Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-04-17
Mr.. Blaine's Speech.

MT. Blame speech
The general opinion was before Mr..
Blaine spoke on the army appropriation
bill that the republicans of the House had
presented every argument that could be
brought forward against the repeal of the
election laws. but that opinion has changed
since Mr.. Blaine's speech. 1t is now con-
ceded that his is one of the most i'm
portant. most telling and eloquent speech
es yet delivered in this exciting debate,
presenting the subject in new and clearer
light, and strengthening immensely the
position held by the republicans. The
New York Times says; ellis entire speech
was valuable contribution to the repub-
lican side of discussion to which it re-
quires no little ingenuity to add anything
new or striking The Tribune saws
"Mr. Blaine's speech in the Senate and
Mr.. Garfelds recent speech in the House
will stand together as the ablest EXPOSE
tons that have been made, or are likely
to be made, Of the republican view of the
free election controversy. Mr. Blaine :
speech is the more vivid and thrilling of
the two. and must have risen at times, not
ably at his closing illusions to the mar
tyred President, to a height of eloquence
not often reached in Congress.
We shall publish the entire speech as
soon us it appears in the Congressional
Record in the meantime the following no.
tice of it from the Washington correspond
ent of the Boston Advertiser will give
some idea of the arguments advanced and
the manner in which it was received by
the large and distinguished audience which
filled the Senate Chamber to hear it.
The speech was compact, but so suggestive
throughout as to cover wide ground. His
showing of the actual strength and distribu-
ton of the army in the South, and in fact,
in the whole territory east of the Mississippi,
was such revelation a, democrats had not cx-
pected. His personal application of the mil
itary situation in each southern State to the
frantic attacks made by senators of those
States against the use of troops AT the polls,
was both ludicrous and telling. The total
number of soldiers east of the Mississi ppi
river, in territory containing forty mil
lions of population, was only 2797, or sixty
soldiers to every million people. He then
proceeded to read from his list the number of
troops in each southern State, which he ac-
companied by observations that teemed with
eating satire. In Delaware, whose two SEN
ators manifested so much alarm lest the mill
tary might overthrow the republican nsttu-
tions, there was not single soldier In
West Virginia. the junior senator from which
State (Hereford) wrought himself into pas
sion over the ''ron heel of military despo-
tism," there was not a soldier In MARYLAND
there were 1872 artillerymen employed to man
Fort McHenrv, at the entrance of the Balti-
more harbor In Virginia. 2s2 men attend
ed the school of practice at Fortress Monroe
and there Sas not another federal soldier in
the State. In North Carolina there were thirty
soldiers guarding the fort at the mouth of
Cape Fear river. The 1870 men guarding the
forts at Charleston harbor were all the troops
now in South Carolina Twentv-nine sol
diers only were stationed in Georgia; in
Florida there were I2s in Tennessee, Ken
lucky, Missouri and Mississippi there was not
a solitary federal soldier: there were but 81
in Arkansas; 32 in Alabama: 23s in Louisi-
ana; and in Texas. apart from those that
guarded the Rio Grande, there was not Il sol.
der. Eleven hundred and fifty soldiers, Mr.
Blaine sarcastically observed. were all that
oppressed and DESTROYED the Liberties of the
fifteen millions of Southern people. He fur
ther analysed this, and made the picture more
ludicrous by showing that there was not even
one soldier to a county, and only one soldier
to every 700 square miles of territory, and on,
soldier to every thirteen polling places
These figures of Mr. Bainc's elected tn,
greatest merriment all over the chamber a
the expense of the democrats The climax o
this part of the speech WAS reached when Mr.
Blaine, in his most earnest manner, and AL
dressing himself to the democratic side, said
that there were not two democratic senator
who could now go into the cloak-room with
out enjoying smile. How Europe wOul
laugh when told that a territory larger tina
England, France, Spain Italy, Switzerland