The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1884-11-29
SPEECH BY MR.. BLAINE
In Response to a Serenade by
Friends in Maine.
Thanks to His Frlends-Respects TO His
Political Opponents, Food For
Reelection For All
Parties.
AUGUSTA, Me-, November 10.

| political friends of Mr. Blaine serenaded
MN nm inns evening as an expression of the
| 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. Blalne's house their
compliments and friendly regards were
expressed in a speech by Herbert NJ.
Heath, Esq, of the kennebec bar. Mr..
| Blaine responded as follows, his speech
being continually interrupted by applause
MR.. BLAINBs REPLY.
"Friends and neighbors, the National con-
test Is over, and by the narrowest OF margins
we have lost / thank you for your call,
| which, II not one OF joyous congratulations,
| Is one, am sure, of confidence and of san
guine hope for the future, l thank you for
the public opportunity you give me to ex-
| press my sense of obligation not only to you,
but to all the Republicans of Maine. They
|. responded to my nomination with genuine
enthusiasm and ratified il bya superb vote.
count It as one of the honors OF my public
career that the party in Maine, after strug-
| Cling hard for the last six years, and twice
| within that period losing the State, has come
| back in this campaign to its ld-faShiOned
| 10000 plurality. No other expression of pop
| ular confidence and esteem could equal that
| OF the people among whom L have lived
| thirty years, to whom | am attached by all
| the ties that ennoble human nature and give
| Joy and dignity to life After Maine-indeed
| along with Maine-my first thought is always
| OF pennsylvania. How can tttIngly express
| my thanks, for that unparalleled majority of
more than $4,000 popular Endorsement
| which has deeply touched my heart and which
| has, If possible, increased my affection for
| the grand old commonwealth an affection
| which 1 inherited from my ancestry and
which / shall transmit to my children. But /
| do not limit my thanks to the state of my
| residence and to the state of my birth; owe
much to the true and jealous friends in New
! England who worked so nobly for the Repub-
| ican party and its candidates. and to the
eminent scholars and divines who, stepping
| aside from their ordinary ayocations, made
| my cause their cause, and who to loyalty to
| principle added the special compliment of
standing as my personal representatives, in
| ments for the Republican cause in the East
| are even surpassed by splendid victories in
| the West. In that magnificent Gordon of
| States that stretches from the foot hills of
| the Alleghenies to the Golden Gate of the Pa
| citc, beginning with Ohio and ending with
! California, the Republican banner was borne
| so loftily that but single state failed to join
| III the wide triumph.
THE EMPIRE STATES VOTE.
Nor should do justice to my own feelings
! II / failed to thank the Republicans of the
| Empire state who encountered so many dis
| couragements and obstacles who fought
| foes from within and foes from without, and
| who waged so strong battle that Il change of
| one vote in every two thousand would have
! given us the victory in the Nation. Indeed,
| n change of little more than 5000 votes would
| have transferred New York, Indiana, New
Jersey and Connecticut to the Republican
standard, and would have made the North as
| solid as the South. My thanks would be still
| incomplete If l should fail to recognize with
| special gratitude that great body of work
| ingmen, both native and foreign born, who
| gave me their earnest support, breaking
| from old personal and party ties and finding
in the principles which represented in the
| canvass the safeguard and protection of
| their own flresides and interests. The
| result of the election, my friends, Will be re-
| garded in the future, think, as extraordi-
| nary. The Northern states, leaving out the
| cities of New York and Brooklyn from the
| count, sustained the Republican cause by a
! majority of more than 100000, almost half
| million, indeed of popular vote. The cities
| OF New York and Brooklyn threw their great
| strength and influence with the Solid South
| and were the decisive element which gave to
| that ection the control of the National Gov
| eminent.
| THE SOLID SOUTH
Speaking now, not at all as a defeated can
| didate, but simply as a loyal and devoted
American, think the transfer OF the political
| power of the Government to the South is a
| great National misfortune. 1t Is misfortune,
| because 1t introduces an element which can
not insure harmony and prosperity to the
! people, because it Introduces into the Repub
| lie the rule of a minority. The first instinct
| of the American is equalty-equalty of right,
! equality of privilege, equality of political
! power, that equality which says to every cit.
zen: Your vote Is Just as good, lust as pc;
! That can not be said to-day in the United
! States. The course of affairs in the South
more mo- than 6o0o,oo0 American citizens,
| and has transferred 1t by violence
| Electors assigned to the South on ac-
! count of the coioreu population, and yet the
! colored popnl ation, with more than 100000
/
single Eector. Even in those States where
| they have Il majority of more than 100000
| they were deprived of free suffrage and their
| rights a. citizens are snornfnlly srcdder IN.
| der foot. The eleven States that comprised
the rebel Confederacy had by the census of
1880 100000 whitepopulation and 100000 col
almost to man desire to support the Re-
! publican party, but by IA system of cruel in
| limitation and by violence and murder,
| whenever violence and murder are thought
| necessary, they are absolutely deprived of
all politically power. fthe outrage stopped
| there it world be bad enough, but it does not
| stop there, for not only is the negro popula-
! ton DISTINGUISHED, but the power which
| rightfully and constitutionally belongs to
! them is transferred to the white population,
| enabling the white population of the south
| to exert an electoral influence far beyond
| that exerted by the same number of white
| people in the North.
AN ILLUSTRATION.
| To illustrate just how IL works to the de-
| struction of all fair elections, let me present
| TO you: Five states in the late Confederacy
| and five loyal states In the North, possess
| ing in each section the same number of cleo
/ toral votes. In the South the states of
| Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia
| and south Carolina have in the aggregate
| forty eight electoral votes. They have p
100000 white people and over 100000 colored
! people. In the North, the States of WiscOn-
/ consin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Cali
/ fornia have likewise, in the aggregate, forty
| eight electoral votes, and they have a popu-
! laton of 100000, or just double that of the
| Ave Southern States which l have named.
| These Northern States had practically no col
| ored population. Ii is, therefore, evident that
| the white men in those Southern States, by
dsurping and absorbing the rights of colored
men, are eXerting just double the po-
| litical power OF the white men in the North
ern States. l submit, my friends, that
such condition of affairs Is extraor-
binary, unjust and derogatory to the man.
| hood OF the North. Even those who are vim
/ dictvely opposed to negro suffrage Will not
/ derry that II Presidential electors are as.
] signed to the south by reason of the negro
population, that population ought TO be per-
United free suffrage in the election. To deny