The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-03-19
WAIT A LITTLE.
Blaine Not Likely to Ever Beach the Chief
Office in the Republic

Blaine Not Likely to Ever Beach the Chief
ONCE in the Republic
The Augusta speech of Mr.. Blaine.
coupled with other facts and significant
indications then and since observed,
point to the conclusion that this am
bilious politician will be candidate for
the Presidency in 1888. The more or
less active proceedings looking to this
end. whether preconcerted or not, are
from every point of view ill-advised
and disastrously premature. No one
can now tell what four years may
bring forth. The questions uppermoSt
then may be unfamiliar and unknown
now. The issues of the day and hour
must be dealt with by the men of the
day and hour. The President of rail-
way or bank is not selected five years
before his services are required, nor is
the Pres;d dent of n college chosen until
he is wanted. The public man best
fitted to serve as President of the United
States IN 1889 can not therefore be
singled out in 1885.
1t should not be forgotten by the too
previous friends of Mr.. Blaine that there
are fatally serious objections to that
gentleman as party candidate; n non
partisan candidate of course he can
never be- As the Presidential candidate
of the Republican party the. insur-
mountable objection exists that he is
vehemently opposed by a large and re-
spectacle minority of his own political
$50 y - 4l..A u,
Republican opposition is without reason
and should not exist. 1t is enough to
know that it is most formidable, and
does exist. and that it embraces a dozen
influential public jourals and scores of
influential party men.
Is it ''good politics" to adhere to a
leader whose enemies inside the party
fold are so numerous and so persistent.
simply because he is the favorite of the
element casting the majority vote? If
minOrities have no rights. they have at
least decisive powers, as Mr.. Blaine
has lately learned. Their wishes must
be respected in politics from motives of
policy and prudence. Is it probable
that if General William T. Sherman had
been the Republican candidate for the
Presidency he would not have been
elected to that office? Would not Gen
eral Hawley have had the united sup
port of the Republican party at the late
election? And would Senator Sherman
have encountered the opposition within
his own party, arrayed against Mr..
Blaine. in view of his record as Secre-
tary of the Treasury That Mr. Blaine
made a creditable and brilliant po-
litical canvass all must concede. With
the limitations placed upon his popu-
larity by his bad record and the i'm
pediments that so heavily weighed him
down, neither he nor any one else so
handicapped could, perhaps. have done
better. But many letters which he long
ago wrote were susceptible of a most
unfavorable Interpretation, and it was
and is unfortunate that he ever wrote
even one letter that he deemed it pru-
dent or necessary to order burned.
While therefore this popular leader
has those personal qualities which will
make him power in politics so long as
he lives, it does not seem TO be his DIES
tiny to ever reach the chief Office in the
Republic. Three times has this great
honor eluded his grasp. Running for
the Presidency is all very we'll for the
first dozen years, but after that it be-
comes somewhat monotonOus to the peo-
pie. Our history shows that those who
have sought the Chief Magistracy most
persistently have never reached it. 1t
comes, if at all, unsought.-M Y.
Gra0hic.