The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-09
BLAINE's NEW WORK.
The Scope, Design and Aim of the Forth
coming Twenty Years History.
Washington Special.

i twenty HISTORY
Washington Special.
Ex-Secretary Blaine is still hard at work at
his book on the politics of the past twenty
years, aud he can be seen almost every day
in the archives of the State Department
searching for statistics and data. Unlike
most great authors, Mr.. Blaine does not leave
this part of his work to an assistant but at
tends to it himself Besides this, he has
found that he can get along faster without
stenographer than with one, and he has,
therefore, given up dictation. The whole
burden of the work thus falls on his Shout
ders, and, together with his social and other
duties, make up pretty good days labor for
him.
The Secretary expects to finish the first vol
ume of the work during the present year,
and it will probably be published immedi-
ately. After he has finished this part he will
take a few months rest and then begin work
on the second volume. The scope, design
and aim of the whole book are clearly set
forth in the following extracts from the
| preface:
The twenty years of Congress between the
Inauguration of Lincoln in 1861 and the in
auguration of Garfield in 1881 were the most
! important in our history as a nation. The
entire period was filled with momentous
events. Legislation during the progress of
the war in aid of the great armies which up
held the government, through the period in
| which the union was reconstructed on new
and enduring foundations; the finances
during the era of paper money and the sub
| sequent return to the standard of coin; on
slavery and the emancipation which
came generations before philanthropsts
had dared to hope; on taxation, exercised
and inforced to a degree beyond all prece-
dent, yet always sustained by popular ma
| iorties on industrial development so wise
| ly fostered that, despite the waste of thou
sands of millions by the ravages of war, the
aggregate wealth of the people was doubled
in a single decade-legislaton on these
great subjects forms the vital history of the
country, and is worthy of commemoration.
During the years when these legislative
deliberations were in progress much was done
| in Congress of inferior Importance and tenn
porarv interest. To separate the valuable
and the permanent from the valueless and
transient of this historic epoch, and to give
a clear and connected account of the really
great events in the Senate and House of Rep
| resentatiyes, is the aim of the work. 1t is not
intended to be an abridgement of the pro-
ceedings of Congress, or mere compendium
of debates; yet no important
| transaction in either branch is
omitted, and no discussion worthy
design necessarily includes, within the limits
of careful discretion, the narrative of many
| facts which could not appear in an official
report, as well as fair and Just estimate of
| the men who have been most prominent and
| influential in the two houses of Congress.
at would be obviously impossible to pre-
sent perspicuous history of the two decades
! from 1861 to 1881, without reviewing at some
| length the important and often tangled
course of events which brought about the
political revolution of 1861 resulting in the
defeat of all the old political organizations,
| and giving the control of the country to
| new, radical, enthusiastic and progressive
| party. The cause of this revolution, prop
erly analysed, will be found to be remote
stretching back at least forty years, and yet
steadily and continuously tending toward
! the elimination which was reached in the
election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency.
| The incidents of the intervening struggles in
| Congress- the connection of one phase OF the
contest with another-not seen at the time
but in retrospect distinctly visble-present
a field of interesting inquiry. necessarily in
troductory to the work now in hand.
| 1.-THE encouragement to publish any his
torlcal work is found in the belief that it
supplies what was before inaccessible. The
history of the events now presented are scat
tered through $50 volumes of the ponderous
! records of Congress, and in the scarcely less
| voluminous reports of committees of both
Senate and House. In this vast mass of doc
uments, complete series of which is proba-
bly, not contained in a single library outside
the National Capitol, it is no light labor to
trace even one measure through the various
evolutions of legislation. To present the en-
tire period within limits adapted to the gem
eral reader, and upon the plan briefly out
lined in the foregoing paragraphs, will, it is
believed, contribute to'a more general and in
telligent understanding of an important po-
litical era, and to a truer sense of the patriot
ism, the courage and the craftsmanship
which sustained the nation under unprece-
dented trials, and guided it safely through
dangerous crises"