JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE,
of Augusta, Maine. Born at West Brownsville, Washington County,
Pennsylvania, on the 31st of January, 1830. His parents were Ephraim L. and Maria G. Blaine. The Blaine patronymic is of
Highland-Scotch origin, and was anciently borne by residents at
or near Loch Lomond. Their clan colors were red and black, or
red and blue plaid. After the abortive Jacobite risings of 1715
and 1745 large emigrations of the Scotch and Scotch-Irish to the
American colonies followed. Pennsylvania gladly received many of
them. The proprietary governors of that rising commonwealth,
aware of their sterling character and highly appreciative of
their fighting qualities, quartered them on the western
frontier, to guard the non-militant Quakers against the
incursions of the Indians.
James
Blaine was the first of the family
to settle in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania. Domiciling
himself, in or about 1722-23, near the present town of Carlisle,
he there energetically labored for the secular welfare of his
family and neighbors; and, as a worthy member of the
Presbyterian church, for their spiritual prosperity also. One of
his sons, named Ephraim, first brought the family into
prominence. He was born in 1740, took an active part in the
Revolutionary War, and held the commission, at the personal
request of General Washington, of
Commissary-General of Purchases. His own wealth, and that of his
wife's family, the Galbraiths, was patriotically offered
to the Government to feed and clothe the army at Valley Forge.
Ephraim Blaine died in 1804. His son James emigrated to Fayette County, opened a store at
Brownsville, and officiated as justice of the peace. Successful
in business, he left at his death seven children, of whom Ephraim L. was the first-born. The latter was intellectual,
brilliant, educated, generous, but not distinguished by the
characteristics which make up what is termed in common parlance
a thoroughly practical man. A graduate of Washington College,
and attractive in manners and person, he met and married Maria
Gillespie of Washington County, in 1820, when
he himself was twenty-four years of age.
Maria
Gillespie was the
daughter of Neal, and the grand-daughter of Neal
Gillespie, Sr., who emigrated to her native county from the
North of Ireland in 1771. The sturdy Scotch-Irish immigrant was
a natural nobleman. Strain upon his character only developed
additional strength. His fresh and charming grand-daughter was
accounted an heiress when she gave her hand and life into the
keeping of her handsome and dignified bridegroom.
Inaptitude for judicious management of affairs proved
to be the bane of the young husband. Restless and extravagant,
he soon thoughtlessly involved himself in pecuniary
difficulties, and would have been involved much sooner but for
his wife. Loving, modest, sweet, patient, careful, and
religious, she could only be constrained to enter gay company by
love for her husband. "All her inclinations were for a quiet,
affectionate home, and for hidden deeds of Christ-like charity."
Genius, it is said, has no pedigree. Long ages are
often seen to present their choicest product in the person of a
great man, who concentrates and intensifies within himself all
the traits of character and elements of nature that lifted his
progenitors in any respect above the ordinary level of society.
Such an example is James G. Blaine. His boyhood was like
that of his playfellows. Love of political reading was instilled
and fostered by the newspapers, which he regularly went to the
post-office to obtain, and which included the best county and
State papers, and also the Washington National Intelligencer.
His father was rigidly Presbyterian in theory, but relegated the
religious teaching of his children to his wife. Mrs. Blaine was a Roman Catholic, but not a bigot. With her,
Christianity was wider than creed, and essence infinitely more
than form. She was a sweet Christian mother, who taught her
children to be honest, generous, self-sacrificing, and kind, and
willingly consented to their adoption of forms of faith
different from her own.
The straitened circumstances of his father's family compelled
much and close meditation on the part of James G. Blaine. Intelligent resolution and self-reliance
were born of it. Bad company he disliked, good books he loved,
honesty he firmly illustrated, and truthfulness with him was
guileless and constant. Between mother and son the most intimate
moral sympathy existed.
