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FREELAND, PA., JANUARY 30, 1893.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, D. C. Jan. 27,1893.
The fifty-second congress may die in a
senatorial dead-lock if Mr. Harrison
follows the advice that is now being
given him by prominent members of
liis party ami nominates a Republican as
successor to the late Justice Lamar. The
United States supreme court is in theory,
if not in fact, a non-partisan body, and
the death of Justice Lamar leaves only
two men—Chief Justice Fuller and Jus
tice Field—on its bench who were
Democrats before their appointment
thereto. After a man takes his seat
upon that bench he is not supposed to
have any politics, but the Democratic
party knows to its cost what a mistaken
idea that is. It is only justice to the
people whose interests are constantly at
stake in questions coming before this
court that its membership should be as
nearly divided between the political
parties as possible, and for that reason
the Democratic senators are disposed to
resort to every honorable method to pre
vent the addition of another Republican
to the six already sitting on the bench,
and if Mr. Harrison nominates a Repub
lican to the vacancy they will, if they
can, deadlock the senate, even if it re
sults in hanging up all legislation ami
forcing an extra session of congress. In
view of Mr Harrison's early retirement
and the fact that the new justice cannot !
take his seat until after President Cleve
land's term begins, it would only be a
common decency for Harrison to leave
the vacancy for Cleveland to fill, and if
it were not for the pressure that is beirg
brought to hear upon him by his part*
associates it is believed that he would
adopt that tnanly course.
Secretary Foster's r port on the condi
tion of the treasury and his estimates of
the probable receipts and expenditures
for the remainder of this and for the
next fiscal year is at last in the hands of
the house ways and means committee.
It is far from satisfactory, as it is known
that the surplus which he figures out is
obtained by failing to deduct liabilities
amounting to $46,000,000, which will
have to be met in the period covered by
bis estimates, and there may be more
yet. That the committee is now at work
trying to find out, and Mr. Foster will
probably have to undergo a rigid cross
questioning.
An amusing episode took place in the
house one morning this week, just be
fore the session began. Chief Wolf, of
the Palouse tribe of Washington Indians,
in all the glory of a red blanket and red
paint, was taking in the sights. After
strolling around the hall for a while he
walked up to the speaker's chair and
taking a seat therein camly surveyed
the members. While he was sitting
there a witty member remarked: "That
is the first savage who has occupied the
speaker's chair since Reed vacated it."
Reed was sitting near by ami heard
the remark, and he joined in the laugh
which followed.
There is an interesting rumor here to
the effect that the Republican national
committee is engaged in setting up pins
tomakeJ.S. Clarkson the Republican
candidate for president in 1896. The
idea is not taken very kindly by the
Harrison lb-publicans who regard Clark
son as a "hoodoo" of the first order.
By 1890, judging from present indica
tions, the Republican party will be past
"hoodooing."
A Republican caucus of senators was
held to determine when and how the
four territories that are ready for state
hood might he admited. The first thing I
the caucus did was to strike Arrizona
from the list, as being too certainly
Democratic. Then it proceeded to ar
range a programme, which, while ac
quiescing in the demands of Oklahoma,
Utah and New Mexico to be admitted
to the family of states, only gives them
about one chance out of a possible hun
dred to get the bills, proyiding there
fore, through at this session of congress.
The programme arranged gives the
right of way to the territorial bills after
the Cherokee strip, the anti-option ami
the Nicaragua canal bills are disposed of.
What that right of way is worth may be
judged from the fact that the senate has
not yet disposed of a single one of the
appropriation bills.
The contract for the inauguration fire
works has been awarded to the St. Louis
Fireworks Company, the price being
|4,650. S.
All those who have used Baxter's
Mandrake Bitters speak very strongly
in their praise. Twenty-five cents per
bottle. Sold by I)r. Schilcher.
The name of N. 11. Downs' still lives,
although he has been dead many years.
His Elixir for the cere of coughs and
colds has already outlived him a quarter
of a century, and is still growing in fa
vor with the public. Sold by Dr. Schil
cher.
When Baby was sick, wo gave her Castorla.'
