The Portland daily press., 1877-05-15
[From the New York Tribune.l
Letter from Gail Hamilton.
The Chicago Tribune and Mr.. blaine
Its Charge that He and his Family were
Roman CathoIics-Truih of the Matter
Moral Aspects of such Assertions.

4 "
Moral Aspects of such Assertions.
The fourth portrait which propose to hang
in my Rogues' Gallery is that of the Chicago
Tribune. cannot give the exact date Of the
| photograph, but it was when personal feeling
was at high water mark in 1876, and different
members of the same political party were
striving to make each his own candidate the
nominee of the approaching Cincinnati Con-
vention. at that time the Chicago Tribune
published the subjoined statement-published
1t in its editorial columns as absolute truth,
without qualification or question, thus putting
its distinguished and, perhaps should add,
venerable editor, Mr.. Joseph Medill member
of the late Civil Service Commission, in the
very foreground as the author or at least the
| responsible indorser, of the statement Here
| is what Mr.. Medill published:
Mr.. Blaine was born and raised Roman Catholic.
His parents were Irish Catholics and decent people.
His brothers and sisters Catholics now. His eI-
ceent and amiable wife is one and his children are
being raised in that faith. Mr.. j. G. Blaine alone
of the whole family connection is not an adherent Of
the "Mother Church." But he belongs to no Christ
hardly be called Protestant What faith he may
finally die in cannot be indicated except by analogy
and a consideration of the depth and strength OF
mothers religious incubation on a child's mind and
heart.
At the time OF the Chicago Tribune's pub
lcation of that devout little morsel Of religious
biography, Mr.. Blaine was-EheM quanhtm
nautatus ab lilo IA prominent candidate for
the nomination Of the Cincinnati Con vention.
How far he was in advance of all other candi-
dates may be judged from the fact that he
entered the balloting with more than one-third
OF all the votes and considerably more than
twice the number cast for any other candidate,
and that during the seven ballots he receiced
more than the number required for nomina-
tion. How far he was in advance of the Chi
cago Tribune's candidate may be judged by the
fact that he entered the first ballot with nearly
three times as many votes, and came out of the
seventh and last ballot with more than sixteen
times as many votes as that candidate.
This was state OF things hard to be borne.
1t would not only justify bat require the most
strenuous exertions on the part OF tse Chicago
Tribune to bring the fortunes of its candidate
abreast with those OF its formidable rival. No
one could blame it for any amount of honora-
BILE endeavor. There were immense odds to be
overcome and the time was short. The reli.
glous element has already entered, and threat
ems still further entrance, as . powerful factor
into our electoral problem. Protestants have .
deep distrust of Catholicism in respect of its
assumed authority over civic affairs. Catholics
hold not only their faith, but their polity, with
jealous tenacity. If Mr.. Blaine were Cath
olc, born and bred in that faith, rearing his
children in it, and surrounded by its adherents,
the fact could hardly fail to create great OBJ
lection against him in the minds of Protest
ants. Ii he were renegade Catholic. IL
would be serious objection in the minds Of
Catholics. If he were neither Protestant nor
Catholic, lapsing through inditferentism from
tho faith in which he was reared, but embrac-
| ing no other, both Catholic and Protestant
would be likely to become disafected.
A mans fitness for Office is not to be deter
mined by his creed, still less by that of his
wife and children. In canvassing his claims,
then, all discussion of his religious relations is
impertinent. Discussing the religious faith of
his family is impertinence of the lowest de-
gree. L will, however, waive this point
even admit that the civil sovereignty as
sumed by the Catholic church may give the
color OF right to call mans religion in ques-
ton. L will admit further that If ever such
intermeddling with the most secret and sacred
relations Of life be pardonable it is during the
heat Of Presidential campaign. The arena ia
vast, the prize heroic, the contest fierce. In the
times be swept past the boundary line of court
esy without forfeiting their right to be named
Dy the name which is above every name. a
mans ecclesiastical affiliations are not to be
hidden under bushel, and if their promulga-
tion makes him odious to large portion of the
community, "see thou to that" If the public
refuses to have a Catholic or Protestant, or
an Inhdel, or Jew to reign over IL, all the
more has it the right to know whether man
be Catholic, Protestant, Infidel or Jew.