In 1842 James G. Blaine spent twelve months in
the family of the Hon. Thomas Ewing of Ohio, who was a
distant relative of his mother, and while there prepared himself
for matriculation at Washington College. The election of his
father, Ephraim L. Blaine, to the office of Prothonotary
led to the removal of that gentleman and his family to
Washington, the county-seat. There James G. entered upon
college life at the very early age of thirteen. The standard of
admission was low, and the course of study much less arduous
than at present. The Rev. Dr. McConaughy was then
president of the college. The Freshman class was composed of
robust, intellectual boys, many of whom have since made proud
record for themselves. Lank and awkward in figure, and not
particularly precocious, the young aspirant to collegiate
distinction kept very much to himself, and took but little part
in athletic sports. In literary and debating clubs he delighted;
was an admirable writer; diligent, persistent, frank; the leader
of his class, but not of such traits as led any one to prophesy
that his would be an uncommonly practical life—the incarnation
of cautious and yet courageous statesmanship. Sudden demands
even then developed the wealth of his resources. He was always
equal to any emergency. The natural habit of thoroughly
mastering whatever he took in hand had especially endowed him
with ability to grapple and overcome unexpected opposition. In
1847 he graduated near the head of his class. The honors were
equally divided between himself and two other students.
Leaving college, the youthful graduate resolved to become a
lawyer. But he had to earn his own livelihood, and provide the
means wherewith to «ratify his laudable ambition. He adopted
temporarily the profession of a teacher, as the most
remunerative and favorable to his ulterior aim. Securing the
position of teacher in the Western Military Institute at
Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky, he soon became the favorite in that
establishment. During the three years of his tutorship there, he
exhibited singular energy, strong repugnance to every kind of
oppression, keen sense of justice, and almost unerring ability
in the detection of deceit and shams. His knowledge of the
pupils, sympathy with them, and success in instructing them were
unusual, and left most grateful memories in their minds.
In March, 1851,
Mr. Blaine married at
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1852 went to Philadelphia in
order to teach in the Pennsylvania Institution for the
Instruction of the Blind. There he began the study of law with
Theodore Cuyler, and spent his leisure hours in
the acquisition of legal knowledge. William Chapin,
Esq., who was then the principal of the institution, has since
said that the qualities of James G. Blaine which
impressed him most deeply "were his culture, the thoroughness of
his education, and his unfailing self-possession. He was also a
man of very decided will, and was very much disposed to
argument. His memory was remarkable, and seemed to retain
details which ordinary men would forget." Labor seemed to be a
necessity to him. Unasked, he compiled the journal of the
institution from official records, and from its foundation to
the year 1854. His duties were those of a teacher of
mathematics, in which he excelled, and particularly in the
higher branches.
In 1854 Mr.
Blaine removed to Augusta,
Maine, the former home of his wife, and there entered upon
journalistic work as the partner of Joseph Baker,
the proprietor and editor of the Kennebec Journal, a weekly
newspaper issued at Augusta, and of which tri-weekly editions
were published during the sessions of the Maine Legislature. Baker and
Blaine appeared at the head of its columns.
The junior partner had now fairly entered upon the road to
greatness and enduring fame. New ambitions and new hopes sprang
up within him. His latent powers of mind and character received
astonishing development, and were quickly appreciated by
multitudes of keen and cultured readers. An able thinker and a
vigorous writer, he soon became a conspicuous power in that
rugged and sturdy commonwealth. Speaking in 1855 of the
Republican Party in Maine, he said: "Long may it live to protect
our interests, develop our resources, and under all
circumstances dare to do rigid, and trust the consequences to
Infinite Wisdom" He maintained that nations, in strict justice,
should be measured by the same moral standard as that which
determines the character of a man, and that "all arrows dipped
in bad rum, or the poison of slander, will fall powerless at the
moral man's feet." Convictions of this character have been
needed since then for consolation when assailed by the meanest
spite and malignity. Compromises, where morals are concerned, he
scathingly denounced. Slavery he stigmatized as "an undisguised,
open, hideous wrong." Plain facts, he insisted, should always be
viewed separately" from all party and sectional influences." The
filibustering expeditions intended to seize and occupy various
States of Central America in the interests of slavery were
castigated with unsparing severity. Dough-facery was
treated with withering scorn. Compromise with slavery was, in
his avowed opinion, but sacrifice of liberty, of which " in the
past we have had enough, and more." The Republican Party he
declared to be "the only true national party. Its platform is
the only ground upon which the friends of the Union can stand."
