Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-07-13
SPEAKER BLATNES LETTER.
Comments of the Press.

From the Springfield Republican,
1t will be observed that Mr.. Blaine is cal
cula;ing his politics at present for the Meridi-
an of the Maine ship-yards. Perhaps he is
wise. There is a good deal of time between
now and 1876.
From the Chicago Tribuncl
1t is possible that Mr.. Blaine has reached
the conclusion that the Republican party is a
Protectionist party, and that all who are not
Protectionists have gone out of it; consequent
ly that it becomes him to publicly recognise
the fact. If this be his conclusion, we think
he is not far wrong. We think also that
whether the Protectionists themselves appre-
ciate the fact, their opponents do appreci'
ate it and will act upon it with considerable
unanimity in the next Presidential election.
Therefore we are not unprepared to accept
Mr.. Blaines hail and farewell not emitting,
however, to thank him for the good turns he
has done to the friends of revenue reform on
divers and sundry occasions.
[From the Boston Advertiser 10Th
The Argus eyes of the New York World
have discovered that Mr.. Blaine's letter de-
nouncing the prospective treaty of reciprocity
with CanadsIis an attack upon the President,
preparatory to contesting with him the nomi.
nation for the Presidency in 1876. There are
HVSSi
bly, more,-the first is that the treaty is not an
administration measure, and the second that
the President is not candidate for reelection.
Either of these two circumstances is calcula-
ted to impair the effect of the Worlds broad
side. Mr. Blaine put into his letter what APP
pears to be the almost universal sentiment OF
the great producing interests of New England.
The ship building constituency which he rep
resents is not more hostile to the treaty than
the farming and manufacturing districts which
it also assails. If there were ever danger
that it would be made an administration mea
sure, the danger ceased to exist the moment
the treaty was submitted to public examina-
ton and criticism.
The New York Tribune, too, having taken
leap in the dark in favor of the treaty, is in
fnitely disguised with Mr.. Blaine for having
an opinion about it, The able editor works
himself into lively excitement on the sub
ject Of antedeluvian politics, and deprecates
the time wasted in "discussing distractions
with the Troglodytes!"
From the New York Worldl
The Tribune brands Speaker Blaine as a
"Troglodyte," for that he puts himself frank
ly forward as the champion of Protection to
meet the issue of Free Trade forced upon the
Republican party, which he proposes to lead
fact, leads it now in Congress, by the Democ-
racy of Maine. Precisely what Speaker
Blaine now proposes to do Horace Greeley
just before his death proposed to do. In jan
uary 1872, Horace Greeley in the Tribune ex-
plicitly said, ''now that emancipation is a
fixed fact, impartial suffrage nearly so,
and universal amnesty inevitable, there is
no remaining issue half so important as that of
Protection against Free Trade" Horace Gree
ley was no choice of ours, as he was the
choice of the Tribune, for political chief,
mainly among other reasons for this, that
seeing with his almost unrivaled perception of
the drift of things political the inevitable
conflict at hand of Free Trade with Protection,
his heart and soul were with Protection
against Free Trade. Had he been living now
to give point and purpose to the journal
which he founded, this astute old Troglodyte
would doubtless have recognized in the posi-
ton assumed by Blaine the opportunity OF
putting the Tribune once more into the actual
line of political battle. AS things are Blaine
and the Republican hosts will fight the great
fight of the century, and as we devoutly be-
lieve and hope they will receive the great
threshing of the century from the Democracy
of Maine and of the Union; but the journal
which now talks of Protection as "pre-
Adamite" issue and derides its own founder as
"Troglodyte" will be heard of neither en-
the one side nor on the other.
IErro,,, tho Droy;1apoo Jour,,,1