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LIVES 


OF 


BLAINE  K^p  LOGAN 


JAMES   G.  BLAINE. 


JOHN  A.  LOGAN. 


THE  PEOPLE'S  EDITION— BOOK  OF  REFERENOE. 

JAMES    G.    BLAINE — HIS    BIRTHPLACE    AT    WEST    BROWNSVILLE,    PA. — BOYHOOD COLLEGE 

LIFE TWO  YEARS  AT  THE    PHILADELPHIA   BLIND    INSTITUTION — EDITOR  IN  MAINE — 

THE    HOMESTEAD  AT  AUGUSTA,  ME. RELIGION — CAREER  IN  CONGRESS — SPEAKER 

OF    THE    HOUSE INGERSOLL'S    SPEECH     NOMINATING     HIM    FOR    PRESIDENT 

IN     1S76 — ORIGIN    OF    THE    TERM    "PLUMED     KNIGHX" WASHINGTON 

RESIDENCE SENATOR    FROM    MAINE — SECRETARY  OF  STATE — GAR- 
FIELD'S   FRIEND EULOGY   ON   THE   DEATH   OF   GARFIELD AS 

AN     HISTORIAN "TWENTY   YEARS    OF    CONGRESS" — THE  ^ 

CONVENTION    OF     1 884  —  BALLOTS     IN    DETAIL — THE 
ELECTORAL  VOTES — JUDGE   WEST'S   SPEECH — NO- 
TIFICATION BY  CHAIRMAN  HENDERSON ETC. 

JOHN  A.  LOGAN — WAR  RECORD — PUBLIC      ■ 

IIFE GRANT  ON    LOGAN — SKETCH 

OF    MRS.  LOGAN THE   REPUB- 
LICAN PLATFORM  OF  1 884. 


/3^^J 


COPYRIGHT, 

E.  T.  HAINES  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

712  SANSOM   ST.,  PHILADELPHIA. 

1884. 


LIFE  OF  JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 


HIS    BOYHOOD. 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE  was  born  on  the  old  Indian  Hill  Farm, 
in  Washington   County,   Pennsylvania,   January  31,    1S30. 
On  this  farm  his  great  grandfather,  the  elder  Neal  Gillespie, 
had  settled  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution. 

The  paternal  great-grandfather  of  Mr.  Blaine  was  a  Penn-i 
sylvania  colonel  in  the  revolution.  His  home  was  in  that  set- 
tlement of  the  Scotch-Irish  people — the  Cumberland  "Valley.  It 
followed  that  the  Blaines  were  all  Presbyterians.  It  is  told  of 
Colonel  Blaine  that  he  was  a  friend  of  General  Washington,  who 
attributed  the  preservation  of  the  ragged  continentals  from 
starving  while  at  Valley  Forge  to  the  generous  act  of  Colonel 
Blaine,  while  commissary-general  of  the  Northern  department 
of  the  army,  in  contributing  and  collecting  large  sums  of  money 
for  the  purchase  of  supplies.  Ephraim  L.  Blaine,  the  grand- 
son of  the  revolutionary  hero,  lived  in  Washington  County 
before  1842,  at  West  Brownsville.  In  that  year,  as  a  Whig,  he 
was  elected  to  the  office  of  prothonotary  of  the  courts,  and 
moved  to  Washington.  Tradition  says  he  lived  in  good  style, 
held  his  head  rather  high,  was  much  respected,  and  was  loved 
more  for  a  generosity  and  hospitality  from  which  no  one  but 
himself  felt  any  ill  effects.  The  son  of  the  prothonotary,  now 
the  Republican  candidate  for  President  of  the  United  States,  a 
few  years  ago,  after  a  long  absence,  paid  a  visit  to  his  birthplace, 
recognized  the  house  at  a  glance,  and  promptly  answered  the 
salutations  of  his  old  friends — calling  by  their  names  or  nick- 
names persons  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  many  years  In  his 
youth  Blaine  was  tall  and  thin,  and,  on  account  of  his  shyness 
and  reticence  in  their  society,  was  not  a  general  favorite  with 
the  village  belles.  He  was  quick,  intelligent,  read  a  good  deal, 
and  was  fond  of  fun. 

A  gentleman  who  recently  visited    Blaine's   birthplace  at 
West  Brownsville,  thus  writes  of  it : — 

"See  how  the  ivy  climbs  and  expands 

Over  this  humble  hermitage. 
And  seems  to  cover  with  its  httle  hands 
The  rough  gray  stones,  as  a  child  that  stands 

Caressing  the  wrinkled  cheeks  of  age." 


Longfellow  wrote  these  lines  in  his  charming  description  of 
quaint  "Old  Saint  Davids  at  Radnor,"  but  how  well  do  they 
apply  to  the  ancient  church  in  this  village ;  the  little  limestone, 
pile  among  the  graves  that  hold  so  many  of  those  who  make 
the  town  worth  writing  about.  It  is  the  same  "image  of 
peace  and  rest"  that  the  poet  so  well  describes,  and  its  sur- 
roundings are  as  striking  and  lonely  as  the  poetical  imagination 
could  desire. 

I  stood  beside  two  old  graves  to-day  in  this  village  that  are 
in  the  shadow  of  the  little  church  that  so  quickly  recalled 
to  me  Longfellow's  beautiful  lines.  The  marble  that  marked 
them  was  much  newer  than  the  mounds,  and  the  surroundings 
impressed  me  with  the  thought  that  a  dutiful  and  reverent  son 
had  years  after,  when  means  and  opportunity  came  that  were 
wanting  when  death  called  father  and  mother,  placed  a  fitting 
monument  to  mark  the  spot  where  they  slept.  It  is  a  plain,  un- 
pretentious stone  that  marks  these  graves^  and  it  was  the  names 
only  that  attracted  my  attention.  They  were  those  of  Ephraim 
L.  Blaine  and  Maria  Gillespie  Blaine. 

"Who  were  these  two  people  in  life?"  I  asked  of  an  old 
gentleman,  who  had  wandered  along  with  me  to  this  quiet  city 
where  the  dead  sleep. 

"Why,  they  were  the  father  and  mother  of  James  G. 
Blaine.  1  knew  them  both  well.  Eph  Blaine  and  I  went  to 
school  together.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  this  town,  and 
was  'squire  here  for  many  a  year.  He  was  elected  prothonotary 
of  the  county  in  1S42,  and  moved  to  Washington,  the  county 
seat.  He  married  Maria,  a  daughter  of  old  Neal  Gillespie,  the 
smartest  man  in  this  whole  section,  and  from  his  people  James 
Gillespie  Blaine  derives  his  middle  name.  The  Gillespies  were 
among  the  most  prominent  families  in  the  State.  The  seal  of 
nature's  nobility  was  stamped  upon  them,  one  and  all.  The 
men  were  brave  and  stalwart;  as  strong  in  character,  too,  as 
they  were  stout  of  limb.  The  women  were  very  handsome, 
and  carried  themselves  as  proudly  as  though  the  blood  of  a 
hundred  earls  were  coursing  through  their  veins.  The  beauty 
of  old  Mrs.  Blaine,  James'  mother,  passed  into  a  proverb.  Even 
In  her  decrepit  age  she  preserved  much  of  her  early  attract- 
iveness, and  her  eye  was  like  a  hawk's,  as  clear  and  flashing  then 
as  in  the  days  of  her  budding  womanhood.  This  was  a  pecu- 
liarity of  her  family,  and  she  transmitted  it  to  all  her  children. 
Neal  Gillespie  owned  a  good  deal  of  land  about  here,  and  Eph 
Blaine  built  the  brick  house  you  see  yonder  on  a  portion  of  it 
after  his  marriage  with  Miss  Gillespie.  There  their  first  child' 
James,  was  born  in  1830.  I  remember  him  very  well  when  he 
was  a  lad  and  used  to  jiaddle  about  on  the  river  and  make  mud 
pies  along  its  banks.     He  was  a  bright  lad. 


NEVER    TURNED    HIS    BACK   ON    FRIEND    OR    FOE. 

"I  remember  one  little  story  about  him,  which  I  often 
heard  in  those  days,  and  which  is  interesting  as  showing  how 
truly,  in  his  case,  the  child  was  father  to  the  man.  When  he  was 
but  a  little  toddler,  so  to  speak,  some  laborers  were  engaged 
digging  a  well  on  his  father's  premises.  The  future  statesman 
was  caught  one  morning  peering  down  into  the  excavation,  and 
one  of  the  men,  with  the  idea  of  frightening  him  and  thus 
preventing  him  from  again  putting  himself  in  danger,  thrust  his 
shovel  toward  him,  and  made  all  sorts  of  ugly  faces.  Jim  ran 
away,  but  only  to  nurse  his  anger  and  await  an  opportunity  for 
revenge.  Venturing  to  the  well  a  day  or  two  after  he  had 
been  driven  away,  he  found  the  men  working  away  at  the  bot- 
tom. Improving  the  opportunity,  he  seized  a  clod  of  earth  and 
hurled  it  with  all  his  little  might  full  at  the  head  of  his  unsus- 
pecting enemy,  with  the  consolatory  remark,  'There,  take  that.' 
Clod  followed  clod  in  fast  succession,  with  accompanying  exple- 
tives, until  the  men  were  fairly  beside  themselves  with  rage 
and  the  fear  that  the  desperate  child  might  take  it  into  his  head 
to  use  some  of  the  stones  lying  about  him  as  messengers  of  wrath 
more  effective  than  mere  lumps  of  earth.  Their  shouts,  how- 
ever, brought  his  mother  to  the  scene,  and  the  little  avenger  was 
unceremoniously  hustled  off  to  the  house.  That  was  the  old 
blood  asserting  itself.  A  Gillespie  or  a  Blaine  never  turned  his 
back  upon  friend  or  foe." 

MEMORIES. 

"Do  the  Blaines  or  any  of  the  relatives  own  the  old  home- 
stead?" 

"No,  indeed.  It's  long  since  passed  into  strange  hands. 
There  was  little  of  either  the  Blaine  or  the  Gillespie  estate  left 
when  the  settlement  day  came.  The  children  all  had  to  begin 
new.     None  of  either  family  live  about  here  now." 

There  is  much  that  is  strange  in  the  story  that  the  old  man 
told  me,  and  much  more  that  is  interesting.  We  finished  the 
talk  beside  the  restless  waters  of  the  Monongahela,  near  which 
Mr.  Blaine  was  born  and  his  family  lived  for  years.  The  little 
brick  house  doesn't  stand  more  than  forty  rods  from  the  river, 
and  the  old  path  which  leads  from  the  doorway  that  Blaine  helped 
to  make  in  childhood,  is  still  there.  The  best  boat  on  the  river 
now  bears  his  name,  and  the  plain  people  love  to  talk  of  his 
having  been  born  in  their  midst.  It  is  a  queer  section  of  coun- 
try in  which  to  have  found  the  homes  of  two  such  families  as 
the  Blaines  and  the  Gillespies.  Both  strong  houses — both  fond 
of  the  best  things  of  this  life.  Both  educated  and  brainy. 
Blaine  sprang  from  Revolutionary  stock.     His  great-grandfather 


was  a  distinguished  officer  in  the  Revolution.  He  was  a  rich 
man,  and  lived  in  Cumberland  County,  above  Carlisle.  He  left 
James  Blaine,  the  grandfather,  and  Ephraim  Blaine,  the  father 
of  the  man  of  whom  I  am  now  writing,  rich.  The  story  goes 
that  both  spent  their  money  in  having  a  good  time.  The  grand- 
faiher  spent  many  years  in  Europe,  and  returned  to  this  country 
only  when  he  had  become  penniless.  The  first  history  he  made 
in  this  country  began  early  in  the  present  century.  After  he  was 
poor  he  left  the  rich  and  populous  section  of  Carlisle,  and  moved 
into  the  then  wilderness  of  the  Youghiogheny  region,  and 
established  a  country  store  at  the  mouth  of  Ten  Mile  Run,  in 
Gjcene  County.  He  lived  here  but  a  short  time  when  he  came 
to  Brownsville,  with  his  wagon  load  of  goods,  and  established 
a  store,  which  he  kept  the  remainder  of  his  life.  The  Gillespie 
f:imily  was  then  a  rich  and  powerful  family  in  the  region.  The 
strength  of  mind  and  character  for  which  all  the  family  were 
noted,  is  still  a  proverb  in  the  region.  The  Monongahela  river 
at  this  point  separates  the  two  counties  of  Fayette  and  Washing- 
ton. Brownsville  is  on  the  Fayette  side  and  West  Brownsville 
is  on  the  Washington  side.  They  are  both  quaint  old  towns,  and 
wear  the  mark  of  many  years.  I  don't  suppose  there  are  fifteen 
hundred  people  in  both,  and  the  houses  straggle  along  the  banks 
of  the  river  on  the  lowlands,  which  are  just  high  enough  to  keep 
them  out  of  the  reach  of  the  overflow.  This  country  was  new — 
I  might  say  wild — when  the  Blaines  and  the  Gillespies  came  here. 
The  rich  treasures  of  the  Youghiogheny  region  were  floated 
down  the  Ohio  river  in  rude  keel  boats,  and  the  untold  wealth 
in  the  rugged  mountains  was  then  unknown.  Albert  Gallatin 
usL'd  to  live  in  this  country  then,  and  his  residence  was  but  a  few 
miles  up  the  river  from  this  point.  But  mighty  changes  have 
taken  place  since  those  days,  when  he  so  left  his  impress  upon 
the  finances  and  credit  of  this  country  that  it  can  never  be  effaced. 

TWO    STRONG    FAMILIES. 

There  seems  to  have  been  good  feeling  from  the  first  between 
the  Blaine  and  Gillespie  families,  and  there  seems  to  have  been 
a  special  care  to  intermingle  the  family  names  as  each  son  was 
born.  The  old  man,  whom  I  encountered  in  the  first  part  of 
this  story,  told  me  that  nearly  every  son  in  the  Blaine  family,  as 
in  the  Gillespies,  wore  the  family  name  or  some  part  of  his  auto- 
graph. The  Gillespie  family  .eemed  to  run  more  to  girls  than 
boys,  and  it  seemed  to  be  their  good  fortune  to  link  their  for- 
tunes with  strong  men.  The  daughter  who  was  next  in  age  to 
Maria,  who  married  Ephraim  L.  Blaine,  was  wedded  to  the 
famous  Tom  Ewing,  of  Ohio,  when  he  was  a  poor  lawyer  in 
Lancaster,  Pa.  Tiiat's  how  lie  became  an  uncle  of  James  G. 
Blaine,  and  the  names  of  Blaine  aud  Ewing  became  joined. 


There  is  a  tradition  here  that  when  old  Tom  Ewing  was 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Blaine  applied  to  him  for  a  clerkship, 
and  the  old  man  sent  him  to  Kentucky  to  earn  an  honest  living 
teaching  school.  This  association  of  the  name  of  Ewing  with 
that  of  Blaine  has  given  rise  to  the  story  that  the  Ewing  family 
of  Ohio  helped  James  G.  Blaine  to  an  education.  I  might  as 
well  destroy  this  fiction  by  telling  the  facts. 

A  short  drive  brought  me  to  Washington,  the  county  seat  of 
this  county,  and  one  of  the  first  men  I  met  was  Major  John  H. 
Ewing,  an  old  veteran  now  past  four-score  years. 

"I  married  the  sister  of  Ephraim  L.  Blaine.  He  and  I 
went  to  school  together  over  in  yonder  college,  and  I  knew  him 
nearly  all  his  life.  He  was  a  leader  in  the  mischief  of  the  school, 
and  fo  id  of  all  the  good  things  of  this  life.  He  was  the  hand- 
somest man  I  ever  saw,  and  he  had  a  wife  that  was  a  match  for 
him.  She  was  one  of  the  noblest  women  I  ever  knew.  She  in- 
herited all  the  sterling  traits  of  character  and  strength  of  mind 
for  which  the  Gillespies  were  noted.  So,  you  see,  Blaine  sprang 
from  the  best  of  stock  on  both  sides.  His  father  was  justice  of 
the  peace  over  in  West  Brownville  for  a  number  of  years,  and 
afterwards  prothonotary  of  the  county.  He  was  elected  in  1842 
and  came  here  to  live.  James  G.  was  only  about  twelve  years 
old  then,  and  almost  every  middle  aged  man  you  meet  on  the 
streets  here  remembers  all  about  him." 

blaine's  college  career. 

Young  Blaine  was  thirteen  when,  in  1843,  ^^  entered  Wash- 
ington College.  His  college  mates  say  he  was  easily  leader  of 
the  three  hundred  students  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  He 
became  active  in  athletic  sports,  and,  with  exercise,  his  figure 
gained  fullness  and  firmness.  He  was  kind  to  the  new  boys  and 
the  youngsters,  considerate  of  their  freshness,  and  generous  in 
giving  them  assistance  and  smoothing  the  rough  places  in  their 
path.  He  became  the  arbiter  of  their  disputes,  and  before  the 
close  of  his  college  days  he  was  universally  looked  up  to  and 
loved. 

During  the  campaign  of  1844,  when  the  Whigs  had  a  "log 
cabin"  near  the  college  for  headquarters,  he  was  especially 
aggressive  in  his  defense  of  Whig  policy,  and  in  active  work. 
He  was  a  brilliant  student,  and  excelled  alike  in  the  sciences  and 
mathematics.  He  was  alwnys  looked  upon  as  very  smart.  The 
leading  and  preponderating  quality  of  his  mind  was  a  remarkable 
memory.  In  this  he  far  excelled  every  other  member  of  his 
class.  He  was  a  great  reader  of  history,  and  was  so  methodical 
in  his  arrangement  of  facts  that  he  could  in  an  instant  present 
an  array  of  them  that  would  overwhelm  any  opponent.     An 


8 

incident  illustrating  strongly  this  power  is  told  of  him  when  a 
little  boy.  His  sister  challenged  him  to  a  contest  in  naming  the 
counties  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  She  named  thern  all,  and 
he  immediately  named  them  and  every  county  seat  besides. 

ON    THE    ROAD    TO    FAME. 

Mr.  A.  M.  Gow,  of  Washington,  Pa.,  who  was  Blaine's 
classmate,  speaks  thus  of  his  school-days  : — 

"Yes,  Blaine  graduated  in  the  class  of  '47,  when  he  was 
only  seventeen  years  old.  I  graduated  in  the  same  class.  We 
were  thrown  a  great  deal  together,  not  only  in  school,  but  in 
society.  He  was  a  great  favorite  in  the  best  social  circles  in  the 
town.  He  was  not  noted  as  a  leader  in  his  class.  He  could 
learn  his  lessons  too  easily.  He  had  the  most  remarkable 
memory  of  any  boy  in  school,  and  could  commit  and  retain  his 
lessons  without  difficulty.  He  never  demonstrated  in  his  youth, 
except  by  his  wonderful  memory,  any  of  the  great  powers  as  a 
debater  and  thinker  that  he  has  since  given  evidence  of." 

Dr.  J.  C.  Cooper,  of  Philadelphia,  another  graduate  of 
Washington  College,  in  the  class  of  '47,  speaks  of  his  classmate 
James  G.  Blaine,  in  terms  of  the  highest  praise.  Dr.  Cooper 
states  that  "in  his  college-days,  young  Blaine  was  a  careful, 
thorough  and  conscientious  student,  though  he  had  a  gift  of  ac- 
quiring knowledge  without  much  effort.  He  was  ambitious,  and 
there  was  one  place  where  he  could  always  be  found,  that  was,  at 
the  head  of  his  class." 

When  a  man  has  filled  so  large  a  place  in  the  public  eye  as 
Mr.  Blaine  has,  his  early  life  seems  a  great  way  off.  When  you 
get  where  every  other  man  you  meet  can  tell  you  all  about  it, 
then  you  seem  to  see  it  in  a  different  light  and  it  leaves  a  far 
different  impression  upon  your  mind.  Here,  what  seems  to  be 
to  you  when  away  traditions  far  in  the  distant  past,  appears  like 
the  recollections  of  yesterday.  People  cannot  only  tell  you  of 
his  father  and  his  grandfather,  but  of  almost  every  phase  of  his 
life  from  boyhood  up.  The  stories  of  his  early  struggles  and 
triumphs  are  as  vivid  as  those  of  his  later  years,  and  his  name  is 
closely  associated  with  the  lore  of  the  country  side.  He  left 
here  soon  after  he  graduated,  but  how  little  did  he  then  think 
that  his  home  would  be  made  in  the  Northland  and  his  fame  and 
fortune  won  many  miles  away  from  the  quaint  old  town  where 
he  grew  up.  It  is  a  nice  place  for  peace  and  rest.  The  people 
are  contented  and  happy  with  their  splendid  educational  institu- 
tions, their  rich  acres  and  plenty  of  money.  He  had  close 
alliances  here  then  that  were  likely  to  bring  him  back  to  stay. 


9 

1 

HIS    RECOLLECTIONS   OF   YOUTH. 

In  1847,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  he  graduated  at  the  head  of 
a  large  class,  many  of  whose  members  have  also  acquired  wide 
renown.  Mr.  Blaine  has  always  retained  a  warm  affection  for  his 
alma  mater  and  his  native  county.  He  has  said  that  his  pride 
and  affection  for  both  increase  with  years  and  reflection,  and 
he  recalls  with  pleasure  the  memory  of  the  hardy  pioneers  of  the 
county,  their  zealous  celebrations  on  the  Fourth  of  July  and 
Washington's  Birthday,  and,  speaking  of  one  Fourth  of  July 
celebration  in  Brownsville  in  1840,  which  was  attended  by  200 
Revolutionary  veterans,  Mr.  Blaine  has  said  that  the  modern 
cant  and  criticism  which  we  sometimes  hear  about  Washington 
not  being  a  very  great  man  would  have  been  dangerous  talk 
on  that  day  and  in  that  assemblage.  Of  this  college  he  has 
said:  "During  my  service  of  eighteen  years  in  Congress  I  met 
a  larger  number  of  the  alumni  of  Washington  and  Jefferson 
than  of  any  single  college  in  the  Union."  With  Blaine's  col- 
lege life  his  immediate  connection  with  Pennsylvania,  except 
for  a  short  time  spent  as  a  teacher  in  Philadelphia,  and  a  few 
years  devoted  to  the  study  of  Law,  was  ended,  but  his  affection 
for  his  native  State  did  not  grow  less  with  distance  or  time. 

