The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-09-06


million of his countrymen,r whom Mr.. Blaine
"took into his confidence. How do you call
this? know how you would have called it
before Mr. Blaine's nomination, but that
nomination seems to have had strangely
confusing effect upon party mems notions as
to public morals. To call it brilliant auda-
city in the handling of truth" may suit the
vocabulary of the modern era better.
5. You say that / lay too much stress upon
Mr.. Baine's energetic protest against ''the
prying into his private affairs" that forget
the circumstances; that Mr.. Blaine was then
a candidate for the Presidency; that the in
auiry was instituted by his Democratic oppo-
nents, etc. Do you mean to suggest that a
public man in high station, whose official in
tegrity is seriously questioned, should accept
and facilitate investigation only by his party
friends? You will certainly not deny that
Mr. Blaine had strong friends upon that COM
mittee. But public man of a high sense of
honor, rather than submit to continued suspi
cion, will invite investigation by his oppo-
nents. not try to battle it. Feeling himself
innocent, he will throw wide open the doors
of knowledge, the wider the better. He will
not fear the appearance of suspicious circum-
stances, for he will be ready and eager to ex-
plain them. He will not increase and justify
suspicion by concealment. Only the guilty
VIII rest uHuGT btCduSC nc IctiEo CA
posure and conviction. The character of the
things Mr. Blaine succeeded in covering up
we are left to infer from the character of those
which came out against his remonstrance.
You think George Washington would have
raved with anger if his ''private correspon-
dence' had been inquired into by a commit
tee of Tories? Neither you nor | know how
that would have been. But of one thing am
very sure-in Washington's ''private cores
pondence'' nothing would have been found
in the remotest degree resembling the Multi
gan letters.
6. You say that Mr. Blaine's offences have
not been "condoned,'i but that he has been
'triumphantly acquitted;" that this has been
done by the Governor and Legislature of
Maine sending him to the Senate, by his APP
pointment to the Cabinet, and by his nomina-
ton for the Presidency. Let us see- Ibid
these events in the least change the facts in
Mr. Blaine's record? Can it be said after
these events that Mr.. Blaine did not write the
Mulligan letters; that he did not make the
false statements before the House; that he did
not protest and struggle against inquiry into
what he called his ''private businesey' Of
course not. Did they change in any sense the
character of those facts? Certainly not.
What, then, did they effect? They showed
only that some people when they bestowed
know those facts, or chose to overlook them
for party reasons, or regarded them as CON-
patible with the standard according to which,
in their opinion, public honors should be be-
slowed. But does this relieve other people
of their duty as citizens to form a conscien-
tious Judgment upon these same things, and
to vote accordingly? | wonder whether you
would apply your triumphant acquittal rule
with equal readiness to other cases. l am
informed that your opinion of General Butler
has long been quite untavorable. General
Butler was elected to the governorship of
Massachusetts two years ago. He has been
nominated for the Presidency by the Green
hackers and Anti Monopolists. Did that
change in any way the facts constituting his
record? Did it change your opinion Of those
facts? Were that election and these nomina-
tons, in your opinion, triumphant ac
quittal ~ The mere statement of the prop
osition is sufficient to show the absurdity of it.
As to Mr.. Blaine's case, the generality of
American citizens are now for the first time
called upon to declare whether his public re-
cord is regarded by them as compatible with
the standard according to which the American
people are willing to bestow the highest honor
and trust in this republic. If the American
people declare that it is, then our public men,
great and small, will have learned that they
may work in their various channels of useful
ness to make themselves rich, with the same
spirit of enterprise and the same brilliant
dacity in the handling of facts which they
will have been taught to admire in the model
set up for them, without fear of endangering
their preferment to the highest places. What
the consequent effects of this upon the future
of the republic are likely to be have endeav-
ored to set forth in my Brooklyn speech. OF
the effect which Mr.. Blaine's mere nomna-
ton has already produced, your way of de-
Tending him furnishes, | regret to say, an in
structve example.
I. You are greatly mistaken when you
take it for granted that what Mr.. Schurz has
not said in this speech against the personal
honesty of Mr.. Blaine is not worth saying"
There are many more facts in Mr. Blaine's
record which Just begin to form the subject of
popular discussion and which may ina most
urgent manner call for your attention before
the end of this campaign. | confined myself
carefully to few representative points which
rested upon Mr.. Blaine's own letters, speeches
and oral testimony alone. Neither can ac-
cept the compliment that my Brooklyn speech
is an unusual exhibition of ''clear and skillful
statement" Whatever strength that speech
possesses consists simply in the circumstance
that it is the sober truth, plainly spoken.
And just there is your trouble.
Truly yours. g. SrHTgZ.