The Republican journal., 1876-03-30
From the New York World, March Ii
The Fall of Blaine.

we laugh" in which he has gathered to-
gether wonderful number OF good polit
zeal stories, not without a purpose. But
nothing in his book gives so satisfactory
an answer to the question asked by its
title as the last weeks simple history of
the decline and fall of that great Repub-
lican Emperor Blaine, of Maine Sidney
Smith has somewhere explained the subtle
reasons which make the tumbles OF a bis
hop in the public highway more ridiculous
than the tumbes Of an ordinary layman,
and no bishop was ever half so porten-
tously episcopal in his mien and carriage
as Mr.. Blame, of Maine, among his polit-
zeal hackers. If any one of dozen Re
publican members of Congress who might
be named had put himself in the way of
getting SO severe a trouncing as Mr. La
mar was forced to administer to Mr.
Blaine on a question of constitutional law
during the debate which resulted in the
impeachment OF Belknap, his Republi.
can colleagues might have been secretly
amused, but they would probably have
been able to suppress their mirth out of a
tellow-teeling with the victim But when
Mr. Lamar calmly, coolly, almost sweet
ly, led the unhappy Blaine steadily on
ward from blunder to blunder until, with
Wallace's Supreme Court Reports in hand,
he daintily but decisively turned him over
suddenly and once for all on his back, and
laid him laundering in a mess of adjec-
tlves on the floor, the bonds of party SYM
pathy itself gave way like wisps OF straw,
and the Republicans joined as heartily as
the Democrats in the Homeric laughter
which followed Nh Lamar's treatment
81 Rlaina IN, tbat ooaa sion hoe boap cop,
pared by some of the picturesque CORE
spondents OF the press to the playing of a
cat with q mouse SO far as the image
expresses the intellectual superiority OF
the victor over the victim, it is correct
enough But the cat which worries a
mouse undoubtedly takes pleasure in the
worrying, either because OF a certain de-
light in evil-doing inherent in the feline
nature, which may account for the wor-
ship of cats by the Egyptians or perhaps
from a gastronomic instinct which may
teach the cat that TO give its mouse lit
tie ante-mortem moral roasting will en-
nance its final flavor as cat's-meat. Mr.
Lamar was obviously sorry, on the con-
trary, 30 find himself compelled to worry
Blaine. He gave the arrogant member
from Maine not one but dozen chances
to escape from the false position into
which he had inconsiderately and vain
gloriously thrust himself; and even at
the end, when Blaine's persistency made
it impossible tor him to rescue himself or
TO be rescued by anybody else, Mr.. La
mar, with uprut1led temper, and in a soft,
low. almost compassionate voice, turned
to the House as a generous gladiator in
the Roman arena might have turned to
the crowded amphitheatre when his foe
lay unsworded and unshielded at his feet,
and called for the verdict of the thumbs.
Il have a great mind, Mr.. Speaker" he
said, Ito let my friend off. What do you
say, gentlemen, shall go on?" And it
was only when the House, either nobly
eager to see a petulant bully made an end
Of, or merely hot with the fierce instincts
which the spectacle of q sharp contest al
ways eXcites, cried out as with one voice,
$50 on, 90 on! Punish him." that the
sword of the Mississippian descended, and
his helpless antagonist tell "all OF a heap
together at his feet.
In our Congressional annals this scene
will long live tor an example and warn
ing An example, as showing how much
more effective, even in so heterogeneous
a body as the House of Representatives,
are the belligerent methods of we'll
equipped and well bred nature, than
those Of hasty and violent one. A
warning, as showing that a leader who
asserts himself habitually by vehemence
and insolence rather than by argument
and tact, may surely count upon hearing
the voices of his own followers loudest in
the hoarse laughter Of triumph about
him, whenever the inevitable hour of de-
feat which comes to all men at least once
in their career shall come to him. The
tyranu who has once been made ridicu-
lous, falls to rise no more. The bully OF
4 public school. once unexpectedly and
thoroughly thrashed, sinks instantly and
forever into the ranks. A single week
has sufficed to show the completeness
with which Mr. Lamar seven short days
ago did his work upon Blaine.
On Monday an aspiring member from
Indiana, by the name of Baker, undertook
to lead the public thought away from
Schenck and Belknap and Williams, and
all that class of odious and offensive sub
jects, by offering a resolution about the
intent and meaning of the Constitution,
the true theory OF our Government, the
Wickedness OF secession, and a variety OF
other abstract propositions. Bakers res
olution was promptly referred to the
waste-basket, and Mr.. Cox, OF New York
with most commendable alertness OF mind
took instant possession of the floor to state
in plain English and with guarded accul-
racy the true doctrine of the Democracy
upon all points which it had been the
intent of the ingenious Mr.. Baker to mud.
die for the benefit OF the tiy-gobblers, had
he been allowed so to do. Mr.. Cox's res
olutions were as follows, and we repro
duce them not only because, as will be
presently seen, they are necessary to il
ustrate the extent to which the wits o
Blaine have been dazed by his punishment
last week, but also because they are al
excellent summary of sound political doc
trine:
Resolved, That the people of the Unitee
States constitute a nation, in the sense, to thu
extent and for the purposes defined in the Fed
eral Constitution.
Resolved, That the Government OF the Uni
ted States is federal union, and was formed
bv the people of the several States in their SOW
erign capacity; that the rights and powers o
the United States Government are defined an(
limited by the Federal Constitution, and these
rights and powers cannot be enlarged or dmn
ished except by an amendment to the Constitu
ton.
ReSOlNeu, j Hau lle TlSnts OF lne StaIeS nave
the same sanction of security in the Constitu
ton as the rights and powers of the Fedora
Government, and that local domestic govern
ment by the several States, within the limits o
the Constitution is absolutely necessary for thu
preservation of the liberties of the citizens ant
the continuance of our Republican system o.
government.
Resolved, That the doctrine that aay STATE
has the right to secede from the Union is in con
flict with the idea of a perpetual Union, as con
templated by the Constitution, and should bt
regarded as being forever eXtingushed by thu
result of the recent civil conflict.
Mr.. Holman judiciously called at once
for the yeas and nays on these resolutions
upon which Mr.. Blaine was bewildere(
enough to rise in his place and express
the hope that 'every Union man in thu
House would vote against them!"
number of the Republicans, of course
were clever enough to see the idiotic pc
sition in which it would place their party
to vote as Union men" against resolu
tons which simply recite the common
places of political truth about the UniOl