"When she waa a Child, she cried for Caatoria.
When she became Misa, she clung to Caatoria.
When she had Children, she gave them Caatoria.
Lane's Medicine Moves the llowela F.acli
Day. lii order to be healthy this is necessary.
THE MAN FROM MAINE.
John Clark Ridpath Reviews the
Life of James 0. Blaine.
HIS INFLUENCE AND GENIUS
His Entire Career XVas Picturesque and
Drumutic —His Achievements in States
manship and I.iterature—Honors and
Triumphs of His Later Years.
by American Press Association.]
Slow sinks, more glorious ere his race be run.
Along Morea's hills the setting sun-
Not us in northern climes obscurely bright.
But ono unclouded blaze of living light.
—Byron.
It is tho day of Endymion —tho hour
of tho setting 6un! The splondid orb
which has shone for more than a quarter
of a century across tho landscape of civ
ilization gilds with his last beams the
domo of the Capitol! He is gone!
Wo may now estimate dispassionately
the life and genius of JAMES GILLESPIE
BLAINE. The conspicuous place which
he has held in the estimation of his coun-
JAMES G. BLAINE,
trymen calls for something more than a
passing repetition of the facts of his
career. The mere facts were easily re
cited. It were a briof and cursory task
to recount the capital events and land
marks of his life. Born in West Browns
ville, Pa., on the 81st of January, 1830:
educated first at home and afterward at
Washington college; teaching for a short '
time in a military school at Blue Lick
Springs, Ky.; finding there and taking
in marriage Harriet Stanwood, a teacher
Like himself; returning to liis native state
to teach in Pliiladelpliia; going with his
young wife to her home in Maine and
making that state his future home;
editor at twenty-four of tho Kenne
bec Journal; associate editor of the Port
land Advertiser; bounding into politics;
reaching the legislature of Maine and
then a seat in congress; seven terms a
member of tho house of representatives
and for six years speaker of that body,
briefly in the senate—an arena unsuited
to his genius; aspiring to the presidency;
four times voted for in national conven-
I tiona of liis party and once nominated:
twice secretary of state in tlw cabi
nets of his competitors; leader of his
party; publicist; diplomatist of the first
rank; creator of policies national and in
ternational; statesman, author, man of
genius, and therefore an enigma—such
have been the critical stages and evolu
tions of this remarkable career.
But biographical annala do not suffice
in the case before us. The so called life
of Blaine is already a twice-told tale, tt
is known in the quick memories of hi. j I
countrymen and to the world. Blaine
deserves rather now that outward I
bound he passes the remotest bar of hu
man vision—to be fairly estimated, justly ;
interpreted to the understandings of his
countrymen, revealed without partiality j
faithfully portrayed upon the screen in I
the backward look of memory.
Blaine was favorably but j)aradoxical
ly born—favorably, because of the en
placement of his birth. Pennsylvania is
one of the empire states of the Union
Out of her borders many of the great
liavo arisen. But he also came paradox
ically. He was born in a Quaker com
monwealth and of the cross blood of a
Presbyterian and a Catholic! Was he
not from birth the product of contradict
ory conditions and inconsistent elements
of life?
It concerns us little to note the cir
cumstances in the early career of James
G. Blaine. His ambitions, intellectual
powers and easy attainments were re- j
marked from his boyhood. Tradition
has made it evident that ho was a youth
of unusual powers. Glimpses of great
; purpose flash out here and there. His
j collegiate training at Washington col-
I lego was not unfavorable to the promo
tion of his native forces. As a youth ho
gained much by forensic practice. Con
tention made him, or at least gave him,
his bent. Already at college he gathered
many of the historical, literary and sci
entific resources which were to stand
him so well in hand in liis riper years.
Blaine's mind was one of those that are
! particularly susceptible to the influences
lof education and environment. The
j completed man, as he appeared in this
1 remarkable personage, was very different
) from the completed man as he is discov
ered in such characters as Franklin and
Henry, Thaddeus Stevens and Lincoln.
Blaine from his earlier years grew and
assimilated to himself all the sap and po
tency of his surroundings; he flourished
in his soil and sprang from the arena.