Squatter sovereignty was a delusion, since this union of the
people is a nation, and not a confederation of States, held
together by a rope of sand.
Mr.
Blaine espoused the cause of Hannibal Hamlin in his candidacy for election to the
Senate of the United States in 1857, and had the pleasure of
seeing him triumphantly returned. The decision of the United
States Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case evoked
his sternest reprehension, and induced him to say, " Slavery has
got to the farthest limits of its power and aggression.
Henceforth it must lose in the great contest which it is waging
against freedom." His zeal in the primitive organization of the
Republican Party, and in the promotion of its interests, as the
editor of the leading journal in the State, naturally drew
attention to him. The Republican Legislature made his
journal the official organ of the State, and the party
cheerfully accepted its leadership. Nominations to office he
persistently declined, but was at length persuaded to accept the
place of delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1856,
which nominated John C. Fremont for the Presidency and William L. Dayton for the Vice-Presidency of the United
States of America.
On the 9th of October, 1857, Mr. Blaine sold his
interest in the Kennebec Journal, and took a more remunerative
and influential position in connection with the Portland Daily
Advertiser. Funds and friends were now accumulating. Moral,
economical, industrious, and generous, he grappled and held his
friends as with hooks of steel. One of the best tests of
character is constant and unrestrained association with the
people. James G. Blaine never appeared to better
advantage than when in the glare of publicity—in the fierce
light which beats upon the editorial sanctum.
In 1858 he first entered political life as
representative of the citizens of Augusta in the Legislature.
His fame as a debater began in that body. Newspaper writing had
given him terseness of thought and condensation of utterance. He
never made a speech too long to be read, nor one which the
people were weary of hearing. Local interests were never lost
sight of in devotion to national affairs. His masterly eloquence
at a public meeting saved to the city of Augusta its controlling
manufacturing interest. " Blaine always says something," was a
frequent popular comment on his campaign speeches. He was most
successful in planning, and in setting others to work—a faculty
which has since grown immensely by exercise. On religious
subjects he was perfectly at home, had profound knowledge and a
sharply defined system of belief, and showed deep research into
theological schemes and history. So general was his knowledge
that he could touch men at the most susceptible points. His
intimate acquaintance with the history of remarkable horses once
captured a noted horse-dealer who called upon him, and won the
support of the man from that day forward. His liberality in
matters of public beneficence—churches, schools, libraries,
etc.—was profuse, without ceasing to be discreet.
Twenty-seven years ago, in 1857,
Mr. Blaine
united with the Congregational Church, under the pastorate of
the Rev. Dr. Webb, in Augusta. Broad and liberal in his
views and affiliations, he is a firm believer in the doctrines
and polity of the church he then espoused. " He has the heart
and soul and life of an every-day practical Christian," writes
one who knows him well. In the Sunday-school held in the
"devil's half-acre" at Augusta he had a class of men and women
who had scarcely ever entered a church, who were gathered in
from the highways, and who came in en deshabille, some
laying aside their pipes and tobacco, and some having about them
the fumes of liquor. There was inspiration and power in his
teaching. Many a poor outcast of the slums he led into the pure
and bracing atmosphere of a higher life. Apprentices in the
printing-office boarded at his house, and received from himself
and Mrs. Blaine all the kindly ministries of
faithful and judicious parents. In every relation of life he
sought to fill out the full measure of duty, and that because he
delighted in it, as well as because it was right.