After  his  graduation,  Mr.  Blaine  went  to  B^ue  Lick  Springs, 
Ky.,  as  a  professor  in  the  Western  Military  Institute.  Nothing 
tests  a  man's  back-bone  more  than  the  control  of  450  half-grown 
boys.  If  he  can  maintain  discipline  and  the  regard  and  respect 
of  his  pupils,  combine  the  instructor  and  the  friend,  he  has 
succeeded  as  few  beside  the  master  at  Rugby  have  done. 
Mr.  Blaine  even  yet  knows  the  boys  of  the  Western  Military 
Institute — their  given  names,  their  shortcomings  and  strong 
points.  An  officer  of  the  Confederate  service  has  narrated  how 
coolly  and  bravely  Mr.  Blaine  behaved  during  a  bloody  con- 
flict between  the  faculty  of  the  school  and  the  owners  of 
Blue  Lick  Springs — when  knives  and  revolvers  were  drawn. 
At  Millersburg,  twenty-nine  miles  away,  was  a  young  ladies' 
school,  and  here  Blaine  met  Miss  Harriet  Stanwood,  who 
belonged  to  an  excellent  Massachusetts  family,  and  subsequently 
she  became  Mrs.  Blaine.  Miss  Stanwood,  for  some  romantic 
reason,  refused  to  tell  her  future  husband  anything  about  her 
parentage  or  circumstances.  When  the  school  broke  up  she 
returned  to  her  home  in  Maine.  Mr.  Blaine  followed  her; 
they  were  married,  and  the  husband,  to  oblige  his  wife,  became 
"Blaine,  of  Maine,"  though  a  more  correct  title  would  be 
Blaine,  of  Maine  and  of  Pennsylvania. 

BLAINE   AND    THE   BLIND. 

After  leaving  Blue  Lick  Springs,  Mr.  Blaine  spent  two  years 
in  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  teaching  at  The  Pennsylvania  Insti- 


10 

tution  for  the  Instruction  of  the  Blind.  Mr.  William  Chapin, 
a  genial  old  gentleman  of  over  four  score  years,  and  the  prm- 
cipal  of  the  institution  since  1849,  when  recently  interrogated 
as  to  his  recollection  of  Mr.  Blaine,  replied: 

"Yes,  I  remember  young  James  G.  Blame  distinctly.  He 
was  principal  teacher  here  on  the  boys'  side  for  two  years,  and 
when  he  departed  he  left  behind  him  not  only  universal  regret 
at  a  serious  loss  to  the  institution,  but  an  impression  of  his 
personal  force  upon  the  work  and  metnods,  which  survives  the 
lapse  of  twenty  years." 

The  Pennsylvania  Institution  for  the  Instruction  of  the 
Blind,  at  Twentieth  and  Race  Streets,  is  the  second  place  in 
which  Mr.  Blaine  taught  aftg:  his  graduation  from  Washington 
College.  He  rang  the  bell  at  the  front  door  of  the  building 
one  summer  afternoon,  in  1852,  in  answer  to  an  advertisement 
for  a  teacher.  "There  were  thirty  or  forty  other  applicants," 
said  Mr.  Chapin,  "but  his  manner  was  so  winning,  and  he 
possessed  so  many  manifestly  valuable  qualities  that  I  closed  an 
engagement  with  him  at  once.  He  was  married,  and  his  wife 
and  little  son  Walker  came  here  with  him.  His  qualities,  which 
impressed  me  most  deeply,  were  his  culture,  the  thoroughness  of 
his  education  and  his  unfailing  self-possession.  He  was  also  a 
man  of  very  decWled  will,  and  was  very  much  disposed  to  argu- 
ment. He  was  young  then — only  twenty-two — and  was  rather 
impulsive,  leaping  to  a  conclusion  very  quickly.  But  he  was 
always  ready  to  defend  his  conclusions,  however  suddenly  he 
seemed  to  have  reached  them.  We  had  many  a  familiar  dis- 
cussion in  this  very  room,  and  his  arguments  always  astonished 
me  by  the  knowledge  they  displayed  of  facts  in  history  and 
politics.  His  memory  was  remarkable,  and  seemed  to  retain 
details  which  ordinary  men  would  forget. 

Blaine's  first  book. 

"Now  I  will  show  you  something  that  illustrates  how 
thoroughly  Mr.  Blaine  mastered  anything  he  took  hold  of," 
said  Mr.  Chapin,  as  he  took  from  a  desk  in  the  corner  of  the 
room  a  thick  quarto  manuscript  book,  bound  in  dark,  brown 
leather,  and  lettered  "Journal"  on  the  corner.  "This  book 
Mr.  Blaine  compiled  with  great  labor  from  the  minute  books 
of  the  Board  of  Managers.  It  gives  an  historical  view  of  the 
institution  from  the  time  of  its  foundation  up  to  the  time  of 
Mr.  Blaine's  departure.  He  did  all  the  work  in  his  own  room, 
telling  no  one  ot  it  till  he  left.  Then  he  presented  it,  through 
me,  to  the  Board  of  Managers,  who  were  both  surprised  and 
gratified.  I  believe  they  made  him  a  present  of  ^100  as  a 
thank-offering  for  an  invaluable  work." 


1     ^  ^  £. 


12 


Indeed,  this  book,  the  first  historical  work  of  Mr.  Blaine, 
is  a  model  of  its  kind.  On  the  title  page,  in  ornamental  pen- 
work,  executed  at  that  time  by  Mr.  Chapm,  is  the  inscription : 


Journal 

OF  THE 

Pennsylvania  Institution 

FOR  THE 

INSTRUCTION  OF  THE   BLIND, 

FROM   ITS   FOUNDATION. 

COMPILED   FROM   ORIGINAL   RECORDS 

BY 

James  G.  Blaine. 

1834. 


A   MODEL   OF   METHOD. 

The  methodical  character  of  the  work  is  most  remarkable. 
On  the  first  page  every  abbreviation  used  in  the  book  is  entered 
alphabetically.  The  first  entry  reads:  "On  this  and  the  four 
following  pages  will  be  found  some  notes  in  regard  to  the  origin 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Institution  for  the  Instruction  of  the  Blind, 
furnished  by  I.  Francis  Fisher,  Esq."  From  this  page  to  the 
i88th,  in  which  is  the  last  entry  made  by  Mr.  Blaine,  every  line 
is  a  model  of  neatness  and  accuracy.  On  every  page  is  a  wide 
margin.  At  the  top  of  the  margin  is  the  year,  in  ornamental 
figures.  Below  it  is  a  brief  statement  of  what  the  text  contains 
opposite  that  portion  of  the  marginal  entry.  Every  year's  record 
closes  with  an  elaborate  table,  giving  the  attendance  of  mem- 
bers of  the  board.  The  last  pages  of  the  book  are  filled  with 
alphabetical  lists  of  officers  of  the  institution  and  statistical 
tables,  compiled  by  the  same  patient  and  untiring  hand.  One 
of  the  lists  is  that  of  the  "principal  teachers,"  No.  13  is  fol- 
lowed by  the  signature  "James  G.  Blaine,  from  August  5,  1852, 
to" — and  then,  in  an  other  hand,  the  record  is  completed  with 
the  date  November  23,  1854. 

"I  think  that  the  book,"  remarked  Mr.  Chapin,  "illustrates 
the  character  of  the  man  in  accurate  mastery  of  facts  and  orderly 
presentation  of  details.  We  still  use  it  for  reference,  and  Mr. 
Frank  Battles,  the  assistant  principal,  is  bringing  the  record 
down  to  the  present  time." 


13 

"I  recall  one  incident,"  Mr.  Chapin  continued,  "which 
indicates  Mr.  Blaine's  mode  of  discipline,  and  shows,  too,  that 
he  was  in  those  days  somewhat  impulsive.  It  was  one  of  his 
duties  to  take  charge  of  the  boys  at  breakfast,  and  sometimes 
there  would  be  a  few  sleepy  laggards.  One  morning  a  whole 
room  full  of  boys,  five  or  six  of  them,  failed  to  appear.  Mr. 
Blaine  quietly  walked  up  stairs  and  locked  them  in.  The  boys 
had  a  screw-driver  and  they  unfastened  the  lock ;  but  by  the 
time  they  reached  the  breakfast  room  the  tables  had  been  cleared. 
'You  can  have  no  breakfast,' was  the  teacher's  annotincement. 
The  boys  thereupon  declared  that  they  wouldn't  go  into  Mr. 
Blaine's  classes.  He  reported  them  to  me.  Although  I  thought 
it  perhaps  a  little  severe  to  deprive  them  of  breakfast,  I  felt 
obliged  to  sustain  Mr.  Blaine,  and  told  them  to  go  to  their  class 
rooms  as  usual.  They  still  refused,  and  I  suspended  them  for 
the  day.  The  next  morning  they  rose  in  time  for  breakfast,  at- 
tended classes,  and  the  little  rebellion  was  over. 

"Mr.  Blaine  taught  mathematics,  in  which  he  excelled, 
and  the  higher  branches.  His  wife  was  universally  beloved,  and 
often  read  aloud  to  the  pupils.  When  he  went  away  to  become 
editor  of  the  Y^tnnthtc  Journal,  we  felt  that  we  had  lost  a  man 
of  large  parts  and  we  watched  his  upward  career  with  great 
interest.  Yes,  indeed,  we're  all  for  Blaine  here.  He  has  called 
here  a  number  of  times  when  he  stopped  in  the  city  on  his  way 
to  and  from  Washington.  The  last  time  he  was  here  he  heard 
with  great  interest  of  the  progress  of  D.  D.  Wood,  the  blind 
organist  at  St.  Stephen's  Church,  who  was  one  of  his  pupils, 
and  recalled  Mr.  Wood's  proficiency  in  mathematics." 
A  pupil's  recollections. 

Three  persons  now  holding  positions  in  the  institution, 
Michael  M.  Williams,  William  McMillan  and  Miss  Maria  Cor- 
many,  were  pupils  under  Mr.  Blaine.  Mr.  Williams  said: 
"Everybody  loved  Mr.  Blaine  and  his  wife.  Both  were  always 
ready  to  do  anything  for  our  amusement  in  leisure  hours,  and 
we  had  a  great  deal  of  fun,  into  which  they  entered  heartily. 
I  think  that  Mrs.  Blaine  read  nearly  all  of  Dicken's  works  aloud 
to  us,  and  Mr.  Blaine  used  to  make  us  roar  with  laughter  by 
reading  out  of  a  book  entitled  'Charcoal  Sketches.'"  Mr. 
Williams  led  the  visitor  to  a  large  room  at  the  right  of  the  main 
entrance  to  the  building,  separated  by  folding  doors  from  an- 
other room,  and  added:  "In  the  evenings  he  used  to  throw 
those  doors  open  and  sit  there  under  the  gaslight,  reading  aloud 
to  both  the  boys  and  girls.  Then  we  would  wind  up  with  a 
spelling  bee.  Sometimes  Mr.  Blaine  would  give  out  the  words 
aud  sometimes  one  of  the  big  boys  would  do  it,  while  Mr.  Blaine 
stood  up  among  the  boys.  Then  we  would  have  great  fun  trying 
to  'spell  the  teacher  down.'  " 


W~"!iim-'f  , 


15 

THE   MAINE    EDITOR   AND    POLITICIAN. 

It  was  in  1853  that  Mr.  Blaine  went  to  Portland,  Me.,  and 
became  editor  of  the  Portland  Advertiser  and  the  Kennebec 
Journal.  A  great  journalist  was  lost  when  he  entered  public  life. 
He  has  himself  said  that  he  never  hoped  to  attain  in  his  writing 
anything  like  the  excellence  of  style  reached  by  him  in  the  in- 
tense excitement  of  public  speaking.  The  truth  is,  he  is  a  master 
of  both  arts.  His  first  reputation  as  a  public  speaker  was  ac- 
quired in  the  Fremont  campaign  of  1856.  In  1858  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Maine  Legislature.  He  was  re-elected 
three  times,  and  in  1861  and  1862  he  was  chosen  speaker  of  the 
House.  In  1863,  at  the  height  of  the  civil  war,  he  was  elected 
to  Congress,  beginning  a  service  in  the  National  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives which  lasted  fourteen  years.  He  became  the  leader 
of  the  Republican  side  of  the  House  as  he  became  the  leader  of 
men  wherever  he  went.  It  was  in  the  beginning  of  his  second 
term  that  he  began  to  make  himself  felt.  None  of  the  younger 
members  had  been  on  more  cordial  or  confidential  terms  with 
Mr.  Lincoln  than  the  new  member  from  Maine.  Towards  the 
expiration  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  term,  Mr.  Blaine  was  the  person 
with  whom  the  President  constantly  conferred  in  regard  to 
political  movements  in  Maine.  Ward  H.  Lamon,  Lincoln's  law 
partner,  was  present  at  a  conference  when  Mr.  Lincoln  requested 
Mr.  Blaine  to  go  to  Maine  and  watch  the  movements  of  the 
President's  opponents.  The  acquaintance  between  Lincoln  and 
Blaine  had  begun  in  Illinois,  during  the  Douglas  campaign  in 
1858,  and  at  that  early  time  the  Maine  editor  had  predicted  in 
the  columns  of  his  paper  that  Lincoln  would  be  defeated  for 
senator  by  Douglas,  but  that  he  would  beat  Douglas  for  president 
in  i860.  A  copy  of  this  prophecy  Mr.  Lincoln  carried  in  his 
memorandum  book  long  after  he  had  been  inaugurated  as  presi- 
dent. In  i860,  as  delegate  to  the  Chicago  Convention,  Mr. 
Blaine  had  been  almost  the  only  New  England  man  who  had 
supported  Mr.  Lincoln  from  the  start,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  it  was  Mr.  Blaine's  early  and  firm  stand  for  Lincoln 
which  opened  the  way  to  the  first  nomination  of  the  first  martyr 
President. 

HIS   CONGRESSIONAL   CAREER. 

Mr.  Blaine  had  been  a  representative  hardly  three  years  be- 
fore he  had  won  an  equal  rank  with  the  ablest  of  the  members. 
It  was  a  body  strong  in  strong  men — Thad.  Stevens,  Ben.  Butler, 
Bingham,  Boutwell,  Conkling,  Dawes,  George  N.  Julian,  R.  B. 
Hayes  and  others  made  the  Republican  delegation  a  tower  of 
strength.  In  the  National  House  of  Representatives  Mr.  Blaine 
followed  the  same  even  and  upward  path  of  progress  which  he 


16 

had  trodden  from  his  entrance  in  college  to  his  last  day  of  service 
in  the  Maine  Legislature.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Thirty- 
eighth,  Thirty-ninth,  Fortieth,  Forty-first,  Forty-second,  Forty- 
third  and  Forty-fourth  Congresses.  He  was  Speaker  of  the  House 
during  the  Forty-first,  Forty-second  and  Forty-third  Congresses. 

Upon  assuming  the  chair  as  Speaker  of  the  House  in  1S69, 
Mr.  Blaine  made  the  following  address  : 

Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Representatives  :  I  thank  you  profoundly 
for  the  great  honor  which  you  have  just  conferred  upon  me.  The  graiifica- 
lion  which  this  signal  mark  of  your  confidence  brings  to  me  finds  its  only 
drawback  in  the  diffidence  with  which  I  assume  the  weighty  duties  devolved 
upon  me.  Succeeding  to  a  chair  made  illustrious  by  the  services  of  such 
eminent  statesmen  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  measnre  to  the 
indulgence  which  I  am  sure  you  will  always  extend  to  me,  I  shall  hope  to 
retain,  as  I  have  secured  your  confidence,  your  kindly  regard  and  your  gener- 
ous support. 

The  Forty-first  Congress  assembles  at  an  auspicious  period  in  the  history 
of  our  Government.  The  splendid  and  impressive  ceremonial  which  we  have 
just  witnessed  in  another  part  of  the  Capitol  appropriately  symbolizes  the 
triumphs  of  the  past  and  the  hopes  of  the  future.  A  great  chieftain,  whose 
sword  at  the  head  of  gallant  and  victorious  armies  saved  the  repul^lic  from 
dismemberment  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  administra- 
tion 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  arduous  and  respon- 
sible duties  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. 

For  the  speakership  he  had  nearly  every  requirement 
that  can  be  demanded.  Before  he  took  up  the  gavel  he 
had  long  parliamentary  experience,  and,  before  experience,  he 
had  quickness,  firmness,  knowledge  of  the  rules,  of  men  and 
affairs.  His  assumption  of  the  office  was  merely  another  trial 
of  the  powers  which  had  been  equal  to  every  occasion,  and  they 
did  not  fail  him  now.  On  July  10,  1876,  Mr.  Blaine  was  ap- 
pointed United  States  Senator  from  Maine,  to  fill  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  resignation  of  Lott  M.  Morrill,  who  had  been 
api)ointed  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  he  was  subsequently 
elected  for  the  unexpired  term,  and  for  the  ensuing  term  which 
expired  March  3,  1883. 

His  congressional  career  embraced  the  most  trying  period 
of  his  country's  history,  the  sombre  years  of  the  rebellion,  the 
reconstruction  period  and  the  perilous  time  when  the  election 


17 

of  President  Hayes  aroused  an  apparently  triumphant  Democratic 
party  almost  to  the  verge  of  madness.  A  good  example  of  Mr. 
Blaine's  powers  as  a  debater  is  found  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the 
Senate,  April  14,  1879,  when  an  effort  was  made  by  the  Demo- 
crats to  strike  out  the  words  from  a  section  of  the  Revised  Stat- 
utes, which  provided  for  the  use  of  soldiers  to  keep  peace  at  the 
polls.  In  reply  to  the  charge  that  the  soldiers  were  used  to  in- 
timidate Southern  voters,  Mr.  Blaine  said: 

"  Ai.d  the  entire  South  has  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
fifty-five  soldiers  to  intimidate,  overrun,  oppress  and  destroy  the 
liberties  of  fifteen  million  people  !  In  the  Southern  States  there 
are  one  thousand  two  hundred  and  three  counties.  If  you  dis- 
tribute the  soldiers  there  is  not  quite  one  for  each  county.  If 
you  distribute  them  territorially  there  is  one  for  every  seven  hun- 
dred square  miles  of  territory,  so  that  if  you  make  a  territorial 
distribution  I  would  remind  the  honorable  Senator  from  Dela- 
ware, if  I  saw  him  in  his  seat,  that  the  quota  for  his  state  would 
be  three,  'One  ragged  sergeant  and  two  abreast,'  as  the  old 
song  has  it.  That  is  the  force  ready  to  destroy  the  liberties  of 
Delaware."  « 

BLAINE,    THE    STATESMAN. 

An  examination  of  the  Congressional  Record  v^'WX  show  how 
far  astray  is  the  popular  idea  of  Mr.  Blaine's  congressional  career 
and  how  much  greater  he  was  as  a  statesman  than  as  a  politician. 
His  debates  covered  a  wide  range  of  the  most  complicated  sub- 
jects, and  show  him  to  have  been  sound  in  his  financial  views, 
practical  always  and  liberal  in  his  political  views.  When,  in 
December,  1864,  Mr.  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  introduced  a 
bill  in  the  House  to  determine  the  value  of  legal  tender  notes, 
and  to  compel  all  persons  to  take  the  notes  at  their  face  value, 
Mr.  Blaine  was  the  member  to  expose  the  absurdity  of  the  at- 
tempt. "The  bill,"  he  said,  "aims  at  the  impossible.  You 
cannot  make  a  gold  dollar  worth  less  than  it  is  by  congressional 
declaration." 

Mr.  Blaine  invented  the  word  "Stalwart,"  but  no  one  was 
quicker  than  he  to  advise  keeping  hands  off  the  South  after  the 
close  of  the  war. 

In  a  speech  upon  the  financial  condition  of  the  country,  de- 
livered in  the  House,  in  March,  1868,  Mr.  Blaine  said: 

"Nor  do  I  see  how  any  gentleman  can  consistently  propose 
an  inflation  of  the  currency  in  the  face  of  an  express  and  solemn 
pledge  to  the  contrary  by  Congress.  *  *  *  If  we  were  ever 
so  eager  to  pay  off  our  five-twenty's  in  greenbacks  we  are  actually 
stopped  by  the  four  hundred  million  dollars  pledge.  If  we  dis- 
regard that  pledge  we  might  just  as  well  trample  upon  others  and 


18 

take  a  short  cut  at  once  to  repudiation  and  national  bankruptcy. 
The  policy  which  I  advocate  is  to  bring  our  entire  currency  in 
due  season,  without  haste,  without  rashness,  without  contraction, 
without  financial  convulsion,  up  to  the  specie  standard. 

June  23  1868,  Mr.  Blaine  made  an  elaborate  argument  in 
opposition  to  the  proposition  to  impose  a  tax  upon  Government 
bonds  He  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous-  and  able  ot  the 
opponents  of  the  importation  of  Chinese  labor.  His  ablest 
speeches  in  the  Senate  were,  probably,  those  made  during  the 
Geneva  award  debate,  when  he  successfully  crossed  arms  with 
the  great  legal  athletes  of  the  Senate  Chamber. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Blaine's  popularity  and  prominence 
had  made  him  a  formidable  candidate  for  the  presidency.  At 
the  Republican  National  Convention,  held  at  Cincinnati  in  1876, 
he  was  by  far  the  most  popular  candidate,  but,  as  is  so  often  the 
case,  under  such  circumstances,  the  combinations  effected  by  the 
opposition  were  too  strong  to  be  withstood,  and  Rutherford  B. 
Hayes  received  the  nomination  on  the  seventh  ballot. 

The  following  is  Col.  Ingersoll's  speech,  nominating  Mr. 
Blaine: 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  demand,  as  their  leader  in  the  great 
contest  of  1876,  a  man  of  intelligence,  a  man  of  integrity,  a  man  of  well 
known  and  approved  political  opinions.  They  demand  a  statesman.  They 
demand  a  reformer  after,  as  well  as  before,  the  election.  They  demand  a 
politician  in  the  highest,  broadest,  best  sense — a  man  of  superb  moral  courage. 
They  demand  a  man  acquainted  with  public  affairs;  with  the  wants  of  the 
people;  with  not  only  the  requirements  of  the  hour,  but  with  the  demands  of 
the  future.  They  demand  a  man  broad  enough  to  comprehend  the  relations 
of  this  Government  to  the  other  nations  of  the  earth.  They  demand  a  man 
well  versed  in  the  powers,  duties  and  prerogatives  of  each  and  every  depart- 
ment of  this  Government.  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  its  people;  one 
who  knows  enough  to  know  that  all  the  financial  theories  in  the  world  connot 
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  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  the  industry  to  make  the  money 
and  have  the  honor  to  pay  it  over  just  as  fast  as  they  make  it. 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  demand  a  man  who  knows  that 
prosperity  and  resumption,  when  they  come,  must  come  together;  that  when 
they  come,  they  will  come  hand  in  hand  through  the  golden  harvest  fields; 
hand  in  hand  by  the  whirling  spindles  and  the  turning  wheel;  hand  in  hand 
past  the  open  furnace  doors;  hand  in  hand  by  the  flaming  forges;  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  political  convention.  The  Republicans  of  the  United 
States  want  a  man  who  knows  that  this  Government  should  protect  every  citizen 
at  home  and  abroad ;  who  knows  that  any  Government  that  will  not  defend 
its  defenders,  and  protect  its  protectors  is  a  disgrace  to  the  map  of  the  world. 
They  demand  a  man  who  believes  in  the  eternal  separation  and  divorcement 


19 


of  church  and  school.  They  demand  a  man  whose  political  reputation  is  spot- 
less as  a  star ;  but  they  do  not  demand  that  their  candidate  shall  have  a  certifi- 
cate of  moral  character  signed  by  a  Confederate  Congress.  The  man  who 
has,  in  full,  heaped,  and  rounded  measure,  all  these  splendid  qualifications, 
is  the  present  grand  and  gallant  leader  of  the  Republican  party — James 
G.  Blaine. 

