Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1883-08-03
JAMES G. BLAINE.

I The Ex.Seeretary.s New Book,
"Twenty Years of Congress''-
From Lincoln TO Garfield
Scope of the Work-An Ann
bilious Efort-Interest-
ing Extracts.
New York Herald, July -
''Oh that mine adversary had writ
ten a book.'' exclaimed the much per
secuted Job, and any of Mr.. James G.
Blalne's adversaries who wish the
same thing will be gratified to know
that the ex-Secretary' book will APP
pear in October next from the press of
the Henry Bill Publishing Company,
| of Norwich, Conn From the pages
of Mr. Blaines book that lie before us
we should FAY that his adversaries
will get little comfort, for they are
J written as dispassionately as any his
torian writes and much more enter
tainingly than most of the guild.
Twenty Years of Congress " is the
title of Mr.. Blaine's book, and the
period covered is from 1861 to 1881, or
from Lincoln to Garfield. The author
was an active worker in the field dur
ing that time, but, as will be seen by
the extract given from his preface, he
has not depended upon his recollec-
ton of what occurred, but has gone
to the archives of the Capitol or delv-
ed among the musty records and re-
ports. In fact, Mr. Blaine does not
wish his work to be considered one OF
"reminiscences, but rather as history
of two important decades. An elab-
crate introduction deals with the
causes that led to the Civil War; then
the story of the war is taken up and
dealt with in all it's phases.
In the following paragraphs Mr..
Blaine sums up the scope of his work
and gives hint of the amount of la
Dor he has expended upon it:
I SCOPE AND AIM.
/ The twenty years of congress be-
tween the Inauguration of Lincoln In
1861 and the Inauguration of Garfield
in 1881 were the most important In
our history as nation. The entire
! period was filed with momentous
events. Legislation during the pro
/ gress of the war in aid of the great
armies which upheld the government
drought the period in which the
! Union was reconstructed on new and
enduring foundations; on the finances
( during the paper money and the
subsequent return to the standard of
coin; on slavery and the emanclpa-
! ton which came generations before
philanthropiSts had dared to hope; on
/ taxation exercised and forced to de-
gree beyond all precedent, yet always
sustained by popular majorities; on
industrial improvement so widely foS-
tered that despite the waste of thous-
ands of millions by the ravages of
war the aggregate wealth was doubled
in single decade-legislation on
these great subjects form the vital in
| terest of the country and is worthy of
cOmmemOra. on.
/ During the years when these legis-
/ lative deliberations were in progress,
much was done in congress of inferior
| importance and contemporary inter
est. To separate the valuable and
! permanent from the valueless and the
| transient of his historic epoch and to
/ give connected account of the really
great events in the senate and house
of representatives is the aim of this
work 1t is not intended to be an
abridgement of the proceedings of
! congress or q compendium of debates,
yet no important transaction in either
branch is omitted and no discussion
worthy of honorable mention is over
looked. The design necessarily in
cludes within the limits of careful dis
cretion the narrative of many facts
which would not appear i'll an official
report, as well as a just and fair estl-
mate of the men who have been most
prominent and influential in the two
houses of congress.
1t would be obviously impossible to
present a perspicuous history of the
two decades from 1861 to 1881 without
reviewing at length the important aud
often tangled course of events which
brought about the political revolution
of 1860, resulting in the defeat of all
the old political organizations and Civ
ing the control of the country to a
new, radical, enthusiastic, and pro-
gressive party The causes of this revo-
luton properly analysed will be found
to be remote, stretching back at least
forty years, and yet steadily and contin-
uouSly tending toward the culmina-
| ton which was reached in the election
of Mr.. Lincoln to the presidency. The
incidents of the intervening struggles
in congress, the connection with the
| phase of one contest with another
not seen at the time, but in retrospects
distinctly visible-present field of
interesting inquiry necessarily intro
ductory to the work now on hand.
| Mr.. Blaine's picturesque and
( Macaulayan style may be judged by
the following extracts from his intro
ductory chapters:
/ DIVISION OF STATES.
The compromise on the slavery
/ question inserted on the constitution
were among the essential conditions
on which the Federal Government
was organized. If the African slave
| trade had not been permitted to con-
| tinue for twenty years; if it had not
been conceded that three-tifths of the
slaves should be counted in the APP
portionment of the representatives in
congress; if it had not been that fugi-
| tives from the service should be return
ed to their owners, the thirteen states
I
would not have been able in 1857 Ito
form more perfect Union These
adjustments in the constitution were
effected after the congress of the old
confederation had dedicated the entire
Northwest Territory to freedom. The
ancient commonwealth of Virginia
had for the good of all generously
and periodically surrendered her title
to the great country north of the Ohio
and eest of the Mississippi, which to-
day constitutes five prosperous and
powerful states and not an inconsider
able proportion of a sixth. This was
the first territory of which the govern
ment had exclusive control, and the
prompt prohibition of slavery therein
by the Nathan Dane ordinance of 1857
is an important and significant fact.
The anti-slavery restrictions would
doubtless have applied to the territory
south or the Ohio, had the power ex-
listed to impose it. The founders of the
government not only looked to the
speedy extinction of slavery, but they
especially abhorred the idea of a geo
graphical line which freedom decreed
on the one line and slavery fully es-
tablished on the other 1t thus came
to pass that the Ohio River was the
dividing line North of it freedom was