Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-10-15
DR.. storrs on Mr.. Blaine.
WHY THE REPUBLICAN TICKET DESERVES
SUPPORT.

WHY The REPUBLICAN TICKET DESERVES
SUPPORT.
| The New York Tribune contains the fol-
lowing report of an interview of one of its
staff with the Rev. DIR. Richard S. Storrs.
the well-known pastor of the Church of the
Pilgrims. Brooklyn:
mo. haven't changed my mind about
voting for Mr.. Blaine, except a. my purpose
TO do so is stronger than it was. ! was not
enthusiastic about his nomination. and per
haps am not vet up TO the Tribune's level Of
zeal on the subject. But whatever my vote
can do towards his election will certainly be
done. Il doesn't seem to me that his assail-
ants have shown him to be unworthy of the
support of his countrymen. Some of their
attacks have been so groundless. and so
vicious in temper. that one had TO guard him
| self against reaching TO the opposite extreme.
| But even the more respectable attacks seem
to me TO have failed to establish charges OF
1 falsehood or dishonesty on his part, or to
show that he used legislative Office for cor
rupt pecuniary gain. On this last matter
cannot but think there was a very distinct
negative pregnant in the fact that Cakes
Ames, who was one of the shrewdest OF men,
never tried. or certainly never with success,
TO get Mr.. Blaine engaged in his schemes
about the Union Pacific Railroad, while he
did enlist in them other distinguished MEN,
bers of Congress, to their lasting discredit.
Mr. Blaine was comparatively young, with
limited means and an increasing household.
He could have been of more service to Mr..
Ames in forestalling hostile legislation than
any Ave of the men whom the latter secured;
| and the fact that his hands were wholly
| clean in that connection casts. | think,
good deal Of doubt-to say the least of it-on
| the subsequent charges against him.
1.-THE sentences extracted from his private
| correspondence, which have been so inces
sanity used against him, appear to me fairly
susceptible of an Interpretation not dishonor-
able to him, though he certainly was not
| fortunate or discreet in writing them: and
the energetic testimonies to his generally
Just and generous character, which have
come from clergymen and laymen alike who
have long known him, are certainly of great
weight in his favor It's all nonsense to say
that ministers, like DIR. Webb OF Boston, for
example, are more creduous than other
people there questions of personal character
are concerned. They are not so buried in
abstract discussions. They live among men,
and meet all sorts of peoples and they recog
nize a scamp as quickly as ANYBODY. The
charge which is often petulantly made in the
opposite direction, that they are unduly
fastidious and critical, has a far better
foundation.
A FATAL WOUND TO CLEvELAsD's CHARAC-
1T seems very clear, too. that since the
nominations were made the character of the
only other candidate who can by possibility
be elected has received fatal wound, fatal
that is. to any just aspirations on his part
toward the Presidency. The suggestion that
a man whose history is stained with admitted
RIGHTEOUSNESS may yet properly and deliber
ately be put at the head of the nation must
certainly be secuted. Forgiveness is one
thing. Popular coronation is quite another.
Ethics must surely take precedence of poll
tics. 1t would seem to me, certainly, grave
offence against the family, against the public
honor of chaste womanhood against the divine
law of purity, against the essential welfare of
the State, to contribute to elevate to the high
est office in the gift of his countrymen a man
with a loose woman in his train, and an il.
legitimate son. | can hardly imagine any
thing of worse example to the multitudes Of
young men who are dangerously tempted.
and who need whatever succor to their virtue
may come from supporting and imperative
public sentiment. 1t would seem to make
the nation at large, if not the positive patron
of lewdness, at least the careless apolOgist
for it, 1t would put dishOnor upon the Amer
lean name among all christian peoples.
cannot imagine that the conscience of the
country has reached point of dumb weak
ness where such thing is possible,
THE GREAT QUESTION OF Projection.
Then | must say that aside from all
questions about the personal character of
candidates, my sympathies remain strong
with the republican party On the great
question, for example. which is now so
prominent. of the protection by legislation of
American Industry, am unreservedly on its
side. Looking at the matter in q common
sense fashion, without the ghost of a theory
to support, il strikes me that the policy of
protection to its own industry, on the part of
nation as young as ours, and with terrific
nv so rich in ores and textile materials, is a
thing of vital importance. As | apprehend
il, such protection consuts the interests not
only of the workman whose labor is guarded
against oppressive competition with the cheap
and hopeless labor of foreign countries, but
of the farmer, who gains reader and wider
sale for his products, of even the purchaser
of manufactured goods, who gets his fabrics
nearly or quite as cheaply in the end as if he
had bought them in foreign markets. while
the general prosperity stimulated around him
is to him, as to others, of vast advantage.
THE REPUBLICAN SPIRIT STILL VITAL.
Speaking frankly, my principal recent
doubt about voting for Mr.. Blaine has arisen
from the apprehension that he might incline
to make his Administration snowy and am
bilious. rather than practically wise and safe
in its treatment of domestic affairs and in its
relation to foreign countries. But he will
have to keep in line with his party, or he
would put himself on pilory forty times
higher than Humans gallows. And a party
is largely governed by its history. The his
tory of the republican party has certainly
been in the main noble one. The very
I criticisms now made upon it take whatever
they have of sting and sharpness from the
comparison of it as it is now assumed BY the
! critics TO be with what they understand it to
have been dozen or twenty years ago No
doubt there is some foundation for the critic
| isms. But | do not believe that the parasitic
growths have touched the life of the tree, or
that bsrnacles have weakened the frame of
the ship or shorn its sails The old spirit
which ennobled the party in its youth of
patriotic enthusiasm. of fidelity to freedom
and righteousness, of philosophical states
manship, of hospitality to great ideas, and of
courageous determination to make the highest
of laws supreme in the land-I cannot he