In the fall of 1858
Mr. Blaine was
elected to the lower house of the Maine Legislature, and was
re-elected for the three following terms. At the beginning of
his third term he was elected Speaker of the House. All his
constituents knew that they were efficiently served, and
gratefully acknowledged the fact. While Speaker, in the session
of 1862, when the nation was suffering the calamities of civil
war, he made a speech in Committee of the Whole, which has never
been forgotten, and which surely presaged his victories in a
wider arena of debate. It was in reply to Mr. Gould of
Thomaston, on the Confiscation Resolution, in which he indorsed
the dogma of John Quincy Adams, that " from
the instant that your slaveholding States become the theatre of
war, civil or foreign, from that instant the war powers of
Congress extend to interference with the institution of slavery,
in every way in which it can be interfered with—from a claim of
indemnity for slaves taken or destroyed, to the cession of the
State burdened with slavery to a foreign power." His antagonist
was not merely routed—he was logically annihilated. Not less
convincing were his arguments in favor of enlisting the negroes,
one of whom had made the capture of Fort Donelson possible by
revealing to Grant the failing strength of the rebel general
Buckner. Both these speeches were, in point
of ethical and political doctrine, wholly in harmony with
another scarcely less celebrated, in opposition to the purchase
of Cuba, which he delivered in the Maine Legislature in
February, 1859.
Appointed Prison Commissioner for the State of Maine in
i860, he investigated everything relating to the prisons, and
also visited many prisons in other States. His recommendations,
contained in the report he drew up with painstaking care, are
often quoted as authoritative in distant commonwealths.
Mr.
Blame was a delegate
to the National Republican Convention in i860, and worked
earnestly for the nomination of Abraham Lincoln.
In 1862 he was elected to Congress from the Augusta district, in
the place of Anson P. Morrill, who voluntarily retired.
His constituency was one of the most intelligent in the nation,
and also one of the most patriotic. On the 7th of December,
1863, he took his seat in the National House of Representatives,
having for colleagues many of the ablest statesmen of the day.
Modestly entering upon his duties, he did his work in committee
and on the floor of the House carefully, thoroughly, and
exhaustively. He not only served in Committee on the Militia and
on Post-Offices, but was appointed with increasing frequency on
special committees. The work sought the man who was fitted to
perform it. Trained in parliamentary tactics as Speaker of the
Maine House of Representatives, he found himself wholly at home
in the popular Hall of Congress. Motions, objections, and points
of order were always timely, and won for him the reputation of a
master-mind and a very shrewd parliamentarian.
National emergencies, disastrous defeats, glorious
victories, necessitated measures for the enlistment of soldiers,
the taking of slaves as contraband of war, negotiation with
rebels, the nation's uncertain relations to England and Mexico,
the treatment of traitors, the status of prisoners of war, the
construction of a navy, the issue of paper money, the drafting
of men into the army, contraction of the public debt, the
construction of the Pacific Railroad, and, above all, the
emancipation of the slaves. On all these questions Mr. Blaine manifested thorough and profound statesmanship, and
unhesitatingly voted as his convictions dictated. The nation
approved his course, and took its cue from him and his political
associates. True to his maxim, " Under all circumstances dare to
do right, and leave the consequences to Infinite Wisdom," he
courageously did his whole duty, and rested confident in the
assurance of a beneficent issue.
In June, 1864, Mr. Blaine brilliantly distinguished
himself as the champion of protection to American industry. In
the fall of the same year he was re-elected to Congress, with
but little opposition. An ardent nationalist, the very thought
of disunion was intolerable to him. His perception of the
calamities that would certainly ensue from such an event was too
clear to admit of anything but stern and invincible antagonism.
He was fully resolved to wage war to the last extremity in
defence of the Union, the Constitution, and the laws. The
Constitution would need future adaptation to changed social
conditions; the laws would require many and serious
modifications and additions; but, in and through all changes,
the Union must be preserved. In the Thirty-ninth Congress he was
an influential member of the Committee on Military Affairs. Nor
was he less influential in the passage of measures on the floor
of the House. His position that the South should be entitled to
Representatives in Congress only in proportion to the number of
its enfranchised citizens was that which, when adopted,
compelled the South, in its own interest, to grant the right of
suffrage to the negro population.