Our  countr\',  crowned  with  the  vast  and  marvelous  achievements  of  its 
first  century,  asks  for  a  man  worthy  of  the  past  and  prophetic  of  the  future; 
asks  for  a  man  who  has  the  audacity  of  genius;  asks  for  a  man  who  has  the 
grandest  combination  of  heart,  conscience  and  brain  beneath  her  flag — such 
a  man  is  James  G.  Blaine.  For  the  Republican  host  led  by  this  intrepid  man, 
there  can" be  no  defeat.  This  is  a  grand  year — a  year  filled  with  the  recollec- 
tions of  the  Revolution;  filled  with  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  fountains  of  enthusiasm — a  year  in  which  the  people  call 
for  a  man  who  has  preserved  in  Congress  what  our  soldiers  won  upon  the 
field — a  year  in  which  they  call  for  the  man  who  has  torn  from  the  throat  of 
treason  the  tongue  of  slander ;  for  the  man  who  has  snatched  the  mask  of 
Democracy  from  the  hideous  face  of  Rebellion ;  for  the  man  who,  like  an 
intellectunl  athlete,  has  stood  in  the  arena  of  debate  and  challenged  all  comers, 
and  who  is  still  a  total  stranger  to  defeat.  Like  an  armed  warrior,  like  a 
plumed  knight,  James  G.  Blaine  marched  down  the  halls  of  the  American 
Congress  and  threw  his  shining  lance  full  and  fair  against  the  brazen  foreheads 
of  the  defamers  of  his  country  and  the  maligners  of  his  honor.  For  the  Re- 
publican party  to  desert  this  gallant  leader  now  is  as  though  an  army  should 
desert  their  general  upon  the  field  of  battle.  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  de- 
fenders and  of  all  her  supporters;  in  the  name  of  all  her  soldiers  living  ;  in 
the  name  of  all  her  soldiers  dead  upon  the  field  of  battle,  and  in  the  name  of 
those  who  perished  in  the  skeleton  clutch  of  famine  at  Andersonville  and 
Libby,  whose  sufferings  he  so  vividly  remembers,  Illinois— Illinois  nominates 
for  the  next  President  of  this  Country,  that  prince  of  parliamentarians,  that 
leader  of  leaders,  James  G.  Blaine. 

THE    BALLOTS    IN    DETAIL    IN    1 876. 


Candidates. 

ISt 

Ballot. 

2d 

Ballot. 

3d 
Ballot. 

4th 

B.llot. 

Sth 
Ballot. 

6th 
Ballot. 

7th 
Ballot. 

298 

114 

93 

111 

63 

64 

U 

3 

1 

296 

113 

99 

124 

58 

(1 

11 

3 

1 

293 

121 

90 

113 

68 

67 

2 
1 

292 

126 

84 

108 

71 

68 

2 
3 

286 

114 

82 

95 

69 

104 

2 
3 

308 

111 

81 

85 

50 

113 

2 

4 

351 

21 

Conkling 

Hayes 

384 

Washburne 

Aeain,   in  the  National  Republican   Convention   of  iSSo, 
James  G.  Blaine  was  one  of  the  popular  candidates,  ranking 


20 

second  to  General  Grant  in  the  first  thirty-five  ballots  of  the 
convention  ;  in  the  thirty-sixth  the  Blaine  votes  were  transferred 
to  James  A.  Garfield,  who  received  at  that  ballot  399  votes,  and 
was  declared  the  candidate  of  his  party. 

THE    BALLOTS    IN    DETAIL    IN    1880. 


Ballots. 


O 


n 


o 


f  1st.... 
I  2d..., 
I   31.... 

4th... 

oth.. 

Glh.. 

7th... 

8th... 

9th.. 

10th. 

11th. 

]2lh. 

13th. 

14th. 

loth. 

16th. 

17th. 
L  18th. 


,  •  r  19th. 
20th. 
2M  . 
22d.. 
23d.. 
24.  h. 
25lh. 
26th. 
27th. 
28th., 


f  29th. 

30th. 
1  31st.. 
I  32d.. 
'!   33d.. 

34th. 
I  35th. 
t  36th. 


304 
305 
305 
305 
305 
305 
305 
306 
308 
305 
305 
304 
305 
305 
309 
306 
303 
305 

305 
308 
305 
305 
304 
305 
302 
303 
306 
307 

305 
306 
308 
309 
309 
312 
313 
306 


284 
282 
282 
281 
281 
280 
281 
284 
282 
282 
281 
283 
285 
285 
281 
283 
284 
283 

279 
276 
276 
275 
275 
279 
281 
280 
277 
279 

278 
279 
276 
270 
276 
275 
257 
42 


90 
91 

96 
93 
96 
97 
97 
93 
94 
93 
93 
91 

116 
120 
118 
117 
110 
107 
99 
3 


1 
1 
1 
1 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 

2 
2 
1 
1 
1 

17 

50 

399 


21 

HIS    RELATIONS    WITH    GARFIELD. 

Again  Mr.  Blaine  was  to  perform  the  second  martyr  Presi- 
dent a  service  greater  in  degree  than  that  which  he  had  done  for 
Lincoln  at  the  second  National  Convention  of  the  Republican 
party,  but  similar  to  it.  In  Lincoln's  case,  he  opened  the  way 
to  the  nomination.  He  made  the  nomination  of  Garfield  pos- 
sible by  throwing  his  strength  to  him  at  the  proper  moment. 
And  his  relations  with  Garfield  were  to  be  closer  than  his  rela- 
tions with  Lincoln,  confidential  as  they  had  been,  in  proportion 
as  his  services  to  Garfield  in  iSSowere  made  greater  than  his 
services  to  Lincoln  in  i860  by  his  increased  influence  and  promi- 
nence. It  remained  for  Mr.  Blaine  to  do  almost  as  much  to 
elect  Garfield  as  he  had  done  to  nominate  him  by  his  apprecia- 
tion of  the  importance  of  the  tariff  question,  and  by  exposing » 
upon  the  stump  the  dangers  of  Free  Trade  at  a  moment  in  the 
campaign  when  the  Republican  horizon  was  darkest  with  clouds. 
Mr.  Garfield  was  elected  in  November.  Before  the  first  of  De- 
cember he  had  invited  Mr.  Blaine  to  enter  his  Cabinet  as  Sec- 
retary of  State.  Mr.  Blaine,  after  due  consideration,  signified 
his  acceptance.  He  wrote  that  he  accepted  not  for  the  honor 
of  the  promotion,  but  because  he  might  be  useful  to  the  country, 
the  party  and  to  the  President,  the  responsible  leader  of  the 
party  and  the  great  head  of  the  Government.  "Your  adminis- 
tration," he  said,  "must  be  made  brilliantly  successful  and  strong 
in  the  confidence  and  pride  of  the  people,"  and  he  concluded 
as  follows: 

"  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  misunderstanding 
or  a  coolness,  and  that  our  friendship  has  steadily  grown  with 
our  growth  and  strengthened  with  our  strength. 

"It  is  this  fact  which  has  led  me  to  the  conclusion  embodied 
in  this  letter,  for,  however  much,  my  dear  Garfield,  I  might  ad- 
vise you  as  a  statesman,  I  would  not  enter  your  Cabinet  if  I  did 
not  believe  in  you  as  a  man  and  love  you  as  a  friend." 

BLAINE,    SECRETARY    OF    STATE. 

The  brief  administration  of  President  Garfield  was  remark- 
able for  its  promise  of  broad  statesmanship.  For  many  years 
Congress  and  the  entire  Government  had  been  busy  in  making 


22 

war,  in  restoring  peace,  and  in  paying  the  immense  war  debt.  I 

It  was  all  the  United  States  could  do  to  preserve  the  Union,  and 
other  nations  were  profiting  by  the  neglect  of  this  country  to 
properly  cultivate  its  foreign  relations.  England  had  absorbed 
our  commerce  and  directed  into  her  own  coffers  the  trade  of  the 
South  American  countries.  And  now,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
French  Republic,  under  the  direction  of  a  citizen  of  France 
and  backed  by  continental  capitalists,  active  preparations  had 
been  made  to  construct  an  interoceanic  canal  across  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama,  while,  under  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  of  1850,  the 
United  States  was  practically  powerless  to  take  any  steps  for  the 
protection  of  her  own  interests.  At  the  same  time  at  home  a 
more  sagacious  Southern  policy  was  demanded — a  policy  which 
would  promote  the  material  reconstruction  of  the  bouth,  there- 
tofore neglected  for  the  sake  of  pulitical  reconstruction. 

For  some  of  the  acts  of  Garfield's  adminstration  his  Sec- 
retary of  State  has  been  unjustly  held  accountable.  Mr.  Murat 
Halstead  narrates  that  President  Garfield  told  him  Blaine  had 
remained  scrupulously  within  the  line  of  his  duties  as  Secretary 
of  State ;  that  he,  the  President,  was  responsible  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  Judge  Robertson  as  collector  of  New  York.  But  with 
the  hearty  co-operation  and  support  of  the  President,  Mr.  Blaine 
outlined  that  "spirited  foreign  pojicy"  which  was  to  be  cut 
short  by  the  President's  death.  The  Southern  policy  of  the 
Administration  would  have  been  to  cultivate  cordial  relations 
between  the  different  sections  of  the  country,  and,  by  thus  pro- 
moting the  flow  southward  of  Northern  capital,  to  assist  the 
development  of  the  Southern  States.  Mr.  Blaine  had  great  faith 
in  the  future  of  the  South.     On  one  occasion  he  said: 

"  In  reconstructing  the  South  we  made  the  same  mistake  the 
British  Government  is  making  with  the  Irish.  If  we  had  made 
a  Government  donation  of  fifty  million  dollars  for  the  purpose 
of  constructing  a  railway  from  Charleston  to  the  southern  end 
of  California,  and  spent  every  dollar  of  it  between  Charleston 
and  the  Mississippi  River  in  the  first  three  years  following  the 
war,  the  problem  of  reconstruction  would  have  solved  itself;  the 
people  would  have  had  business  interests,  instead  of  politics,  to 
occupy  their  attention.  I  believe  that  within  ten  years  the  ma- 
terial increase  in  the  Southern  States,  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
will  equal,  if  it  does  not  surpass,  that  of  the  Northwestern  States, 
west  of  tiie  Mississippi." 

In  Virginia  Mr.  Blaine  has  invested  twenty-eight  thousand 
dollars  in  one  railway,  and  inside  of  one  year  sold  his  interest 
for  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  besides  he  owned  coal 
and  lumber  lands  in  Georgia  and  Alabama. 


23 

THE   SPIRITED    FOREIGN    POLICY. 

Mr.  Blaine  has  defined  the  intent  of  the  foreign  policy  ol 
President  Garfield's  administration  to  be,  first,  to  bring  about 
peace  and  prevent  future  wars  in  North  and  South  America; 
second,  to  cultivate  such  friendly  commercial  relations  with  all 
American  countries  as  would  lead  to  a  large  increase  in  the  ex- 
port trade  (jf  the  United  States  by  supplying  those  fabrics  in 
which  we  are  abundantly  able  to  compete  wiih  the  manufactur- 
ing nations  of  Europe.  It  was  for  the  purpose  of  promoting 
peace  on  the  Western  Hemisphere  that  it  was  determined  to  in- 
vite all  the  independent  governments  of  North  and  South 
America  to  meet  in  a  peace  conference  at  Washington  on  March 
15,  1882.  The  project'  met  with  cordial  approval  in  South 
America,  and,  had  it  been  carried  out,  would  have  raised  the 
standard  of  civilization,  and  possibly,  by  opening  South  Ameri- 
can markets  to  our  manufactures,  would  have  wiped  out  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  million  dollars  balance  of  trade  which  Spanish 
America  brings  against  us  every  year.  The  invitations  to  this 
important  conference  were  subsequently  sent  out  by  President 
Arthur,  but  in  a  short  time  they  were  recalled,  after  some  of  the 
countries  had  actually  accepted  them.  It  was  to  pave  the  way 
toward  a  peace  conference  that  Wm.  Henry  Trescott  was  sent  as 
a  special  envoy  to  Peru,  and,  under  instructions  approved  by 
President  Arthur  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  an  amicable  settle- 
ment of  the  differences  between  the  belligerents.  Secretary 
Blaine's  instructions  to  General  Hurlbut,  United  States  Minister 
to  Peru,  specially  cautioned  the  minister  against  committing  his 
government  to  any  line  of  action  in  regard  to  the  Cochet  and 
Landreau  claims  against  the  Peruvian  Government  by  the  citizens 
of  this  country,  and,  again  he  wro  e  warning  Mr.  Hurlbut  against 
lending  his  legation's  influence  to  the  Credit  Industriel  of  France, 
the  Peruvian  Company  of  New  York  or  any  other  schemes  for 
reorganizing  the  finances  of  Peru.  In  Secretary  Blaine's  cor- 
respondence with  Lord  Granville  in  the  early  Summer  of  1881, 
he  set  forth  the  position  of  the  United  States  as  holding  the 
right  to  feel  and  express  deep  interest  in  the  distressed  condition 
of  Peru,  with  which  this  country  had  maintained  cordial  rela- 
tions for  many  years,  and  while  with  equal  friendliness  to  Chili, 
the  United  States  would  not  interpose  to  deprive  her  of  fair  ad- 
vantages of  military  success,  this  country  could  not  regard  with 
unconcern  the  destruction  of  Peruvian  nationality,  a  movement 
which  threatened  the  liberal  civilization  of  all  America. 

Of  equal  importance  with  the  cultivation  of  friendly  and 
commercial  relations  with  the  South  American  coi^ntries  was  and 
still  is  the  necessity  of  taking  some  steps  toward  protecting  the 
interests  of  the  United  States  involved  in  the  construction  of  a 


24 

canal  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  In  Secretary  Blaine's  in- 
structions to  Mr.  James  Russell  Lowell,  Minister  to  England,  is 
the  following  summary  of  the  changes  in  the  Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty  of  1S50  necessary  to  meet  the  views  of  the  United  States 
Government:  tt   •    j 

''First.  Every  part  of  the  treaty  which  forbids  the  United 
States  fortifying  the  canal  and  holding  the  political  control  of  it 
in  conjunction  with  the  country  in  which  it  is  located  to  be 
cancelled. 

''Second.  Every  part  of  the  treaty  in  which  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  agree  to  make  no  acquisition  of  territory 
in  Central  America  to  remain  in  full  force." 

The  admirable  and  forcible  chain  of  reasoning  by  which 
Mr.  Blaine  led  to  these  conclusions  forced  the  English  news- 
papers to  admit  that  he  had  made  out  a  good  case  upon  British 
precedents,  and  that  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  control 
the  Panama  Canal  was  stronger  and  the  necessity  of  such  control 
greater  than  the  right  and  necessity  of  England  to  control  the 
Suez  Canal. 

The  shooting  of  President  Garfield  interrupted  the  plans  of 
his  administration.  His  death  put  an  end  to  them  for  the  time. 
The  succession  of  President  Arthur  was  followed  by  the  retire- 
ment of  Mr.  Blaine  and  other  members  of  the  Garfield  Cabinet, 
Mr.  Blaine  retired  to  Augusta,  to  devote  himself  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  "Twenty  Years  of  Congress,"  the  first  volume  of  which 
has  since  been  given  to  the  public,  and  evidences  the  fairness, 
justness  and  impartiality  of  his  mind,  his  vast  and  profound  ac- 
quaintance with  men  and  affairs  and  his  ability  as  a  master  of  the 
English  language.  His  great  eulogy  upon  President  Garfield, 
delivered  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Wash- 
ington, March  i,  18S2,  has  already  taken  its  proper  place  in 
American  literature.  The  Arthur  administration  proceeded 
quietly  and  slowly  to  undo  the  work  of  its  predecessor  and  re- 
verse the  policy  which  it  first  adopted,  and  the  necessity  of  a 
spirited  foreign  policy,  which  only  means  a  policy  that  will  pro- 
tect the  interests  of  the  United  States,  still  exists. 

EULOGY    ON    GARFIELD. 

Mr.  Blaine's  oration  on  the  death  of  President  Garfield  was 
delivered  on  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  February,  18S2,  in  the 
Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  at  Washington,  before 
President  Arthur,  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  members 
of  the  House  and  Senate,  and  many  distinguished  guests.  Our 
limited  space  will  permit  us  to  give  but  a  brief  extract : 

Mr.  President:  For  the  second  time  in  this  generation  the  great  de- 
partments of  tlTe  Government  of  the  United  States  are  assembled  in  the 
Hall  of  Representatives  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  a  murdered  President. 


25 

Lincoln  fell  at  the  close  of  a  might)  struggle  in  which  the  passions  of  men 
hail  been  deeply  stirred.  The  tragical  termination  of  his  great  life  added  but 
another  to  the  lengtliened  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  banished  from  the  land.  Whoever  shall  hereafter  draw  the  portrait  of 
murder,  if  he  will  show  it  as  as  it  has  been  exhibited  where  such  example 
was  last  to  have  been  looked  for,  let  him  not  give  it  the  grim  visage  of  Moloch, 
the  brow  knitted  by  revenge,  the  face  black  with  settled  hate.  Let  him  draw, 
rather,  a  decorous,  smooth-faced,  bloodless  demon;  not  so  much  an  example 
of  human  nature  in  its  depravity  and  m  its  paroxysms  of  crime,  as  an  infernal 
bemg,  a  fiend  in  the  ordinary  display  and  development  of  his  character. 


On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  July  second,  the  President  was  a  con- 
tented and  happy  man — not  in  an  ordinary  degree,  but  joyfully,  almost  boy- 
ishly 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 
gratulalory  vein.  He  felt  that  after  four  months  of  trial  his  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  recovering  from  an  illness  which 
had  but  lately  disquieted  and  at  times  almost  unnerved  him ;  that  he  was 
going  to  his  alma  mater  to  renew  the  most  cherished  associations  of  his  young 
manhood,  and  to  exchange  greetmgs  with  those  whose  deepening  interests 
had  followed  every  step  of  his  upward  progress  from  the  day  he  entered  upon 
his  college  course  until  he  had  attained  the  loftiest  elevation  in  the  gift  of  his 
countrymen. 

Surely  if  happiness  can  ever  come  from  the  honors  or  triumphs  of  this 
world,  on  that  quiet  July  morning  James  A.  Garfield  may  well  have  been  a 
happy  man.  No  foreboding  of  evil  haunted  him  ;  no  slightest  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  peace- 
fully out  before  him.  The  next  he  lay  wounded,  bleeding,  helpless,  doomed 
to  weary  weeks  of  torture,  to  silence,  and  the  grave. 

Great  in  life,  he  was  surpassingly  great  in  deaths  For  no  cause,  in  the 
very  frenzy  of  wantonness  and  wickedness,  by  the  red  hand  of  murder,  he 
was  thrust  from  the  full  tide  of  this  world's  interest,  from  its  hopes,  its  aspira- 
tions, its  victories,  into  the  visible  presence  of  death — and  he  did  not  quail. 
Not  alone  for  the  one  short  momept  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,  expectant  nation,  a  great  host  of  sustaining  friends,  a 
cherished  and  happy  mother,  wearing  the  full,  rich  honors  of  her  early  toil 
and  tears;  the  wife  of  his  youth,  whose  whole  life  lay  in  his;  the  little  boys 
not  yet  emerged  from  childhood's  day  of  frolic;  the  fair,  young  daughter ; 
the  sturdy  sons  just  springing  into  closest  companionship,  claiming  every  day 
and  every  day  rewarding  a  father's  love  and  care ;  and  in  his  heart  the  eager, 
rejoicing  power  to  meet  all  demand.     Before  him,  desolation  and  great  dark- 


26 

ness !  And  his  soul  was  not  shaken.  His  countrymen  were  thrilled  with 
instant,  profound,  and  universal  sympathy.  ,  ..      ,    , 

Masterful  in  his  mortal  weakness,  he  became  the  centre  of  a  nation  s  love, 
enshrined  in  the  prayers  of  a  world.  But  all  the  love  and  all  the  sympathy 
could  not  share  with  him  his  suffering.  He  trod  the  wme-press  alone.  With 
unfalteiin<T  front  he  faced  death.  With  unfailing  tenderness  he  took  leave  oi 
life.  Abo'Ve  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 
nation  bore  the  pale  sufferer  to  the  longed-for  healing  of  the  sea,  to  live  or  to 
die,  as  God  should  will,  within  sight  of  its  heaving  billows,  within  sound  of 
its  manifold  voices.  With  wan,  fevered  face  tenderly  lifted  to  the  cooling 
breeze,  he  looked  out  wistfully  upon  the  ocean's  changing  wonders;  on  its 
fair  sails,  whitening  in  the  morning  light;  on  its  restless  waves,  rolling  shore- 
ward to  break  and  die  beneath  the  noonday  sun;  on  the  red  cloud  of  even- 
ing, arching  low  to  the  horizon ;  on  the  serene  and  shining  pathway  of  the 
stars.  Let  us  think  that  his  dying  eyes  read  a  mystic  meaning  which  only  the 
rapt  and  parting  soul  may  know.  Let  us  believe  that  in  the  silence  of  the 
receding  world  he  heard  the  great  waves  breaking  on  a  further  shore,  and 
felt  already  upon  his  wasted  brow  the  breath  of  the  eternal  morning. 

Blaine's  regard  for  his  adopted  state. 

Mr.  Blaine's  regard  for  his  adopted  State — Maine — is  shown 
by  his  answer  to  reflections  cast  upon  her  by  Mr.  S.  S.  Cox,  in 
the  House,  June  2,  1864: 

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  centered  in  the  Union,  and  God 
knows  she  has  contributed  her  best  blood  and  treasure  without  stint  in  sup- 
porting 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  *  *  *  I  have  spolcen  in  vindication  of  a  State  that  is 
as  independent  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  manly  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  New  York, 
or  by  gentlemen  from  any  other  State. 

HIS  remarkable  memory. 

Mr.  Blaine's  knowledge  of  facts,  dates,  events,  men  in  our 
history,  is  not  only  remarlcable  but  almost  unprecedented-  In 
his  college  days,  he  was  noted  for  his  early  love  of  American 
history,  and  for  his  intimate  knowledge  of  its  details.  That  field 
of  reading  has  been  enlarged  and  cultivated,  in  all  his  subsequent 
years,  until  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  man  in  the  United 
States  who  can,  on  the  instant,  without  reference  to  books  or 


26 

ness !  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  luve, 
enshrined  ia  the  prayers  of  a  world.  But  all  the  love  and  all  the  sympathy 
could  not  share  with  him  his  suffering.  He  trod  the  wine-press  alone.  With 
unfaltering  front  he  faced  death.  With  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 
nation  bore  the  pale  sufferer  to  the  longed-for  healing  of  the  sea,  to  live  or  to 
die,  as  God  should  will,  within  sight  of  its  heaving  billows,  within  sound  of 
its  manifold  voices.  With  wan,  fevered  face  tenderly  lifted  to  the  cooling 
breeze,  he  looked  out  wistfully  upon  the  ocean's  changing  wonders;  on  its 
fair  sails,  whitening  in  the  morning  light;  on  its  restless  waves,  rolling  shore- 
ward to  break  and  die  beneath  the  noonday  sun ;  on  the  red  cloud  of  even- 
ing, arching  low  to  the  horizon ;  on  the  serene  and  shining  pathway  of  the 
stars.  Let  us  think  that  his  dying  eyes  read  a  mystic  meaning  which  only  the 
rapt  and  parting  soul  may  know.  Let  us  believe  that  in  the  silence  of  the 
receding  world  he  heard  the  great  waves  breaking  on  a  further  shore,  and 
felt  already  upon  his  wasted  brow  the  breath  of  the  eternal  morning. 