We may pass by the somewhat obscure
influences of his domestic estate. The
' world knows that in this regard he was
not a happy or an inspired man. This
has been true of too many of our recent
great Americans. Somehow or other in
American life it rarely happens nowa
days—though it seemed to happen in the
: colonial epoch often—that the domestic
reaction upon the man of genius and
purpose works out its most beneficent
results. Blaine has been indeed singu
larly unfortunate in his family. Many
are dead. The most promising lias lately
' fallen; others are broken with hurt.
Doubtless the proud man, as husband
and father, lias suffered much and wept
bitter tears over his losses and wounds.
May all these be closed —as they will bo
—with the closing of the grave!
Blaine's rise to public notice was aus
picious, but not singular. He entered
easily and successfully into the stormy j
life of politics. He devoted himself to
that pursuit with native zest under the
sharp spur of an unusually active am
bition. His early experiences in jour
nalism stood him well in hand. The
period in which ho held the editorial pen
was precisely that in which the old stylo
of explosive and redundant oratory was
giving place to the exactor and truer
forms of sj>oech.
The transformation demanded that the
orator of the new period should be a man
of exact language and cogent argument
Blaine's quick and capacious mind con
formed readily and in excellent measure
to the new demand, and when he ad
vanced to the national platform he went
with the equipment of perfect linguistic
forms, a fair measure of imagination
and ever improving argumentative re
sources.
The editorial career of Blaine had an
intrinsic 2is well as secondary merit. By ;
his pen he commanded his first public
applause. The young Republican party
laid the Pathfinder for its candidate, j
Blaine was in at the birth. He was then
twenty-six years of ago. He was a dele
gate to the audacious convention which j
nominated Fremont for the presidency. ;
Such a candidate was worthy of such |
support. The aspiring young Maine ed
itor made his columns flame with passion
and appeal. Glorious spring days were
those when human liberty began to re
vive! Happy fortune of the young men '
of 1850 to appear on the stage when truth
was put on trial; when party debate had
not yet degenerated into wrangle, in
triguo and falsehood; when the defense
of principle siiU promised as fair reward
as is now promised for hateful subserv
iency to the caucus! Blaine's virgin ed
itorials were eagerly sought by the jour
nalists of Boston and were reprinted in
Ohio and Michigan. Ilis name was al
ready beard as far as Minnehaha and the
Platte.
James G. Blaine entered the house of
representatives in 1803 to continue in
active service in that body for fourteen
consecutive years. This was the period
in which he achieved his national repu
tation. He was one of the many aspiring
young civilians upon whom the after
forces and passions of the great war
played and reacted with striking effect.
Ln proportion as his faculties were strong
er and his ambitions more prevalent than
those of his fellow members ho roso above
them until only a few competitors re
mained of like stature and mettle. On
one side was seen in tho samq rank with
himself tho persistent Garfield, and on
the other the magnificent and arrogant
Conkling. These three perhaps already
saw the presidency afar off. They also
saw each other. Not all of them could
reach the goal.
Blaine at this epoch had many advan
tages. in addition to native gifts and
well earned attainments he had the pove.
of growth. He was always a growing
man. To the end of his career —or very
nearly to the end—he continued to branch
and flourish. His growth was strong
and conspicuous. Each year added to
his stature. His figure, his intellectual
and personal life, became picturesque
and striking.
Herein is a difference between tho
strong man and the weak. The strong
man grows long and well. The weak
man grows for a short space and then
grows 110 more. Ho has a brief efflores
cence and thon a dwarfish delivery of
sour fruit! But the strong man grows
and continues to flourish in thought and
spirit to the end of his days.
It wero not amiss to ascribe to James
G. Blaine this unusual power of develop
ment. Have his last years been years of
weakness? Has there been in him intel
lectual decline? Has ho hud an epoch of
senility and the second childhood of old
age? Nay, the last estate has not been
of this color in tho case of the great
secretary.