"The registry of vessels engaged in American trade; the
appropriations for the army; the still unsettled question of
paying to the States their expenditures for raising troops in
the war; the West India telegraph; reorganization of the army;
the reconstruction of the Southern States; equalization of
taxes; and the celebrated controversy with the Hon. Roscoe
Conkling over General Fry—called
out his most brilliant talents, and fastened him to the hearts
of the people."
On the question of reimbursement to the States he
displayed a native equity, a knowledge of American precedents,
and a convincing eloquence that carried the measure through to
satisfactory consummation. Similar sense of sound justice
appeared in his speech in favor of amending the National
Constitution so as to admit of the taxation of exports,
delivered in the Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 2d of March,
1865. The proposition for issuing an irredeemable paper currency
met with his most intelligent and resolute hostility. He had no
confidence in imaginary values, nor any favor for anything but
an honest dollar. The mischiefs wrought by irredeemable paper
currency in all lands were too familiar to his memory to allow
him to consent to a measure fraught only with deceit and
suffering.
Slavery was now eradicated. But enfranchisement was
required to make the boon of personal liberty one of real and
lasting worth. The right to buy ships abroad he refused, on the
ground that " the ship-owners who took British registers escaped
the heavy war risks to which American registers were subjected,
and now to place them on the same footing with those who
hazarded everything rather than sail under a foreign flag, would
be flagrantly unjust." Mr. Blaine spoke with all
the force of profound conviction. "If we are going to have free
trade," he remarked, " let us have it equally and impartially
applied to all the industrial interests of the land; but, for
myself, I am opposed to it altogether. In theory and in practice
I am for protecting American industry in all its forms, and to
this end we must encourage American manufactures, and we must
equally encourage American commerce."
Prolonged and exhausting labors now demanded time for
physical recuperation, and in 1867 Mr. Blaine
visited Europe, and spent several months in travelling for
recreation and instruction in England and on the Continent.
Again elected to Congress in 1866 by the Republicans,
and with the unfeigned respect of the Democrats, his abilities
as a ready and forcible debater, clear reasoner, sound
legislator, and fearless advocate of the principles and
organization of the party of union and right again came into
forceful operation. In the House of Representatives wide
diversities of opinion concerning currency and finance
prevailed.. The greatest of thinkers were often misled by novel
and illusory theories. The national honor and prosperity were
threatened with wreck and ruin amid the dangerous breakers. It
was proposed, in contravention to the pledged faith of the
nation, to pay the national debt with depreciated paper
currency. This Blaine righteously opposed. He held, in
the pithy language of Nathaniel Macon, that "our
Government was a hard-money Government, founded by hard-money
men, and its debts were hard-money debts." His able and
convincing speech in the House of Representatives was closed
with the words: " I am sure that in the peace which our arms
have conquered we shall not dishonor ourselves by withholding
from any public creditor a dollar that we promised to pay him,
nor seek by cunning construction and clever after-thought to
evade or escape the full responsibility of our national
indebtedness. It will doubtless cost us a vast sum to pay that
indebtedness, but it would cost us incalculably more not to pay
it." Such were the convictions of the vast majority of the
American people, who nobly and honestly preserved entire faith
with all the public creditors. The labor performed by Mr.
Blaine in the Fortieth Congress,—1867-8,—was astonishing.
