 
 ballot there was scarcely any change in the 
 voting. The vote for Grant varied from 302 in 
 the 25th ballot to 309 in the i5th. The vote for 
 Mr. Biaine was equally steady, ranging from 275 
 in the 22d and 2^d ballots to 285 in the i2th and 
 1 3th. During the 28 ballots John Sherman s 
 vote ranged from 88 to 97, E. B. Washburne s 
 from 31 to 36, George F. Edmunds s from 31 to 
 34, and William Windom s remained fixedly at 
 10. On almost every ballot one or two votes 
 were cast for James A. Garfield. On three bal 
 lots, one vote was cast for Benjamin Harrison ; 
 
2 gO JAM1LS G. 11LAINE. 
 
 on three, one for Rutherford B. Hayes ; on one, 
 one for George W. McCreary ; on one, one for 
 Edmund T. Davis ; and on four, one for John F. 
 Hartranft. It was such a deadlock as had not 
 before been seen in a Republican Convention. 
 
 On the 2Qt:h ballot there was a slight but insig 
 nificant change, the vote of Mr. Edmunds fall 
 ing to 12 and that of Mr. Windom to 7, and 
 that of Mr. Sherman rising to 1 1 6. The votes 
 for Grant and Elaine remained as before. The 
 3oth ballot was almost a duplicate of the 29th, but 
 one scattering vote was cast for General Philip H. 
 Sheridan. The 3ist ballot showed no material 
 change, but one vote was cast for Roscoe Conk- 
 ling. The 32d ballot showed no sign of a break 
 in the deadlock, the forces of the two great rivals 
 standing unbroken, and the minor bodies, with 
 whom lay the balance of power, not yet indica 
 ting in what direction they would finally cast their 
 strength. The 33d ballot showed 309 votes for 
 Grant, 276 for Elaine, 100 for Sherman, 44 for 
 Washburne, n for Edmunds, 4 for Windom, 
 and i for Garfield. 
 
 All efforts to induce the minor delegations to 
 forsake their candidates in favor of either Grant 
 or Elaine were fruitless. It therefore became 
 evident that if the deadlock was ever to be bro 
 ken, one of the great bodies must forsake its 
 candidate and accept a compromise. This the 
 supporters of Grant positively refused to do. 
 
AND 1880. 281 
 
 They expressed their determination of standing 
 together and voting together for the candidate of 
 
 o o o 
 
 their choice as long as the Convention remained 
 in existence. The Elaine men were at least 
 equally devoted to their candidate, but took a 
 more reasonable view of the situation. When 
 they became convinced that Mr. Elaine s nomina 
 tion was impossible they began to look about for 
 the next best candidate. 
 
 In the 34th ballot the first really significant 
 break occurred. Washburne s vote fell from 44 
 to 30, and Garfield s forged ahead from i to 17. 
 Grant s remained at 312, and Elaine s at 275. 
 Sherman s was 107. Garfield had been sent to 
 the Convention as the leader of the Sherman 
 forces, and when delegates began to vote for him 
 he protested that he was not a candidate. This 
 protestation, however, did not restrain the dele 
 gates from voting for him, but seemed actually 
 to encourage them to do so. His reluctance to 
 receive the nomination was taken as a proof of 
 his fitness for it. The supporters of Mr. Elaine 
 now decided that it would be best, indeed that it 
 was necessary, to abandon their loved and hon 
 ored candidate. Accordingly, on the 35th ballot, 
 the majority of them did so, casting their votes 
 for Garfield, who thus received 250 votes, while 
 Elaine s fell to 57, Sherman s to 99, Washburne s 
 to 23, Edmunds s to 1 1, and Windom s 103. The 
 Grant contingent stood firm as ever, and even 
 
282 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 gamed a few recruits, casting on this ballot 313 
 votes for their candidate. But the compromise 
 was now effected, and nothing could hinder its 
 
 o 
 
 success. The roll call for the 36th ballot 
 began. Delegation after delegation abandoned 
 Sherman and Washburne and Edmunds and Win- 
 dom, and joined the irresistible forces of Garfield. 
 Grant s supporters remained unmoved to the end, 
 unwilling to yield and unable to attract a sufficient 
 number of recruits to give them the victory. This 
 was the decisive and final ballot. 755 votes were 
 cast, and 378 were necessary to a choice. James 
 A. Garfield received 399, General Grant 306, Mr. 
 Elaine 42, Mr. Washburne 5, and Mr. Sherman 3. 
 Thus this unexampled contest was ended. Mr. 
 Elaine was a^ain defeated. Eut he had once 
 
 o 
 
 more received a most gratifying proof of the 
 loyalty of his friends and of his personal popu 
 larity in the party, and he had, moreover, the sat 
 isfaction of knowing that the vote of his friends 
 had decided the choice of the Convention in favor 
 of one of his own most intimate and trusted 
 friends. There is no doubt that Mr. Elaine was 
 better pleased with the nomination of Garfield 
 than he would have been with the choice of any 
 other candidate beside himself. And he imme 
 diately lent all the power of his personal popu 
 larity and his unsurpassed genius to the aid of the 
 Garfield campaign, which, in November following, 
 was crowned with success at the polls. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 Appointment to the Chief Portfolio in the Gaifield Cabinet Mr. Elaine s 
 
 Letter of Acceptance Salient Features of his Foreign Policy Con 
 troversy with England ov-r the Neutrality of the Panama Canal 
 
 Death of Garfield and Accession of President Arthur The Invitation 
 to the American Republics to Hoi I a Peace Congress Object of 
 these Negotiations Mr. Elaine s Retirement from Office Abandon 
 ment of His Plans by His Successor Mr. Elaine s Vindication of His 
 Policy. 
 
 When Mr. Elaine s friend Garfield was chosen 
 President in November, 1880, speculation began 
 to arise as to who would compose his Cabinet. 
 It was, however, universally expected that the 
 office of Secretary of State therein would be filled 
 by Mr. Blaine. This was also Garfield s intention. 
 Very soon after the election he wrote to Mr. 
 Blaine, who was then in the Senate, askino- to see 
 
 > 
 
 him as soon as possible. They met on Novem 
 ber 26th, and Garfield promptly offered Mr. 
 Blaine the appointment of Secretary of State. 
 Mr. Blaine asked time for consideration, and some 
 weeks afterwards, after consultation with his 
 friends, wrote to the President-elect the following 
 letter, accepting the offer : 
 
 " WASHINGTON, December 20, iSSo. 
 
 " My Dear Garfield : Your generous invitation to enter your Cabinet 
 as Secretary of State has been under consideration for more than three 
 283 
 
284 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 weeks. The thought had really never occurred to my mind until at our 
 late conference you presented it with such cogent arguments in its favor 
 and with 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 re 
 ceived urging me to accept, written to me in consequence of the mere 
 unauthorized newspaper 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 perhaps 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 your service. You need no pledge of my 
 loyalty in heart and in act. I should be false to myself did I not prove 
 true both to the great trust you confide to me and to yo ;r own personal and 
 political fortunes in the present and in the future. Your administration 
 must be made brilliantly successful and strong in the confidence and pride 
 of the people, not at all directing its energies for re-election, and yet 
 compelling that result by the logic of events and by the imperious neces 
 sities 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, but merely as a deduction from a plain ana ysis 
 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 Con 
 ventions. I accept it as one of the happiest circumstances connected with 
 this affair that in allying my political fortunes with yours or rather for 
 the time merging: mine in yours my heart goes with my head, and 
 that I carry to you not only political support but personal and devoted 
 friendship. I can but regard it as somewhat remarkable that two men 
 of the same age, entering Congress at the same time, influenced by the 
 same aims and cherishing the same ambitions, should never, for a 
 single moment in eighteen years of close intimacy, have had a mis 
 understanding or a coolness, and that our friendship has steadily grown 
 with our growth and strengthened with our strength. 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 285 
 
 " 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^ T would not enter your Cabinet if I did not believe in 
 you as a man and love you as a friend. 
 
 " Always faithfully yours, 
 
 "JAMES G. BLAINE." 
 
 Mr. Blaine entered upon the duties of this im 
 portant office immediately after the inauguration 
 of the President in March, iSSi. In this new 
 sphere of duty he distinguished himself by the 
 aggressive earnestness with which he strove to 
 uphold and to promote American interests every 
 where. It was his aim to maintain the dignity of 
 the American name and the honor of the Ameri 
 can flag in every part of the globe ; to give most 
 ample protection to American citizens, wherever 
 they might be in foreign parts ; to extend the 
 commercial interests of the country as greatly as 
 possible ; and especially to encourage a closer re 
 lationship and greater unity of interests between 
 the various nations of Central and South- America 
 and the United States. It was his aim to exert 
 the influence of the United States so as to put an 
 end to the frequent wars and revolutions in those 
 Southern Republics, and at the same time to 
 establish closer and more extensive trade relations 
 with them. He believed that the United States 
 should exert greater commercial and political in 
 fluences in South America than England or any 
 European power, and he looked with disfavor 
 and distrust upon the many intrigues and 
 
286 JAMES G. J3LAINE. 
 
 aggressions in that direction of which various 
 European powers were guilty. 
 
 In connection with this subject, a controversy 
 soon arose with England over the neutrality of 
 the proposed Panama Canal. Acting under Mr. 
 Elaine s advice, President Garfield reminded the 
 powers of Europe that the United States had 
 secured exclusive rights in the country through 
 which the canal was to be constructed, and that 
 the proposal of the European powers to guarantee 
 the neutrality of the work would not only be futile 
 but actually offensive to this country. It was 
 necessary that the United States should take the 
 initiative in any such guarantee. In his inaugural 
 address, prepared doubtless after consultation 
 with Mr. Elaine, President Garfield reasserted the 
 doctrine of his predecessor, that it was the right 
 and duty of the United States to maintain such 
 supervision over any such canal as would effectu 
 ally protect its own interests. The Clayton- 
 Bulwer treaty of 1850, between the United 
 States and England, made certain provisions for 
 the control of the canal which would practically 
 place it exclusively in England s hand. These 
 clauses Mr. Elaine now unhesitatingly proposed 
 to abrogate. In an elaborate letter on the subject, 
 to Mr. Lowell, the American Minister to England, 
 he stated the American side of the case with 
 perfectly unanswerable logic, and showed himself 
 an easy master of the ablest Eritish diplomats. 
 
SECKF.TARY OF STATE. 287 
 
 This letter," said Mr. George William Curtis, 
 in Harper s Weekly, a critic never noted for 
 partiality toward Mr. Elaine, "is a temperate and 
 dignified document, stating our position with 
 blended spirit and courtesy and decision. It is 
 capitally adapted to meet any such proposition as 
 a joint European protectorate, and it is another 
 illustration of the skill and ability with which Mr. 
 Elaine has managed the department confided to 
 him. He has what may be called the American 
 instinct, an essential quality in our Foreign Secre 
 tary, yet restrained in its official expression by an 
 equally American tact and good sense." 
 
 Earnest efforts were made by Mr. Elaine to 
 conclude by an honorable peace the deplorable 
 and disastrous war between Chili and Peru. To 
 this end two special envoys, William H. Trescot 
 and Walker Elaine, were sent thither. Eefore 
 they arrived there, however, Mr. Elaine resigned 
 his office, and his successor, Mr. Frelinghuysen, 
 so altered the policy of the Department as to make 
 their mission fruitless. 
 
 Throughout the brief administration of Presi 
 dent Garfield, Mr. Elaine was not only Secretary 
 of State, but also the President s most trusted 
 adviser and closest personal friend. He was his 
 companion on that fatal morning of July 2, 1881, 
 when the President, on his way to join his family 
 at their summer home, was shot by a wretched 
 madman. Through the weary months of illness 
 
288 JAMES C. K I. A INF.. 
 
 that followed, he was among the most solicitous 
 watchers at Garfield s bedside ; and he was one of 
 the most sincere mourners when, on September 
 1 9th, death ended the illustrious sufferer s long 
 struggle. Chester A. Arthur then succeeded to 
 the Presidency, and at his request, Mr. Elaine 
 retained for a time the State portfolio. Differences 
 of opinion gradually arose between them, how 
 ever, and on December 19, 1881, Mr. Elaine 
 tendered his resignation and retired from the 
 office he had filled with such eminent distinction. 
 He was succeeded by the Hon. Frederick L. 
 Frelinghuysen, formerly United States Senator 
 from New Jersey. 
 
 During his two months of service in President 
 Arthur s Cabinet, Mr. Elaine performed the act 
 for which his first term as Secretary of State will 
 be most remembered. This was the inviting of 
 all the nations of Central and South America to 
 a Peace Congress, to be held at Washington. 
 This was in accordance with a plan to which Mr. 
 Elaine and President Garfield had devoted much 
 thought, and on which they had been fully agreed. 
 It was intended to effect that strengthening of 
 amicable relations, and that harmonizing and uni 
 fication of interests, both commercial and political, 
 which Mr. Elaine so earnestly desired and which 
 were, unquestionably, calculated in the highest 
 degree to promote the welfare of all the nations 
 concerned. The following letter, addressed by 
 

 CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 29 1 
 
 Mr. Elaine to the United States Minister to 
 Mexico, shows the tone of the invitation thus ex 
 tended to the various nations ; 
 
 " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 
 " WASHINGTON, November 29, 1881. 
 
 " SIR : The attitude of the United States with regard to the question of 
 general peace on the American continent is well known through its persis 
 tent efforts for years past to avert the evils of warfare, or, the efforts failing, 
 to bring positive conflicts to an end through pacific counsels, or the advo 
 cacy of impartial arbitration. This attitude has been consistently main 
 tained, and always with such fairness as to leave no room for the imputing 
 to our Government any motive except the humane and disinterested one of 
 saving the kindred States on the American continent from the burdens of 
 war. The position of the United States as the leading power of the New 
 World might well give to its Government the claim to authoritative utterance 
 for the purpose of quieting discord among its neighbor?, with all of whom 
 the most friendly relation exists. Nevertheless, the good offices of this 
 Government are not, and have not, at any time, been tendered with a show 
 of compulsion or dictation, but only as exhibiting the solicitous good-will 
 of a common friend. 
 
 " For some years past a growing disposition has been manifested by cer 
 tain States of Central and South America to refer disputes affecting grave 
 questions of international relationship and boundaries to arbitration rather 
 than to the sword. It has been on several such occasions a source of pro 
 found satisfaction to the Government of the United States to see that this 
 country is, in a large measure, looked to by all the American powers as 
 their friend and mediator. 
 
 " The just and impartial counsel of the President in such cases has never 
 been withheld, and his efforts have been rewarded by the prevention of 
 sanguinary strife, or angry contentions between people whom we regard as 
 brethren. 
 
 " The existence of this growing tendency convinces the President that the 
 time is ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the good-will and active co 
 operation of all the States of the Western Hemisphere, both North and 
 South, in the interest of humanity, and for the common weal of nations. He 
 conceives that none of the governments of America can be less alive than 
 our own to the dangers and horrors of a State war, and especially of war be 
 tween kinsmen. He is sure that none of the chiefs of governments on the 
 continent can be less sensitive than he is to the sacred duty of making every 
 endeavor to do away with the chances of fratricidal strife. And he looks 
 17 
 
JAMES G. 3LAINE. 
 
 with hopeful confidence to such active assistance from them as will help to 
 show the broadness of our common humanity, and the strength of the ties 
 which bind us all together as a great and harmonious system of American 
 commonwealths. 
 
 " Impressed by these views, the President extends to all the independent 
 countries of North and South America an earnest invitation to participate in 
 a general congress to be held in the city of Washington on the 24th day of 
 November, iSSi, for the purpose of considering and discussing the 
 methods of preventing wnr between the nations of America. He desires 
 that the attention of the congress shall be strictly confined to this one great 
 object, that its sole aim shall be to seek away of permanently averting the 
 horrors of cruel and bloody combat between countries oftenest of one blood 
 and speech ; or the even worse calamity of internal commotion and civil 
 strife ; that it shall regard the burdensome and far-reaching consequences 
 of such struggles, the legacies of exhausted finances, of opprsssive debt, of 
 onerous taxation, of ruined cities, of paralyzed industries, of devastated 
 fields, of ruthless conscription, of the slaughter of men, of the grief of the 
 widow and orphan, of embittered resentments that long survive those who 
 provoked them, and heavily afflict the innocent generations that come after. 
 
 " The President is especially desirous to have it understood that in put 
 ting forth this invitation, the United States does not assume the position of 
 counselling, or attempting through the voice of the congress to counsel, any 
 determinate solution of existing questions which may now divide any of the 
 countries of America. Such questions cannot properly come before the 
 congress. Its mission is higher. It is to provide for the interest of all in 
 the future, not to settle the individual differences of the present. For this 
 reason especially, the President has indicated a day for the assembling of 
 the congress so far in the future as to leave good ground for hope, that by 
 the time named, the present situation on the South Pacific coast will be 
 happily terminated, and that those engaged in the contest may take peace 
 able part in the discussion and solution of the general question affecting in 
 an equal degree the well-being of all. 
 
 " It seems also desirable to disclaim, in advance, any purpose on the part 
 of the United States to prejudge the issues to be presented to the congress. 
 It is far from the intent of this Government to appear before the congress 
 as in any sense the protector of its neighbors, or the predestined and neces 
 sary arbitrator of their disputes. The United States will enter into the 
 deliberations of the congress on the same footing with the other powers 
 represented, and with the loyal determination to approach any proposed 
 solution not only in its own interest, but as a single member among many 
 co-ordit ate and co-equal States, so far as the influence of this Government 
 may be conciliating, whatever conflicting interests of blood or government 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 293 
 
 or historical tradition may necessarily come together in response to a call 
 embracing such vast and diverse elements. 
 
 " You will present these views to the Minister of Foreign Relations of 
 Mexico, enlarging, if need be, in such terms as will readily occur to you, 
 upon the great mission which it is in the power of the proposed congress to 
 accomplish in the interest of humanity, and upon the firm purpose of the 
 United States to maintain a position of the most absolute and impartial 
 friendship toward all. You will thereupon tender to his Excellency, the 
 President of the Mexican Republic, a formal invitation to send two commis 
 sioners to the congress, provided with such powers and instructions on 
 behalf of their government as will enable them to consider the questions 
 brought before that body within the limit of submission contemplated by the 
 invitation. 
 
 " The United States, as well as the other powers, will in like manner be 
 represented by two commissioners, so that impartiality and equality will be 
 amply secured in the proceedings of the congress. 
 
 "In delivering this invitation through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 you will read this despatch to him, and leave with him a copy, intimating 
 that an answer is desired by this Government as promptly as the just con 
 sideration of so important a proposition will permit. 
 
 " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 "JAMES G. ELAINE." 
 
 Three weeks after the issuing of this letter Mr. 
 Blaine was succeeded in the State Department 
 by Mr. Frelinghuysen. The latter ,very materi 
 ally changed the Government s foreign policy, 
 and, for one thing, -annulled the arrangements for 
 the Peace Congress, and revoked the invitations, 
 so that that body did not convene. At this the 
 people of the United States very generally felt 
 much regret. Mr. Blaine regretted it also, on 
 public grounds, and he naturally regarded it as a 
 personal grievance, especially since his political 
 enemies quickly and industriously spread abroad 
 all sorts of false and malicious rumors regarding 
 
294 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 his object in summoning the congress. He was 
 charged with a "jingo" policy; with seeking to 
 bully the weaker American powers, and even to 
 compel their annexation to the United States ; 
 with trying to embroil the United States in a 
 foreign war ; and actually with corrupt motives of 
 personal gain. The baser of these calumnies 
 Mr. Elaine could afford to treat with contempt. 
 But on the higher grounds of public policy he 
 felt presently constrained to vindicate his course 
 by addressing to President Arthur, on January 3, 
 1882, the following letter: 
 
 " To the President of the United States : The suggestion of a congress 
 of all American Nations to assemble in the city of Washington for the pur 
 pose of agreeing on such a basis of arbitration for international troubles as 
 would remove all possibiliiy of war on the Western Hemisphere was 
 warmly approved by your predecessor. His assassination July 2d pre 
 vented his issuing the invitation to the American States. After your acces 
 sion to the Presidency I acquainted you with the project, and submitted to 
 you that draft for such an invitation. You received the suggestion with 
 most appreciative consideration, and, after carefully examining the form of 
 invitation, directed it to be sent. It was accordingly despatched in No 
 vember to the independent Governments of America, North and South, 
 including all, from the Empire of Brazil to the smallest Republic. In a 
 communication addressed by the present Secretary of State, the ninth of 
 last month, to Mr. Trescot, and recently sent to the Senate, I was 
 greatly surprised to find a proposition looking to the annulment of these 
 invitations, and I was still more surprised when I read the reasons 
 assigned. I quote Mr. Frelinghuysen s language : The United States is 
 at peace with all nations of the earth, and the President wishes here 
 after to determine whether it will conduce to the general peace, which 
 he would cherish and promote, for this Government to enter into negoti 
 ations and consultation for the promotion of peace with selected friendly 
 nationalities without extending the line of confidence to other people 
 with whom the United States is on equally friendly terms. If such par 
 tial confidence would create jealousy and ill-will, peace, the object sought 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 2$$ 
 
 by such consultation, would not be promoted. The principles controlling 
 the relations of the Republics of this hemisphere with other nationalities 
 may, on investigation, be found to be so well established that little would 
 be gained at this time by reopening the subject, which is not novel. If 
 I correctly apprehend the meaning of these words, it is that we might 
 offend some European powers if we should hold in the United States a 
 Congress of selected nationalities of American. 
 
 " This is certainly a new position for the United States to assume, and 
 one which I earnestly beg you will not permit this Government to occupy. 
 European powers assemble in congress whenever an object seems to them 
 of sufficient importance to justify it. I have never heard of their consulting 
 the Government of the United States in regard to the propriety of their so 
 assembling, nor have I ever known their inviting an American representa 
 tive to be present, nor would there, in my judgment, be any good reason 
 for their so doing. Two Presidents of the United States in the year 1881 
 adjudge it to be expedient that American powers should meet in congress 
 for the sole purpose of agreeing upon some basis for arbitration of differ 
 ences that may arise between them, and for the prevention, as far as possible, 
 of wars in the future. If that movement is now to be arrested for fear it 
 may give offence in Europe, the voluntary humiliation of this Government 
 could not be more complete, unless we should petition European Govern 
 ments for the privilege of holding the congress. 
 
 " I cannot conceive how the United States could be placed in a less 
 enviable position than would be secured by sending in November a cordial 
 invitation to all American Governments to meet in Washington for the sole 
 purpose of concocting measures of peace, and in January recalling the 
 invitation for fear it might create jealousy and ill-will on the part of 
 monarchical Governments in Europe. It would be difficult to devise a more 
 effective mode of making enemies of the American Governments, and k 
 would certainly not add to our prestige in the European world. Nor can I 
 see, Mr. President, how European Governments should feel jealousy and 
 ill-will toward the United States because of an effort on its part to assure 
 lasting peace between the nations of America, unless indeed it be the 
 interest of the European powers that the American nations should at inter 
 vals fall into war, and bring reproach on Republican government. But 
 from that very circumstance I see an additional and powerful motive for 
 American Governments to be at peace among themselves. The United 
 States is indeed at peace with all the world, as Mr. Frelinghuysen well 
 says ; but there are, and have been, serious troubles between other Amer 
 ican Republics. Peru, Chili and Bolivia have been for more than two years 
 engaged in a desperate conflict. It was the fortunate intervention of the 
 United States last spring that averted war between Chili and the Argentine 
 
296 JAMES G. RLATNE. 
 
 Republic. Guatemala is at this moment asking the United States to inter 
 pose its good offices with Mexico to keep off war. 
 
 " These important facts were all communicated in your late message 
 to Congress. It is the existence or menace of these wars that influenced 
 President Garfield, and, as I suppose, influenced yourself, to desire a 
 friendly conference of all nations of America to devise methods of perma 
 nent peace and consequent prosperity for all. Shall the United States now 
 turn back, hold aloof, and refuse to exert its great moral power for the 
 advantage of its weaker neighbors ? If you have not formally and fully 
 recalled the invitation to a Peace Congress, Mr. President, I beg you to 
 consider well the effect of so doing. The invitation was not mine. It was 
 yours. I performed only the part of Secretary to advise and draft. You 
 spoke in the name of the United States to each of the independent nations 
 of America. To revoke that invitation for a:iy cause would be embarras 
 sing; to revoke it for avowed fear of jealousy and ill-will on the part of 
 European powers would appeal as little to American pride as to American 
 hospitality. Those you have invited may decline, and, having now cause 
 to doubt their welcome, will perhaps do so. This would break up the con 
 gress, but it would not touch our dignity. Beyond the philanthropic and 
 Christian ends to be obtained by the American conference, devoted to 
 peace and good-will among men, we might well hope for material advant 
 ages as a result of a better understanding and closer friendship with the 
 nations of America. At present the condition of trade between the United 
 States and its American neighbors is unsatisfactory to us, and even de 
 plorable. 
 
 " According to the official statistics of our own Treasury Department the 
 balance against us in that trade last year was $120,000,000 a sum greater 
 than the yearly product of the gold and silver mines in the United States. 
 This vast balance was paid by us in foreign exchange, and a very large 
 proportion of it went to England, where shipments of cotton, provisions, and 
 breadstuffs supplied the money. If anything should change or check the 
 balance in our favor in European trade, our commercial exchanges with 
 Spanish America would drain us of our reserve of gold coin at a rate ex 
 ceeding $100,000,000 per annum, and would probably precipitate the 
 suspension of specie-payment in this country. Such a result at home might 
 be worse than a little jealousy and ill-will abroad; I do not say, Mr. 
 President, that the holding of a Peace Congress will necessarily change the 
 currents of trade, but it will bring us into kindly relations with all the 
 American nations; it will promote the reign of peace, and law, and order ; it 
 will increase production and consumption and will stimulate the demand 
 for articles which American manufacturers can furnish with profit. It will, 
 at all events, he a friendly and auspicious beginning in the direction of 
 
SECRE TAR Y OF STA TE. 29? 
 
 American influence and American trade in a large field which we have 
 hitherto greatly neglected, and which has been practically monopolized by 
 our commercial rivals in Europe. As Mr. Frelinghuysen s despatch 
 foreshadowing an abandonment of a Peace Congress is being made public by 
 your direction, I deem it a matter of propriety and justice to gire this letter 
 to the press. I am, Mr. President, with great respect, your ever obedient 
 servant, 
 
 " JAMES G. ELAINE." 
 
 The ex-Secretary thus set himself entirely 
 right in the minds of all thoughtful and impartial 
 observers, and brought not a little reproach and 
 ridicule upon those who had frustrated his benefi 
 cent designs. Frustrated his designs were, 
 however, for the time ; and the pursuance of his 
 policy was postponed until a later date. 
 
 To complete the record of Mr. Elaine s first 
 Administration of the State Department, one 
 more incident must be mentioned, not otherwise 
 significant. Taking advantage of the extremities 
 to which Peru was driven in her unequal struggle 
 against the aggressive Chilians, certain specu 
 lators sought to press against her various claims 
 for enormous sums, based upon the value of the 
 discovery of the nitrate and guano deposits in that 
 country. As these speculators, or some of them, 
 were American citizens, they sought to urge their 
 demands through the medium of the State De 
 partment. Their attorney was a person named 
 Shipherd, who began to treat the United States 
 Government as though it were his partner in the 
 business. So offensive was his tone that Mr. 
 Elaine was prompted, most properly, to disbar 
 
398 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 him from further practice before the State Depart 
 ment. This made Shipherd angry, and he 
 demanded of Congress an " investigation," mak 
 ing various charges of corruption against Mr. 
 Elaine. The investigation was held, and Mr. 
 Elaine s enemies tried hard to discredit him, but 
 only succeeded in bringing ridicule upon them 
 selves. Mr. Elaine was amply vindicated, and 
 Shipherd dropped into obscurity and contempt. 
 Quotation of one more document wall close this 
 brief consideration of one of the most interesting 
 periods in the diplomatic history of the United 
 States. It is a review of the foreign policy of the 
 Garfield Administration, written by the man who 
 inspired and directed that policy. It is taken from 
 the pages of a Chicago journal, in which it first 
 appeared : 
 
 " AUGUSTA, MAINE, Sept. i, 1882. 
 
 " The foreign policy of President Garfield s Ad 
 ministration had two principal objects in view : 
 First, to bring about peace, and prevent future 
 w r ars 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 abun 
 dantly able to compete with the manufacturing 
 nations of Europe. 
 
 "To attain the second object the first must be 
 accomplished. It would be idle to attempt the 
 
SECRE TA R V OF S TA 7 7<;. 299 
 
 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 engrossed and almost en 
 gulfed Chili, Peru and Bolivia ; as that which was 
 barely averted by the friendly offices of the United 
 States between Chili and the Argentine Republic ; 
 as that which has been postponed by the same 
 good offices, but not decisively abandoned, be 
 tween Mexico and Guatemala ; as that which is 
 threatened between Brazil and Uruguay ; 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 Republics 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 
 
300 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 by securing permanent peace within all their bor 
 ders, 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, securing a truce between two others to-mor 
 row, it was apparent to the President that a more 
 comprehensive plan should be adopted if war was 
 to cease in the Western Hemisphere. It was 
 evident that certain European powers had in the 
 past been interested in promoting strife between 
 the Spanish American countries, and might be so 
 interested in the future, while the interest of the 
 United States was wholly and always on the side 
 of peace with all 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 agree 
 ment 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 the in 
 dependent governments of North and South 
 America to meet in a Peace Congress at Wash 
 ington. The date to be assigned was the 1 5th of 
 March, 1882, and the invitations would have been 
 issued directly after the New England tour, which 
 
SEC RE TARY OF STATE. 30 1 
 
 the President was not permitted to make. Nearly 
 six months later, on November 22d, President Gar- 
 field 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 soon as the project was understood in 
 South America it received a most cordial appro 
 val, and some of the countries, not following the 
 leisurely routine of diplomatic correspondence, 
 made haste to accept the invitation. There can 
 be no doubt that within a brief period all the na 
 tions invited would have formally signified th^ir 
 readiness to attend the congress ; but in six weeks 
 after the invitations had gone to the several coun 
 tries, President Arthur caused them to be re 
 called, or at least suspended. The subject v~as 
 afterward referred to Congress in a special mes 
 sage, in which the President ably vindicated his 
 Constitutional right to assemble the Peace I Con 
 gress, 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 .received the invita 
 tions were in an embarrassing situation ; for aff er 
 they were asked by the President to come, th^y 
 found that the matter had been reconsidered and 
 referred to another department of the Gove*"n- 
 ment. This change was universally accepted as 
 
3O2 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 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 of the 
 invitation would be destroyed by a long debate 
 in the Senate and House, in which the question 
 would necessarily become intermixed with per 
 sonal and party politics, and the project would 
 be ultimately wrecked from the same cause 
 and by the same process that destroyed the use 
 fulness 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 Conference 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 Sen 
 ate, or enacted into a law by both branches. The 
 assembling of the Peace Conference, as President 
 Arthur so well demonstrated, was not in deroga 
 tion of any right or prerogative of the Senate or 
 House. The money necessary for the expenses 
 of the conference which would not have ex 
 ceeded $10,000 could not, with reason or pro 
 priety, 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 Congress would 
 afford them. They require external pressure to 
 
SECRE TAR Y OF STA TE, 303 
 
 keep them from war. When at war they require 
 external pressure to bring them to peace. Their 
 outbreaks, are not only frequent, but are sangui 
 nary and sometimes cruel. The inhabitants of 
 those countries are a brave people, belonging to 
 a race that has always been brave, descended 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 estrangement and aliena 
 tion from us, they would promptly respond to any 
 advance made by the Great Republic of the 
 North, as they have for two generations termed 
 our Government. The moral influence upon the 
 Spanish-American people of such an international 
 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 conti 
 nent, whose undeveloped wealth amazed Hum- 
 boldt, 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 
 
304 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 the aid of a common friend to restore relations of 
 amity. Peru and Chili are in deplorable need of 
 a wise and powerful mediator. Though exhausted 
 by war, they are unable to make peace, and, un 
 less they shall be aided by the intervention of a 
 friend, political anarchy and social disorder will 
 come to the conquered, and evijs 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 k 
 freely concedes to European governments the 
 right of such intervention, and thus consents to a 
 practical destruction of the Monroe doctrine and 
 an unlimited increase of European and monarch 
 ical influence on this continent. The late special 
 envoy to Peru and Chili, Mr. Trescot, gives it as 
 his deliberate and published collusion that if the 
 instructions under which he set out upon his mis 
 sion 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 government will 
 be forced to perform that friendly office. The 
 United States cannot play between nations 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 
 
SE( RETAR Y OF STA TE. 305 
 
 willing- to accept the responsibility of the great 
 trust and secure the enhanced influence and num 
 berless advantages resulting from such a philan 
 thropic and beneficent course. 
 
 "A most significant and important result would 
 have followed the assembling of the Peace Con 
 gress. A friendship and an intimacy would have 
 been established 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 proba 
 bility, have been a great commercial conference at 
 the city of Mexico or Rio Janeiro, whose delibera 
 tions 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 gov 
 ernments, 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 advantages. At present the commercial 
 relations of this country with the Spanish-American 
 countries, both continental and insular, are un 
 satisfactory and unprofitable indeed, those rela 
 tions are absolutely oppressive to the financial 
 
306 JAMES G, BLAINE. 
 
 interests of the Government and people of the 
 United States. In our current exchanges, it re 
 quires about $i 20, 000,000 to pay the balance 
 which Spanish America brings against us every 
 year. This amount is 50 per cent, more than the 
 average annual product of the gold and silver 
 mines of the United States during 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 fur 
 nish 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 
 appears and declares that our protective tariff de 
 stroys our power of competition with European 
 countries, and that if we will abolish protection we 
 shall soon have South American trade. The 
 answer is not sufficient, 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, the foundation of 
 his creed, is that nothing can be made as cheaply 
 in A.merica as in Europe. Nevertheless, facts are 
 stubborn and the hard figures of arithmetic can 
 not be satisfactorily answered by airy figures of 
 
= *- 
 
 febff 
 
SECRE TAR Y OF STA TK. 309 
 
 speech. The truth remains that the coarser de 
 scriptions of cottons and cotton prints, boots and 
 shoes, ordinary household furniture, harness for 
 draft animals, agricultural implements of all kinds, 
 doors, sashes and blinds, locks, bolts and hinges, 
 silverware, plated-ware, wooden-ware, ordinary 
 paper and paper hangings, common vehicles, or 
 dinary window-glass and glassware, rubber goods, 
 coal oils, lard oils, kerosene, white lead, lead pipe, 
 and articles in which lead is a chief component, 
 can be and are produced as cheaply in the United. 
 States as in any other 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, ex 
 port 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 
 another 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 to France than to England, and the ex 
 pense of transporting the French fabric to the 
 Portuguese market is therefore less than the 
 transportation of English fabric. And yet Great 
 Britain has almost a monopoly in the trade of 
 
 Portugal. The same condition applies, though in 
 18 
 
310 JAMES G. BLAJXJ-:. 
 
 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 England has 
 special trade relations by treaty with Portugal 
 and special obligations binding the other countries, 
 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 the countries of America. 
 That end will be reached whenever the United 
 States desires 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 own raw products that are shipped 
 there. Our petroleum reaches most of the Span 
 ish-American ports after twice crossing the 
 Atlantic, paying often a better profit to the 
 European middle-man, who handles it, than it 
 does to the producer of the oil in the northwestern 
 counties of Pennsylvania. Flour and pork from 
 the West reach Cuba by way of Spain, and though 
 we buy and consume ninety per cent, of the total 
 products of Cuba, almost that proportion of 
 her purchases are made in Europe made, of 
 course, with money furnished directly from our 
 pockets. 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 311 
 
 " As our exports to Spanish America grow less, 
 as European imports constantly grow larger, the 
 balance against us will show an annual increase, 
 
 o 
 
 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 re 
 main 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 than the 
 heaviest aggregate balance of trade we ever have 
 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 mal-adjusted com 
 mercial relations with Spanish America. It follows 
 that if our Spanish-American trade were placed 
 
312 JAMES G. ULA1NE. 
 
 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 com 
 pelled to make from Spanish America, it could 
 hardly be expected that we should be able to 
 adjust the entire account 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 final disaster. 
 It should not be forgotten that every million 
 dollars of products or 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 so large, 
 the object to be achieved is so great, that no effort 
 on the part of the Government to accomplish 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 rela 
 tionship with our continental neighbors. The 
 present tendency in those countries is toward 
 Europe, and it is a lamentable fact that their 
 people are not so near to us in feeling as they 
 were sixty years ago when they threw off the 
 
S A CKE TARY OF STA T&. 3 1 3 
 
 yoke of Spanish tyranny. We were then a weak 
 Republic of but ten millions, but we did not 
 hesitate to recognize the independence of the 
 new governments, 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 of Crawford, of Webster and 
 Calhoun, of Van Buren and Benton, of Jackson 
 and of Edward Livingston were always coura 
 geous in the inspiring measures which they advo 
 cated 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 thousands of miles to our ocean 
 front, but our commerce has fallen off, and from 
 ardent friendship with Spanish America we have 
 drifted into indifference if not into coldness. It is 
 but one step further to reach a condition of posi 
 tive unfriendliness, which may end in what 
 would be equivalent to a commercial alliance 
 against us. Already one of the most dangerous 
 of movements that of a European guarantee 
 and guardianship of the Interoceanic Canal is 
 suggested and urged upon the Great Foreign 
 Powers by representatives of a South American 
 
314 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 country. If these tendencies are to be averted, 
 if Spanish-American friendship is to be regained, 
 if the commercial empire that legitimately belongs 
 to us is to be ours, we must not lie idle and 
 witness its transfer to others. * If we would recon 
 quer it, a great first step is to be taken. It is the 
 first step that costs. It is also the first step that 
 counts. Can there be suggested a wiser step 
 than the Peace Congress of the two Americas, 
 that was devised under Garfield, and had the 
 weight of his great name ? 
 
 "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 arbitration, under which all 
 troubles between American States could be quick 
 ly, effectually and satisfactorily adjusted. Such a 
 consummation would have been worth a great 
 struggle and a great sacrifice. It could have 
 been reached without any struggle and would 
 have involved no sacrifice. It was within our 
 grasp. It was ours for the asking. It would 
 have been a signal victory of philanthropy over 
 the selfishness of human ambition ; a complete 
 triumph of Christian principles as applied to the 
 affairs of Nations. It would have reflected enduring 
 
SECRfi TAR Y OF STA TE. 315 
 
 honor on our new country, and would have im 
 parted a new spirit and a new brotherhood to 
 all America. Nor would its influence beyond the 
 sea have been small. The example of seventeen 
 independent Nations solemnly agreeing to abolish 
 the arbitrament of the sword, and to settle every 
 dispute by peaceful methods of adjudication, would 
 have exerted an influence to the utmost confines 
 of civilization, and upon the generations of men 
 yet to come. 
 
 " JAMES G. BLAINE." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 The Eulogy on Garfield An Impressive Scene in the Hall of the House 
 of Representatives at Washington A Distinguished Audience in 
 Attendance Eminent Fitness of the Speaker to the Theme Memo 
 ries of Sixteen Years Before An Eloquent Review of the Career of 
 America s Second Martyr President The Full Text of the Oration. 
 
 Seldom has it fallen to the lot of man to par 
 ticipate in a more impressive ceremony than that 
 of February 27, 1882, in the Hall of the House 
 of Representatives at Washington. Briefly stated, 
 the occasion was that of the delivery of the official 
 eulogy upon the late President, James A. Garfield, 
 by James G. Elaine, in the presence of the Con 
 gress and the chief Executive and Judicial officers 
 of State. This perfunctory record, however, 
 indicates, except by suggestion, only an infinitesi 
 mal fraction of the interest attached to the event. 
 
 The audience assembled on that day comprised 
 the members of both Houses of Congress, the 
 President and his Cabinet, the Supreme Court, 
 many official representatives of foreign govern 
 ments, and a great number of the most distin 
 guished men and women in all walks of American 
 life. The purpose was to do honor, by the delivery 
 of a formal eulogium, to the memory of one of 
 
IN MRMORIAM. 3 1 7 
 
 the most loved and honored American statesmen 
 of the age, who less than a year and a half ago 
 had been elected President of the Republic, who 
 after a brilliant administration extending over only 
 one-twelfth of the legal time allotted term of office, 
 had been stricken down by the murderous hand 
 of a madman, and who, after a painful lingering 
 of many weeks, had gone to his grave amid the 
 tears and lamentations of the entire nation, and 
 amid the respectful sympathy of the whole civilized 
 world, leaving behind him a record of public ser 
 vice, of personal charm, of patriotic achievement, 
 of manly virtue, seldom rivalled in all the pages 
 of American history. This eulogium was most 
 appropriately to be pronounced by the man who 
 was that martyr President s most eminent and 
 most trusted councillor of State, and most in 
 timate and beloved friend, and who was, moreover, 
 himself one of the most conspicuous and esteemed 
 of American statesmen. 
 