We need not hero repeat to what ex
tent James (>. Blaine wrought himself
and his purpose into tho legislation and
history of his times. Three times speaker
of tho house of representatives in the
6torniy and anarchic period which fol
lowed the civil war, ho must needs have
contributed much to those public meas
ures in which tho current history of our
country was recorded. Upon all of the
issues arising in the train of tho ro-
MUS. BLAINE.
I hellion ho laid a strong and ambitious
hand. Ho was a determinative force
in the financial measures upon which
the business and wealth of tho
United States have found a profitable
but unstable equilibrium. He pressed
forward with ceaseless activity the meas
ures of reconstruction. He ascended
I the sharp and jutting crag of party
leadership. With tho statesman's mo
tive, not unmixed with the motive of tho
politician, ho flung himself into tho
heated and iinbittered debates of the
epoch.
Tho legislative career of Blaine was
touched in many parts with tho first
penciling of those policies with which
j his name has become associated. Al
| ready wo may discover in the tono of
i his debates and the spirit of his outside
j speeches the outgivings of those views
j which as secretary of state he was to
develop into permanency and system.
I Ever and anon while still in the house
of representatives he struck out with
original force the first sparks of that
■ policy between which and tho high jingo
ism of British politics so many points of
similarity may be discovered. It may i
be defined as the policy of acute Ameri- j
canism! It develops itself into the i
theory of the complete segregation of tho
American republics and of the affiliation
of all under the aegis of the United
States. It is a form of patriotic indig
nation of which one of the fundamental
principles is attachment to tho Irish
cause and aversion to British influences
on this side of the sea. It is probable
that the doctrine of protection, to which
Blaine gave such powerful and rational
advocacy, was by him held as secondary
to the deeper motive of American self
sufficiency and of the confirmation of
the United States in the primacy of the
three Americas.
Blaine's whole career in congress was
spectacular and dramatic. The genius
of the man favored display and great
acting. Witkout doubt Blaine had the
power to grasp a situation, to extract
from it its dramatic elements and to
work those elements into a scene. In
this particular American history has not j
furnished his equal. His audacity al
ways stood him well in hand. Time and
again he was brought into collision with
dangerous men and still more dangerous
facts. It may be doubted whether in
such contingencies he ever suffered dis
jaragement, to say nothing of defeat.
Time and again he issued from tho most
serious complications, portending ruin
to his fortunes, with victory on his crest.
In such contests there is little doubt that
he was capable of supplying in his own
cause, by well placed fiction and unsup
ported declamation, those elements of
fact which truth withheld. In the crises
of his career he was wont to shoot the
rapids like a skillful and daring boat
man. There were days when his proud
ship and valuable cargo were crowded
hard between Scylla and Cliarybdis, but
ho always went through with a shout
and was answered by the roar of the sur
rounding seas.
We may here refer at once to Blaine's
personal antagonisms and ever recurring
encounters. No other American states
man of great rank has had so many and
such serious battles. Some were battles
with men and others with circum
stances. These cost the gladiator dearly.
It was his antagonism, be it said, that I
finally stranded him on the shores fds
side of tho White House. Ho attacked,
and attacked bitterly, all of his rivals.
He seemed to be inspired with the belief
that ho must vanquish them and put
them down. As he roso toward the
speakership, and from the speakership
toward tho presidency, ho discerned witr
l clear eye the facts and the men with
whom he had to contend. There was
Roscoo Conkling for ono. Blaine at
tacked Conkling, and in that hour Nem
esis looked down from the gallery! Ho
eyed Morton askance. He saw Garfield
with a jealousy which became acute as
Garfield pressed up to his fiank. His
impetuosity knew no bounds. At times
it seemed that he could not curb him
self. lie flung sarcasms and ironies and
invectives by the handful. They struck
where they might. Ilis was to be a lead
ership by conquest and by the humila-
I tion of the foe.
In Blaine there was, however, a strong
mingling of the calm, the judicial, the
conservative method. Strange how just
ho could bel The house of representa
tives never had a better or truer speaker
His personality in the desk was immense.
