The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-10-28
STILL UNAVAILABLE.
II Mr.. Blaine Could Not Carry His Party
Through in 1884. How Can lie in 1888?
What a Republican Paper Thinks.

II Mr.. Blaine Could Not Carry His Party
Through in Is 81. How Can lie in 1888:
What a 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
nomination in 1888. 1t can not be
doubted that he desires it. because
nothing could be more distasteful tC
him than to close his public life with
such defeat as that of 1SS4-a defea
due to personal and not to party rea-
sons. He was not defeated because his
party had lost public confidence, but be-
cause he was its candidate. But a great
many earnest Republicans who disap-
proved of his nomination for various
reasons were yet so persuaded that
Republican opposition to a Republican
nomination was a 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 envclOps
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..
Bla;ne's nomination to be judiciOUs.
Many of the leaders who supported
him most strongly upon the stump in
81, 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-
lOngcd 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 81 10 decline to vote for him
in 'SS.
1t is useless to urge in his favor that
nothing new can be said against him.
What was said in 1891 was enough TO
defeat him, and it was of kind which
does not lose lis force with Il cam
paign. Ii the transactions of which
the Mulliran letters were the proof to
the public mind made him in tn pub
lie estimation unfit Tor the presidency
in 1851. they viii make him equally
unfit in 1858 If the explanations and
apologies ana defenScS were fruitleSs
then. they viii he equally Ruthless
again. 1t Was then said that he had
been vim Heated by his election as
Senator. But. by the same REASONING,
he has now been condemned BIZ his de-
feat for the Pre- idancy. 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 TO
he personally unfit in 1881 will
believe him to be any more
fit in 1898 If this be so. will
the party argument be strong
er then? Undoubtedly it was the par
tv argument and the Irish Democratic
vote which enabled him to contest the
result so closely in 81. But few intel
ligcnt men can suppose that the mere
party appeal against Democratic success
rs public danger can be rs strong in
SO as it was in "a. In "a thousands of
honest Republicans believed that the
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
ernmcnt by its enemies, and radical
financial Disturbances, and general
panic and proStration of industry and
enterprise. In view of such calamities
to follow the success of the Democratic
candidate, they felt that it was a GRIM
inal PhariSe"iSm to object to the char
actcr of the Republican candidate.
Undoubtedly he will be warmly pressed
as the most conspicuous leader. rs 4
great party organizer, as the Pepuhlic-
an of the largest and most devoted fol-
lowing. as the only Republican who
can command an Irish Democratic
vote; and the strongest appeal of all in
a party convention viii be The declara-
ton that in view of his defeat in 81
upon personal grounds, to set him
aside in IS viii be to acquieSce tacitly
in the personal charges against him.
Yet that he VIII be really a stror ger
candidate in IS. or that the Cleveland
Administration will have been such as
to make the party argument for lin
more decisive than in 81. can not be
supposed. 1t will be a hundredfold
easier to be an Independent in 'SS than
in 81. Every form of oblo4uv and
blackguardism and falsehood against
Mu@wumps has been exhausted. and it
is demonstrated that to vote against