Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-03-21
The state Department.
In the correspondence Of +. v. Smalley
the New York Tribune we find the followin,

In the correspondence of +. " Smalley tC
the New York Tribune we find the following
SxcRErARYs BLAINE's MANY VISITORS.
The pressure Of visitors at the State De.
partment is almost rs great as at the White
House. Mr.. Blaine has now a chance to re-
alize that the possession of great number OF
personal friends has its disadvantageous side.
Every one Of his ten thousand enthusiastic
admirers seems to think he ought to show his
attachment by coming to Washington and
asking for an office; or, il he wants no office.
insisting at least on having a good square
talk with the new Premier. IL the appica-
tons for place which are pressed upon the
Secretary were limited to his own Depart
ment, he would be fortunate, but people who
want postmasterships, collectorships. mar
ships, and other offices with which he has
nothing to do, appeal to him on the ground
Of personal friendship. as though he were,
like the President, general dispenser of all
sorts of patronage. am bound to say that
he bears up wonderfully well under these
continuous raids upon his good nature. He
can get rid Of an importunate and unreason-
able office-secker without offending him or
cooling the arior of his personal liking better
than any man in the Cabinet. He moves
about his great reception-room with as much
ease and tact as though he had been years in
the place. weighing the Importance of his
visitors at glance, taking five minutes with
one and half minute with another, but hav-
ing for each cordial handshake and pleas
ant word. His Oldest son, Walker Blaine,
has come from Minnesota to he his chief
adjutant-a quiet, modest, well poised and
sagacious young gentleman, who occupies a
desk in the reception room, and between his
correspondence and the calls upon him to act
~ intcrcessor in securing audiences with his
father, is up to his ears in work. His brother
Emmons, who has shown good deal of
taste for aptitude for public life in the polit-
ical campaigns in Maine, has gone into a
railroad Office in Chicago. wisely concluding
70 let politics alone until he has made a foot.
ing for himself in active business life.
PROSPECTIVE STATE Policy.
People who care little for the personalities
Of politics. and who look over and beyond
the squabble for place to discern the tenden-
cies Of the Kew government. expect some
thing striking, pointed and progressive to
come from MIR. Blaine's direction of the State
Department. He is not man. they saw. to
sit four years in a cushioned chair and do
nothing but commission few ministers aud
consuls and exchange compliments with the
members Of the foreign Legations. He comes
ftom State that is wedged in between two
British provinces, and will be sure TO have
definite and thoroughly American ideas on
the questions arising from the proximity Of
the anomalous neutrality-suspicious. Canadian
Dominion. He has carefully studied the
Isthmus question; he knows the great i'm
portance to our commercial and manufactur-
ing interests of the movement for binding
Mexico to US with iron bands, and making
with our capital and industry peaceful and
fp3Andlv communist of her rich minas and
fruitful fields. He does not, like jefferson,
wish the Atlantic Ocean we're a sea of fire.
but sees that the United States. As the
strongest and best of the great family of
nations. has interests and duties all around
the world. He is not going to initiate the
Alibustering policy Of Marcy. There is no
fear ef that; hut venture to predict that the
credit, commerce, prestige and influence of
de Great Repablic will steadily grow under
~ uanaeemert Of il foreign relations.
+. VS..