As presiding officer ho not only won but
merited universal respect. His rulings
were impartial. Ilis eye had the glance
of the eagle, and his pose and self posses
sion were magnificent. He was capable
of justice and truth. Ho would not
brook such infamy as the caucus occa
sionally propounded. At one time he
was well nigh losing the allegiance of his
party by a defiant counter ruling in fa
vor of the Democracy. The strange
thing about Blaine was that though lie
in that crisis set himself against the
first force bill with the determination of
duty and truth we aro still left doubt
ful whether he was inspired with the
belief that his ruling was good politic®
for himself or whether ho felt the power
of tlio speaker's oath upon liis conscience.
If Blaine attacked his great rivals with
all the resources of his genius, what sliall
we say of the onset upon the political
foe in both houses? The recriminations
of the war were hot within. There was
one spectacular episodo after another.
Did Blaine purposely devise and plan
the situation and the day of his famous
deliverances? At any rate he provoked
Benjamin 11. Hill and made him his foil.
Jefferson Davis should not be pensioned
as a Mexican veteran—not indeed because
he had been president of the Confed
eracy, but because he had been responsi
bio for Anderponville and Libby! That
indeed was a bombshell. It exploded,
and the roar of it was heard to Cali f or
nia. Vainly did the man of Georgia ral
ly and countercharge and assail. He j
was vanquished, and the plume of Blaine
was the one conspicuous sign seen above
the field.
The ago following tho civil war was
corrupt. That word, in its radical sense,
means broken up and confounded. The
times conformed exactly to this defini
tion. The sluices of a redundant cur
rency flowed bankful through every
channel. Victory had come and brought
power to the victors; patriotism had
great profit! Hitherto the scrutiny of
the American people had not been acute.
Many unseeable things had remained
unseen, and many other things were
blinked at. They who now had full sway
felt tho reins loosely thrown on the neck
They had freedom, license and vast op
portunity.
It were impossible to say how many
of the prominent men of that epoch en
riched themselves by ways which, if not
positively dark, were at least obscure.
Men dabbled and dabbled again. Now
it was, however, that the sharp eyes of
rivalry began to penetrate tho processes
of semitheft that were flourishing on
every side. Leaders began to discover
that other leadtrs were dishonest. Credit
Mobilier exploded with a great smell,
j Many were blown away. How easy in
this wise to dispose of our rivals! Would
that Blaine himself might be tints de
stroyed! We will try it. 110 has pnr-
I chased railway bonds. 110 has received
! moneys from the Union Pacific. He is
I waist deep in the securities of the Little
Rock and Fort Smith railway. He shall
be investigated. Mulligan shall produce
his letters. We will have a scene. It is
the stli of June, 1870. Blaine rises
from the speaker's desk and holds aloft
a bundle of papers. It is the incrimi
nating package. He himself will read
them through one by one. Certainly he
has humiliation and mortification to do
it, but ho will read them! Courage is
necessary for such a task, but the letters
must be read. "I invite the confidence
of 44,000.000 of my countrymen while I
read these letters from this desk." The
reading was completed. None could
have done it better. The shaker then
turned upon the chairman of the com
mittee and scornfully charged him with
purposely withholding and suppressing
a communication which would have ab
solutely exonerated him from the charges
which had been circulated against his
honor. The crisis broke in another tri
umph, perhaps the most dramatic and
sensational ever witnessed in the house
of representatives.
Blaine has been held to stem account
by the American people in the matter of
the Mulligan correspondence. So bo it.
He is neither wholly cleared nor wholly
condemned. The transaction was ambig
uous and tortuous. In the retrospect it
hath ugliness. It should be said, however,
that Blaine in this matter was more to
bo blamed for acting and tergiversation
than ho was for the original business <
This trait has been ono of the prime
weaknesses of the great character before
us. While he possessed many kinds of
audacity he was lacking in a certain ele
ment of moral courage. It was the bane
of his lifo to have a weakness at certain
points where he should have been strong.
Satan never uttered a more sterling
truth than when he said, "Spirit, to be
weak is to be miserable." Blaine in
soino particulars has been both weak
and miserable. If, for example, ho had
simply said, "I made honorable purchase
of railway bonds: it is nobody's busi
ness, and what are you going to do about
it?" the matter would have ended.
