The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1893-02-02

bellion he laid a strong and ambitious
hand. He was determinative force
in the financial measures upon which
the business and wealth of the
United States have found a profitable
but unstable equilibrium. He pressed
forward with ceaseless activity the meas
ures of reconstruction. He assembled
the sharp and jutting crag of party
leadership. With the statesman's mo-
tive, not unmixed with the motive of the
politician, he flung himself into the
heated and imbittered debates of the
epoch.
The legislative career of Blaine was
touched in many parts with the first
penciling of those policies with which
his name has become associated. Al
ready we may discover in the tone of
his debates and the spirit of his outside
speeches the outgivings of those views
which as secretary of state he was to
develop into permanency and system.
Ever and anon while still in the house
of representatives he struck out with
original force the first sparks of that
policy between which and the high jingo-
ism of British politics so many points Of
similarity may be discovered. It may
be defined as the policy of acute Anaeri-
canism! 1t develops itself into the
theory of the complete segregation of the
American republics and of the utilization
of all under the @gis of the United
States. 1t is form of patriotic indig-
nation of which one of the fundamental
principles is attachment to the Irish
cause and aversion to British influences
on this side of the sea. 1t is probable
that the doctrine of protection, to which
Blaine gave such powerful and rational
advocacy, was by him held as secondary
to the deeper motive of American self
suficiency and of the confirmation of
the United States in the primacy of the
three Americas.
Blaine's whole career in congress was
spectacular and dramatic. The genius
of the man favored display and great
acting. Without doubt Blaine had the
power to grasp situation, to extract
from it its dramatic elements and to
work those elements into scene In
this particular American history has not
furnished his equal. His audacity al
ways stood him well in hand. Time and
again he was brought into collision with
dangerous men and, still more dangerous
facts 1t may be doubted whether in
such contingencies he ever suffered dis
paragement, to say nothing of defeat.
Time and again he issued from the most
serious complications, portending ruin
to his fortunes, with victory on his crest.
In such contests there is little doubt that
ne was capable of supplying in his own
cause, by well placed fiction and unsup-
ported defamation, those elements of
fact which truth withheld. In the crises
OF his career he was won't to shoot the
rapids like skillful and daring boat
man. There were days when his proud
ship and valuable cargo were crowded
hard between Scylla and Charybdis, but
he always went through with q shout
and was answered by the roar of the sur
rounding seas.
We may here refer at once to Blaine's
personal antagonisms and ever recurring
encounters. No other American states
man of great rank has had SO many and
such serious battles. Some were battles
with men and others with circum-
stances. These cost the gladiator dearly.
It was his antagonism, be it said, that
finally stranded him on the shores this
side of the White House. He attacked,
and attacked bitterly, all of his rivals.
He seemed to be inspired with the belief
that be must yanquiah them end put