The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-11-27
BLAINE GNAsHEs HIS TEETH.
A Violent Speech Against tho Solid South.

AUGUSTA, Me-, November 1S.-A
large number of personal and political
friends of Blaine serenaded him this
evening as an expression of personal
good will and admiration of his conduct
of the national campaign. They marched
through the streets under the marshal
ship of Col. Frank Nye. When they
reached Blaine's house their compliments
and friendly regards were expressed in q
speech by Herbert NJ. Heath. of the
Kennebec bar.
Blaine responded as follows, his speech
being continually interrupted by ap.
plause:
Friends and neighbors, the national
contest is over, and by the narrowest of
margins we have lost. / thank you for
your call, which, if not one of joyous
congratulation, is one I am sure Of con-
Gdence and of sanguine hope for the
future. I thank you for the public
opportunity you give me to express my
sense of obligation not only to you but
to all the Republicans of Maine. They
responded to my nomination with genuine
enthusiasm, ratified it by superb vote.
I count it as one of the honors and
qualifications of my public career that
the party in Maine after struggling hard
for the last six years, and twice within
that period losing the State, has come
back in this campaign to an old-fashioned
10000 plurality. No other expression
of popular confidence and esteem could
equal that of the people among whom I
have lived for thirty years, and to whom
T. am attached by all the ties that emo
BILE human nature and give joy and dig
nifty to life.
After Maine, indeed along with Maine,
my first thought is always of Pennsylva.
MIA. How can 1 fttiDgly express my
thanks for that unparalleled majority Of
more than $4,000 votes, an endorsement
which has deeply touched my heart and
which has, if possible. increased my
affection for that grand old common
wealth, an affection which / inherited
from my ancestry and which I shall
transmitto my children.
But I do not limit my thanks to the
State of my residence and the State of
my birth. owe much to the true and
Jealous friends in New England who
worked so nobly for the Republican
party and its candidates and to the emf
nent scholars and divines who, stepping
aside from their ordinary avocations,
made my cause their cause, and to loyalty,
to principle added the special compli.
ment of standing as my personal repre-.
sentatives in the National struggle.
But the achievements for The Republi.
can cause in the East are even surpassed
by the splendid victories in the West.
In that magnificent Gordon of States
that stretches from the foothills of the
Alleghenies to the golden gate of the
Pacific, beginning with Ohio and ending
with California, the Republican banner
was borne so lofty that but single State
failed to join in the wide acclaim of
triumph. '-''.
Nor should do justice to my own
feelings if failed to thank the Republi:.
cans Of the Empire State, who encoun::
tered so many discouragsments and
obstacles, who fought foes from within
aud foes from, without, and who waged
so strong battle that the change of one
vote in every 2, 900 would have given us
victory in the Nation. Indeed change
of little more than 5000 votes would
have transferred New York, Indiana,
New Jersey and Connecticut to the Re-
publican standard and would have made
the North as solid as the South.
My thanks would still be incomplete If
I should fail 10 recognize with special
gratitude thai great body of workingmen,
both native and foreign born, who gave
me that earnest support, breaking from
old personal and party ties and finding
in the principles which represented in
the canvass, the safe guard and protec.
tion Of their own fireside interests.
The result of the election, my friends,
will be regarded in the future, think,
as extraordinary. The Northern States,
leaving out the cities of New York and
Brooklyn from the count, sustained the
Republican cause by majority of more
than 100000. Almost half million
indeed of the popular vote Of the cities
of New York and Brooklyn threw their
great strength and influence with the
Solid South and were the decisive ele-
nlent which gave to that section the con-
troll of the National Government.
Speaking now, not at all as defeated
candidate, but as loyal and devoted
American, think the transfer of the
political power of the Government to
the South is a great National misfortune.
It is misfortune, because it introduces
an element which cannot insure hal
mony and prosperity to the people,
because it Introduces into the Republic
the rule of the minority. The first
instinct of an American is equality
equality of right, equality of privilege,
equality of political power, that equality
which says to every citizen: "Your vote
is Just as good, just as potential as the
vote of any other citizen" =.
That cannot be aaid to day in the
United States. The course of affairs in
the South has crushed out the political
power of more than q million American
citizens, and has transferred it by vic.
lsnce to Others. Forty.two Presidential
electors are assigned to the South on
| account of the colored population.
That population, with more than l,10O,.
600 legal votes, have been unable to
chose single elector. Even in those
States where they have majority ol
more than 100000, they are deprived oi
free suffrage and their rights as citizens
are scornflll y trodden under foot.
The eleven States that comprised the
Rebel Confederacy had by the census Of
1880 seven and a half million white
population and $780, 900 colored popula
ton. The colored population almost tc
a man desire to support the Republican
party, but by o system, of cruel intimida
ton, and by violence and murder, when.
ever violence and murder are though!
necessary, they are absolutely deprived
of all political power. If the outrage
stopped there it would he bad enough
but it does not.stop there, for not only is
the negro population disfranchised, bu
the power which rightfully and constltu
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