Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-02-26
Mr.. Blaine'S Book.
EXTRACTS AND CHARACTER STUDIES.

The second and concluding volume of Mr..
Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress" has
been published. 1t embraces the period be-
tween Mr. Johnson's installation as President
| and General Garfeld's election to the Presi-
deacy. The earlier chapters are occupied
mainly with the Reconstruction problem. the
contest between the President and Congress,
and the impeachment trial General Grants
| eight years of administration are discussed in
. generous and catholic spirit and the closing
chapters deal with current questions of po-
litical discussion. The following extracts
illustrate the authors critical manner in
writing the history of recent years:
SECRETARY STANTON.
| Mr. Stanton, though originally pro-slav-
cry democrat, had by the progress of the war
been converted to the creed of the most radi-
cal wing of the republican party. The ag-
gressive movement, the denunciatory declsr-
atoms, made by MIR. johnson against the
''rebels" and TRAITORS" of the South, immed-
lately after his accession to the Presidency,
were heartily re-echoe0 by Mr.. Stanton, who
looked forward with entire satisfaction to the
vigorous policy so vigorously proclaimed.
Mr. Stanton's tendency in this direction had
| been strengthened by the intolerance and
hatred of his old democratic friends-of
whom Judge Black was type-who lost no
opportunity to denounce him as q renegade to
his party, as one who had been induced by
place to foreswsar his old creed of State
Rights Such hostility should, however, be
accounted crown of honor to Mr.. Stanton.
He certainly came to the public service with
patriotic and not with sordid motives, surren-
dering most brilliant position at the bar,
and with it the emslument of which in the
sbsence of accumulated wealth his family
were in daily need. Mr.. Stanton's observa.
ton and wide experience through the years
of the war had taught him to distrust the
Southern leaders. Now that they had been
subdued by force, yielding at the point of the
bayonet when they could no longer resist. he
did not believe that they should be regarded
as returning prodigals to be embraced and
wept over, for whom fatted calves should be
killed, and who should be welcomed at once
to the best ia their fathers house. He thought
rather that works meet for repentance should
be shown by these offenders against the law
both of God and man, that they should be
held to account in some form for the peril
with which they had menaced the nation, and
for the agony they had inflicted upon her
! loyal sons. Mr.. Stanton was therefore, by
every impulse of his heart and by every con-
viction of his mind, favorable to the policy
which the Presiden had indicated, if not in
deed assured, to the people.
Mr.. SEwARD's Power.
Those who thoroughly knew Mr.. Seward
through all the stages of his political career
were aware that, great as he was in public
speech, in the Senate. at the, 0Bar, before
popular assemblies, cogent and powerful as
he had so often proved with his pen, his one
peculiar gift, greater perhaps than any other
with which he was endowed, was his faculty,
in personal intercourse with one man or with
q small number of men, of enforcing his
own views and taking captive his hearers.
With the President alone, or with body no
larger than Cabinet, where the conferences
and discussions are informal and converse
tional, Mr.. Seward shone with remarkable
brilliancy and with power unsurpassed. He
possessed a characteristic rare among men
who have been long accustomed to lead,-he
was good listener. He gave deferental at
tention to remarks addressed to him, paid the
graceful and insnuating compliment of SEEM
| ing much impressed, and offered the delicate
fiatterv, when he came to reply, of repeating
the argument of his opponent in phrase far
more affluent and eloquent than that in which
it was originally stated.
In his final summing up of the case, when
those with whom he was comforting were, in
DR.. Johnsons phrase, talked out" Mr..
Seward carried all before him. His logic
was clear and true, his illustration both
copious and felicitious, his rapid citation of
historical precedents surprising even to those
who thought they had themselves exhausted
the subject. His temper was too amaDe and
serene for singing wit or biting sarcasm
but he had powerful humor which kept the
minds of his hearers in that receptive and
compliant state which disposed them the more
readily to give full and generous considera-
ton to all the strong parts of his argument.
1t might well indeed be said of Mr. Seward
as Mr.. Webster said of Samuel Dexter
The earnestness of his convictions wrought
conviction in others. One was convinced and
believed and assented because it was crafty
ing and delightful to think and feel and be-
lieve in unison nth an intellect of such evil
dent superiority"
IMPEACHMENT OF JOHNSON.
But the Importance of the Presidents In
parchment does not depend upon the fame of
his accusers or upon the length of his trial.
The case in itself possesses Intrinsic and en-
during interest. 1t was not affected by fac
titious circumstances 1t is notable especial
subjected the Constitution, and the attesta-
ton it affords of the restraint which free
people instinctively impose upon themselves
III times of public excitement. 1t will be
studied as a precedent or as warning, BY
the citizens of the Great Republic during the
centuries through which, God grant, it may
pass with increasing prosperity and renown
And it may well happen that in the crises of
a distant future the momentous trial of 1868,
though properly resulting in acquittal of the
accused, will be recalled as demonstrating
the ease and the serenitv with which, if ne
cessity should demand 1t, the citizens of
free country can lawfully deprive corrupt
dangerous Executive of the office he has dis
honored and the power he has abused.
GENERAL GRANT IN CIVIL LIFE.
General Grant had never been in any way
connected with the civil administration of
Nation or State. The charge of being a
mere military chieftain had been in vain pre-
terred against some of his most illustrious
predecessors; but with the possible excep-
ton OF General Taylor, no President ever
came to his office with so little previous ex-
perience in civil affairs. Washington's fame,
prior to his accession to the Presidency,
rested mainly on his victorious leadership of
the Revolutionary army; but he had. as
Young man. served in the Provincial Assem-
bly, OF Virginia, had been a member of the Con-
tinentsl Congress. and had, after the close of
his military career, presided over the conven-
ton that framed the Constitution. Jackson