Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-07-21
THE BLAINE LETTER.
Comments of Leading Eastern journal
on That Document.

on That Document.
TBy telegraph
NEW YORK, July 19th.-The Tribune says
of Blaine's letter: The letter places him
before his countrymen as the foremost man
of the time. 1t reaches and passes the
high-water mark of American statesman
ship 1t would be difficult to name any
document in the long and glorious history
of the republic which surpasses this in its
mastery grasp of many great questions, or
in its profound and solid reasoning His
adversaries will be startled by his reason
ing on the civil service question, which not
only surpasses the utterances of any other
leader of that reform in clearness, but
looks far beyond the existing law The
simple statement that Blaine in his long
career, requested but four removals from
office, and those for non-political and con-
elusive reasons, may be pondered on by Mr..
Curtis
The Journal of Commerce says The letter
is a mastery production, logical in its
style, shrewd in its aims, and strong in the
array of every available force for his own
advantage. 1t deserves and must command
universal attention. 1t assumes that the
growth of the country in material prosper
ity is due almost wholly to the protective
tariff, of which his party are the sole cham
pions and defenders. The Democratic
party, he holds, are the natural and avowed
enemies of this benefit system, and are GER
tain TO destroy it if they are at any time in
trusted with power. His notice of the
South is far more Just and kind than his
old-time speeches, and there is not single
defiant flourish of the bloody shirt, which
was supposed to be no inconsiderable part
of his stock in trade. As a whole the let
ter will strengthen Blaine as a candidate
for the suffrages of the people.
The Times affects establishment that such
safe and stale platitudes of dull and sleepy
maunderings about census figures, balance
of trade, Mormon question and public
lands could come from the bold and brill
liant magnetic Blaine His letter is flat and
feeble, and gives evidence of worn body
and weary mind. Even the most cursory
examination of the letter reveals Blaine's
unlitness to grapple with questions so new
and strange to him as the tariff and protec-
ton. The 1tmes calls him timid and dis
sembler ON hesubj .ct of foreign policy and
marks visible drop in the chances of his
election.
The World thinks the letter might more
properly be called letter of evasion than
letter of acceptance. 1t falsities history
on the tariff, misrepresents the Democracy
on the tariff, eXaggerateS the work of the
Republicans, makes a bid for Southern
votes and foreign votes, and slurs our civil
service. But its tongue is tied about the
one real live issue of honest government
against dishonest government.
The S,1, finds its chief objection to the
letter III that it fails to discuss the Mulligan
letters. 1t says that Brother Blaine tells US
nothing new. His recent literary labors
have given him remarkable facility and
sustained power of expression. The peo-
pie, however, are chiefly concerned TO dis
cover what Blaine is, not what he says
Blaine wants to change the subject but he
cannot be accommodated.
The Herald prints the letter as an histori
cal curiosity. Presumably, it says, he has
been assisted in its preparation during the
last ten days by intellectual bureaus con-
sisting of Stephen B. Elkins, Charles Z.
Smith and Whitelaw Reid. 1t looks in
length and in tenor as if he adopted all
their suggestions. The notion that purity
of administration and purity of record of
candidates is the main issue in this Presi
Dental canvass is entirely ignored by the
contributors to the symposium.
The comments of the evening papers on
Blaine's letter reflect generally the senti-
ments expressed in the morning journals
he fJ5t says he lCllbT - UlluOuDltulN
the Joint composition of the candidate him
self, Whitelaw Reid, c. T. Smith and S. b.
Elkins. There is nothing aggressive in it
whatever. 1t has been trimmed, planed
and sandpapered until there's nothing in it
to catch hold of. The Post exhausts over
two columns editorial in trying to catch
hold of something.
PHILADELPHIA, July 19th.-The Press de-
clares Blaine's letter is the clear, trenchant
voice of a mastery leader. 1t sharply de-
fines the lines of the campaign, and forces
the fighting at every point No sounder
utterance of political creed, no worthier
declaration of public policy, has appeared
III our day 1t is full of texts for the cam
paign, and opens the fight in the strongest
possible manner.
The Times compares its six thousand
words with the hundred words in which
Lincoln and Grant concluded their vigor-
Gus letters Of acceptance. But then the
party and the acceptance had nothing to
apologize for. Blaine's long letter is a con-
fession of the party's present weakness.
1t is full of special pleading, an elaborate
denial of any need of reform in the execu-
tive, or change i'll either the policy or the
administrative methods of the Govern
ment, and an attempt to divert attention
from the necessities of the present by an
eyasive appeal to the distant past. There
is not word about Robson, about the
star-route frauds, or about the scandal of
the lobby.