National Republican., 1882-09-28
Mr.. Blaine's Position.

Mr.. Blaine's Position.
No man has figured more conspcuously
In American politics during the past
twenty years than has James G. Blaine.
He entered upon the scene at Washington
at an early stage of the civil war.
He sought and obtained seat in Con-
gress-entering that body on the 4th
of March, 1868. AS member of the
House, Speaker, Senator, and Secre-
tary of State he continued to serve his
country officially until early in the pres
ent year. Retiring to private life against
his wish, he has none the less insisted
upon his right to public attention.
A man who hopes to so regulate the
affairs of nation as to compel his own
ascendency and yet to escape criticism
will be disappointed.
The Republican party which gave him
Office for nineteen years, and large
element of which has twice generously
sought to elevate him TO the chief place
In the Nation, now finds him allied with
the blindest and most bigoted of Bour-
bon Democrats to stay the rising of
Union food in the South. One who
has even carelessly watched the career
of Mr.. Blaine will not fail to recognize in
him a versatility which readily explains
the ease with which he changes from q
Maine Radical to Virginia Bourbon,
and which plants him with equal security
to-day on one platform and tomorrow on
its opposite. Such an observer might
say to him:
In 1875 you earned the gratitude of the
Bourbon enemies of the restoration of
the Union when you conspired with them
to defeat n measure which your party
friends deemed absolutely necessary to
repress disorders in some Southern dis
tricts. You cannot say that this was on
principle, for you had, four years earlier,
voted for the same measure to apply
within more extended limits. You
feared Grant would be reelected if
he was not, crippled in the execu-
ton of the laws. You were mistaken.
You would have succeeded him beyond
doubt, if you could have been trusted, as
he was, on the main question. You inau-
gurated the pusillanimous surrender to
law-breakers which found its outcome
under Hayes in 1877. You shot the horse
you wanted to ride. You were beaten at
Cincinnati because the Southern Demo-
cratic Delilah had cut your hair too close.
You escaped discussion of everything
unpleasant to you that year by being
defeated. You escaped discussion be-
fore your defeat because the Demo-
Gratis hoped, and the Republicans opposed
to you feared, you would be nominated.
After the terrible experiences of that
summer the seat in the Senate made va
cant by Mr. Morril's resignation was an
asylum for you, and your election after
ward for the succeeding term was thought
by many TO be rather an exhibition of
sympathy for your misfortunes than of
continued confidence in your leadership.
This opinion is fortified by the fact that
when you needed to show your power in
1880 Maine did not stand by you. You
will not claim that you did not try to win
the September battle that year, nor will
you care TO charge the unpopularity of
the canvass 10 General Garfield.
When others had plucked the flower
victory in other States from the nettle
defeat in Maine, you came forward to re-
ceive the applause, as the motley gentle
man does in the circus, after the leading
athlete has leaped over the six horses.
This is what you are now doing in con-
nection with the recent victory of the
Republicans in Maine. When General
Garfield was elected you were bankrupt
in politics, and there was no place in
Maine where you could lay your political
head. You had an unfinished term in
the Senate, that was all
You are now jollifying in the West
over q Republican victory in Maine
by way of Disgusting your voice while
you seek 10 steal blessing for the Bour-
bons of Virginia. Your voice is the voice
of Jacob, but your hand is the hand of
Esau You would deprive the blacks of
Virginia Of the only friends they have
or can have who will protect them in
their rights. You were one of the North
ern Republicans who ran away from the
negro after making his peril great by
giving him the ballot. You were not for
fgrce-not you. The black man had not
seen his party's face, even in Virginia, for
three long years when Malone and
his followers made up for your
n,elect He has had the powerful
aid of these new lends while you have
hobnobbed with his enemies Malone
and h S thousands of noble supporters are
like a standing army subsisting them
selves, while they uphold the laws which
your Bourbon coparceners Of to-day
tramped under foot without protest
from you. You cannot separate the