Blaine's  regard  for  his  adopted  state. 

Mr.  Blaine's  regard  for  his  adopted  State — Maine — is  shown 
by  his  answer  to  reflections  cast  upon  her  by  Mr.  S.  S.  Cox,  in 
the  House,  June  2,  1864: 

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  centered  in  the  Union,  and  God 
knows  she  has  contributed  her  best  blood  and  treasure  without  stint  in  sup- 
porting 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  *  *  *  I  have  spoken  in  vindication  of  a  State  th.at  is 
as  independent  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  manly  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  New  York, 
or  by  gentlemen  from  any  other  State. 

HIS  remarkable  memory. 

Mr.  Blaine's  knowledge  of  facts,  dates,  events,  men  in  our 
history,  is  not  only  remarkable  but  almost  unprecedented..  In 
his  college  days,  he  was  noted  for  his  early  love  of  American 
history,  and  for  his  intimate  knowledge  of  its  details.  That  field 
of  reading  has  been  enlarged  and  cultivated,  in  all  his  subseqiient 
years,  until  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  man  in  the  United 
States  who  can,  on  the  instant,  without  reference  to  books  or 


28 

note,  give  so  many  facts  and  statistics  relating  to  current  inter- 
ests, to  our  financial  and  revenue  system,  to  our  manufacturing 
interests  of  all  kinds,  to  our  river  and  harbor  improvements,  to 
our  public  lands,  to  our  railway  system,  to  our  mines  and  min- 
erals, to  our  agricultural  interests;  in  fact,  to  everything  that 
constitutes  and  includes  the  development,  enrichment  and  suc- 
cess of  the  United  States. 

This  has  been  the  study  of  his  life,  and  his  memory  is  like 
an  encyclopedia.  He  remembers  because,  for  him,  it  is  easier 
to  remember  than  to  forget. 

PECULIAR   TRAITS. 

Mr.  Blaine  is  a  man  of  good  temper  and  temperament, 
though  with  a  certain  intellectual  vehemence  that  might  some- 
times be  taken  for  anger ;  of  strong  physique,  wonderful  powers 
of  endurance  and  of  recuperation,  of  great  activity  and  industry, 
kindly  and  frank,  easily  approachable,  and  ready  to  aid  all  good 
causes  with  tongue,  pen  and  purse. 

His  studies  have  been  largely  on  political  questions  and 
political  history.  Everything  connected  with  the  development 
of  the  country  interests  him,  and  he  is  a  dangerous  antagonist 
in  any  matter  of  American  history — especially  of  the  United 
States — since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  He  is 
an  intense  believer  in  the  American  Republic,  one  and  indivisi- 
ble; zealous  and  watchful  for  her  honor,  her  dignity,  and  her 
right  of  eminent  domain  ;  ready  to  brave  the  wrath  of  the  East 
for  the  welfare  of  the  West,  as  in  the  Chinese  question ;  ready 
to  brave  the  wrath  of  the  radicals,  rather  than  permit  tlie  indefi- 
nite suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus ;  ready  to  brave  the 
wrath  of  the  conservatives,  for  the  rights  of  the  Southern  blacks, 
as  in  his  opposition  to  President  Hayes'  Southern  policy,  and 
perfectly  ready  to  give  the  British  lion's  mane  a  tweak  when  that 
fine  old  king  of  beasts  crashes  too  clumsily  anaong  our  fishing 
flakes. 

AS   AN   HISTORIAN. 

Since  Mr,  Blaine's  withdrawal  from  the  Cabinet,  upon  the 
death  of  President  Garfield,  he  has  devoted  all  of  his  time  and 
energies  to  the  preparation  of  a  book  of  American  history  called 
"Twenty  Years  of  Congress,"  upon  which  is  destined  to  rest 
his  future  fame. 

The  work  is  to  be  complete  in  two  volumes,  the  first  of  which 
is  already  out,  and  the  second  was  in  process  of  completion 
when  his  labors  were  interrupted  by  the  action  of  the  Chicago 
Convention  in  nominating  him  for  President.  He  has  treated 
his  theme  elaborately  and  exhaustively.    His  book  is  in  no  sense 


29 

a  party  manifesto;  it  is  a  careful  narrative;  popular,  but  not 
undignified  in  style,  and  remarkably  fair  and  moderate  in  tone. 
He  has  expressed  a  decided  opinion  on  all  the  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  mistaken. 

Mr.  Blaine  writes  dispassionately,  but  critically  reviews  the 
characters  of  the  leaders  of  both  parties,  and  the  men  who  have 
made  the  history  of  the  American  people  during  the  past  quarter 
of  a  century.  His  style  is  vigorous  and  clear;  with  keen  per- 
ception he  has  grasped  the  material  facts  and  separated  them 
from  unimportant  events.  His  thoroughness  for  details  and  his 
great  learning  have  enabled  him  to  write  a  history  which  will 
rank  the  author  with  Bancroft  and  Macaulay,  Mommsen  and 
Guizot. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  style  of  the  book,  we  append  a 
portion  of  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  first  volume,  in  which  he 
speaks  of  John  Brown  at  Harper's  Ferry: 

The  South  was  unnaturally  and  unjustifiably  excited.  The  people  of 
the  Slave  States  could  not  see  the  situation  accurately,  but,  like  a  man  with 
disordered  nerves,  they  exaggerated  everything.  Their  sense  of  proportion 
seemed  to  be  destroyed,  so  that  they  could  no  longer  perceive  tlie  extrinsic 
relation  which  one  incident  had  to  another.  In  this  condition  of  mind,  when 
the  most  ordinary  events  were  misapprehended  and  mismeasured,  they  were 
Startled  and  alarmed  by  an  occurrence  of  extraordinary  and  exceptional  char- 
acter. On  the  quiet  morning  of  October,  1S59,  with  no  warning  whatever  to 
the  inhabitants,  the  United  Stales  arsenal,  at  Harper's  Ferry,  Virginia,  was 
found  to  be  in  possession  of  an  invading  mob.  The  town  was  besieged,  many 
of  its  citizens  made  prisoners,  telegrapli  wires  cut,  railway-trains  stopped  by  a 
force  which  the  people,  as  they  were  aroused  from  sleep,  had  no  means  of 
C'timating. 

A  resisting  body  was  soon  organized,  militia  came  in  from  the  surround- 
ing country,  regular  troops  were  hurried  up  from  Washington.  By  tlie  opening 
of  the  second  day,  a  force  of  fifteen  hundred  men  surrounded  the  arsenal,  and, 
when  the  insurgents  surrendered,  it  was  found  that  there  had  been  but  twenty- 
two  in  all.     Four  were  still  alive,  including  their  leader,  John  Brown. 

Brown  was  a  man  of  singular  courage,  perseverance  and  zeal,  but  was 
entirely  misguided  and  misinformed.  He  had  conceived  the  utterly  impracti- 
cable scheme  of  liberating  the  slaves  of  the  South  by  calling  on  them  to  rise, 
putting  arms  in  their  hands  and  aiding  them  to  gain  their  freedom.  He  had 
borne  a  very  conspicuous  and  courageous  part  in  the  Kansas  struggles,  and 
had  been  a  terror  to  the  slaveholders  on  the  Missouri  border.  His  bravery 
was  of  a  rare  type.  He  had  no  sense  of  fear.  Governor  Wise  stated  that 
during  the  fight,  while  Brown  held  the  arsenal  with  one  of  his  sons  lying 
dead  beside  him,  another  gasping  with  a  mortal  wound,  he  felt  the  pulse  of 
the  dying  boy,  used  his  own  musket  and  coolly  commanded  his  men,  all  amid 
a  shower  of  bullets  from  the  attacking  force.  Wliile  of  sound  miiul  on  most 
subjects.  Brown  had  evidently  lost  his  mental  balance  on  the  one  topic  of 
slavery.  His  sclieme  miscarried  the  moment  its  execution  was  aUempted,  as 
any  one  not  blinded  by  fanaticism  could  have  from  the  first  foreseen.  The 
matter  was  taken  up  in  hot  wrath  by  the  South,  with  Governor  Wise  in  the 
lead.     The  design  was  not  known  to  or  approved  by  any  body  of  men  in  tlie 


30 

North;  but  an  investigation  was  moved  in  the  Senate,  by  Mr.  Mason,  of 
Virginia,  with  tlie  evident  view  of  fixing  the  responsibility  on  the  Northern 
people,  or  at  least  upon  the  Republican  party.  The'^e  men  affected  to  see  in 
John  Brown  and  his  handful  of  followers,  only  the  advance  guard  of  another 
irruption  of  Goths  and  Vandals  from  the  North,  bent  on  exciting  servile 
insurrection,  on  plunder,  pillage  and  devastation.  Mr.  Mason's  committee 
found  no  sentiment  in  the  North  justifying  Brown,  but  the  irritating  and 
offensive  course  of  the  Virginia  Senator  called  forth  a  great  deal  of  defiant 
anti-slavery  expression  which  in  his  judgment  was  tantamount  to  treason. 
Brown  was  tried  and  executed.  He  would  not  permit  the  plea  of  unsound 
mind  to  be  made  on  his  behalf,  and  to  the  end  behaved  with  that  calm  courage 
which  always  attracts  respect  and  admiration.  Much  was  made  of  the  deliv- 
erance of  the  South  from  a  great  peril,  and  everything  indicated  that  the 
John  Brown  episode  was  to  be  drawn  into  the  political  campaign  as  an  indict 
ment  against  anti-slavery  men.  It  was  loudly  charged  by  the  South  and  by 
their  partisans  throughout  the  North  that  such  insurrections  were  the  legitimate 
outgrowth  of  Republican  teaching,  and  that  the  national  safety  demanded  the 
defeat  and  dissolution  of  the  Republican  party.  Thus  challenged,  the 
Republican  party  did  not  stand  on  the  defensive.  Many  of  its  members 
openly  expressed  their  pity  for  the  zealot,  whose  rashness  had  led  him  to 
indefensible  deeds  and  thence  to  the  scaffold.  On  the  day  of  his  execution, 
bells  were  tolled  in  many  Northern  towns — not  in  approval  of  what  Brown 
had  done,  but  from  compassion  for  the  fate  of  an  old  man  whose  mind  had 
become  distempered  by  suffering  and  by  morbid  reflection  on  the  suffering  of 
others;  from  a  feeling  that  his  sentence,  in  view  of  this  fact,  was  severe,  and 
lastly,  and  more  markedly  as  a  Northern  rebuke  to  the  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  South  to  make  a  political  issue  from  an  occurrence  which  was  as  unfore- 
seen and  exceptional  as  it  was  deplorable. 

The  fear  and  agitation  in  the  South  were  not  feigned,  but  real.  Instead 
of  injuring  the  Republican  party,  this  very  fact  increased  its  strength  in  the 
North.  The  terror  of  the  South  at  the  bare  prospect  of  a  negro  insurrection 
led  many  who  had  not  before  studied  the  slavery  question  to  give  serious  heed 
to  this  phase  of  it.  The  least  reflection  led  men  to  see  that  a  domestic  insti- 
tution must  be  very  undesirable  which  could  keep  an  entire  community  of 
brave  men  in  dread  of  some  indefinable  tragedy.  Mobs  and  riots  of  much 
greater  magnitude  than  the  John  Brown  uprising  had  frequently  occurred  in 
the  Free  States,  and  they  were  put  down  by  the  firm  authority  of  law,  without 
the  dread  hand  of  a  spectre  behind,  which  might  in  a  moment  light  the 
horizon  with  the  conflagration  of  homes,  and  subject  wives  and  daughters  to 
a  fate  of  nameless  horror.  Instead,  therefore,  of  arresting  the  spread  of 
Republican  principles,  the  mad  scheme  of  Jolwi  Brown  tended  to  develop  and 
strengthen  them.  The  conviction  grew  rapidly  that  if  slavery  could  produce 
such  alarm  and  such  demoralization  in  a  strong  State  like  Virginia,  inhabited 
by  a  race  of  white  men  whose  courage  was  never  surpassed,  it  was  not  an 
institution  to  be  encouraged,  but  that  its  growth  should  be  prohibited  in  the 
new  communities  where  its  weakening  and  baleful  influence  was  not  yet  felt. 
Sentiment  of  this  kind  could  not  be  properly  comprehended  in  the  South.  It 
was  honestly  misinterpreted  by  some,  wilfully  misrepresented  by  others.  All 
construed  it  into  a  belief,  on  the  part  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  Northern 
people,  that  John  Brown  was  entirely  justifiable.  His  wild  invasion  of  the 
South,  they  apprehended,  would  be  repeated  as  opportunity  offered  on  a 
larger  scale  and  with  more  deadly  purpose.  This  opinion  was  stimulated  and 
developed  for  political  ends  by  many  whose  intelligence  should  have  led  them 
to  more  enlightened  views.  False  charges  being  constantly  repeated  and 
plied  with  incessant  zeal,  the  most  radical  misconception  became  fixed  in  the 
Southern  mind.  It  was  idle  for  the  Republican  party  to  declare  that  their 
aim  was  only  to  prevent  the  extension  of  slavery  to  free  territory,  and  that 


31 

they  were  pledged  not  to  interfere  with  its  existence  in  the  States.  Such  dis- 
tinctions were  not  accepted  by  the  Southern  people.  Their  leaders  had  taught 
them  that  the  one  necessarily  involved  the  other,  and  that  a  man  who  was  in 
favor  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  was  as  bitter  an  enemy  to  the  South  as  one'who 
incited  a  servile  insurrection.  These  views  were  unceasingly  pressed  upon 
the  South  by  the  Northern  Democracy,  who,  in  their  zeal  to  defeat  the  Re- 
publicans at  home,  did  not  scruple  to  misrepresent  their  aims  in  the  most 
reckless  manner.  They  were  constantly  misleading  the  public  opinion  of  the 
Slave  States,  until  at  last  the  South  recognized  no  difference  between  the 
creed  of  Seward  and  the  creed  of  Gerrit  Smith,  and  held  Lincoln  responsible 
for  all  the  views  and  expressions  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Wendell 
Phillips.  The  calling  of  a  National  Republican  Convention  was  to  their 
disordered  imagination  a  threat  of  destruction.  The  success  of  its  candidates 
would,  in  their  view,  be  just  cause  for  resistance  outside  the  pale  of  the 
Constitution. 

MR.  Blaine's  religion. 

What  the  religious  views  of  a  presidential  candidate  may  be 
is  a  question  which,  in  this  country,  ought  not  to  be  asked. 
Nevertheless,  many  well-meaning  people  do  ask  it,  and  since  the 
nomination  of  Mr.  Blaine  naany  inquiries  have  been  made  as  to 
his  religion. 

With  the  complete  divorce  of  Church  and  State  which  ob- 
tains in  this  country,  we  do  not  conceive  that  a  man's  private 
views  of  the  relation  of  man  to  his  Maker  in  any  way  affect  his 
rapacity  or  fitness  for  high  public  station,  or  that  it  can  be  of  any 
l)ublic  concern  whether  the  President  of  the  United  States,  or  a 
candidate  for  that  office,  belongs  to  a  particular  Church  or  not. 
As,  however,  many  good  people  do  ask  this  question  about  Mr. 
Blaine  with  entire  good  faith,  we  answer  them  as  we  have 
answered  similar  inquiries  before,  that  Mr.  Blaine  and  his  wife 
are  both  members  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Augusta,  Me. 
On  his  father's  side,  Mr.  Biaine's  ancestors  were  always  identified 
with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  when  in  Washington  Mr. 
Blaine  and  his  family  are  attendants  at  a  Presbyterian  church. 
Mr.  Blaine  was  educated  at  Washington  College,  Pennsylvania, 
which  was  then,  and  is  now,  when  consolidated  with  Jefferson 
College,  one  of  the  staunchest  of  Presbyterian  institutions. 

Mr.  Blaine's  former  pastor,  Dr.  Ecob.  in  an  interview  pub- 
lished in  the  Albany  Evening  Jourijal,  says  of  Mr.  Blaine : 

I  have  been  very  near  to  Mr.  Blaine,  not  only  in  the  most  trying  political 
crises,  but  in  the  sharper  trial  of  great  grief  in  the  household,  and  have  never 
yet  detected  a  false  note.  I  would  not  be  understood  as  avowing  too  much 
for  human  nature,  but  I  mean  that  as  I  have  known  him  he  has  stood  loyally 
by  his  convictions,  that  his  word  has  always  had  back  of  it  a  clear  purpose, 
and  that  purpose  has  always  been  worthy  of  the  highest  manhood. 

In  his  house  he  was  always  the  soul  of  geniality  and  good  heart;  there 
was  always  summer  in  that  house,  whatever  the  Maine  winter  might  be  without, 
and  not  only  his  rich  neighbors  and  kinsmen  welcomed  liim  home,  but  a  long 
line  of  the  poor  hailed  the  return  of  that  family  as  a  special  providence.  In 
the  church  he  is  honored  and  beloved.     The  good  old  New  England  custom 


32 

of  church-going  with  all  the  guests  is  enforced  strictly  in  the  Blaine  house- 
hold. Whoever  is  under  his  roof,  from  the  President  down,  is  expected  to 
be  with  the  family  at  church.  Fair  weather  or  foul,  those  pews  were  always 
well  filled.  Not  only  his  presence,  but  his  influence,  his  wise  counsels,  and 
his  purse  are  freely  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  noble  old  South  Church  of 
Augusta. 

The  hold  which  Mr.  Blaine  has  maintained  upon  the  hearts  of  such 
great  numbers  of  his  countrymen  is  not  sufficiently  explained  by  brilliant 
gifts  or  magnetism.  The  secret  lies  in  his  generous,  manly.  Christian  char- 
acter. Those  who  have  known  him  best  are  not  surprised  that  his  friends  all 
over  the  country  have  been  determined  that  he  should  secure  the  highest 
honor  within  their  gift.  It  is  because  they  believe  in  him.  The  office  has 
sought  the  man,  the  political  papers  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

Mr.  Blaine's  pastor  in  Augusta,  when  written  to  upon  this 
subject,  replied  as  follows  : 

Augusta,  Me.,  June  i6,  I884. 
Dear  Sir :     Your  inquiry  of  June  13th  is  received.     Hon.  J.  G.  Blaine 
united  with  the  South  Congregational  Church  of  Augusta  in   1858,  and  has 
been  from  that  time,  and  is  to-day,  a  member  in  good  and  regular  standing. 

Respectfully  yours, 

A.  F.  SKEELE, 
Pastor  South  Cong.  Church. 


Months  before  the  assembling  of  the  convention  in  1884  it 
was  apparent  that  James  G.  Blaine  would  be  the  popular  choice, 
yet  the  fear  existed  that  combinations  would  be  formed  against 
him  just  as  had  been  done  in  1876  and  in  1880,  and  that  the 
will  of  the  people  would  again  be  thwarted.  However,  his 
popularity  had  increased  to  such  an  extent  by  the  time  of  the 
assembling  of  the  convention,  that  his  nomination,  in  that  the 
third  attempt,  seemed  almost  certain.  Pennsylvania  had  led  ofif 
months  before  in  declaring  for  him.  State  after  State  followed 
her  example,  the  press  generally  endorsed  him,  his  friends  of 
1876  and  1880  rallied  for  one  final  eifort,  and  on  the  sixth  day 
of  June  he  was  nominated  by  the  convention  at  Chicago,  on  the 
fourth  ballot,  amid  the  wildest  enthusiasm. 


33 


THE    CONVENTION    HALL. 

The  accompanying  cut  of  the  Chicago  Exposition  Building 
is  taken  from  a  recent  photograph,  and  shows  the  front  of  the 
massive  structure  on  Adams  Street.  The  space  allotted  to  spec- 
tators is  not  as  large  as  that  four  years  ago;  but  the  National 
Committee  has  in  this  respect  profited  by  experience.  The  in- 
terior of  the  building  has  been  repainted,  the  trusses  being  bright 
red,  and  the  remainder  of  the  woodwork  about  the  galleries  blue. 
Two  hugh  white  sounding  boards  at  the  end  of  the  hall  perfect 
its  acoustic  properties.  The  superintendent  estimates  that  the 
floor  alone  will  accomodate  seven  thousand  people  with  seats, 
while  the  galleries  will  hold  eighteen  hundred  more.  The  stage 
is  in  the  north  end  of  the  building — reversing  the  plan  of  four 
years  ago.  Immediately  behind  and  on  either  side  of  it,  rising 
in  amphitheatrical  form,  are  seats  for  one  thousand  distinguished 
guests.  The  stage  itself  will  accommodate  the  Chairman,  the 
Secretaries  and  the  National  Committee — one  hundred  and  fifty 
people  at  most.  The  middle  and  rear  tiers  of  seats  and  the 
galleries  will  be  for  the  use  of  the  general  public,  to  which  seven 
thousand  and  five  hundred  coupon  tickets  have  been  issued. 

NOMINATING    THE    PRESIDENT. 


The  convention  was  organized  with  ex-Senator  John  B. 
Henderson,  of  Missouri,  as  permanent  chairman.  The  usual 
routine  work  took  much  time.  The  contesting  delegations  were 
admitted  with  satisfaction  to  all  concerned,  and  the  platform 
was  received  with  enthusiasm.  The  report  of  the  Connnittee 
on  Rules  was  discussed  at  length.     Thursday  evening  nomina- 


34 

tions  were  in  order,  and  Judge  West,  of  Ohio,  proceeded  to 
nominate  Mr.  Blaine,  after  the  name  of  Senator  Hawley,  of 
Connecticut,  was  presented  by  Mr.  Brandagee. 

"Maine,"  the  chairman  shouted  and  sank  back  into  his 
seat,  knowing  full  well  the  response  that  would  follow.  There 
was  an  instant,  clear,  loud,  wild  burst  of  applause  that  seemed 
to  come  from  the  throat  of  every  man  in  the  hall.  To  describe, 
in  its  fullness  of  enthusiasm,  in  its  spontaniety  of  sentiment,  in 
its  fervor  of  devotion,  the  scene  that  followed — a  scene  such  as 
was  never  before  witnessed  in  a  national  convention — is  well 
nigh  impossible. 