Either as originator, or in committee, he was directly connected
with measures concerning the army, navy, post-offices,
Congressional library, Indian reservations, relief of
individuals, common carriers between the States, Treasury
Department, cotton tax, issue of United States bonds, funding
bill, Mexican treaties, foreign commerce, election cases, river
and harbor improvements, funeral of ex-President Buchanan, custom-house frauds, House rules, military laws,
rearrangement of the rooms in the Capitol, and even matters
connected with the messengers, pages, and restaurant-keeper. The
acknowledged leader of the Republican Party had sufficient sweep
of genius and enterprise not only for the highest State affairs,
but for the smallest matters. In this respect he reminds the
observer of those great organizers and administrators, Napoleon and the
Duke of Wellington, who held
that the success of their grandest projects depended largely on
attention to the smallest and least important details. James
A. Garfield and himself were true yokefellows, and much
alike in point of earnest patriotism and tireless industry.
On the 4th of March, 1869,
James G. Blaine was
elected Speaker of the House of Representatives by more than a
two-thirds majority vote. Cool, courteous, decided, and
impartial, even his opponents admitted his excellence as a
presiding officer during the whole of his six years' term of
office. Engrossing public duties were relieved by oratorical and
literary labors. He found time to prepare scores of political
campaign speeches, and to write many important addresses and
magazine articles. One of the best of the latter appeared in the
North American Review, under the title, " Ought the Negro to be
Disfranchised ?" To this question he returned a wise and
emphatic negative answer, adding, " I wish to speak for the
millions of all political parties, and in their name to declare
that the Republic must be strong enough, and shall be strong
enough, to protect the weakest of its citizens in all their
rights."
The elections of 1874 placed the Democrats in the
majority in the House of Representatives. Mr. Blaine
again took his seat among the members, and assumed the
leadership of his party. The nation's ultimate good was his only
aim. In 1876 the agitation of the currency question became
exciting and dangerous. His unchangeable opinion of the
essential nature and value of the circulating medium was in
harmony with that of those who never believed in any other than
a specie standard for our currency. The gradual resumption of
specie payments was the true policy of the country. "No nation,"
said he, " has ever succeeded in establishing any other standard
of value; no nation has ever made the experiment except at great
cost and sorrow; and the advocates of irredeemable money to-day
are but asking us to travel the worn and weary road travelled so
many times before—a road that has always ended in disaster, and
often in disgrace."
In January, 1876, he and
Benjamin H. Hill of
Georgia were pitted against each other in debate over the
proposition to grant a general amnesty to all the rebels against
the Government who took part in the War of 1861-65. The contest
ended in the complete discomfiture of the latter. This converted
the Southern Democrats and their Northern allies into vindictive
and relentless enemies of the great statesman. With patient,
dogged malignity, it was sought to find some pretext on the
strength of which he might be punished and crushed. His private
business transactions were pitched upon for this purpose. The
purchase of some railroad bonds of the Little Rock and Fort
Smith Railroad was made the basis of accusations against his
personal integrity, and of prostituting his official powers for
private gain. A full vindication of himself—a vindication that
was intelligently accepted by honest men who were politically
unfriendly—followed. In the closing words of that conclusive
refutal of all charges, he solemnly and manfully said, " 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." Subsequent developments and discussions have only
confirmed his right to that manly and most enviable claim. His
private correspondence with Warren Fisher of
Boston, which extended over many years, and related to many
purely business transactions between them, fell into the hands
of one Mulligan, who had sustained a clerkly relation to
Fisher, and who was decidedly unfriendly to Mr.
