Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-03-10
lallcastcr fi,telI:gemrer.
THURSDAY EVENING. MAR. 10. 1881.
Not Gone for Coed.

Senate into the cabinet. He goes from
. place that is greatly coveted by men OF |
ambition, who are capable of making |
their mark in it, as he certainly is, to
one which is Stunned as place of pOlit-
ical burial. The experience of many
past years has shown that presidential
aspirant can find no stepping stone to
his ambition in cabinet Office.
The secretaryship of state at zone
time had that allurement, but now
it does not even have the attraction of
being the most influential and powerful
OF the cabinet Offices. It may, perhaps,
be yet esteemed as the most respectable
by reason of the old time perfume that
hangs around it. 1t is place of ease,
well suited to an aged party favorite
Who has surrendered his hope of the
presidency. 1t did well enough for an
exhausted candidate like General Cass,
to rest in; but for a vigorous party
chieftain, such as Blaine undoubtedly
is, it seems a strange retreat. Some
people think that his assumption of
it has the significance of the taking of
the black veil, and that Blaine has with
drawn from the presidential pursuit
which he was hitherto engaged in with
20 much ardOr.
We doubt this very much. The leop-
ard cannot change its spots; but it can
crouch and wait. Becoming secretary
of state, undoubtedly Blaine has deter
mined to interrupt for time his pur-
suit of the presidential game. He pro-
poses to wash himself clean and anoint
himself with sweet spices in the very
respectable Office into which he for a
time retires to rest. He is yet young.
At the worst he will need but to wait
eight years to bloom with new vigor
and fresh fragrance as presidential
candidate. Should it happen that Mr..
Gariield's administration should be SO
successfulas t. give its head Il second
term, Mr.. Blaine will share the glory and
become fragrant with pleasant odOrs. He
has then an even chance of receiving the
Inheritance which SO much goodness will
merit and becoming his party s candidate
for the succession. 1t is true that ad-
ministrations cannot safely be relied
upon to retain popular favor; and NJ.
Blaine has in his calculation considered
the probability that Mr.. Garfield's will
60 to the bad in its first term. But he
klows his own smartness and has Il com.
f,rtable reliance that he will be sagacious
and bold enough, to foresee the wreck
and escape its dangers.
In the Senate he would have been in
perpetual struggle to maintain his po-
sitiOn. Every act would have been con-
strued as dictated by the prompting Of his
ambition. His rivals would have main
tanned toward him their bitterness and
every time he would have come before a
nominating convention he would have
had the same dead weight that has twice
brought him defeat. Retiring from
the presidential race, as he docs now for
time, he shakes himself free from
these embarrassments, and when in the
future hecom up from fresh direction
to make his spring, he hopes to he light
weighted enough to span the distance.
So that we see good deal of shrewd-
ness and patient philosophy in Mr..
Blaine's defiance of the superstitions of
ordinary politicians about the state
Office, and his readiness to assume that
old woman's gown as cloak to his am
bition, which is no less ardent that it is
thus disguised. There may, however,
be further inducements for him. No
doubt he sees in the state Office capabili-
ties that the Fish and Evarts style of
men could not discover. Mr.. Blaine is not
noted for extreme scrupulOusness, and it
is safe to say that he will follow any path
that ambition invites him to. He will
make his department lively, if any life can
be put in it. We may safely count upon
having Il disturbing time in our foreign
relations, and finding Mr.. Blaine gal
lantly riding the storm ne has stirred up,
Sd as to attract plenty of public atten-
ton. Upon what side he will be, it would
not he safe to predict. Wesuggested the
other day that perhaps he found in the
current agitation for closer connec-
tiOn with Mexico, an opportunity which
male the holding of the state office Il valu-
allie point of advantage. If lie should
follow in the line of his heretofore de-
clared convictions, he will oppose that
union with Mexico which is supposed to
be close to the hearts of the Grant crowd.
That it is their scheme would be another
reason to Blaine why it should
Ike not his and their dissatisfaction
with Mr.. Garfeld's cabinet may he
greatly based upon the pronounced hos
tility of the secretary of state to polit-
ical union with an undesirable popu-
latiOn" which would give us u" weakness
where We want strength, discOrd where
we need peace, and lack Of patriotic
inspiration where most of all we re-
quire the devoted spirit of a true Amer
lean nationality" As Mr.. Elaine has
thoroughly demonstrated the selfislness
of his patriotism and his fondness for
row when lie can mix in it to get glory
out of it, we do not put any trust in
his sincere desire for peace instead of
discord in the Mexican matter. He is
very likely to foment the discord that
he may make the peace. Whatever has
taken him into the state office, it is
quite certain that he has gone there