James G. Blaine would bo president of
the United States. This was the domi
nant passion of his soul and life. What
ever interposed between him and his
purpose was in the nature of an eclipse
It is a strange thing that American
statesmen have not yet learned that the
presidency of the United States goes by
accident and indirection, and not by
ambition, contrivance and endeavor
Who has long sought the presidency and
gained it? The groat office not only goe
without the ambition of the winner, but
with little regard to his merit. Blaine
THE HOUSE WHERE MR. BLAINE DIED,
strove for twenty-five years to reach the
presidency. He paid down the honest
coin of great talents and great endeavor
He had merit and accomplishment. His
capacity for the highest place has not
been questioned by any. America k.is
not produced a man who in native gifts
and brilliant attainments was more fitted
for the presidential office than James G.
Blaine.
But he missed it! It was with him a
quest and struggle of Tantalus. Once and
again the glittering prize was within his
grasp. At Cincinnati in 1876 only twen
ty-eight votes were lacking to his nomina
tion. Certainly had ho been nominated
he would have received as many votes as
Hayes. In that convention the faces of
his rivals looked leeringly from the cau
cus rooms, and Blaine was beaten. In
1880 he was again in the arena and well
nigh successful. In that year the nomi
nation would certainly have brought
election, as it brought the prize to Gar
field.
Four years more, and the man from
Maine captures tho preliminary choice
| and is launched on the sea of tho can
vass. He manages his own campaign.
Tho antecedents of success are com
passed. The two pivotal states are won,
and then, on tho eve of the election, the
greatest of the two is suddenly trans
ferred to the enemy by a farcical per
sonal incident which brought defeat to
the great leader and gave to an unknown
preacher such fume as Empedocles got
for jumping into
The quest wont on. Another four year
period passed, and Blaine stood dubiously
on the horizon. Of a certainty he might
have had tho nomination. Probably he
would have taken it but for the belief
j which ho doubtlessly entertained that at
! least one of the pivotal states would vote
; against him. The man whom ho had
| employed four years before as his law
-1 yer walked off with the prizo and strode
! into the White House! A second time
Blaine is secretary of state. It might
i well appear that the phantom of the
presidency had now vanished, but not
so. Probably it never vanished from the
: mind of any one who has once seen tho
vision. Could wo penetrate tho mind of
Blaine during the last quadrennium of
his life we should see tho cross currents
of early ambitions and of mature reason
flowing together and breaking in long
lines of foam.
! They who find interest in such facts as
i national conventions, and who suppose
1 that bodies of that kind are really forces
• in human history, may well discover
; food in the Minneapolis convention of
! 1892. Let it be said that if ever Blaine
1 was outwitted by a competitor it was
by Benjamin Harrison! With the ap
; proach of the presidential year Blaine
| found himself impeded with obstacles,
weighted with circumstances, liobbled
I with unbreakable official relations, and.
! worst of all, weakened with the aj
J proacli of age. The tire still burnt
j within him. hut the volcano was less
! active than of old. Tho result was that
j the upflaming of his .ambition at Minne
apolis was only a fitful glare. He blazed
, feebly and went out. Partisanship had
kindled its fires on all the surrounding
heights, and the light of the great lumi
nary was quenched in the crackle of the
j officeholders' bonfire!
t© '
|
I MARGARET BLAINE. WALKER BLAINE.
JAMES U. BI.AINK. - R I.M .lONS BLAINE.
We thus have the remarkable spec
tacle of a man who has been Jive timea
conseculivelv before the national con
ventions of his party, and always pre
ferred by his party to any other com
petitor whomsoever, and always greater |
than his competitor, whoever that might
be—greater in the sense that ho was LH t
i ter qualified for tho presidency of the
United States than any who stood
| against him—and yet but onetime nomi
nated and never elected! It is a repe
i tit ion of I lie irony of fata,
j Wo may hero note the reactionary ef-
I feet of this long continued, arduous and
. unsuccessful struggle upon the great ac-
I tor himself. This effect has been that
' which generally comes to greet character
I under such trials and abrasion of des
| tiny. It is the effect of discipline—the
I improvement of human nature by the
j hardships of experience, by sorrow and '
iby defeat. It were not far from true to
! say that James G. Blaine has been more
! improved in his moral and intellectual
• nature and in his purposes ami methods
; and theories of statesmanship by the va
j rious hurts and disappointments of his
career than have any of his rivals by
• their successes, however great.