Blaine. Mulligan took this private correspondence
with him to Washington, when summoned before the Democratic
Committee that was appointed to investigate Blaine, and
to defeat his nomination for the Presidency by the National
Republican Convention. That Mulligan had no right to
those letters, either in law or equity, was a matter of no
moment to the conspirators. Others might bear the burden of
crime; they proposed to reap its profits. After repeated
remonstrances with Mulligan, the latter gave up the
correspondence, together with his personal memorandum of its
contents, to Mr. Blaine, and afterward made
representations of such character as to the method by which he
was induced to surrender them as will justify any shrewd
observer of human nature in believing only such portion of his
statements as he chooses. Blaine, as a personal
privilege, boldly read all the letters to the House, and had
them printed in the record of its proceedings. It is possible
that this subtle maneuver of the enemy accomplished its object
temporarily. For the time being he seemed to be less successful
in defence of himself than he had been of his country. Speaking
of the latter, Robert G. Ingersoll said, before the
Convention, " Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight,
James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American
Congress, and threw his shining lance full and fair against the
brazen forehead of every defamer of this country and maligner of
its honor." This eloquent characterization fastened upon its
subject the sobriquet of the " plumed knight." His nodding
casque was not, however, to appear in the forefront of the
Republican host at this juncture. Governor R. B. Hayes
received the nomination, and also the honor of election. On the
10th of July, 1876, Mr. Blaine was appointed
successor to the Hon. Lot M. Morrill in the U. S. Senate,
and while holding that position did most excellent service as a
public speaker in different parts of the country in advocacy of
the claims of Governor Hayes.
In February, 1879, Senator Blaine argued strongly in favor of
the bill to restrict Chinese immigration, on the grounds that it
is not entirely voluntary; that nine tenths are adult males;
that it is incapable of assimilation, is physically and morally
pestilent, is degrading to native labor, and likely to overwhelm
and corrupt the American population; also that restriction is in
harmony with treaty obligations, with commercial interests, with
national safety, with enlightened religious sentiment, and with
due regard to the rights of labor. His powerful logic, though
not squaring altogether with the eternally true abstractions on
which American institutions are built, is yet conclusive. The
ideal is not reached per saltum. The Author of all good,
in His conduct of human affairs, brings it about by degrees.
Congress accepted Blaine's statesmanly putting of the
case, and adopted the course that he recommended.
The shrewd maneuvering of
Roscoe Conkling,
who had never forgiven the excoriation received from the hands
of Blaine on the floor of Congress, prevented the
nomination of the latter for the Chief Magistracy of the nation
at the Republican Convention of 1880. The noble and lamented Garfield received that honor. Just before his inauguration
he tendered to Mr. Blaine the Secretaryship of the
State Department. The universal expression of public opinion was
in favor of acceptance. Many reasons prompted compliance with Garfield's wishes. " I can but regard it as somewhat
remarkable," wrote he to the President, "that two men of the
same age, entering Congress at the same time, influenced by the
same aims and cherishing the same ambitions, should never for a
single moment, in eighteen years of close intimacy, have had a
misunderstanding or a coolness, and that our friendship has
steadily grown with our growth and strengthened with our
strength."
Resigning Senatorial functions,
Mr. Blaine
took his post at the head of Garfield's Cabinet on the
4th of March, 1881. His personal influence was immediately felt
in every department of the Government, and notably in its
foreign policy. Two principal objects of the latter were to
bring about peace and prevent future wars in North and South
America, and 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 which we can easily furnish in competition with the
manufacturing nations of Europe. To effect these benevolent
designs it was resolved to invite all the independent
governments of both sections of the continent to meet in a Peace
Congress at Washington. The cowardly pistol-shot of the fiendish
assassin Guiteau temporarily suspended all movements in
this direction. President Arthur caused all invitations to be
recalled. Should negotiations be successfully resumed, a closer
commercial connection will almost infallibly be one of the
consequences. Then, in place of paying an annual balance of
$120,000,000 against us in current exchanges, we may liquidate
it in manufactured articles of American production. Not only
that, but the guarantee and guardianship of the Inter-Oceanic
Canal will be entrusted to American hands, and the spirit of the
Monroe Doctrine be embodied in a purely American policy. Peace,
under a well-digested system of arbitration, will be the normal
condition of the entire continent, and unprecedented prosperity
will bless all its inhabitants. Such an arrangement as that
proposed by Mr. Blaine will be "a signal victory
of philanthropy over the selfishness of human ambition, a
complete triumph of Christian principles, as applied to the
affairs of nations." The example of seventeen independent
nations solemnly agreeing to abolish the arbitrament of the
sword, and to settle all disputes by reasonable methods of
adjudication, will exert a salutary influence over all
civilization, and upon all the generations of the future. Should
such a desiderated state of affairs be reached, the name of James G. Blaine
must always be identified with it.
