The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-10-02
His Second Game Of Bluff.


His Second Game Of Bluff.
One of the very first issues raised
when Mr.. Blaine was nominated was
as to his official honesty. In fact this
issue had been raised in bis party be-
fore his nomination, and the judg-
ment of many republicans, carefully
arrived at, was that it would never
do to entrust federal administration
to one so corrupt. There is an oppo-
sition to him in his own party, that is
intense and uncompromising, that
never can be allayed. 1t has existed
for years and is the result of deep
set conviction, based on evidence
that Blaine is corrupt and venal
public man. The knight of the soiled
plume and his adherents soon saw
that this issue was growing too
prominent for their comfort, and
they went to work to establish other
issues, to substitute the tariff and
other questions for the one of dis
honor, attaching to the nominee.
Blaine himself became the leader of
this plan to give vitality to
other issues, with the hope
of arresting and setting aside
the issue upon which he had
been opposed in his own party; but 1t
was question in which the Ameri-
can people were so vitality interested
they would not admit of its being re-
pudiated. In his first public utterance
after his nomination-his endless, te-
dious letter of acceptance-he strug-
gied with the tariff issue; he discours-
ed on civil service reform; he talked
of the southern question; he prated
about the past of the grand old
party" he dumped out mass of an
Gent census statistics. But he said
nothing of the subject matter of the
Mulligau letters. On the one topic
on which it Was most pertinent and
imperative for him to speak to ten
millions Of voters he maintained an
ominous silence. The same policy
was adopted by his party organs. The
question of his personal qualifications
fill so high an Office would not down
and when the last batch of Mulligan
letters were published the shock to
decent sentiment seemed COM
plete. At once he led his
followers into fatal error; his or
gans refused to publish the letters,
when they were appearing in every
paper in the United States not having
motive for SURPRISING them.
Blaine, however, at once came before
the public, as he did in the matter
presented by the Indianapolis Senti-
mel, and attempted to play the game
of bluff, by stating with brazen effront-
cry that his only desire was that
every voter in the United States
might read those letters, and not form
Judgment on the editorial comments
of opposition papers. There was not
word, he said, IN the letters mot
entirely consistent with the most I'M
scrupulous integrity and honor" He
is at last driven to notice what he
hoped to prevent the people from
noticing. That he cannot meet this
issue with any hope Of success Mr..
Blaine realizes as fully as any one,
but he also Sees as clearly as any one
the fact that to ignore it longer is Ger
tain disaster and defeat. The New
York Herald of September 81,
calls attention to the bluff game
Of Mr.. Blaine. 1t says:
Naturally enough, but with evident
hesitation and reluctance, the chief
Blaine organ has been forced to fol-
low its master in this new departure.
On last Monday the New York Tri.
bune contained no mention of the
Muiligan letters, whose publication in
every live newspaper was the political
of the campaign. On Tues
day the Tribune, having got it's cue
from Blaine, made the bluff pretence
Of publishing them, but suppressed all
the most significant and damaging
ones. On Friday Mr.. Blaine appeared
in this city, and 90 the following
his organ printed for the
first time the Mulligan letters ia full,
with labored argument to show,
first, that there is nothing IN them;
second, that they relate to simply a
series of private business transactions
with which the public has no con-
GERM and, third, that they 'vindicate
Mr.. Blaine" Having been forced at
asst to notice these damaging state
nents, attempt is made to treat them
IS Blaine indicated they should be
treated. Simple denial and bluff
prove nothing. The authenticity of
,he letters cannot be denied, and their
substance is all that anyone needs to
prove that the republican nominee is
stained in manner that does not be-
it him for the exercise of the highest
delegated by the Ameri-
ian people to man.