 The capital city of the Republic was flooded on 
 that day with a wealth of genial sunshine. Busi 
 ness houses everywhere were closed in token of 
 respect to the day, and the national colors were 
 everywhere floating at half mast. All through the 
 bright hours of the morning, throngs of people, on 
 foot and in all sorts of equipages, were traversing 
 the stately avenues converging on the great white 
 Capitol. Long before the doors of the Hall of 
 the House of Representatives were open, a 
 
318 JAAWS C. JiLAINE. 
 
 multitude had gathered about them large enough 
 to fill many times all the available space. A few 
 moments after the opening of the doors all the 
 seats save those reserved for specially invited 
 guests were occupied. It was an audience dis 
 tinguished but solemn in appearance, nearly 
 every one being dressed in funereal black. There 
 were no special decorations in the hall except a 
 large portrait of Garfield. All the litter of books 
 and papers which usually strews the floor and 
 desks had been removed. Special rows of chairs 
 had been placed for the President, Cabinet, 
 Senators, and members of the Diplomatic Corps 
 and also for the members of the Ohio Legislature 
 and various other guests. The Marine Band, 
 stationed in the corridor outside, played appro 
 priate music. 
 
 Conspicuous among the special guests was the 
 venerable George Bancroft, who sixteen years 
 before had been the orator of the day on a similar 
 occasion, when for the first time in American 
 history the Congress assembled to honor the 
 memory of a murdered Chief Magistrate. W. 
 W. Corcoran was there, the aged philanthropist 
 who had done so much to adorn the nation s 
 capital. There were also Cyrus W. Field, the 
 projector and constructor of the Atlantic Cable ; 
 William T. Sherman, the General of the American 
 army, with his gallant comrades, Sheridan, Han 
 cock, Howard, and Meiers ; Admiral Porter and a 
 
AY MEMOKIAM. ^ T Q 
 
 distinguished company of officers of the Navy ; 
 the members of the Diplomatic Corps, resplendent 
 in Court uniforms ; the members of the Supreme 
 Court, in their gowns of office ; and the President 
 of the United States and the members of his 
 Cabinet. All these, together with the Senators and 
 Representatives, displayed badges of mourning. 
 
 Sixteen years before, as we have said, on a 
 Monday in February, the Capitol had seen a 
 similar gathering in memory of Abraham Lincoln. 
 On that occasion the eulogy was delivered by 
 George Bancroft, who was here present. Nine 
 teen members only of this Congress had been 
 members then. Garfield had been, at that time, 
 a member of the House only thirty-four years 
 old, but already a conspicuous leader of his party. 
 James G. Elaine had also then been a Represen 
 tative, rapidly rising toward the Speakership. 
 Roscoe Conkling and Rutherford B. Hayes, Ran 
 dall and Kelley, Kassgn, and Voorhees, and Allison, 
 and Dawes, and Morrill, had been members of 
 that former House ; and Windom, who was 
 Garfield s Secretary of the Treasury. On that 
 occasion, Ulysses S. Grant had been present, in 
 the uniform of a Lieutenant-General. Jefferson 
 Davis was, at that time, still a prisoner in Fortress 
 Monroe. Alexander H. Stephens had only 
 recently been liberated on parole, as had also 
 nearly a dozen rebel leaders who now, restored to 
 the enjoyment of their citizenship and political 
 
320 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 rights, were members of the United States 
 Senate. 
 
 It was amid memories such as these, and mem 
 ories, too, of the great events that had occurred 
 during the intervening sixteen years, that this 
 audience gathered to do honor to the memory of 
 Garfield. The programme of services was a very 
 simple one. Shortly after twelve o clock, noon, 
 the Speaker called the House to order. Prayer 
 was offered by the Chaplain. The Clerk read the 
 resolution of the two Houses under which the 
 services were to be held. Then the members of 
 the Senate and other guests filed in and took their 
 places. Last came the orator of the day, escorted 
 by Senator Sherman and Representative McKin- 
 ley, and accompanied by William E. Chandler, 
 Stephen B. Elkins, Thomas H. Sherman and 
 Emmons Elaine. Mr. Blaine took his place at the 
 Clerk s desk. Before him lay the manuscript of 
 his oration, written in a large, bold hand, upon 
 heavy paper with a broad black border. Feeling, 
 perhaps more deeply than any one else in all the 
 great assemblage, the full and serious importance 
 of the occasion, he spoke slowly, bravely and with 
 most impressive fervor. Throughout, the assem 
 bled thousands listened with silent and sympathetic 
 attention. At the end of the oration, the Presi 
 dent of the United States led the audience in a 
 hearty round of applause to the speaker, applause 
 that, under the circumstances, had a singularly 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 32 [ 
 
 solemn sound. Then the distinguished guests 
 departed, and the general audience followed them. 
 The Nation had paid its last formal tribute of re 
 spect to one of its most loved and honored servants. 
 Mr. Elaine s oration on this occasion forms an 
 essential part of his own history, as well as of the 
 history of Garfield and of the history of the 
 Nation, and it is accordingly herewith printed in 
 full. 
 
 THE ORATION. 
 
 Mr. President: For the second time in this 
 generation the great departments of the govern 
 ment of the United States are assembled in the 
 Hall of Representatives, to do honor to the 
 memory of a murdered President. Lincoln fell 
 at the close of a mighty struggle, in which the 
 passions of men had been deeply stirred. The 
 tragical termination of his great life added but 
 another to the lengthened succession of horrors 
 which had marked so many lintels with the blood 
 of the first-born. Garfield was slain in a day of 
 peace, when brother had been reconciled to 
 brother, and when anger and hate had been ban 
 ished from the land. "Whoever shall hereafter 
 draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it as 
 it has been exhibited where such example was last 
 to have been looked for, let him not give it the 
 grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by 
 revenge, the face black with settled hate. Let him 
 draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless 
 
322 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 demon ; not so much an example of human 
 nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms of 
 crime, as an infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary 
 display and development of his character." 
 
 From the landing of the. Pilgrims at Plymouth 
 till the uprising against Charles I., about twenty 
 thousand emigrants came from Old England to 
 New England, ^s they came in pursuit of intel 
 lectual freedom and ecclesiastical independence 
 rather than for worldly honor and profit, the emi 
 gration naturally ceased when the contest for 
 religious liberty began in earnest at home. The 
 man who struck his most effective blow for free 
 dom of conscience by sailing for the colonies in 
 1620, would have been accounted a deserter to 
 leave after 1640. The opportunity had then come 
 on the soil of England for that great contest 
 which established the authority of Parliament, 
 gave religious freedom to the people, sent Charles 
 to the block, and committed to the hands of Oliver 
 Cromwell the supreme executive authority of 
 England. The English emigration was never 
 renewed, and from these twenty thousand men, 
 and from a small emigration from Scotland, from 
 Ireland, and from France, are descended the vast 
 numbers who have New England blood in their 
 veins. 
 
 In 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
 by Louis XIV., scattered to other countries four 
 hundred thousand Protestants, who were among 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 3^3 
 
 the most intelligent and enterprising of French 
 subjects merchants of capital, skilled manufact 
 urers and handicraftsmen, superior at the time to 
 all others in Europe. A considerable number of 
 these Huguenot French came to America ; a few 
 landed in New England and became honorably 
 prominent in its history. Their names have in 
 part become anglicized, or have disappeared, but 
 their blood is traceable in many of the most 
 reputable families, and their fame is perpetuated 
 in honorable memorials and useful institutions. 
 
 From these two sources, the English-Puritan 
 and the French- Huguenot, came the late Presi 
 dent his father, Abram Garfield, being descended 
 from the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballou, from 
 the other. 
 
 It was good stock on both sides none better, 
 none braver, none truer. There was in it an in 
 heritance of courage, of manliness, of imperish 
 able love of liberty, of undying adherence to 
 principle. Garfield was proud of his blood ; and, 
 with as much satisfaction as if he were a British 
 nobleman reading his stately ancestral record in 
 Burke s Peerage, he spoke of himself as ninth in 
 descent from those who would not endure the 
 oppression of the Stuarts, the seventh in descent 
 from the brave French Protestants who refused to 
 submit to tyranny, even from the Grand Manarque. 
 
 General Garfield delighted to dwell on these 
 traits, and, during his only visit to England, he 
 
JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 busied himself in searching out every trace of his 
 forefathers in parish registries and on ancient 
 army-rolls. Sitting with a friend in the gallery of 
 the House of Commons one night, after a long 
 day s labor in this field of research, he said, with 
 evident elation, that in every war in which for 
 three centuries patriots of English blood had 
 struck sturdy blows for constitutional government 
 and human liberty, his family had been repre 
 sented. They were at Marston Moor, at Naseby, 
 and at Preston ; they were at Bunker Hill, at 
 Saratoga, and at Monmouth ; and in his own per 
 son had battled for the same great cause in the 
 war which preserved the Union of the States. 
 
 His father dying before he was two years old, 
 Garfield s early life was one of privation, but its 
 poverty -has been made indelicately and unjustly 
 prominent. Thousands of readers have imagined 
 him as the ragged, starving child, whose reality 
 too often greets the eye in the squalid sections of 
 our large cities. General Garfield s infancy and 
 youth had none of this destitution, none of these 
 pitiful features appealing to the tender heart, and 
 to the open hand, of chanty. He was a poor 
 boy in the same sense in which Henry Clay was 
 a poor boy ; in which Andrew Jackson was a poor 
 boy ; in which Daniel Webster was a poor boy ; 
 in the sense in which a large majority of the emi 
 nent men of America in all generations have 
 been poor boys. Before a great multitude in 
 

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iN ME MORI AM, 3 2 7 
 
 a public speech, Mr. Webster bore this tes 
 timony : 
 
 "It did not happen to me to be born in a log- 
 cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were 
 born in a log-cabin raised amid the snowdrifts of 
 New Hampshire, at a period so early that when 
 the smoke rose first from its rude chimney and 
 curled over the frozen hills there was no similar 
 evidence of a white man s habitation between it 
 and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its 
 remains still exist. I make to it an annual visit. I 
 carry my children to it to teach them the hard 
 ships endured by the generations which have 
 gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender 
 recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections, 
 and the touching narratives and incidents, which 
 mingle with all I know of this primitive family 
 abode." 
 
 With the requisite change of scene the same 
 words would aptly portray the early days of Gar- 
 field. The poverty of the frontier, where all are 
 engaged in a common struggle, and where a 
 common sympathy and hearty co-operation 
 lighten the burdens of each, is a very different 
 poverty, different in kind, different in influence 
 and effect, from the conscious and humiliating 
 indigence which is every day forced to contrast 
 itself with neighboring wealth on which it feels a 
 sense of grinding dependence. Tlvt poverty of 
 the frontier is indeed no poverty. It is but the 
 
328 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 
 
 beginning of wealth, and has the boundless pos 
 sibilities of the future always opening before it. 
 No man ever grew up in the agricultural regions 
 of the West, where a house-raising, or even a 
 corn-husking, is a matter of common interest and 
 helpfulness, with any other feeling than that of 
 broad-minded, generous independence. This hon 
 orable independence marked the youth of Gar- 
 field, as it marks the youth of millions of the best 
 blood and brain now training for the future cit 
 izenship and future government of the Republic. 
 Garfield was born heir to land, to the title of free 
 holder, which has been the patent and passport of 
 self-respect with the Anglo-Saxon race ever since 
 Hengist and Horsa landed on the shores of Eng 
 land. His adventure on the canal an alterna 
 tive between that and the deck of a Lake Erie 
 schooner was a farmer boy s device for earning 
 money, just as the New England lad begins a 
 possibly great career by sailing before the mast 
 on a coasting-vessel, or on a merchantman bound 
 to the farther India, or to the China seas. No 
 manly man feels anything of shame in looking 
 back to early struggles with adverse circum 
 stances, and no man feels a worthier pride than 
 when he has conquered the obstacles to his pro 
 gress. But no one of noble mould desires to be 
 looked upon as having occupied a menial position, 
 as having been repressed by a feeling of inferior 
 ity, or as having suffered the evils of poverty 
 
IN MEMORI A M. 329 
 
 until relief was found at the hand of charity. 
 General Garfield s youth presented no hardships 
 which family love and family energy did not over 
 come, subjected him to no privations which he 
 did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories 
 save those which were recalled with delight, and 
 transmitted with profit and with pride. 
 
 Garfield s early opportunities for securing an 
 education were extremely limited, and yet were 
 sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to 
 learn. He could read at three years of age, and 
 each winter he had the advantage of the district 
 school. He read all the books to be found within 
 the circle of his acquaintance ; some of them he 
 got by heart. While yet in childhood he was a 
 constant student of the Bible, and became familiar 
 with its literature. The dignity and earnestness 
 of his speech in his maturer life gave evidence of 
 this early training. At eighteen years of age he 
 was able to teach school, and thenceforward his 
 ambition was to obtain a college education. To 
 this end he bent all his efforts, working in the 
 harvest field, at the carpenter s bench, and in the 
 winter season, teaching the common schools of 
 the neighborhood. While thus laboriously occu 
 pied he found time to prosecute his studies, and 
 was so successful that at twenty-two years of age 
 he was able to enter the junior class at Williams 
 College, then under the presidency of the vener 
 able and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the 
 
330 JAMES G. BLAL\1<:. 
 
 fulness of his powers, survives the eminent pupil 
 to whom he was of inestimable service. 
 
 The history of Garfield s life to this period, 
 presents no novel features. He had undoubtedly 
 shown perseverance, self-reliance, self-sacrifice 
 and ambition qualities which, be it said for the 
 honor of our country, are everywhere to be 
 found among the young men of America. But 
 from his graduation at Williams, onward to the 
 hour of his tragical death, Garfield s career was 
 eminent and exceptional. Slowly working through 
 his educational period, receiving his diploma when 
 twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound 
 to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. 
 Within six years he was successively president of 
 a college, State Senator of Ohio, Major-General 
 of the Army of the United States, and Repre 
 sentative-elect to the National Congress. A com- 
 
 o 
 
 bination of honors so varied, so elevated, within 
 a period so brief, and to a man so young, is with 
 out precedent or parallel in the history of the 
 country. 
 
 Garfield s army life was begun with no other 
 military knowledge than such as he had hastily 
 gained from books in the few months preceding 
 his march to the field. Stepping from civil life to 
 "the head of a regiment, the first order he re 
 ceived when ready to cross the Ohio was to as 
 sume command of a brigade, and to operate as 
 an independent force in Eastern Kentucky. His 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 33 [ 
 
 immediate duty was to check the advance of 
 Humphrey Marshall, who was marching down 
 the Big Sandy with the intention of occupying, in 
 connection with other Confederate forces, the en 
 tire territory of Kentucky, and of precipitating 
 the State into secession. This was at the close 
 of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a young 
 college professor been thrown into a more em 
 barrassing and discouraging position. He knew 
 just enough of military science, as he expressed 
 it himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, 
 and with a handful of men he was marching, in 
 rough winter weather, into a strange country, 
 among a hostile population, to confront a largely 
 superior force under the command of a distin 
 guished graduate of West Point, who had seen 
 active and important service in two preceding wars. 
 The result of the campaign is matter of history. 
 The skill, the endurance, the extraordinary energy 
 shown by Garfield, the courage he imparted to his 
 men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he 
 adopted to increase his force and to create in the 
 enemy s mind exaggerated estimates of his num 
 bers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, 
 the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his 
 force, and emancipation of an important territory 
 from the control of the Rebellion. Coming at the 
 close of a long series of disasters to the Union 
 arms, Garfield s victory had an unusual and ex 
 traneous importance, and in the popular judgment 
 
332 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 elevated the young commander to the rank of a 
 military hero. With less than two thousand men 
 in his entire command, with a mobilized force of 
 only eleven hundred, without cannon, he had met 
 an army of five thousand and defeated them 
 driving Marshall s forces successively from two 
 strongholds of their own selection fortified with 
 abundant artillery. Major-General Buell, com 
 manding the Department of the Ohio, an experi 
 enced and able soldier of the Regular Army, pub 
 lished an order of thanks and congratulation on 
 the brilliant result of the Big Sandy campaign, 
 which would have turned the head of a less cool 
 and sensible man than Garfield. Buell declared 
 that his services had called into action the highest 
 qualities of a soldier, and President Lincoln sup 
 plemented these words of praise by the more sub 
 stantial reward of a Brigadier-General s commis- 
 
 o 
 
 sion, to bear date from the day of his decisive 
 victory over Marshall. 
 
 The subsequent military career of Garfield fully 
 sustained its brilliant beginning. With his new 
 commission he was assigned to the command of a 
 brigade in the Army of the Ohio, and took part in 
 the second and decisive day s fight in the great 
 Battle of Shiloh. The remainder of the year 1862 
 was not especially eventful to Garfield, as it was 
 not to the armies with which he was serving. His 
 practical sense was called into exercise in com 
 pleting the task assigned him by General Bueli. of 
 
ftf MEMORIAM. 333 
 
 reconstructing bridges and re-establishing lines of 
 railway communication for the Army. His occu 
 pation in this useful but not brilliant field was va 
 ried by service on courts-martial of importance, in 
 which department of duty he won a valuable 
 reputation, attracting the notice and securing the 
 approval of the able and eminent Judge-Advo 
 cate-General of the Army, That of itself was 
 warrant to honorable fame ; for among the great 
 men who in those trying days gave themselves, 
 with entire devotion, to the service of their coun 
 try, one who brought to that service the ripest 
 learning, the most fervid eloquence, the most va 
 ried attainments, who labored with modesty and 
 shunned applause, who in the day of triumph sat 
 reserved and silent and grateful as Francis Deak 
 in the hour of Hungary s deliverance was 
 Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who in his honorable 
 retirement enjoys the respect and veneration of 
 all who love the Union of the States. 
 
 Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to the 
 highly important and responsible post of Chief of 
 Staff to General Rosecrans, then at the head of 
 the Army of the Cumberland. Perhaps in a 
 great military campaign no subordinate officer 
 requires sounder judgment and quicker knowl 
 edge of men than the Chief of Staff to the com 
 manding general. An indiscreet man in such a 
 position can sow more discord, breed more jeal 
 ousy and disseminate more strife than any other 
 
334 JAMES G. BLA1NE. 
 
 man in the entire organization. When General 
 Garfield assumed his new duties he found various 
 troubles already well developed, and seriously 
 affecting the value and efficiency of the Army of 
 the Cumberland The energy, the impartiality, 
 and the tact with which he sought to allay these 
 dissensions, and to discharge the duties of his new 
 and trying position, wjll always remain one of the 
 most striking proofs of his great versatility. His 
 military duties closed on the memorable field of 
 Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous 
 to the Union arms, gave to him the occasion of 
 winning imperishable laurels. The very rare 
 distinction was accorded him of a great promo 
 tion for his bravery on the field that was lost. 
 President Lincoln appointed him a Major-General 
 in the Army of the United States for gallant and 
 meritorious conduct in the Battle of Chickamauga. 
 The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized 
 under the command of General Thomas, who 
 promptly offered Garfield one of its divisions. 
 He was extremely desirous to accept the position, 
 but was embarrassed by the fact that he had, a 
 year before, been elected to Congress, and the 
 time when he must take his seat was drawing 
 near. He preferred to remain in the military 
 service, and had within his own breast the largest 
 confidence of success in the wider field which his 
 new rank opened to him. Balancing the argu 
 ments on the one side and the other, anxious to 
 
IN MF.MORIAM. 335 
 
 determine what was for the best, desirous above 
 all things to do his patriotic duty, he was decis 
 ively influenced by the advice of President Lin 
 coln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom as 
 sured him that he could, at that time, be of espe 
 cial value in the House of Representatives. He 
 resigned his commission of Major-General on 
 the fifth day of December, 1863, and took his 
 seat in the House of Representatives on the 
 seventh. He had served two years and four 
 months in the Army, and had just completed his 
 thirty-second year. 
 
 The Thirty-eighth Congress is pre-eminently en 
 titled in history to the designation of the War 
 Congress. It was elected while the war was 
 flagrant, and every member was chosen upon the 
 issues involved in the continuance of the struggle. 
 The Thirty-seventh Congress had, indeed, legis 
 lated to a large extent on war measures, but it 
 was chosen before any one believed that secession 
 of the States would be actually attempted. The 
 magnitude of the work which fell upon its suc 
 cessor was unprecedented, both in respect to the 
 vast sums of money raised for the support of the 
 Army and Navy, and of the new and extraordi 
 nary powers of legislation which it was forced to 
 exercise. Only twenty-four States were repre 
 sented, and one hundred and eighty-two members 
 were upon its roll. Among these were many dis 
 tinguished party leaders on both sides, veterans 
 
JAMES G. BLAIfrE. 
 
 in the public service, with established reputations 
 for ability, and with that skill which comes only 
 from parliamentary experience. In this assem 
 blage of men Garfield entered without special pre- 
 pararation, and, it might almost be said, unex 
 pectedly. The question of taking command of a 
 division of troops under General Thomas or tak 
 ing his seat in Congress was kept open till the 
 last moment, so late, indeed, that the resignation 
 of his military commission and his appearance in 
 the House were almost contemporaneous. He 
 wore the uniform of a Major-General of the 
 United States Army on Saturday, and on Mon 
 day, in civilian s dress, he answered to the roll- 
 call as a Representative in Congress from the 
 State of Ohio. 
 
 He was especially fortunate in the constituency 
 which elected him. Descended almost entirely 
 from New England stock, the men of the Ashta- 
 bula District were intensely radical on all ques 
 tions relating to human rights. Well educated, 
 thrifty, thoroughly intelligent in affairs, acutely 
 discerning of character, not quick to bestow con 
 fidence, and slow to withdraw it, they were at 
 once the most helpful and most exacting of sup 
 porters. Their tenacious trust in men in whom 
 they have once confided is illustrated by the un 
 paralleled fact that Elisha Whittlesey, Joshua R. 
 Giddings and James A. Garfield represented the 
 district for fifty-four years. 
 
IN ME MORI AM. 337 
 
 There is no test of a man s ability in any de 
 partment of public life more severe than service 
 in the House of Representatives ; there is no 
 place where so little deference is paid to reputa 
 tion previously acquired, or to eminence won out 
 side ; no place where so little consideration is 
 shown for the feelings or the failures of beginners. 
 What a man gains in the House he gains by sheer 
 force of his own character, and if he loses and 
 falls back he must expect n mercy, and will 
 receive no sympathy. It is a field in which the 
 survival of the strongest is the recognized rule, 
 and where no pretence can deceive and no glamour 
 can mislead. The real man is discovered, his 
 worth is impartially weighed, his rank is irre 
 versibly decreed. With possibly a single excep 
 tion, Garfield was the youngest member in the 
 House when he entered, and was but seven years 
 from his college graduation. But he had not been 
 in his seat sixty days before his ability was recog 
 nized and his place conceded. He stepped to the 
 front with the confidence of one who belonged 
 there. The House was crowded with strong men 
 of both parties ; nineteen of them have since been 
 transferred to the Senate, and many of them have 
 served with distinction in the gubernatorial chairs 
 of their respective States, and on Foreign Mis 
 sions of great consequence ; but among them all 
 none grew so rapidly, none so firmly as Garfield. 
 As is said by Trevelyan of his Parliamentary hero, 
 
338 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 Garfield succeeded " because all the world in con 
 cert could not have kept him in the background, 
 and because when once in the front he played his 
 part with a prompt intrepidity and a commanding 
 ease that were but the outward symptoms of the 
 immense reserves of energy on which it was in 
 his power to draw." Indeed, the apparently re 
 served force which Garfield possessed was one of 
 his great characteristics. He never did so well 
 but that it seemed he could easily have done 
 better. He never expended so much strength 
 but that he seemed to be holding additional power 
 at call. This is one of the happiest and rarest 
 distinctions of an effective debater, and often 
 counts for as much in persuading an assembly as 
 the eloquent and elaborate argument. 
 
 The creat measure of Garfield s fame was 
 
 o 
 
 filled by his services in the House of Representa 
 tives. His military life, illustrated by honorable- 
 performance, and rich in promise, was, as he him 
 self felt, prematurely terminated and necessarily 
 incomplete. Speculation as to what he might 
 have done in a field where the great prizes are so 
 few cannot be profitable. It is sufficient to say 
 that as a soldier he did his duty bravely ; he 
 did it intelligently ; he won an enviable fame, 
 and he retired from the service without blot 
 or breath against him. As a lawyer, though 
 admirably equipped for the profession, he can 
 scarcely be said to have entered on its practice. 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 339 
 
 The few efforts he made at the bar were 
 distinguished by the same high order of talent 
 which he exhibited on every field where he was 
 put to the test, and if a man may be accepted as 
 a competent judge of his own capacities and 
 adaptations, the law was the profession to which 
 Garfield should have devoted himself. But fate 
 ordained otherwise, and his reputation in history 
 will rest largely upon his service in the House of 
 Representatives. That service was exceptionally 
 long. He was nine times consecutively chosen to 
 the House, an honor enjoyed by not more than 
 six other Representatives of the more than five 
 thousand who have been elected from the organi 
 zation of the Government to this hour. 
 
 As a parliamentary orator, as a debater on an 
 issue squarely joined, where the position had been 
 chosen and the ground laid out, Garfield must 
 be assigned a very high rank. More, perhaps, 
 than any man with whom he was associated in 
 public life, he gave careful and systematic study 
 to public questions, and he came to every discus 
 sion in which he took part with elaborate and 
 complete preparation. He was a steady and in 
 defatigable worker. Those who imagine that 
 talent or genius can supply the place or achieve 
 the results of labor will find no encouragement in 
 Garfield s life. In preliminary work he was apt, 
 rapid and skilful. He possessed, in a high degree, 
 the power of readily absorbing ideas and facts, 
 
340 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 and, like Dr. Johnson, had the art of getting from 
 a book all that was of value in it by a reading ap 
 parently so quick and cursory that it seemed like 
 a mere glance at the table of contents. He was 
 a pre-eminently fair and candid man in debate, 
 took no petty advantage, stooped to no unworthy 
 methods, avoided personal allusions, rarely ap 
 pealed to prejudice, did not seek to inflame pas 
 sion. He had a quicker eye for the strong point 
 of his adversary than for his weak point, and on 
 his own side he so marshalled his weighty argu 
 ments as to make his hearers forget any possible 
 lack in the complete strength of his position. He 
 had a habit of stating his opponent s side with 
 such amplitude and fairness, and such liberality 
 of concession, that his followers often complained 
 that he was giving his case away. But never in 
 his prolonged participation in the proceedings of 
 the House did he give his case away, or fail in 
 the judgment of competent and impartial listeners 
 to gain the mastery. 
 
 These characteristics which marked Garfield as 
 a great debater, did not, however, make him a 
 great parliamentary leader. A parliamentary 
 leader, as that term is understood wherever free 
 representative government exists, is necessarily 
 and very strictly the organ of his party. An 
 ardent American defined the instinctive warmth 
 of patriotism when he offered the toast, "Our 
 country, always right, but, right or wrong, our 
 
IN ME MORI AM. 34! 
 
 country." The parliamentary leader who has a 
 body of followers that will do and dare and die 
 for the cause is one who believes his party always 
 right, but right or wrong is for his party. No 
 more important or exacting duty devolves upon 
 him than the selection of the field and the time 
 for the contest. He must know not merely how 
 to strike, but where to strike and when to strike. 
 He often skilfully avoids the strength of his 
 opponent s position and scatters confusion in his 
 ranks by attacking an exposed poin* when really 
 the righteousness of the cause and the strength 
 of logical intrenchment are against him. He con 
 quers often both against the right and the heavy 
 battalions ; as when young Charles Fox, in the 
 days of his Toryism, carried the House of Com 
 mons against justice, against its immemorial 
 rights, against his own convictions, if, indeed, at 
 that period Fox had convictions, and, in the inter 
 est of a corrupt administration, in obedience to a 
 tyrannical sovereign, drove Wilkes from the seat 
 to which the electors of Middlesex had chosen him 
 and installed Luttrell in defiance, not merely ol 
 law, but of public decency. For an achievement 
 of that kind, Garfield was disqualified disqualified 
 by the texture of his mind, by the honesty o/ his 
 heart, by his conscience, and by every instinct and 
 aspiration of his nature. 
 
 The three most distinguished parliamentary 
 leaders hitherto developed in this country are Mr. 
 
342 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 Clay, Mr. Douglas and Thaddeus Stevens. Each 
 was a man of consummate ability, of great ear 
 nestness, of intense personality, differing widely 
 each from the others, and yet with a single trait 
 in common the power to command. In the give 
 and take of discussion, in the art of controlling 
 and consolidating reluctant and refractory follow 
 ers, in the skill to overcome all forms of opposi 
 tion, and to meet with competency and courage 
 the varying phases of unlooked-for assault or un 
 suspected defection, it would be difficult to rank 
 with these a fourth name in all our Congressional 
 history. But of these Mr. Clay was the greatest. 
 It would, perhaps, be impossible to find in the 
 parliamentary annals of the world a parallel to 
 Mr. Clay in 1841, when, at sixty- four years of age, 
 he took the control of the Whig party from the 
 President who had received their suffrages, against 
 the power of Webster in the Cabinet, against the 
 eloquence of Choate in the Senate, against the 
 herculean efforts of Caleb Cushing and Henry 
 A. Wise in the House. In unshared leadership, 
 in the pride and plenitude of power, he hurled 
 against John Tyler with deepest scorn the mass 
 of that conquering column which had swept over 
 the land in 1840, and drove his Administration to 
 seek shelter behind the lines of his political foes. 
 Mr. Douglas achieved a victory scarcely less won 
 derful when, in 1854, against the secret desires of 
 a strong Administration, against the wise counsel 
 
JOHN A. LOGAN. 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 of the older chiefs, against the conservative in 
 stincts and even the moral sense of the country, 
 he forced a reluctant Congress into a repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise. Thaddeus Stevens, 
 in his contests from 1865 to 1868, actually ad 
 vanced his parliamentary leadership until Con 
 gress tied the hands of the President and gov 
 erned the country by its own will, leaving only 
 perfunctory duties to be discharged by the Exec 
 utive. With two hundred millions of patronage 
 in his hands at the opening of the contest, aided 
 by the active force of Seward in the Cabinet, and 
 the moral power of Chase on the Bench, Andrew* 
 Johnson could not command the support of one- 
 third in either House against the parliamentary 
 uprising of which Thaddeus Stevens was the ani 
 mating spirit and the unquestioned leader. 
 
 From these three great men Garfield differed 
 radically, differed in the quality of his mind, in 
 temperament, in the form and phase of ambition. 
 He could not do what they did, but he could do 
 what they could not, and in the breadth of his 
 Congressional work he left that which will longer 
 exert a potential influence among men, and which, 
 measured by the severe test of posthumous crit 
 icism, will secure a more enduring and more en 
 viable fame, 
 
 Those unfamiliar with Garfield s industry, and 
 ignorant of the details of his work, may, in some 
 degree, measure them by the annals of Congress. 
 
 20 
 
346 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 No one of the generation of public men to which 
 he belonged has contributed so much that will be 
 valuable for future reference. His speeches are 
 numerous, many of them brilliant, all of them 
 well studied, carefully phrased, and exhaustive of 
 the subject under consideration. Collected from 
 the scattered pages of ninety royal octavo vol 
 umes of The Congressional Record, they would 
 present an invaluable compendium of the politi 
 cal history of the most important era through 
 which the National Government has ever passed. 
 When the history of this period shall be impar 
 tially written, \vhen war legislation, measures of 
 reconstruction, protection of human rights, amend 
 ments to the Constitution, maintenance of public 
 credit, steps toward specie resumption, true the 
 ories of revenue, may be reviewed, unsurrounded 
 by prejudice and disconnected from partisanism, 
 the speeches of Garfield will be estimated at their 
 true value, and will be found to comprise a vast 
 magazine of fact and argument, of clear analysis 
 and sound conclusion. Indeed, if no other au 
 thority were accessible, his speeches in the House 
 of Representatives from December, 1863, to June, 
 1880, would give a well-connected history and 
 complete defence of the important legislation of 
 the seventeen eventful years that constitute his 
 parliamentary life. Far beyond that, his speeches 
 would be found to forecast many great measures, 
 yet to be completed-^measures which he knew 
 
IN MEMO RI AM. 347 
 
 were beyond the public opinion of the hour, but 
 which he confidently believed would secure pop 
 ular approval within the period of his own life 
 time, and by the aid of his own efforts. 
 
 Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilliant 
 parliamentary leaders, it is not easy to find his 
 counterpart anywhere in the record of American 
 public life. He perhaps more nearly resembles 
 Mr. Seward in his supreme faith in the all-con 
 quering power of a principle. He had the love 
 of learning, and the patient industry of investiga 
 tion to which John Quincy Adams owes his*prom- 
 inence and his Presidency. He had some of those 
 ponderous elements of mind which distinguished 
 Mr. Webster, and which, indeed, in all our public 
 life have left the great Massachusetts Senator 
 without an intellectual peer. 
 
 In English Parliamentary history, as in our own, 
 the leaders in the House of Commons present 
 points of essential difference from Garfield. But 
 some of his methods recall the best features in the 
 strong, independent course of Sir Robert Peel, 
 and striking resemblances are discernible in that 
 most promising of modern conservatives, who died 
 too early for his country and his fame, the Lord 
 George Bentinck. He had all of Burke s love for 
 the sublime and the beautiful, with, posssibly, 
 some of his superabundance ; and in his faith and 
 his magnanimity, in his power of statement, in his 
 subtle analysis, in his faultless logic, in hrs love of 
 
348 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 literature, in his wealth and world of illustration, 
 one is reminded of that great English statesman of 
 to-day, who, confronted with obstacles that would 
 daunt any but the dauntless, reviled by those 
 whom he would relieve, as bitterly as by those 
 whose supposed rights he is forced to invade, still 
 labors with serene courage for the amelioration 
 of Ireland, and for the honor of the English 
 name. 
 
 Garfield s nomination to the Presidency, while 
 not predicted or anticipated, was not a surprise to 
 the country. His prominence in Congress, his 
 solid qualities, his wide reputation, strengthened 
 by his, then, recent election as Senator from Ohio, 
 kept him in the public eye as a man occupying the 
 very highest rank among those entitled to be 
 called statesmen. It was not mere chance that 
 brought him this high honor. "We must," says 
 Mr. Emerson, " reckon success a constitutional 
 trait. If Eric is in robust health and has slept 
 well and is at the top of his condition, and thirty 
 years old at his departure from Greenland, he will 
 steer west and his ships will reach Newfoundland. 
 But take Eric out and put in a stronger and bolder 
 man and the ships will sail 600, 1,000, 1,500 miles 
 farther and reach Labrador and New England. 
 There is no chance in results." 
 
 As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in popu 
 lar favor. He was met with a storm of detraction 
 at the very hour of his nomination, and it 
 
nV MEMORIAM. 349 
 
 continued with increasing volume and momentum! 
 until the close of his victorious campaign. 
 
 No might nor greatness in mortality 
 Can censure scape; backwounding calumny 
 The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong 
 Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ? 
 
 Under it all he was calm and strong, and con 
 fident ; never lost his self-possession, did no un 
 wise act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered word. 
 Indeed, nothing in his whole life is more remark 
 able or more creditable than his bearing through 
 those five full months of vituperation a prolonged 
 agony of trial to a sensitive man, a constant and 
 cruel draft upon the powers of moral endurance. 
 The great mass of these unjust imputations passed 
 unnoticed, and with the general debris of the 
 campaign fell into oblivion. But in a few instances 
 the iron entered his soul and he died with the 
 injury unforgotten, if not unforgiven. 
 
 One aspect of Garfield s candidacy was unprece 
 dented. Never before, in the history of partisan 
 contests in this country, had a successful Presi 
 dential candidate spoken freely on passing events 
 and current issues. To attempt anything of the 
 kind seemed novel, rash, and even desperate. 
 The older class of voters recalled the unfortunate 
 Alabama letter, in which Mr. Clay was supposed 
 to have signed his political death-warrant. They 
 remembered also the- hot-tempered effusion by 
 which General Scott lost a large share of his 
 
350 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 popularity before his nomination, and unfort 
 unate speeches which rapidly consumed the re 
 mainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. 
 Greeley in a series of vigorous and original ad 
 dresses, preparing the pathway for his own de 
 feat. Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding 
 the advice of friends, Garfield spoke to large 
 crowds as he journeyed to and from New York in 
 August, to a great multitude in that city, to dele 
 gations and deputations of every kind that called 
 at Mentor during the summer and autumn. 
 With innumerable critics, watchful and eager to 
 catch a phrase that might be turned into odium 
 or ridicule, or a sentence that might be distorted 
 to his own or his party s injury, Garfield did not 
 trip or halt in any one of his seventy speeches. 
 This seems all the more remarkable when it is re 
 membered that he did not write what he said, and 
 yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of 
 thought and such admirable precision of phrase 
 as to defy the accident of misreport and the malig 
 nity of misrepresentation. 
 
 In the beginning of his Presidential life Gar- 
 .ield s experience did not yield him pleasure or 
 satisfaction. The duties that engross so large a 
 portion of the President s time were distasteful to 
 him, and were unfavorably contrasted with his 
 legislative work. " I have been dealing all these 
 years with ideas," he impatiently exclaimed one 
 day, " and here I am dealing only with persons. 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 3 5 i 
 
 I have been heretofore treating of the fundamen 
 tal principles of government, and here I am con- 
 1 sidering all day whether A or B shall be appointed 
 to this or that office." He was earnestly seeking 
 some practical way of correcting the evils arising 
 from the distribution of overgrown and unwieldy 
 patronage evils always appreciated and often 
 discussed by him, but whose magnitude had been 
 more deeply impressed upon his mind since his 
 accession to the Presidency. Had he lived, a 
 comprehensive improvement in the mode of ap 
 pointment and in the tenure of office would have 
 been proposed by him, and with the aid of Con 
 gress no doubt perfected. 
 
 But, while many of the Executive duties were 
 not grateful to him, he was assiduous and con 
 scientious in their discharge. From the very out 
 set he exhibited administrative talent of a high 
 order. He grasped the helm of office with the 
 hand of a master. In this respect, indeed, he con 
 stantly surprised many who were most intimately 
 associated with him in the Government, and espe 
 cially those who had feared that he might be lack 
 ing in the executive faculty. His disposition of 
 business was orderly and rapid. His power of 
 analysis and his skill in classification enabled him 
 to despatch a vast mass of detail with singular 
 promptness and ease. His Cabinet meetings 
 were admirably conducted. His clear presenta 
 tion of official subjects, his well-considered 
 
352 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 suggestion of topics on which discussion was invited, 
 his quick decision when all had been heard, com 
 bined to show a thoroughness of mental training 
 as rare as his natural ability and his facile adapta 
 tion to a new and enlarged field of labor. 
 
 With perfect comprehension of all the inheri 
 tances of the war, with a cool calculation of the ob 
 stacles in his way, impelled always by a generous 
 enthusiasm, Garfield conceived that much mioiit 
 
 o 
 
 be done by his Administration toward restoring 
 harmony between the different sections of the 
 Union. He was anxious to go South and speak 
 to the people. As early as April he had ineffect 
 ually endeavored to arrange for a trip to Nash 
 ville, whither he had been cordially invited, and he 
 was again disappointed a few weeks later to find 
 that he could not go to South Carolina to attend 
 the centennial celebration of the victory of the 
 Cowpens. But for the autumn he definitely 
 counted on being present at three memorable 
 assemblies in the South the celebration at York- 
 town, the opening of the Cotton Exposition at 
 Atlanta, and the meeting of the Army of the Cum 
 berland at Chattanooga. He was already turn 
 ing over in his mind his address for each occasion, 
 and the three taken together, he said to a friend, 
 gave him the exact scope and verge which he 
 needed. At Yorktown he would have before him 
 the association of a hundred years that bound the 
 South and the North in the sacred memory of a 
 
ftf MEAIORIAM. 353 
 
 common danger and a common victory. At 
 Atlanta he would present the material interests 
 and the industrial development which appealed to 
 the thrift and independence of every household, 
 and which should unite the two sections by the 
 instinct of self-interest and self-defence. At 
 Chattanooga he would revive memories of the 
 war only to show that after all its disaster and all 
 its suffering, the country was stronger and greater, 
 the Union rendered indissoluble, and the future, 
 through the agony and blood of one generation, 
 made brighter and better for all. 
 
 Garfield s ambition for the success of his Ad 
 ministration was high* With strong caution and 
 conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger 
 of attempting rash experiments or of resorting to 
 the empiricism of statesmanship. But he believed 
 that renewed and closer attention should be given 
 to questions affecting the material interests and 
 commercial prospects of fifty millions of people. 
 He believed that our continental relations, exten 
 sive and undeveloped as they are, involved 
 responsibility, and could be cultivated into profit 
 able friendship or could be abandoned to harmful 
 indifference or lasting enmity. He believed with 
 equal confidence that an essential forerunner to a 
 new era of National progress must be a feeling of 
 contentment in every section of the Union, and a 
 generous belief that the benefits and burdens of 
 government would be common to all. Himself a 
 
354 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 conspicuous illustration of what ability and ambi 
 tion may do under republican institutions, he loved 
 his country with a passion of patriotic devotion, 
 and every waking thought was given to her 
 advancement. He was an American in all his 
 aspirations, and he looked to the destiny and 
 influence of the United States with the philosophic 
 composure of Jefferson and the demonstrative 
 confidence of John Adams. 
 
