The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1876-06-10
BLAlNE'S TRIUMPH.

Out of the forty.four millions of PEG
pie who to-day are taken into the privat,
confidence of ex-Speaker Blaine, and VIII,
through the medium of the press, arr
made acquainted with the famous cor
respondence which Mr.. Mulligan held
in terrorem over his head, how many ART
there who really believe that there wa
anything compromising in these letters
No doubt it would be hard to find sin
gle man who would admit that he be
lieved the letters had anything in them
and yet, only yesterday, how many thou
sand were there going about and shaking
their heads sadly, and saying that W.
might depend upon it that, if the letters
we're what Blaine represented them to bt
he would not rest under the imputations
involved by his Withdrawing them.
Now Blaine has read the letters before
Congress and before the whole world, and
in an hour the whole fabric of lie and
SANDER tumbles 10 pieces through 1t.
own rottenness. The letters are such a.
was written by every other man who in
vested in enterprises of the kind. Not q
grain of suspicion could be conjured out
of them. We could wish that the wit.
nesses were equally innocent. But did
not Mr.. Mulligan swear that Blaine had
admitted that these letters would ruin
him? Are not these letters sufficient
proof that Mulligan is q double-distilled
and concentrated liar?, Mulligan says
that, to save these letters from publlca.
ton, Blaine "almost went down OH his
knees" to him, begging him to think Of
his wife and six children, threatened to
commit suicide, and finally offered him
Consulship as bride to suppress the
letters. For his answer, Blaine has the
letters read from the Clerks desk of the
House of Representatives; identified
them by Mulligan's memorandum; there
is nothing suicidal in them, nothing ru-
inous; nothing to endanger the happi-
ness and peace of wife and six children.
They are not even worth q COnsulship to
Senegambia.
Leaving Mr.. Mulligan to disappear
into the Obscurity from which he emerged
for temporary iHfamy, let ulask what
is Blaine's real offense, and why is he
prosecuted with such futile malignity ?
His offense is simply that he is the leader
and standard-bearer of the Republican
party, its most popular member. its most
promising candidate. The attentions
paid him are an uncouth but unmistak-
able evidence of this Had he been less
conspicuous, less. formidable, he might
have stood in the ranks of the candidates
unnoticed but the fact that he is the
one man who can not be beaten has
stimulated his persecution, and he has
paid the price Of his popularity. 1t was
not dear price to pay, for he has gained
more than he has lost.
Judged by its results, the whole inves-
tigation looks like farce, and yet how
serious a business it would have been
for Mr.. Blaine if he had had a single
weak spot in his armor! Those who got
it up must have known that they had
no shadow of proof, but they had sub
lime confidence in the average rascality
of human nature; they thought that if
they followed up the attack they would
somewhere come across something to suit
their purpose. For once they we're mis-
taken ; for once a man was found who
had nothing to conceal or to evade
in his record, and now the recoil will be
stronger than the blow. The attempt to
overthrow Blaine has raised him up, and
whereas q month ago there was half a
dozen men who, in the popular estima-
ton, were as available as he, he is to-day
through no design or wish of his, but as
the result of an attempt to crush him, as
far beyond his competitors in the race as
he is above his calumniators in the scan
Democrat.