Blaine's character has been lifted up
and perfected in a remarkable degree.
! and it isriin astonishing fact that what
l ever is true and lasting in his statesman
ship and the most of that which is beau
j tiful in his personal life have come from
; the hard discipline of the last fifteen
• years. The fact is that Blaine in the
hour of tho setting sun has not been far
from t rue greatness as it is measured by
j historical standards. He has come to
I this by tribulation rather than by glory.
! His spirit lias been moderated, chastened
! and purified from dross by the bufferings
to which he has been exposed and by the
! very ruin of his political fortunes.
I Something of the same fact has been
seen in many great Americans. It was
seen pre-eminently in Lincoln, though
; Lincoln was always great. It was oee
in Samuel J. Tilden. It was seen and
: exemplified most strikingly in that other
j conspicuously successful American be
fore whoso stubborn frofit Blaine him
j self quailed and went back in 1884.
I In his last years the life of James G.
Blaine stood forth in striking outline
! against tho horizon. He was always
: sustained by a following which never
drew back or doubted. His magnetic
power and great personality prevailed to
! the last. The excellence of method as
I well as the sterling genius of the man
shone forth with unusual luster and
j flashed tine light into every department
I of his activity.
' In the literary work to which ho gave
himself at all times, according to oppor
tunity, but more particularly in tho last I
I decade of his career, we discover an un- I
| mistakablo superiority. Many of our
i public men have essayed something in
j tho way of iermanent production. With j
| most it has ended with the trial. Poli- 1
! tics and literature are not bedfellows,
j The oue puts the other out. There is not j
i much concord between Belial and the t
angel. In a few great uiinds, however,
j there has been union of the literary and
• tbo political faculty, and this was pre
eminently true of Blaine. The country
; ought to have been more astonished than
I it was at tho excellence, the greatness of i
his book. "Twenty Years of Congress" i
is ono of many such works; but taking
; them all in all, from Benton's "Thirty |
! Years' View" to Sunset Cox's "Three 1
Decades," Blaine's work is distinctly and
i emphatically tho best.
I As an author ho is innocent of the !
egotism of Benton. As a statesman lie
shows himself to have been, with his pen !
! at least, incapable of the partisanship and
j passion of Cox. As a matter of fact, there
! is hardly a more dispassionate or rational
j work on the public history of our coun
j try than is the "Twenty Years of Con
j gress." In no other part of his product
I aro Blaino's capacity and his better tem
| per shown to so great advantage. The
j time comes when, all current sentiment
dying away, the great secretary shall b
known to his countrymen by the calm '
statement of fact and the cogent and im- j
partial deductions which ho has left on
record in his book.
What has James G. Blaine contributed
to his age and country? Has he really ac
complished anything? Has he left a per
manent impress? Has he transmitted
from himself to his times and to after ;
; times something that shall survive and
flourish, giving its leaf and fruitage in
the Twentieth century? These questions j
■ must bring with their answers the true
estimate of Blaine's life and work. If
he has done nothing, let him pass. If he
has left no impress, let the grave close
! and the grass grow; for the morrow, in
, that event, will be even ns today,
j Blaine has contributed something to
| his ago and country. He has been a liv- j
ing, inspiring force among the motives
of American patriotism. Let ns concede
to him sincerity, and in so doing dis
cover the essential patriotism of his na
ture. It would be difficult to find in his
whole life aught that was inconsistent
with this interpretation of his character
His public career of more than thirty
years, ever widening and deepening in
the channels of national life, has been an
example of patriotic devotion to Ameri
can institutions. The very vices of his
statesmanship—if such there be—have
had a like root and vitality. If he fought
off the Chinese it was because he was
blinded vfitk his passionate American
ism. The great idea with Blaine seems
to have been the establishment of a com
plete republican autonomy in this na
tion. He desired the individuality and
glory of America. lie was seriously in
spired with the sight of his country's
flag. Nor may we well, now that this
remarkable career is ended, speak lightly
of that fervid, unwavering passion which
Blaine ever displayed at the very men
tion of his country's name.
