Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-08-09
JAMES G.. BLAINE.
The Ex-Secretary's New Book,
'Twenty Years of COngress''-
From Lincoln to Garfield
Scope of the WOrk-An Ann
bilious EnOrt-Interest-
ing Extracts.
New York Herald, July %.

secuted Job, and any of Mr.. James q.
Blalne's adversaries who wish the
same thing will be gratified to know
that the ex-Secretary's book will APP
pear in October next from the press of
the Henry Bill Publishing Company,
of Norwich, Conn. From the pages
of Mr.. Blaine's book that lie before us
we should say that his anniversaries
will get little comfort, for they are
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
mas 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
reminiscence, but rather as a 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 its phases.
In the following paragraphs Mr..
Blaine sums up the scope Of his work
and gives a hint Of the amount of la
Dor he has expended upon it:
SCOPE AND AIM.
The twenty years of congress be
tween the Inauguration of Lincoln III
1861 and the Inauguration of Garfield
III 1881 were the most important in
our history as q nation. The entire
period was filled 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 emancipa-
ton which came generations before
philanthropists had dared to hope; on
taxation exercised and forced to a 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 a single decade-legislation on
these great subjects form the vital in
terest of the country and is worthy OF
cOmmemOratiOn.
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 a connected account of the really
great events in the senate and house
of representatives is the aim of this
work. It is not intended to be an
abridgement of the proceedings of
congress or a compendium of debates,
vet 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 III an Officia
report, as well as just and fair esti-
mate of the men who have been most
prominent and influential in the two
houses of congress.
1t would be obviously impossible to
present perspicuous history of the
two decades from 1861 to 1881 without
reviewing at length the important and
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
gressiye party. The causes of this revO-
luton properly analysed will be found
to be remote, stretching back at least
forty years, and yetsteadily and contin-
uously tending toward the culmina-
ton which was reachedin 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 present a field OF
interesting inquiry necessarily intro
ouCIOIN W UIIG NOIh ILON OlI no1ASAs
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 hadsnot been permitted to con
tinue for twenty years; if it had no
been conceded that three-ffths of the
slaves should be counted in the APP
portionment of the representatives IL
congress; if it had not been that fugi
tives from the service should be return
ed to their owners, the thirteen state:
would not have been able in 1877 ''tC
form a more perfect Union" These
adjustments In the constitution were
effected after the congress of the ole
confederation had dedicated the entire
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