The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-11-27
THE DOOMED KNIGHT.

We said he was doomed; we knew |
he was doomed; his day of political
influence was perceptibly passing
away. The American people had
weighed him in a correct balance, and
had he not had the weight of the gov
erning party on his side, had not the
vast army of office-holders labored in
his behalf, he would not have had the
vote of dozen states. With the in
fluence of one of the most powerful
and well organized political parties
this country has ever known, with
the official power of the country at
his back, with vast treasures poured
out in buying the purchasable
vote, he was overcome by defeat, and
the people are relieved. The republic
can party defeated itself in the nom'-
nation of this doomed Knight; it
went on and on. trying the tension CT
popular endurance, defrauding and
falsifying in 1876, naming a man of
questionable record in 1880. and then
putting up this tattooed man of des-
tiny in 1884, until endurance was no
longer tolerable, and through its own
excuses, through its own utter disre-
gard of public decency and of public
sentiment, if was overcome by
its own enormity. What had
been changed time and again
what had been told the people in
burning sentences of warning, was at
last too plain. The republican party
had ruled through hidden corruption
until at last it openly defied, in the
nomination of Blaine, the decency of
the land, and the "plumed knight,
armed cap-a-pie with the inhuman
weapons of his party, became the OBJ
ject of attack of all good people-the
doomed knight of the campaign of
1884. Jim Blaine has been rightfully
defeated; he knows it, and in his vim
dictive hatred of the pure agencies
that defeated him he unmasks himself,
and the American peope stand
aghast and congratulate themselves
that they have been saved from a
monster in politics, from a very de-
mon in organized society. His speech
at Augusta, Me. proves all that has
been said against him before. He re.
pudiates truth and clings to talsehood
and venom as no other living man
could. A few days ago he said he
bowed to the popular will. Never con-
sistent, never guided by Openness
and truth, he next comes before the
country as though he were
the special agent of Satan himself
sent upon earth to inflame the baseI
passions of men, to vitalize evil, tC
engender hatred and bitterness, to re.
instate period of strife. Such wonld
be the end he aims at, but thanks tC
the Great Healer and to the will of the
American people, this spotted man has
met his destiny. Blaine is among the
men that were; he belongs to an age
that has passed; he has led hosts I'M
der the banner of the bloody shirt
but these hosts no longer follow
The age of hate and of evil
of sectional bitterness, is passed, and
Blaine is powerless to reinstate it. Sec
tions are united; the commercial and
monetary relations between north and
south show how intimately this coun.
try is once more blended. His falsify
ing tongue can no more raise up hatred
now than his ungodly hand could ar
rest the course of nature. The whites
of the south can stand all his bit
ter hatred; they know it may now
do them no harm. They have
devoted themselves to building
up wasted places, to educating
an enfranchised race and making
them useful and contented citizens
and the bitter tongue that plays with
in false lips can not drive then
from noble purpose to make oul
beautiful and fruitful south treasur.
ed part of a grand union of states
The man is mad; he is on the verge Of
desperate intent, dangerous only tc
himself. Let him have scope; he is
now harmless. His life has been one
of fraud. Under his smooth counte.
nance he has worn the hideousness
of Korassin. .Leavehim to himself
the deadly tank stands at his side; he
is in the act of leaping to own
destruction.