Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-01-27

FOUR OF MR. BLAINE'S CHILDREN.
higher passions ever commanded such ODE
dience by glance as his. Therefore he
gained the respect which comes from proper
fear, and even Democrats joined with Re
publicans in saying, There is a manp' 1t
was the superb exhibition of these quail
ties which undoubtedly suggested first to
the congressman of his party, and through
| them to vast numbers of the party through
out the country, that here was the man to
succeed in the presidency the hero of the
civil war.
Blaine himself was an acknowledged can
didate before he had finished his second
term, and he used his power as speaker I'M
questionably, SO far as he honorably could,
to create the politics which command q
presidential nomination. Over in the SEN
ate there were certainly three rivals of his
for that nomination, two conspicuous-Mr.
Morton and Mr.. Conkling-and Mr.. Blaine
played his game against them and played it
splendidly. At the beginning of his third
! term as speaker he realized that if his grasp
was not quite upon the presidency his hand
could almost touch the prize.
His Moral Courage.
1t is therefore all the more remarkable
that Mr.. Blaine was capable of exploiting
as he did in the highest degree both moral
courage and audacity, which might serious
ly imperil his prospects. His audacity was
displayed when he was brought face to face
with grave charges affecting his Integrity OF
character. Accusations were publicly made
that he had received as price for his influ-
ence certain securities from railway seek
ing congressional aid The proof of these
accusations were said to be in the posses
sion of a certain clerk named Mulligan
and in the shape of letters. The friends of
MIR. Blaine looked very solemn in these
days, and he was himself most anxious.
One morning when this black cloud was
hanging over him and his friends he arose
to question Of personal privilege. There
had been hint of his intention. The great
galleries were packed. Every seat upon the
floorwa taken, and senators had come from
their chamber that they might see and hear
Blaine in this hour of his desperation and
peril. For every discomfort which this
: throng suffered they were amply repaid.
The scene which took place has been almost
unequaled in parliamentary annals. Blaine
stood there magnificent in his defiance
He held aloft the bundle of discriminating
letters, of itself dramatic picture and sit
uation worthy of the greatest dramatists,
and he declared with some sense of humil-
iation and personal outrage that he would
himself read these letters to the house, that
its members might see what those accusa-
lions were.
Blaine was never more superb. He con-
quered that house by his very magnifcence
of resistance. He held himself at bay SO
that men cheered and the galleries resound-
ed to the echo with the applause Of this
spectacle He read the letters through, and
then, with dramatic power which, if it were
acting, was a finer exhibition of the dra-
matte gift than the greatest actors have
ever shown, he pointed the finger of scorn
and accusation at a certain member of the
house and accused him Of withholding a
telegram which would have proved his In
nocence