First  came  the  cheer  rattling  through  the  hall  like  a  volley 
of  infantry;  then  deepening  as  it  grew  in  force,  like  the  roar  of 
cannon,  and  swelling  as  it  progressed  like  the  crash  of  a  thunder- 
bolt across  the  skies.  From  the  stage  to  the  end  of  the  hall,  a 
distance  of  the  eighth  of  a  mile,  the  cheering,  rolling  in  dense 
waves  of  sound,  hoarse  and  shrill,  sharp  and  clear,  comming 
ling  in  a  wild  tumult  of  applause,  which,  in  the  minds  of  all 
who  heard  it  and  of  those  who  witnessed  the  great  scene,  meant 
the  nomination  of  James  G.  Blaine. 

HOW   BLAINE    IS    IDOLIZED. 

With  common  impulse  the  audience,  delegates  and  specta- 
tors jumped  to  their  feet.  Staid  old  politicians  on  the  platform, 
venerable  senators  and  representatives,  long  tried  in  Congress, 
new  delegates,  who  were  never  before  in  a  National  Convention, 
were  drawn  into  the  whirlpool  of  excitement  as  straws  are  sucked 
into  the  eddies  of  the  Delaware.  Every  delegate,  save  a  bare 
patch  here  and  there  on  the  floor,  where  the  friends  of  Arthur 
and  of  Edmunds  sat,  mounted  his  chair  and  took  part  in  the  de- 
monstration. 

Looking  over  the  human  sea  from  the  stage  to  the  balconies, 
there  was  a  surging  mob  of  men  and  women  waving  hats,  um- 
brellas, parasols  and  flags.  Against  the  dark  background  a 
thousand  white  handkerchiefs  swung  over  the  heads  of  the  ex- 
cited audience,  dotted  the  hall  with  specks  of  white,  like  the 
caps  of  the  breakers  on  a  stormy  sea.  Men  put  their  hats  on 
the  tops  of  canes  and  waved  them  high  over  their  heads.  Women 
tore  their  bright  fichus  and  laces  from  around  their  snowy  necks, 
and,  leaning  far  forward  over  the  galleries,  frantically  swung 
them  to  and  fro  to  give  emphasis  to  their  shrill  screams  of  joy. 

From  outside  the  glass  windows  under  the  dome  of  the  hall, 
where  an  adventurous  crowd  of  men  and  boys  had  gathered  to 
witness  the  proceedings,  loud  cat-calls  and  screams  were  heard 
above  the  roar  beneath.  Men  hung  dangerously  over  the  front 
of  the  galleries  and  waved  the  ends  of  the  banners  that  liad  been 
fastened  there  as  decorations  to  the  hall. 


35 

AMONG    THE    OPPOSITION. 

The  Arthur  delegates  from  New  York  and  the  Edmunds 
delegates,  who  had  at  first  refused  to  leave  their  seats,  were  com- 
pelled by  natural  impulses  and  curiosity  to  mount  their  chairs, 
and  soon  many  a  well-known  anti-Blaine  delegate  was  seen  wav- 
ing his  hat  and  cheering  as  loudly  as  any  supporter  of  the  Plumed 
Knight. 

When,  tired  with  cheering  and  lung-exhausted,  the  din 
ceased  in  one  part  of  the  hall,  it  would  be  taken  up  in  another 
part,  and  the  tumult  renewed.  Senator  Warner  Miller,  usually 
impressive  and  never  flustered,  advanced  from  a  seat  in  the  rear 
of  the  chairman  to  the  front  of  the  stage,  and,  waving  his  arms 
wildly  over  his  head,  shouted  his  loudest,  and  then,  as  if  realiz- 
ing the  undignified  character  of  his  deportment,  beckoned  a 
messenger  and  directed  him  to  hurry  Judge  West  to  the  platform. 

Mr.  Henderson  vainly  pounded  his  gavel  for  order.  Its 
dull  beats  upon  the  hollow  desk  were  no  more  audible  to  the 
wild  crowd  in  the  hall  than  were  the  strains  of  the  band  in  the 
rear  to  the  cheering  spectators  on  the  platform.  The  applause 
echoed  blocks  away  along  the  streets  leading  to  the  Exposition 
Building,  and  the  engineers  of  the  locomotives  on  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Railroad,  in  the  rear  of  the  hall,  added  to  the  din  by 
pulling  loud  shrieks  from  the  whistles  of  their  engines.  At  last, 
exhausted,  the  tumult  ceased,  not  on  the  instant,  but  by  degrees, 
fitful  cheers  being  given  long  after  Judge  West  reached  the  plat- 
form and  was  escorted  to  his  seat. 

-  The  man  selected  to  present  Blaine's  name  to  the  conven- 
tion is  blind.  He  was  helped  to  the  platform  by  two  sturdy 
young  men,  who  carefully  guarded  his  progress  up  the  steep  steps 
and  along  the  tortuous  aisles  to  the  seat  provided  for  him  on  the 
left  of  the  presiding  officer's  chair. 

THE    ELOQUENT    BLIND    ORATOR. 

Judge  West  seems  to  be  nearing  the  goal  of  three  score  and 
ten.  His  silver  gray  hair  was  smoothly  brushed  away  from  a 
noble  forehead.  Time  has  implanted  deep  wrinkles  and  furrows 
around  the  sharp  features  of  an  intelligent  face.  White  chin 
whiskers  and  a  white,  close-cut  mustache  hide  his  mouth  and 
resolute,  square-cut  chin.  A  prominent  nose  and  bushy  eye- 
brows give  character  if  they  do  not  add  beauty  to  his  counte- 
nance. Dressed  plainly  in  black,  wearing  no  ornament  save  a 
blue  Blaine  badge  on  the  lappel  of  his  coat  and  a  small  watch 
chain,  the  old  man  leaned  back  in  his  arm  chair  and  faced  the 
surging  mot),  as,  though  blind,  he  felt  himself  its  master. 

For  the  last  time  the  applause  rolled  through  the  hall  and 
ended  in  a  wild  roar  as  the  Ohio  orator  rose  to  his  feet  and,  lift- 


36 

in^  his  right  hand  above  his  head,  by  gesture  compelled  silence. 
Ten  minutes  of  uproar  and  storm  was  followed  by  stillness  in 
which  a  whisper  could  be  heard  at  the  first  clear,  distinct,  sharp 
tones  of  the  speaker  rolled  through  the  building.  The  clean-cut 
sentences,  brilliant  delivery  and  confident  manner  of  the  speaker 
captivated  the  crowd.  They  were  in  sympathy  with  him  from 
the  start,  and  he  retained  his  grasp  upon  their  feelings  to  the 
finish. 

As  he  made  point  after  point  in  the  opening  of  his  speech, 
roar  after  roar  of  applause  echoed  through  the  hall.  "  Shall  the 
Republican  party  triumph  again?"  exclaimed  the  orator,  after 
alluding  to  its  victories  in  the  past.  "Yes,  with  James  G. 
Elaine"  yelled  one  of  the  delegates  on  the  front  row,  and  the 
audience  again  leaped  forward  and  gave  a  tremendous  cheer. 

"Who  shall  be  our  candidate?"  shouted  Judge  West  as 
leaning  back  in  the  chair  from  which  he  delivered  the  greatest 
part  of  his  speech,  he  brought  a  big  palm  leaf  fan  high  above 
his  head  and  seemingly  awaited  a  reply.  "Blaine!"  "Blaine!" 
"Blaine!"  was  the  stentorian  reply,  and  another  burst  of  applause 
put  a  temporary  end  to  Judge  West's  speech. 

>.■  At  last  the  supreme  moment  came.  When  Judge  West  for- 
mally put  Blaine  in  nomination  a  scene  followed  of  a  description 
never  equalled  and  utterly  indescribable.  Compared  to  the  first 
outburst,  the  second  ovation  to  Blaine  was  as  the  full  burst  of  a 
storm  after  the  grumblings  of  early  thunder  have  passed 

The  audience  rose  to  its  feet,  impelled  by  an  irresistible 
impulse  to  testify  their  admiration  for  the  great  Republican  can- 
didate. Grave  men  acted  as  though  mad.  Newspapers  were 
torn  into  bits,  and  scattered  high  in  the  air,  active  boys  clam- 
bered along  the  high  rafters  over  the  hall,  and,  detaching  the 
flags,  passed  them  down  to  men  in  the  front  row  of  the  galleries, 
who  waved  them  frantically  over  the  heads  of  those  below,  and 
the  bands  three  times  essayed  to  drown  the  noise  by  playing 
their  loudest  air. 

A   CYCLONE   OF    ENTHUSIASM. 

It  was  futile.  Men  drew  off  their  coats  and  shook  them  in 
the  air.  Umbrellas  were  hoisted  and  waved  over  the  heads  of 
their  owners.  Again  handkerchiefs  were  brought  forth  and 
swung  to  and  fro  like  snowflakes  in  a  hurricane.  Those  too  tired 
to  shout  gave  shrill  whistles,  and  pandemonium  universal  and 
all-pervading  seemed  to  have  broken  forth. 

In  the  violent  and  intense  excitement  of  the  hour,  men 
forgot  appearances  and  all  sense  of  decorum  and  dignity.  In 
spite  of  the  sultriness  of  the  atmosphere  and  the  deafening  sounds 
from  the  bands  of  music,  each  trying  to  out-tire  the  other  in 


37 

their  mutual  contributions  to  the  common  din,  the  California 
delegation,  which  has  done  some  of  Blaine's  best  work  here,  was 
on  its  feet  cheering  as  loudly  as  Rocky  Mountain  throats  could 
swell.  Congressman  Tom  Bayne,  of  Pennsylvania,  another  of 
the  Blaine  managers,  formed  one  of  the  loudest  crowd  of 
shouters. 

George  William  Curtis  sat  in  his  seat  at  the  head  of  the 
New  York  delegation,  blushing  and  paling  by  turns,  astounded 
by  the  demonstration  and  unable  to  quell  it.  A  faint  smile 
overspread  his  genial  countenance  as  the  uproar  continued,  but 
it  was  not  a  smile  of  satisfaction.  Young  Roosevelt,  of  New 
York,  and  Lodge,  of  Massachusetts,  sat  in  their  places  uneasy 
and  disconsolate.  Not  so  Senator  Hoar.  The  excitement  was 
too  much  for  him,  and  he  mounted  his  chair  and  looked  over, 
the  thousands  of  people  who  were  shouting  and  screaming  like 
madmen.  The  negroes  from  the  South  joined  in  the  furor,  and 
were  the  noisiest  of  the  delegates. 

THE    HELMET    OF    NAVARRE. 

When  at  last  there  seemed  a  prospect  that  the  cheering 
would  end,  some  enthusiastic  friend  of  Blaine  brought  into  tlic 
hall,  before  the  Chairman's  desk,  a  huge  American  flag  and 
placed  on  the  top  of  the  staff  a  helmet  of  flowers,  surmounted 
by  a  long  white  plume,  the  helmet  of  Navarre.  Again  did  the 
audience  cheer,  until  it  seemed  as  though  the  throats  of  men 
would  burst.  The  flag  and  helmet  were  raised  to  the  stage,  and 
again  a  deeper,  longer,  louder  cheer  arose.  Ladies  took  flowers 
from  their  belts  and  threw  them  in  the  air.  The  atmosphere  was 
fanned  by  the  waving  of  innumerable  banners. 

The  decorations  were  stripped  from  the  wall  by  the  excited 
audience  and  shaken  madly  in  the  air.  Full  fifteen  minutes, 
that  seemed  like  hours,  were  consumed  in  this  unprecedented 
demonstration, 

•'James  G.  Blaine,"  closed  Judge  West,  and  another  great 
roar  went  up  like  the  noise  of  many  waters,  sweeping  in  great 
waves  of  sound  around  the  hall,  and  the  crowd  without,  by  this 
time  aware  of  what  was  under  way,  answered  in  a  mufiied  roar, 
which  echoed  within.  The  old  man  ceased,  with  the  echo  of 
his  eloquence  still  filling  all  the  air,  ten  thousand  people  swaying 
like  reeds  in  the  wind  under  his  voice,  and  feebly  groped  to 
leave  the  platform.  A  friend  was  at  his  side  in  an  instant,  and 
Edward  McPherson  laid  about  the  old  man's  shoulders  his  long 
blue,  old-fashioned  cloak,  and,  drawing  it  closer  to  him,  its  folds 
falling  straight,  the  speaker  took  a  seat  behind.  By  contrast 
with  the  wild  tempest  of  sound  just  before,  the  rustling  move- 
ment and  stir  and  talk  which  fill  this  great  house  of  sounds  with 


88 

perpetual  murmurs,  seemed  silence  itself  as  Governor  Davis,  of 

Minnesota,  a  full,  round  man,  with  a  bulging  frock  coat,  strong 
face  and  black  mustache,  arose.  For  once,  and  for  the  first  time 
in  the  three  times  in  which  James  G.  Blaine  has  been  put  before 
a  national  convention  in  nomination,  the  work  had  been  well 
and  skillfully  planned,  and  performed  as  well.  The  voice  of 
Governor  Davis  is  none  of  the  best  by  contrast  with  the  resonant 
tones  with  which  Judge  West  had  filled  the  great  house  of  sounds. 

Judge  West's  speech  in  full  was  as  follows  : 

As  a  delegate  in  the  Chicago  Convention  in  lS6o,  the  proudest  service 
of  my  life  was  performed  by  voting  for  the  nomination  of  that  inspired 
emancipator,  the  6rst  Republican  President  of  the  United  States.  [Applause.] 
Four  and  twenty  years  of  the  grandest  history  of  recorded  times  has  distin- 
guished the  ascendency  of  the  Republican  party.  The  skies  have  lowered 
and  reverses  threatened;  but  our  old  flag  is  still  there,  waving  above  the 
mansion  of  the  presidency ;  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  great  council.  With  bated  breath  a  nation  awaits  the  result.  On  it  are 
fixed  the  eyes  of  twenty  millions  of  Republican  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,  is  looking  down  the  spirit  of  the  immortal  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  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.] 

•    THE   nation's   chief. 

Shall  that  banner  triumph  again  ?  Commit  it  to  the  bearing  of  that 
chief  [a  voice:  "James  G.  Blaine,  of  Maine."  Cheers.] — commit  it  to  the 
bearing  of  that  chief,  the  inspiration  of  whose  illustrious  character  and  great 
rume  will  fire  the  hearts  of  our  young  men,  stir  the  blood  of  our  manhood, 
and  redouble  the  fervor  of  the  veteran,  and  the  closing  of  the  seventh  cam- 
paign will  see  that  holy  ensign  spanning  the  sky  like  a  bow  of  promise. 
[Cheers.]  Political  conditions  have  changed  since  the  accession  of  the 
Republican  party  to  power.  The  mighty  issues  of  struggling  freedom  and 
bleeding  humanity  which  convulsed  the  continent  and  aroused  the  republie, 
rallied,  united  and  inspired  the  forces  of  patriotism  and  the  forces  of  humanity 
in  one  consolidated  phalanx — these  great  issues  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  gain  can  be 
expected  from  that  section.  If  triumph  comes,  the  Republican  States  of  the 
North  must  furnish  the  conquering  battalions  from  the  farm,  the  anvil,  the 
loom,  from  the  mines,  the  workshop  and  the  desk,  from  the  hut  of  the  trapper 
on  the  snowy  Sierras,  from  the  hut  of  the  fisherman  on  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson.  The  Republican  States  must  furnish  these  conquering  battalions  of 
triumph.  Come  !  Does  not  sound  political  wisdom  declare  and  demand  that 
a  leader  shall  be  given  to  them  whom  our  people  will  follow,  not  as  conscripts 
advancing  by  funeral  marches  to  certain  defeat,  but  a  grand  civic  hero  whom 
the  souls  of  the  people  desire  and  whom  they  will  follow  with  all  the  enthu- 
siasm of  volunteers  as  they  sweep  on  and  onward  to  certain  victory. 


39 

A  representati\  e  of  American  manhood,  a  representative  of  that  living 
RepuV>licanism  that  demands  the  amplest  industrial  protection  and  oppor- 
tunity 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  contention  of  forces,  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  tithe  from  the 
just  fame,  integrity  and  public  honor  of  Chester  A.  Arthur,  our  president. 
[Applause.]  I  abate  not  one  tithe  from  the  just  fame  and  public  integrity  of 
George  F.  Edmunds  [applause],  of  Joseph  K.  Hawley  [applause],  of  John 
Sherman  [applause],  of  that  grand  old  black  eagle  of  Illinois,  and  I  am 
proud  to  know  that  these  distinguished  senators  whom  I  have  named  have 
borne  like  testimony  to  the  public  life,  the  public  character  and  public  integ- 
rity of  him  whose  confirmation  brought  him  to  the  highest  office — second  in 
dignity  to  the  office  of  the  President  himself — the  first  premiership  in  the 
administration  of  James  A,  Garfield — a  man  for  whom  the  senators  and  rivals 
will  vote. 

SECRETARY   OF  STATE. 

The  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  is  good  enough  for  a  plain 
flesh  and  blood,  God's  people  to  vote  for,  for  President.  Who  shall  be  our 
candidate?  [Cries  of  Blaine.]  Not  the  representative  of  a  particular  interest 
or  a  particular  class.  Send  the  great  proclamation  to  the  country  labeled 
"the  Doctors' candidate,"  the  "  Lawyers' candidate,"  the  "  Wall  Street  can- 
didate," and  the  hand  of  resurrection  would  not  fathom  his  November  grave. 
Gentlemen,  he  must  be  a  representative  of  the  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  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  the  banks  of  the  Mohawk — that  Republi- 
canism that  regards  with  dissatisfaction  a  despotism  which,  under  the  sic 
semper  /yrannis  of  the  old  Dominion,  emulates  By  slaughter  popular  majorities 
in  the  name  of  democracy  and  state,  a  Republicanism  as  embodied  in  the 
platform  of  principles  this  day  adopted  by  your  Convention. 

Gentlemen,  such  a  representative  Republican  is  James  G.  Blaine,  of 
Maine.  It  has  been  averred  that  in  makmg  this  nomination,  every  other 
consideration  should  merge,  every  other  interest  be  sacrificed,  in  order  and 
with  a  view  exclusively  to  secure  the  Republican  vote  and  carry  the  State  of 
New  York. 

A    STRONG    MAN   WANTED. 

Gentlemen,  the  Republican  party  demands  of  this  Convention  a  nominee 
whose  inspiration  and  glorious  prestige  shall  carry  the  presidency,  with  or 
without  the  State  of  New  York;  that  will  carry  the  legislatures  of  the  several 
States  and  avert  the  sacrifice  of  the  United  States  Senate ;  that  shall  sweep 
into  the  tide  the  congressional  districts  to  recover  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives and  restore  it  to  the  Republican  party.  Three  millions  of  Republicans 
believe  that  the  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  pro- 
gress, wherever  humanity  desired  succor,  where  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.  Blaine,  our  Henry  of  Navarre. 

Nominate  him,  and  the_  shouts  of  September  victory  in  Maine  will  be 
re-echoed  back  by  the  thunders  of  the  October  victory  in  Ohio.  Nominate 
him,  and  the  camp  fires  and  beacon  lights  will  illuminate  the  continent  from 


40 

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. 

In  the  name  of  the  majority  of  the  delegates  from  the  Republican  States 
and  of  our  glorious  constituency  which  must  constitute  this  battle,  1  nominate 
James  G.  Blaine,  of  Maine. 

FEATURES   OF   THE    SESSION. 

It  did  not  take  later  than  the  hour  of  meeting  for  the  anti- 
Blaine  men  to  find  out  that  the  Blaine  managers  had  not  fought 
off  a  ballot  the  night  before  because  they  feared  it.  Another 
recess  had  been  spent  in  hopeless  attempts  to  make  a  winning 
combination,  and  morning  found  Arthur  making  no  headway, 
Edmunds  supported  by  a  forlorn  hope,  Sherman  surely  shrinking, 
and  nobody  else  within  the  longest  range  of  the  nominating 
lightning.  The  inevitable  ballot  was  approached  by  the  Blaine 
men  hopefully  and  by  the  opposition  sullenly. 

It  was  a  surprise  in  that  it  showed  Blaine  to  have  a  larger 
first  ballot  strength  than  his  managers. had  claimed,  and  Arthur 
less  than  anybody,  even  the  most  enthusiastic  of  his  opponents, 
had  suspected.  The  weakness  of  the  Administration  cause  being 
thus  exposed,  the  nomination  of  Blaine  might  have  been  effected 
without  further  delay,  but  the  Convention  resolved  itself  into  a 
mob,  and  the  Edmunds  and  Arthur  people  made  up  in  noise 
what  they  lacked  in  numbers,  so  that  it  was  really  economic  of 
time  to  stick  to  the  prearranged  Blaine  schedule  of  four  ballots. 

On  the  second  and  third  Blaine  sped  along  as  rapidly  as  was 
consistent  with  other  engagements  made  by  the  delegates,  and 
when  the  fourth  began  it  was  understood  all  around  that  the  end 
was  at  hand.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  there.  Senator  Logan's 
prompt  telegram,  asking  his  friends  to  turn  for  the  evident 
choice  of  the  people,  was  the  finishing  stroke.  Before  this 
announcement  was  made  it  was  wliispered  about,  and,  anticipa- 
ting the  slow  process  of  a  roll  call,  the  news  was  flashed  over  the 
country  that  Blaine  was  the  nominee. 

The  third  ballot  began.  The  tired  reading-clerk  gave  way 
to  a  fresh  man.  Poor  Henderson,  who  buffeted  in  vain  the  great 
surf  of  Blaine  applause  which  periodically  swept  the  Conven- 
tion, called  Governor  Long  to  the  chair,  and  his  vigor  and  pow- 
erful voice  showed  that  something  might  be  done,  even  in  a 
national  convention,  to  preserve  order  and  maintain  dignity. 
The  aisles  were  cleared,  men  were  forced  back  to  their  seats, 
open  spaces  for  a  moment  showed  themselves  in  the  rush  of  men 
which  makes  the  narrow  passageways  like  the  crowded  streets  of 
a  city. 

Everywhere  the  lines  were  drawn  and  tightened  The  man- 
aging centre  of  the  Blaine  boom  gathered  on  the  platform,  and 


41 

on  its  very  edge  Elkins  sat  down — big-framed,  bulky,  thin-haired, 
of  the  type  of  full,  smooth-skinned  men.  The  luckless  Arthur 
managers  gathered  for  a  last  conference,  and  then  spread  out  to 
see  to  the  wavering  Southern  delegations,  Burleigh  and  Butcher 
threading  the  seats  and  aisles,  whispering  to  one  colored  delegate 
and  another. 

Nine  States  pass  in  monotonous  succession  without  a  change. 
Such  tremor  as  the  shouts  for  Blaine  had  raised  passes  away. 
The  Convention  stills  down  to  a  comparative  calm.  The  uproar 
has  filled  the  air  with  dust,  and,  as  it  is  now  nearly  two  o'clock, 
the  standing  sun  throws  great  beams  across  the  broad  hall. 
Kansas  and  Kentucky  bring  changes  for  Blaine,  and  the  Conven- 
tion is  astir.  Four  States  damp  the  interest  with  the  monotonous 
recurrence  of  earlier  votes.  New  York  adds  a  single  tally  to 
Arthur's  vote,  and  half  the  delegation  is  on  its  feet  with  a  cheer 
brought  up  by  Arthur's  Southern  supporters. 