At any rate the journalists started ont on .
steeplechase after Mr.. Blaine's religion. Up
bill and down, over hedge and ditch, trampling
through glebe and splashing through baptistery
in their headlong dash across country, rode the
bold huntsmen, madly trying to get on the
track of that unlucky faith, and with uniform
want OF success that argues anything but Q
keen scent for religion on the part OF the pur-
suers. Indeed, Mr.. Blaine himself could hardly
fail to be surprised at learning what devout
churchman he had been. Any modest man
who has gone through life quietly saying his
prayers and laying no claim to any more godli-
ness than his neighbors may well be startled at
finding his devotons dogged by detectives
and rung out on all the church bells from Maine
to California. II Mr.. Blaine had ever adopted
half the creeds attributed to him he must have
been what Kinglake declared Gladstone to have
been, "a good man In the worst sense of the
term
But our Western reformer knew more ex-
cellent way. 1t did not indeed discountenance
the publication of impertinent private matters,
but it rose superior to any attempt at ascertain
ing facts in those matters. While simpler souls
were wasting strength in hunting up authori.
ties throughout the country, the Chicago Trib.
une calmly sat down in its Office and loved and
made lie. Moreover the facts when come at
were not snited to its purpose, while those
which it should manufacture could be war
ranted to fit. Accordingly, with upturned eyes
such heayen-directed glance over the distil-
leries of Kentucky as Samivel bestowed upon
the elder Weller in the court room, and with
ill-concealed disdain toward those IDnocents
Abroad who were breaking their necks in q
hunt for facts, the angel of the Reform Church
in Chicago writes:
"Mr. Blaine was born and reared Roman
Catholic"
1t SO happens that Mr.. Blaine was not born
and reared Roman Catholic, but so much the
worse for Mr.. Blaine. 1t is necessary for the
advancement of reform that he should be; ac-
cordingly he is
"His parents were Irish Catholics and decent
people,"
and before admitting that they were decent
people should like to know whether the def
milton OF decsncy includes the Chicago Tribune.
Are ye looking at me now?' asked the
puzzled but purloining customer of the squint-
eyed salesman who had accused him. Yes,
am." Then ye saw me take itp' II the Chi
cago Tribune Is "decent people indignantly
deny that Mr.. Blaine's parents were "deceni
people"
1t is matter, however, of public record.
easily accessible to those interested in the facts
that MIR. Blaipe's parents both belonged to old
colonial families settled in Pennsylvania long
anterior to the Revolution, in which struggle his
ancestors on both sides bore an honorable and
not inconspicuous part. The whole Blaine
family in all its branches was never anything
else than Scotch Prysbyterians. In this faith
Mr.. Blaine was himself reared, and his father
before him, and all the generations of his pa
ternal ancestry. His mother was through life
Catholic, held in high esteem not only by her
own church, but by tine Protestant churches,
and followed reverently to her honored grave
not only ty Catholic priests but by all the
clergymen of the different Protestant denomina-
tons in the community where she was born and
where, after sweet and pious life of threescore
and ten, she sleeps with the sacred dead of her
kindred and her blood. Mr. Blaine himself set
tied in Maine when young man, and his Presby-
teran faith and rearing naturally transferred
him to the Congregational Church of which
he has been a member for nearly or quite 20
years. His ''amiable and excellent wife, whom
the Chicago Tribune. without qualification, de-
clares to be ''also a Catholic" was born in the
New England town where she lives; of Q Puri-
tan family that has eight generations of New
England orthodoxy behind it; family for
which have some right to speak; of whose
character have some reason to be proud, and
of whose history perhaps know as much as
the honorable Joseph Medill, editor-in-chief Of
the Chicago Tribune and whlom commissioner
Of civil service reform.
speak as fool, but l am compelled by
knave. mention these facts, which ought not
to be so much as named among us, simply to
show the weapons which the Chicago Tribune
wields in the notification of the civil servca