 The political events which disturbed the Presi 
 dent s serenity for many weeks before that fateful 
 day in July, form an important chapter in his 
 career, and, in his own judgment, involved ques 
 tions of principle and of right which are vitally 
 essential to the constitutional administration of the 
 Federal Government. It would be out of place 
 here and now to speak the language of con 
 troversy ; but the events referred to, however they 
 may continue to be source of contention with 
 others, have, become, so far as Garfield is con 
 cerned, as much a matter of history as his heroism 
 at Chickatnauga or his illustrious service in the 
 House. Detail is not needful, and personal an 
 tagonism shall not be rekindled by any word 
 uttered to-day. The motives of those opposing 
 him are not to be here adversely interpreted nor 
 their course harshly characterized. But of the 
 dead President this is to be said, and said because 
 his own speech is forever silenced and he can be 
 no more heard except through the fidelity and the 
 
IN MEMORIAM. ^$5 
 
 love of surviving friends : From the beginning to 
 the end of the controversy he so much deplored, 
 the President was never for one moment actuated 
 by any motive of gain to himself or of loss to 
 others. Least of all men did he harbor revenge, 
 rarely did he even show resentment, and malice 
 was not in his nature. He was congenially em 
 ployed only in the exchange of good offices and 
 the doing of kindly deeds. 
 
 There was not an hour, from the beginning of 
 the trouble till the fatal shot entered his body, 
 when the Presidemt would not gladly, for the sake 
 of restoring harmony, have retraced any step he 
 had taken if such retracing had merely involved 
 consequences personal to himself. The pride of 
 consistency, or any supposed sense of humiliation 
 that might result from surrendering his position, 
 had not a feather s weight with him. No man was 
 ever less subject to such influences from within 
 or from without. But after most anxious de 
 liberation and the coolest survey of all the circum 
 stances, he solemnly believed that the true 
 prerogatives of the Executive were involved in 
 the issue which had been raised, and that he would 
 be unfaithful to his supreme obligation if he failed 
 to maintain, in all their vigor, the constitutional 
 rights and dignities of- his great office. He be 
 lieved this in all the convictions of conscience 
 when in sound and vigorous health, and he believed 
 it in his suffering and prostration in the last 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 conscious thought which his wearied mind bestowed 
 on the transitory struggles of hfe. 
 
 More than this need not be said. Less than 
 this could not be said. Justice to the dead, thr 
 highest obligation that devolves upon the living, 
 demands the declaration that in all the bearings 
 of the subject, actual or possible, the President 
 was content in his mind, justified in his conscience, 
 immovable in his conclusions. 
 
 The religious element in Garfield s character was 
 deep and earnest. In his early youth he espoused 
 the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that great 
 Baptist Communion, which in different eccle 
 siastical establishments is so numerous and so 
 influential throughout all parts of the United 
 States. But the broadening tendency of his 
 mind and his active spirit of inquiry were early 
 apparent and carried him beyond the dogmas of 
 sect and the restraints of association. In select 
 ing a college in which to continue his education 
 he rejected Bethany, though presided over by 
 Alexander Campbell, the greatest preacher of his 
 church. His reasons were characteristic : first, 
 that Bethany leaned too heavily toward slavery ; 
 and second, that being himself a Disciple and the 
 son of Disciple parents, he had little acquaintance 
 with the people of other beliefs and he thought it 
 would make him more liberal, quoting his own 
 words, both in his religious and moral views, to go 
 into a new circle and be under new influences. 
 
IN MEMORIA M. 357 
 
 The liberal tendency which he anticipated as 
 the result of wider culture was fully realized. He 
 was emancipated from mere sectarian belief, and 
 with eager interest pushed his investigations in the 
 direction of modern progressive thought. He 
 followed with quickening step in the paths of ex 
 ploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden by 
 Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall, and by other 
 living scientists of the radical and advanced type. 
 His own church, binding its disciples by no for 
 mulated creed, but accepting the Old and New 
 Testaments as the word of God with unbiased 
 liberty of private interpretation, favored, if it did 
 not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its 
 members profess with sincerity, and profess only 
 to be of one mind and one faith with those who 
 immediately followed the Master, and who were 
 first called Christians at Antioch. 
 
 But however high Garfield reasoned of " fixed 
 f ite, free will, foreknowledge absolute," he was 
 never separated from the Church of the Disciples 
 in his affections and in his associations. For him 
 it held the ark of the covenant. To him it was 
 the gate of heaven. The world of religious be 
 lief is full of solecisms and contradictions. A 
 philosophic observer declares that men by the 
 thousand will die in defence of a creed whose 
 doctrines they do not comprehend, and whose 
 tenets they habitually violate. It is equally true 
 ih it men by the thousand will cling to church 
 
358 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 f 
 
 organizations with instinctive and wndying 
 fidelity wken their belief in maturer years is radi 
 cally different from that which inspired them as 
 neophytes. 
 
 But .after this range of speculation, and this 
 latitude of cloubt, Garfield came back always with 
 freshness and delight to the simpler instincts of re 
 ligious faith, which, earliest implanted, longest 
 survive. Not many weeks before his assassina 
 tion, walking on the banks of the Potomac with a 
 friend, and conversing on those topics of personal 
 religion concerning whicn noble natures have an 
 unconquerable reserve, he said that he found the 
 Lord s Prayer and the simple petitions learned in 
 infancy infinitely restful to him, not merely in their 
 stated repetition, but in their casual and frequent 
 recall as he went about the daily duties of life. 
 Certain texts of Scripture had a very strong hold 
 on his memory and his heart. He heard, while in 
 Edinburgh some years ago, an eminent Scotch 
 preacher, who prefaced his sermon with reading 
 the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Rcvmans, 
 which book had been the subject of careful study 
 with Garfield during 1 all his religious life. He was 
 
 o o 
 
 greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher 
 and declared that it had imparted a new and 
 deeper meaning to the majestic utterances of 
 Saint Paul. He referred often in after years to 
 that memorable service, and dwelt with exaltation 
 of feeling upon the radiant promise and the 
 
IN MEMO RI AM. 359 
 
 assured hope with which the great apostle of the 
 Gentiles was "persuaded that neither death, nor 
 life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
 things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
 depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
 separate us from the love of God, which is in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
 The crowning characteristic of General Gar- 
 
 o 
 
 field s religious opinions, as, indeed, of all his 
 opinions, was his liberality. In all things he had 
 charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He re 
 spected in others the qualities which he possessed 
 himself sincerity of conviction and frankness of 
 expression. With him t]ie inquiry was not so 
 much what a man believes, but does he believe it? 
 The lines of kis friendship and his confidence en 
 circled men of every creed and men of no creed, 
 and to the end of his life, on his ever-lengthening 
 list of friends, were to be found the names of a 
 pious Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and 
 generous-hearted free-thinker. 
 
 On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, the Pres 
 ident was a contented and happy man not in an 
 ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly, 
 happy. On his way to the railroad station, to 
 which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of 
 the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of 
 leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his 
 talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. 
 He fek that after four months of trial his 
 
360 JAMES G. BLAIA E. 
 
 Administration was strong in its grasp of affairs, 
 strong in popular favor, and destined to grow 
 stronger ; that grave difficulties confronting him at 
 his inauguration had been safely passed ; that 
 trouble lay behind him, and not before him ; that he 
 was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now re 
 covering from an illness which had but lately dis 
 quieted, and at times almost unnerved, him ; that 
 he was going to his Alma Mater to renew the 
 most cherished associations of his young man- 
 kood, and to exchange greetings with those whose 
 deepening interest had followed every step of his 
 upward progress, from the day he entered upon 
 his college course until he had attained the lof 
 tiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen. 
 
 Surely if happiness can ever come from the 
 honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet 
 July morning James A. Garfield may well have 
 been a happy man. No foreboding of evil 
 haunted him ; no slightest premonition of danger 
 clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him 
 in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, 
 confident in the years stretching out peacefully 
 before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, 
 helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to 
 silence, and the grave. 
 
 Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. 
 For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness 
 and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he 
 was thrust from the full tide of this world s interest, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 363 
 
 from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, 
 into the visible presence of death and he did 
 not quail. Not alone for the one short moment 
 in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up 
 life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but 
 through days of deadly languor, through weeks 
 of agony that was not less agony because silently 
 borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he 
 looked into his open grave. What blight and 
 ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell 
 what brilliant broken plans, what baffled high 
 ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm 
 manhood s friendships, what bitter rending of 
 sweet household ties ! Behind him a proud, ex 
 pectant Nation, a great host of sustaining friends, 
 a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, 
 rich honors of her early toils and tears ; the wife 
 of his youth, whose whole life lay in his ; the lit 
 tle boys not^yet emerged from childhood s day of 
 frolic ; the fair young daughter ; the sturdy sons 
 just springing into closest companionship, claim 
 ing every day and every day rewarding a father s 
 love and care ; and in his heart the eager, re 
 joicing power to meet all demand. Before him, 
 desolation and great darkness ! And his soul 
 was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled 
 with instant, profound and universal sympathy. 
 Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the 
 centre of a Nation s love, enshrined in the prayers 
 of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy 
 
 21 
 
36 1 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 could not share with him his suffering. He trod 
 the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he 
 faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took 
 leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the 
 assassin s bullet he heard the voice of God. With 
 simple resignation he bowed to the Divine decree. 
 As the end drew near, his early craving for the 
 sea returned. The stately mansion of power had 
 been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and 
 he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from 
 its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness 
 and hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of 
 a great people bore the pale sufferer to the 
 longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as 
 God should will, within sight of its heaving bil 
 lows, within sound of its manifold voices. With 
 wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling 
 breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean s 
 changing wonders ; on its fair sails, whitening in 
 the morning light ; on its restless waves, rolling 
 shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday 
 sun ; on the red clouds of evening, arching low 
 to the horizon ; on the serene and shining path 
 way of the stars. Let us think that his dying 
 eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt 
 and parting soul may know. Let us believe that 
 in the silence of the receding world he heard the 
 great waves breaking on a further shore, and felt 
 already upon his wasted brow the breath of the 
 eternal morning. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 
 
 Mr. Elaine a Candidate for the Third Time Meeting of the .Convention 
 The First Skirmish The Declaration of Principles The Various 
 Candidates Placed in Nomination Speech of Judge West in Behalf 
 of Mr. Elaine Scenes of Unparalleled Enthusiasm Steadfast Sup 
 port for President Arthur Mr. Elaine Nominated on the Fourth 
 Ballot Address of the Committee Informing Him of the Result 
 Mr. Elaine s Reply. 
 
 For a third time, in 1884, Mr. Elaine s name 
 was brought forward by his friends in a National 
 Republican Convention as a Presidential candidate. 
 His support was now stronger than ever before, 
 and the opposition to him was less united than in 
 1880. President Arthur, who had been elected 
 Vice-President in 1880, and had succeeded to the 
 Presidency on the assassination of Garfield, was 
 strongly favored by* a large section of the party, 
 although he had studiously refrained from putting 
 himself forward in any manner as a candidate. 
 The nomination of Senator Sherman was strongly 
 urged by many on account of his long and dis 
 tinguished public services. Senator Edmunds, 
 Senator Logan, Senator Harrison, Senator Haw- 
 ley, Judge Gresham, General Grant, and the 
 Hon. Robert T. Lincoln also had their sup 
 porters. Mr. Elaine was, however, indisputably 
 
 365 
 
JAM.ES G. JILAINE. 
 
 the leading candidate. He had personally made 
 no effort towards securing the nomination, and 
 had personally little expectation of success. But 
 his friends were more numerous, more .united, 
 more determined, and more enthusiastic than ever 
 before. His defeats in 1876 and 1880 had only 
 increased their resolution to secure for him the 
 coveted prize. 
 
 The Convention met at Chicago on Tuesday, 
 June 3d, in the vast Exposition Building. On one 
 hand the cry was for Blaine ; on the other, anything 
 to beat Blaine. The Convention was called to order 
 by Senator Sabin, of Minnesota, and the opening 
 of the battle began a few minutes later when he 
 proposed the Hon. Powell Clayton, of Arkansas, 
 for Temporary Chairman of the Convention. Mr. 
 Clayton was an earnest supporter of Mr. Blaine, 
 and was regarded as the Blaine candidate for the 
 chairmanship. Immediately, therefore, Mr. Henry 
 Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, nominated as an 
 opposition candidate, the Hon. John R. Lynch, of 
 Mississippi. Mr. Lynch was an African gentle 
 man, who had served with distinction in Congress 
 and was eminently well fitted for the position. 
 The supporters of President Arthur and Senator 
 Edmunds voted for him and succeeded in electing 
 him as Temporary Chairman, and the supporters of 
 Mr. Blaine thus received a check. The next day s 
 session was called to order by Mr. Lynch, and 
 presently ex-Senator John B. Henderson, of 
 
THE CONVENTION OF 1884. - 367 
 
 Missouri, was chosen Permanent Chairman of the 
 Convention. The following declaration of prin 
 ciples, or Platform, was then adopted : 
 
 "The Republicans of the United States, in 
 National Convention assembled, renew their alle 
 giance to the principles upon which they have 
 triumphed in six successive Presidential elections ; 
 and congratulate the American people on the 
 attainment of so many results in legislation and 
 administration, by which the Republican party 
 has, after saving the Union, done so much to 
 render its institutions just, equal and beneficent, 
 the safeguard of liberty and the embodiment 
 of the best thought and highest purposes of our 
 citizens. 
 
 The Republican party has gained its strength 
 by quick and faithful response to the demand of 
 the people for the freedom and equality of all 
 men ; for a united nation, assuring the rights of 
 all citizens ; for the elevation of labor ; for an 
 honest currency ; for purity in legislation, and for 
 integrity and accountability in all departments of 
 the government, and it accepts anew the duty of 
 leading in the work of progress and reform. 
 
 "We lament the death of President Garfield, 
 whose sound statesmanship, long conspicuous in 
 Congress, gave promise of a strong and success 
 ful administration ; a promise fully realized during 
 the short period of his office as President of the 
 United States. His distinguished services in war 
 
368 JAMKS C. J1LAINE. 
 
 and peace have endeared him to the hearts of the 
 American people. 
 
 "In the administration of President Arthur, we 
 recognize a wise, conservative and patriotic policy, 
 under which the country has been blessed with 
 remarkable prosperity ; and we believe his emi 
 nent services are entitled to and will receive the 
 hearty approval of every citizen. 
 
 "It is the first duty of a good government to 
 protect the rights and promote the interests of its 
 own people. 
 
 "The largest diversity of industry is most pro 
 ductive of general prosperity, and of the comfort 
 and independence of the people. 
 
 "We, therefore, demand that the imposition of 
 duties on foreign imports shall be made, not for 
 revenue only, but that in raising the requisite 
 revenues for the government, such duties shall be 
 so levied as to afford security to our diversified 
 industries and protection to the rights and wages 
 of the laborer ; to the end that active and intelli 
 gent labor, as well as capital, may have its just 
 reward, and the laboring man his full share in the 
 national prosperity. 
 
 "Against the so-called economic system of the 
 Democratic party, which would degrade our labor to 
 the foreign standard, we enter our earnest protest. 
 
 "The Democratic party has failed completely 
 to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary 
 taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. 
 
THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 369 
 
 " The Republican party pledges itself to correct 
 the inequalities of the tariff, and to reduce the 
 surplus, not by the vicious and indiscriminate pro 
 cess of horizontal reduction, but by such methods 
 as will relieve the taxpayer without injuring- the 
 labor or the great productive interests of the 
 country. 
 
 "We recognize the importance of sheep hus 
 bandry in the United States, the serious depres 
 sion which it is now experiencing, and the clanger 
 threatening its future prosperity ; and we, there 
 fore, respect the demands of the representatives 
 of this important agricultural interest for a re-ad 
 justment of duties upon foreign wool, in order 
 that such industry shall have full and adequate 
 protection. 
 
 "We have always recommended the best 
 money known to the civilized world ; and we urge 
 that efforts should be made to unite all commercial 
 nations in the establishment of an international 
 standard which shall fix for all the relative value 
 of gold and silver coinage. 
 
 "The regulation of commerce with foreign 
 nations and between the States, is one of the 
 most important prerogatives of the general gov 
 ernment ; and the Republican party distinctly 
 announces its purpose to support such legislation 
 as will fully and efficiently carry out the constitu 
 tional power of Congress over interstate com 
 merce. 
 
JAMES G. &LA1NE. 
 
 "The principle of public regulation of railway 
 corporations is a wise and salutary one for the 
 protection of all classes of the people ; and we 
 favor legislation that shall prevent unjust dis 
 crimination and excessive charges for transporta 
 tion, and that shall secure to the people, and the 
 railways alike, the fair and equal protection of the 
 laws. 
 
 "We favor the establishment of a national 
 bureau of labor ; the enforcement of the eight- 
 hour law ; a wise and judicious system of general 
 education by adequate appropriation from the 
 national revenues, wherever the same is needed. 
 We believe that everywhere the protection to a 
 citizen of American birth must be secured to 
 citizens by American adoption ; and we favor the 
 settlement of national differences by international 
 arbitration. 
 
 " The Republican party, having its birth in a 
 hatred of slave labor and a desire that all men may 
 be truly free and equal, is unalterably opposed to 
 placing our workingmen in competition with any 
 form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. 
 In this spirit, we denounce the importation of 
 contract labor, whether from Europe or Asia, as 
 an offence against the spirit of American institu 
 tions ; and we pledge ourselves to sustain the 
 present law restricting Chinese immigration, and 
 to provide such further legislation as is necessary 
 to carry out its purposes. 
 
THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 37 l 
 
 "Reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun 
 under Republican administration, should be com 
 pleted by the further extension of the reform 
 system already established by law, to all the 
 grades of the service to which it is applicable. 
 The spirit and purpose of reform should be 
 observed in all executive appointments ; and all 
 laws at variance with the objects of existing 
 reform legislation should be repealed, to the 
 end that the dangers to free institutions, which 
 lurk in the power of official patronage, may be 
 wisely and effectively avoided. 
 
 " The public lands are a heritage to the people 
 of the United States, and should be reserved as 
 for as possible for small holdings by actual settlers. 
 We are opposed to the acquisition of large tracts 
 of these lands by corporations or individuals, 
 especially where such holdings are in the hands 
 of non-resident aliens. And we will endeavor to 
 obtain such legislation as will tend to correct this 
 evil. We demand of Congress the speedy for 
 feiture of all land grants which have lapsed by 
 reason of non-compliance with acts of incorpora 
 tion, in all cases where there has been no attempt 
 in good faith to perform the conditions of such 
 grants. 
 
 u The grateful thanks of the American people 
 are due to the Union soldiers and sailors of the 
 late war; and the Republican party stands pledged 
 to suitable pensions for all who were disabled, 
 
372 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 and for the widows and orphans of those who 
 died in the war. The Republican party also 
 pledges itself to the repeal of the limitation con 
 tained in the arrears act of 1879. So that all invalid 
 soldiers shall share alike, and their pensions begin 
 with the date of disability, or discharge, and not 
 with the date of application. 
 
 "The Republican party favors a policy which 
 shall keep us from entangling alliances with for 
 eign nations, and which gives us the right to ex 
 pect that foreign nations shall refrain from med 
 dling in American affairs ; a policy which seeks 
 peace and trade with all powers, but especially 
 with those of the Western Hemisphere. 
 
 We demand the restoration of our navy to 
 its old-time strength and efficiency, that it may, 
 in any sea, protect the rights of American citizens 
 and the interests of American commerce ; and 
 we call upon Congress to remove the burdens 
 under which American shipping has been de 
 pressed, so that it may again be true that we have 
 a commerce which leaves no sea unexplored, and 
 a navy which takes no law from superior force. 
 
 " Resolved, That appointments by the Presi 
 dent to offices in the Territories should be made 
 from the bona-fide citizens and residents of the 
 Territories wherein they are to serve. 
 
 " Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to 
 enact such laws as shall promptly and effectually 
 suppress the system of polygamy within our 
 
THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 3/3 
 
 Territories; and divorce the political from the eccle 
 siastical power of the so-called Mormon church ; 
 and that the laws so enacted should be rigidly 
 enforced by the civil authorities, if possible, and 
 by the military, if need be. 
 
 1 The people of the United States, in their 
 organized capacity, constitute a Nation, and not 
 a mere confederacy of States ; the National 
 Government is supreme within the sphere of 
 its national duties ; but the States have reserved 
 rights which should be faithfully maintained ; 
 each should be guarded with jealous care, so 
 that the harmony of our system of govern 
 ment may be preserved and the Union kept 
 inviolate. 
 
 "The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon 
 the maintenance of a free ballot, an honest count, 
 and correct returns. We denounce the fraud 
 and violence practised by the Democracy in 
 Southern States, by which the will of the voter is 
 defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free 
 institutions ; and we solemnly arraign the Demo 
 cratic party as being the guilty recipient of fruits 
 of such fraud and violence. 
 
 "We extend the Republicans of the South, re 
 gardless of their former party affiliations, our 
 cordial sympathy; and pledge to them our most 
 earnest efforts to promote the passage of such 
 legislation as will secure to every citizen, of 
 whatever race and color, the full and complete 
 
374 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 recognition, possession and exercise of all civil 
 and political rights. 
 
 " Respectfully submitted, 
 
 "WM. McKINLEY, 
 
 " Chairman. 
 "WM. WALTER PHELPS, Secretary." 
 
 The real contest of the Convention now came 
 on, in the choice of a candidate for the head of 
 the ticket. The nominating speeches were made 
 on Friday, June 5th. The roll of States was 
 called in alphabetical order. When Connecticut 
 was named the Hon. Augustus Brandegee nom 
 inated General Joseph R. Hawley. When Illinois 
 was reached Senator Cullom presented the name 
 of General John A. Logan. Indiana, Iowa, Kan 
 sas, Ke.ntucky and Louisiana were called without 
 response. Then the Secretary called the State 
 of Maine. On the instant, says an eye-witness, 
 there was a sudden explosion, and in a twinkling 
 the Convention was a scene of the wildest enthu 
 siasm and excitement. Whole delegations 
 sprang upon their chairs and led the cheering, 
 which spread to the stage and galleries and deep 
 ened into a roar like the voice of Niagara. The 
 walls of the building literally trembled and the 
 gas-lights flickered and flared as if in a hurricane. 
 The flags and other decorations were torn Irom 
 the walls and the gallery front and waved madly 
 in the air, with hats, umbrellas, handkerchiefs and 
 
THE CONVENTION OF 1884, 375 
 
 ev^ry other object within reach. Dignified and 
 venerable men stood upon their chairs, stripped 
 their coats from their backs and waved them in 
 the air like madmen. For fifteen minutes twelve 
 thousand throats gave forth the chorus of pande 
 monium, and quiet was only restored when the 
 multitude was literally exhausted by its efforts to 
 do. honor to the magic name of Elaine. 
 
 Then Judge West, of Ohio, a blind man, but a 
 most eloquent speaker, was led forward and 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 "As a delegate in the Chicago Convention of 
 1860. the proudest service of my life was per 
 formed by voting for the nomination of that in 
 spired emancipator, the first Republican President 
 of the United States. (Applause.) Four and 
 twenty years of the grandest history of recorded 
 times has distinguished the ascendency of the 
 Republican party. The skies have lowered and 
 reverses have threatened, but our flag is still 
 there, waving above the mansion of the Presi 
 dency, not a stain on its folds, not a cloud on its 
 glory. Whether it shall maintain that grand 
 ascendency depends upon the action of this coun 
 cil. With bated breath, a nation awaits the result. 
 On it are fixed the eyes of twenty millions of Re 
 publican freemen in the North. On it, or to it, 
 rather, are stretched forth the imploring hands 
 of ten millions of political bondmen of the South 
 (applause), while above, from the portals of light, 
 
376 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 is looking down the immortal spirit of the immor 
 tal martyr who first bore it to victory, bidding to 
 us Hail and God-speed. (Applause.) Six times 
 in six campaigns has that banner triumphed that 
 symbol of union, freedom, humanity and progress 
 some time borne by that silent man of destiny, 
 the Wellington of American arms (wild applause), 
 last by him at whose untimely taking off a nation 
 swelled the funeral cries and wept above great 
 Garfield s grave. (Cheers and applause.) Shall 
 that banner triumph again ? 
 
 " Commit it to the bearing of that chief (a voice, 
 James G. Elaine, of Maine cheers) -commit 
 it to the bearing of that chief, the inspiration of 
 whose illustrious character and great name will 
 fire the hearts of our young men, stir the blood 
 of our manhood, and rekindle the fervor of the 
 veterans, and the closing of the seventh campaign 
 will see that holy ensign spanning the sky like a 
 bow of promise. (Cheers.) Political conditions 
 are chariged since the accession of the Republican 
 party to power. The mighty issues of freedom 
 and bleeding humanity which convulsed the con 
 tinent and aroused the Republic, rallied, united 
 and inspired the forces of patriotism and the forces 
 of humanity in one consolidated phalanx, have 
 ceased their contentions. The subordinate issues 
 resulting therefrom are settled and buried away 
 with the dead issues of the past. The arms of 
 the Solid South are against us. Not an electoral 
 
THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 377 
 
 gain can be expected from that section. If triumph 
 come, the Republican States of the North must 
 furnish the conquering battalions from the farm, 
 the anvil, and the loom; from the mines, the work 
 shop, and the desk ; from the hut of the trapper 
 on the snowy Sierras ; from the hut of the fisher 
 man on the banks of the Hudson. The Repub 
 lican States must furnish these conquering battal 
 ions if triumph come. 
 
 " Does not sound political wisdom dictate and 
 demand that a leader shall be given to them whom 
 our people will follow, not as conscripts advancing 
 by funereal marches to certain defeat, but a grand 
 civic hero, whom the souls of the people desire, 
 and whom they will follow with all the enthusiasm 
 of volunteers, as they sweep on and onward to 
 certain victory ? (Cheers.) A representative of 
 American manhood (applause), a representative 
 of chat living Republicanism that demands the 
 amplest industrial protection and opportunity 
 whereby labor shall be enabled to earn and eat 
 the bread of independent employment, relieved 
 of mendicant competition with pauper Europe or 
 pagan China ? (Loud applause.) In this conten 
 tion offerees, to whose candidate shall be entrusted 
 our battle-flag? Citizens, I am not here to do it, 
 and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my 
 mouth if I do abate one tittle from the just fame, 
 integrity and public honor of Chester A. Arthur, 
 our President. (Applause.) I abate not one 
 
07 8 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 tittle from the just fame and public integrity of 
 George F. Edmunds (applause), of Joseph R. 
 Hawley (applause), of John Sherman (applause), 
 of that grand old black eagle of Illinois. (Here 
 the speaker was interrupted several moments by 
 prolonged applause.) And I am proud to know 
 that these distinguished Senators whom I have 
 
 o 
 
 named, have borne like testimony to the public 
 life, the public character, and the public integrity 
 of him whose confirmation brought him to the 
 highest office second in dignity to the office of 
 the President only himself the first premiership 
 in the administration of James A. Garfield. 
 (Applause.) A man for whom the Senators and 
 rivals will vote, the Secretary of State of the 
 United States is good enough for a plain flesh 
 and blood God s people to vote for President. 
 (Loud applause.) 
 
 "Who shall be our candidate? Not the rep 
 resentative of a particular interest of a particular 
 class. Send the great proclamation to the country 
 labelled The Doctor s Candidate, The 
 Lawyer s Candidate/ The Wall Street Candi 
 date, and the hand of resurrection would not 
 fathom his November grave. (Applause.) 
 
 " Gentlemen, lie must be a representative of 
 that Republicanism that demands the absolute 
 political, as well as personal, emancipation and 
 enfranchisement of mankind a representative of 
 that Republicanism which recognizes the stamp of 
 
THOS. A. HENDRICKS. 
 
THE CONVENTION OF jSSj. 381 
 
 American citizenship as the passport to every 
 right, privilege and consideration at home or 
 abroad, whether under the sky of Bismarck, under 
 the Palmetto, under the Pelican, or on the banks 
 of the Mohawk that Republicanism that regards 
 with dissatisfaction a despotism which, under the 
 sic semper tyrannis* of the Old Dominion, 
 emulates, by slaughter, popular majorities in the 
 name of Democracy a Republicanism as em 
 bodied and stated in the platform of principles 
 this day adopted by your Convention. 
 
 " Gendemen, such a representative Republican 
 is James G. Elaine, of Maine. (Applause, con 
 tinuing twenty minutes.) If nominated to-night 
 his campaign would commence to-morrow and 
 continue until victory is assured. (Cheers.) 
 There would be no powder burned to fire into the 
 backs of his leaders. It would only be exploded 
 to illuminate the inauguration. The brazen 
 throats of the cannon in yonder square, waiting to 
 herald the result of the Convention, would not 
 have time to cool before his name would be 
 caught up on ten thousand tongues of electric 
 flame. It would sweep down from the old Pine 
 Tree State. It would go over the hills and val 
 leys of New England. 
 
 " Three millions of Republicans believe that that 
 man who, from the baptism of blood on the plains 
 of Kansas to the fall of the immortal Garfield, in 
 all that struggle of humanity and progress, 
 
 22 
 
382 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 wherever humanity desired succor, wherever love 
 for freedom called for protection, wherever the 
 country called for a defender, wherever blows fell 
 thickest and fastest, there in the forefront of the 
 battle were seen to wave the white plumes of James 
 G. Elaine, our Henry of Navarre. Nominate him, 
 and the shouts of a September victory in Maine 
 will be re-echoed back by the thunders of the 
 October victory in Ohio. Nominate him, and the 
 campfires and beacon lights will illuminate the 
 continent from the Golden Gate to Cleopatra s 
 needle. Nominate him, and the millions who are 
 now in waiting will rally to swell the column of 
 victory that is sweeping on. 
 
 " If you do so, he will give you a glorious vic 
 tory in November next, and when he shall have 
 taken his position as President of the great Re 
 public, you maybe sure you will have an adminis 
 tration in the interest of commerce, in the interest 
 of labor, in the interest of finance, in the interest 
 of peace at home and peace abroad, and in the in 
 terest of the prosperity of this great people." 
 (Long applause.) 
 
 At the end of almost every sentence in this 
 speech the whole Convention burst into enthu 
 siastic applause. And at the first mention of the 
 name of Elaine there was a repetition of the scene 
 that had preceded the speech. For fifteen or 
 twenty minutes Judge West was compelled to re 
 main silent while the Convention shouted and 
 
THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 
 
 stamped and waved itself into a state of utter ex 
 haustion. The nomination was seconded by 
 Governor Davis of Minnesota, by the Hon. Wil 
 liam C. Goodloe of Kentucky, by the Hon. 
 Thomas C. Platt of New York, and by the Hon. 
 Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania, amid a con 
 tinuous accompaniment of cheering and applause 
 of the most enthusiastic character. 
 
 Presently the State of New York was called 
 and then there was an outburst of enthusiasm simi 
 lar to that which had greeted the State of Maine. 
 Chester A. Arthur was placed in nomination 
 amid great enthusiasm. Then the Hon. J. B. 
 Foraker of Ohio nominated John Sherman, and 
 ex-Governor Long of Massachusetts nominated 
 Senator Edmunds. 
 
 When the balloting for the nomination of a 
 candidate was begun, it was found that many of 
 the delegations were divided in their choice, and 
 a poll of each delegation had to be made. As the 
 result of this ballot Mr. Elaine had 334^ votes, 
 Mr. Arthur 278, Mr. Edmunds 93, Mr. Logan 
 63^, Mr. Sherman 30, Mr. Hawley 13, Mr. Lin 
 coln 4, and General William T. Sherman 2. No 
 candidate having a majority of all the votes cast, 
 a second ballot was immediately called for and 
 was taken without material change in the result. 
 There was a slight gain for Mr. Elaine, however, 
 which called for another period of tumultuous cheer 
 ing. Then the third ballot was called for amid 
 
2 34 JAMJLS G. BLAINE. 
 
 much confusion. The votes of various delega 
 tions were challenged and there were many dis 
 putes on various points of order. When the re 
 sult was finally announced it was seen that Mr. 
 Elaine had gained many votes and had now a 
 total of 375. Mr. Arthur s supporters remained 
 steadfast at 274. Mr. Edmunds s vote had fallen 
 to 69, and there were other slight changes. But 
 the result of this ballot indicated that Mr. Elaine 
 was the coming man and his opponents desper 
 ately strove to stave off the inevitable. Mr. For- 
 aker, of Ohio, moved for a recess of several 
 hours, but the proposition was overwhelmingly 
 voted down. Then there was another long 
 wrangle on points of order, followed by another 
 motion from Mr. Foraker that the rules of the 
 Convention be suspended and that James G. 
 Elaine be nominated by acclamation. There was 
 a great and disorderly wrangle over this, also, 
 which ended in the motion being withdrawn. 
 
 Then the fourth ballot began. The bulk of 
 Mr. Arthur s supporters remained faithful to him. 
 But the Illinois delegation withdrew the name of 
 General Logan, and cast 34 votes for Elaine. 
 When the State of Ohio was called, the name of 
 John Sherman was also withdrawn and 46 more 
 votes were added to the Elaine column. That 
 settled it. The remainder of the roll call pro 
 ceeded amid great confusion and the Secretary 
 began to announce the result. But the words 
 
CONVENTION OF 1884. . 38$ 
 
 " Elaine, 541 " were scarcely out of his mouth be 
 fore his voice was drowned in a perfect deluge of 
 applause which lasted for many minutes. The 
 whole Convention rose to its feet and shouted and 
 screamed and sang and stamped and waved in 
 the air every movable object within reach. It 
 was impossible for the Secretary to make himself 
 heard. But at last partial quiet was restored and 
 the result of the ballot in full was announced as 
 follows : Elaine, 541 ; Arthur, 207 ; Edmunds, 
 41 ; Hawley, 15 ; Logan, 7 ; and Lincoln, 2. 
 Immediately, upon motion of one of Mr. Arthur s 
 supporters, the nomination was made unanimous, 
 and the Convention adjourned until evening. 
 Then General Logan was nominated for Vice- 
 President and the Convention adjourned. At the 
 third attempt Mr. Elaine s friends had been suc 
 cessful. They had secured for him the nomina 
 tion for President by the Republican party, with 
 brilliant prospects for a successful issue at the 
 polls. A committee, consisting of a large num 
 ber of eminent Republicans, was appointed to in 
 form Mr. Elaine officially of his nomination. 
 They did so, at his home at Augusta, Maine, on 
 June 2ist, their address being read by ex-Senator 
 Henderson, as follows : 
 
 " MR. ELAINE : Your nomination for the office 
 of President of the United States, by the National 
 Republican Convention recently assembled in 
 Chicago, is already known to you. The gentlemen 
 
386 JAMES G. BLAIA E. 
 
 before you, constituting a committee composed of 
 one member from each State and Territory of the 
 country, and one from the District of Columbia, 
 now come as the accredited organ of that Con 
 vention, to give you formal notice of me nomina 
 tion and to request your acceptance thereof. 
 
 "It is, of course, known to you, that besides 
 your own, several names, among the most hon 
 ored in the councils of the Republican party, 
 were presented by their friends as candidates for 
 this office. Between your friends and the friends 
 of gentlemen so justly entitled to the respect and 
 confidence of their political associates, the con 
 test was one of generous rivalry, free from any 
 taint of bitterness, and equally free from the re 
 proach of injustice. At an early stage of the 
 proceedings of the Convention it became mani 
 fest that the Republican States, whose aid must 
 be invoked at last to insure success to the ticket, 
 earnestly desired your nomination. It was 
 equally manifest that this desire, so earnestly ex 
 pressed by the delegates from these States, was 
 but the truthful reflection of an irresistible pop 
 ular demand. It was not thought, nor pretended, 
 that this demand had its origin in any ambitious 
 desires of your own, or in the organized work of 
 your friends, but it was recognized to be what it 
 truthfully is the spontaneous expression by a 
 free people of their love and admiration of a 
 chosen leader. 
 
THE CONVENTION OF iSSj. 387 
 
 " No nomination would have given satisfaction 
 to all the members of the party. This was not 
 to be expected in a country so extended in area 
 and so varied in interests. -The nomination of 
 Mr. Lincoln, in 1860, disappointed so many fond 
 hopes and overthrew so many cherished ambi 
 tions that for a short time the disaffection threat 
 ened to ripen into open revolt. In 1872 the dis 
 content was so pronounced as to impel large 
 masses of the party into organized opposition to 
 its nominees. For many weeks after the nomi 
 nation of General Garfield, in 1880, defeat 
 seemed almost inevitable. Fortunately, in each 
 case, the shock of disappointment was followed 
 by the sober second thought. Individual prefer 
 ences gradually yielded to convictions of public 
 duty. The promptings of patriotism finally rose 
 superior to the irritations and animosities of the 
 hour. Indeed, the party in every trial has grown 
 stronger in the face of threatened danger. 
 
 "In tendering you this nomination, it gives us 
 pleasure to remember that those great measures 
 which furnished causes for party congratulation 
 by the late Convention at Chicago, and which are 
 now crystallized into the legislation of the coun 
 try measures which have strengthened and dig 
 nified the Nation, while they have elevated and 
 advanced the people have, at all times and on 
 all proper occasions, received your earnest and 
 valuable support. It was your good fortune to 
 
3 gg JAMRS G. 8LAIN&. 
 
 aid in protecting the Nation against the assaults 
 of armed treason ; you were present and helped 
 to unloose the shackles of the slave ; you assisted 
 in placing the new .guarantees of freedom in the 
 Federal Constitution ; your voice was potent in 
 preserving the National faith ; when false theories 
 of finance would have blasted National and indi 
 vidual prosperity, we kindly remember you as 
 the fast friend of honest money and commercial 
 integrity. In all that pertains to the security and 
 repose of capital, the dignity of labor, the man 
 hood, elevation and freedom of the people, the 
 right of the oppressed to demand, and the duty 
 of the government to afford, protection, your 
 public acts have received the unqualified endorse 
 ment of popular approval. 
 
 " But we are not unmindful of the fact that 
 parties, like individuals, cannot live entirely on the 
 past, however splendid the record. The present 
 is ever charged with its immediate cares, and the 
 future presses on with its new duties and its per 
 plexing responsibilities. Parties, like individuals, 
 however, that are free from the stain of violated 
 faith in the past, are fairly entitled to presump 
 tions of sincerity in their promises for the future. 
 
 " Among the promises made by the party in its 
 late Convention at Chicago, are : Purity and econ 
 omy of administration ; protection of the citizen, 
 native and naturalized, at home and abroad ; the 
 prompt restoration of our navy ; a wise reduction 
 
TH CONVENTION OF 1^4, 389 
 
 of the surplus revenues, relieving the tax-payer 
 without injuring the laborer; .the preservation of 
 the public lands for actual settlers ; import duties, 
 when necessary at all, to be levied not for revenue- 
 only but for the double purpose of revenue and 
 protection ; regulation of internal commerce by 
 the National Congress ; settlement of interna 
 tional differences by peaceful arbitration, but 
 coupled with the reassertion and maintenance of 
 the Monroe doctrine as interpreted by the fathers 
 of the Republic ; perseverance in the good work 
 of civil service reform, " to the end that the dan 
 gers to free institutions which lurk in the power of 
 official patronage may be wisely and effectively 
 avoided"; honest currency based on coin of in 
 trinsic value, adding strength to the public credit, 
 and giving renewed vitality to every branch of 
 American industry. 
 
 " Mr. Elaine : During the last twenty-three years 
 the Republican party has builded a new Republic 
 a Republic far more splendid than that originally 
 designed by our forefathers. Its proportions, 
 already grand, may yet be enlarged; its foundations 
 may yet be strengthened, and its columns adorned 
 with a beauty more resplendent still. To you, as 
 its architect-in-chief, will soon be assigned this 
 grateful work." 
 
 To this address Mr. Elaine replied, saying : 
 "Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the National 
 Committee: I receive, not without deep sensibility, 
 
JAMES G. 
 
 your official notice of the action of the National 
 Convention, already brought to my knowledge 
 through the public press. I appreciate, more pro 
 foundly than I can express, the honor which is 
 implied in the nomination for the Presidency by 
 the Republican party of the Nation, speaking 
 through the authoritative voice of its duly accred 
 ited delegates. To be selected as a candidate by 
 such an assemblage, from the list of eminent 
 Statesmen whose names were presented, fills me 
 with embarrassment. I can. only express my 
 gratitude for so signal an honor, and my desire 
 to prove worthy of the great trust reposed in me. 
 
