The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1884-11-26
BLAINE'S KEYNOTE.
He Blows the Bugle Full in
the Face of the Foe.
SPEECH AT AUGUSTA, ME-, NOVEM.
BER IS, 1884.
Let Every Republican Read.

AUGUSTA, Me, November 18-A large
number of devoted personal and political
friends of Mr.. Blaine sercnaded him this
evening, as an expression Of personal good
will and admiration Of his conduct in the
National campaign. They marched through
the streets under the marshalship of Colonel
Frank Nye. When they reached Mr..
Blaine's house their compliments and friend
ly regards were expressed in speech by
Herbert M. Heath, Esq, of the Kennebec
bar.
Mr.. Blaine responded as follows, his
speech being continually interrupted by APP
plause:
"FR1ENDs AND NEIaHBoRs-The National
contest is over, and by the narrowest of
margins we have lost. 1 thank you for
your call, which, if not one Of Joyous con-
gratulatiOns, is one, l am sure, of conf
dence, of sanguine hope for the future.
thank you for the public opportunity you
give me to express my sense of obligation
not only to you, but to all the Republicans
of Maine. They responded to my nomina-
tion with genuine enthusiasm, and ratified
it by o superb vote. 1 count it as one of
the honors and qualifications of my public
career that the party in Maine, after strug-
Cling hard for the last six years, and twice
within that period loOsing the State, has
come back in this campaign to the old
fashioned twenty thousand plurality. No
| other expression of popular confidence and
esteem could equal that of the people
among whom I have lived thirty years, and
to whom 1 am attached by all the ties that
enoble human nature and give joy and dig.
nifty to life,
| "After Maine-indeed, along with Maine
my first thought is always of PennsYlvau.
ia. How can 1 feelingly express my thanks
/ for that unparalleled majority of more thar
eighty thousand votes, a popular indorse
ment which has greatly touched my heart
and which has, if possible, increased my af
fection for the grand old Commonwealth
an affection which 1 inherited from my an
cestry and which 1 shall transmit to my
children.
''But 1 do not limit my thanks to tn
State of my residence and the State of M
birth. I owe much to the true and zealou
friends in New England who worked so no
bly, for the Republican party and its candi
dates, and the eminent scholars and divines
who stepping aside from their ordinary vo
cations made my cause their cause, and Il
the loyalty to principle added the specia
compliment of standing as my personal rep
|resentatives in the National struggle.
"But the achievements for the RepubT
can cause in the East are even surpassed b,
the splendid victories in the West In tina
magnificent Gordon of States that stretche
from the foothills of the Alleghanies to tn
Golden Gate of the Pacific, beginning will
Ohio aud ending with California, the Re
publican banner was borne so loftily tina
but a single State failed to join in the wild
acclaim of triumph. Nor should / do jus
tice to my own feelings if I filled to than
the Republicans of the Empire State, VIII
encountered 80 many discOuragments an
obstacles, who fought foes from within an
without and who waged so strong q battl
that change of one vote in every tw
thousand would have given us the victor
in the Nation. Indeed, a change of litt
more than five thousand votes would hay
{ transferred New York, Indiana, New Jerse
and Connecticut to the Republican stanl
0 ard, and would have made the North
; solid as the South.
"My thanks would still be incomplete
I should fail to recognize with special gra
itude that great body of workingmen, bot
native and foreign born, who gave me the
earnest support, breaking from old person
and party ties and finding in the principl
which 1 represented in the canvass the saf
guard and protection of their own fresi,
interests.
"The result of the election, my friend
will be regarded in the future I think,
extraordinary. The Northern States, lea
ing out the cities of New York and Broollll
d from the count, sustained the Republics
So cause by a majority of more than four hu
dred tbOusand-almost half q million
h the popular vote. The cities Of New YO
b. and Brooklyn threw their great streng
t. and influence with the Solid South, al
were the decisive element which gave
that section the control of the Nation
Government.
80 "Spealing now not at all as a defeat
,8 candidate, but simply as a loyal and
voted American, think the transfer of {
political power of the Government to {
q South is a great National misfortune. It
II a misfortune because it introduces an e
q ment which cannot insure harmony a
/ prosperity to the people because it init
Il duces into the Republic the rule of a i
H nority. The first instinct of am Americ
is equality, equality Of right, equality
2 privilege tlubllly Oh power lluL equal
I which says to every citizen, your vote
!. just as good, just as potential as the vote
II any other citizen
J ''That cannot be said to-day in the Unit
4 States, and the course Of affairs in the Sol
q has crushed out the political power of mi
than six million American citizens, and
q transferred it by violence to others. For
o two Presidential Electors are assigned
2 the South on account of the cOlOred POI
lation, and yet the colored population, W
= more than 100, 600 legal votes, have b,
= unable TO choose a single Elector; even
% those States where they have a majority
- more than a hundred thousand they We're
q prived Of free suffrage, and their rights
citizens scornfully trodden under foot
"The eleven States that comprised
rebel confederacy had, by the census
~ 1880, 1900, 600 white population and 80
600 colored population. The colored po
Pc. lation, almost TO a man, desire to SUPP
the Republican party, but, by a system
YO cruel intimidation, and by violence