The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-07-08
The "white PIumed Knight"

lie WuItc Iiumeu huiguts
Our Washington specials say that al
though Mr.. Blaine has been persistent
ly urged by his friends in Maine to be-
come candidate for Congress nextfall,
he has positively declined, and the Re-
publican slate in that State is now being
made up accordingly. Of course there
is no predicting the turn of the political
wheel, but it certainly now looks very
much as if Blaine were permanently on
the retired list. He is no longer young,
and, what is worse, has, to a very con-
siderable extent, ontlived his popularity
in his own party. In 1876 he was I'M
questiopably the Republican favorite by
a large majority. and the defeat of the
''white-plumed knight by a man named
Hayes was regarded by the great mass
of Republicans as shame and disgrace.
To-day he is almost as dead politically
as the man named Hayes, and his white
plume is not much more likely to be seen
in the fore front of Presidential bat
terry than is the red ribbon total absti-
nence flag of his successful competitor
at Cincinnati. He did good service in
bursting the third term business, but
was himself hoisted by the same petard
which Knocked Grant out of the ring.
Possibly he might have got what prize
fighters call "his second wind" had
he been allowed to serve out bis term as
Secretary of State. But he made an
unpromising beginning and his early
enforced retirement prevented him from
regaining the lost ground. At present
he is an object of special detestation
with the dominant Republican faction,
while the anti-Stalwarts feel for him
nothing more than lukewarm affection.
In short, unless all signs fail, Blaine is
played out"
Whyp Not because he lacks ability.
Probably no member of his party has as
much. Not because he has not rendered
his party what, at the time at least,
were considered valuable services.
Probably no Republican has rendered
more. Not because he is not thorough
ly sound ON the party creed. No Re-
publican is sounder What, then, is
the matter with Blaine? This: He has
not a grain of true craftsmanship in
him. He is a politician and nothing
else, and his tricks as such being ex-
hausted he has nothing to fall back up
on. As INSCRIPTIONS as ambitious, he
sought to grasp the glittering prize of a
Presidential nomination by stirring up
the smoldering embers of sectional
strife and thrusting himself forward rs
the champion of "a solid North against
a solid South" The ~bloody-shirt card
failing to win in 1876, though it came
very near, he gradually swung round
toward the conservative line, so that in
1880 he was selected to beat Grant In
SO doing he Unexpectedly elected Gar
field and became identified with an Ad-
ministration avowedly hostile to the
principles and practices which he repre-
sented six years ago. Garfeld's death
left him, SO to speak, ''high and dry"
The Stalwarts hated him, the anti-Stal-
warts were tired of him, and being out
of Congress he had no ladder by which
to climb again into influential position.
Statesmen are very scarce, and were he
one he would be power in his party
and liable at any moment to step to the
front as an indispensable leader. Poll
ticians are plentiful, and, being one,
nothing but luck can lift him to his old
pAesSCs ~ NUNS sCA y uiuCu as IL ITO usxu
had his day, and might hereafter be
reckoned out of the game. If such is
the case, there is no occasion for regret
among those who regard patriotism as
better than partisanship. Blaine is essen
TALLY partisan. His country does not
extend beyond the Potomac and tho
Ohio, and he has no conntrymen outside
the Republican ranks. At time when
the wounds of the war seemed almost
healed, he deliberately tore them open
by appeals to sectional prejudice and
passion, hoping thereby to ride into the
Presidency on the wave of Northern
fear and fury. He deliberately pre-
ferred his own personal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
to National unity, peace and prosperity;
and his failure at Cincinnati was merely
the first installment of righteous retri-
button which is not yet exhausted. And
there is deal of poetic justice in the
fact that his bitterest enemies to-day are
the very men whom he Taught, by precept
and example. the beauties and blessings
of Stalwart Republication. Like the
hero of the Greek myth, he is devoured
by his own hounds. st. Louis Republican
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