 " In accepting the nomination, as I now do, I 
 am impressed, I might almost say oppressed, with 
 a sense of the labor and responsibility which 
 attach to my position. The burden is lightened, 
 however, by the host of earnest men who support 
 my candidacy, many of whom add, as does your 
 honorable committee, the cheer of personal friend- 
 ship to the pledge of political fealty. A more 
 formal acceptance will naturally be expected, and 
 will in due season be communicated. It may, 
 however, not be inappropriate at this time to say 
 that I have already made a- careful study of the 
 principles announced by the National Convention, 
 and in whole and in detail they have my heartiest 
 sympathy and meet my unqualified approval. 
 
 "Apart from your official errand, gentlemen, I 
 am extremely happy to welcome you all to my 
 
TUE CONVEttTIOtf OF il 
 
 391 
 
 home. With many of you I have already shared 
 the duties of the public service, and have enjoyed 
 the most cordial friendship. I trust your journey 
 from all parts of the great Republic has been 
 agreeable, and that during your stay in Maine you 
 will feel that you are not among strangers, but 
 among friends. Invoking the blessing of God 
 upon the great cause which we jointly represent, 
 let us turn to the future without fear, and with 
 manly hearts." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 The Opening of Mr. Elaine s Campaign A Statesmanlike Discussion of 
 the Issues of the Day The Revenue Laws and the Protective Tariff 
 Agricultural Interests of the Nation Foreign and Domestic Commerce. 
 Lai or and Capital Relations with Foreign Nations The South 
 American Republics The Civil Service The Mormon Uuestion 
 The Freedom and Purity of the Ballot. 
 
 The platform adopted by the National Repub 
 lican Convention expressed the principles of the 
 party. It remained for the candidate to make a 
 direct and explicit personal utterance on the 
 leading issues of the day, which should be, in 
 great measure, the keynote of public discussion 
 during the campaign. This Mr. Elaine did in his 
 formal letter of acceptance, which is wormy of 
 preservation and study as a text-book of American 
 patriotism, and of the principles of American 
 policy and American citizenship. It is here re 
 produced in full : 
 
 AUGUSTA, ME., July 15, 1884. 
 
 The Hon. John B. Henderson and Others of the 
 Committee, etc., etc. 
 
 Gentlemen: In accepting the nomination for 
 the Presidency tendered me by the National 
 Republican Convention, I beg to express a 
 39 2 
 
THE LETTER OP ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 deep sense of the honor which is conferred, and 
 
 * -9 
 
 of the duty which is imposed. I venture to ac 
 company the acceptance with some observations 
 upon the questions involved in the contest ques 
 tions whose settlement may affect the future of 
 the Nation favorably or unfavorably for a long 
 series of years. 
 
 Li enumerating the issues upon which the 
 Republican party appeals for popular support, the 
 Convention has been singularly explicit and felici 
 tous. It has properly given the leading position 
 to the industrial interests of the country as affected 
 bv the tariff on imports. On that question the 
 two political parties are radically in conflict. 
 Almost the first act of the Republicans, when they 
 came into power in 1861, was the establishment 
 of the principle of protection to American labor 
 and to American capkal. This principle the 
 Republican party has ever since steadily main 
 tained, while on the other hand the Democratic 
 party in Congress has for fifty years persistently 
 warred upon it. Twice within that period our 
 opponents have destroyed tariffs arranged for 
 protection, and since the close of the Civil War, 
 whenever they have controlled the House of 
 Representatives, hostile legislation has been at 
 tempted never more conspicuously than in their 
 principal measure at the late session of Congress. 
 
 Revenue laws are in their very nature subject 
 to freauent revision in order that they may be 
 
394 JAMES G. LLAINE. 
 
 adapted to changes and modifications of trade. The 
 Republican party is not contending for the per 
 manency of any particular statute. The issue 
 between the two parties does not have reference 
 to a specific law. It is far broader and far deeper. 
 It involves a principle of wide application and 
 beneficent influence, against a theory which we 
 believe to be unsound in conception and inevitably 
 hurtful in practice. In the many tariff revisions 
 which have been necessary for the past twenty- 
 three years, or which may hereafter become nec 
 essary, the Republican party has maintained and 
 will maintain the policy of protection to American 
 industry, while our opponents insist upon a revis 
 ion which practically destroys that policy. The 
 issue is thus distinct, well-defined, and unavoid 
 able. The pending election may determine the 
 fate of protection for a generation. The over 
 throw of the policy means a large and permanent 
 reduction in the wages of the American laborer, 
 besides involving the loss of vast amounts of 
 American capital invested in manufacturing enter 
 prises. The value of the present revenue system 
 to the people of the United States is not a matter 
 of theory, and I shall submit no argument to 
 sustain it. I only invite attention to certain facts 
 of official record which seem to constitute a de 
 monstration. 
 
 In the census of 1850, an effort was made for 
 the first time in our history to obtain a valuation 
 
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 395 
 
 of all the property in the United States. The 
 attempt was in a large degree unsuccessful. 
 Partly from lack of time, partly from prejudice 
 among many who thought the inquiries foreshad 
 owed a new scheme of taxation, the returns were 
 incomplete and unsatisfactory. Little more was 
 done than to consolidate the local valuation used 
 in the States for purposes of assessment, and 
 that, as every one knows, differs widely from a 
 complete exhibit of all the property. 
 
 In the census of 1860, however, the work was 
 done with great thoroughness the distinction be 
 tween " assessed" value and "true" value being 
 carefully observed. The grand result was that 
 the "true value" of all the property in the States 
 and Territories (excluding slaves) amounted to 
 fourteen thousand millions of dollars ($14,000,- 
 000,000). This aggregate was the net result of 
 the labor and the savings of all the people within 
 the area of the United States, from the time the 
 first British colonists landed in 1607, down to the 
 year 1860. It represented the fruit of the toil of 
 two hundred and fifty years. 
 
 After 1860, the business of the country was 
 encouraged and developed by a protective tariff. 
 At the end of twenty years, the total property of 
 the United States, as returned by the census of 
 1880, amounted to the enormous aggregate of 
 forty-four thousand millions of dollars ($44,- 
 000,000,000). This great result was attained, 
 
396 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 notwithstanding the fact that countless millions 
 had, in the interval, been wasted in the progress of 
 a bloody war. It thus appears, that while our pop 
 ulation between 1860 and 1880 increased sixty 
 per cent., the aggregate property increased two 
 hundred and fourteen per cent, showing a vastly 
 enhanced wealth per capita among the people. 
 Thirty thousand millions of dollars ($30,000,000,- 
 ooo) had been .added during these twenty years 
 to the permanent wealth of the Nation. 
 
 These results are regarded by the older nations 
 of the world as phenomenal. That our country 
 should surmount the peril and the cost of a 
 gigantic war, and for an entire period of twenty 
 years make an average gain to its wealth of 
 $125,000,000 per month, surpasses the experience 
 of all other nations, ancient or modern. Even 
 the opponents of the present revenue system do 
 not pretend that in the whole history of civilization 
 any parallel can be found to the material progress 
 of the United States since the accession of the 
 Republican party to power. 
 
 The period between 1860 and to-day has not 
 been one of material prosperity only. At no time 
 in ihe history of the United States has there been 
 such progress in the moral and philanthropic field. 
 Religious and charitable institutions, schools, 
 seminaries and colleges have been founded and 
 endowed far more generously than at any previous 
 time in our history. Greater and more varied 
 

 u 
 
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 relief has been extended to human suffering, arid 
 the entire progress of the country in wealth has 
 been accompanied and dignified by a broadening 
 and elevation of our National character as a 
 people. 
 
 Our opponents find fault that our revenue sys 
 tem produces a surplus. But they should not 
 forget that the law has given a specific purpose to 
 which all of the surplus is profitably and honor 
 ably applied the reduction of the public debt and 
 the consequent relief of the burden of taxation. 
 No dollar has been wasted, and the only extrava 
 gance with which the party stands charged, is the 
 generous pensioning of soldiers, sailors, and their 
 families an extravagance which embodies the 
 highest form of justice in the recognition and 
 payment of a sacred debt. When reduction of 
 taxation is to be made, the Republican party can 
 be trusted to accomplish it in such form as will 
 most effectively aid the industries of the Nation. 
 
 A frequent accusation by our opponents is that 
 the foreign commerce of the country has steadily 
 decayed under the influence of the protective 
 tariff. In this way they seek to array the import 
 ing interests against the Republican party. It is 
 a common and yet radical error to confound the 
 commerce of the country with its carrying trade 
 an error often committed innocently and some 
 times designedly but an error so gross that it 
 does not distinguish between the ship and the 
 23 
 
4<DO JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 cargo. Foreign commerce represents the exports 
 and imports of a country, regardless of the 
 nationality of the vessel that may carry the com 
 modities of exchange. Our carrying trade has, 
 rom some obvious causes, suffered many dis 
 couragements since 1860, but our foreign com 
 merce has in the same period steadily and 
 prodigiously increased increased, indeed, at a 
 rate and to an amount which absolutely dwarf all 
 previous developments of our trade beyond the 
 sea. From 1860 to the present time, the foreign 
 commerce of the United States (divided with ap 
 proximate equality between exports and imports) 
 reached the astounding aggregate of twenty-four 
 thousand millions of dollars ($24,000,000,000). 
 The balance in this vast commerce inclined in our 
 favor, but it would have been much larger if our 
 trade with the countries of America elsewhere 
 referred to had been more wisely adjusted. 
 
 It is difficult even to appreciate the magnitude 
 of our export trade since 1860, and we can gain 
 a correct conception of it only by comparison 
 with preceding results in the same field. The 
 total exports from the United States from the 
 Declaration of Independence in 1776 down to 
 the day of Lincoln s election in 1860, added to 
 all that had previously been exported from the 
 American colonies from their original settlement, 
 amounted to less than nine thousand millions of 
 dollars ($9,000,000,000). On the other hand, 
 
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 401 
 
 our exports from 1860 to the close of the last 
 fiscal year exceeded twelve thousand millions of 
 dollars ($12,000,000,000) the whole of it being 
 the product of American labor. Evidently a pro 
 tective tariff has not injured our export trade, 
 when, under its influence, we exported in twenty- 
 four years 40 per cent, more than the total 
 amount that had been exported in the entire pre 
 vious history of American commerce. All the 
 details, when analyzed, correspond with this gi 
 gantic result. The commercial cities of the Union 
 never had such growth as they have enjoyed 
 since 1860. Our chief emporium, the city of 
 New York, with its dependencies, has, within that 
 period, doubled her population and increased her 
 wealth fivefold. During the same period, the im 
 ports and exports which have entered and left 
 her harbor are more than double, in bulk and 
 value, the whole amount imported and exported 
 by her between the settlement of the first Dutch 
 colony on the Island of Manhattan and the out 
 break of the Civil War in 1860. 
 
 The agricultural interest is by far the largest 
 in the Nation, and is entitled, in every adjustment 
 of revenue laws, to the first consideration. Any 
 policy hostile to the fullest development of agri 
 culture in the United States must be abandoned. 
 Realizing this fact, the opponents of the present 
 system of revenue have labored very earnestly 
 to persuade the farmers of the United States 
 
402 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 that they are robbed by a protective tariff, and the 
 effort is thus made to consolidate their vast influ 
 ence in favor of free trade. But, happily, the 
 farmers of America are intelligent, and cannot be 
 misled by sophistry when conclusive facts are be 
 fore them. They see plainly that, during the 
 past twenty -four years, wealth has not been ac 
 quired in one section or by one interest at the 
 expense of another section or another interest. 
 They see that the agricultural States have made 
 even more rapid progress than the manufacturing 
 States. 
 
 The farmers see that in 1860 Massachusetts 
 and Illinois had about the same wealth between 
 $800,000,000 and $900,000,000 each and that 
 in 1880 Massachusetts had advanced to $2,600,- 
 000,000, while Illinois had advanced to $3,200,- 
 000,000. They see that New Jersey and Iowa 
 were just equal in population in 1860, and that 
 in twenty years the wealth of New Jersey was in 
 creased by the sum of $850,000,000, while the 
 wealth of Iowa was increased by the sum of $i,- 
 500,000,000. They see that the nine leading ag 
 ricultural States of the West had grown so rap 
 idly in prosperity that the aggregate addition to 
 their wealth in 1860 is almost as great as the 
 wealth of the entire country in that year. They 
 see that the South, which is almost exclusively 
 agricultural, has shared in the general prosperity, 
 and that, having recovered from the loss and 
 
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 403 
 
 devastation of war, it has gained so rapidly that 
 its total wealth is at least the double of that which 
 it possessed in 1860, exclusive of slaves. 
 
 In these extraordinary developments the farm 
 ers see the helpful impulse of a home market, and 
 they see that the financial and revenue system, 
 enacted since the Republican party came into 
 power, has established and constantly expanded 
 the home market. They see that even in the case 
 of wheat, which is our chief cereal export, they 
 have sold, in the average of the years since the 
 close of the war, three bushels at home to one 
 they have sold abroad, and that in the case of 
 corn, the only other cereal which we export to 
 any extent, one hundred bushels have been used 
 at home to three and a half bushels exported. In 
 some years the disparity has been so great that 
 for every peck of corn exported one hundred 
 bushels have been consumed in the home market. 
 The farmers see that, in the increasing competition 
 from the grain fields of Russia and from the 
 distant plains of India, the growth of the home 
 market becomes daily of greater concern to them, 
 and that its impairment would depreciate the 
 value of every acre of tillable land in the Union. 
 
 Such facts as these, touching the growth and 
 consumption of cereals at home, give us some 
 slight conception of the vastness of the internal 
 commerce of the United States. They suggest 
 also, that in addition to the advantages which the 
 
404 JAMES <;. HLAINE. 
 
 American people enjoy from protection against 
 foreign competition, they enjoy the advantages of 
 absolute free trade over a larger area and with a 
 greater population than any other nation. The 
 internal commerce of our thirty-eight States and 
 nine Territories is carried on without let or hin 
 drance, without tax, detention, or governmental 
 interference of any kind whatever. It spreads 
 freely over an area of three and a half million 
 square miles almost equal in extent to the whole 
 continent of Europe. Its profits are enjoyed to 
 day by 56,000,000 of American freemen, and from 
 this enjoyment no monopoly is created. Accord 
 ing to Alexander Hamilton, when he discussed 
 the same subject in 1790, "the internal competi 
 tion which takes place does away with everything 
 like monopoly, and by degrees reduces the prices 
 of articles to the minimum of a reasonable profit 
 on the capital employed." It is impossible to 
 point to a single monopoly in the United States 
 that has been created or fostered by the industrial 
 system which is upheld by the Republican party. 
 Compared with our foreign commerce, these 
 domestic exchanges are inconceivably great in 
 amount requiring merely as one instrumentality 
 as large a mileage of railway as exists to-day in 
 all the other nations of the world combined. 
 These internal exchanges are estimated by the 
 Statistical Bureau of the Treasury Department to 
 be annually twenty times as great in amount as 
 
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 405 
 
 our foreign commerce. It is into this vast field of 
 home trade at once the creation and the heritage 
 of the American people that foreign nations are 
 striving by every device to enter. It is into this 
 field that the opponents of our present revenue 
 system would freely admit the countries of Europe 
 countries into whose internal trade we could not 
 reciprocally enter, countries to which we should 
 be surrendering every advantage of trade ; from 
 which we should be gaining nothing in return. 
 
 A policy of this kind would be disastrous to 
 the mechanics and workingmen of the United 
 States. Wages are unjustly reduced when an 
 industrious man is not able by his earnings to 
 live in comfort, educate his children, and lay by a 
 sufficient amount for the necessities of age. The 
 reduction of wages inevitably consequent upon 
 throwing our home market open to the \vorld 
 would deprive them of the power to do this. It 
 would prove a great calamity to our country. It 
 would produce a conflict between the poor and 
 the rich, and in the sorrowful degradation of labor 
 would plant the seeds of public danger. 
 
 The Republican party has steadily aimed to 
 maintain just relations between labor and capital, 
 guarding with care the rights of each. A conflict 
 between the two has always led in the past and 
 will always lead in the future to the injury of 
 both. Labor is indispensable to the creation and 
 profitable use of capital, and capital increases the 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 efficiency and value of labor. Whoever arrays 
 the one against the other is an enemy of both. 
 That policy is wisest and best which harmonized 
 the two on the basis of absolute justice. The 
 Republican party has protected the free labor of 
 America so that ks compensation is larger than 
 is realized in any other country. It has guarded 
 our people against the unfair competition of con 
 tract labor from China, and may be called upon 
 to prohibit the growth of a similar evil from 
 Europe. It is obviously unfair to permit capital 
 ists to make contracts for cheap labor in foreign 
 countries to the hurt and disparagement of the 
 labor of American citizens. Such a policy (like 
 that which would leave the time and other condi 
 tions of home labor exclusively in the control of 
 the employer) is injurious to all parties not the 
 least so to the unhappy persons who are made 
 the subjects of the contract. The institutions of 
 the United States rest upon the intelligence and 
 virtue of all the people. Suffrage is made uni 
 versal as a just weapon of self-protection to every 
 citizen. It is not the interest of the Republic that 
 any economic system should be adopted which in 
 volves the reduction of wages to the hard stand 
 ard prevailing elsewhere. The Republican 
 party aims to elevate and dignify labor not to 
 degrade it. 
 
 Asa substitute for the industrial system which, 
 under Republican administration, has developed 
 
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 407 
 
 such extraordinary prosperity, our opponents of 
 fer a policy which is but a series of experiments 
 upon our system of revenue a policy whose end 
 must be harm to our manufactures and greater 
 harm to our labor. Experiment in the industrial 
 and financial system is the country s greatest 
 dread, as stability is its greatest boon. Even the 
 uncertainty resulting from the recent tariff agita 
 tion in Congress has hurtfully affected the busi 
 ness of the entire country. Who can measure 
 the harm to our shops and our homes, to our 
 farms and our commerce, if the uncertainty of 
 perpetual tariff agitation is to be inflicted upon 
 the country? We are in the midst of an abun 
 dant harvest ; we are on the eve of a revival of 
 general prosperity. Nothing stands in our way 
 but the dread of a change in the industrial sys 
 tem which has wrought such wonders in the last 
 twenty years, and which, with the power of in 
 creased capital, will work still greater marvels of 
 prosperity in the twenty years to come. 
 
 Our foreign relations favor our domestic de 
 velopment. We are at peace with the world at 
 peace upon a sound basis, with no unsettled ques 
 tions of sufficient magnitude to embarrass or dis- 
 
 O 
 
 tract us. Happily removed by our geographical 
 position from participation or interest in those 
 questions of dynasty or boundary which so fre 
 quently disturb the peace of Europe, we are left 
 to cultivate friendly relations with all, and are 
 
40 S JAMES G. BLAIN&. 
 
 free from possible entanglements in the quarrels 
 of any. The United States has no cause and no 
 desire to engage in conflict with any Power on 
 earth, and we may rest in assured confidence that 
 no Power desires to attack the United States. 
 
 With the nations of the Western Hemisphere we 
 should cultivate closer relations, and for our com 
 mon prosperity and advancement we should invite 
 them all to join with us in an agreement, that, for 
 the future, all international troubles in North or 
 South America shall be adjusted by impartial arbi 
 tration, and not by arms. This project was part 
 of the fixed policy of President Garfield s adminis 
 tration, and it should, in m y judgment, be re 
 newed. Its accomplishment on this continent 
 would favorably affect the nations beyond the sea, 
 and thus powerfully contribute at no distant day 
 to the universal acceptance of the philanthropic 
 and Christian principle of arbitration. The effect 
 even of suggesting it for the Spanish-American 
 States has been most happy, and has increased 
 the confidence of those people in our friendly dis 
 position. It fell to my lot as Secretary of State, 
 in June, iSSi, to quiet apprehension in the Re 
 public of Mexico by giving the assurance, in an 
 official despatch, that "there is not the faintest 
 desire in the United States for territorial exten 
 sion south of the Rio Grande. The boundaries of 
 the two Republics have been established in con 
 formity with the best- jurisdictional interests of 
 
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 both. The line of demarcation is not merely con 
 ventional. It is more. It separates a Spanish- 
 American people from a Saxon-American people. 
 It divides one great nation from another with dis 
 tinct and natural finality." 
 
 We seek the conquests of peace. We desire 
 to extend our commerce, and in an especial de 
 gree with our friends and neighbors on this con 
 tinent. W 7 e have not improved our relations with 
 Spanish-America as wisely and persistently as we 
 might have clone." For more than a generation 
 the sympathy of those countries has been allowed 
 to drift away from us. We should now make 
 every effort to gain their friendship. Our trade 
 with them is already large. During the last year 
 our exchanges in the Western Hemisphere 
 amounted to $350,000,000 nearly one-fourth of 
 cur entire foreign commerce. To those who may 
 be disposed to underrate the value of our trade 
 with the countries of North and South America, it 
 may be well to state that their population is 
 nearly or quite 50,000,000, and that, in propor 
 tion to aggregate numbers, we import nearly 
 double as much from them as we do from Europe. 
 But the result of the whole American trade is in a 
 high degree unsatisfactory. The imports during 
 the past year exceeded $2 2 5, 000,000, while the ex 
 ports were less than $,125,000,000 showing a 
 balance against us of more than $100,000,000. 
 But the money does not go to Spanish America. 
 
410 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 We send large sums to Europe in coin or its 
 equivalent to pay European manufacturers for the 
 goods which they send to Spanish America. We 
 are but paymasters for this enormous amount 
 annually to European factors an amount which 
 is a serious draft, in every financial depression, 
 upon our resources of specie. 
 
 Can not this condition of trade in great part be 
 changed ? Can not the market for our products 
 be greatly enlarged ? We have made a begin 
 ning in our effort to improve our trade relations 
 with Mexico, and we should not be content until 
 similar and mutually advantageous arrangements 
 have been successively made with every nation of 
 North and South America. While the great 
 Powers of Europe are steadily enlarging their 
 colonial domination in Asia and Africa, it is the 
 especial province of this country to improve and 
 expand its trade with the nations of America. No 
 field promises so much. No field has been culti 
 vated so little. Our foreign policy should be an 
 American policy in its broadest and most compre 
 hensive sense a policy of peace, of friendship, of 
 commercial enlargement. 
 
 The name of American, which belongs to us 
 in our National capacity, must always exalt the 
 just pride of patriotism. Citizenship of the Re 
 public must be the panoply and safeguard of him 
 who wears it. The American citizen, rich or poor, 
 native or naturalized, white or colored, must 
 
THE LE T:ER OF . i CCEP . ANCE. 4 r 
 
 everywhere walk secure in his personal and civil 
 rights. The Republic should never accept a lesser 
 duty, it can never assume a nobler one, than the 
 protection of the humblest man who owes it loy 
 alty protection at home, and protection which 
 shall follow him abroad into whatever land he 
 may go upon a lawful errand. 
 
 I recognize, not without regret, the necessity 
 for speaking of two sections of our common 
 country. But the regret diminishes when I see 
 that the elements which separated them are fast 
 disappearing. Prejudices have yielded and are 
 yielding, while a growing cordiality warms the 
 Southern and the Northern heart alike. Can any 
 one doubt that between the sections confidence 
 and esteem are to-day more marked than at any 
 period in the sixty years preceding the election of 
 President Lincoln? This is the result in part of 
 time, and in part of Republican principles applied 
 under the favorable condition of uniformity. It 
 would be a great calamity to change these influ 
 ences under which Southern Commonwealths are 
 learning to vindicate civil rights, and adapting 
 themselves to the conditions of political tranquil 
 lity and industrial progress. If there be oc 
 casional and violent outbreaks in the South 
 against this peaceful progress, the public opin 
 ion of the country regards them as excep 
 tional, and hopefully trusts that each will prove 
 the last. 
 
JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 The South needs capital and occupation, not 
 controversy. As much as any part of the North, 
 the South needs the full protection of the revenue 
 laws which the Republican party offers. Some of 
 the Southern States have already entered upon a 
 career of industrial development and prosperity. 
 These, at least, should not lend their electoral 
 votes to destroy their own future. 
 
 Any effort to unite the Southern States upon 
 issues that grow out of the memories of the war, 
 will summon the Northern States to combine in 
 the assertion of that Nationality which was their 
 inspiration in the civil struggle. And thus great 
 energies which should be united in a common in 
 dustrial development will be wasted in hurtful 
 strife. The Democratic party shows itself a foe 
 to Southern prosperity by always invoking and 
 urging Southern political consolidation. .Such a 
 policy quenches the rising instinct of patriotism 
 in the heart of the Southern youth ; it revives 
 and stimulates prejudice ; it substitutes the spirit 
 of barbaric vengeance for the love of peace, 
 progress and harmony. 
 
 The general character of the Civil Service of 
 the United States, under all administrations, has 
 been honorable. In the one supreme test the 
 collection and disbursement of revenue the rec 
 ord of fidelity has never been surpassed in any 
 Nation. With the almost fabulous sums which were 
 received and paid during the late war, scrupulous 
 
THE LETTER OF A CCEPTANCE. 4 1 3 
 
 integrity was the prevailing rule. Indeed, through 
 out that trying period it can be said, to the honor 
 of the American name, that unfaithfulness and 
 dishonesty among civil officers were as rare as 
 misconduct and cowardice on the field of battle. 
 
 The growth of the country has continually and 
 necessarily enlarged the Civil Service, until now 
 it includes a vast body of officers. Rules and 
 methods of appointment which prevailed when 
 the number was smaller, have been found insuf 
 ficient and impracticable, and earnest efforts have 
 been made to separate the great mass of minis 
 terial officers from partisan influence and personal 
 control. Impartiality in the mode of appointment 
 to be based on qualification, and security of ten 
 ure to be based on faithful discharge of duty, are 
 the two ends to be accomplished. The public 
 business will be aided by separating the legisla 
 tive branch of the government from all control of 
 appointments, and the Executive Department 
 will be relieved by subjecting appointments to 
 fixed rules, and thus removing them from the 
 caprice of favoritism. B ut there should be right 
 observance of the law which gives, in all cases of 
 equal competency, the preference to the soldiers 
 who risked their lives in defence of the Union. 
 
 I entered Congress in 1863, and in a somewhat 
 prolonged service I never found it expedient to 
 request or recommend the removal of a civil 
 officer, except in four instances, and then for 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 non-political reasons which were instantly conclu 
 sive with the appointing power. The officers in the 
 district, appointed by Mr. Lincoln in 1861 upon 
 the recommendation of my predecessor, served, 
 as a rule, until death or resignation. I adopted 
 at the beginning of my service the test of com 
 petitive examination for appointments to West 
 Point, and maintained it so long as I had the right 
 by law to nominate a cadet. In the case of many 
 officers I found that the present law, which arbi 
 trarily limits the term of the commission, offered 
 a constant temptation to changes for mere political 
 reasons. I have publicly expressed the belief that 
 the essential modification of that law would be in 
 many respects advantageous. 
 
 My observation in the Department of State 
 confirmed the conclusion of my legislative experi 
 ence, and impressed me with the conviction that 
 the rule of impartial appointment might with 
 advantage be carried beyond any existing pro 
 vision of the civil service law. It should be 
 applied to appointments in the consular service. 
 Consuls should be commercial sentinels encir 
 cling the globe with watchfulness for their country s 
 interests. Their intelligence and competency 
 become, therefore, matters of great public con 
 cern. No man should be appointed to an Ameri 
 can consulate who is not well instructed in the 
 history and resources of his own country, and 
 in the requirements and language of commerce 
 

 REV. SAMUEL D. BURCHARD. 
 
THE LE TTER OF A CCEPTANCE. 4 1 7 
 
 in the country to which he is sent. The -same 
 rule should be applied even more rigidly to 
 secretaries of legation in our diplomatic service. 
 The people have the right to the most efficient 
 agents in the discharge of public business, and 
 the appointing power should regard this as the 
 prior and ulterior consideration. 
 
 Religious liberty is the right of every citizen of 
 the Republic. Congress is forbidden by the Con 
 stitution to make any lav/ "respecting the estab 
 lishment of religion or prohibiting the free 
 exercise thereof." For a century, under this 
 guarantee, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and 
 Gentile, have worshiped God according to the 
 dictates of conscience. But religious liberty must 
 not be perverted to the justification of offences 
 against the law. A religious sect, strongly en 
 trenched in one of the Territories of the Union, 
 and spreading rapidly into four other Territories, 
 claims the right to destroy the great safeguard 
 and muniment of social order, and to practise as 
 a religious privilege that which is a crime punished 
 with severe penalty in every State of the Union. 
 The sacredness and unity of the family must be 
 preserved as the foundation of all civil govern 
 ment, as the source of orderly administration, as 
 the surest guarantee of moral purity. 
 
 The claim of the Mormons that they are divinely 
 authorized to practise polygamy should no more 
 
 be admitted than the claim of certain heathen 
 
 24 
 
JAMES G. LAINE. 
 
 tribes, if they should come among us, to continue 
 the right of human sacrifice. The law does not 
 interfere with what a man believes ; it takes cog 
 nizance only of what he does. As citizens, the 
 Mormons are entitled to the same civil rights as 
 others, and to these they must be confined. 
 Polygamy can never receive National sanction or 
 toleration by admitting the community that up 
 holds it as a State in the Union. Like others, 
 the Mormons must learn that the liberty of the 
 individual ceases where the rights of society begin. 
 The people of the United States, though often 
 urged and tempted, have never seriously con 
 templated the recognition of any other money than 
 gold and silver and currency directly convertible 
 into them. They have not done so, they will not 
 do so, under any necessity less pressing than that 
 of desperate war. The one special requisite for 
 the completion of our monetary system is the 
 fixing of the relative values of silver and gold. 
 The large use of silver as the money of account 
 among Asiatic nations, taken in connection with 
 the increasing commerce of the world, gives the 
 weightiest reasons for an international agreement 
 in the premises. Our Government should not 
 cease to urge this measure until a common stand 
 ard of value shall be reached and established a 
 standard that shall enable the United States to 
 use the silver from its mines as an auxiliary to gold 
 in settling the balances of commercial exchange. 
 
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE, 
 
 The strength of the Republic is increased by 
 the multiplication of land-holders. Our laws 
 should look to the judicious encouragement of 
 actual settlers on the public domain, which should 
 henceforth be held as a sacred trust for the bene 
 fit of those seeking homes. The tendency to 
 consolidate large tracts of land in the ownership 
 of individuals or corporations should, with proper 
 regard to vested rights, be discouraged. One 
 hundred thousand acres of land in the hands of one 
 man is far less profitable to the Nation in every 
 way than when its ownership is divided among 
 one thousand men. The evil of permitting large 
 tracts of the National domain to be consolidated 
 and controlled by the few against the many, is en 
 hanced when the persons controlling it are aliens. 
 It is but fair that the public land should be dis 
 posed of only to actual settlers, and to those who 
 are citizens of the Republic, or willing to become 
 so. Among our National interests, one languishes 
 the foreign carrying trade. It was very seri 
 ously crippled in our Civil War, and another blow 
 was given to it in the general substitution of 
 steam for sail in ocean traffic. With a frontage 
 
 > _ 
 
 on the two great oceans, with a freightage larger 
 than that of any other nation, we have every in 
 ducement to restore our navigation. Yet the 
 Government has hitherto refused its help. A small 
 share of the encouragement given by the Govern 
 ment to railways and to manufactures, and a small 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 share of-the capital and the zeal given by our citi 
 zens to those enterprises, would have carried our 
 ships to every sea and to every port. A law just 
 enacted removes some of the burdens upon our 
 navigation, and inspires hope that this great interest 
 may at last receive its due share of attention. All ef 
 forts in this direction shouldreceive encouragement. 
 This survey of our condition as a Nation re 
 minds us that material prosperity is but a mockery 
 if it does not tend to preserve the liberty of the 
 people. A free ballot is the safeguard of Re 
 publican institutions, without which no national 
 welfare is assured. A popular election, honestly 
 conducted, embodies the very majesty of true 
 government. Ten millions of voters desire to 
 take part in the pending contest. The safety of 
 the Republic rests upon the integrity of the ballot, 
 upon the security of suffrage to the citizens. To 
 deposit a fraudulent vote is no worse a crime 
 against constitutional liberty than to obstruct the 
 deposit of an honest vote. He who corrupts suf 
 frage strikes at the very root of free government. 
 He is the arch-enemy of the Republic. He for 
 gets that in trampling upon the rights of others he 
 fatally imperils his own rights. "It is a good 
 land which the Lord our God doth give us," but 
 we can maintain our heritage only by guarding 
 with vigilance the source of popular power. I 
 am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 
 
 A Bitter and Exciting Political Contest The Standard-Bearers of (he Two 
 Parties Personal Attacks upon Mr. Blaine--The Mugwump Defection 
 The State Election in Maine Mr Elaine s Tour through the Coun 
 try His Visit to New York The Delmonico Dinner The Visit of 
 the Clergymen " Rum, Romanism and Rebellion " Some Reckless 
 Lying Effect of the Mischief Result of the Election Mr. Elaine s 
 Comments The Cleveland Administration. 
 
 " It was a battle of the first rank won by a Cap 
 tain of the Second." These words, -written by 
 Victor Hugo concerning the battle of Waterloo, 
 might with entire justice be applied to the Presi 
 dential campaign of 1884. It was apolitical con 
 test of the greatest importance and of the in- 
 tensest interest. On one side, the leader was 
 confessedly the most conspicuous and most able 
 American statesman of the time. On the otheiv 
 the leader was a comparatively unknown and 
 inconspicuous man, who, however estimable, was 
 not, even by his most ardent partisans, compared 
 with his opponent in experience of public affairs 
 or in the general qualities of leadership and 
 statesmanship. And the contest by the narrow 
 est of margins, and by virtue of a malice-inspired 
 accident at the eleventh hour, was won by the 
 latter. 
 
 421 
 
422 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 James G. Elaine was the candidate of the Re 
 publican party, the party which had elected every 
 President of the United States for nearly a quarter 
 of a century. With him was associated, as candidate 
 for the Vice-Presidency, General John A. Logan, 
 who had been one of the most conspicuous com 
 manders in the National army during the War of 
 the Rebellion, and who since had served with dis 
 tinction in both Houses of Congress and had shown 
 himself a statesman of no mean rank. The Demo 
 cratic candidate was Stephen Grover Cleveland. 
 He had been during the war a Democrat of pro- 
 slavery proclivities. He had begun his public ca 
 reer in the city of Buffalo, N. Y., as Sheriff and pub 
 lic hangman ; had been elected Mayor of that city 
 as a " reform " candidate at a time of political up 
 heaval and transition ; and finally had been elected 
 Governor of New York State by the phenomenal 
 majority of nearly 200,000- a majority which he 
 owed to the fact that about that number of Re 
 publicans had at that election refrained from vot 
 ing for their own party candidate because of their 
 dissatisfaction with the influences which had se 
 cured his nomination. As Mayor and Governor, 
 Mr. Cleveland had acquired a reputation for a 
 considerable degree -of executive ability and also 
 for certain "reform" qualities, by virtue of which 
 it was supposed that he would, if elected Presi 
 dent, introduce Vnat were vaguely termed "busi- 
 -ness ru^thod:- " into the administration of his 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 423 
 
 office. He was also known to be in favor of 
 Free Trade, or " a tariff for revenue only," as 
 against the Republican principle of Protection. 
 His associate, the candidate for the Vice-Presi 
 dency, was Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, a 
 statesman of much higher rank, greater abilities 
 and more extended experience. 
 
 The campaign between the two parties, thus 
 led, was one of the most bitterly contested in the 
 whole history of American politics. On the Re 
 publican side it was fought chiefly on the issue of 
 the tariff. The advantages of Protection in build 
 ing up American industries and assuring to 
 American workmen higher wages than were paid 
 in other lands, were unceasingly urged. The Dem 
 ocrats spoke in favor of Free Trade, but did not 
 venture very strongly to press that point. They 
 devoted their attention chiefly to personal attacks 
 upon Mr. Elaine, many of them of an indescrib 
 ably scurrilous character. The " Mulligan letters " 
 were again dragged forth and exploited in every 
 possible manner. One of Mr. Elaine s most ear 
 nest and able champions, Mr. William Walter 
 Phelps, of New Jersey, made a conclusive reply 
 to this attack, amply disposing of all the renewed 
 charges against Mr. Elaine. But this did not 
 silence the latter s enemies. They kept harping 
 upon the same worn strings all through the cam 
 paign. The absurd Shipherd business was also 
 pitchforked into fresh notoriety. More than all 
 
424 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 this, the sanctity of Mr. Elaine s private life was 
 invaded and the most shocking libels were uttered 
 against his domestic relations. 
 
 Nor were Mr. Elaine s opponents confined to 
 the Democratic party. A considerable number 
 of Republicans, inspired by jealousy or envy, re 
 fused to support him. Another section of that 
 party, favoring Free Trade, openly repudiated him 
 and went over in a body to the support of Mr. 
 Cleveland. They were at first called Indepen 
 dents, but afterwards received the permanent ap 
 pellation of Mugwumps. The real source of 
 their opposition to Mr. Elaine, as stated by their 
 most conspicuous leader, was his well-known 
 championship of the protective tariff system. They 
 pretended, however, to be opposed to him on the 
 ground of his alleged official corruption in con 
 nection with the " Mulligan letters " business, and 
 also because of his intense partisanship and so- 
 called machine politics. The newspaper organs 
 of the Mugwumps were the most persistent and 
 bitter of all the critics of Mr. Elaine. 
 
 On the other hand, the mass of the Republican 
 party rallied with almost unprecedented enthu 
 siasm to the support of their brilliant and accom 
 plished leader. The more bitter were the attacks 
 on him, the more ardent and energetic were his 
 friends in repelling " them. Nor were his sup 
 porters confined to those hitherto known as Re 
 publicans. His advocacy of the rights of American 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 425 
 
 labor made him the champion of working men 
 everywhere and drew to his support thousands 
 who had hitherto been identified with the Demo 
 cratic party. His vigorous assertion of the rights 
 of American citizens in all parts of the world 
 during his brief term as Secretary of State, and 
 his well-known sympathy with the struggle for 
 Home Rule in Ireland, won for him the votes of 
 thousands of Americans of Irish origin. So it ap 
 peared to be for him a winning battle, and down 
 to the very day of the election his friends were 
 confident of his success. 
 
 During the early part of the campaign Mr. Elaine 
 remained quietly at his home in Maine, leaving 
 the active conduct of the struggle to his friends. 
 During the State campaign in Maine, however, 
 which culminated in the election of a Governor 
 on Septemer 8th, two months before the Presiden 
 tial election, he attended a number of political 
 meetings and made addresses. Although his re 
 marks were not of a partisan political character, 
 they greatly encouraged the Republicans and 
 aided them in their campaign, and the splendid 
 majority of nearly 20,000 by which the Republican 
 candidate for Governor was elected was rightly 
 considered to be due, in great part, to Mr. Elaine s 
 influence. Late in the evening of the day of the 
 State election a great multitude assembled before 
 Mr. Elaine s house at Augusta, to pay him their 
 tribute of respect and congratulations, and he 
 
426 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 made tt onef address to them. He referred in 
 , moderate but emphatic terms to the issues of the 
 National campaign, and explained why he had 
 not more actively participated in the State cam 
 paign. " I do not disguise from you," he said, 
 "that I am profoundly gratified with the result. 
 Desirous of the good opinion of all men, I am 
 sure I esteem beyond all others the good opinion 
 of these excellent people, among whom I have 
 passed nearly all the years of my adult life, and 
 who have known me intimately from young man 
 hood as a fellow-citizen, neighbor and friend." 
 
 Republican leaders throughout the country now 
 began to argue, most reasonably, that if Mr. 
 Elaine s mere presence in Maine had effected 
 such good results, his participation in the party 
 canvass in other States would materially aid the 
 prosecution of the campaign. Mr. Elaine was re- 
 lucant to make what is called a personal canvass, 
 but he finally yielded to the earnest solicitations 
 of his friends, and on September i ;th left Augusta 
 for New York. His progress through the States 
 of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts 
 was marked everywhere by extraordinary en 
 thusiasm. At Boston that night he made a very 
 brief address to about 20,000 people who had 
 gathered in the street before his hotel. The next 
 day he proceeded by train to New York, stopping 
 at Worcester, Palmer, Springfield and Hartford for 
 a few minutes each to exchange greetings with the 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. ^ 2 J 
 
 multitudes who had assembled to do him honor. He 
 was welcomed to New York by an almost unprece 
 dented demonstration of popular enthusiasm. 
 Among the many eminent people who called upon 
 him at his hotel the next day was General Grant, 
 who had a long and pleasant conversation with 
 him and expressed confidence in his election. In 
 the evening he had an informal reception at the 
 headquarters of the Republican National Com 
 mittee, and appeared for a few minutes on the 
 platform in front of the building to receive the 
 greetings of 50,000 or 60,000 citizens who 
 crowded the street. He remained in New York 
 until the evening of September 22d, when he 
 set out for Philadelphia. All the way across New 
 Jersey the train was saluted by enthusiastic thou 
 sands, and in Philadelphia an enormous multi 
 tude welcomed him. 
 
