Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-02-27
MIR. Blaine'S Book.
EXTRACTS AND CHARACTER STUDIES.


THE AFFRoNT TO SENATOR SUMNER.
Other incidents connected with the removal
tended to give i, the air of discourtesy to Mr.
Summer. One feature of it was specially
marked and painful. Mr.. Summers acquaint-
ance in Europe, certainly in England. was
larger than that of any other member of the
Senate. His speech oD the Alabama claims
was the first utterance on the subject which
had arrested the attention of England, and
now, as If IN re6uke of his patriotic position,
the Queens High Commissioners directly
after their arrival in Washington were called
to witness a public indigoity toward Mr.
Sumner. The action of the Senate was, in
effect, notice to the whole world that MIR.
Sumner was to have no further connection
with a great international question to which
he had given more attention than anv other
person connected with the government. Mr.
Sumner declined the service to which he WAS
assigned. and from that time forward to the
day of his death he had no rank as chairman,
no place upon a committee OF the Senate, no
cummttee-room for his use, no clerk AS
signed to him for the needed discharge of his
public duties. When Mr. Sumner entered
the Senate twenty years before, the pro-slav-
cry leaders who then controlled it had deter
mined ut one time in their caucus to exclude
him from all committee service on account of
his offensive opinions in regard to slavery,
but upon sober second thought they concluded
that a persecution of that kind would add to
Mr.. Summers strength rather than detrsct
from it. He WAS therefore given the ordinary
assignments of a new member BY the South
ern men in control and was thence regularly
advanced until he became a member of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, under the
craftsmanship of James NJ. Mason. with
Douglas and Slidell as fellow-members.
For his fidelity to principle and his bold
ness in asserting the truth at an earlier day
Mr.. Sumner was struck down in the Senate
Chamber by weapon in the hands of a po-
litical foe. 1t was impossible to anticipate
that fifteen years later he would be even more
cruelty struck down in the Senate hv the
members of the party he had done so much to
establish The cruelty was greater in the
latter case, as anguish of spirit Is greater
than suffering of body. In both instances
Mr.. Summers bearing was distinguished by
dignity and magnanimity. He gave utter
ance to no complaints. and silently submitted
to the unjustifable wrong of which he was a
victim. That nothing might be lacking in
the extraordinary character of the final scene
of his disposition, the democratic senators
recorded themselves against the consumma-
ton of the injustice. They had no co-opers-
ton from the republicans. The caucus dicta-
ton was so strong that discontinued republic
cans merely refrsined from voting.
SENATOR LOGAN.
j.. John A. Logan took his seat AS the success
sor to Governor Oglesby. He had been alb
sent from the Senate two wears, and returned
with the renewed Endorsement of the grea,
State which he had faithfully served in wal
and in peace. He had been in Congress be-
Al. l.. .l1. 4.
for the House of Representatives in the year
of the famous contest between Lincoln and
Douglas. and was partisan supporter and
personal friend of the latter. He changed his
political relations when he found himself
summoned to the field in defence of the Union.
General Logan's services at that time were
peculiarly important. He lived in that Sec
ton of Illinois whose inhabitants were mainly
people of Southern blood, and whose natural
ssmpathies might have led them into mis-
chievous ways but for his stimulating exam.
pie and efforts. The Missouri border was
near them on the one side. the Kentucky
border on another, and if the Southern Hi
noisaus had been betrayed, in any degree
into disloysl course, the military operations
of the government in that section would have
been greatly embarrassed. General Logan
did not escape without misrepresentation a,
tina, critical time. but the impartial judgment
of his countrymen has long since vindicated
his course as one of exceptional courage and
devoted patriotism His military career was
Abrilliant aud successful, and his subseque It
course in Congress enlarged his reputation
Indeed no man in the country has combined
A military aud legislative career with the de
gree of success in both which General Loysr
has attained.
SENATOR HALE.
Eugene Hale entered the House from
Maine in his thirty-third year. He began the
practice of law as soon as he attained his
majority, and was almost Immediately APP
nointed county attorney,-a position which
he held for nine years. His success at the
Rar was very marked. Preceding his elec-