The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-01-28
SEATTLE, sATURDAY, JAN. rs.


In the first rank of American statesmen
fairly may be placed Franklin, Washing
ton. Lincoln. Hamilton, Jefferson, Mar
shall, Webster, Calhoun and perhaps
Henry Clay. To the second rank belong
Madison. John Quincy Adams. Van
Buren,, Benton. Silas Wright. Dewitt Clin-
ton, Seward. Chase, Conkling and Tilden.
To what class shall we assign Blainef
This is not an easy question to answer.
He was, like Henry Cay, man of rare
and brilliant political genius, who, lacking
something OF the qualities which were
necessary TO q statesman of the highest
order, nevertheless misses the first rank
by so little that he stands with Clay at the
top of the second class of American states
men.
By native genius Mr.. Blaine belongs to
the first class of American statesmen;
nothing but his utter lack of legal train
ing, an immense advantage to a man seek
ing the highest walks of craftsmanship,
prevented Mr. Blaine from rising to the
first class of Americas great men. The
astonishing power of Blaine's brain is
shown by the fact that outside of Franklin
and Washington he is the only very emil
nent American statesman who utterly
lacked legal raining. In spite of this
fact Mr.. Blaine in the senate was more than
the match Of any of his colleagues in de-
bate, save the first lawyers of that body,
like Edmunds, Thurman and Matt Carpen-
ter. Able men Of legal training, like Ben
Hill, were completely vanquished by Mr..
Blaine in debate; able men of legal train.
ing, like Senators Dawes and Hoar, of
Massachusetts,, were mere boys in the hands
of Blaine. In a debate involving the
old controversy between Maine and Mas
saehusetts Blaine bumped the heads of
Hoar and Dawes together until they cried
for quarter and the whole country laughed
al their defeat. Mr.. Blaine beat Hoar and
Dawes on their own chosen ground of
historical and political scholarship and
completely vanquished them.
In the house at an early day Of his ca
reer Blaine measured swords with Thad
Stevens, one of the keenest and most
powerful minds that ever welded the
whip of leadership in the house since
Henry Clay. and he carried the house
with him and secured the fourteenth
amendment in its final form and shape in
spite of the vigorous opposition of Mr..
Stevens. Before this date Mr.. Blaine had
shown his power to mould legislation at
critical moments by his successful opposi-
ton to absolute CONSUMPTION he supported
the draft, but secured the Communication
and substitute clause, insisting that abso-
Lutte CONSUMPTION would prove a practical
failure. To Mr.. Blaine was due the enact
ment of a scheme of reconstruction which
declined to place the South under military
government without provisions for re-
establishment by the people of civil gov
eminent. Mr.. Blaine, therefore, not Thad
Stevens fixed the fate and terms of recon-
siruction. AS early as 1867 Mr.. Blaine
vigorously opposed the payment of the
debt in greenbacks; Mr.. Blaine was sound
on finance ~ a time when men like Logan,
Morton, Butler and other leading Republic
cans were unsound. Mr.. Blaine secured
the release Of Costello. and his discussion
led Great Britain TO abandon the doctrine
of "once subject always subject" in
1870. To Mr.. Blaine We owe the firm
establishment of our present American
doctrine of equal rights and protection for
both adopted and native citizens.
Mr.. Blaine in 1876 opposed the removal
of the disabilities of jeff Davis, not because
he was the chief Of the Confederacv. but
because he deemed that "Dayis was know
ingly and willfully and deliberately the
guilty and responsible author of the gigan-
tic murder ana crime of Andersonyille. ="
The latest historical examination of this
question leaves Mr.. Davis just where
Blaine placed him. Davis, his coinmissary
general. Northrup, and Gen. Winder are
held responsible by the assistant Confed-
crate secretary Of war. ex-Judge Campbell
OF the United States supreme court. for
the crime Of AndersonviIle. No man made
fewer mistakes in historical facts than
Blaine, and he made none concerning
jeff Davis. la his thirteen years of Ger
vice In the house Mr. Blaine had proved
himself the most powerful debater that
had been seen in its halls since Henry
Clay, and he was Clay's superior in every
thing save en.otiona! eloQuence OF the
sympathetic quality.
Mr.. Blaine's career In the senate was
that of a statesman: he opposed the per-
petaation of irredeemable currency: lie
opposed the Bland silver bill OF ISIS, bu.
favored bi-metsilic currency; in ISIS he
advocated q subsidy 10 establish Brazil-
ian line OF mail steamships: lie argued
that congress had developed the railroads
hv $500, 600, coo, which had produced s. 600, =
oOO.0o, and urged the development Of our
marine commerce by the subsidy methods
Of Great Britain; he denounced the with.
holding of appropriations except on con-
diton of executive complscency as revo-
Iutlonary, as saying. "Do as we demand or
We will stop the wheels Of government"
In 1875 he denounced the injustice wrought
To The whites OF the Northern states by
the denial of the franchise 10 the blacks
since by its enjoyment Of full repre-
sentation fer suppressed and stolen
suffrage the South had larger
representation than the North. since in
Iowa and Wisconsin 1t took is-, 900 whites