 Mr. Elaine set out for Ohio, where his presence 
 was especially desired, on September 24th, going 
 by the way of the New York Central and Hudson 
 River Railroad. At every station where the train 
 stopped great crowds were assembled and Mr. 
 Elaine spoke a few words of personal greeting. 
 This was clone at Peekskill, Cold Spring, Fishkill, 
 Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Albany, Schenectady, 
 Fonda, Fort Plain, Little Falls, Herkimer, Cana- 
 stota, Utica, Rome, and Syracuse. At the last- 
 named place he remained over night, and the next 
 morning resumed his journey. Brief stops were 
 
428 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 made at Auburn, Seneca Falls, Geneva, Phelps, 
 Canandaigua, Batavia, and Rochester. At Buffalo 
 he remained over night, and was welcomed by an 
 outpouring of fully 70,000 people in that city, the 
 home of his rival. The next day he completed 
 his journey to Ohio, stopping at Dunkirk, West- 
 field and Erie. Brief stops were made at various 
 points in Ohio before reaching Cleveland, where 
 a tremendous demonstration was made by at least 
 100,000 people. In this State, he visited Toledo, 
 Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and various other 
 places, making brief addresses and greatly in 
 spiring and encouraging his party friends every 
 where. 
 
 Early in October he visited West Virginia and 
 made addresses at various points. Then he 
 returned to Ohio and made a second tour of the 
 State. October i4th found him in Michigan. He 
 visited a number of cities in that State, and then 
 proceeded to Indiana. Some of his strongest 
 speeches of the whole campaign were made in 
 this State, and at Indianapolis, the home of the 
 Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency, he 
 was greeted by one of the greatest public gather 
 ings ever seen in that city. On October 26th, he 
 visited Milwaukee and made a stirring speech. 
 Here an address was presented to him by a large 
 club of Irish Americans. Returning to Chicago, 
 he reviewed an organized procession of 30,000 
 men who paraded past his hotel, and received 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 429 
 
 many tributes of esteem and pledges of support 
 from the people of that city. 
 
 His return to New York was made by the way 
 of the Erie Railroad, and at the various stopping 
 places through New York State and New Jersey 
 similar demonstrations were made to those which 
 had marked his progress westward the month be 
 fore. On his arrival in New York City, the entire 
 metropolis seemed to come out to welcome him, 
 and every street echoed with the sound of marching 
 feet, and the familiar battle cry, " Elaine ! Elaine i 
 James G. Elaine ! " Soon after his arrival he was 
 called upon to review a parade of 25,000 business 
 men of the city, including many of the leaders in 
 all branches of trade and industry. 
 
 While in the West, Mr. Elaine had received a 
 letter from the Hon. William M. Evarts and about 
 two hundred other eminent citizens of New York, 
 inviting him to dine as their guest at Delmonico s 
 well-known hotel on some evening in the last 
 week of the campaign. He had replied to it, 
 from Evansville, indicating Wednesday evening, 
 October 29th, as the elate most acceptable to him. 
 The company that gathered on that occasion was 
 one of the most distinguished ever seen in New 
 York. Mr. Evarts presided, Mr. Elaine sitting at 
 his right hand, and the Hon. L. P. Morton, United 
 States Minister to France, at his left. Other 
 guests at that table were Noah Davis, Presiding 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of New York ; 
 
430 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 ex-Governor Cornell, of New York ; Governor 
 Hoyt, of Pennsylvania ; Cyrus W. Field, the con 
 structor of the Atlantic Cable ; and Charles E. 
 Coon, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. At 
 the other tables were many of the most eminent 
 and respected men of New York City, represent 
 ing all the learned professions and all branches of 
 trade and industry. Various addresses were 
 made, but the chief interest of the evening 
 centred upon that of Mr. Elaine himself, which 
 was as follows : 
 
 "It is a great reversal of positions, Mr. Presi 
 dent (addressing Mr. Evarts), that makes me 
 hear you ascribe leadership to me. (Applause.) 
 For it has been my duty and my pleasure in these 
 long years to follow you (applause and cheers) ; 
 to learn from you wisdom in public affairs, and 
 join with my countrymen in ascribing to you not 
 merely the great merit of leadership in the noblest 
 of professions, but to yield our admiration for the 
 singular success which has given to you the op 
 portunity to lead in the three most important 
 cases ever pleaded by a member of the American 
 bar. (Applause.) First, in resisting your own 
 party in what you deemed the impolicy, if not the 
 madness of impeaching a President (cries of 
 "Good! Good! "and cheers); second, in main 
 taining before the greatest international tribunal 
 that has ever assembled in modern times the 
 rights of your country and obtaining redress for 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 43 I 
 
 wrongs to her that grew out of the Civil War 
 (applause) ; and third, in perhaps averting an 
 other civil war by pleading before an Electoral 
 Commission a peaceful settlement of the angriest 
 political discussion that ever arose between the 
 parties in the United States. (Applause and 
 cheers ) 
 
 "I turn now from your President to thank you, 
 merchants, professional men, leaders in the great 
 and complex society of New York to thank you 
 for receiving me, not merely at this festal board, 
 but also in that far more impressive reception 
 which the close of this rainy day witnesses in 
 your broad and beautiful avenue. I could not, I 
 am sure, by any possible stretch of vanity take 
 this large and generous demonstration to myself. 
 It is given to me only for the time as the repre 
 sentative of the principles which you and I hold 
 in common, touching those great interests which 
 underlie, as we believe, the prosperity of the 
 Nation. (Applause.) And it is fitting that the 
 commercial metropolis of the continent should 
 lead ; it is fitting that the financial centre of the 
 continent should lead ; it is fitting that this great 
 city, second only in the world, should give an ex 
 pression to the continent of its views and its 
 judgment on the important questions to be decided 
 Tuesday next by the American people. (Cheers.) 
 
 And I venture not that I know it so well as 
 you, but that I am spokesman for the present I 
 
432 JAMES G. 
 
 venture to remind you, men of New York, with 
 your wealth and your just influence and your 
 magnificent prestige, that seventy per cent, of the 
 entire property of this city has been acquired 
 since Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, the 4th 
 of March, 1861. I should not mention here a 
 fact of percentage and of statistics if it did not 
 carry with it an argument and a moral. The 
 common apprehension in regard to New York is 
 that it is simply a great commercial city so great 
 that its exports and imports represent largely the 
 major part of all that is exported from or imported 
 into the United States. That we all know. But 
 we are often prone to forget that New York is the 
 largest manufacturing city in the world, with per 
 haps a single exception ; that of Jthe $6,000,000,000 
 of manufactures annually produced in the United 
 States, this great Empire State furnishes one-fifth 
 $1,200,000,000 of which this great Empire 
 City produces $500,000,000. And from these 
 facts comes that great sympathy, that identity of 
 interest which has moved the previously existing 
 conflicts between what have been known as the 
 manufacturing and the commercial interests, and 
 has taught us that there can be no true prosperity 
 in the country unless the three great interests 
 comprehended by agriculture, manufactures and 
 commerce are acting in harmony, the one with the 
 other, and joining together for a common end and 
 for the common good. (Cheers.) 
 
m 
 
 WM. McKINLEY. 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 435 
 
 " It is usually thought that a change of Govern 
 ment means but little ; that we come together 
 with our votes a given day and count them as the 
 sun goes down, and one party goes out and 
 another comes in. But, gentlemen, it is worth 
 while to remember that the United States is pro 
 ceeding to-day upon a given basis of public policy 
 I might say upon a given series of public policies. 
 We have a great financial system ; we have a 
 great currency system ; we have an important 
 National credit ; we have a levying of duties, as 
 has been so well described by your distinguished 
 President of the evening, so adjusted that the in 
 dustries of the country are fostered and encour 
 aged thereby ; we have three important constitu 
 tional amendments that grew out of the war, 
 upon which, at this hour and in the hours, and the 
 days, and the weeks, and the years to follow, 
 great issues hang in this country. Are we if we 
 should be invited to step down and out and our 
 opponents to step up and in (applause) are we 
 to understand that these policies are to be re 
 versed? (Cries of "Yes! Yes!") Then if we 
 are to understand that they are to be reversed we 
 should, one and all, prepare for a grand disaster. 
 (" Hear ! Hear !" and cheers.) For a single illus 
 tration, let me recall to your minds that the repeal 
 of ten lines in the National Banking Act would 
 restore to vitality and vigor the old State-bank 
 system from which we had happily escaped, as w r e 
 25 
 
436 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 thought, for all the remainder of our lives. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 "If these policies are to be reversed, you will 
 have to recast your accounts and review your 
 ledgers and prepare for a new and, I may say, a 
 dangerous departure ; and if these policies are 
 not to be reversed, they will certainly be better 
 maintained by the great party which originated 
 them and has thus far sustained them with vigor 
 and success. (Applause.) 
 
 "As I have already said, we speak of New 
 York as the great exporting and importing city, 
 and from that perhaps we often give an exagger 
 ated importance, relatively speaking, to our 
 foreign trade, because this magnificent metropolis 
 never would have attained its grandeur and its 
 wealth upon the foreign trade alone. We should 
 never forget, important as that trade is, represent 
 ing the enormous sum of $1,500,000,000 annually, 
 that it sinks into insignificance and is dwarfed out 
 of sight when we think of those vast domestic 
 exchanges of which New York is the admitted 
 centre and which annually exceed $2,000,000,000. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 " Our foreign trade naturally brings to our con 
 sideration the foreign relations of this country, so 
 well described by my distinguished friend as 
 always simple and sincere. It is the safeguard of 
 Republics that they are not adapted to war. 
 (Cheers.) I mean aggressive war. (Cheers.) 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 437 
 
 And it is the safeguard of this Rupublic that in a 
 defensive war we can defy the world. (Loud 
 cheering.) This Nation to-day is in profound 
 peace with the world. (Cheers.) But, in my 
 judgment, it has before it a great duty which will 
 not only make that profound peace permanent, but 
 shall set such an example as will absolutely 
 abolish war on this continent, and by a great 
 example and a lofty moral precedent shall ulti 
 mately abolish it in other continents. (Great and 
 long-continued cheering.) I am justified in say 
 ing that every one of the seventeen independent 
 Powers of North and South America is not only 
 willing but ready is not only ready but eager 
 to enter into a solemn compact in a congress that 
 may be called in the name of peace to agree that 
 if, unhappily, differences shall arise as differ 
 ences will arise between men and nations they 
 shall be settled upon the peaceful and Christian 
 basis of arbitration. (Great cheering.) 
 
 And, as I have often said before, I am glad to 
 repeat in this great centre of civilization and 
 power that in my judgment no National spectacle, 
 no international spectacle, no continental spec 
 tacle, could be more grand than that the Repub 
 lics of the Western World should meet together 
 and solemnly agree that neither the soil of 
 North nor that of South America shall be here 
 after stained by brothers blood. (Prolonged 
 cheering.) 
 
438 JAMES G. 8LAINE. 
 
 "The Republican party, gentlemen, cannot be 
 said to be on trial. (Cheers.) To be on trial 
 implies something to be tried for. ("Right!" 
 "That s so!" and cheers.) The Republican 
 party in its twenty-three years of rulership has 
 advanced the interests of this country far beyond 
 that of any of its predecessors in power. It has 
 elevated the standard of America it has increased 
 its wealth in a ratio never before realized, and, I 
 may add, never before dreamed of. (Great 
 cheering-.) 
 
 o / 
 
 "Statistics, I know, are dry ; and I have dwelt 
 so much upon them in the last six weeks that 
 they might be supposed to be especially dry to me. 
 And yet I never can forget the eloquence of the 
 figures which tell us that the wealth of this great 
 Empire State when the Republican party took the 
 reins of government was estimated at $1,800,- 
 000,000, and that twenty years afterward, under 
 the influence of an industrial and financial system 
 for which that party is proudly responsible (great 
 applause), under the influence of that industrial 
 and financial system, the same tests which gave 
 you $1,800,000,000 of property in 1860 gave you 
 $6,300,000,000 in 1880. (Loud and long-con 
 tinued cheering.) There > has never been in all 
 the history of financial progress there has never 
 been in all the history of the world any parallel 
 to this ; and I am sure, gentlemen, that the Re 
 publican party is not arrogant nor over-confident 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 439 
 
 when it claims to itself the credit of organizing 
 and maintaining the industrial system which 
 gave to you and your associates in enterprise the 
 equal and just laws which enable you to make this 
 marvelous progress. (Great cheering.) 
 
 "As I have said, that party is not on trial. 
 If it has made mistakes, they have been merged 
 and forgotten in the greater success which has 
 corrected them. (Cheers.) If it has had internal 
 differences, they are laid aside. (Cheers.) If it 
 has had factional strife, I am sure that has ceased. 
 (Renewed cheering.) And I am equally sure 
 that, looking to the history of the past and look 
 ing to that great future which we are justified in 
 prophesying, this Imperial State cannot afford to 
 reverse, and therefore will not reverse, those great 
 policies upon which it has grown and advanced 
 from glory to glory. (Enthusiastic cheering.) 
 
 " I thank you, gentlemen ; I thank that larger 
 number with whom I have already had the plea 
 sure of exchanging greetings to-day, I thank the 
 ministers, the merchants, the lawyers, the pro 
 fessional men, the mechanics, the laboring men 
 of New York (applause), for a cordial reception, 
 an over-generous welcome, which in all the muta 
 tions of my future life will be to me among the 
 proudest and most precious of my memories." 
 
 The most important incident of this visit to 
 New York, however, occurred a few hours before 
 this banquet, at ten o clock on the morning of 
 
440 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 October 29th. At that time the Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel, where Mr. Elaine was staying, was visited 
 by hundreds of clergymen of various denomina 
 tions, who assembled for the purpose of making 
 to him a formal address. The assemblage was 
 called to order by the Rev. Dr. James M. King, 
 one of the foremost ministers of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. The Rev. Dr. Samuel D. 
 Burchard, a superannuated Presbyterian minister, 
 was made Chairman, and the Rev. Dr. Robert 
 S. McArthur, one of the best-known Baptist 
 preachers of the city, was made Secretary. The 
 following resolutions were then presented by Dr. 
 King, read and unanimously adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, i. That we believe that the triumph of the 
 principles of the Republican party is essential to the welfare 
 of the country and to the /preservation of the results of the 
 late civil strife, and consequently that the election of its rep 
 resentatives in the persons of the Hon. James G. Elaine and 
 Gen. John A. Logan is imperative. 
 
 " 2. That we believe in the purity of the personal charac 
 ter of these standard-bearers, and also believe in their trained 
 capacity as statesmen to meet the claims of the high offices 
 for which they are in nomination. 
 
 " 3. That we protest against the coronation of con 
 ceded personal impurity as represented by the head of the 
 Democratic ticket, and, while we deplore the necessity, we do 
 not evade the responsibility of declaring our judgment to the 
 world of this insult to Christian civilization embodied in such 
 nomination for the Presidency of the Republic. 
 
 "4. That we are opposed to putting a premium ondisloy- 
 *lty as presented by the candidate for the Vice-Presidency of 
 the Democratic party. 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 441 
 
 " 5. That we exhort all well-meaning and loyal citizens, 
 regardless of party, when purity is at stake, not, by voting 
 for the Prohibition candidate, to cast a half- vote for the Demo 
 cratic party with the semi-sanction of impurity and 
 dissipation, nor to cast a whole vote for a man whose name 
 is now the conspicuous synonym of incapacity and incon- 
 tinency. 
 
 "6. That we exhort our fellow-citizens to cast one vote 
 for virtue in the home, for protection for the rights of the 
 humblest citizens at home and abroad, for protection for 
 American industries, for the settlement of international dif 
 ferences by arbitration, for the war against polygamy, for 
 decent treatment of Indians, for the preservation of the 
 results of the wars of the Revolution and of the Rebellion, 
 for every sacred interest of our beloved country, by voting 
 the Republican ticket at the ensuing election." 
 
 The Chairman then appointed as a committee 
 to receive Mr. Elaine, when he should come be 
 fore the meeting, Dr. King, Dr. McArthur, the 
 Rev. Dr. Spear, of the Presbyterian Church, the 
 Rev. Dr. Brown, of the Jewish Church, the Rev. 
 Dr. J. G. Roberts, of the Congregational Church, 
 and Richard Lawrence, of the Society of Friends. 
 The entire body of clergymen then went out into 
 the main corridor of the hotel, and presently Mr. 
 Elaine came down the stairway leaning on the arm 
 of Dr. King. Close behind him were Mrs. Elaine, 
 Walker Elaine, the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Elaine, and the Hon. Levi P. Morton. Mr. Elaine 
 stopped a few steps from the foot of the stairway, 
 and the Rev. Dr. Burchard ascended to his side 
 and addressed him as follows : 
 
442 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 "We are very happy to welcome you to this 
 city. You see here a representation of all de 
 nominations of this city. You see the large num 
 ber that are represented. We are your friends, 
 Mr. P .aine, and, notwithstanding all the calumnies 
 that have been urged in the papers against you, 
 we stand by your side. (Shouts of " Amen.") 
 We expect to vote for you next Tuesday. We 
 have higher expectations, which are that you will 
 be the President of the United States, and that 
 you will do honor to your name, to the United 
 States, and to the high office you will occupy. 
 We are Republicans, and don t propose to leave 
 our party and identify ourselves with the party 
 whose antecedents have been Rum, Romanism 
 and Rebellion. We are loyal to our flag. We 
 are loyal to you." 
 
 At the words "Rum, Romanism and Rebel 
 lion," Mr. Elaine started perceptibly and an ex 
 pression of pained surprise flashed over his face. 
 But he said nothing at the moment concerning 
 them, and they passed unnoticed by most of those 
 /ho were present. The other members of the 
 committee then addressed Mr. Elaine briefly, and 
 he responded in the following terms : 
 
 " MR. CHAIRMAN AND REVEREND GENTLEMEN : 
 This is altogether a very remarkable assem 
 blage remarkable beyond any of which I have 
 known in the history of political contests in the 
 United States and it does not need my personal 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 443 
 
 assurance that you should know that I am very 
 deeply impressed by it. I do not feel that I am 
 speaking to these hundreds of men merely. I am 
 speaking to the great congregations and the great 
 religious opinion which is behind them, and, as 
 they represent the great Christian bodies, I know 
 and realize the full weight of that which you say 
 to me and of the influence which you tender me. 
 Were it to me personally, I confess that I should 
 be overcome by the compliment and the weight 
 of confidence which it carries, but I know that it 
 is extended to me as the representative of the 
 party whose creed and whose practices are in 
 harmony with the churches. The Republican 
 party, from its very outset, stood upon the im 
 pregnable platform of opposition to the extension 
 of human slavery, and stood on that platform till 
 it was drifted by the hostility it provoked into a . 
 larger assertion of national sovereignty and 
 thence into a bloody conflict to maintain it. From 
 that onward I defy any man to point to a single 
 measure of the Republican party which could 
 not challenge the approbation of Christian min 
 isters and the approval of God. And when, as 
 one of the reverend speakers has said, I narrowed 
 the issue when I spoke of it (coming down to a 
 question of the. tariff), I did not mean to exclude 
 therefrom I could not mean it that great history 
 of the party which is its wealth and its creed, and 
 which gives to you and to all that stand behind 
 
444 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 you the assurance that, whatever issue it attempts 
 to enforce, it will do it in good faith. They can 
 no more separate a party from its history than 
 you can separate a man from his character, and 
 when the great make-up of public opinion is ready 
 to take into account the origin, progress, the 
 measures, the character of the party, and the 
 character of its public men. 
 
 "What I meant by saying that the tariff was 
 the conclusive issue was that it steps to the fore 
 front, not in exclusion of a thousand other im 
 portant issues ; but for this critical occasion, and 
 at the close of this great campaign, it stands forth 
 as that issue which represents bread to the hun 
 gry, clothing to the naked, and prosperity to the 
 entire people. And the tariff is, therefore, merely 
 as a national issue, distinct and separate from the 
 great moral issues, because, as I have said before 
 Western audiences, I say here, you cannot im 
 press a man if he is hungry with any other 
 thought than that he shall be fed. You cannot 
 
 o 
 
 impress man if he is naked with any other 
 thought than that he shall be clothed, and there 
 fore that public policy and statesmanship is 
 highest and best that attends to the primary 
 needs of human nature first, and says, here is 
 bread for the hungry, here is clothing for the 
 naked. And the tariff, which protects the Ameri 
 can laborer in his wages, the American capitalist 
 in his investments, the inventive talent in the 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. *** 
 
 country in its enterprise, is the issue which lies at 
 the very foundation of the success of the Christian 
 religion. When you send out your missions to 
 the destitute places you clothe the little naked 
 children and give them food at the first step. 
 Therefore, I repeat, that the great conflict of 1884 
 closes with the people of the United States stand 
 ing face to face in two parties, saying whether 
 they will adhere to that policy of protection which 
 has trebled the wealth of the United States in 
 twenty years, or whether they will abandon it and 
 return once more to the failing theory of free 
 trade. ("Never! Never!") It involves other 
 issues, too. No nation can grow so powerful as 
 the United States has grown and is growing, con 
 tinually enlarging its relations with other nations. 
 As these relations become so enlarged they be 
 come complicated, and therefore the foreign policy 
 of the United States goes right along with its 
 domestic policy supplements and complements 
 it and we cannot in any affair of our destiny and 
 our policy separate one from the other. 
 
 " Now, gentleman of the church, I address an 
 earnest word to you. The policy of the United 
 States in the past and in the future must be one 
 of broad, liberal Christian principles, and in that 
 policy it must be one in my judgment which draws 
 nearer within the circle of the sympathies of the 
 United States those other struggling Republics 
 of North and South America, which bring them 
 
446 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 first into trade relations and then into close per 
 sonal and moral relations, and I believe that we 
 shall not only have the great gain that comes from 
 intercourse, but we shall enlarge the civilization 
 of the Anglo-Saxon until its limits shall include 
 the most Southern point of the continent. 
 
 " I did not intend, in accepting and acknowledg 
 ing the great sense of obligation I feel for this 
 honor, to go into a prolonged political speech. I 
 have but indicated two leading points which I 
 think are involved in the pending election. It 
 only remains for me to say to you that I recognize 
 at its full worth and its full worth is very great 
 the meaning of this assemblage. We have no 
 union of Church and State, but we have proved 
 that the Church is stronger without the State, 
 and we have proved that no State can be strong 
 without the Church. Let us go forward as we 
 have gone, the State growing and strengthening 
 by the example of the Church, and the Church 
 growing and strengthening by liberal co-opera 
 tion with all the great reforms which it is the 
 immediate province of the Government to forward 
 and improve. Gentlemen, I thank you again, and 
 bid you a very cordial good-morning." 
 
 Hearty cheers were then given by the assembled 
 clergymen for Mr. and Mrs. Elaine, and the 
 remarkable gathering dispersed. On October 3oth 
 Mr. Elaine was received at two or three enor 
 mous gatherings in Brooklyn and on the following 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 447 
 
 day one of the largest political parades ever seen 
 in New York City was made in his honor, there 
 being in line organized clubs from Brooklyn, 
 Newark, Albany, Philadelphia and elsewhere. Mr. 
 Elaine then set out for his home in Maine. 
 
 Dr. Burchard s unfortunate expression, "Rum, 
 Romanism and Rebellion," did not pass unnoticed 
 by Mr. Blaine s enemies. Up to this point his 
 campaign had been a prosperous one, and had 
 the election been held before Dr. Burchard s 
 speech was made there is no doubt but that he 
 would have been handsomely elected. His 
 despairing enemies grasped with exultant energy 
 at the opportunity which that phrase afforded of 
 alienating some of his supporters. The words 
 were instantly taken up and spread broadcast 
 throughout the country by telegram, in the news 
 papers, and in printed circulars, as well as by 
 word of mouth. With unblushing mendacity it 
 was asserted that Mr. Blaine himself had uttered 
 the offensive expression. Handbills containing the 
 words, fixing full responsibility for them upon Mr. 
 Blaine, and construing them as an expression of 
 his personal hostility to the Roman Catholic 
 Church, were distributed by tens of thousands to 
 the members of all congregations of that faith. In 
 this way hundreds and perhaps thousands of 
 Roman Catholics were led to abandon their sup 
 port of Mr. Blaine. By the perversity of fate this 
 incident occurred long enough in advance of the 
 
448 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 election to allow these calumnies to be spread 
 throughout the land and to do the mischief that 
 was intended, but not long enough to allow 
 explanation to be made and Mr. Blaine to be 
 vindicated. 
 
 On reaching New Haven, on November ist, 
 Mr. Blaine made the following address referring 
 to this matter : 
 
 "There has been placed in my hands since my 
 arrival in New Haven an address from the clergy 
 men of this city expressing their respect and con 
 fidence, and, through the person who delivered it, 
 the assurance that in matters of public right and 
 in matters of public participation under the laws 
 and Constitution of the United States they know 
 no sect ; they know no Protestant, no Catholic, 
 no Hebrew, but the equality of all. (" Good ! " 
 and cheers.) In the city of Hartford I had a letter 
 put into my hands asking me why I charged the 
 Democratic party with being inspired by rum, 
 Romanism and rebellion. (A voice, "You never 
 said that.") My answer, in the first place, is that 
 they put in my mouth an unfortunate expression 
 of another man ; and, in the next place, it gives 
 me an opportunity to say, at the close of the 
 campaign, trfat in public speeches which I have 
 made I have refrained carefully and instinctively 
 from making any disrespectful allusion to the 
 Democratic party. I differ from that party pro 
 foundly on matters of principle, but I have too 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 449 
 
 much respect for the millions of my countrymen 
 . whom it embraces to assail it with epithets or 
 abuse. (" Good ! Good ! " and cheers.) In the 
 next place, I am sure that I am the last man in the 
 United States who would make a disrespectful 
 allusion to another man s religion. The United 
 States guarantees freedom of religious opinion, 
 and before the law and under the Constitution 
 the Protestant and the Catholic 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 convic 
 tion and connected with a Protestant church, I 
 should esteem myself of all men the most de 
 graded if, under any pressure or under any 
 temptation, I could in any presence make a disre 
 spectful allusion to that ancient faith in which my 
 mother lived and died. (Enthusiastic and long- 
 continued cheering.) 
 
 "The question now before the people of the 
 United States is not a religious one. The question 
 to be settled in this election is one that comes home 
 to the door-sill and the fireside of every American 
 citizen. We have enjoyed in this country for the 
 last twenty-three years the advantage of a pro 
 tective tariff. There is not a man within sound 
 of my voice, there is not a man in Connecticut, 
 there is not a man in New England, there is not 
 
45 O JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 a man in the United States, who is not directly 
 or indirectly interested in the protective tariff. 
 (Cheers.) I see before me a large assemblage, 
 including, doubtless, many who earn their bread 
 in the sweat of their faces, and to whom the daily 
 wages of labor is a matter of great importance. 
 I beg to remind them that the only agency which 
 secures them higher wages for their labor than a 
 man in the British Isles receives for the same 
 labor, is the protective tariff. (Cheers.) When 
 I look abroad in the State, and when I examine 
 your statistics, I find that Connecticut has doubled 
 its wealth in the last twenty years, and I submit 
 that that rapid ratio of increase in thrift, inde 
 pendence and progress is a direct result of the 
 protective tariff. (Loud cheering.) So that every 
 man, whether he be a capitalist or laborer, whether 
 he be manufacturer or operative, finds that the 
 question of protecting American industry enters 
 into the warp and woof of his daily life. The 
 Republican party is nothing if it is not protective ; 
 it is a cardinal doctrine in the creed of the Re 
 publican party that a protective tariff shall be 
 maintained (cheers), and it has been the inva 
 riable practice of the Democratic party in Con 
 gress for more than fifty years past to oppose 
 the policy of protection. Times have been dull 
 for some months past. Why ? Clearly because 
 of the uncertainty created in the business world 
 by the agitation in Congress last winter of the 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 453 
 
 tariff question, and the fact that the Democratic 
 party came within two votes of destroying the 
 protective tariff. Is there any man who doubts 
 that, with the free trade theories of the Demo 
 crats, if they were elevated to power the protec 
 tive tariff would be destroyed? If any man. 
 doubts that he doubts his senses ; he denies the 
 record ; he will not listen to plain facts. The 
 omens in the present contest are to be spoken of 
 by you, not by me ; but there are one or two 
 things connected with it which I beg to refer to. 
 I beg especially to refer to the fact that, in a 
 larger degree than in any other campaign of which 
 I have personal knowledge, the Republican party 
 has the inestimable advantage of the sympathy 
 and support of the great mass of the young men 
 of the country (cheers), and the young men carry 
 with them strength, confidence, the power to bear 
 burdens and the power to give encouragement to 
 others. The Republican party began its exist 
 ence thirty years ago with the support of the 
 young men. Twenty-eight years ago, before 
 many who now hear me knew anything of politi 
 cal contests, that party entered the field for the 
 first time in a National struggle. It selected a 
 young man for its leader ; it selected a man in 
 his forty-third year the same age at which Wash 
 ington was intrusted w r ith the command of the 
 Continental Army a young man of great zeal, 
 of great intelligence and of a career so heroic 
 26 
 
454 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 that it partook largely of romance. Under his 
 leadership the Republican party, in its very first 
 National contest, alarmed if it did not defeat our 
 opponents. Since then, twenty-eight years have 
 been added to his age, bringing it up to the 
 Psalmist s limit three score years and ten ; but 
 he is still fresh and vigorous in body and in mind, 
 still warm in his support of the Republican party, 
 arid it is my especial pleasure to-day that I can, 
 as I now do, introduce to you General John C. 
 Fremont." (Prolonged cheering.) 
 
 Malice had done its mischief, however, and it 
 could not be undone. Mr. Elaine returned to 
 his home at Augusta, receiving an imposing re 
 ception at Boston on the way. The election oc 
 curred on November 4th. The result turned 
 upon the vote of New York State, and for some 
 days that was in doubt. After an inexplicable 
 delay on the part of the Democratic officers of 
 election, a de liy during which grave suspicions 
 arose that the returns were being tampered with 
 and falsified, it was announced that Mr. Cleve 
 land had carried the State by a narrow margin 
 of 1,047 v tes. The popular vote for the two 
 candidates in the various States was as follows : 
 
 STATES. ELAINE. CLEVELAND. 
 
 Alabama, 59>59 T 93J95 1 
 
 Arkansas, 5>%95 7 2 >9 2 7 
 
 California, 102,416^ 89,288 
 
 Colorado, 36,290 27,723 
 
 Connecticut, 65,923 67,199 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 
 
 455 
 
 STATES. 
 
 BLAINE. 
 
 CLEVELAND. 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 12,951 
 
 16,964 
 
 Florida, 
 
 28,031 
 
 31,766 
 
 Georgia, 
 
 48,603 
 
 94,667 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 337,474^ 
 
 312,355 
 
 Indiana, 
 
 238,463 
 
 244,99 
 
 Iowa, 
 
 197,089 
 
 177,316 
 
 Kansas, 
 
 154,406 
 
 90,132 
 
 Kentucky, 
 
 118,122 
 
 152,961 
 
 Louisiana, 
 
 46,347 
 
 62,540 
 
 Maine, 
 
 72,209 
 
 52,140 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 85,699 
 
 96,932 
 
 Massachusetts, 
 
 146,724 
 
 122,481 
 
 Michigan, 
 
 192,669 
 
 149,835 
 
 Minnesota, 
 
 111,923 
 
 70,144 
 
 Mississippi, 
 
 43,59 
 
 76,510 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 202,929 
 
 235,988 
 
 Nebraska, 
 
 76,912 
 
 54,391 
 
 Nevada, 
 
 7,193 
 
 5,578 
 
 New Hampshire, 
 
 43,249 
 
 39.183 
 
 New Jersey, 
 
 123,440 
 
 127,798 
 
 New York, 
 
 562,005 
 
 563,154 
 
 North Carolina, 
 
 125,068 
 
 142,952 
 
 Ohio, 
 
 400,082 
 
 368,280 
 
 Oregon, 
 
 26,860 
 
 24,604 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 473,804 
 
 392,785 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 19,030 
 
 12,391 
 
 South Carolina, 
 
 21,733 
 
 69,890 
 
 Tennessee, 
 
 124,078 
 
 133,258 
 
 Texas, 
 
 93,141 
 
 225,309 
 
 Vermont, 
 
 39,514 
 
 I 7,33 I 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 139,356 
 
 145,497 
 
 West Virginia, 
 
 63,096 
 
 67,3!7 
 
 Wisconsin, 
 
 161,157 
 
 146,459 
 
 Mr. Elaine thus received a total of 4,851,981 
 votes or 48.22 per cent, of the whole ; Mr. Cleve 
 land received 4,874,986 votes, or 48.48 per cent. 
 General Benjamin F. Butler, who was the Presi 
 dential candidate of the Greenback-Labor party, 
 
456 ^ JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 received 175,370 votes, and Mr. John P. St. John, 
 the candidate of the Prohibition party, 150,369. 
 Mr. Cleveland thus had a plurality of 23,005, but 
 failed to receive a clear majority of the popular 
 vote. In the electoral college Mr. Elaine received 
 182 votes and Mr. Cleveland 219. 
 
 This defeat was a bitter disappointment to Mr. 
 Blaine, and a still more bitter disappointment to 
 his millions of admirers and supporters throughout 
 the country. It was exasperating to think that he 
 had been defeated through the malicious interpre 
 tation of a stupid remark made by a purblind old 
 gentleman at the very end of the campaign. But 
 even more serious consideration was demanded 
 by the fact that in this, as in all other elections 
 since 1876, force and fraud carried the day in a 
 number of the Southern States, so that their votes 
 were counted for the candidate of the party that 
 was really in the minority. This subject had 
 frequently been discussed with telling force by 
 Mr. Biaine in the two Houses of Congress, and 
 he referred to it once more in calm and temperate 
 yet unmistakably emphatic terms in the following 
 address, which he made at Augusta, on November 
 1 8th, to a great throng of his fellow-townsmen, 
 who visited him to express their confidence and 
 esteem : 
 
 "FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS: The National con 
 test is over, and by the narrowest of margins we 
 have lost. I thank you for your call, which if not 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 457 
 
 one of joyous congratulations, is one, I am sure, 
 of confidence and of sanguine hope for the future. 
 I thank you for the public opportunity you give 
 me to express my sense of obligation, not only to 
 you, but to all the Republicans of Maine. They 
 responded to my nomination with genuine en 
 thusiasm and ratified it by a superb vote. I count 
 it as one of the honors and gratifications of my 
 public career that the party in Maine, after strug 
 gling hard for the last six years, and twice within 
 that period losing the State, has come back in this 
 campaign to the old-fashioned 20,000 plurality. 
 No other expression of popular confidence and 
 esteem could equal that of the people among 
 whom I have lived for thirty years, and to whom I 
 am attached by all the ties that ennoble human 
 nature and give joy and dignity to life. 
 
 "After Maine indeed, along with Maine-^my 
 first thought is always of Pennsylvania. How can 
 I fittingly express my thanks for that unparalleled 
 majority of more than 80,000 votes a popular 
 indorsement which has deeply touched my heart, 
 and which has, if possible, increased my affection 
 for the grand old Commonwealth ; an affection 
 which I inherited from my ancestry, and which I 
 shall transmit to my children? 
 
 " But I do not limit my thanks to the State of 
 my residence and the State of my birth. I owe 
 much to the true and zealous friends in New 
 England, who worked so nobly for the Republican 
 
JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 party and its candidates, and to the eminent 
 scholars and divines who, stepping aside from 
 their ordinary avocations, made my cause their 
 cause, and to loyalty to principle added the special 
 compliment of standing as my representative in 
 the National struggle. 
 
 But the achievements for the Republican 
 cause in the East are even surpassed by the 
 splendid victories in the West. In that magnificent 
 cordon of States that stretches from the foot-hills of 
 the Alleghenies to the Golden Gate of the Pacific, 
 beginning with Ohio and ending with California, 
 the Republican banner was borne so loftily that 
 but a single State failed to join in the wild acclaim 
 of triumph. Nor should I do justice to my own 
 feelings if I failed to thank the Republicans of the 
 Empire State, who encountered so many discour 
 agements and obstacles, who fought foes from 
 within and foes from without, and who waged so 
 strong a battle that a change of one vote in every 
 2,000 would have given us the victory in the Nation. 
 Indeed, a change of a little more than 5,000 votes 
 would have transferred New York, Indiana, New 
 Jersey and Connecticut to the Republican stand 
 ard, and would have made the North as solid as 
 the South. 
 
 " My thanks would still be incomplete if I should 
 fail to recognize with special gratitude that great 
 body of working men, both native and foreign 
 born, who gave me their earnest support, breaking 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 459 
 
 from old personal and party ties, and finding in 
 the principles which I represented in the canvass 
 the safeguard and protection of their own fireside 
 interests. 
 
 " The result of the election, my friends, will be 
 regarded 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 section the control of the 
 National Government. Speaking now not at all 
 as a defeated candidate, but simply as a loyal and 
 devoted American, I think the transfer of the 
 political power of the Government to the South is 
 a great National misfortune. It is a misfortune 
 because it introduces an element which cannot 
 insure harmony and prosperity to the people, 
 because it introduces into a Republic the rule of 
 a minority. 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. 
 
 " The course of affairs in the South has crushed 
 out the political power of more than 6,000,000 
 
460 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 American citizens, and has transferred it by 
 violence to others. Forty-two Presidential Elec 
 tors are assigned to the South on account of the 
 colored population, 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 suf 
 frage, 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 population 
 and 5,300,000 colored population. The colored 
 population, almost to a man, desire to support the 
 Republican party, but by a system of cruel 
 intimidation and by violence and murder, when 
 ever violence and murder are thought necessary, 
 they are absolutely deprived of all political power. 
 If the outrage stopped there, it would be bad 
 enough ; but it does not stop there, for not only 
 is the negro population disfranchised, but the 
 power which rightfully and constitutionally belongs 
 to it is transferred to the white population, ena 
 bling the white population of the South to exert an 
 Electoral influence far beyond that exerted by the 
 same number of white people in the North. 
 
 " 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 CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 461 
 
 the same number of Electoral votes. In the 
 South the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Al 
 abama, Georgia 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 Wis 
 consin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and California 
 have likewise in the aggregate forty-eight Elec 
 toral 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 population. 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 population ought to be permitted 
 free suffrage in the election. To deny that clear 
 proposition is to affirm that a Southern white man 
 in the Gulf States is entitled to double the politi 
 cal 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 perpetual and 
 
462 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 constantly increasing superiority shall be conceded 
 to the Southern white man in the Government 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 labor 
 ing men of the North. With the Southern De 
 mocracy 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 per 
 haps 35 cents per day, if averaged over the en 
 tire 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 in 
 fluence will now be set in motion, and that condi 
 tion of affairs produced which years ago Mr. Lin 
 coln warned the free laboring men of the North 
 will prove hostile to their independence, and will 
 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 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 463 
 
 in wages of contiguous and adjacent States, 
 and the voluntary will be compelled to yield to 
 the involuntary. So completely have the colored 
 men in the South been already deprived by the 
 Democratic party of their constitutional and legal 
 right as citizens of the United States that they re 
 gard 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 com 
 pletely the chiefs of the Rebellion wield the politi 
 cal power which has triumphed in the late elec 
 tion. It is a portentous fact that the Democratic 
 Senators who come from the States of the late 
 Confederacy, all and I mean all without a 
 single exception personally participated in the 
 Rebellion against the National Government. It 
 is a still 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 
 one great avenue to honor in that section is 
 the record of zealous service in the war 
 against the Government. It is certainly an 
 astounding fact that the section in which friend 
 ship for the Union in the day of its trial and agony 
 is still a political disqualification should be called 
 now to rule over the Union. All this takes place 
 during the lifetime of the generation that fought 
 
464 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 the war, and elevates into practical 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 defeated 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 inequal 
 ity 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 per 
 son 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 from liberty- loving 
 patriots who came to the Delaware with William 
 Penn. It becomes the primal question of Ameri 
 can manhood. It demands a hearing and a set 
 tlement, and that settlement will vindicate the 
 equality of American citizens in all personal and 
 civil rights. It will, at least, establish the equal 
 ity of white men under the National Government, 
 and will give to the Northern man, who fought to 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 46$ 
 
 preserve the Union, as large a voice in its gov 
 ernment as may be exercised by the Southern 
 man who fought to destroy the Union. 
 
 "The contest just closed utterly dwarfs the 
 fortunes and fates of candidates, whether success 
 ful or unsuccessful. Purposely I may say in 
 stinctively I have discussed the issues and con 
 sequences of that contest without reference to 
 my own defeat, without the remotest reference to 
 the gentleman who is elevated to the Presidency. 
 Towards him personally I have no, cause for the 
 slightest ill-will, and it is with cordiality I express 
 the wish that his official career may prove gratify 
 ing to himself and beneficial to the country, and 
 that his administration may overcome the embar 
 rassments which the peculiar source of its power 
 imposes upon it from the hour of its birth." 
 