The terrible grief into which the nation was plunged by
the assassination of Garfield was mitigated by the
confidence that its interests were safe in the hands of Blaine.
On the 27th of February, 1882, the latter delivered a
magnificent and judicious oration on his murdered friend in the
hall of the House of Representatives at Washington. It was in
every way worthy of the subject, the orator, the audience, and
the occasion.
Three months after the death of
Garfield, Secretary Blaine resigned his portfolio in the
Cabinet, retired to the privacy of domestic life, and devoted
his energies to the composition of an accurate and comprehensive
history of Congress during the twenty years intervening between
Lincoln and Garfield. The first volume, published in
1884, covered the history of the causes of the Civil War, and of
the important events of that dreadful struggle. It is clear,
calm, concise, and equitable; a very valuable addition to
historical literature; a remarkable book by a remarkable man.
The "Maine State Steal" of 1880 is another event which
cannot be passed over in silence. It was an attempt of the
Democrats, aided by Fusionist Republicans, to fraudulently
capture the State Government. Blaine was summoned from
Washington, and the cause of the people was put into his hands.
Through his wise counsel, bloodshed and anarchy were averted,
and peace and constitutional order re-established.
The summer of 1884 brought interruption to the quiet domestic
pursuits of the brilliant retired statesman. The popular demand
for his nomination to the Presidency was too strong to be
resisted; and in June, at the National Republican Convention in
Chicago, on the fourth ballot, he received 544 votes, against
207 cast for President Arthur. When the news of
his nomination arrived, Blaine was quietly resting at his
own home in Augusta, Maine. Neighbors and friends flocked in to
congratulate him. The post and the telegraph poured in
expressions of satisfaction from all quarters. The best and
greatest men of the nation sent felicitations. A special train
brought the Pacific Coast delegation to greet him, and a few
days later the Committee of the National Convention arrived,
with official notification of the honor conferred upon him.
General Henderson, the Chairman of the Committee, at the
conclusion of the proceedings, took a step forward, and said, "
To one and all of you I introduce the next President of the
United States."
The nomination of
Mr. Blaine opened the
flood-gates of detraction and calumny, and necessarily
occasioned a campaign of blended defensive and offensive
character, That the defensive was completely successful, can
scarcely be questioned by an impartial observer. The offensive
was singularly vigorous, eloquent, and gentlemanly. The popular
enthusiasm in his behalf increased as the decisive Tuesday in
November drew near, and would doubtless have placed him in the
Executive Chair—honored for more than a century by a long line
of distinguished, able, and patriotic incumbents—but for the
injudicious remarks of a clergyman, at a reception given to Mr.
Blaine in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York. As it was, the
plurality of Grover Cleveland in New York over that of James
G. Blaine was less than 1200. The latter deserved the
success, that a fortuitous indiscretion would not allow him to
achieve. Mr. Blaine is still in the prime of
vigorous manhood, is of unusually pleasing and dignified
address, and in every element of strong, symmetrical, and
cultured character is admirably fitted to hold the helm of the
American ship of state—an office to which he may yet be called.
James G. Blaine was married in March, 1851, at
Pittsburg, Pa., to Miss Harriet Stanwood,
of Augusta, Maine. She belongs to the grand old Puritan stock,
and is descended in direct line from the Stanwood family of Ipswich. Mass. Tall, graceful, strong, easy and
yet dignified in manner, she is a fit type of cultured American
womanhood. Six children have blessed their union: Walker
Blaine of Washington, D. C.,—who inherits much of the
paternal genius,—is the eldest; Emmons Blaine of
Colorado, the second; Alice, wife of Colonel Coppinger, the third;
Margaret Isabella Blaine is the fourth;
James G. Blaine, Jr., the
fifth; and Harriet S. Blaine, the sixth and youngest. |