Two  or  three  of  Blaine's  managers  gather  in  the  aisle  for  an 
instant.  Butcher,  with  his  hand  to  his  mouth,  shouts  an  angry 
charge  of  lobbying.  Anson  McCook  rises  on  the  instant  and 
pounces  on  Burleigh  doing  rapid  missionary  work  in  the  Alabama 
delegation.  Burleigh  retorts.  Barney  Biglin  yells  at  McCook. 
The  two  men  lean  toward  each  other  and  shout  in  dumb  show 
until  some  peace  returns  and  Burleigh  goes  to  his  seat.  Penn- 
sylvania is  to  make  its  change  on  this  ballot.  The  alteration  is 
so  managed,  first  when  Stewart,  his  arm  extended  and  his  dark 
face  all  aglow,  gives  the  added  number,  and  next,  when  a  call 
of  the  roll  raises  it  to  a  round  fifty,  and  the  Convention  is  again 
swept  away  in  the  rising  tide.  Over  and  over  in  the  remaining 
States  the  noise  of  the  shouting  turns  the  Convention  into  a 
swaying  mass  of  sound,  until  at  last,  a  pause  renewed  by  infinite 
pains,  the  ballot  is  announced. 

THE    FINAL   FIGURES. 

When  the  vote  was  officially  declared  the  uproar  was  so 
great  that  the  figures  were  not  caught.  The  audience  only  heard 
the  words  "five  hundred"  after  the  name  of  the  favorite,  and 
shouted  itself  hoarse,  as  it  had  done  half  a  dozen  times  before, 
the  band  meanwhile  playing  and  artillery  on  the  lake  shore  firing 

The  figures  were:  Blaine,  541;  Arthur,  207;  Edmunds, 
41;  Logan,  7;  Hawley,  15;  Lincoln,  2. 

THE   SECOND    PLACE. 

It  was  thought  best  not  to  be  in  a  hurry  about  the  nomina- 
tion for  Vice-President.     Mistakes  have  been  made  in  that  way. 


42 

and  conventions  have  at  last  learned  that  the  tail  of  the  ticket 
deserves  some  attention.  A  recess  was  taken  until  eight  o'clock 
in  the  evening.  Meanwhile  there  was  an  active  and  considerate 
canvass  of  names.  Logan,  Lincoln,  Foraker  and  Gresham  were 
most  talked  about,  but  the  drift  all  the  while  was  toward  Logan, 
the  only  question  being  whether  the  black  eagle  of  Illinois,  as 
he  was  called  by  his  nominator  last  night,  would  consent  to  the 
use  of  his  name  for  the  second  place  on  the  ticket. 

He  was  plied  with  importuning  telegrams,  and  at  last  it  was 
posted  on  the  bulletins  at  the  hotels,  where  the  delegates  most 
congregate,  that  he  placed  himself  in  the  hands  of  his  friends. 
That  settled  it.  The  Convention  was  an  army  of  his  friends, 
largely  under  the  leadership  of  men  who  had  served  with  him  in 
the  late  war.  Those  who  were  not  already  convinced  of  the 
propriety  of  the  nomination  had  been  brought  to  it  by  the  argu- 
ment that,  for  the  first  time  since  the  war,  a  civilian  had  been 
nominated  for  President,  and  that  the  soldier  element  must  have 
a  place  on  the  ticket.  The  other  candidates  disappeared  from 
the  field  as  if  by  magic,  and  when  the  Convention  assembled 
again  the  name  of  John  A.  Logan  was  the  only  one  presented. 

It  was  seconded  by  men  from  every  section  of  the  country, 
the  only  trouble  being  to  put  an  end  to  the  speech-making.  But 
the  really  notable  speech  was  that  of  General  Robinson,  of  Ohio, 
who  is  the  head  of  the  Rej)ublican  ticket  to  be  voted  for  in  that 
State  in  October.  With  Blaine  and  Logan,  he  said  that  State 
was  secure. 

It  was  moved  that  the  nomination  be  made  by  acclamation, 
but,  on  the  appeal  of  the  Illinois  delegation,  there  was  a  call  of 
the  roll,  and,  except  a  few  dissenters  in  New  York  and  Massa- 
chusetts, the  whole  Convention  voted  for  Logan. 

SCENES    IN   THE   CONVENTION. 

In  utter  weariness  the  convention  separated  at  2  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  the  6th.  Eight  hours  later  the  great  hall  was 
crowded,  and  by  11  o'clock  the  convention  was  in  its  place. 
The  air  was  full  of  the  sense  of  rapid  work  and  swift  action. 
The  audience  sat,  rank  on  rank,  in  the  stir  and  confusion  of 
this  tremendous  claque,  which  leaves  so  little  of  the  stage  to 
piece  or  players. 

The  groups  upon  whom  the  work  pivots  hurried  to  their 
places.  George  William  Curtis  came  in  with  Carl  Shurz,  and 
the  sinister  German  and  benignant  American  separated,  one  to 
watch  defeat  from  the  stage,  and  the  other  to  endure  it  on  the 
floor.  Roosevelt,  Curtis  and  Lodge  stood  together  for  a  moment 
to  talk  over  the  last  failure  at  combination.  Burleigh  and 
Dutcher,  Arthur's  delegate  hunters,  one  thin  and  nervous  and 


43 

the  other  full  and  phlegmatic,  passed  from  point  to  point  among 
the  dark  cloud  of  Southern  delegates  which  ran  from  Alabama 
to  Louisiana  on  the  left  of  the  convention. 

In  this  frame  and  setting  of  constant,  assiduous  conference, 
the  work  went  on  for  awhile.  Debate,  there  is  none  in  these 
convulsive  political  tempests.  The  convention  is  in  stir  and 
motion  each  moment,  with  men  conferring  by  groups  and  passing 
from  point  to  point  in  this  swaying  line  of  battle,  this  mad 
wrestle  between  opposing  parties,  in  whom  applause  and  yell  and 
shout  has  set  every  nerve  tingling,  and  left  no  drop  of  blood  at 
rest. 

Through  the  long  hours  in  which  the  tall  reading^lerk  stood, 
the  tally  sheet  in  his  hand,  and  shouted  over  the  roll  of  States,  to 
one  sitting  just  at  the  front  of  the  convention,  facing  its  long 
ranks,  there  was  perpetual  sight  of  the  swift  work  by  which  these 
battles  are  decided. 

Now  it  was  John  Stewart  and  McKinley  who  stood,  their 
arms  locked  about  each  other,  as  they  whispered;  now  sturdy, 
wholesome-faced  John  Long,  of  Massachusetts,  was  closeted,  in 
the  silence  which  this  tempest  of  sound  gives  men  who  talk  side 
by  side  within  its  tumult,  with  Roosevelt,  Curtis  and  Lodge. 
And  now  the  group  of  New  Yorkers  who  stand  for  Arthur 
gathered,  and  again  the  two  men  on  whose  shoulders  this  great 
work  has  chiefly  rested,  Stephen  B.  Elkins  and  Thomas  Donald- 
son, stood  together  and  watched  the  storm  shape  to  the  harvest 
the  fruit  for  which  they  had  planned  and  labored. 

The  scene  was  not  then  merely  rows  upon  rows  of  seated 
delegates,  shouting  their  votes  in  the  din  of  the  galleries.  The 
real  picture  is  such  a  ranked  concourse  of  circling,  seated  thou- 
sands as  only  one  imperial  republic  has  ever  gathered,  and  as 
our  Republican  party  only  now  gathers.  Sitting  about  the  narrow 
arena,  half  the  size  of  a  small  church,  in  which  eight  hundred 
men  are  seething  and  surging  with  excitement,  rushing  here  and 
there,  knotting  in  groups  and  tangling  in  long  lines,  shouting 
message  and  warning  and  advice  as  men  shout  upon  a  ship's 
deck  when  a  gale  is  at  its  height,  and  the  uttered  voice  is  blown 
away  from  the  very  lips — through  all  this,  to  save  it  from  the 
mere  madness  of  a  mob,  there  is  sense  and  presence  of  the  arch- 
ing fact  that  history  is  making  here,  and  the  world's  greatest 
civic  prize  is  set  in  the  list. 

Across  the  rustle  the  band  played  "Dixie,"  and  the  first 
shrill  shout  of  the  day  came  at  its  note,  but  the  audience,  back 
at  its  work  with  the  short  gap  of  a  few  hours,  was  utterly  weary, 
and  the  contest  this  year  has  brought  none  of  the  tension  which 
calls  out  applause  at  the  appearance  of  a  familiar  face.  Tally 
sheets  were  in  every  hand,  and  the  strained,  expectant  watchful- 
ness for  every  vote  laid  silence  on  the  listening  thousands. 


44 

The  figures  have  been  known  for  moments.  There  has  been 
active  rushing  to  and  fro.  Men  have  been  passing  between  New 
York,  Ohio  and  Massachusetts.  Barely  forty  votes  separate 
Blaine  from  victory.  Whatever  is  done  needs  instant  action. 
The  gavel  gains  a  quiet  moment  at  last  and  the  vote,  climbing 
from  the  lesser  numbers,  and  passing  through  Logan's  fifty-three, 
Edmunds'  sixty-nine  and  Arthur's  two  hundred  and  seventy-four, 
reaches  Blaine's  three  hundred  and  seventy-five. 

Then  comes  a  crash  that  ends  all  comparison  with  what  has 
gone  before.  Seats  empty,  aisles  fill,  the  air  is  one  shaking  mass 
of  handkerchiefs,  canes  and  umbrellas.  The  entire  Blaine  vote 
is  on  its  feet  shouting,  cheering,  yelling  in  all  forms  and  shapes 
— whistles,  cat-calls  and  hurrahs.  By  word  and  inarticulate  yell, 
the  human  voice  of  ten  thousand  people  empties  itself  into  the 
air. 

The  moustached  reading  clerk  stepped  to  the  edge  of  the 
platform  and,  stiffening  his  broad  tally  sheet,  shouted  in  a  long 
cadence  Ala-a-bam-ma.  The  tap  of  Henderson's  gavel,  the  sh! 
sh!  of  the  whole  audience,  stilled  the  morning  air,  yet  free  from 
dust,  as  a  dark  man  with  graying,  reddish  beard,  sliouted, 
syllable  by  syllable :  "Alabama  casts  seventeen  votes  for  Chester 
A.  Arthur,  one  vote  for  James  G.  Blaine  and  one  vote  for  John 
A.  Logan."  A  New  York  "  Hi !  hi !  hi !  "  sprang  in  among  the 
boys,  and  was  straightway  strangled  in  hisses.  The  vote  went 
on,  State  by  State. 

The  first  Blaine  storm  of  the  day  breaks  when  Maine  is 
called,  and  then  seated  thousands  spring  to  their  feet  and  the 
hall  blossoms  white  with  waving  handkerchiefs  and  fills  with 
shouting. 

The  roll  is  over  at  last.  The  clerks  bend  over  the  tally 
sheets,  innumerable  pencils  pass  up  and  down  the  thousands  of 
tally  sheets,  which  carry  through  the  convention  the  advertisement 
of  a  Philadelphia  paper,  and  then,  as  Henderson  rises  to  give 
the  result,  there  is  a  wild  sway  and  raid  of  telegraph  boys  about 
the  correspondents'  desk.  All  over  the  land  men  are  putting  up 
before  listening  thousands  the  tally:  Blaine,  334^^;  Arthur,  278; 
Edmunds,  93;  Logan,  63^  ;  John  Sherman,  30;  Hawley,  13; 
Lincoln,  3  ;  General  Sherman,  2,  The  first  ballot  ends  in  an- 
other Blaine  storm,  checked  as  the  second  ballot  opens. 

THE   SECOND    BALLOT. 

Changes  begin.  Arkansas  adds  three  votes  to  Blaine.  A 
dozen  states  pass,  and  the  vote  stands  unchanged.  The  second 
ballot  goes  on  and  Blaine  is  gaining.  Every  vote  is  watched 
with  breathless  interest  followed  by  tumults  of  applause.  The 
Blaine  men  feel  that  they  are  gaining  ground.     The  Arthur  men 


45 

know  that  they  are  losing.  The  Edmunds  men  are  disconsolate. 
The  ballot  ends,  and  Blaine  is  further  to  the  front. 

Votes  must  nominate.  Enthusiasm,  yell  and  cry  will  not. 
Again  and  again  the  votes  of  states  for  Blaine  unlooije  the  up- 
roar, and  again  and  again  it  dies  av/ay  to  leave  the  result  to  go 
on  in  its  steady,  unchanging  fashion.  The  air  is  tremulous  with 
excitement.  There  is  abroad  the  shadow  of  sudden  changes, 
the  certainty  that  the  steadily  growing  pressure  must  end  in  some 
outburst  of  utter  disorder,  but  when  the  scenes  of  last  night  are 
repeated,  when  the  whole  place  goes  wild  in  delirious  cries  of 
Blaine,  and  hats  dot  the  air  and  shaking  handkerchiefs  fill  it, 
the  convention  gets  to  its  feet  and  looks  on,  like  one  too  often 
under  fire  to  take  more  than  the  interest  of  spectators  in  the 
firing. 

With  Blaine  at  349  and  Arthur  at  276,  however,  the  gap  was 
widened  past  repair  between  the  candidates,  and  it  was  plain 
when  order  came  again,  such  order  as  this  restless  mob  gives, 
that  the  next  ballot  must  make  or  mar  all  the  plans  of  the  past 
or  assure  all  the  hopes  of  the  future. 

A   FRUITLESS   RECESS    EFFORT. 

In  the  midst  of  it,  his  lips  vainly  forming  sentence  after 
sentence,  stands  Foraker,  slender,  well-built,  his  face  shining 
with  the  effort,  and  his  voice  carried  away  by  the  Blaine  gale. 
Minute  by  minute  passes  before  a  lull  comes,  and  then  it  becomes 
known,  rather  by  men  passing  the  word  along  than  by  any  hear- 
ing of  his  words,  that  he  moves  a  recess  until  7.30  o'clock. 

It  was  the  last  uncertain  chance  to  defeat  Blaine,  the  bare 
possibility  that  five  hours  of  cabal  might  bring  the  candidate,  in 
place  of  Blaine,  whom  five  months  of  popular  agitation  and  dis- 
cussion had  not  evolved. 

Straightway  Stewart,  steadying  himself,  shouts  in  the  storm 
that  breaks  on  Foraker' s  motion  that  the  opposing  forces  have 
passed  the  skirmish  line  and  the  battle  must  join.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  frequent  popular  calls  for  Blaine  his  cause  has  had 
good  management  before  the  convention.  For  the  first  time  it 
had  now  a  leader  in  the  convention.  There  is  in  the  stress  and 
storm  of  these  conflicts  the  shock,  if  not  the  danger,  of  battle, 
and  Stewart,  by  voice  and  manner,  by  look  and  gesture,  stand- 
ing erect,  his  face  aflame  and  his  arm  extended,  threw  into  his 
manner  all  that  a  leader  in  the  forefront  needed.  This  may  not 
be  the  best  way  to  decide  momentous  issues;  but,  given  these 
conditions,  by  such  leadership  is  victory  won,  and  won   it  was. 

For  twenty  long,  shouting,  swaying,  struggling  minutes 
these  words  of  Stewart,  this  call  to  battle  were  the  last  articulate 
sounds  men  heard.     The  deliberative  body,  in  the  heat  of  its 


46 

excitement,  dissolved  into  an  utter  mob.  Within  twenty  square 
feet  stood  the  dozen  men  at  work  trying  to  carry  to  some  issue 
the  work  before  them,  and  about  were  ten  thousand  howling 
human  beings.  The  unfortunate  chairman,  with  a  brain  bigger 
at  the  top  than  the  base,  utterly  unfitted  by  experience  for  the 
stormy  work,  passed  utterly  out  of  all  influence,  and  nervously 
handled  his  gavel,  while  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  feebly  waved  a 
gilt  baton  at  the  surging  crowd.  He  had  begun,  McPherson  at 
his  shoulder,  by  putting  the  motion  to  take  a  recess.  The  mo- 
tion of  his  lips  and  the  turns  of  his  hands  had  given  a  hint  of 
his  act,  and  the  thousands  before  him  bellowed  together  a  long 
"No,"  in  whose  echoing  thunders  Dutcher,  of  New  York,  was 
vainly  endeavoring  to  secure  a  roll-call  by  states — breathing  time 
for  the  broken  anti-Blaine  line  to  form. 

Foraker,  at  every  pause  in  the  storm,  which  rose  and  fell  as 
tempests  will,  was  shouting  the  same  demand.  Meanwhile  the 
chairman,  shut  off  from  these  men  by  the  great  wall  of  sound 
raised  by  the  Blaine  cheers,  declared  the  question  lost,  and  di- 
rected the  roll-call  to  begin  on  the  next  ballot.  In  any  case,  it 
proved  that  this  meant  Blaine's  nomination,  with  no  chance  for 
the  opposition  to  act  together.  It  could  mean  nothing  else. 
Foraker,  Dutcher,  Roosevelt,  a  distant  man  in  North  Carolina 
and  a  score  more  stood  shouting.  By  their  sides  were  Stewart, 
Phelps,  of  New  Jersey;  Burrows,  Bayne,  Sheard  and  Husted,  of 
New  York,  calling  for  the  exact  right  Henderson's  weak  act  gave 
them.  Of  the  technical  accuracy  of  their  position  no  possible 
doubt  could  exist.     Parliamentary  right  was  all  on  their  side. 

One  of  those  dangerous  crises  had  come  on  which  turn  the 
fortunes  of  great  events.  It  would  have  been  easy  (for  this  tur- 
moil began  in  nothing  and  continued  in  the  inefficiency  of  the 
presiding  officer)  to  soil  the  fairness  of  Blaine's  nomination. 
William  McKinley,  of  Ohio,  had  been  known  as  the  Blaine 
leader  in  Ohio,  and  when  he  mounted  his  chair  there  was  pause 
on  both  sides.  The  issue  which  had  worked  to  the  surface  through 
twenty  yeasting  moments  was  whether  the  demand  for  a  roll  call 
had  been  made  in  technical  season  before  the  chairman  announced 
the  result  on  the  motion  to  adjourn.  "Let  us  raise  no  technical 
objections,"  said  McKinley.  "As  a  friend  of  Mr.  Blaine,  I  in- 
sist on  having  the  roll-call  and  then  vote  the  motion  down." 
Air  and  manner,  voice  and  attitude  in  the  strong-featured,  dark- 
faced,  full-voiced  man  whosppke  for  fair  play  and  justice  carried 
both  parties  with  him. 

THE   TEST   VOTE    OF   THE   DAY. 

The  first  pause  came  over  Illinois.  There  was  an  instant's 
question,  and  then  Logan  remained  in  the  fi^ld.  The  state 
voted  for  the  recess.    The  last  great  shout  of  the  opposition  went 


47 

up  over  the  result.  On  down  through  New  York  and  Ohio  the 
roll  passed  with  minor  changes,  both  states  holding  their  old 
vote.  The  Pennsylvanians  added  two  more  to  the  Blaine  column. 
Virginia  brought  in  a  handful,  and  long  before  the  territories 
were  reached  the  motion  was  lost  by  almost  loo  majority — 364 
yeas  to  450  nays.     The  vote  nominated  Blaine. 

The  rest  was  mere  surplusage  of  cheer  and  shout.  The 
fourth  ballot  gave  him  all  but  a  third  of  the  votes  cast,  placing 
his  total  on  the  deciding  ballot  at  554  to  207  for  Arthur,  whose 
champion,  Burleigh,  took  the  stage  and  pledged  New  York  to 
the  candidate,  while  the  convention  rocked  with  the  last  great 
cheer  of  the  day. 

For  ten  minutes  together  one  long,  continuous  shout  filled 
the  air,  and  shut  in  each  man  to  silence  as  far  as  his  own  voice 
was  concerned. 

A    FOREGONE    CONCLUSION. 

The  result  was  now  so  far  a  foregone  conclusion  that  Fora- 
ker  moved  to  make  it  unanimous,  but  the  New  York  Indepen- 
dents, led  by  Roosevelt,  the  Arthur  men  led  by  Butcher,  and 
Massachusetts,  led  by  Long,  objected.  Dutcher  could  do  no 
less.  Not  half  an  hour  before  he  had  been  passing  about  badges 
marked  "Arthur,  if  it  takes  all  Summer,"  and  they  were  already 
hanging  limp  and  chilly  on  every  New  York  Arthur  man. 

So  the  vote  started,  Edward  McPherson,  who  began  eight 
years  ago  in  the  struggle  which  ended  to-day,  standing  on  the 
front  of  the  platform  and  calling  the  roll.  Behind  him  was 
Warner  Miller,  of  New  York,  aglow  with  satisfaction,  and  the 
little  circle  which  three  weeks  ago  organized  in  Washington  to 
do  the  work  here.  Now,  the  greatest  of  these  in  all  his  beam- 
ing presence,  was  Tom  Donaldson. 

WITHDRAWING   LOGAN. 

The  roll-call  was  a  long,  triumphal  progress  for  Blaine,  of 
Maine.  When  Shelby  M.  Collum  mounted  his  chair  and  with  a 
slip  of  paper  in  his  hand,  withdrew  Logan,  the  result  was  certain, 
and  the  great  total  of  votes  ended  in  another  dissolution  of  all 
order.  Kansas  came  down  the  aisle  with  a  great  banner  spread 
with  corn  and  grain  and  decked  with  Blaine's  picture.  Colorado's 
eagle  was  carried  up  and  down  the  aisle,  and  the  banner  which 
has  accompanied  the  California  delegation  in  its  trip  from  Cal- 
ifornia to  Maine,  "Through  Iowa  All  for  Blaine,"  triumphantly 
paraded  the  convention. 

The  remnants  of  the  Arthur  support  clung  to  their  sinking 
ship,  and  men  have  rarely  put  more  of  heroism  into  their  parting 
words  than  did  the  Edmunds  men  in  their  last  vote.  It  was 
over  at  last.  The  gavel  rose,  and  when  it  fell  James  G.  Blaine 
had  been  declared  the  candidate  of  the  party  to  which  he  has 
given  the  labors  of  a  lifetime. 


48] 


THE   BALLOTS   IN   FULL. 
FIRST    BALLOT.  SECOND  BALLOT 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

California , 

Colorado 

Connecticut*... 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas* 

Kentucky! 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts. 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New  Hampshire.. 
New  Jerseyf  J.. 

New  Yorkf 

North  Carolina 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania... 
Rhode  Island.. 
South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West  Virginia.. 

Wisconsin 

Arizona 

Dakota 

Idaho 

Montana 

New  Mexico... 

Utah ! 

Washington j 

Wyoming 

Dist.  of  Columbia' 


°.o 


lO 

7 
8 

3 
6 

3 
4 

12 
22 
15 
13 

9 

13 
8 
6 
8 

14 

13 
7 
9 

i6 

5 
3 
4 
9 
36 
II 

23 
3 

30 
4 
9 

12 

13 
4 

12 
6 

II 


24 

44 

30 

26 

I 

26 

16 

12 

16 

28 

26 

14 
18 

32 

10 

6 

8 

18 

72 
22 
46 

6 
60 

8 
18 

24 

26 

8 

24 

12 

22 

2 

2 


3 

18 
26 
12 

5^ 

2 

12 
10 

I 
15 

7 

I 

5 
8 
6 


p4 

Q 

S 

Z 

X 

U) 

H 

S 

OS 

0 

<i 

w 

Totals 401,  820334^  278 


40 


25- 


93 


63* 


25 


30 


*Hawley,  12  and  i.     fLincoln,  i  and  2.     JW.  T 
Sherman,  2. 