 During the administration of President Cleve 
 land, which began on March 4, 1885, Mr. Elaine 
 remained in private life. Some of his time was 
 spent in literary work and some in European 
 travel. He spent much time in Great Britain, 
 France and Italy, and was everywhere received with 
 the utmost respect, and treated more as though he 
 were the sovereign head of a great nation than a 
 mere private citizen. He took a keen interest 
 in the progress of political affairs in the United 
 States, and frequently expressed his views on 
 important issues of the day with characteristic 
 lucidity and force. The Republican party was 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 overwhelmingly determined to make him its can 
 didate a second time, in 1888, and although he 
 did not personally favor this plan, and was 
 indeed, on account of impaired health, inclined 
 to retire from active participation in public affairs, 
 popular enthusiasm in his behalf and determination 
 to place him at last in the White House, grew 
 steadily month by month, and year by year. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 
 
 Free Trade Brought Forward as the Leading Issue of the Democratic 
 Party President Cleveland s Message on the Subject in December, 
 1887 Text of the Document that Sounded the Key-note of the 
 Coming Campaign A Prompt Reply by Mr. Elaine by Cable from 
 Paris Report of the Memorable Interview between Mr. Blaine^anci. 
 Mr. George \V. Smalley Its Effect upon Public Opinion and Poli 
 tics in the United States. 
 
 President Cleveland had, before taking office, 
 expressed an emphatic opinion against the re 
 election of a President for a second term. But 
 as his own term of office drew toward its close it 
 was apparent, and was universally understood, 
 that he was a candidate for re-nomination and re 
 election. During the first two and a -half years 
 of his administration nothing had occurred greatly 
 to strengthen his hold upon public favor. His 
 management of .the Executive office had been in 
 the main acceptable. His political opponents 
 had, of course, sharply criticised him, but his own 
 party almost unanimously gave him earnest sup 
 port. It was desirable that some important issue 
 should be brought forward prominently on which, 
 the campaign of 1888 should be fought. Such 
 an issue the leaders of the Democratic party 
 found in the fiscal system of the Nation. 
 
 467 
 
468 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Under the protective tariff, adopted by the Re 
 publican party in 1861, and maintained with 
 various modifications down to the present time, 
 the National finances had been eminently pros 
 perous. The .great war debt had been largely 
 reduced, specie payments had been resumed, and 
 the credit of the Government was unequalled in 
 the money markets of the world. Liberal appro 
 priations had been made for public works of 
 National importance, for pensions to disabled 
 soldiers and their families, and for the redemp 
 tion of Government bonds. At the same time, 
 so great was the business prosperity of the coun 
 try and the consequent revenues of the Govern 
 ment that a very considerable surplus had accu 
 mulated in the National Treasury. This was 
 seized upon by Mr. Cleveland and his party as 
 sociates as the issue for the next campaign. They 
 argued that the surplus revenue was far too large ; 
 that the accumulation of such a vast sum of 
 money in the National Treasury not only invited 
 corruption, but was a direct injury to business ; 
 that it was a robbery of the people to tax them, 
 on their imports, so largely beyond the needs of 
 the Government ; and that, therefore, the tariff 
 should be so revised as to reduce the revenue 
 immediately to the actual needs of the Govern 
 ment, and to abolish the surplus. There should 
 be, in other words, a tariff for revenue only, and 
 not at all for protection. That would amount 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 
 
 471 
 
 to free trade, as that term is understood in 
 England. 
 
 A considerable portion of the Democratic party 
 was strongly opposed to such a policy. But the 
 overwhelming majority of those in Congress, led 
 by Mr. Carlisle, the Speaker of the House, and 
 Mr. Mills, the Leader on the Floor of the House, 
 favored it, and their counsel prevailed with the 
 President. On the meeting of Congress, in De 
 cember, 1887, accordingly, he sent in a message, 
 devoted, not to a general review of the interests 
 of the country, as was customary, but exclusively 
 to a discussion of the one subject of the sur 
 plus revenue and the need of tariff reform. As 
 a matter of record, and to enable the reader, 
 comprehensively and exactly, to understand the 
 attitude thereafter taken by Mr. Elaine and the 
 arguments put forward by him, the text of the 
 message is herewith given in full : 
 
 To the Congress of tJie United States : You 
 are confronted at the threshold of your legisla 
 tive duties with a condition of the National 
 finances which imperatively demands immediate 
 and careful consideration. 
 
 The amount of money annually exacted, through 
 the operation of present laws, from the industries 
 and necessities of the people, largely exceeds the 
 sum necessary to meet the expenses of the 
 Government. 
 27 
 
472 JAMRS G. BLAINE. 
 
 When we consider that the theory of our insti 
 tutions guarantees to every citizen the full enjoy 
 ment of all the fruits of his industry and enter 
 prise, with only such deduction as may be his 
 share towards the careful and economical main~ 
 tenance of the Government which protects him, 
 it is plain that the exaction of more than this is 
 indefensible extortion, and a culpable betrayal of 
 American fairness and justice. This wrong, in 
 flicted upon those who bear the burden of 
 National taxation, like other wrongs, multiplies a 
 brood of evil consequences. The public Treasury, 
 which should only exist as a conduit conveying 
 the people s tribute to its legitimate objects of 
 expenditure, becomes a hoarding place for money 
 needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people s 
 use, thus crippling our National energies, sus 
 pending our country s development, preventing 
 investment in productive enterprise, threatening 
 financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of 
 public plunder. 
 
 This condition of our Treasury is not altogether 
 new ; and it has more than once of late been sub 
 mitted to the people s representatives in the Con 
 gress, who alone can apply a remedy. And yet the 
 situation still continues, with aggravated incidents, 
 more than ever presaging financial convulsion and 
 widespread disaster. 
 
 It will not do to neglect the situation because 
 its dangers are not now palpably imminent and 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 
 
 apparent. They exist none the less certainly, and 
 await the unforeseen and unexpected occasion 
 when suddenly they will be precipitated upon us. 
 
 On the 3oth day of June, 1885, the excess of 
 revenues over public expenditures after comply 
 ing with the annual requirement of the sinking- 
 fund act, was $17,859,735.84; during the year 
 ended June 30, 1886, such excess amounted to 
 $49,405,545.20; and during the year ended June 
 30, 1887, it reached the sum of ^55,567,849.54. 
 
 The annual contributions to the sinking fund 
 during the three years above specified, amount 
 ing in the aggregate to $138,058,320.94, and de 
 ducted from the surplus as stated, were made by 
 calling in for that purpose outstanding three per 
 cent, bonds of the Government. Durinqf the six 
 
 o 
 
 months prior to June 30, 1887, the surplus reve 
 nue had grown so large by repeated accumula 
 tions, and it was feared the withdrawal of this 
 great sum of money needed by the people, would 
 so affect the business of the country, that the sum 
 of $79,864, 100 of such surplus was applied to the 
 payment of the principal and interest of the three 
 per cent, bonds still outstanding, and which w r ere 
 then payable at the option of the Government. 
 The precarious condition of financial affairs among 
 the people still needing relief, immediately after 
 the 3Oth day of June, 1887, the remainder of the 
 three per cent, bonds then outstanding, amount 
 ing with principal and interest to the sum of 
 
JAMES G. JBLAINE. 
 
 $18,877,500, were called in and applied to the 
 sinking-fund contribution for the current fiscal 
 year. Notwithstanding these operations of the 
 Treasury Department, representations of distress 
 in business circles not only continued but increased, 
 and absolute peril seemed at hand. In these cir 
 cumstances the contribution to the sinking fund 
 
 o 
 
 for the current fiscal year was at once completed 
 by the expenditure of $27,684,283.55 in the pur 
 chase of Government bonds not yet due bearing 
 four and four and a-half per cent, interest, the 
 premium paid thereon averaging about twenty- 
 four per cent, for the former and eight per cent, 
 for the latter. In addition to this the interest 
 accruing during the current year upon the out 
 standing bonded indebtedness of the Government 
 
 o 
 
 was to some extent anticipated, and banks 
 selected as depositories of public money were per 
 mitted to somewhat increase their deposits. 
 
 While the expedients thus employed, to re 
 lease to the people the money lying idle in the 
 Treasury, served to avert immediate danger, our 
 surplus revenues have continued to accumulate, 
 the excess for the present year amounting on the 
 ist day of December to $55,258,701.19, and esti 
 mated to reach the sum of $i 13,000,000 on the 
 3Oth of June next, at which date it is expected 
 that this sum, added to prior accumulations, will 
 swell the surplus in the Treasury to $140,- 
 000,000. 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 
 
 475 
 
 There seems to be no assurance that, with such 
 a withdrawal from the use of the people s circulat 
 ing" medium, our business community may not in 
 the near future be subjected to the same distress 
 which was quite lately produced from the same 
 cause. And while the functions of our National 
 Treasury should be few and simple, and while its 
 best condition would be reached, I believe, by its 
 entire disconnection with private business inter 
 ests, yet when, by a perversion of its purposes, 
 it idly holds money uselessly subtracted from 
 the channels of trade, there seems to be reason 
 for the claim that some legitimate means should 
 be devised by the Government to restore 
 in an emergency, without waste or extrava 
 gance, such money to its place among the 
 people. 
 
 If such an emergency arises there now exists no 
 clear and undoubted executive power of relief. 
 Heretofore the redemption of three per cent, 
 bonds, which were payable at the option of the 
 Government, has afforded a means for the dis 
 bursement of the excess of our revenues ; but 
 these bonds have all been retired, and there are no 
 bonds outstanding the payment of which we have 
 the right to insist upon. The contribution to the 
 sinking fund which furnishes the occasion for ex 
 penditure in the purchase of bonds has been 
 already made for the current year, so that there 
 is no outlet in that direction. 
 
JAMES C. BLAINE. 
 
 * In the present state of legislation the only pre 
 tence of any existing executive power to restore, 
 at this time, any part of our surplus revenues to 
 the people by its expenditure, consists in the sup 
 position that the Secretary of the Treasury may 
 enter the market and purchase the bonds of the 
 Government not yet due, at a rate of premium to 
 be agreed upon. The only provision of law from 
 which such a power could be derived is found in 
 an appropriation bill passed a number of years 
 ago ; and it is subject to the suspicion that it was 
 intended as temporary and limited in its applica 
 tion, instead of conferring a continuing discretion 
 and authority. No condition ought to exist which 
 would justify the grant of power to a single 
 official, upon his judgment of its necessity, to 
 withhold from or release to the business of the 
 people, in an unusual manner, money held in the 
 Treasury, and thus affect, at his will, the financial 
 situation of the country ; and if it is deemed wise 
 to lodge in the Secretary of the Treasury the 
 authority in the present juncture to purchase 
 bonds, it should be plainly vested, and provided, 
 as far as possible, with such checks and limitations 
 as will define this official s right and discretion, 
 and at the same time relieve him from undue 
 responsibility. 
 
 In considering the question of purchasing bonds 
 as a means of restoring to circulation the surplus 
 money accumulating in the Treasury, it should be 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 477 
 
 borne in mind that premiums must of course be 
 paid upon such purchase, that there may be a 
 large part of these bonds held as investments 
 which cannot be purchased at any price, and that 
 combinations among 1 holders who are willing to 
 sell may unreasonably enhance the cost of such 
 bonds to the Government. 
 
 It has been suggested that the present bonded 
 debt might be refunded at a less rate of interest, 
 and the difference between the old and new 
 security paid in cash, thus finding use for the sur 
 plus in the Treasury. The success of this plan, 
 it is apparent, must depend upon the volition of 
 the holders of the present bonds ; and it is not 
 entirely certain that the inducement which must 
 be offered them would result in more financial 
 benefit to the Government than the purchase of 
 bonds, while the latter proposition would reduce 
 the principal of the debt by actual payment, in 
 stead of extending it. 
 
 The proposition to deposit the money held by 
 the Government in banks throughout the country, 
 for use by the people, is, it seems to me, exceed 
 ingly objectionable in principle, as establishing 
 too close a relationship between the operations of 
 the Government Treasury and the business of the 
 country, and too extensive a commingling of their 
 money, thus fostering an unnatural reliance in 
 private business upon public funds. If this scheme 
 should be adopted, it should only be done as a 
 
JAMES G. 2JLAINE. 
 
 temporary expedient to meet an urgent necessity. 
 Legislative and executive effort should generally 
 be in the opposite direction, and should have a 
 tendency to divorce, as much and as fast as can 
 safely be done, the Treasury Department from 
 private enterprise. 
 
 Of course it is not expected that unnecessary 
 and extravagant appropriations will be made for 
 the purpose of avoiding the accumulation of an 
 excess of revenue. Such expenditure, beside the 
 demoralization of all just conceptions of public 
 duty which it entails, stimulates a habit of reckless 
 improvidence not in the least consistent with the 
 mission of our people or the high and beneficent 
 purpose of our Government. 
 
 I have deemed it my duty to thus bring to the 
 knowledge of my countrymen, as well as the 
 attention of their representatives charged with 
 the responsibility of legislative relief, the gravity 
 of our financial situation. The failure of the 
 Congress heretofore to provide against the dan 
 gers which it was quite evident the very nature 
 of the difficulty must necessarily produce, caused 
 a condition of financial distress and apprehension 
 since your last adjournment, which taxed to the 
 uttermost all the authority and expedients within 
 executive control ; and these appear now to be 
 exhausted. If disaster results from the continued 
 inaction of Congress, the responsibility must rest 
 where it belongs. 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 479 
 
 Though the situation thus far considered is 
 fraught with danger which should be fully realized, 
 and though it presents features of wrong to the 
 people as well as peril to the country, it is but 
 a result growing out of a perfectly palpable and 
 apparant cause, constantly reproducing the same 
 alarming circumstances a congested National 
 Treasury and a depleted monetary condition in the 
 business of the country. It need hardly be stated 
 that while the present situation demands a remedy, 
 we can only be saved from a like predicament in 
 the future by the removal of its cause. 
 
 Our scheme of taxation, by means of which 
 this needless surplus is taken from the people 
 and put into the public Treasury, consists of a 
 tariff or duty levied upon importations from 
 abroad, and internal-revenue taxes levied upon 
 the consumption of tobacco and spirituous and 
 malt liquors. It must be conceded that none of 
 the things subjected to internal-revenue taxation 
 are, strictly speaking, necessaries ; there appears 
 to be no just complaint of this taxation by the 
 consumers of these articles, and there seems to 
 be nothing so well able to bear the burden with 
 out hardship to any portion of the people. 
 
 But our present tariff laws, the vicious, inequi 
 table, and illogical source of unnecessary taxation, 
 ought to be at once revised and amended. These 
 laws, as their primary and plain effect, raise the 
 price to consumers of all articles imported and 
 
480 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 subject to duty, by precisely the sum paid for 
 such duties. Thus the amount of the duty meas 
 ures the tax paid by those who purchase for use 
 these imported articles. Many of these things, 
 however, are raised or manufactured in our own 
 country, and the duties now levied upon foreign 
 goods and products are called protection to these 
 home manufactures, because they render it possi 
 ble for those of our people who are manufacturers 
 to make these taxed articles and sell them for a 
 price equal to that demanded for the imported 
 goods that have paid customs duty. So it happens 
 that while comparatively a few use the imported 
 articles, millions of our people, who never use and 
 never saw any of the foreign products, purchase 
 and use things of the same kind made in this coun 
 try, and pay therefor nearly or quite the same en 
 hanced price which the duty adds to the imported 
 articles. Those who buy imports pay the duty 
 charged thereon into the public Treasury, but the 
 majority of our citizens, who buy domestic articles 
 of the same class, pay a sum at least approx 
 imately equal to this duty to the home manufact 
 urer. This reference to the operation of our 
 tariff laws is not made by way of instruction, but 
 in order that we may be constantly reminded 
 of the manner in which they impose a burden 
 upon those who consume domestic products as 
 well as those who consume imported articles, and 
 thus create a tax upon all our people. 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 481 
 
 It is not proposed to entirely relieve the coun 
 try of this taxation. It must be extensively con 
 tinued as the source of the Government s income; 
 and in a readjustment of our tariff the interests of 
 American labor engaged in manufacture should 
 be carefully considered, as well as the preserva 
 tion of our manufactures. It may be called pro 
 tection, or by any other name, but relief from the 
 hardships and dangers of our present tariff laws, 
 should be devised with especial precaution against 
 imperilling the existence of our manufacturing 
 interests. But this existence should not mean a 
 condition which, without regard to the public wel 
 fare or a national exigency, must always insure 
 the realization of immense profits instead of mod 
 erately profitable returns. As the volume and 
 diversity of our national activities increase, new 
 recruits are added to those who desire a continua 
 tion of the advantages which they conceive the 
 present system of tariff taxation directly affords 
 them. So stubbornly have all efforts to reform 
 the present condition been resisted by those of 
 our fellow-citizens thus engaged, that they can 
 hardly complain of the suspicion, entertained to a 
 certain extent, that there existed an organized 
 combination all along the line to maintain their 
 advantage. 
 
 o 
 
 We are in the midst of centennial celebrations 
 and with becoming pride we rejoice in American 
 skill and ingenuity, in American energy and 
 
432 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 enterprise, and in the wonderful natural advantages 
 and resources developed by a century s national 
 growth. Yet when an attempt is made to justify a 
 scheme which permits a tax to be laid upon every 
 consumer in the land for the benefit of our manu 
 facturers, quite beyond a reasonable demand for 
 government regard, it suits the purposes of advo 
 cacy to call our manufactures infant industries, 
 still needing the highest and greatest degree of 
 favor and fostering care that can be wrung from 
 Federal legislation. 
 
 It is also said that the increase in the price of 
 domestic manufactures resulting from the present 
 tariff is necessary in order that higher wages may 
 be paid to our working men employed in manufacto 
 ries, than are paid for what is^ called the pauper 
 labor of Europe. All will acknowledge the force 
 of an argument which involves the welfare and 
 
 o 
 
 liberal compensation of our laboring people. Our 
 labor is honorable in the eyes of every American 
 citizen ; and as it lies at the foundation of our 
 development and progress, it is entitled, without 
 affectation or hypocrisy, to the utmost regard. 
 The standard of our laborers life should not be 
 measured by that of any other country less fav 
 ored, and they are entitled to their full share of all 
 our advantages. 
 
 By the last census it is made to appear that of 
 the 17,392,099 of our population eqgaged in all 
 kinds of industries, 7,670,493 are employed in 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 
 
 agriculture, 4,074,238 in professional and personal 
 service (2,934,876 of whom are domestic servants 
 and laborers), while 1,810,256 are employed in 
 trade and transportation, and 3,837,112 are classed 
 as employed in manufacturing 1 and mining. 
 
 For present purposes, however, the last number 
 given should be considerably reduced. Without 
 attempting to enumerate all, it will be conceded 
 that there should not be deducted from these 
 which it includes, 375,143 carpenters and joiners, 
 285,401 milliners, dressmakers and seamstresses, 
 172,726 blacksmiths, 133,756 tailors and tailor- 
 esses, 102,473 masons, 76,241 butchers, 41,- 
 309 bakers, 22,083 plasterers, and 4,891 en 
 gaged in manufacturing agricultural implements, 
 amounting in the aggregate to 1,214,023, leaving 
 2,623,089 persons employed in such manufactur 
 ing industries as are claimed to be benefited by a 
 high tariff. 
 
 To these the appeal is made to save their em 
 ployment and maintain their wages by resisting a 
 change. There should be no disposition to an 
 swer such suggestions by the allegation that they 
 are in a minority among those who labor, and 
 therefore should forego an advantage, in the in 
 terest of low prices for the majority ; their com 
 pensation, as it may be affected by the operation 
 of tariff laws, should at all times be scrupulously 
 kept in view ; and yet with slight reflection they 
 will not overlook the fact that they are consumers 
 
484 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 with the rest ; that they, too, have their own wants 
 and those of their families to supply from their 
 earnings, and that the price of the necessaries of 
 life, as well as the amount of their wages, will 
 regulate the measure of their welfare and comfort. 
 But the reduction of taxation demanded should 
 be so measured as not to necessitate or justify 
 either the loss of employment by the working man 
 or the lessening of his wages ; and the profits 
 still remaining to the manufacturer, after a neces 
 sary readjustment, should furnish no excuse for 
 the sacrifice of the interests of his employees 
 either in their opportunity to work or in the dimi 
 nution of their compensation. Nor can the worker 
 in manufactures fail to understand that while 
 a high tariff is claimed to be necessary to allow the 
 
 O J 
 
 payment of remunerative wages, it certainly re 
 sults in a very large increase in the price of near 
 ly all sorts of manufactures, which, in almost 
 countless forms, he needs for the use of himself 
 and his family. He receives at the desk of his em 
 ployer his wages, and perhaps before he reaches 
 his home is obliged, in a purchase for family use 
 of an article which embraces his own labor, to re 
 turn in the payment of the increase in price 
 which the tariff permits, the hard-earned compen 
 sation of many days of toil. 
 
 The farmer and the agriculturist, who manufact 
 ure nothing, but who pay the increased price which 
 the tariff imposes upon every agricultural 
 
A CHALLENGE AXD ITS ANSWER. 485 
 
 implement, upon all he wears, and upon all he uses 
 and owns except the increase of his flocks and 
 herds and such things as his husbandry produces 
 from the soil, is invited to aid in maintaining the 
 present situation; and he is told that a high duty on 
 imported wool is necessary for the benefit of those 
 who have sheep to shear, in order that the price 
 of their wool may be increased. They, of course, 
 are not reminded that the farmer who has no 
 sheep is by this scheme obliged, in his purchases 
 of clothing and woolen goods, to pay a tribute to 
 his fellow-farmer as well as to the manufacturer 
 and merchant ; nor is any mention made of the 
 fact that the sheep-owners themselves and their 
 households must wear clothing and use other ar 
 ticles manufactured from the wool they sell at 
 tariff prices, and thus, as consumers, must return 
 their share this increased price to the trades 
 man. 
 
 I think it may be fairly assumed that a large 
 proportion of the sheep owned by the farmers 
 throughout the country are found in small flocks 
 numbering from twenty-five to fifty. The duty 
 on the grade of imported wool which these 
 sheep yield, is ten cents each pound if of the 
 value of thirty cents or less, and twelve cents if 
 of the value of more than thirty cents. If the 
 liberal estimate of six pounds be allowed for each 
 fleece, the duty thereon would be sixty or seventy- 
 two cents, and this may be taken as the utmost 
 
486 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 enhancement of its price to the farmer by reason 
 of this duty. Eighteen dollars would thus repre 
 sent the increased price of the wool from twenty- 
 five sheep, and thirty-six dollars that from the wool 
 of fifty sheep ; and at present values this addition 
 would amount to about one-third of its price If 
 upon its sale the farmer receives this or a less 
 tariff profit, the wool leaves his hands charged 
 with precisely that sum, which in all its changes 
 will adhere to it, until it reaches the consumer. 
 When manufactured into cloth and other goods 
 and material for use, its cost is not only increased 
 to the extent of the farmer s tariff profit, but a 
 further sum has been added for the benefit of the 
 manufacturer under the operation of other tariff 
 laws. In the meantime the day arrives when the 
 farmer finds it necessary to purchase woolen goods 
 and material to clothe himself and family for the 
 winter. When he faces the tradesman for that 
 purpose he discovers that he is obliged not only 
 to return, in the way of increased prices, his tariff 
 profit on the wool he sold, and which then, per 
 haps, lies before him in manufactured form, but 
 that he must add a considerable sum thereto to 
 meet a further increase in cost caused by a tariff 
 duty on the manufacture. Thus in the end he is 
 aroused to the fact that he has paid upon* a moder 
 ate purchase, as a result of the tariff scheme, 
 which when he sold his wool seemed so profitable, 
 an increase in price more than sufficient to sweep 
 
WALTER DAMROSCH, 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 489 
 
 away all the tariff profit he received upon the 
 wool he produced and sold. 
 
 When the number of farmers engaged in wool- 
 raising is compared with all the farmers in the 
 country, and the small proportion they bear to 
 our population is considered ; when it is made 
 apparent that, in the case of a large part of those 
 who own sheep, the benefit of the present tariff 
 on wool is illusory ; and, above all, when it must 
 be conceded that the increase of the cost of living 
 caused by such tariff becomes a burden upon those 
 with moderate means, and the poor, the employed 
 and unemployed, the sick and well, and the young 
 and old, and that it constitutes a tax which, with 
 relentless grasp, is fastened upon the clothing of 
 every man, woman and child in the land, reasons 
 are suggested why the removal or reduction of 
 this duty should be included in a revision of our 
 tariff laws. 
 
 In speaking of the increased cost to the con 
 sumer of our home manufactures, resulting from 
 a duty laid upon imported articles of the same 
 description, the fact is not overlooked that com 
 petition among our domestic producers sometimes 
 has the effect of keeping the price of their pro 
 ducts below the highest limit allowed by such duty. 
 But it is notorious that this competition is too 
 often strangled by combinations quite prevalent 
 at this time, and frequently called trusts, which 
 have for their object the regulation of the supply 
 28 
 
4QO JAMES G. JU.AINE. 
 
 and price of commodities made and sold by mem 
 bers of the combination. The people can hardly 
 hope for any consideration in the operation of 
 these selfish schemes. 
 
 If, however, in the absence of such combination, 
 a healthy and free competition reduces the price 
 of any particular dutiable article of home produc 
 tion below the limit which it mi^ht otherwise 
 
 o 
 
 reach under our tariff laws, and if, with such 
 reduced price, its manufacture continues to thrive, 
 it is entirely evident that one thing has been dis 
 covered which should be carefully scrutinized in 
 an effort to reduce taxation. 
 
 The necessity of combination to maintain the 
 price of any commodity to the tariff point furnishes 
 proof that some one is willing 1 to accept lower 
 prices for such commodity, and that such prices 
 are remunerative ; and lower prices produced by 
 competition prove the same thing. Thus where 
 either of these conditions exists, a case would seem 
 to be presented for an easy reduction of taxation. 
 
 The considerations which have been presented 
 touching our tariff laws are intended only to en 
 force an earnest recommendation that the surplus 
 revenues of the Government be prevented by the 
 reduction of our custom duties, and at the same 
 time to emphasize a suggestion that, in accom 
 plishing this purpose, we may discharge a double 
 duty to our people by granting to them a measure 
 of relief from tariff taxation in quarters where it 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 491 
 
 is most needed and from sources where it can be 
 most fairly and justly accorded. 
 
 Nor can the presentation made of such consid 
 erations be, with any degree of fairness, regarded 
 as evidence of unfriendliness toward our manu 
 facturing interests, or of any lack of appreciation 
 of their value and importance. 
 
 These interests constitute a leading and most 
 substantial element of our national greatness and 
 furnish the proud proof of our country s progress. 
 But if in the emergency that presses upon us our 
 manufacturers are asked to surrender something 
 for the public good and to avert disaster, their 
 patriotism, as well as a grateful recognition of 
 advantages already afforded, should lead them to 
 willing co-operation. No demand is made that 
 they shall forego all the benefits of governmental 
 regard ; but they cannot fail to be admonished of 
 their duty, as well as their enlightened self-interest 
 and safety, when they are reminded of the fact 
 that financial panic and collapse, to which the 
 present condition terfds, affords no greater shelter 
 or protection to our manufactures than to our 
 other important enterprises. Opportunity for 
 safe, careful and deliberate reform is now offered ; 
 and none of us should be unmindful of a time 
 when an abused and irritated people, heedless of 
 those who have resisted timely and reasonable 
 belief, may insist upon a radical and sweeping 
 rectification of their wrongs. 
 
492 JAMES C. BLAINE. 
 
 The difficulty attending a wise and fair revision 
 of our tariff laws is not underestimated. It will 
 require on the part of the Congress great labor 
 and care, and especially a broad and national 
 contemplation of the subject, and a patriotic 
 disregard of such local and selfish claims as are 
 unreasonable and reckless of the welfare of the 
 entire country. 
 
 Under our present laws more than four thousand 
 articles are subject to duty. Many of these do 
 not in any way compete with our own manufact 
 ures, and many are hardly worth attention as 
 subjects of revenue. A considerable reduction 
 can be made in the aggregate, by adding them to 
 the free list. The taxation of luxuries presents 
 no features of hardship ; but the necessaries of 
 life used and consumed by all the people, the 
 duty upon which adds to the cost of living in every 
 home, should be greatly cheapened. 
 
 The radical reduction of the duties imposed 
 upon raw material used in manufactures, or its 
 free importation, is, of course, aTi important factor 
 in any effort to reduce the price of these neces 
 saries ; it would not only relieve them from the 
 increased cost caused by the tariff on such mate 
 rial, but the manufactured product being thus 
 cheapened, that part of the tariff now laid upon 
 such product as a compensation to our manufact 
 urers for the present price of raw material, could 
 be accordingly modified. -Such reduction, or free 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 493 
 
 importation, would serve beside to largely reduce 
 the revenue. It is not apparent how such a 
 change can have any injurious effect upon our 
 manufacturers. On the contrary, it would ap 
 pear to give them a better chance in foreign mar 
 kets with the manufacturers of other countries, 
 who cheapen their wares by free material. Thus 
 our people might have an opportunity of extend 
 ing their sales beyond the limits of home con 
 sumption saving them from the depression, in 
 terruption in business, and loss caused by a 
 glutted domestic market, and affording their em 
 ployees more certain and steady labor, with its 
 resulting quiet and contentment. 
 
 The question thus imperatively presented for 
 solution should be approached in a spirit higher 
 than partisanship, and considered in the light of 
 that regard for patriotic duty which should char 
 acterize the action of those intrusted with the 
 weal of a confiding people. But the obligation 
 to declared party policy and principle is not want 
 ing to urge prompt and effective action. Both of 
 the great political parties now represented in the 
 Government have, by repeated and authoritative 
 declarations, condemned the condition of our laws 
 which permit the collection from the people of 
 unnecessary revenue, and have, in the most solemn 
 manner, promised its correction ; and neither as citi 
 zens nor partisans are our countrymen in a mood to 
 condone the deliberate violation of these pledges. 
 
494 JAMES C. ULAINE. 
 
 Our progress toward a wise conclusion will not 
 be improved by dwelling upon the theories of 
 protection and free trade. This savors too much 
 of bandying epithets. It is a condition which con 
 fronts us not a theory. Relief from this condi 
 tion may involve a slight reduction of the advan 
 tages which we award ouc home productions, but 
 the entire withdrawal of such advantages should 
 not be contemplated. The question of free trade 
 is absolutely irrelevant ; and the persistent claim 
 made in certain quarters, that all efforts to relieve 
 the people from unjust and unnecessary taxation 
 are schemes of so-called free-traders, is mischiev 
 ous and far removed from any consideration for 
 the public good. 
 
 The simple and plain duty which we owe the 
 people is to reduce taxation to the necessary ex 
 penses of an economical operation of the Gov 
 ernment, and to restore to the business of the 
 country the money which we hold in the Treasury 
 through the perversion of governmental powers. 
 These things can and should be done with safety 
 to all our industries, without danger to the op 
 portunity for remunerative labor which our work 
 ing men need, and with benefit to them and all our 
 people, by cheapening their means of subsistence 
 and increasing the measure of their comforts. 
 
 The Constitution provides that the President 
 "shall, from time to time, give to the Congress 
 information of the state of the Union." It has 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 495 
 
 been the custom of the Executive, in compliance 
 with this provision, to annually exhibit to the 
 Congress, at the opening of its session, the gen 
 eral condition of the country, and to detail, with 
 some particularity, the operations of the different 
 Executive Departments. It would be especially 
 agreeable to follow this course at the present time, 
 and to call attention to the valuable accomplish 
 ments of these Deparftnents during the last fiscal 
 year. But I am so much impressed with the 
 paramount importance of the subject to which this 
 communication has thus far been devoted, that I 
 shall forego the addition of any other topic, and 
 only urge upon your immediate consideration the 
 "state of the Union" as shown in the present 
 condition of our Treasury and our general fiscal 
 situation, upon which every element of our safety 
 and prosperity depends. 
 
 The reports of the heads of Departments, 
 which will be submitted, contain full and explicit 
 information touching the transaction of the busi 
 ness intrusted to them, and such recommendations 
 relating to legislation in the public interest as 
 they deem advisable. I ask for these reports and 
 recommendations the deliberate examination and 
 action of the Legislative branch of the Govern 
 ment. 
 
 There are o ther subjects not embraced in the 
 departmental reports demanding legislative con 
 sideration and which I should be glad to submit. 
 
496 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 Some of them, however, have been earnestly pre 
 sented in previous messages^ and as to them, I 
 beg leave to repeat prior recommendations. 
 
 As the law makes no provision for any report 
 from the Department of State, a brief history of 
 the transactions of that important Department, 
 together with other matters which it may hereafter 
 be deemed essential to commend to the attention 
 of the Congress, may furnish the occasion for a 
 future communication. 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 WASHINGTON, December 6, 1887. 
 
 The effect of this message was instantaneous 
 and tremendous. Seldom has any American 
 public document in time of peace produced such 
 a sensation. It was regarded as expressing the 
 principles on which Mr. Cleveland would appeal 
 to the country for re-election to the Presidency, 
 and on which the financial legislation of the Con 
 gress during that session would be based. As 
 for the Republicans, they greeted it with sadsfac- 
 tion, for the tariff was the very issue on which 
 they were most anxious to fight the next cam 
 paign. 
 
 It was necessary that some conspicuous Re 
 publican leader should, however, make immediate 
 and effective answer to Mr. Cleveland s impres 
 sive utterances. The foremost leader of the party 
 was unquestionably Mr. Elaine. He was, more 
 over, in an especial sense the proper man to 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 
 
 497 
 
 make answer to Mr. Cleveland, as he had been 
 his rival in the Presidential campaign of 1884. Mr. 
 Elaine was at the time in Paris. But distance did 
 not prevent him from promptly accepting Mr. 
 Cleveland s challenge and making his answer 
 thereto, both personally and as the leader and 
 spokesman of the Republican party. 
 
 A very complete abstract of the President s 
 message was, of course, immediately transmitted 
 by cable to Europe and published in all important 
 papers there. That was on the morning of De 
 cember yth, the message having been presented to 
 Congress at Washington on the afternoon of 
 December 6th. On the very day of its publication 
 in Europe, Mr. George W. Smalley, the well- 
 known London correspondent of The New York 
 Tribune, called on Mr. Elaine in Paris and asked 
 him if he would be willing to give his views of the 
 President s Message for publication, in the form 
 of a letter or an interview. Mr. Elaine replied 
 in the affirmative, saying that he would prefer an 
 interview. Accordingly an expert stenographer 
 was called in to take down Mr. Elaine s words as 
 he should reply to the various questions of the 
 correspondent. Mr. Elaine began by saying : 
 
 " I have been reading an abstract of the Presi 
 dent s message and have been especially interested 
 in the comments of the London papers. Those 
 papers all assume to declare the message is a free 
 trade manifesto and evidently are anticipating an 
 
498 JAMES G. nLAINE. 
 
 enlarged market for English fabrics in the United 
 States as a consequence of the President s recom 
 mendations. Perhaps that fact stamped the char 
 acter of the message more clearly than any words 
 of mine can." 
 
 " You don t mean actual free trade without 
 duty?" queried the reporter. 
 
 11 No." replied Mr. Elaine. " Nor do the Lon 
 don papers mean that. They simply mean that 
 the President has recommended t what in the 
 United States is known as a revenue tariff, re 
 jecting the protective feature as an object and not 
 even permitting protection to result freely as an 
 incident to revenue duties. I mean, that for the 
 first time in the history of the United States the 
 President recommends retaining the internal 
 tax in order that the tariff may be forced down 
 even below the fair revenue standard. He rec 
 ommends that the tax on tobacco be retained, 
 and thus that many millions annually shall be 
 levied on a domestic product which would far 
 better come from a tariff on foreign fabrics." 
 
 " Then do you mean to imply that you would 
 favor the repeal of the tobacco tax ?" 
 
 "Certainly; I mean just that," said Mr. Blaine. 
 "I should urge that i:: be done at once, even 
 before the Christmas holidays. It would in the 
 first place bring great relief to growers of tobacco 
 all over the country, and would, moreover, mate 
 rially lessen the price of the article to consumers. 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 499 
 
 Tobacco to millions of men is a necessity. The 
 President calls it a luxury, but it is a luxury in no 
 other sense* than tea and coffee are luxuries. It 
 is well to remember that the luxury of yesterday 
 becomes a necessity of to-day. Watch, if you 
 please, the number of men at work on the farm, 
 in the coal-mine, along- the railroad, in the iron 
 foundry, or in any calling, and you will find 95 in 
 i oo chewing while they work. After each meal 
 the same proportion seek the solace of a pipe or 
 a cigar. These men not only pay the millions of 
 the tobacco tax, but pay on every plug and every 
 cigar an enhanced price which the tax enables the 
 manufacturer and retailer to impose. The only 
 excuse for such a tax is the actual necessity under 
 which the Government found itself during the 
 war, and the years immediately following. To 
 retain the tax now in order to destroy the protec 
 tion which would incidentally flow from raising 
 the same amount of money on foreign imports is 
 certainly a most extraordinary policy for our Gov 
 
 ernment." 
 
 " Well, then, Mr. Elaine, would you advise the 
 repeal of the whiskey tax also ? " 
 
 " No, I would not. Other considerations than 
 those of financial administration are to be taken 
 into account with regard to whiskey. There is 
 a moral side to it. To cheapen the price of 
 whiskey is to increase its consumption enor 
 mously. There would be no sense in urging the 
 
500 JAMES G. 8LAINE. 
 
 reform wrought by high license in many States 
 if the National Government neutralizes the good 
 effect by making" whiskey within reach of every 
 one at twenty cents a gallon. Whiskey would 
 be everywhere distilled if the surveillance of the 
 Government were withdrawn by the remission of 
 the tax, and illicit sales could not then be pre 
 vented even by a policy as rigorous and searching 
 as that with which Russia pursues the Nihilists. 
 It would destroy high license at once in all the 
 States. 
 
 " Whiskey has done a vast deal of harm in the 
 United States. I would try to make it do some 
 good. I would use the tax to fortify our cities 
 on the seaboard. In view of the powerful letter 
 addressed to the Democratic party on the subject 
 of fortifications by the late Mr. Samuel J. Tilden 
 in 1885, I am amazed that no attention has been 
 paid to the subject by the Democratic Administra 
 tion. Never before in the history of the world 
 has any government allowed great cities on the 
 seaboard, like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, 
 Baltimore, New Orleans and San Francisco, to 
 remain absolutely defenceless." 
 
 "But," said the reporter, "you don t think we 
 are to have war in any direction ? " 
 
 "Certainly not," said Mr. Blaine. "Neither, I 
 presume, did Mr. Tilden when he wrote his re 
 markable letter. But we should change a remote 
 chance into an absolute impossibility. If our 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 50! 
 
 weak and exposed points were strongly fortified, 
 if to-day we had by any chance even such a war 
 as we had with Mexico, our enemy could procure 
 ironclads in Europe that would menace our great 
 cities with destruction or lay them under contri 
 bution." 
 
 "But would not our fortifying now possibly 
 look as if we expected war ? " 
 
 "Why should it any more than the fortifica 
 tions made seventy or eighty years ago by our 
 grandfathers when they guarded themselves 
 against successful attack from the armaments of 
 that day? We don t necessarily expect a burglar 
 because we lock our doors at night, but if by any 
 possibility a burglar comes it contributes vastly to 
 our peace of mind and our sound sleep to feel 
 that he can t get in." 
 
 "But after the fortifications should be con 
 structed would you still maintain the tax on 
 whiskey ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Mr. Blaine, "so long as there is 
 whiskey to tax I would tax it, and when the 
 National Government should have no use for the 
 money I would divide the tax among the mem 
 bers of the Federal Union with the specific object 
 of lightening the tax on real estate. The houses 
 and farms of the whole country pay too large a 
 proportion of the total taxes. If ultimately relief 
 could be given in that direction it would, in my 
 judgment, be a wise and beneficent policy. Some 
 
CQ2 JAMES G. JBLAINE. 
 
 honest but misguided friends of temperance have 
 urged that the Government should not use the 
 money derived from the tax on whiskey. My 
 reply is that the tax on whiskey by the Federal 
 Government, with its suppression of all illicit dis 
 tillation and consequent enhancement of price, 
 has been a powerful agent in the temperance 
 reform by putting it beyond the reach of so many. 
 The amount of whiskey consumed in the United 
 States per capita to-day is not more than forty 
 per cent, of that consumed thirty years ago." 
 
 After a few moments silence Mr. Elaine added 
 that in his judgment the whiskey tax should be so 
 modified as to permit all who use pure alcohol in 
 the arts or in mechanical pursuits to have it free of 
 tax. In all such cases the tax could be remitted 
 without danger of fraud, just as now the tax on 
 spirits exported is remitted. 
 
 (< Besides your general and sweeping opposition 
 to the President s recommendation have you any 
 further specific objection ?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Mr. Elaine ; " I should seri 
 ously object to the repeal of the duty on wool. 
 To repeal that would work great injustice to many 
 interests and would seriously discourage what we 
 should earnestly encourage, namely, the sheep cult 
 ure among farmers throughout the Union. To 
 break down wool-growing and be dependent on 
 foreign countries for the blanket under which we 
 sleep and the coat that covers our backs is not 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 503 
 
 a wise policy for the National Government to 
 enforce." 
 
 "Do you think if the President s recommendation 
 were adopted it would increase our export trade ?" 
 
