Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-12-30
SPEECH OF HON. JAS. G. BLAINE


OF MAINE.
In the House OF Representatives, Dec. 10Th, 1SGs
The House being in Committee o
the Whole on the state of the UnioT
(Mr. Hopkins, of Wisconsin, in thG
chair AIr. Blaine said:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN The three presi
dental elections which have resulted
in victory TO the Republican party are
by far the most memorable and mo-
mentOus in the history of our country.
The issues at stake each time have
been grander, the contest on either
side fiercer, the verdict in each in
stance more decisive and significant
than ever attended previous struggles
for the control of the national Govern
ment. IN the first victory of 1850
slavery received its fatal
blOw-the american people deciding
that at ali hazards the further spread
of human servitude into free territory
should cease. This decision was re-
sisted by rebelliOus war, and the war
led to the necessity of entirely abolish
ing the institution whose extension
had been merely checked by the eX-
preston of the popular will. The
/ election of 1864 turned upon the point
+ of continuing or discontinuing the
| bloody contest. which up to that time
had ragged. with unabated fury and
with enormous sacrifice of life and
property. The vote of the people de-
manded the prosecution of the war
until the rebellion should be sup
pressed, the national unity secured,
and slavery utterly abolished through
out the length and breadth of the land.
Had the verdict then rendered been
enforced in the Cabinet as faithfully
as it was in the field, the Presidential
struggle of 1868 would not have turned
upon the issues which actually entered
into it. But the unexpected and un-
precedented course of the Executive,
The revived malignity of the southern
rebellion, and the manifold attacks on
our national character and credit by
the Democratic party, rendered the
victory of 1868 rs absolutely essential
TO conserve and preserve the fruits of
our great triumph, as was the victory
of 1864 to insure the prosecution of the
war to n successful conclusion. And
now that victory, complete and unsul-
lied, has been won, and the passions
naturally engendered in the heat of
the canvass are gradually cooling, it
may not be improbable to take a
hasty glance at the ground we have
passed over, and to make brief sum-
mary of the points that have been sol
emQly adjudicated and permanently
settled by the American people in the
election of General Grant to the Pres
idency.
And first: The Union of the States
has been maintained, and its perpetu-
ity guaranteed, by this election, in a
sense and with a force that were new
er before enunciated when the ques-
ton was involved. / do not mean to
assert that the election of Mr.. Sey-
mour would have necessarily led to a
separation of the States, though there
are not wanting facts of great signifi-
canoe that might well justify such an
inference and such a fear. But what
l do mean is that the triumph of the
Democratic party under its rebel lead,
and the formal installing of that ele-
ment in supreme executive control,
would have destroyed the true aim and
spirit of the Union and reduced our
Government, as Mr.. Webster said the
same pernicious theories would have
raduced ii in 1880, .'tO the worst forms
of the old Confederationr in which
the "lOst cause" would have regained
its paradise of State rights and its priv
ilege of ruthlessly trampling on many
of the most precious principles and
priceless guarantees of our COnstitu-
tion. General Grants election has
averted this evil-nOt merely by q
temporary triumph, leaving the con-
test to be renewed hereafter with
1 ~. Il In, 1aa L.ra Eel,
victory that removes il from the list of
questions on which parties will divide
in the future. The election of 1868 is
the last in which the lately rebellious
section, even if it could be wholly con-
trolled by rebels, will have sufficient
power in the electoral vote of the eOun-
try to make it the object either of hope
or of fear on the part of political organ
iZatiOns striving for the government
of the nation. The tendency has been
in that direction ever since Mr.. Cal
hnun's famous theory of an equipoise
of free and slave States was destroyed
by the admission of California in 1850.
The relative power of the two sections
has been changing since that date
with startling rapidity, even without
the intervention of war; and the ap-
preaching census of 1870 will disclose
the fact that the ten rebel States,
viewed as one compact power, will
no longer have sufficient strength to
offer temptation to the Democratic
party of the North to sacrifice its loy-I
atty and its pride for the profit of an
alliance with them. The withdrawal
of Northern Democratic support from
these States will give TO the loyal in
habitants, who are a clear majority in
each one of them, the power of gov
erning them in the interest of LOYALTY,
whereby the sectional and clannish
spirit that has been their bane and
their destruction will be expelled, and
broad, generous national sympathies
take its place. And the effect of this
result on the Northern Democratic
party in turn will he to enforce in the
end an abandonment of the dislOyal
attitude by which it has lost its
ancient prestige and renown. The
Southern rebels and the Northern
Democrats having derived no honor
nor profit from their persistent coOpe-
ration, may find mutual advantage
and gain by separation in which
each. disencumbered of the other, may
atone at leisure for the Joint sins of
the discreditable partnership. This
prospective and penitent attitude of
the two great classes of offenders her