It is well that such an example should
have been set in a high place of our na
tional life. The young men of our coun
try have seen it from afar, and in pro
portion as they have imbibed from this
fountain they are better and truer than
if they had drunk from the cold and drib
bling waterspouts of the caucus. Let us
hope and believe that the living part of
Blaine has entered into union with the
soul of his country, and that the Ameri
can nation will feel through several ages
the warmth of his surviving blood and
genius.
In the next place Blaine has demon
strated that a man can be great without
success. This proposition has a strange
sound in American ears. It is against
the teaching of the schools. Our doc
triuo is that only the man who is elected
is anything; the other is nothing. Blaine
has shown that the man who is not
elected is greater than the other. As a
matter of fact, few examples in tho his
tory of the world have been more inspir
iting than that of Blaine in tho last
period of his life. Note the esteem in
which be is held by his countrymen.
Mark well bis reputation in foreign
lands. In England, in France, in Ger
many, Italy, Russia, to the ends of civ
ilization, it was Blaine who was known
and honored. After Grant he istheonly
j recent American who law been thus dis
tinguished with cosmojwditan fame. Let
him he known as the great secretary
and honored as the man who survived
and flourished ami won tho esteem of the
world without the occupancy of the
White House.
Blaine was a civilian. Though he had
the instincts of battle, it was the battle
of mind, the contention of thought, in
which he delighted. Though he was an
intense patriot, it is doubtful whether he
had pleasure in the struggle of the bat
| tlefield and the clamor of arms. Though
j Ills activities belonged to the age which
was shaken by the greatest war of mod
ern times, he participated in it only to
| tho extent of considering its sequences
and deducing from it its best results for
his country.
Blaine was not only American; he was
pan-American. Nothing less than all
Americanism could satisfy him or even
appease his purpose and ambition He
was also pan-republican. His congress
j of American republics, if not a brilliant
success, was at least reputable. Tho
project issued from his fecundity and
was his. It was the potential beginning
of an American state system which might
stand in likeness and counterpoise of
that European state system which has
been the woof of political hiHtory since
the treaty of Westphalia. Blaine would
unify the policies and methods of the
American republics, and they should all
flourish because the great republic tiour
| islies and is in the lead. More practical
j still was the movement for intercontinen
j tal railways. Hudson's bay and Argentina
( should shake hands. Chicago and Buenos
Ayres should greet. Boston should re
j ceive by rail from tho Grand Cliaco. Tho
| bull hides of the pampas should be hung
1 up green in the tanneries of Buffalo, and
j tho Fuogians should wear new prints
from the mills of Providence. The
| scheme was like the man. It pleased his .
genius, and by and by it shall be trans
muted from imagination and vision into
reality.
Blaine is gone. No more shall this
striking figure attract the gaze of two
hemispheres. But his memory shall sur
vive long, and his influence will stream
out far into the coming century. In the
shadows of the last hours we have sin
cere grief for his going. Would that he
might iiave lived longerl There are
tears of true affection at the open door of
bis tomb.
Blnifte outlived nearly all of his great
contemporaries. He saw every Union
general of the first rank and every Con
federate general of the first rank, with
the single exception of Longstreet, go
down to the grave. He survived nearly
all of his competitors in civil life. Slier-
BLAINE'S BIRTHPLACE.
man outlived him, but did not reach his
stature or his fame. He attained the
grand climacteric and went at the age of
sixty-three. He had an unclouded sun
set. His last days were spent within
sight of the Capitol. Thither his gaze
will be turned no more. Against him
all avenues of earthly hope and ambition
are closed forever, but he went away
with the radiance of a great life linger
ing around his couch. An imperishable
chaplet was held above his white and
honored head and tho weeping genius of
his country hid for awhile her face when
his spirit issued forth into tho shadows.
JOHN CLARK RIDPATH. V