 " Possibly in some few articles of peculiar con 
 struction it might, but it would increase our 
 import trade ten-fold as much in the great staple 
 fabrics, in woolen and cotton goods, in iron, in 
 steel, in all the thousand and one shapes in which 
 they are wrought. How are we to export staple 
 fabrics to the markets of Europe unless we make 
 them cheaper than they do in Europe, and how 
 are we to manufacture them cheaper than they do 
 in Europe unless w r e get cheaper labor than they 
 have in Europe?" 
 
 / Then you think that the question of labor 
 underlies the whole subject?" 
 
 "Of course it does," replied Mr. Elaine. "It 
 is, in fact, the entire question. Whenever we 
 can force carpenters, masons, ironworkers and 
 mechanics in every department to work as cheaply 
 and live as poorly in the United States as similar 
 workmen in Europe, we can, of course, manufact 
 ure just as cheaply as they do in England and 
 France. But I am totally opposed to a policy 
 that would entail such results. To attempt it is 
 equivalent to a social and financial revolution, one 
 that would bring untold distress." 
 
 "Yes, but might not the great farming class be 
 benefited by importing articles from Europe, 
 
^04 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 instead of buying them at higher prices at 
 home?" 
 
 "The moment," answered Mr. Elaine, "you 
 begin to import freely from Europe you drive our 
 own workmen from mechanical and manufacturing 
 pursuits. In the same proportion they become til 
 lers of the soil, increasing steadily the agricultural 
 product and decreasing steadily the large home de 
 mand, which is constantly enlarging as home man 
 ufactures enlarge. That, of course, works great 
 injury to the farmer, glutting the market with his 
 products and tending constantly to lower prices." 
 
 " Yes, but the foreign demand for farm products 
 would be increased in like ratio, would it not?" 
 
 " Even suppose it were," said Mr. Elaine, "how 
 do you know the source from which it will be 
 supplied? The tendency in Russia to-day and in 
 the Asiatic possessions of England is toward a 
 large increase of the grain supply, the grain being 
 raised by the cheapest possible labor. Manufact 
 uring countries will buy their breadstuffs where 
 they can get them cheapest, and the enlarging of 
 the home market for the American farmer being 
 checked he would search in vain for one of the 
 same value. His foreign sales are already 
 checked by the great competition abroad. There 
 never was a time when the increase of a large 
 home market was so valuable to him. The best 
 proof is that the farmers are prosperous in pro 
 portion to the nearness of manufacturing centres, 
 
BENJAMIN HARRISON. 
 
./ CllALLf:\GE AND ITS AXSU F.R. 507 
 
 and a protective tariff tends to spread manufact 
 ures. In Ohio and Indiana, for example, though 
 not classed as manufacturing States, the annual 
 value of fabrics is larger than the annual value of 
 
 o 
 
 agricultural products." 
 
 "But those holding the President s views," re 
 marked the reporter, "are always quoting the 
 great prosperity of the country under the tariff 
 of 1846." 
 
 4 That tariff did not involve the one destructive 
 point recommended by the President, namely, the 
 retaining of direct internal taxes in order to abol 
 ish indirect taxes levied on foreign fabrics. But 
 the country had peculiar advantages under it by 
 the Crimean war, involving England, France and 
 Russia, and largely impairing their trade. All 
 these incidents, or accidents, if you choose, were 
 immensely stimulating to trade in the United 
 States, regardless of the nature of our tariff. 
 But mark the end of this European experience 
 with the tariff of 1846, which for a time gave an 
 illusory and deceptive show of prosperity. Its 
 enactment was immediately followed by the Mex 
 ican war ; then in 1848 by the great convulsions 
 of Europe ; then in 1 849 and succeeding years 
 by the enormous gold yield in California. The 
 Powers made peace in 1856, and at the same 
 time the output of gold in California fell off. Im 
 mediately the financial panic of 1857 came upon 
 
 the country with disastrous force. Though we 
 29 
 
JAMES G. BLAJXE. 
 
 had in these years mined a vast amount of gold 
 in California, every bank in New York was com 
 pelled to suspend specie payment. Four hundred 
 millions in gold had been carried out of the coun 
 try in eight years to pay for foreign goods that 
 should have been manufactured at home, and we 
 had years of depression and distress as an atone 
 ment for our folly. 
 
 "It is remarkable that President Polk recom 
 mended the tariff of 1 846 on precisely the same 
 ground that President Cleveland recommends a 
 similar enactment now, namely, the surplus in the 
 Treasury was menacing the prosperity of the coun 
 try. History is repeating itself. By the way," 
 Mr. Blaine added, after a moment s reflection, "it 
 is worth notice that Mr. Polk insisted on emptying 
 the Treasury by a free-trade tariff, then immedi 
 ately rushed the country into debt by borrowing 
 $150,000,000 for the Mexican war. I trust noth 
 ing may occur to repeat so disastrous a sequel to 
 the policy recommended by President Cleveland. 
 But the uniform fate has been for fifty years past 
 that the Democratic party when it goes out of 
 power always leaves an empty Treasury, and when 
 it returns to power always finds a full Treasury." 
 
 " Then do you mean to imply that there should 
 be no reduction of the National revenue ? " 
 
 " No, what I have said implies the reverse. I 
 would reduce it by a prompt repeal of the tobacco 
 tax and would make here and there some changes 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 509 
 
 in the tariff not to reduce protection, but wisely 
 foster it. No great system of revenue like our 
 tariff can operate with efficiency and equity unless 
 the changes of trade be closely watched and the 
 law promptly adapted to those changes. But 1 
 would make no change that should impair the 
 protective character of the whole body of the 
 tariff laws. Four years ago, in the Act of 1883, 
 we made changes of the character I have tried to 
 indicate. If such changes were made, and the 
 fortifying of our seacoast thus undertaken at a 
 very moderate annual outlay, no surplus would 
 be found after that already accumulated had been 
 disposed of. The outlay of money on fortifica 
 tions, while doing great service to the country, 
 would give good work to many men." 
 " But what about the existing surplus ? " 
 " The abstract of the message I have seen," 
 
 o 
 
 replied Mr. Blaine, contains no reference to that 
 point. I, therefore, make no comment further 
 than to endorse Mr. Fred Grant s remark that a 
 surplus is always easier to handle than a deficit." 
 
 The reporter repeated the question whether the 
 President s recommendation would not, if adopted, 
 give us the advantage of a large increase in exports. 
 
 " I only repeat," answered Mr. Blaine, " that it 
 would vastly enlarge our imports, while the only 
 export it would seriously increase would be our 
 gold and silver. That would flow out bounteously 
 just as it did under the tariff of 1846. The 
 
510 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 President s recommendation enacted into law 
 would result as did an experiment in drainage of 
 a man who wished to turn a swamp into a pro 
 ductive field. He dug a drain to a neighboring 
 river, but it happened, unfortunately, that the 
 level of the river was higher than the level of the 
 swamp. The consequence need not be told. A 
 parallel would be found when the President s 
 policy in attempting to open a channel for an in 
 crease of exports should simply succeed in mak 
 ing way for a deluging inflow of fabrics to the 
 destruction of home industry." 
 
 " But don t you think it important to increase 
 our export trade ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly ; but it is vastly more important 
 not to lose our own great market for our own 
 people in the vain effort to reach the impossible. 
 It is not our foreign trade that has caused the 
 wonderful growth and expansion of the republic. 
 It is* the vast domestic trade between thirty-eight 
 States and eight Territories, with their population 
 of, perhaps, 62,000,000 to-day. The whole 
 amount of our export and import trade together 
 has never, I think, reached $1,900,000,000 any 
 one year. Our internal home trade on 130,000 
 miles of railway, along 1 5,000 miles of ocean coast, 
 over the five great lakes and along 20,000 miles 
 of navigable rivers, reaches the enormous annual 
 aggregate of more than $40,000,000,000, and 
 perhaps this year $50,000,000,000. 
 
,-/ CHA L L ENGE A ND I TS A .YS WF.R. 5 1 1 
 
 "It is into this illimitable trade, even now in its 
 infancy and destined to attain a magnitude not 
 dreamed of twenty years ago, that the Europeans 
 are struggling to enter. It is the heritage of the 
 American people, of their children and of their 
 children s children. It gives an absolutely free 
 trade over a territory nearly as large as all Europe, 
 and the profit is all our own. The genuine Free- 
 Trader appears unable to see or comprehend that 
 this continental trade not our exchanges with 
 Europe is the great source of our prosperity. 
 President Cleveland now plainly proposes a policy 
 that will admit Europe to a share of this trade." 
 
 " But you are in favor of extending our foreign 
 trade, are you not ?" 
 
 " Certainly I am, in all practical and advanta 
 geous ways, but not on the principle of the Free- 
 Traders, by which we shall be constantly exchang 
 ing dollar for dime. Moreover, the foreign trade 
 is often very delusive. Cotton is manufactured 
 in the city of my residence. If a box of cotton 
 goods is sent 200 miles to the province of New- 
 Brunswick, it is foreign trade. If shipped 1 7,000 
 miles round Cape Horn to Washington Territory, 
 it is domestic trade. The magnitude of the Union 
 and the immensity of its internal trade require a 
 new political economy. The treatises written for Eu 
 ropean States do not grasp our peculiar situation." 
 
 " How will the President s message be taken in 
 the South ?" " I don t dare to answer that question. 
 
512 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 The truth has been so long obscured by 
 certain local questions of unreasoning prejudice 
 that nobody can hope for industrial enlightenment 
 among their leaders just yet. But in my view 
 the South above all sections of the Union needs a 
 protective tariff. The two Virginias, North 
 Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Ala 
 bama and Georgia have enormous resources and 
 facilities for developing and handling manufact 
 ures. They cannot do anything without protec 
 tion. Even progress so vast as some of those 
 States have made will be checked if the Presi 
 dent s message is enacted into law. Their Sena 
 tors and Representatives can prevent it, but they 
 are so used to following anything labelled Demo 
 cratic that very probably they will follow the 
 President and blight the progress already made. 
 By the time some of the Southern States get free 
 iron ore and coal, while tobacco is taxed, they may 
 have occasion to sit down and calculate the value 
 of Democratic free trade to their local interests." 
 
 " Will not the President s recommendation to 
 admit raw material find strong support? " 
 
 " Not by wise Protectionists in our time. Per 
 haps some greedy manufacturers may think that 
 with free coal or free iron ore they can do great 
 things, but if they should succeed in trying, will, 
 as the boys say, catch it on the rebound. If the 
 home trade in raw material is destroyed or seri 
 ously injured railroads will be the first to feel it. 
 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 513 
 
 If that vast interest is crippled in any direction 
 the financial fabric of the whole country will feel 
 it quickly and seriously. If any man can give a rea 
 son why we should arrange the tariff to favor the 
 raw material of other countries in a competition 
 against our material of the same kind, I should 
 like to hear it. Should that recommendation of 
 the President be approved it would turn 100,000 
 American laborers out of employment before it 
 had been a year in operation." 
 
 "What must be the marked and general effect 
 of the President s message?" 
 
 " It will bring the country where it ought to be 
 brought to a full and fair contest on the question 
 of protection. The President himself makes it 
 the one issue by presenting no other in his mes 
 sage. I think it well to have the question settled. 
 The Democratic party in power is a standing men 
 ace to the industrial prosperity of the country. 
 That menace should be removed or the policy it 
 foreshadows should be made certain. Nothing is 
 so mischievous to business as uncertainty, nothing 
 so paralyzing as doubt." 
 
 This interview was published in New York on 
 December 8th, the very day after the publication of 
 President Cleveland s message. The Republican 
 party hailed it with delight, as a most effective 
 reply to the Democratic pronunciamento ; and on 
 that date the issues were joined and the Presiden 
 tial campaign of 1888 was begun. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. 
 
 The Convention of 1888 Mr. Blaine s Work in the Campaign The 
 Harrison Administration Mr. Blaine s Second Term as Secretary of 
 State The Samoan Affair Extradition The Pan-American Con 
 ference Reciprocity and Its Results American Pork in European 
 Markets The Fisheries Bering Sea Controversies with Chili and 
 with Italy A Notable Chapter in American Diplomacy. 
 
 As the time for holding the National Republi 
 can Convention of 1888 drew near, the great 
 mass of that party looked to Mr. Elaine as certain 
 to be the chosen candidate. He was absent from 
 the country, and, far from making any efforts to 
 secure the nomination, was understood to be 
 reluctant to receive it. But his friends would 
 take no denial. Repeated reverses had only 
 intensified their determination to put him in the 
 Presidential chair. And since Mr. Cleveland was 
 to be the Democratic candidate, on the platform 
 indicated by his message of 1887, it seemed 
 eminently fitting that Mr. Elaine, who had made 
 such an effective reply to that message, should 
 be selected to oppose him. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland was promptly nominated for 
 a second term by the Democratic National Con 
 vention which met at St. Louis on June 5th. At 
 the same time news came from Oregon that the 
 
AMERICAN DIPL OMA CY. 515 
 
 election in that State had resulted in an over 
 whelming Republican victory. The tariff had 
 been the issue in the contest, and Mr. Cleveland s 
 free trade doctrines had been squarely repudiated. 
 This was a happy omen for the Republicans, and 
 when their Convention met at Chicago, on June 
 1 9th, they were in high spirits and confident of 
 victory at the polls in November. All was uncer 
 tainty as to their standard-bearer, however. Mr. 
 Elaine had written from Florence, Italy, some 
 months before, explicitly declaring that he was not 
 a candidate. Yet many of his followers were deter 
 mined to brinpf his name before the Convention. 
 
 o 
 
 There were also strong movements in favor of 
 other candidates, such as the Hon. Chauncey M. 
 Depew, of New York ; the Hon. John Sherman, 
 of Ohio ; the Hon. Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana; 
 the Hon. Walter Q. Gresham, of Illinois; and 
 the Hon. Russel A. Alger, of Michigan. It was 
 commonly felt, however, that the choice of the 
 Convention would ultimately be decided by the 
 vote of New York. Not only was the delegation 
 from that State the most numerous, but it was 
 recognized that its preference should have 
 especial weight since New York was a doubtful 
 and pivotal State, upon whose vote the result of 
 the election would probably depend. 
 
 The platform adopted was strongly protectionist 
 in tenor, and it also contained ringing utterances 
 on the question of free and honest elections. 
 
516 JAMES C. BLAINE* 
 
 During the organization of the Convention and 
 adoption of platform, which occupied two days, 
 Mr. Elaine s name was cheered to the echo 
 whenever it was mentioned, and the idea that he 
 would be nominated in spite of himself steadily 
 grew. When the various candidates were formally 
 placed before the Convention, however, he was 
 not among them. They were Messrs. Hawley, 
 Gresham, Harrison, Alger, Allison, Depew, Sher 
 man, Fitler and Rusk. When balloting began, 
 several others were also voted for. California 
 cast sixteen votes for Mr. Elaine, and he received 
 enough scattering votes from other States to give 
 him a total of 35. For the three ballots held on 
 the first day of voting, Mr. Elaine s support re 
 mained at 35 ; although he would have been 
 nominated by a whirlwind of acclamation at any 
 moment when he had withdrawn his refusal to be 
 considered as a candidate. That refusal, how 
 ever, he did not withdraw. On the contrary, he 
 made it known by cable from Great Britain that 
 he resolutely adhered to and insisted upon it. 
 On the first ballot, John Sherman had 229 votes, 
 W. O. Gresham in, Chauncey M. Depew 99, 
 R. A. Alger 84, and Benjamin Harrison 79. By 
 the third ballot the withdrawal of minor candidates 
 had increased the vote for these leaders, especially 
 that for Alger. But no one was near the 415 
 needed. Then the Convention adjourned until 
 the next day. The fifth ballot, the next day, saw 
 
AMERICAN DIFL OMA CY. 5 1 7 
 
 Air. Elaine s vote increased to 42, while Sherman 
 had 224, Gresham 87, Alger 142, and Harrison 
 213. Depew had been withdrawn in Harrison s 
 favor. The Convention adjourned over Sunday, 
 and on Monday ended its labors. On the eighth 
 ballot Mr. Harrison was nominated, by 544 votes. 
 Five delegates voted for Mr. Blaine to the very 
 end. 
 
 In this result Mr. Blaine acquiesced most cor 
 dially and with not a trace of disappointment. He 
 had voluntarily placed and kept himself out of the 
 race. The men who had secured Harrison s 
 nomination were Mr. Blaine s friends and follow 
 ers, and they had chosen a man who was Mr. 
 Blains s friend, on a platform inspired by Mr. 
 Blaine s own masterly presentation of ,the issues 
 of the day. Amid the flood of congratulations 
 that poured in upon the chosen candidate none 
 was more hearty than Mr. Blaine s, and no one 
 more earnestly than he entered upon the work of 
 the campaign or more enthusiastically looked for 
 victory at the polls. 
 
 Mr. Blaine returned from his European tour in 
 August, arriving in New York on the tenth of 
 that month. He was greeted with such public 
 demonstrations of honor, joy and welcome as 
 have fallen to the lot of few men in this or any 
 other land. There was a parade of tens of 
 thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and the 
 whole imperial metropolis seemed ablaze with 
 
518 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 bunting and vocal with hurrahs. There was 
 speech-making, of course, galore ; the best of it 
 by Mr. Blaine himself. In the brief responses 
 which he made to various addresses of welcome, 
 he spoke with all his accustomed vigor and effect 
 upon the living political issues of the day. Pro 
 tection to American industry was the key-note ; 
 and he added to his cogent arguments the im 
 pressive testimony of personal observation of the 
 pauperized labor of the Old World. 
 
 From New York Mr. Blaine presently went to 
 his old home in Maine, stopping at Boston and 
 other points to receive the greetings of his fellow- 
 citizens. A few weeks later he placed himself 
 fully and actively at the head of his party in the 
 campaign that was so hotly raging. He visited 
 every important town and city in many States, 
 addressing everywhere assemblages whose size 
 was only limited by the walls of the containing 
 buildings, or by the means of transportation 
 thither. Sometimes he spoke at two or three or 
 four meetings in one day. His physical strength 
 seemed inexhaustible ; his eloquence grew even 
 more and more stirring in each new effort ; his 
 arguments and exhortations were irresistible. 
 Down to the very eve of the election he kept at 
 the work, winning every hour new voters for his 
 party. And when the election was over, and Mr. 
 Harrison was handsomely victorious, there was 
 not a dissenting voice in the chorus that 
 
. \MKRICA.Y ffifPL OMA C ) . 519 
 
 attributed the lion s share of the credit to James 
 G. Elaine. 
 
 Whatever hesitancy President Harrison may 
 have had in the selection of the other member:, 
 of his Cabinet, he doubtless had none regarding 
 the Secretary of State. He was glad to honor 
 the man who had so powerfully aided his cam 
 paign by giving to him that important post ; glad, 
 too, thus to grant the well-nigh universal wish of 
 his party. Nor were Republicans alone anxious 
 to see Mr. Elaine a second time made Secretary 
 of State. Multitudes of his political opponents 
 rejoiced in the appointment, remembering his 
 brilliant though brief administration in 1881, and 
 knowing that in his hands the welfare of Ameri 
 can interests and the honor of the American flag 
 would be secure. Accordingly, Mr. Elaine re 
 turned, in March, 1889, to the office from which 
 he had retired in December, 1881, and took up 
 the work which had then been interrupted, a 
 work for the welfare of the United States, and 
 for the welfare of all other nations with whom 
 this country comes in contact. 
 
 Early in Mr. Elaine s second administration of 
 the State Department two highly important trea 
 ties were negotiated and ratified. One of these, 
 arranged at Berlin, related to Samoa, where 
 American, German and British interests came 
 sharply into contact. The Germans had pursued 
 an aggressive policy, had deposed the rightful 
 
520 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 king and set up a pretender in his place, and 
 were riding roughshod over the rights not only of 
 the natives but of the American citizens settled 
 there. Calmly but firmly Mr. Elaine, through the 
 American Commissioners at Berlin, insisted upon 
 a restoration, by the Germans themselves, of the 
 deposed king, the recognition of equal rights and 
 privileges for the three powers interested, the sup 
 pression of the sale of fire-arms and alcoholic 
 liquors to the natives and various other reforms. 
 To these demands Germany was constrained to 
 yield, and the result was a signal triumph for the 
 American foreign policy, and also for international 
 comity. 
 
 An attempt had been made by Mr. Elaine s pre 
 decessor to negotiate a new extradition treaty 
 with Great Eritain, but it had failed. Mr. Elaine 
 began fresh negotiations on a new basis and soon 
 succeeded in concluding a treaty which vastly 
 enlarged and improved the list of extraditable 
 offences. 
 
 An International Marine Conference, compris 
 ing representatives of thirty-three nations, was 
 held at Washington, and formulated much valu 
 able legislation for the better protection of travel 
 by sea. 
 
 Still more important was the Pan-American 
 Conference, which opened at Washington on Oc 
 tober 2, 1889, in pursuance of the plans formed by 
 Mr. Elaine in the Garfield administration but 
 
AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 52T 
 
 unfortunately abandoned by his successor. This 
 conference was in session twenty weeks, including 
 an extended trip through most of the States of 
 the Union. The objects of its consideration were : 
 Measures that should tend to preserve the peace 1 
 and promote the prosperity of the various Ameri 
 can States ; measures toward the formation of an 
 American Customs Union ; the establishment of 
 regular and frequent communication between the 
 ports of the various States ; the adoption of uni 
 form systems of customs regulation, quarantine 
 laws, weights and measures, patent rights, extra 
 dition, etc., and various other allied topics. It 
 was not to be expected that every end in view 
 would be immediately attained. But the discus 
 sions and reports were rich in permanent value to 
 all the nations interested, and, as Mr. Elaine well 
 said in a brief address at the close of the confer 
 ence, that larger patriotism, which constitutes the 
 fraternity of nations, received an impulse such as 
 the world had not before seen. 
 
 Fittingly succeeding this came Mr. Elaine s pro 
 posal for an extended system of customs reci 
 procity, especially with the various States and 
 colonies of the American continent. This was 
 formally broached in a letter written by Mr. 
 Elaine to the President and by him transmitted to 
 Congress in June, 1890. Mr. Elaine submitted 
 therewith the report upon " Customs Union" 
 adopted by the Pan-American Conference, and 
 
522 JAMES G, ELAINE. 
 
 added some strong arguments of his own and a 
 most impressive array of facts and figures, de 
 monstrating the great advantages to be attained 
 by the adoption of such a system. l< To escape 
 the delay of uncertainty of treaties," he wrote, 
 " it has been suggested that a practicable and 
 prompt mode of testing the question was to sub 
 mit an amendment to the pending Tariff bill 
 authorizing the President to declare the ports of 
 the United States free to all the products of any 
 nation of the American Hemisphere upon which 
 no export duties are imposed, whenever and so 
 long as such nation shall admit to its ports free 
 of all taxes our flour, corn meal and other bread 
 stuffs, preserved meats, fish, vegetables and 
 fruits," and a considerable number of other arti 
 cles of agricultural and manufactory product 
 
 Mr. Elaine had already personally urged upon 
 the members of the committee of Congress in 
 charge of the Tariff bill the desirability of such 
 an amendment. The President now added 
 thereto a message containing his own recommen 
 dations to the same effect, and Senator Hale finally 
 offered an amendment to the Tariff bill formulated 
 by Mr. McKinley, comprising the exact provisions 
 suggested by Mr. Elaine. This amendment was 
 adopted and the principle of reciprocity with 
 American nations was thus embodied in the Mc 
 Kinley Tariff Bill, which in the fall of 1890 be 
 came a law. 
 
/ -. ~ 
 
 EMMONS ELAINE. 
 
A ME RICA N DJPL OMA CY. ^ 2 * 
 
 Brazil was the first nation to accept the offer of 
 reciprocal trade relations. The Spanish West 
 Indies followed. Then came Santo Domingo. 
 And presently other South and Central American 
 nations and even the British colonies in the West 
 Indies found it to their advantage to do the same. 
 The results fully equalled the expectations of the 
 author of the system. Almost immediately there 
 was a great increase in the export trade of tbe 
 United States to those countries, and since that 
 time there has been a steady and almost signifi 
 cant increase of commercial relations between 
 this country and its southern neighbors, to the 
 present and permanent advantage of both. 
 
 Another highly important work in the interest 
 of American commerce was effected by the State 
 Department during Mr. Elaine s second adminis 
 tration thereof. Beginning with Italy in 1879, one 
 European country after another had prohibited 
 the importation of American pork, until, at the 
 commencement of President Harrison s adminis 
 tration, that important product was practically 
 excluded from the markets of Austria-Hungary, 
 France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain and 
 Turkey. This subject received at once the 
 earnest attention of the President and his Secre 
 tary of StatQ, and instructions concerning it were 
 given to Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the Minister at 
 Paris, Mr. William W r alter Phelps, the Minister 
 at Berlin, and the other representatives of the 
 3 
 
526 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 government abroad. A law was also passed 
 providing for the inspection of meat products and 
 empowering the President to prohibit in certain 
 cases importations from countries excluding 
 American pork from their markets. The result 
 of this diplomacy and legislation was the removal 
 of the prohibition by Austria-Hungary, Denmark, 
 France, Germany, Italy and Spain, all within less 
 than nine months, and the markets of Europe 
 were thus reopened to a vast and valuable 
 American export trade. 
 
 For some years there had been more or less 
 friction between America and Fngland regarding 
 the rights of American fishermen in Canadian 
 waters. In many instances intolerable hardships 
 and outrages had been inflicted upon the fisher 
 men, and their demand for redress was urgent. 
 To this demand Mr. Elaine made prompt 
 response, and showed himself easily the master of 
 the Canadian and British officials in diplomatic 
 controversy. Another still more important sub 
 ject of contention between the two countries was 
 that of sealing rights in Bering Sea. In virtue of 
 its purchase of Alaska and the included waters 
 from Russia, the United States claimed exclusive 
 jurisdiction over the eastern portion of that sea, 
 including the islands which are the resort of the 
 great herds of fur-seals. For the protection 
 of these valuable animals it adopted certain reg 
 ulations concerning their capture, limiting the 
 
A ME K 1C A X D1PL OMA CY. . 2 - 
 
 annual catch to a certain number, and stationed 
 revenue cutters in those waters to see that the 
 law was observed. These regulations were 
 defied by numerous poachers, who fitted out 
 their vessels under the British flag in Canadian 
 ports and who wrought incalculable mischief by 
 promiscuous slaughter of the seals. The United 
 States Government promptly ordered the capture 
 and confiscation of all these vessels. Thereupon 
 the poachers appealed to the Canadian Govern 
 ment, and it in turn appealed to the British 
 Government, for protection, and a long and 
 vigorous controversy ensued between Mr. Blaine 
 and Lord Salisbury. The range of discussion 
 included the rights of America in Bering sea, on 
 historical and legal grounds, and also the practical 
 necessity of protecting the seal herds from 
 threatened destruction. At every stage of the 
 controversy Mr. Blaine showed himself absolute 
 master of the case and more than a match for his 
 British antagonist. A modus vivendi, in accord 
 ance with the American demands, was finally 
 established until such time as a permanent settle 
 ment of conflicting claims shall be effected. 
 
 An important episode in the history of the State 
 Department occurred in 1891 and 1892. At that 
 time a popular revolution occurred in Chili against 
 the President, Balmaceda, who had usurped 
 dictatorial authority and was playing the part of 
 a tyrant. The American Minister at Santiago. 
 
528 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 Mr. Egan, was accredited to the Balmaceda 
 government and could not, of course, recognize 
 the revolutionary government until it, had fully 
 accomplished its purposes and become the sole 
 and absolute authority. His position was a deli 
 cate one, and relations between the United 
 States and the new government in Chili became 
 much strained. A number of Americans were 
 assaulted and some murdered in the streets of 
 Valparaiso, and for a time there was loud talk of 
 war between the two countries. Under Mr. 
 Elaine s management the influence of the State 
 Department was exerted in the direction of peace, 
 and at the same time for a vindication of the- 
 honor of the American flag and the rights 
 of American citizens ; and in the end these 
 objects were entirely and satisfactorily accom 
 plished. 
 
 A controversy arose with Italy in 1891, over 
 the lynching of several murderous criminals of 
 Italian origin in New Orleans. Diplomatic re 
 lations between the two countries were for a time 
 suspended. But Mr. Elaine, by masterly argu 
 ment, first demonstrated the entire freedom of 
 the United States Government from blame and 
 responsibility in the matter, and then handsomely 
 soothed Italian susceptibilities by voluntarily 
 offering from the contingent fund of the State 
 Department a liberal indemnity to the families of 
 the men who had been lynched. Thus this 
 
AMEKICAX DIPLOMACY. 529 
 
 unpleasant incident was ended peacefully and 
 honorably. 
 
 Of all the other activities of the State Depart 
 ment under Mr. Elaine s wise direction it is 
 impossible here to speak. Many of these matters 
 are still incomplete. Others are not yet fully 
 understood by the world, so that much time must 
 yet elapse before their full significance is seen and 
 appreciated. But enough has already gone on 
 record, read and known of all men, to assure the 
 utmost confidence for the future, and to stamp 
 Mr. Elaine s administration, of the Department of 
 State as not only one of the most brilliant periods 
 in American diplomacy, but as a most notable era 
 in the world s international history. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE MAN. 
 
 Foreign Travels and Literary Work The London Times s Estimate of 
 " Twenty Years of Congress" Mr. Blaine s Home at Augusta His 
 Washington House His Bar Harbor Cottage The Children of the 
 Household A Brief Glance at Some of Mr. Blaine s Personal Char 
 acteristics. 
 
 It is not the object of the present work to offer 
 an analytical view of Mr. Blaine s private life and 
 personal characteristics. The record of his pub 
 lic words and works is all that can fittingly occupy 
 our present attention. But even this record is 
 not complete without an outlined portrait of the 
 man as he appears to his friends and associates 
 in public life and as he conducts himself in the 
 manifold activities of his busy career. During 
 the years of his retirement from public office be 
 tween 1881 and 1889, his time was largely occu 
 pied in European travel and in literary pursuits. 
 Mention has already been made of his tour abroad, 
 where he visited most of the important centres 
 of interest of the Old World and formed the 
 personal acquaintance of eminent people in many 
 lands. 
 
 530 
 
THE MAN. 5 3 i 
 
 Early in 1884 ne published the first volume of 
 his great historical work, "Twenty Years of Con 
 gress," and in 1885 the second volume was 
 issued. This work presents a comprehensive and 
 impartial view of the life of the American nation 
 from 1860 to 1880, prefaced by a careful con 
 sideration of the train of events which led to the 
 political revolution of 1860. The book is too well 
 known to the reading public of America to require 
 extended notice here. It attracted wide atten 
 tion throughout the world. English reviewers 
 regarded it as one of the most important contribu 
 tions to the standard literature of the day. " His 
 book," said The London Times, "is in no sense 
 a party manifesto ; it is a careful narrative ; 
 popular, but nojt undignified in style, and remark 
 ably fair and moderate in tone. He has ex 
 pressed a decided opinion on all issues involved 
 in the Civil War, but he is able to appreciate the 
 arguments and respect the motives of those 
 whom he holds to have been most widely mis 
 taken." 
 
 Following this work in 1887 Mr. Elaine 
 published a volume entitled "Political Discus 
 sions," in which were collected his most notable 
 addresses and papers, legislative, diplomatic and 
 popular, during the thirty years of his public 
 life. 
 
 Mr. Elaine s home has been in Augusta, Maine, 
 ever since he removed thither from Philadelphia. 
 
532 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 During his official life he of course has had a 
 second home in Washington, and of late years he 
 has had also a summer home at Bar Harbor, 
 Mount Desert Island. Each of these has been 
 the resort of countless public men and each has 
 always been open with a hearty welcome to Mr. 
 Elaine s almost innumerable friends. The capital 
 of Maine is a handsome little city on both banks 
 of the Kennebec river, built on a series of terraces 
 extending, one above the other, from the edge of 
 the water. For a few years Mr. Elaine lived in 
 one half of a double house on Green street. 
 But in 1862 he purchased a- large square house 
 at the corner of State and Capital streets, opposite 
 the grounds of the State House. It is a plain 
 and unpretentious dwelling, but large and com 
 modious and invested with an air of comfort, cult 
 ure and hospitality. The visitor finds it well 
 stocked with books and pictures, and in all 
 respects the appropriate home of one who was at 
 once a statesman, a scholar, and a man of the 
 people. 
 
 At Washington Mr. Elaine purchased a fine 
 lot on Dupont circle, in the northwestern part of 
 the city, and erected thereon a large and splendid 
 mansion. On its completion he lived there for a 
 time and then, finding the house larger than he 
 required, leased it and rented for his own occu 
 pancy a smaller house on Jackson square, near 
 the White House. 
 
THE MAN. 533 
 
 His cottage at Bar Harbor was a typical Ameri 
 can summer home, and was occupied by Mr. 
 Blaine and his family for two or three months in 
 each year. 
 
 The first child born to Mr. and Mrs. Blaine 
 died in infancy. Six other children have grown 
 to maturity, three sons and three daughters. 
 The eldest son, Walker, was educated at Yale 
 University and at the Law School of Columbia 
 College. He chose to follow in his father s foot 
 steps in political life, for which he showed extraor 
 dinary ability. For some time he was one of 
 the counsel for the United States in the Court of 
 Commissioners of Alabama Claims. At the be 
 ginning of the Harrispn Administration, on 
 March 13, 1889, he was made Examiner of 
 Claims in the State Department. This important 
 position he filled with distinction for only nine 
 months, his death occurring on January 15, 1890. 
 Thus was ended, to the bereavement of his family 
 and the regret of the Nation, a career that prom 
 ised to be comparable with that of his father in 
 important and distinguished public services. The 
 second son, Emmons Blaine, was educated at 
 Harvard University, and has risen to an import 
 ant place in Western railroad affairs. The youngest 
 son, James G. Blaine, Jr., is destined for a busi 
 ness career. 
 
 The three daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Blaine 
 were named Alice, Margaret and Harriet. The 
 
534 JAMES G. BLAINL 
 
 first was married to Colonel J. J. Coppinger, of 
 the United States Army, and died a few years 
 afterward. The second, Margaret, was married 
 in May, 1890, to Mr. Walter Damrosch, of 
 New York, a son of Dr. Leopold Damrosch, 
 the famous musician, and himself one of the fore 
 most musical composers and directors of this 
 country. 
 
 It is inevitable that a man in public life, if he 
 possess strong convictions and act upon them, 
 will have opponents, and even enemies, as well as 
 friends. Mr. Elaine was no exception to this 
 rule. No man of this generation has been the 
 target for more, or more bitter attacks ; nor has 
 any more triumphantly repulsed them. And no 
 man has had more, or more devoted and enthusi 
 astic, friends. Apart from his brilliant talents as 
 a statesman, inspiring admiration and compel 
 ling devoted support, Mr. Elaine possessed a 
 happy faculty of winning and holding personal 
 friendship. His manner was unaffected and cordial. 
 His memory of friends was extraordinary. He 
 seemed never to forget a face or a name. In the 
 later years of his life, he often met those whom he 
 knew twenty or thirty years before, but had not 
 seen or heard of in all that interval. But he 
 never failed to recognize them and to "place" 
 them, and to recall some associated incident of 
 the olden time. His tact in dealing with men, 
 whether friends or strangers, was unfailing and 
 
THE MAN. 535 
 
 unerring. And in all the relations of life he ap 
 peared to possess in the highest degree ail those 
 qualities which make a man a leader of men, a 
 great public servant, a loved and trusted friend, 
 and an entirely manly man. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Mr. Elaine Declines Further Political Preferment, and Retires from the 
 Cabinet The Minneapolis Convention, and the Campaign of 1892 
 Mr. Elaine s Failing Health His Wonderful Struggle against the 
 Foe His Death. 
 
 As the time for another Presidential Campaign, 
 in 1892, drew near, many Republicans began look 
 ing once more to Mr. Elaine, as their favorite 
 candidate. His popularity had never been greater, 
 and the party was as ready and as eager to follow 
 him as ever before. He decided, however, not 
 again t> enter the lists, and in good time an 
 nounced his resolution in the following unsolicited 
 
 letter : 
 
 WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 1892. 
 HONORABLE J. S. CLARKSON, 
 
 Chairman of the Republican National Committee. 
 My Dear Sir : I am not a candidate for the Presidency and my name 
 will not go before the Republican National Convention for the nomination. 
 I make this announcement in due season. 
 
 To those who have tendered me their support I owe sincere thanks, and 
 am most grateful for their confidence. They will, I am sure, make earnest 
 effort in the approaching contest, which is rendered specially important by 
 reason of the industrial and financial policies of the Government being at 
 stake. The popular decision on these issues is of great moment, and will 
 be of far-reaching consequence. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 There were still those who hoped that he would 
 reconsider his decision and accept a nomination. 
 
THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 537 
 
 But the great majority of his friends and followers 
 regarded this letter as conclusive, as its, writer 
 doubtless intended it to be, and with unspeakable 
 regret gave up their long-cherished ambition of 
 placing Mr. Elaine in the Presidential chair. 
 
 Mr. Harrison was known to be a candidate for 
 renomination, and the general sentiment of the 
 party was that he well deserved that honor. The 
 election of delegates to the National Convention 
 strongly indicated the prevalence of this sentiment, 
 a large majority of those chosen favoring the 
 renomination of the President. 
 
 On June 4, 1892, Mr. Elaine tendered to the 
 President his resignation of the office of Secretary 
 of State, which he had filled with such distinction 
 and so greatly to the benefit of his country. The 
 resignation was at once accepted, and a day or 
 two later Mr. Elaine and his family left Washing 
 ton for their home in Maine. 
 
 The National Republican Convention met at 
 Minneapolis on June ;th. From the first it was 
 evident that a majority of the delegates would 
 vote for the renomination of President Harrison. 
 But a large minority could not and would not 
 abandon the project of nominating Mr. Elaine, 
 although there was no reason to suppose that he 
 desired or would accept a nomination. The only 
 candidates formally presented to the Convention 
 were Mr. Harrison and Mr. Elaine, the chief 
 speeches introducing their names being made 
 
c;,S JAMES C. ELAINE, 
 
 respectively by the Hon. Chauncey M. Depewand 
 Senator Wolcott, of Colorado. Every mention of 
 Mr. Elaine evoked the most tumultuous enthu 
 siasm, even among those who did not intend to 
 vote for him. But the fact that he still stood by 
 the determination expressed in the letter of Febru 
 ary 6th, restrained the majority even of his closest 
 friends from seeking to nominate him. 
 
 The first and only ballot was taken on Friday 
 afternoon, June loth, and President Harrison re 
 ceived a large majority, and was thus made the 
 candidate of the party for a second term. The 
 considerable minority vote was about equally 
 divided between Mr. Blaine and Governor McKin- 
 ley, of Ohio. On the first and only ballot for a 
 candidate for the Vice-Presidency, the Hon. White- 
 law Reid was chosen. He had for many years 
 been the editor of The Neiv York Tribune, and 
 for the last three years Minister to France, and 
 had long been a close friend and earnest supporter 
 of Mr. Blaine. 
 
 The result of the Convention s work was re 
 ceived by Republicans throughout the country 
 with hearty satisfaction and with an earnest en 
 thusiasm that presaged success at the polls. Mr. 
 Blaine received the news while he was in Boston, 
 on his way to Maine. He expressed pleasure at 
 the ending of the contest and at his own escape 
 from political cares and labors into the quiet and 
 freedom of private life. He added : 
 
THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 539 
 
 "The resolution, energy and persistence which 
 marked the proceedings of the Convention at 
 Minneapolis will, if turned against the common 
 foe, win the election in November. All minor 
 differences should be forgotten in the duty of 
 every Republican to do all in his power to elect 
 the ticket this day nominated by the National 
 Republican Convention." 
 
 A few hours later, he left Boston for his home, 
 carrying with him the undying confidence, esteem 
 and love of his countrymen in such measure as 
 not many men of this or any land have ever 
 enjoyed. 
 
 Mr. Elaine s health had, for some years, been 
 uncertain. The prostration, in 1876 had left 
 ineradicable traces, and the shock and subsequent 
 strain which he suffered in 1880, in the assassina 
 tion of Garfield, had further impaired his consti 
 tution. Family bereavements also told upon him 
 seriously during the closing years of his life, and 
 the work which he did for the nation as President 
 Harrison s Secretary of State, sorely overtaxed 
 his energies. In his retirement to the leisure of 
 private life he hoped to secure a prolongation of 
 his waning lease of life ; but in vain. One of the 
 most insidious and deadly of maladies, Bright s 
 disease, had long since fastened its hold upon 
 him, and no medical skill nor tender care was 
 able to overcome it. 
 
540 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 During most of the summer he remained at 
 his home in Maine, an interested spectator of 
 tiie great political battle in which he was physi 
 cally unable to take his wonted part. In the 
 early autumn he travelled to New York, and was 
 for a time the guest of his friend, Mr. Whitelaw 
 Reid. He even took part in several political 
 conferences, and made a speech on the issues of 
 the campaign to an audience assembled at Mr. 
 Reid s suburban home. But, great as was his 
 desire to do so, he was unable to take any more 
 active part in the campaign, and he presently 
 retired to his home in Washington to fight out his 
 own grim battle. 
 
