The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-01-25
About Blaine.

The New York Nation, in Its usual self.
sufficient and bumptious style, has objected to
the appointment of Mr.. Blaine to the position
OF Secretary of State on the ground that he is
mot lawyer" The answer to this very silly
and superficial objection is threefold: a. Mr..
Blaine is something more than lawyer; he is
lawmaker. He has been engaged In making
laws for attorneys to haggle about and construe
during long and brilliant public career; and
We have not heard that greater proportion of
the legislation shaped or recommended by him
was found more defective than of that
put through in opposition to his wishes (2)
International law, so-called, with which the
Secretary OF State has to deal, is not science
and has no caSt-lron codes. 1t is simply body
of precedents, with which Mr. Blaine is per-
fectly familiar. No practicing lawyer without
experience in Congress, or diplomatic business
can pretend to have half the knowledge of
these subjects that Mr.. Blaine has acquired in
the regular discharge Of his official duties. IN
ternational law has nothing to do with local
Jurisprudence, as the English Government has
lately been compelled to confess in the For
tune Bay affair. (3.) the safest and most bril-
liant Secretaries of State this country has had.
with the solitary exception of Mr.. Webster)
were not practicing lawyers. Many of them
had been through the law school, to be sure.
out their professional training ceased before
they had begun their life-w work. Thomas Jef-
ferson entered the Virginia House of Burgesses
Two Two years after he was admitted to the Bar, in
Ii69 and remained almost continuously in
pubic life until he left the Presidency in
loO9 Hs was one of the most distinguished
lawmakers this country has ever known, but
was IN no sense famous practicing lawyer
Inc same IS true of James Madison. Monroe
studied law with Jefferson, but his course was
interrupted, and he was not admitted 10 the
Bar, and did not practice. Edward Everett
mad precisely the same experience beginning
IN the office OF John Quincy Adams, who was
himself diplomat and statesman, n a pro-
fessional lawyer Henry Clay was a brilliant
criminal lawyer in his yonth but HI; experi-
ence I'D that respect could not have helped
materially to qualify him to deal with grave
International questions, and he was known TO
lame only as an orator and statesman. Exact
y the same is true OF William H. Seward.
Marcy merely began the practice of law, but
oecai.e soldier and editor, and passed most
OF this long life in public office. The same is
true OF Lewis Cass, except that he never was
an editor. Hamilton Fish entered public life |
when he was % and remained in office almost |
for twenty years. NJ; Evarts, |
the only distinctively practicing lawyer who |
ever held the position OF Secretary of State has
oeen the most conspicuous failure in that posi- |
tlon. In Europe, where diplomacy has been |
made fine art, it is an entirely separate pro-
fession. Distinguished lawy ers look for promo |
ton to the Bench but do not aspire to positions
ID the Foreign Office because it is not supposed |
that they have the right kind of training for |
usefulness in that department. The Nation |
merely presumes on the prejudces of its read
srs when 1t intimates that o man like Mr. |
Blaine, who has been continuously in public
NE Tor twenty three years, and all that time |
IN lawmaking bodies is less qualified to dis |
charge well the duties of Secretary of State |
than he would be if he had slipped through |
some loose, make-believe examination in q |
New York or Cambridge law-school thirty |
years ago