40 


24. 

5' 
6 


3' 
6, 

12', 


23 


349   276     85     61     28 


Hawley,  13.    Lincoln,  4. 
W.  T.  Sherman,  2. 


THE   BALLOTS   IN   FULL.  [49 

FOURTH    BALLOT 


THIRD    BALLOT. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut* 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana  

Iowa 

Kansas- 

Kentucky! 

Louisiana |       4 

jNIaine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan! 

Minnesota 

Mississippi! 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New  Hampshire 

New  Jersey  f 

New  York 

North  Carolina 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West  Virginia 

Wisconsin  j 

Arizona 

Dakota 

Idaho 

Montana 

New  Mexico 

Utah 

Washington 2 

Wyoming | 

District  of  Columbia i 


Totals 375    274      69      53      25 


40. 


*Havvley,  12,  I.      f  Lincoln,  I,  i,  6.       JW.  T. 
Sherman,  1,1. 


12 , 

3 


34 

30 

24       2 

^8, 

9|     15 

91      7 

I2| 

3|       7 
26 

14 

2\       16 

•32 ' 

10 ' 

6 


17 j 

29i     301 

8|     12'. 

46! 

6 

51' 

7 

2 
II 
15 


ij 
15 


541    207     41 


18:, 


Hawley,  15.     Lincoln,  2 


50 


NOTIFICATION    BY    CHAIRMAN    HENDERSON. 

The  committee  appointed  by  the  National  Convention  to 
notify  Mr.  Blaine  of  his  nomination,  arrived  at  the  residence  of 
the  candidate  on  the  twenty-first  day  of  June,  and  upon  the  lawn 
surrounding  his  house,  the  committee,  through  their  chairman, 
Mr.  Henderson,  delivered  its  message  in  the  following  address: 

Mr.  Blaine: — Your  nomination  for  the  office  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  the  National  Republican  Convention  recently  assembled  at 
Chicago,  is  already  known  to  you.  The  gentlemen  before  you,  constituting 
the  committee,  composed  of  one  member  from  each  State  and  Territory  of 
the  country,  and  one  from  the  District  of  Columbia,  now  come  as  the  accred- 
ited organ  of  that  Convention  to  give  you  formal  notice  of  your  nomination 
and  to  request  your  acceptance  thereof. 

It  is,  of  course,  known  to  you  that,  beside  your  own,  several  other  names 
among  the  most  honored  in  the  councils  of  the  Republican  party  were  pre- 
sented by  their  friends  as  candidates  for  this  nomination.  Between  your 
friends  and  friends  of  gentlemen  so  justly  entitled  to  the  respect  and  confi- 
dence of  their  political  associates  the  contest  was  one  of  generous  rivalry, 
free  from  any  taint  of  bitterness,  and  equally  free  from  the  reproach  of 
injustice.  At  an  early  stage  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Convention  it  became 
manifest  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  the  desire  so  earnestly  expressed  by  delegates  from  those  States 
was  but  a  truthful  reflection  of  an  irresistible  popular  demand.  It  was  not 
thought  nor  pretended  that  the  demand  had  origin  in  any  ambitious  desires  of 
your  own,  or  any  organized  work  of  your  friends,  but  it  was  recognized  to  be, 
what  it  truthfully  is,  a  spontaneous  expression  by  free  people  of  love  and 
admiration  of  a  chosen  leader. 

No  nomination  would  have  given  satisfaction  to  every  member  cf  the 
party.  This  is  not  to  be  expected  in  a  country  so  extended  in  area  and  so 
varied  in  interests.  The  nomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  i860,  disappointed  so 
many  hopes  and  overthrew  so  many  cherished  ambitions  that  for  a  short  time 
disaffection  threatened  to  ripen  in  open  revolt.  In  1872  the  discontent  was 
so  pronounced  as  to  impel  large  masses  of  the  party  to  organized  opposition 
to  its  nominees.  For  many  weeks  after  the  nomination  of  General  Garfield, 
in  1880,  defeat  seemed  almost  inevitable.  In  each  case  the  shock  of  disap- 
pointment was  followed  by  the  sober  second  thought;  individual  j^references 
gradually  yielded  to  convictions  of  public  duty;  the  promptings  of  patriotism 
finally  arose  superior  to  the  irritations  and  animosities  of  the  hour.  The 
party  in  every  trial  has  grown  stronger  in  the  face  of  threatened  danger. 

In  tendering  you  the  nomination,  it  gives  us  pleasure  to  remember  that 
those  great  measures  which  furnished  causes  for  party  congratulations  by  the 
late  convention  at  Chicago,  and  which  are  now  crystalized  into  the  legislation 
of  the  country — measures  which  have  strengthened  and  dignified  the  nation, 
while  they  have  elevated  and  advanced  the  people — at  all  times  and  on  all 
proper  occasions  received  your  earnest  and  valuable  support.  It  was  your 
good  fortune  to  aid  in  protecting  the  nation  against  the  assaults  of  armed 
treasons.  You  were  present  and  helped  to  unloose  the  shackles  of  the  slave, 
you  assisted  in  placing  new  guarantees  of  freedom  in  the  Federal  Constitution, 
your  voice  was  potent  in  preserving  national  faith  when  false  theories  of 
finance  would  have  blasted  national  and  individual  prosperity.  We  kindly 
remember  you  as  the  fast  friend  of  honest  money  and  commercial  integrity. 


51 

In  all  that  pertains  to  security  and  repose  of  capital,  dignity  of  labor, 
manhood,  elevation  and  freedom  of  the  people,  the  right  of  the  oppressed  to 
demand,  and  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  afford  protection,  your  j.uhlic 
acts  have  received  the  unqualified  endorsement  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,  its  per- 
plexing responsibilities.  Parties,  like  individuals,  however,  that  are  free  from 
stain  of  violated  faith  in  the  past,  are  fairly  entitled  to  the  presumption  of 
sincerity  in  their  promises  for  the  future. 

Among  the  promises  made  by  the  party  in  its  late  Convention  at  Chicago, 
are  economy  and  purity  of  administration;  protection  of  the  citizen,  native 
and  naturalized,  at  home  and  abroad;  prompt  restoration  of  the  navy;  wise 
reduction  of  the  surplus  revenue;  the  relieving  of  the  taxpayers  without 
injuring  the  laborer;  the  preservation  of  the  public  lands  for  actual  settlers; 
that  all  import  duties,  when  necessary  at  all,  be  levied  not  for  revenue  only, 
but  for  the  double  purpose  of  revenue  and  protection ;  the  regulation  of 
international  commerce,  the  settlement  of  international  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  dangers  to  free  institu- 
tions which  lurk  in  the  power  of  official  patronage  may  be  wisely  and  effect- 
ually avoided;  an  honest  currency,  based  on  coin  of  intrinsic  value,  adding 
strength  to  the  public  credit  and  giving  renewed  vitality  to  every  branch  of 
American  industry. 

Mr.  Blaine,  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  fathers.  Its  proportions,  already  grand,  may  yet  be  enlarged, 
its  foundations  may  yet  be  strengthened,  and  its  columns  be  adorned  with 
beauty  more  resplendent  still.  To  you,  as  its  architect  in  chief,  will  soon  be 
assigned  this  grateful  work. 

MR.    BLAINE's    reply. 

Mr.  Blaine  never  looked  better  than  when  listening  to  these 
remarks,  except  when  he  replied  to  them.  During  the  delivery- 
he  stood  erect,  with  his  arms  folded.  His  countenance  was 
clear,  his  eye  bright,  his  posture  superb,  and  he  seemed  the 
picture  of  health.  Now  and  then  he  would  throw  a  glance  over 
the  committee  in  front  of  him,  as  if  searching  for  a  familiar  face, 
but  this  seemed  to  be  done  to  rest  the  eye  from  looking  con- 
stantly at  one  object,  for  there  was  no  sign  of  recognition  upon 
his  strongly-marked  features.  He  was  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
man  who  was  delivering  to  him  the  commission  of  party  leader 
voted  by  the  Convention. 

]\Ir.  Henderson  looked  thinner  and  taller  than  ever  by  the 
side  of  the  perfect  figure  of  the  man  who  waited  upon  his  words. 
He  seemed  to  grow  as  he  read.  When  he  had  finished,  Mr. 
Blaine  turned  about  and  took  from  his  son's  hand  the  roll  of 
paper  upon  which  was  written  his  reply,  and  said  : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  National  Committee: — 
I  receive,  not  without  deep  sensibility,  your  official  notice  of  the  action  of  the 
National  Convention  already  brought  to  my  knowledge  through  the  public 


52 

press.  I  appreciate  more  profoundly  than  I  can  express  the  honor  which  is 
implied  in  the  nomination  for  the  presidency  by  the  Republican  party  of  the 
nation,  speaking  through  the  authoritative  voice  of  duly  accredited  delegates. 
To  be  selected  as  a  candidate  by  such  an  assemblage,  from  a  list  of  eminent 
statesmen  whose  names  were  presented,  fills  me  with  embarrassment.  I  can 
only  express  my  gratitude  for  so  signal  an  honor  and  ray  desir^  to  prove 
worthy  of  the  great  trust  reposed  in  me. 

In  accepting  the  nomination,  as  I  now  do,  I  am  impressed — I  am  also 
oppressed—  with  a  sense  of  the  labor  and  responsibility  which  attach  to  my 
position.  The  burden  is  lightened,  however,  by  the  host  of  earnest  men  who 
support  my  candidacy,  many  of  whom  add,  as  does  your  honorable  committee, 
cheer  of  personal  friendship  to  pledge  of  political  fealty.  A  more  formal 
acceptance  will  naturally  be  expected,  and  will,  in  due  season,  be  communi- 
cated. It  may,  however,  not  be  inappropriate  at  this  time  to  say  I  have 
already  made  a  careful  study  of  the  principles  announced  by  the  National 
Convention,  and  that,  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  house.  With  many  of  you  I  have  already  shared 
duties  of  public  service  and  enjoyed  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  you  are  not  among  strangers,  but  with 
friends.  Invoking  blessings  of  God  upon  the  great  cause  which  we  jointly 
represent,  let  us  turn  to  the  future  without  fear  and  with  manly  hearts. 


"THE  WOODS  ARE  FULL  OF  THEM!" 

Many  campaigns  in  the  past  have  had  popular  symbols  or 
watchwords  with  which  to  decorate  the  banners,  transparencies 
and  other  paraphernalia  used  in  parades.  The  log  cabin  was  the 
symbol  in  an  early  campaign;  in  iS6o  the  candidate  figured  as 
the  rail  splitter  from  Illinois ;  a  saying  of  the  famous  soldier 
candidate,  "We'll  fight  it  out  on  this  line,  if  it  takes  all  sum- 
mer," became  the  watchword  of  a  later  campaign;  in  iSSo  it 
was  the  canal  boat  and  the  boy  from  the  towpath.  The  local 
committee  from  Augusta,  Me.,  taking  the  hint  from  the  name  of 
their  State,  the  Pine  Tree  State,  have  adopted  as  the  symbol  of 
this  campaign  a  pine  cone,  and  the  legend  ''The  woods  are  full 
of  them"  ;  and  before  the  November  election  we  predict  that 
thousands  of  banners  will  bristle  with  pine  cones,  and  the  legend 
will  be  fanoiliar  household  words. 


JOHN  ALEXANDER  LOGAN. 


GENERAL  JOHN  ALEXANDER  LOGAN  is  equally  dis- 
tinguished as  soldier  and  statesman.  His  father,  Dr.  John 
Logan,  emigrated  from  Ireland  in  1822,  and  settled  as  a 
country  practitioner  near  Murphysboro,  III.  He  prospered  in 
what  was  then  a  wild  country,  and  in  1824  married  Elizabeth 
Jenkins,  a  native  of  Tennessee,  who,  two  years  later,  on  the 
night  of  February  9,  1826,  became  the  mother  of  the  present 
Republican  candidate  for  Vice-President. 

The  child  was  taught  to  read  and  write  by  his  father  and 
mother.  There  were  no  schools  in  those  days.  At  nineteen  he 
enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  he  was  chosen 
Lieutenant  in  the  First  Illinois  Regiment.  He  served  with  dis- 
tinction throughout  the  war,  and  at  its  close,  in  the  Fall  of  1S48, 
he  returned  to  his  home  to  begin  the  study  of  the  law  under  the 
guidance  of  his  uncle,  Alexander  M.  Jenkins,  formerly  Lieuten- 
ant Governor  of  the  state.  After  serving  as  clerk  of  the  county 
court,  he  received  h's  diploma  and  took  up  his  position  at  the 
bar  in  185 1.  He  also  immediately  entered  into  politics,  and 
the  same  Fall  was  nominated  and  elected  to  the  State  Legisla- 
ture. From  that  time  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  he  figured 
prominently,  not  only  in  the  State  but  also  in  the  National  Coun- 
cils of  the  Democratic  party,  and  served  two  terms  in  Congress 
as  its  representative.  Immediately  on  the  outbreak  of  the  war, 
however,  he  was  among  the  first  to  enlist  in  the  defense  of  the 
Union.  He  was  in  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  among  the 
last  to  leave  the  field.  Returning  to  his  home  September  i,  he 
assisted  in  raising  troops,  and  September  13,  the  Thirty-first 
Regiment  of  Illinois  Infantry  was  organized  with  Logan  com- 
missioned as  colonel.  The  first  engagement  in  which  he  and 
his  command  participated  was  the  battle  of  Belmont,  in  Novem- 
ber of  the  same  year,  when  his  ability  as  a  commander,  and  his 
dash  and  intrepidity,  foreshadowed  the  fact  that  he  was  to  play 
a  conspicuous  part  in  the  operations  of  the  army.  He  partici- 
pated in  the  movements  at  Fort  Henry,  and  was  present  at  the 
battle  of  Fort  Donelson,  where  he  received  a  severe  wound,  and 
did  not  rejoin  his  command  until  some  weeks  afterward,  on  the 
evening  of  the  last  day  of  the  battle  of  Shiloh.     On  March  3, 


54 

1 862,  he  was  made  Brigadier  General  and  participated  in  the 
sies^e  of  Corinth  as  commander  of  the  First  Brigade  in  General 
Judah's  division  of  the  right  wing  of  the  army,  and  for  his  val- 
iant services  was  publicly  thanked  by  General  Sherman  in  his 
official  report. 

In  the  movements  about  Vicksburg  from  February,  1863, 
until  July  4,  when  General  Pemberton  surrendered,  General 
Logan,  with  .his  command,  was  actively  engaged,  and  he  was 
ord^ered  to  take  the  lead  in  the  march  into  Vicksburg,  July  4, 
after  which  he  was  given  the  command  of  that  post,  which  he 
retained  until  placed  in  command  of  the  Fifteenth  Corps, 
November  14,  1863. 

On  July  22,  1864,  Logan,  as  commander  of  the  Fifteenth 
Army  Corps,  was  ordered  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy  soutli  of 
Atlanta.  In  the  hard-fought  battle  that  followed.  General 
McPherson  was  killed,  and  General  Logan  succeeded  him  in 
command  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee.  The  success  of  the 
battle  was  accorded  to  Logan  by  General  Sherman's  official  re- 
port. The  battle  of  July  28,  which  followed,  was  another  hotly 
contested  fight,  in  which  Logan's  command  was  equally  as  con- 
spicuous and  successful. 

During  the  war  Gen.  Logan  was  ordered  to  Nashville  to  super- 
sede Gen.  G.  H.  Thomas,  of  whose  slowness  the  War  Department 
was  weary.  On  reaching  there,  and  going  about  with  his  prede- 
cessor, he  found  that  his  delay  had  been  the  result  of  admirable 
planning  and  complete  preparation  for  a  victory.  General 
Logan  might  easily  have  stepped  in  and  reaped  the  fruit  of  that 
wise  provision,  winning  laurels  for  himself  at  the  expense  of  his 
displaced  and  chagrined  brother  in  arms.  This  he  could  not 
and  would  not  do,  and  he  withheld  the  military  order  which 
would  have  justified  him  in  so  doing ;  and  General  Thomas  was 
permitted  to  win  and  enjoy  his  well-earned  fame._  When  Gen. 
Logan  was  thanked  for  that  chivalrous  act,  he  said  briefly  that 
no  man  of  honor  could  have  done  otherwise  ;  but  this  standard 
of  honor  did  not  always  prevail  among  our  Eastern  generals. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  General  L-'gan  was  offered 
the  position  of  Minister  to  Mexico,  but  declined.  In  1866  he 
was  elected  to  Congress  from  the  state  at  large  in  Illinois  by 
a  majority  of  55,987.  In  the  next,  the  Forty-first  Congress,  Logan 
began  to  make  his  mark,  and  in  1870  was  elected  by  the  Illinois 
Legislature  to  the  United  States  Senate.  After  serving  his  term 
he'\vas  defeated  by  the  Independents,  who  united  upon  the  Hon. 
David  Davis  as  his  successor ;  but  he  was  again  elected  to  suc- 
ceed Oglesby  in  1876.  He  has  always  taken  an  active  part  in  the 
legislation  of  the  Senate,  and  has  introduced  many  useful  bills. 


55 

GENERAL   GRANT's  OPINION    OF   LOGAN. 

Harper's  Weekly  in  June,  1S72,  published  the  following: 
"When  some  one  said  to  President  Grant  that  Senator  Logan 
seemed  rather  inclined  to  complain  of  the  administration,  the 
President  smiled,  and  answered  that  he  knew  Logan  well.  '  He 
is  critical  by  nature,'  he  said,  'and  always  speaks  his  opinion.' 
'During  the  war,'  said  General  Grant,  'while  we  lay  in  camp, 
nobody  commented  more  sharply  upon  the  little  slips  and  blun- 
ders than  John  Logan;  but  when  the  order  came  to  march,  no 
corps  was  in  more  perfect  order,  none  moved  more  promptly, 
and  none  was  more  bravely  led  than  John  Logan's.  He  will 
criticise  the  administration  just  as  often  and  as  sharply  as  he 
chooses;  but  he  will  give  no  aid  or  comfort  to  the  enemy.'  " 

THE    WIFE    OF    GENERAL    LOGAN. 

This  simple  narrative  presents  many  lessons  which  the 
younger  generations  of  American  women  might  apply  with  profit 
to  themselves  and  the  happiness  of  the  world  at  large.  We  do 
not  think  it  a  violation  of  the  confidences  of  a  private  conversa- 
tion to  give  them  the  benefit  of  the  example  of  this  true  type  of 
American  womanhood.  The  American  ancestry  of  Mrs.  Logan 
goes  back  to  a  sturdy  Irish  settler  of  Virginia  and  a  French 
pioneer  of  Louisiana.  Her  great-grandfather,  Robert  Cunning- 
ham, of  Virginia,  was  a  soldier  of  the.  war  for  Independence, 
after  which  he  removed  to  Tennessee,  thence  to  Alabama  and 
thence  to  Illinois,  when  still  a  Territory,  and  there  manumitted 
his  slaves.  Her  father,  Captain  John  M.  Cunningham,  served 
in  the  fierce  Black  Hawk  war.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  Illinois  in  1845  ^'^^  '4^  ^^^  served  in  the  Mexican 
war.  Her  mother  was  Miss  Elizabeth  Fontaine,  of  a  dis- 
tinguished family  of  that  name  which  had  arrived  in  Louisiana 
during  the  French  occupancy  of  that  country,  and  had  thence 
journeyed  up  the  Mississippi  River  and  settled  in  Missouri.  It 
was  here  that  John  Cunningham  met  his  bride  and  it  was  near 
the  present  village  of  Sturgeon,  then  known  as  Petersburg,  in 
Boone  county,  Mo.,  that  Mary  Simmerson  Logan  was  born,  on 
August  15,  1S38.  When  she  was  one  year  old  her  parents  re- 
moved to  Illinois,  and  settled  at  Marion,  in  Williamson  county. 
It  was  here  that  the  mother  and  her  oldest  daughter,  then  but 
nine  years  old,  shared  the  dangers  of  a  frontier  home  and  the 
cares  and  solicitude  of  a  growing  family,  when  the  husband  and 
father  went  forth  to  fight  the  battles  of  his  country  upon  the 
parched  plains  of  Mexico,  and  braved  the  trials  and  privations 
of  a  miner's  life  in  the  Sierras  of  California. 

This  courageous  and  dutiful  little  girl  relieved  her  mother, 
who  was  not  strong,  of  most  of  the  household  work,  iA\^  still 


found  time  to  attend  the  primitive  school  of  the  neighborhood 
and  train  herself  in  useful  needle  work. 

HER    CHILDHOOD. 

The  father  felt  a  just  pride  in  his  eldest  daughter.  The 
assistance  which  she  had  rendered  her  mother  during  his  long 
absence  in  Mexico  and  California  had  even  more  closely  endeared 
her  to  his  heart,  and  her  love  of  study  had  prompted  him  to 
give  part  of.  his  income  to  her  proper  education.  Accordingly, 
in  1853,  the  daughter  was  sent  to  the  Convent  St.  Vincent,  near 
Morganfield,  Ky.,  a  branch  of  the  Nazareth  Institute,  the  oldest 
institution  of  the  kind  in  the  country.  This  was  the  nearest 
educational  establishment  of  sufficient  advancement  in  the  higher 
branches  of  knowledge.  The  young  lady  was  reared  a  Baptist ; 
after  her  marriage  she  joined  the  Methodist  Church,  the  Church 
of  the  Logan  family. 

Having-  graduated  in  1855,  Miss  Cunningham  returned  to 
her  father's  home  at  Shawneetown.  In  her  younger  days,  when 
a  mere  child,  she  had  aided  her  father  as  Sheriff  of  the  county, 
Clerk  of  the  Court  and  Register  of  the  Land  Office  in  preparing 
his  papers.  Those  were  not  the  days  of  blank  forms  for  legal 
documents.  Accordingly  the  father  depended  upon  the  daugh- 
ter to  make  copies  for  him.  While  Mary  Cunningham  was  thus 
aiding  her  father  in  his  official  duties,  John  Logan  was  Prosecu- 
ing  Attorney  of  the  district.  He  had  known  father  Cunningham 
and  was  his  warm  friend.  He  had  known  the  daughter  as  a  little 
girl.  In  1855  they  were  married,  and  at  once  went  to  the  young 
attorney's  home  at  Benton,  Franklin  county.  The  bride  was 
sixteen  years  of  age,  but  her  young  life  had  already  been  one  of 
usefulness  to  her  mother  and  of  great  service  to  her  father. 

THE    MARRIAGE. 

