The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-11-03
STILL UNAVAILABLE.
If Mr.. Blaine Could Not Garry His PArty
Through in 1884, How Can He in 1888?
What Republican Paper Thinks.

II Mr.. Blaine Could Not Garry His Party
Through in 1884, How Can He in 1888?
What Republican Paper Thinks.
The tone of the Blaine Republican
press since the Maine election shows
that Mr.. Blaine will be probably
strongly pushed for the Republican
in 1888. 1t can not be
doubted that he desires it, because
could be more distasteful to
him than to close his public life with
such defeat as that of 1854 defeat
due to personal and not to party rea-
sons. He was not defeated because his
party had lostpublic confidence, but be-
cause he was it's candidate. But a great
many earnest Republicans who disap-
proved of his nomination for various
reasons were yet so persuaded that
opposition to Republican
nomination was kind of treason to the
country and to human liberty that they
have come to think the election of Mr..
Blaine Indispensable to the vindication
of the party and to the proper punish
ment of such offenders, and more than
one Of them has been heard to say that
he now lived to secure that result A
candidate who in addition to this kind
OF support has the aid of the party ma
chine and the prestige which envelopes
the chief party leader enters the con-
test with great advantages. 1t seems,
however, impossible that the wise
heads of the party should think Mr..
Blaine's nomination to be judicious.
Many of the leaders who supported
him most strongly upon the stump in
'84, and who most bitterly denounced
the treachery of Mugwumpery, had
been most strenuously opposed to his
nomination. They knew that the
campaign would be necessarily pro-
longed and desperate personal defence
and apology and explanation. as it
was. They have seen that all did not
avail, and they know that nothing
whatever has occurred to make Mr..
Blaine a more acceptable candidate,
while much has happened which would
make it easy for many who voted for
him in '84 to decline to vote for him
in 'SS.
It is useless to urge in his favor that
nothing new can be said against him.
What was said in 1884 was enough to
defeat him, and it was of kind which
does not lose its force with a cam
paign. If the transactions of which
the Mulligan letters were the proof to
the public mind made him in the pub
lie estimation unfit for the presidency
in 1884, they will make him equally
unfit in 1888. If the explanations and
apologies and defenses were fruitless
then, they will be equally frtlitless
again. 1t was then said that he had
been vindicated by his election as
Senator. But by the same reasoning,
he has now been condemned by his de.
feat for the Presidency. The personal
arguments are unchanged. There is
no reason to suppose, and, so far as
we know, there is no evidence what
ever, that the voters who held him tt
be personally unfit in 1884 will
believe him to be any more
fit in 1883. If this be so, will
the party argument be strong
er then? Undoubtedly it was the par:
ty argument aud the Irish Democratic
vote which enabled him to contest the
result so closely in '84. But few intel.
ligent men can suppose that the mere
party appeal against Dem ocratic success
as a public danger can be as strong ii
'88 as it was in "a. In '84 thousands O.
honest Republicans believed that thu
election of Mr.. Cleveland meant pay
ment of the rebel debt, and compensa
ton for slaves, and oppression Of col
ored citizens, and control of the Gov
eminent by its enemies, and radica
financial disturbances, and genera
panic and prostration of industry ant
enterprise. In view of such calamitie
to follow the success of the Democratic
candidate, they felt that it was Grim
inal Phariseeism to object to the char
acter of the Republican candidate
Undoubtedly he will be warmly pressed
as the most conspicuous leader, as
great party organizer, as the Republic
| oil VI G1C 1ul SCSt dAA AAOSt uCSObCu AOA
lowing, as the only Republican VIII
can command an Irish Democrat
vote; and the strongest appeal of all il
party convention will be the declara
ton that in view of his defeat in g
upon personal grounds, to set hir
aside in 'S8 will be to acquiesce tacitl
in the personal charges against him
Yet that he will be really a stronge
candidate in '8S, or that the Clevelan
Administration will have been such a
to make the party argument for hir
more decisive than in "a, can not b
supposed. 1t will be hundredfol
easier to be an Independent in '88 tina
in 'S4. Every form of obloquy an
blackguardism and falsehood agains
Mugwumps has been exhausted, and
is demonstrated that to vote agains
an unfit Republican is not to vote fc
national disaster. Men and brethren
let us reflect upon these things.-Ha'
per's Weekly.