Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-10-31
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 9th.
Chicago Welcomes Blaine.


Chicago has given the great leader of the
republican party a right royal welcome.
During her comparatively short life many
eminent men have received her hospitality
but to no one has she accorded it SO lavishIy,
Loyalty and enthusiastically as to James G
Blaine. II was in Chicago that he was named
for president amid the widest acclamations
OF JOY and unprecedented popular outpour-
ings. The great uprising of the people last
night shows that the enthusiasm of the 9th
of June has not dimini.hed that as the cam
paign of calumny, SANDER, and vlification
has progressed the republicans of Chicago
have rallied with all the more devotion and
LOYALTY around the standard of their dashing
leader, and that they are r~ady for the No
vember onset. The republican candidates
who have been nominated in Chicago-Lin-
coin Grant and Garfeld-have been tri
umphantlv elected. and the charm will not
be broken this time.
The reports in another part of the Tribune
sufficiently describe the details of this great
dcmOnstraii0n-the beauty of the spectacle,
the enthusiasm of the marching thousands,
and the plaudits of the thousands upon thou
sHUuS III spctldipES AS u pd2tdul IL has not
been surpassed bv any of the demonstrations
which have greeted MIR. Blaine since he
commenced his triumphal progress. and it
had every element of the free, energetic. de
termined, and exuberant Western welcome
which knows no limit in its manifestations
II vas a welcome OF a twOfOld character-a
welcome political on the one hand and per
sonal on the other.
The political welcome was in recognition
of Mr. Blaine as the leader of the republ.
can party and proof that the republicans
of Chicago are still unflinchinglv loyal to that
party They follow its flag because it crushed
out democratic treason and rebellion and pre-
served the Union inseparahle; because il
emancipated COG, 900 bondsmen and elevated
them to sitizenship; because it has protected
all citizens in their civil and political rights
and has done more than any party to protect
American citiZ ms abroad Mr.. Blaine him
sell causing great Britain to renounce her
claim that Brtish-born citizens owed allie
glance to the British Crown wherever they
might be- because il has honored the soldiers
who put down the democratic rebellion; be-
cause it has extended our national commerce.
increased the wealth of the country nearly
tive-fold, spanned the continent with rail
roads, and given homes to 3 1000 600 people
on Ga. 900, 900 acres of the public domain
because it has upheld the public credit, paid
off the national debt faster than any country
has ever done before, and given the people
the soundest currency in the world; and be
cause it has made this nation the most power
full. the most prosperous. and the happiest on
earth As the leader of this party. Chicago
welcomed Mr.. Blaine and paid him honor.
This welcome was also il recognition of
Mr.. Blanes personal qualities. Chicago
republicans are proud of him as the foremost
and ablest statesman of the country. They
recognize his long and brilliant career, his
eminent services in Congress and in his pc
sition of chief adviser to President Garfield.
They honor him because he is the most Amer
lean of all our public men and becaus he is
jealous of American position and American
honor and has always defended American
citizenship. They honor him for his brill
liant qualities, his eminent talent, his courage,
his TACT and his manlness. They are proud
to follow leader who fights man fashion and
faces his foes. They admire him for the gal
liant manner in which he has met the pack of
towards and sneaks and the partisan rene
gales who have followed him with every
species of SANDER, calumny. falsehood. and
forgery that their malicious ingenuity has
been able to devise Persecution has endeared
him to them, and the brutal assault upon his
wife and children has only made them rally
more enthusiastically about him. They are
proud of him as n leader, proud of him as a
statesman, proud of him as man.
For these reasons Chicago has risen and
done honor to James G. Blaine during his
brief stay, and she sends him away, with an
enthusiastic good-bv and renewed zeal and
courage as she prepares herself for the battle
at the polls in November.