The  young  wife  immediately  installed  herself  in  the  place 
of  companion  and  helpmate  to  her  husband.  She  accompanied 
him  on  all  his  professional  journeys,  an  undertaking  in  those 
days  of  wilderness  and  no  roads  often  requiring  great  endurance 
and  privation.  In  1856  the  devoted  wife  saw  her  husband  tri- 
umphantly elected  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  in  the 
famous  Douglas  and  Lincoln  Senatorial  contest  he  was  elected 
as  a  Douglas  Democrat  to  Congress.  In  all  these  hard-fought 
political  campaigns  the  noble  wife  went  with  her  husband,  as- 
sisting in  much  of  his  work  of  correspondence  and  copying,  and 
frequently  receiving  his  friends  and  conferring  with  them  on  the 
details  of  the  campaign.  When  Mr.  Logan  came  to  Congress 
as  a  Representative  Mrs.  Logan  came  with  him.  She  remained 
with  him  in  Washington  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion, 


57 

when  he  resigned  his  seat  in  Congress  to  return  to  Illinois  to  go 
into  the  service  of  his  country. 

The  war  having  commenced,  and  Mr.  Logan  having  raised 
and  been  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  Thirty-first  Illinois 
Volunteers,  Mrs.  Logan,  with  her  only  living  child,  then  three 
years  old  (now  Mrs.  Tucker),  returned  to  her  father's  home  at 
Marion.  The  Illinois  troops  having  been  ordered  into  camp  at 
Cairo,  Mrs.  Logan  joined  her  husband  there.  During  the  fierce 
battle  of  Belmont,  Mrs.  Logan  heard  the  booming  of  the  guns 
across  the  turgid  flood  of  the  Mississippi.  In  the  midst  of  pain- 
ful and  anxious  suspense  for  the  safety  of  her  own,  of  whom  she 
felt  that  he  was  in  the  thickest  of  the  conflict,  she  gave  a  helping 
hand  to  the  care  of  the  wounded  and  suffering  soldiers  as  they 
were  brought  back  from  that  bloody  field. 

DURING    THE    WAR. 

When  the  army  entered  upon  the  Tennessee  River  cam- 
paign, Mrs.  Logan  again  returned  to  her  home,  but  was  soon 
shocked  by  the  news  from  Donelson  that  her  husband  had  fallen 
at  the  head  of  his  charging  columns  dangerously  wounded. 
She  hastened  to  the  scene  to  care  for  her  husband.  For  days  it 
was  a  struggle  between  life  and  death. 

At  Memphis,  in  the  Winter  of  1862-3,  Mrs.  Logan  again 
joined  her  husband,  now  a  general,  and  remained  there  until  he 
led  his  troops  in  the  campaign  which  ended  the  surrender  of 
Vicksburg. 

During  this  time,  and  to  the  end  of  the  war,  Mrs.  Logan 
remained  at  Carbondale,  where,  out  of  the  General's  salary, 
they  had  bought  an  unpretentious  home.  Upon  his  return  from 
the  war  General  Logan  was  nominated  by  acclamation  for  Con- 
gressman-at- Large.  After  his  election,  Mrs.  Logan  returned  to 
Washington  and  has  been  one  of  the  prominent  figures  in  Wash- 
ington society  ever  since. 

The  arduous  work  of  the  approaching  campaign  will  find 
Mrs.  Logan  again  exerting  all  her  genius  for  the  success  of  her 
husband,  and  with  that  the  success  of  the  Republican  ticket. 
The  mass  of  correspondence  pouring  in  from  day  to  day,  she 
dispatches  with  her  own  hands  and  the  aid  of  a  stenographer. 
She  also  lends  her  presence  to  the  numerous  visits  of  congratula- 
tion from  committees  and  individuals  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. The  most  zealous  person  for  the  ticket  in  Washington  and 
also  one  of  the  persons  who  will  work  most  earnestly  for  its  suc- 
cess will  be  Mrs.  John  A.  Logan. 

NOMINATING   LOGAN, 

Hardly  had  the  nomination  of  Blaine  been  announced  when 
the  friends  of  the  Illinois  Senator  began  an  active  canva  s  in 


58 

favor  of  his  nomination  for  second  place  on  the  ticket.  As  if 
by  magic,  men  appeared  on  the  streets  witli  blue  silk  badges 
printed  "Blaine  and  Logan,"  affixed  to  the  lappels of  their  coats, 
frequent  cheers  were  heard  around  the  hotel  lobbies  for  "Blaine 
and  Logan,"  and  it  was  evident  that  at  short  notice  a  boom  of 
large  proportions  was  well  under  way. 

The  Blaine  delegates,  as  a  rule,  had  a  very  kindly  feeling 
for  Logan,  not  only  because  the  vote  of  Illinois  was  cast  solidly 
for  Blaine  on  the  fourth  ballot,  but  because  it  was  understood 
that  in  the  event  of  an  emergency  Logan's  supporters  from  the 
outset  of  the  contest  could  be  relied  upon  to  go  to  Blaine  as 
soon  as  Logan  was  out  of  the  fight. 

AFTER  THE    RECESS   IN   THE    EVENING. 

As  the  delegates  slowly  entered  the  hall  and  took  their  seats, 
the  expressions  heard  upon  every  hand  indicated  Logan's  nom- 
ination. The  Senator,  after  first  declining  to  accept,  telegraphed 
Senator  CoUum  that  he  was  in  the  hands  of  his  friends.  A 
movement  of  some  proportions  was  started  in  favor  of  Gresham, 
but  his  supporters  were  disappointed  by  the  circulation  of  a  report 
that  he  would  not  serve  if  elected. 

The  Convention  was  called  to  order  at  8.15  p.  m.  At  that 
hour  many  of  the  seats  in  the  rear  of  the  hall  were  unoccupied. 
Chairman  Henderson  invited  the  states  to  complete  the  list  of 
members  of  the  National  Committee,  and,  after  a  few  minutes 
of  wrangling,  Senator  Plumb,  of  Kansas,  jumped  on  a  chair  and 
demanded  the  regular  order.  Nominations  for  Vice-President 
were  at  once  announced,  as  in  order.  The  Convention  wisely 
adopted  a  resolution  limiting  the  time  of  making  speeches  to 
ten  minutes,  but  put  no  limit  to  the  number  of  addresses. 

When,  in  the  call  of  states,  Kansas  was  reached.  Senator 
Plumb  took  the  chair  and  advanced  rapidly  towards  the  stage. 

PRESENTING   THE    NAME. 

Facing  the  large  audience,  twirling  his  watch-chain  with 
the  fingers  of  his  left  hand  and  thrusting  his  right  hand  under 
the  tails  of  his  sack  coat,  Mr.  Plumb  began  his  speech.  It 
was  a  Western  popular,  ringing  address  in  support  of  the  Illinois 
candidate,  and  when,  at  the  climax,  the  name  of  Logan  was 
uttered,  the  Convention  rose  and  gave  three  rousing  yells  for 
Illinois'  favorite  son. 

The  Pennsylvania  delegation  rose  to  its  feet  as  enthusiastic- 
ally as  the  delegation  from  Illinois  and  cheered  as  long  and  as 
loudly  as  the  delegates  from  any  of  the  other  States.  The  con- 
duct of  the  Convention,    the  warm  reception  given   Logan's 


69 

name,  pointed  unerringly  to  his  success.     Houck,  of  Tennessee 
seconded  the  nomination.  ' 

NAMED    BY   STATE   AFTER   STATE. 

As  the  talking  progressed  it  was  made  apparent  that  Logan 
would  be  nominated,  and  the  Convention  from  time  to  time 
impatiently  manifested  its  demand  for  a  vote.  Robinson,  of 
Ohio,  on  behalf  of  the  Ohio  delegation,  seconded  Logan's  nom- 
ination, and  moved  that  the  rules  be  suspended  and  the  nomina- 
tion made  by  acclamation. 

The  delegates  shouted  for  a  vote ;  the  Chair  put  the  question 
and  declared  it  carried  in  a  tone  of  voice  so  low  that  not  one- 
half  the  delegates  knew  that  it  had  been  put.  Those  who  heard 
the  decision  of  the  Chair  supposed  the  nomination  had  been 
made,  but  afterwards  the  roll  was  called.  State  after  State  regis- 
tered its  solid  vote  for  Logan  until  Massachusetts  was  reached, 
when  the  delegation  cast  nineteen  votes  for  Logan  and  three  for 
Fairchild,  of  Wisconsin.  The  announcement  of  a  division  in 
this  finicky  delegation  was  greeted  with  loud  hisses.  When  New 
York  was  reached,  George  William  Curtis  asked  for  time  for 
conference.  Pennsylvania  cast  fifty-nine  votes  for  Logan,  one 
delegate  being  absent.  So  the  roll  continued,  every  State  giving 
its  united  vote  to  the  candidate  for  Vice-President. 

After  the  call  of  territories  had  been  completed.  New  York 
was  again  called.  Curtis  cast  sixty  votes  for  Logan,  one  for 
Foraker,  and  ten  for  Gresham.  Logan  received  779  votes,  and 
the  nomination  was  made  unanimous. 

NOTIFYING   GENERAL  LOGAN. 

The  committee  to  notify  General  Logan  of  his  nomination 
for  the  second  place  on  the  Republican  national  ticket  met  in 
Washington,  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  June,  for  the  perfornmnce 
of  their  duty.  They  were  received  by  the  Senator  and  Mrs. 
Logan,  and  after  pleasant  greetings  the  formal  address  of  notifi- 
cation was  read  by  Mr.  Henderson,  as  follows : 

Senator  Logan  :  The  gentlemen  present  constitute  a  committee  of  the 
Republican  convention  recently  assembled  at  Chicago,  charged  with  the  duty 
of  communicating  to  you  the  formal  notice  of  your  nomination  by  that  con- 
vention as  a  candidate  for  Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 

You  are  not  unaware  of  the  fact  that  your  name  was  presented  to  the 
convention  and  urged  by  a  large  number  of  the  delegates  as  a  candidate  for 
President.  So  soon,  however,  as  it  became  apparent  that  Mr.  Blaine,  your 
colleague  on  the  ticket,  was  the  choice  of  the  party  for  that  high  office,  your 
friends,  with  those  of  other  competitors,  promptly  yielded  their  individual 
preferences  to  this  manifest  wish  of  the  majority. 

In  tendering  you  this  nomination  we  are  able  to  assure  you  it  was  made 
without  opposition,  and  with  an  enthusiasm  seldom  witnessed  in  the  history 
of  nominating  conventions. 


60 

We  are  gratified  to  know  that  in  a  career  of  great  usefulness  and  dis- 
tinction you  have  most  efficiently  aided  in  the  enactment  of  those  measures  of 
legislation  and  of  constitutional  reform  which  the  convention  found  special 
cause  for  party  congratulation. 

The  principles  enumerated  in  the  platform  adopted  will  be  recognized  by 
you  as  the  same  which  have  so  long  governed  and  controlled  your  political 
conduct. 

The  pledges  made  by  the  party  find  guarantee  of  performance  in  the 
fidelity  with  which  you  have  heretofore  discharged  every  trust  confided  to 
your  keepmg.  In  your  election  the  people  of  this  country  will  furnish  new 
proof  of  the  excellency  of  our  institutions.  Without  wealth,  without  help 
from  others,  without  any  resources  except  those  of  heart,  conscience,  intellect, 
energy  and  courage,  you  have  won  a  high  place  in  the  world's  history,  and 
secured  the  confidence  and  affections  of  your  countrymen.  Being  one  of  the 
people,  your  sympathies  are  with  the  people.  In  civil  life  your  chief  care  has 
been  to  better  their  condition,  to  secure  their  rights  and  perpetuate  their 
liberties. 

When  the  government  was  threatened  by  armed  treason  yon  entered  the 
service  as  a  private,  became  the  commander  of  armies,  and  are  now  the  idol 
of  the  citizen  soldiery  of  the  republic.  Such,  in  the  judgment  of  your  party, 
is  the  candidate  it  has  selected,  and  in  behalf  of  that  party  we  ask  you  to 
accept  its  nomination. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  address,  General  Logan  read  from 
sheets  of  manuscript  the  following  brief  formal  acceptance  of  the 
nomination,  promising,  as  will  be  seen,  a  reply  at  length  in  the 
near  future  : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee  :  I  receive 
your  visit  with  pleasure,  and  accept  with  gratitude  the  sentiments  you  have  so 
generously  expressed  in  the  discharge  of  the  duty  with  which  you  have  been 
intrusted  by  the  national  Republican  convention. 

Intending  to  address  you  a  formal  communication  shortly,  in  accordance 
with  the  recognized  usage,  it  would  be  out  of  place  to  detain  you  at  this  time 
with  remarks  which  properly  belong  to  the  official  utterances  of  a  letter  of 
acceptance. 

I  may  be  permitted  to  say,  however,  that  though  I  did  not  seek  the  nom- 
ination of  Vice-President,  I  accept  it  as  a  trust  reposed  in  me  by  the  Repub- 
lican party,  to  the  advancement  of  whose  broad  policy  upon  all  questions 
connected  with  the  progress  of  our  government  and  our  people  I  have  dedi- 
cated my  best  energies;  and  with  this  acceptance  I  may  properly  signify  my 
approval  of  the  platform  of  principles  adopted  by  the  convention. 

I  am  deeply  sensible  of  the  honor  conferred  upon  me  by  my  friends  in 
so  unanimously  tendering  me  this  nomination,  and  I  sincerely  thank  them  for 
this  tribute. 

I  am  mindful  of  the  great  responsibilities  attaching  to  the  office,  and  if 
elected  I  shall  enter  upon  the  performance  of  its  duties  with  the  firm  convic- 
tion that  he  who  has  such  an  unanimous  support  of  his  party  friends  as  the 
circumstances  connected  with  the  nommation  and  your  own  words,  Mr. 
Chairman,  indicate,  and  consequently  such  a  wealth  of  counsel  to  draw  upon, 
cannot  fail  in  the  proper  discharge  of  the  duties  committed  to  him.  I  tender 
you  my  thanks,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  kind  expressions  you  have  made,  and 
I  offer  you  and  your  fellow- committeemen  my  most  cordial  greeting. 


THE    PLATFORM. 


In  the  following  manner  the  platform  of  the  Republican 
party  was  read  in  the  Convention  at  Chicago  : 

Mr.  Bayne,  of  Pennsylvania — I  would  like  to  inquire  from 
the  Chair  whether  the  Committee  on  Resolutions  is  ready  to 
report  ? 

The  Chair — The  Committee  on  Resolutions  is  now  ready  to 
report,  and  if  Mr.  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania,  will  take  the  chair  I 
will  read  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions. 

Mr.  Grow  then  took  the  chair,  and  Mr.  McKinley  read  the 
report  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions,  as  follows : 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States,  in  Convention  assembled,  renew 
their  allegiance  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 
demands  of  the  people  for  the  freedom  and  the  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  account- 
ability 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  successful  admin- 
istration, a  promise  fully  realized  during  the  short  period  of  his  office  as 
President  of  the  United  States.  His  distinguished  success  in  war  and  in  peace 
has  endeared  him  to  the  hearts  of  the  American  people. 

In  the  administration  of  President  Arthur  we  recognize  a  wise,  conserv- 
ative and  patriotic  policy,  under  which  the  country  has  been  blessed  with 
remarkable  prosperity,  and  we  believe  kis  eminent  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  productive  of  general  pros- 
perity and  of  the  comfort  and  independence  of  the  people. 

THE   TARIFF   PLANK. 

We,  therefore,  demand  that  the  imposition  of  duties  on  foreign  imports 
shall  be  made,  not  for  "revenue  only,"  but  that,  in  raising  the  requisite  reve- 

61 


62 

nues  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  intelligent  labor,  as  well  as  capital,  may 
have  its  just  reward,  and  the  laboring  man  his  full  share  in  the  national  pros- 
perity. 

Against  the  so-called  economical  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  Republican  party  pledges  itself  to  correct  the  inequalities  of  the 
tariff  and  to  reduce  the  surplus,  not  by  (he  vicious  and  indiscriminate  process 
of  horizontal  reduction,  but  by  such  methods  as  will  relieve  the  taxpayer 
without  injuring  the  laborer  or  the  great  productive  interests  of  the  country. 

We  recognize  the  importance  of  sheep  husbandry  in  the  United  States, 
the  serious  depression  which  it  is  now  experiencing  and  the  danger  threatening 
its  future  prosperity;  and  we,  therefore,  respect  the  demands  of  the  represent- 
atives of  this  important  agricultural  interest  for  a  readjustment  of  duty  upon 
foreign  wool,  in  view  that  such  industry  shall  have  full  and  adequate  pro- 
tection. 

We  have  always  recommended  the  best  money  known  to  the  civilized 
world,  and  we  urge  that  an  effort  be  made  to  unite  all  commercial  nations  in 
the  establishment  of  the  international  standard,  which  shall  fix  for  all  the 
the  relative  value  of  gold  and  silver  coinage. 

The  regulation  of  commerce  with  foreign  nations  and  between  the  States 
js  one  of  the  most  important  prerogatives  of  the  general  Government,  and  the 
Republican  party  distinctly  announces  its  purpose  to  support  such  legislation 
as  will  fully  and  efficiently  carry  out  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  over 
inter-state  commerce.  The  principle  of  the  public  regulation  of  railway  cor- 
porations is  a  wise  and  salutary  one  for  the  protection  of  all  classes  of  the 
people,  and  we  favor  legislation  that  shall  prevent  unjust  discrimination  and 
excessive  charges  for  transportation,  and  that  shall  secure  to  the  people  and 
to  the  railroads  alike  the  fair  and  equal  protection  of  the  laws. 

PROTECTION  TO   LABOR. 

We  favor  the  establishment  of  a  national  bureau  of  labor,  the  enforce- 
ment 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  in 
a  desire  that  all  nten  may  be  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, 


63 

whether  from  Europe  or  Asia,  as  an  offense  against  the  spirit  of  American 
institutions,  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. 

CIVIL   SERVICE    REFORM. 

The  reform  of  the  civil  service,  auspiciously  begun  under  Republican 
administration,  should  be  completed  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  the  reform  should  be  observed  in 
all  executive  appointments,  and  all  laws  at  variance  with  the  objects  of 
existing  reformed  legislation  should  be  repealed,  to  the  end  that  the  dangers 
of  free  institutions  which  lurk  in  the  power  of  official  patronage  may  be 
wisely  and  effectively  avoided. 

The  public  lands  are  a  heritage  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  and 
should  be  reserved  as  far  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  t!ie  speedy  forfeiture  of  all  land  grants  which 
have  lapsed  by  reason  of  non-compliance  with  acts  of  incorporation,  in  all 
cases  where  there  has  been  no  attempt  in  good  faith  to  perform  the  conditions 
of  such  grants. 

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  to  all  who  were  disabled  and  for  the  widows  and  orphans 
of  those  who  died  in  the  war.  The  Republican  party  pledges  itself  to  the 
repeal  of  the  limitation  contained  in  the  Arrears  Act  of  1S79,  so  that  all 
invalid  soldiers  shall  share  alike,  and  their  pensions  shall  begin  with  the  date 
of  disability  or  discharge  and  not  with  the  date  of  the  application. 

REGARDING  A   FOREIGN   POLICY. 

The  Republican  party  favors  a  policy  which  sKall  keep  us  from  entang- 
ling alliances  with  foreign  nations,  and  which  shall  give  the  right  to  expect 
that  foreign  nations  shall  refrain  from  meddling  in  America,  and  the  policy 
which  seeks  peace  can  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  interest  of  American  commerce,  and  we  call  upon  Congress 
to  remove  the  burdens  under  which  American  shipping  has  been  depressed, 
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  President  to  offices  in  the  territories 
should  be  made  from  the  bona  Jide  citizens  and  residents  of  the  territories 
wherein  they  are  to  serve. 


64 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  enact  such  laws  as  shall 
promptly  and  effectually  suppress  the  system  of  polygamy  within  our  territory 
and  divorce  the  political  from  the  ecclesiastical  power  of  the  so-called  Mormon 
Church,  and  that  the  law  so  enacted  should  be  rigidly  enforced  by  the  civil 
authorities  if  possible,  and  by  the  military  if  need  be. 

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  duty,  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  government  may  be  pre- 
served and  the  Union  kept  inviolate.  The  perpetuity  of  our  institutions  rests 
upon  the  maintenance  of  a  free  ballot,  an  honest  count  and  a  correct  return. 
We  denounce  the  fraud  and  violence  practised  by  the  Democratic  party  in  the 
Southern  States,  by  which  the  will  of  the  voter  is  defeated,  as  dangerous  to 
the  preservation  of  free  institutions,  and  we  solemnly  arraign  the  Democratic 
party  as  being  the  guilty  recipient  of  the  fruit  of  such  fraud  and  violence. 

We  extend  to  the  Republicans  of  the  South,  regardless  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  recognition,  pos- 
session and  exercise  of  all  civil  and  political  rights. 

Mr.  Bush,  of  California — I  move  the  adoption  of  the  reso- 
hitions 

The  Chair — The  gentleman  from  California  moves  the 
adoption  of  the  resolutions.  The  question  is  upon  the  adoption. 
Those  in  favor  of  the  same  will  say  yea,  and  contrary,  nay. 

The  resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously. 


/^-rs/tj^fr),ly 


I»I«,IOE,    2S    CEIVTS. 


LIVES 

OF 

BLAINE  K^«  LOGAN 


JAMES   G.  BLAINE. 


JOHN  A.  LOGAN. 


THE  PEOPLE'S  EDITION— BOOK  OF  REFERENCE. 

JAMF.S    G.    BLAINE — HIS    BIRTHPLACE    AT    WEST    BROWNSVILLE,    PA. — BOYHOOD COLLEGB 

LIFE — TWO  YEARS  AT  THE    PHILADELPHIA    BLIND    INSTITUTION — EDITOR  IN  MAINE 

THE    HOMESTEAD  AT  AUGUSTA,  ME. — RELIGION — CAREER  IN  CONGRESS — SPEAKER 

OF    THE     HOUSE INGERSOLL'S     SPEECH     NOMINATING     HIM    FOR    PRESIDENT 

IN     1876 ORIGIN    OF    THE    TERM    "PLUMED      KNIGHT" WASHINGTON 

RESIDENCE SENATOR    FROM    MAINE — SECRETARY  OF  STATE — GAR- 
FIELD'S  FRIEND — EULOGY   ON   THK   DEATH   OF   GARFIELD — AS 
AN    HISTORIAN — "TWENTY   YEARS    OF    CONGRESS" — THE 
CONVENTION    OF     1 884  —  BALLOTS    IN    DETAIL — THE 
ELECTORAL  VOTES — JUDGE   WEST'S   SPEECH — NO- 
TIFICATION BY  CHAIRMAN  HENDERSON — ETC. 
JOHN  A.  LOGAN — WAR  RECORD — PUBLIC 
LIFE — GRANT  ON    LOGAN — SKETCH 
OF    MRS.  LOGAN — THE   REPUB- 
LICAN PLATFORM  OF  1 884. 


COPYRIGHT, 

E.  T.  HAINES  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

712  SANSOM   ST.,  PHILADELPHIA. 

1S84. 


T^T^ 


See  Page  62.