National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-04-29


rel with Mr.. Belmont, of the committee,
for having said, in questioning another
witness on previous day:
On the 10Th OF December Mr.. Blaine wrote his
last dispatch to South America, in which he says
in effect, that there shall be no treaty Of peace
without recognition of the Landreau claim.
If Mr.. Belmont had referred TO the 4th
of August dispatch he would have been
entirely correct. The 10th of December
dispatch was, as above stated, much
changed in tone and terms. Mr.. Blaine
refused to be pacifed The quarrel was
by him revived at each subsequent meet
ing of the committee. He was out
ragged He was insulted He would not
be browbeaten-not hel He was not in
a police court. Mr.. Belmont was "this
young man." "A garbage boy" could
not more excite his contempt. He had
testified to all that interested him, and
was wonderfully irritable at all questions
concerning Landreau. lie put on his
big look" he pulled out his highest
stop and assumed his most strident tone !;
his New York organ declares that he
even brought down his book upon the
table with a thud." He seemed bent
on suppressing Belmont, and if he had
had an umbrella with him would un-
doubleday have spread it out suddenly
at him, rs old ladies do when they want
to scare away aggressive cattle. 1t was
stormy. Some said that his anger was
mere acting, to make inquiry difficult
that it was easier to get mad than
to explain what desperate need our
Government had that Landreau
should secure u divide with Chill
on Perus guano. The subject was
too great even for him at times. He
would burst forth in fine frenzy when
he pictured English and French creditors
as having carried away five hundred
thousand tons of guano, while our poor
Landreau Ia Frenchman naturalized as
some say, to secure our interference had
none. THE very property" he mourn
fully exclaimed, "to which this Ameri-
can claim attached" "This American
claim !-that is, the private claim of one
man, the legality of whose naturalization
is questioned
Mr.. Blaine at times seemed to think
the claim but very small matter. "The
amount" said he, "has been improperly
stated at Sl0O,0OO,0O0. 1t never exceeded
81, O,0O0-not a very enormous claim, as
things CO." And how, one would like
to ask Mr.. Blaine, do things go?" The
rage of Mr.. Blaine will strike the public
as wholly out of proportion to any pos
sible provocation. 1t reminds one of the
terrible tone in which the shepherd was
answered who found one of his fattened
sheep killed and on the back of another
man: Eyes; and I'll kill any id sheep
that bites me-"
, But Mr.. Belmont was not enough to
appease the appetite of the irate ex-Sec-
rotary. His great revenge had stomach
for more. He would devour President.
The cold remains of the Blaine policy
, and the Trescot instructions were
) brought forward and warmed over.
, Again the public was informed that the
instructions to Trescot were submitted to
! and approved by the President; but the
, seemingly true statement was unaccom-
panied by the fact that the President was
uniformed as TO much of the previous
history of the subject and wholly I'M
acquainted with Mr.. Blaine's way of
, doing business Nobody has accused Mr..
Blaine Of altering the letter of instruc-
, tions. He need not, therefore, separate
the President and his friends on thatscore
lie knows this very well. He knows,
too, that he was trusted implicitly by the
President, and that therefore the
f latter did not analyze his letter
to Mr. Trescot as though it had been
written in furtherance of plans
to which the President was hostile. He
knows, too, that he did not at any time
inform the President of his supplement-
airy letter to Mr.. Trescot, in which that
active coworker with him was instructed
to return by way of the Atlantic and con-
fer with nations hostile to Chill. He
knows that that letter was based solely
upon the verbal consent of the President
to the Atlantic route home as q pleasure
trip. He knows that the instructions to
Mr.. Trescot were never revoked except
as to depriving him of the power to open
quarrel with Chilli. He knows
that the President was patient and
long suffering, and that in the
tenderness of his nature and the
courtesy Of his disposition he deferred
too long the introduction of friend into
the State Department. And finally he
knows that he insults the public intelli-
gence by advertising that the President
had so tied his own hands that he was
: not free to furnish to Congress whatever
papers he might at any time consider it
compatible with or conducive to the pub
lie interest that they should have. "I
thought" says this modest ex-subordi-
nate in his statements to the committee,
! that had an understanding with the
t President Of the United States that this
I dispatch should not be communicated to
the Senate until Mr.. Trescot's return"
He should have said that he so desired
But Presidents are not always the SER
wants Of one of their ministers. Mr.
Blaine thought" he had "an under
standing" with the President This is
paltering in double sense. What does
Mr. Blaine mean2 Does he mean that
he did not suppose the President would
act contrary to his request or adviceP He
can have no other ground for his coarse
and suggestive, and yet hesitating and
niggardly, half-truth. If he means to
charge that the President made q prom
Use and broke IT, then we saw that he