Evening journal., 1891-08-13
nNE ANn RucnANAN.

The situation, the evident absence Of q
cordial understanding between President
Harrison and Secretary Blaine. bad a
parallel In the rupture between Polk and
Buchanan.
President Harrison's friends have been
industriously engaged in disseminating
the claim that Blaine WAS under some
engagement to Harrison, and that he
should abandon all interest in the nomi-
nation for 1892 or secure It for Harrison.
They have made this claim the basis OF a
great deal Of argument to the effect that
Blaine, in not rebuking publicly the men
who are seeking to nominate him for the
Presidency, has shown bad faith, treason
and disloyalty They believe that Blaine
yielded and Harrison had exacted an
agreement upon the acceptance Of the state
portfolio. humiiating to Blaine and i'm
possible for Harrison.
At the time when any agreement like
that might have been made Blaine was
great and powerful influence. with the
boon or the nomination for the Presi
dency within his gift Harrison was an
obscure nobody, willing to take anything
which might be- thrown to him, 1t seems
preposterous that Blaine, the big man,
should have made an embarrassing agree
ment with Harrison. the little man,
especially in view Of Blsines remarks on
a similar situation between Polk and
Buchanan which he described In his
Twenty years Of Congress.
Blaine could not have anticipated then
that In seven years President Harrison
would be attempting TO create his
torical parallel to what he was then de
sc.ibing. Hence he wrote with more
vigor than he would have spoken
publicly--about the rights and duties Of
Cabinet officers with respect to Presi
dents seeking denomination. Buchanan
was not Blaine, although Polk may
have been a Harrison, but there is just
enough family resemblance between the
chief characters aud chief features Of
these two dramatic incidents to make
Blaines comments peculiarly significant
and interesting.
''Mr. Polk, says Blaine, was from
some cause incapable of judging Mr.
Buchanan generously. he seems to have
regarded his Secretary Of State as always
willing to save himself at the expense of
others He did not fail to perceive that
Mr.. Buchanan had come out Of the Oregon
trouble with more credit, At least with
less loss, than other men prominently
identified with its agitatiOns and settle
ment. This was not pleasing to the
President How much more interesting
this becomes when you substitute the
words Harrison for Polk, Blaine for Buch
anan, and the tariff for Oregonl Then
comes the exposition Of the rights Of Cab
inent relations.
1.-The President, says Blaine, ''had
evidently not concealed his dlstrust from
the outset, and had numbered the offer Of
Cabinet position with conditions
which seemed derOgatory to the dignity
Of Mr.. Instrumentation which
man OF spirit might well have resented.
He informed Mr. Buchanan that as he
should cake no part himself between
gentlemen OF the Democratic party who
might become aspirants for the Presi
densy he desired that no member of the
Cabinet should do so He indeed ex-
pressed himself to Mr.. Buchanan in 9
manner so peremptory as to be offensive
Should sny member of my Cahi
net become a candidate for the Presi-
dency of the United States 1t will b,
expected on the happening o.
such an event that he will retire from thi
CA5inet. Remembering that Madison,
Monroe and John Quincy Adams had eacl
been nominated for the Presidency whill
holding the position OF Secretary Of Stat,
in the Cabinet of his predecessor, Mr. Poll
was attaching a new aud degrading con
dition to the inoumbenoY OF that office p
With such parallel as that, of whicl
he had written 1884 in his mind, il seem
scarcely within the range Of posslbilit,
that in 1883 Mr.. Blaine made th
similarly humiliating bargain with Mr.
Harrison. Mr. Harrison's 5 friends ar
probably more Jealous than discreet.