Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-05-03
4 Nest Eloquent Tribsts irsm Friend and
Eelieu cftizsa.


| speaker seeming to Vie with the other in the
splendor of his fhetoria. in the elegance of his
diction and III the eioduence OF his oratory.
| lEto this competition | shall not enter, but
| snail keep closer 10 the ground, dealing with
facts, hot with iancics.
| James Gillespie Blaine was horn in West
Pennsylvania iu Ight of mountains. valleys
| and running waters, pf father and mother
| both Seoteh-iriSh descent, both we'll born and
| well bred the maIily, hospiable, fond of
display, generous .nd somewhat eXtravasant;
| the other gentle, econ1nical, caretaking and
pous. The words Mr.. Blaine used touching
| the birth OF President GARFIELD in his mastery
| eulogy apply equally to his: HE was born of
| good stock on both sides, none better, none
| Drawer. There was in II an inheritance Of
courage, of manliness, Of imperishable love of
| liberty. of undy wing adherence to principle"
| The boy Blaine knew nothing Of the priva-
| tions and hartiships which have ordinarily at
| tended the youth of bur great men, never
picked stones lying thiekly on fathers
| farm, never drove the mule wearly drawing
The canal boat, nor split the cross grained
rails.
lie was guided, tranet and educated by the
gentle mother, pctted and indulged by his
lavish father. As a boylhe was full of fun and
frolic inclined to all 4orts of harmless mis-
| chief, a leader in all the childish sports. In
school and in COLLEGE he was not a stu
| dent, but scholar. lie was bright, quick
and active, fouder of sport than study,
but so gifted with a wonderful reten-
tive memory, quick perception and
| remarkable power of absorption that he
always stood at or near the head of his classes
He early evinced "a lovd for history and biog-
raphy. an aptness for essay writing and a
fondness for debate. Elected TO the presi-
dency OF a college literary society, 1t Is said
that he committed Cushing's Manual to men,
ory in single day and night, and astonished
the disputatious boys by his familiarity with
parliamentary lax.
He graduated from college at the early age
of II, with honor, receiving commence
nent part an English Grafton. Through these
years of student life, when temptations were
many and powerful, no vices, immoralities or
Weaknesses stained or degraded it. The man.
liness and courage of the father. the virtues,
prayers and picty of the mother preserved
him. At this time the free and generous man
ner of life at home had reduced the family
fortune, and young Blaine, even then self
reliant and independent, struck out for HIM
sef-for four years as a teacher in Kentucky
and for two in Philadelphia. He was a sue
cess in this profession, dominated all his
fellow teachers, revolutioniZed the methods
OF instruction and discipline and endeared
himself to all the students. But he had hopes
and ambitions, dreamed dreams and saw
visions which could never be realized in the
role Of a teacher.
The time mad come for him to select his life
work Ii was most serious problem, and
however he had solved 1t. believe his Sue
cess would have been phenomenal. II he had
chosen science, his wonderfui memory, his
power of analysis, his fondness for mathe-
| matics- his capacity and inclination for work,
would have secured him worldwide reputa-
tion; Of li/rature, he would have become pre-
einiECnt-wiincss his accomplishments. giving
10 it only the leisure hours Of wonderful
busy life. His Twenty Years in Congress, so
clear, 50 simple. fair and impartial, so inter
esting, that the most insatiate novel reader
would lei one of Walter Scott's best await its
perusal. is an impcrishablo monument to his
ability. His more polished orations, his mag
agine articles, his memorial address on Gar
field. are witnesses | know nothing more
beautiful in the English language than the
closing words of the great eulogy:
Gently. silently. the love of great people
bore the pale hferer to the longed-for heal
ing of the sea, To live or to die God should
will, within sight of its heaying bllows,
within sound OF its manifold voices. With
wan, fevered face. tenderly lifted to the cool
ing hreeSes. he looked ont wistfully upon the
oceans changing wonders. on its far sails.
whitening i'll the morning light; on its restless
waves rolling shoreward TO break and die be-
meath the MONDAY sun: on the red clouds of
evening, arching low to the horizon: on the
serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let
US think that his dying eyes read a mystic
meaning, which only the rapt and parting
soul may know. Let us believe that in the
silence of the receding world he heard the
great waves breaking on a farther shore, and
felt already upon his wasted brow the breath
Of the eternal morning.
Who doubts he might have gathered splendid
fame if he had given his life to this work? He
chose journalism for while. suppose he had
adhered to thatf Would there have been any
limit to the good he could have wrought by
his vigorous denunciation of wrong. his able
advocacy of rigat: to the influence he could
have welded through his intimate knowledge
OF men apd things, his comprehensive grasp of
all the important subjects affecting the best
interests of the country. his familiarity with
our institutions. with those of other nations,
and with the policies and principles of parties;
his massive style Of writing, his strong conyic-
tions and his courage in enforcing them; his
inclination to lead and his wonderful capacity
10 do so. IL he had devoted himself
to business he could easily have rivalled
the financial giants of the country and
gathered to himself enormous wealth. / never
knew him to make a mistake in his invest
mants. tie seemed 10 have prophetic eye
and the confidence to act upon its vision II he
bought coal fields remote and inaccessible. in
a few years railroads would open up to the
markets and auadruple their value. II he
purchased lots. then apparently fit only for
pasture. soon they would be embraced within
the city limits. As il was, having but little
time to give TO this pursuit, he left a hand
some fortune.
But the political field had wonderful charms
for him Its excitements. its contests and its
opportunities for the qualification of ambition
were too alluring and he yielded. deliberately
choosing 1t as his arena.
Mr.. Blaine In Politics.
At this time the aggressions of slavery
had become so bold. the surrender Of the
| cratic party to its demands COM
plete the conservatism of the Whig
party so nearly akin to surrender, that the
liberty loving men OF both parties formed a
new one. the Republican, its Fundamental
idea being . protest against these aseressions.
Mr. Blaine was inspired with an intense love
of liberty by his Scotch-Irish ancestors. who
had shed their blood many bat
ilefield in is defense. He sympathized pro-
foundly win manhood struggling for its rights
whether here. in Hungary. in Ireland or else
where. The sentiment of his favorie poet,
Burns, "a mans a man for a that" was deep
footed in his nature. and he stopped not 20 in
qnire of the birth, religion politics OF color of
the oppressed. His earnest support of Kos
suth; his eloquent speech for home rule in
Ireland, delivered at Portland in 1855. his
ceaseless efforts for the restoration Of Costello
| and his fellow Fenians. unjustly confined in
| English prisons, are evidences of his loyalty
| to men struggling to be free from the clutch
of tyranny. With such sympathies, intensi-
| he'd by the existing conditions. Mr.. Blaine at
| once attached himself to this new party and
continued in IL to the day of his dcath--never
hesitaiing. never wavcrins. never cosupromis-
| ing.
| He drafted the resolutions presented to the
| first Republican convention in the state Of
| Maine. and advocated their adoption In a
! powerful speech, in the course Of which he
| said:
| Sink or swim. live or die. survive or perish,
| We give our hands and our hearts to this great
| Republican movement We cannot be con-
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