 His Washington house was an historic one ; 
 and one of tragic history. It had been the home 
 of William H. Seward, and was the scene of the 
 murderous attack upon that statesman and his 
 son by a member of the band of assassins who 
 compassed the death of Abraham Lincoln. Nor 
 had Mr. Elaine s occupancy of it been free from 
 woe. While living there he lost, first, his favorite 
 son, Walker; then his daughter, Mrs. Coppinger ; 
 and then his son, Emmons. Thus the popular 
 superstition, that ill-luck haunted the house, 
 seemed justified. 
 
 It was on December 17, 1892, that Mr. Elaine 
 \vas first formally declared by his attendants to be 
 near death. On that day he had an alarming 
 
WALKER ELAINE. 
 
THE LAST CA MPA IGN. 5 . lj 
 
 sinking, and a bulletin was issued by his doctor 
 in these words ; 
 
 "Mr. Elaine has been suffering for some time 
 past with symptoms of impaired general health, 
 but which did not clearly indicate the disease 01 
 any particular organ. Evidence of local organic 
 disease has been manifested recently, and it is 
 believed his present condition is due to this cause. 
 While there is nothing in the disease to warrant 
 the fear of any very rapid progress, he has shown 
 within a month past more signs of serious illness 
 than before. It is hoped that this aggravation 
 may pass off, but no positive statement can now 
 be made as to changes which may take place from 
 day to day." 
 
 All the next day his death was momentarily 
 expected. But his marvellous vitality enabled him 
 to rally, and a few days later he was able to sit up 
 in his bed, and his family and physicians began 
 seriously to consider the feasibility of removing 
 him to the milder climate of the South, or of 
 the Pacific Coast. 
 
 Meantime, popular manifestations of interest in 
 the condition of the distinguished sufferer were 
 very great. Night and day, newspaper corres 
 pondents lingered near the sick-room, sending out 
 frequent bulletins, which were read with deep 
 solicitude all over the land. 
 
 Early in January, 1893, he again showed symp 
 toms of fatal sinking, and on the 8th of that montli 
 
544 JAMES G. BLATNE. 
 
 his condition was described as follows by one of 
 his closest friends: "Mr. Elaine has not had a 
 connected thought for thirty days past. The heart, 
 while nourishing other organs, has not been strong 
 enough to furnish the necessary blood for the 
 brain. Hence it is that, like the ancient pine, Mr. 
 Elaine has been slowly perishing at the top, Mr. 
 Elaine dies like a philosopher at last, distasteful 
 as the subject of death has been to him in other 
 and stronger days. A few weeks since he called 
 his family about him and calmly told them that 
 he did not expect to recover. He was in full 
 possession of his mental faculties, and went over 
 his affairs in detail, and said to each of his children 
 all that he had to say. In the intervening period 
 the members of the family have gradually become 
 reconciled to the end, which is impending. When 
 the history is written of Mr. Elaine s illness, the 
 touching devotion of the wife and mother will be 
 one of its interesting chapters. No one except 
 the intimates of the family are able to appreciate 
 her fidelity and watchfulness and courage. Mrs. 
 Elaine has remained at the bedside of her husband 
 almost unintermittingly, watching every indica 
 tion of change, and aiding promptly in every case 
 of emergency. Through all the stages of despond 
 ency and grief which Mr. Elaine has passed of 
 late she has been at his side to cheer and soothe 
 and strengthen him." 
 
THE LAST CA MPA IGN. 5 45 
 
 Steadily the strength of the illustrious sufferer 
 ebbed away Day after day he lay, helpless and 
 unconscious. Finally, on January 27, at eleven 
 o clock in the morning, the end came. There had 
 been no marked change in his condition during 
 the night, although he had been rather restless, 
 and then there was an ominous increase of lan 
 guor. After breakfast, between 8 and 9 o clock, 
 the experienced eye of the nurse saw that death 
 was at hand. The members of the family and 
 the two physicians who had been in attendance, 
 were quickly summoned. Nitro-glycerine, the 
 most powerful heart-stimulant, was administered. 
 On former occasions it had rallied his failing 
 powers ; but now it had no effect. Dr. Hyatt 
 and Dr. Johnston could do nothing more, but 
 stand by and watch for the end. Around the bed 
 were grouped also Mrs. Elaine, her three surviv 
 ing children, Miss Harriet Elaine, Mrs. Walter 
 Damrosch, and James G. Elaine, Jr., and Miss 
 Mary A. Dodge (" Gail Hamilton,") Mr. Elaine s 
 cousin. The patient was entirely conscious, and 
 recognized them all. He was also quite free from 
 pain. And he passed away so gently that the 
 watchers were unaware of the exact moment of 
 his death. 
 
 As soon as the news of Mr. Elaine s death was 
 announced, a host of callers began to enter the 
 house to offer expressions of sympathy and regret. 
 
546 JAMES G. B I. A INK. 
 
 The President hastened from the White House, 
 and was quickly followed by members of the 
 Cabinet, Senators, Representatives, members of 
 the Diplomatic Corps, and numbers of others, of 
 prominent rank in social and official life. Both 
 Houses of Congress adjourned, an extraordinary 
 mark of respect to one holding no official station. 
 Equally marked and exceptional was the action 
 of the President in issuing a public proclamation 
 announcing the death of his ex-Secretary, and 
 ordering the Executive Departments of the 
 Government to be closed on the day of his 
 funeral. The proclamation read as follows : 
 
 f EXECUTIVE MANSION, 
 
 \ WASHINGTON, January 27, 1893. 
 
 "It is my painful duty to announce to the people 
 of the United States the death of James Gillespie 
 Blaine, which occurred in this city to-day at 1 1 
 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. Afterward, 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 iSSi, 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, 
 
TJIE LAST CAMPAIGN. 547 
 
 and, devoting himself to literary work, gave to the 
 public in his Twenty Years in Congress a 
 most valuable and enduring contribution to our 
 
 o 
 
 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 and affection of his countrymen 
 and the admiration of the world. In the varied 
 pursuits of legislation, diplomacy and literature, 
 his genius has added new lustre to American 
 citizenship. 
 
 "Asa suitable expression of the National sorrow 
 caused by his death, I direct that on the day of 
 his funeral all the Departments 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 dis 
 played at half-staff; and that for a period of thirty 
 days the Department of State be draped in 
 mourning. BENJAMIN HARRISON. 
 
 11 By the President : 
 
 JOHN W. FOSTER, Secretary of State" 
 
 Similar tributes of respect were paid all over 
 the country. State Legislatures adopted suitable 
 resolutions and adjourned. In Mr. Elaine s own 
 State of Maine the public and private grief was 
 most profound. The news was announced to the 
 
54$ JAMES C. ELAINE. 
 
 State Senate by the Governor in the following 
 
 j t> 
 
 special message : 
 
 ( STATE OF MAINE, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
 \ AUGUSTA, ME., January 27, 1893. 
 
 11 To the Senate and House of Representatives : 
 
 "For weeks the eyes of the American people 
 have been turned toward the capital of the 
 nation. This morning-, at 1 1 o clock, James G. 
 Blaine, the matchless debater, the brilliant orator, 
 the matchless statesman, died in the city of Wash 
 ington. In these halls he began his distinguished 
 public career. We recall with pride his patriotic 
 utterance, in early life, to the people of Maine : 
 Perish all things else, the national life must 
 be saved/ He loved his State and believed 
 in her people. Political affiliations have never 
 estranged the deep affection entertained for him 
 by his countrymen. Men of all parties mourn 
 his death, but this great loss is most keenly felt 
 by our people, for they claimed him as their own. 
 I have directed that the national flag be dis 
 played at half-mast upon the public buildings of 
 the State, and, during the funeral services, all the 
 departments of the executive branch of the State 
 Government w r ill be closed. I trust the Legis 
 lature will take appropriate action in honor of the 
 memory of the deceased. 
 
 HENRY B. CLEAVES, Governor." 
 A similar proclamation was issued to the people 
 of the State. The Mayor of Augusta also pub- 
 
THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 549 
 
 lished a message to the people of that city, and 
 the* City Government, at a special meeting, 
 adopted these resolutions : 
 
 f CITY OF AUGUSTA, BOARD OF ALDERMEN, 
 
 (January 27, 1893, 
 
 "The citizens of Augusta have learned with pro 
 found regret of the decease of their distinguished 
 fellow-citizen, Hon. James G. Elaine. To the 
 world at large his death has come as a public loss, 
 because, as one of America s foremost men for 
 many years he has attracted and held the public 
 eye. To us, however, his death comes with a 
 tenderer significance. This was his home. Here 
 
 o 
 
 he came in his young manhood to engage in busi 
 ness enterprise. Here his children were born 
 and reared. Here began his marvellous political 
 career, when as a member of the Maine Legisla 
 ture he represented this city in the House of 
 Representatives. That career did not cease till 
 he had become the acknowledged leader of his 
 own political party, and was granted the merit 
 of statesmanship even by his political opponents. 
 Amid all his triumphs, however, he remained true 
 to the home of his adoption, and its citizens have 
 remained true to him. Others may remember 
 him for his brilliant attainments, his forceful 
 character, his irresistible personality ; but the 
 citizens of Augusta will ever cherish his memory 
 because, through all his varied fortunes he was 
 still one of our people, keenly interested in our 
 
550 JAMES G. BLAL\!\ 
 
 welfare, generous to every worthy cause, a genial 
 neighbor, a warm-hearted and devoted friend, 
 therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That the City Council cause this sim 
 ple tribute to the memory of Augusta s most dis 
 tinguished citizen to be entered upon its records, 
 and a copy sent to the sorrowing family as an 
 expression of the tender sympathy of their old- 
 time friends and neighbors. 
 
 o 
 
 "Resolved, further, That as a final mark of 
 respect to one whom we delighted to honor in his 
 life, we suggest that all places of business be 
 closed and all business in the city be suspended 
 during the funeral hours, and that our citizens 
 arrange for an appropriate memorial service to be 
 held on the day of the funeral." 
 
 The official statement of the attending physi 
 cians, regarding tke cause of Mr. Elaine s death, 
 was promptly made public, as follows : 
 
 The beginning of Mr. Elaine 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 itself 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 oblitera 
 tion of vessels, and in chronic disease of the kidneys. The attack of 
 paralysis, in 1887, was connected with similar alterations in the blood 
 vessels of the brain. 
 
 During the summer of 1892 the evidences of failing health were more 
 decided, and in November, after his return to Washington, his symp 
 toms suddenly assumed an aggravated 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 showed that 
 
THE LAST CAMPAIGN, 551 
 
 there was a progressive interstitial change goi-ng on in that organ, and 
 that he had a form of chronic Bright s disease. 
 
 In December signs of lung comolication 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 infec 
 tion as well. Much of the distress whiah Mr. Elaine 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 un 
 usual weakness from cardiac degeneratien and dilatation, and on 
 December i8th he had an alarming attack of heart exhaustion ; from 
 this he rallied, but others of the same nature occurred on several occa 
 sions. From the middle of January these attacks ceased, and the action 
 of the heart was more uniformly good. There was, however, a daily 
 loss of flesh and strength. 
 
 For three days before Mr. Elaine s death there was no marked change 
 in his condition ; each day he seemed somewhat more feeble tkati 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 embarras 
 sed. As a result of the failing heart action, oedema of the lungs 
 occurred, and he died without much suffering, at n o clock. 
 
 During the whole of Mr. Elaine s illness the digestion was well per 
 formed and liquid food (chiefly milk) was taken in full quantities. Hir, 
 mind was generally clear, except when clouded by uraemia and dis 
 turbed brain circulation, and although unable to express himself in 
 words, he recognized all the members of his family up to within a few 
 moments of his death. 
 
 Drs. Janeway and Loomis, of New York, were called in consultation 
 and rendered important service by their advice. 
 
 WILLIAM W. JOHNSTON, M, D. 
 FRANK HYATT, M. D. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FINAL TRIBUTES. 
 
 An Outburst of National Grief Words of Tribute from Chauncey M. 
 
 Depew, Senator Hoar, Ex-Secretaries Fish and Evarts, Henry Wat- 
 
 terson, and others Dr. MacArthur s Version of the Burchard 
 
 Incident The Funeral Services at the House At the Church of the 
 
 Covenant At the Grave in Oak Hill Cemetery The End. 
 
 Seldom in the history of any nation has the 
 death of one man called forth so many and so 
 sincere expressions of grief and tributes of affec 
 tionate esteem as did the death of James G. 
 Blaine. The whole American people mourned 
 their loss. Closed public offices, flags at half- 
 mast, and other outward emblems of bereavement, 
 were visible everywhere. And there were every 
 where audibte the words of those who had known 
 and loved him, or who, not personally knowing 
 him, had yet loved and admired and followed him. 
 His long and active public life had brought him 
 into immediate contact with many individuals. 
 And as he had himself a marvellous faculty of 
 remembering everyone he ever met, so, too, his 
 magnetic personality so impressed those whom he 
 met that they ever after well remembered him. 
 55 2 
 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 553 
 
 The Hon. ChaunceyM. Depew, for many years 
 one of Mr Elaine s most intimate friends, said of 
 him : 
 
 "Mr. Elaine enjoys the unique distinction of 
 having been better understood by the plain people 
 of the United States and more thoroughly mis 
 understood by the highly educated and hypercrit 
 ical citizens than any other one of our statesmen. 
 
 The secret of his success was his lucidity and 
 candor. That lucidity and candor, combined with 
 inimitable quickness of application, earnestness 
 and action created the impression in the Mug 
 wump intellect that he was a trickster a danger 
 ous factor in politics, a man to be watched and 
 feared. 
 
 "No statesman of our country, save Henry 
 Clay, has ever had such a hold on the popular 
 minds, and no one has been in such close 
 touch with the people. At any time within the 
 last twenty years he would have been triumphantly 
 elected President, except for untoward accidents 
 and extraordinary misrepresentations, which 
 everybody regretted after the election was over. 
 It was exceedingly touching to sit in a bar- room 
 of a country hotel, where the whole countryside 
 gathered, or to meet after the county committee s 
 meeting, at a reception given by some citizen, the 
 representatives of ail the town, and hear them talk 
 about Jim Elaine with a personal affection and 
 an apparent intimate acquaintance, as if he had 
 
554 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 been a member of their own household. Probably 
 none of them had ever met him, and yet he was 
 an essential part of their personal, political and 
 social lives. Mr. Elaine possessed the rare 
 faculty, which is in itself a gift of popularity, of 
 never foro ettino 1 a face or a name. It is said that 
 
 o o 
 
 Henry Clay possessed it. I have seen extraor 
 dinary illustrations of it by Thurlow Weed and by 
 the Prince of Wales, but beyond Mr. Elaine, Mr. 
 Weed and the Prince of Wales, I have never 
 known any man in public or private life who had it. 
 
 " Mr. Elaine would be introduced at some mass 
 meeting or a reception in Washington or at the 
 railway station to a farmer or a mechanic or a 
 lawyer and to hundreds of them. Subsequently 
 one of these men would be in his presence at some 
 place distant from the town where the introduction 
 occurred. Mr. Elaine would grasp him by the 
 hand, call him by name, recall the circumstances 
 of the introduction, and with a cordial grasp and 
 a peculiar look state some incident of their brief 
 conversation ; and that man was ready for the rest 
 of his life to be burned at the stake for James G. 
 Elaine. 
 
 "I have studied Mr. Elaine s oratory in the 
 scores of times or so that I have been upon the 
 same platform with him. He was not eloquent in 
 our American understanding of that word ; but 
 he had a certain clearness of statement, directness 
 of argument, plain and understandable way of 
 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 555 
 
 putting things which carried his audience. His 
 great forte was to make a short speech and to 
 make one subject the prominent feature of the 
 speech which he was making. He invariably cap 
 tured his audience at the time, and none of them 
 ever forgot him. 
 
 " He will stand in our history as the ablest par 
 liamentarian and most skilful debater of our Con 
 gressional history. His marvellous memory, his 
 inimitable tact, his almost miraculous perception 
 of the weak point of the adversary, the sudden 
 ness of his attack, and his ability to cover his 
 retreat made him invincible upon the floor as the 
 leader of his party. He had an unusual combina 
 tion of boundless audacity with infinite tact. No 
 man during his active career has disputed with 
 him his hold upon the popular imagination and 
 his leadership of his party. He has left no suc 
 cessor who possesses in any degree such as he 
 possessed it the affection and the confidence of his 
 followers." 
 
 Senator George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, had 
 been associated with Mr. Elaine for many years 
 in Congress, and had known and studied all con 
 spicuous Americans of his generation. In speak 
 ing of the departed statesman he said : 
 
 " To draw an adequate portrait of Mr. Elaine 
 would require almost his own genius. He was, 
 since the death of our great military chieftains, 
 the most conspicuous and striking personal 
 
55 6 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 presence in American public life. Even when 
 Grant, Sherman and Sheridan were at the height 
 of their fame, Mr. Elaine shared with them the 
 affection of his countrymen, and his coming would 
 have created anywhere in the country as great 
 popular enthusiasm as that of either of the three 
 great chieftains. The feeling for him was that 
 which is felt for a bright and attractive boy. He 
 had always, amid the most serious and grave 
 responsibilities, that gift of youth which was the 
 charm of Charles James Fox, and which made him 
 the best beloved of the great English statesmen. 
 Mr. Blaine had a marvellous literary instinct. 
 His style was free from exaggeration and excess 
 and the little pomposities of phrase which are the 
 vice of our American speech. His eulogy on 
 Garfielcl has always seemed to me one of the most 
 exquisite productions of the class to which it 
 belongs. Mr. Blaine had great skill in seeing 
 what position on difficult and exciting public ques 
 tions was likely to receive the support of his 
 party, and to be popular in the country. I think 
 his leadership, if his health had been continued, 
 would have prolonged the lease of power of the 
 Republican party. Mr. Blaine was a learned man 
 in American politics. He had this knowledge 
 always at his command. It lent a great charm to 
 his familiar conversation at his own table, where 
 he was the most charming of hosts, and in society, 
 where he was the most sought for of guests. I 
 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 557 
 
 
 
 ihink it a great pity that he was never elected 
 
 : !. I think his pilotage would have 
 
 \ e-,sel of the Republic safely. His 
 
 .1 of the Department of State was 
 
 cO show how mistaken were those who 
 
 ted a quarrelsome, sensational, fickle and 
 
 eUit administration of foreign affairs of the 
 
 country." 
 
 Two of Mr. Elaine s predecessors to the office 
 of Secretary of State were Hamilton Fish and 
 William M. Evarts. Mr. Fish was Secretary of 
 State in President Grant s Cabinet, while Mr. 
 Elaine was speaker of the house of Representa 
 tives. On hearing of Mr. Elaine s death, he said : 
 
 4< A great man has gone. He was the greatest 
 American of his time, and his death probably ends 
 the most active life in our history. For twenty- 
 five or thirty years he has been a powerful figure 
 in the country, and his fight against death has 
 been a brave one. He filled a large space in pol 
 itics and in the administration of the Government, 
 but the end, coming at this time, I do not believe 
 wall effect a change in the administration or any 
 thing else. That has been discounted by his long 
 illness. I did not meet Mr. Elaine of recent years. 
 When I knew him, he was vigorous of body as well 
 as in mind, and he was one of those aggressive, 
 ambitious, energetic statesmen whose qualities 
 drew some men toward them, and at the same time 
 made enemies for them. When I was in the State 
 
558 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 Department 1 saw much of him. He was speaker 
 of the House at that time, and he lived with his 
 fanily in a house directly across the street from 
 where I lived. My personal relations with him 
 were always pleasant. As speaker of the House 
 he was wonderfully able and efficient, and he was 
 always a fearless man. He had more hold on the 
 popular feeling than any other man since Henry 
 Clay s time, but like him he failed in the one great 
 ambition of his life. He was like Seward, Doug 
 las and Clay. The same qualities that attracted 
 some toward him made enemies. Seward, Doug 
 las and Clay were all leaders, though, and so was 
 Elaine. His wise counsels have been missed by 
 his party, but at the present time his death will 
 have no political effect." 
 
 "His death will be universally regretted, and the 
 unkind things that have been said about him will 
 be, I think, not repeated. He was an affectionate 
 man in his own family, and during the eight years 
 he lived near me I had an opportunity to see what 
 an interest he took in his family, and what love 
 and admiration he had for his children. But his 
 death will not only be mourned by his widow and 
 children. For months the whole country has been 
 watching at his bedside and the whole country 
 will mourn its loss. I cannot say too much of 
 Mr. Elaine s ability. Had he not been so great 
 and brilliant he might have been President. He 
 was a great man when he first entered upon a 
 
F1XAL TRIBUTES. 559 
 
 political career. He became greater as years 
 rolled by. He has been accused of sensational 
 things, but when Secretary of State under Harrison 
 he did nothing of a rash or sensational sort. Blaine 
 was a man with a most remarkable memory, and 
 in debate he could quote figures for hours without 
 referring to notes. He was certainly the greatest 
 American of his time, and during the latter years 
 of his life the people had every confidence in him, 
 and they felt assured that if he ever had reached 
 the Presidential chair his administration would 
 have been conservative and prosperous. The 
 nation has lost its greatest citizen ; his unique 
 place in history will never be filled." 
 
 Mr. Evarts was Secretary of State in President 
 Hayes Cabinet when Mr. Blaine was in the 
 Senate. He said : 
 
 It is the close of a very eventful political 
 career. Mr. Blaine was one of the most brilliant 
 public men in the history of the country. Besides 
 his brilliant public career he attracted about him 
 more personal admiration and applause than any 
 man of his time. His hold in a place of history 
 and in the affections of the people of the United 
 States will live long after his death. My acquaint 
 ance with Mr. Blaine was intimate and agreeable 
 for many years, and I followed with interest the 
 career of the most conspicuous personality in 
 recent public life. Mr. Blaine was an able pre 
 siding officer in the House, and in the Senate he 
 
560 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 ably demonstrated his capacity and ability readily 
 to grasp great questions of the day. At one time 
 there was no orator In America who was more 
 than his equal, and in debate he was an antagonist 
 worthy to meet. His memory was something 
 marvellous, and facts and figures, when necessary, 
 were always at his tongue s end. He had one 
 great ambition. He had the right to it. There 
 are others who aspired to the Presidency, and 
 were as capable as Mr. Blaine of administering 
 the affairs of the highest office in the land, but, 
 like Henry Clay, it was destined that he should 
 never reach the White House. But his fame 
 could not have been greater had he reached the 
 height of his ambition. His place in history will 
 always remain. More ample testimony as to his 
 brilliant and varied career, accomplishments and 
 services may well await a later day. * 
 
 Nor were tributes of praise by any means con 
 fined to Mr. Elaine s party friends. His political 
 opponents, even those of the South, who had for 
 years been warring with him incessantly, gener 
 ously offered their meed of respect. One V)f the 
 most distinguished and eloquent of them, the Hon. 
 Henry Watterson, said : 
 
 Among the modern leaders of American party 
 politics James G. Blaine stood easily first. In the 
 power of drawing to himself the admiration of 
 great masses of the people, and of arousing the 
 enthusiasm of his followers, he had no equal in 
 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 561 
 
 either political camp. A certain lack of prestige 
 which marked his brief service in the Senate may 
 be traced directly to the circumstance that he 
 was not a trained lawyer. No man has ever made 
 a career in the Senate that graveyard of Presi 
 dential hopes and coffin of slain ambitions who 
 was not. But as a commoner upon the floor of 
 the National House of Representatives, Mr. Elaine 
 was a Titan. He was a Titan before the people. 
 He was a Titan among his political associates in 
 the closet and at the round table where party 
 plans are laid and party plans decided. Mr. 
 Elaine s lot was cast in high party lines. In 
 political controversy he neither asked nor gave 
 quarter. But in his private intercourse he was 
 altogether free from political prejudices, unreserved 
 and generous to his adversaries, genial to all, 
 and altogether delightful as a companion. He 
 was not so august as Clay nor so unguarded as 
 Douglas ; but he will rank with those for a party 
 leader, and be classed with them and compared 
 to them by the biographers, for, as political chief 
 tains and popular debaters, the trio possessed 
 much in common. Peace to the ashes of a noble 
 adversary. All honor to the name of a great 
 American. At last the Plumed Knight has joined 
 the knightly throng whom the ages have assem 
 bled on the other side." 
 
 Captain Hugh R. Garden, for many years presi 
 dent of the Southern Society of New York, said ; 
 
562 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 " I regarded Mr. Elaine as the foremost American 
 since Charles Sumner. He possessed a wonderful 
 personality, which he impressed on all who came 
 in contact with him, no matter what their prejudices 
 were. Men who knew him only by reputation 
 admired him for his great talents, but when they 
 came, to know him personally their admiration and 
 respect were increased, many fold. He was a 
 friend of the South. Though on many points I 
 could not agree with him, yet my admiration for 
 him was so great that he was the one Republican 
 I could have voted for for President. .The news 
 of his death shocked me, though we knew the end 
 was inevitable. Mr. Elaine never wrestled with 
 the social problem in the South the one influence 
 that has kept the South solid. He could not do 
 so for party reasons. That he admitted himself. 
 I think the obligations of party prevented him 
 from doing many things that would have benefited 
 the South. He was closely identified with the 
 South in many ways. In Virginia, West Virginia, 
 Kentucky and Alabama he had large interests. 
 We Southerners liked Elaine for his sterling 
 
 o 
 
 Americanism. That was the quality that touched 
 our pride. We felt that he was American through 
 and through." 
 
 At this time, also, the following account was 
 given of the famous " Burchard Incident" in 1884, 
 which has previously been described in this volume. 
 The account was given on the Sunday following 
 
> 
 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 565 
 
 Mr. Elaine s death, by the Rev. Dr. Robert S. 
 MacArthur, of New York, in the course of a 
 sermon on "The Dead of a Week," in which 
 reference \vas made to the deaths of Rutherford 
 B. Hayes, Abner Doubleday, Phillips Brooks, 
 L, Q. C. Lamar, and James G. Blaine. 
 
 " Since its occurrence," said Dr. MacArthur, 
 " the true story of the Burchard incident may be 
 told for the first time. I may be permitted to say 
 that all the facts connected with it are known to 
 me, and that in my judgment the time has now 
 come when they should be fully stated. It was 
 supposed by many that Dr. Burchard deliberately 
 uttered the fatal alliterative words in order to 
 secure Mr. Elaine s defeat. Many politicians were 
 so firmly convinced that such was the case that at 
 one time they determined to investigate the case 
 by every personal and legal process which they 
 could employ. Many affirmed further that some 
 members of Dr. Burchard s family voted for Mr. 
 Elaine s opponent in that election. They affirmed 
 further that certain of Dr. Burchard s financial 
 obligations were mysteriously paid soon after the 
 occurrence of the now historic incident, and they 
 therefore reached the conclusion that his famous 
 words were spoken as the result of a deliberate 
 plan to defeat Mr. Blaine. I used my influence 
 at the time to relieve Dr. Burchard from this added 
 reproach. It is but justice to him now to say that 
 these suspicions were utterly unfounded, ami that 
 
566 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 five minutes before he had begun his address he 
 did not know and could not have known that he 
 was to be asked to speak. The committee having 
 the matter in charge chose the honored and dis 
 tinguished Dr. Thomas Armitage, then pastor of 
 the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, of this city, to 
 preside, and to make the address to Mr. Elaine. 
 Dr. Armitage was absent in Philadelphia preach 
 ing a dedication sermon. It was expected that he 
 would arrive in New York in good time to perform 
 this service. We waited half an hour after the 
 appointed time and he did not arrive. Then a 
 young lawyer, a member of this church, came to 
 me and suggested that I invite Dr. Burchard to 
 take Dr. Armitage s place. I hesitated about 
 assuming that responsibility at so critical a time. 
 I referred him to a distinguished Methodist clergy 
 man, who was also on the committee. His judg 
 ment, as well as that of my legal friend, were 
 earnestly in favor of inviting Dr. Burchard, as a 
 man who for forty years had been pastor of a 
 prominent Presbyterian church in this city, and 
 who had always honorably discharged every 
 obligation in his clerical life. 
 
 " Again I hesitated and again the company 
 waited, but Dr. Armitage not arriving, and the 
 necessity for proceeding being earnestly urged, 
 the unfortunate invitation was given and Dr. 
 Burchard presided. The moment the alliterative 
 escaped his lips I saw that a fatal blunder had 
 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 567 
 
 been committed. I watched Mr. Elaine closely, 
 hoping that he would see the purport of the 
 remark, and that with his well-known tact he 
 would give it a wise and patriotic reply, but it was 
 evident that he did not appreciate the meaning of 
 the words spoken, as he made no allusion to them 
 in his reply. It is due to Dr. Burchard s memory 
 that this statement now be made. Whatever his 
 views afterward became nothing can be more 
 certain than that he spoke what he deemed truth 
 ful words, and spoke them honestly on this occa 
 sion. He told me afterward that the chief error 
 of his words, the only error, indeed, was that he 
 spoke too much truth." 
 
 The funeral of Mr. Elaine was held on Monday, 
 January 3Oth, in the house in which he had died, and 
 in the church he had attended, and it was as 
 private and simple as possible. Yet the most em 
 inent men in the nation stood around his bier. 
 All business in the National Capitol was sus 
 pended during the period in when the funeral ser 
 vices were in progress. The presence of the 
 President and Cabinet and Supreme Judges and 
 high officials of Congress and of the Diplomatic 
 Corps was not more significant than the homage 
 of the waiting crowds which, in respectful silence, 
 lined the streets through which the funeral pro 
 cession passed. 
 
 The casket in which lay the remains of the 
 illustrious dead was placed in the parlor of the 
 
568 JAMXS C. BLAINE. 
 
 house, literally embowered in flowers. Grouped 
 about it were the widow, her daughters, Mrs. 
 Damrosch and Miss Harriet Elaine ; James G. 
 Blaine, Jr., Mrs. Emmons Elaine, Miss Dodge 
 ("Gail Hamilton ") ; R. G. Blaine, brother of the 
 dead statesman, and his wife and daughter ; 
 Hampton Denman, of Missouri, cousin of Mr. 
 Elaine ; Frank, Henry, Horace and Augustus 
 Stanwood, Walter Stinson and W. H. Hatch, all 
 nephews of the dead man. Others present were 
 the President and Vice-President, and the mem 
 bers of the Cabinet, and their families ; and many 
 Senators, Representatives, and foreign diplomats, 
 while a vast throng stood silent in the street 
 without. The brief service was conducted by the 
 Rev. Dr. T. L. Hamlin, pastor of the Presbyterian 
 Church of the Covenant, of which Mr. Blaine had 
 been an attendant. Standing by the coffin, he 
 offered a brief prayer for consolation for the 
 bereaved. That was all ; and the gathering 
 moved on to the Church of the Covenant. 
 
 This church is a modern structure, with a lofty 
 picturesque stone tower, capped with red tiling. 
 It is at the corner of Connecticut ave. and N st, 
 opposite the British Legation, and in the heart of 
 the fashionable northwestern section of the city. 
 Within it was profusely adorned with palms and 
 flowers. A great and distinguished congregation 
 was present, while thousands more thronged the 
 streets in respectful silence. At exactly noon the 
 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 569 
 
 cortege entered the church. Dr. Hamlin walked 
 at the head, holding in his hand an open book 
 containing the ritual of the Presbyterian worship, 
 and read as he advanced selections from the Scrip 
 tures. Behind him came the honorary pallbearers, 
 two abreast, Senators Hale and Frye, the rep 
 resentatives of the dead man s State, leading the 
 way. The family followed and took the front 
 seat near the coffin. 
 
 When all were seated, Dr. Hamlin began the 
 church services with the reading of selections from 
 the Scriptures. The reading finished, prayer was 
 offered by Dr. Hamlin. This, which was the only 
 approach to a funeral discourse that marked the 
 ceremonies of the day, was as follows : 
 
 " Thanks be unto Thee, Almighty God, that we 
 come into the presence of death with such words 
 of triumph as these. Thanks be unto Thee, O 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that immortal life is no more 
 a dim surmise, a probable speculation, but an as 
 sured fact. Thanks be unto Thee, O Holy Spirit 
 of God, that Thou hast revealed to the hearts and 
 minds of men these truthful verities upon which 
 we rest when human life passeth like a shadow, 
 when our hopes are all frustrated and our plans 
 all put to naught in the presence of the great 
 destroyer. 
 
 "Thanks be unto God, the Father and the Son 
 and the Holy Spirit for Christian triumph in the 
 presence of the open grave. We render Thee in 
 
57 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 this sacred and solemn place and presence, O God, 
 our tribute of gratitude for that Thou didst make 
 Thy servant, whose ashes we are now committing 
 to the resting place of all the living. We thank 
 thee for all that mental endowment with which 
 Thou didst bless him, for all the fidelity in culture 
 and refinement in the pursuit of all that makes 
 the human mind clear and true and strong and 
 mighty that marked his life. 
 
 "We thank Thee for his patriotism, his serene 
 and unchanging faith in the institutions of the land 
 he loved. We thank Thee for his services to his 
 country in days and years of peril, through critical 
 times steadily holding to his confidence in the 
 great principles that underlie our institutions. We 
 thank Thee for his faith in God, his faith in Jesus 
 Christ, his acceptance of Him as his personal 
 Saviour and Redeemer. We thank Thee for his 
 broad charity, his kindness and sweetness of heart 
 that impressed all those that love man and serve 
 God. We thank Thee for his strong serenity 
 under the great and crushing bereavements that 
 in these last years have fallen upon him and upon 
 his household. We thank Thee for his fortitude 
 during all these weeks of waiting, for Iris patience 
 and his gentleness. We thank Thee, Lord, for all 
 that our departed brother, through Thy grace, was 
 as man and citizen, as patriot, as a servant of his 
 country, as husband and father in the beautiful 
 life of the home. 
 
TRIBUTES. $71 
 
 " And now we entreat Thee, O God, that Thy 
 comfort may come upon those that are most 
 nearly bereaved, that these members of his own 
 household and those near kindred may be strong 
 in faith, trusting in God alone, and while there 
 flows to them such a stream of sympathy from all 
 parts of the land and of the world, we pray Thee 
 that, receiving it with gratitude, they may rest not 
 in it, but in the priceless sympathy of the Son of 
 God. We entreat Thee that they may be able to 
 look, not into tke open grave, but into the open 
 heavens, not at what they have lost, but at what 
 the dear one gone has left behind. And we 
 entreat Thee that the fragrant and precious 
 memories of this dear husband and father, friend 
 and kinsman, may be their solace in these desolate 
 and trying days. 
 
 "We ask thy blessings, O Lord, our God, upon 
 the Executive Department of th Government 
 with which Thy servant was so intimately associ 
 ated. We commend to Thee the President of 
 the United States, the Vice-President and all the 
 members of the Cabinet with whom our departed 
 brother labored. And we entreat that upon them 
 all in this sense of loss and this new admonition 
 of their own mortality, there may come a comfort 
 ing consciousness and serene trust in God and the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 "WeprayThee, our Father, for the Congress of 
 the United States, in whose councils for so lono- 
 
57* JAMES G. BLAME. 
 
 Thy servant participated and with such influence 
 for good. We entreat Thee that every member 
 of the Congress may be impressed anew with 
 the need of trust in God, in preparation for this 
 event that cometh alike to all, and that their work 
 henceforth may be done under the consciousness 
 of their responsibility to God under the power of 
 an endless life. 
 
 "We ask Thy blessing upon all our common 
 wealth. We commend to Thee especially the 
 State in which our brother was born and the State 
 that adopted him and that together rejoice to-day 
 in his illustrious service ; and we pray Thee that 
 the executives and legislators of all our common- 
 
 o 
 
 wealths may be men of God, that they may trust 
 and serve Thee. We ask Thy blessing, O Lord, 
 upon all the people of the land ; upon the millions 
 that with singular fidelity have loved him whose 
 voice so many of them have heard, whose counsel 
 so many of them have followed, but who now rests 
 speechless in death. We entreat Thee that his 
 patriotism, his lofty purposes, his sincere and con 
 stant love for the institutions of the land may ani 
 mate all the people and may be a blessed heritage 
 for every citizen of the Republic. 
 
 "We commend to Thee the nations of the earth ; 
 all those lands that have felt the touch of his hand 
 in the great relations of diplomacy, and we pray 
 Thee that there may come to them all a more pro 
 found trust in God, in people, in the liberties 
 
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FINAL TRIBUTES. 575 
 
 wherewith God is making people free, and in all 
 those blessed gifts that come from Him to the 
 nation that loves and serves the Lord of Hosts. 
 
 4 And we ask Thy blessing, O Lord, upon this 
 church. We thank Thee that Thy servant had 
 part in its very beginning, that he did not despise 
 the clay of small things. We thank Thee that he 
 loved and aided it in its early days and its progress, 
 that he worshipped here and sat at this communion 
 table. We pray Thee that Thou wilt grant to this 
 church, as Thou taketh from it one and another, 
 the consolation of Thy holy spirit and Thine abid 
 
 ing grace. 
 
 "And now, dear Lord, as we go hence and take 
 our places about the open grave and deposit there 
 this sacred and precious dust, wilt Thou go with 
 us as this family return to their desolate home? 
 Wilt Thou be with them? Wilt Thou make good 
 the void that is in their hearts? May this many 
 times bereaved, this sorely afflicted household have 
 the abundant comfort and strength and grace of 
 Jesus Christ, our Lord, and we beseech Thee, our 
 Heavenly Father, that throughout all the land and 
 throughout all the world, wherever the eyes and 
 hearts of men are turning at this hour toward this 
 place, wherever any are sending to God the 
 tributes of thanks for the services of this life, 
 wherever there is sorrow to-day, we entreat Thee 
 that Thy presence may soothe every sorrow and 
 
57 6 JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 that the hope of immortality may be inspired 
 afresh in every heart. 
 
 " Forgive our sins, receive us all into the number 
 of Thy dear children, help us so to live that we 
 shall be ready at any moment to hear Thee say, 
 Son, daughter, thy work on earth is finished, 
 come home; and so each, at last, may there open 
 the doors of the seat of God ; and may we enter 
 in to be forever blessed." 
 
 The Lord s Prayer was then recited by the 
 pastor and a part of the congregation, and the 
 benediction was invoked upon all present, and at 
 12.45 tne church services closed; the coffin was 
 raised and placed once more in the hearse, all the 
 distinguished concourse standing as it was borne 
 from the church. 
 
 It was then noted that Mrs. Blaine was not 
 among the mourners, as had been supposed. 
 Among so many deeply veiled figures her form had 
 not heretofore been missed, but it was now whis 
 pered that, overcome by grief, she had remained 
 at the house. Before the starting of the funeral 
 procession from Lafayette Square Mrs. Blaine had 
 requested to be left alone for a few minutes with 
 her dead. The parlor had been cleared for this 
 purpose, and when Mrs. Blaine emerged she 
 made her way, supported on the arms of her son 
 and daughter, Miss Harriet, to the room where 
 her husband had died, and there gave way to her 
 grief in utter prostration. Mrs. Hale and other 
 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 577 
 
 sympathizing friends followed her to the death 
 chamber, but their friendly ministrations were of 
 no avail, and Mrs. "Elaine was compelled to re 
 main behind. 
 
 The funeral procession next moved from the 
 church to Oak Hill Cemetery, a beautiful spot on 
 the summit of Georgetown Heights, Here are 
 the graves of many famous dead, including that of 
 John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet 
 Home." Here, too, two of Mr. Elaine s children 
 had been buried. The President, Vice-President, 
 Cabinet, Ministers and many others accompanied 
 the family to the grave. There Dr. Hamlin read 
 the simple committal service of the Presbyterian 
 church, and offered the following brief prayer : 
 
 "We thank Thee, Heavenly Father, that to those 
 who trust in Christ the last of earth is the first of 
 heaven. We thank Thee that those solemn and 
 sad words ; Dust to dust, and ashes to ashes, 
 are not spoken of the soul. We invoke Thy com 
 forting presence in this household as they return 
 to their sad home, and beseech Thee to make good 
 by Thy grace the void in their hearts, in those 
 saddest hours *that are yet to follow. May their 
 trust in Thee be unshaken, and the precious 
 memory of their departed console them in their 
 loneliness. Enable them to look away from the 
 open tomb into the open heaven, and by the 
 vision of faith may they see their dear one safe 
 with Thee ; and when others shall perform for us 
 
57 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 these last offices of love, may they have the 
 sweet assurance that they are forever with the 
 Lord. 
 
 " Forgive our sins and receive us, when this life 
 shall close, into the everlasting joy and felicity of 
 life immortal, in the name and for the sake of Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord." 
 
 Then came the benediction, and the solemn 
 rites were ended. 
 
 And thus was ended the earthly history of one 
 of the foremost American citizens of his age ; and 
 thus \vas stricken from the roll of the living and 
 placed upon the roll of the departed, one of the 
 brightest and noblest of names in American his 
 tory 
 
 " One of the few, the immortal names 
 That were not born to die ! " 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY