Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-12-12

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will thwarted frequently by an autccrat
in The White House, and who dares TO
dcnounce tariff principles which his
country has recognized for more than
thirty consecutive years and still retains in
operation Language fails to express the
contempt which Bayard has brought
upon himself His words proclaim him
traitor. His Office proclsims BIN
traitor, who attacks his country from the
vantage Of an eminent station In the
service Of that country. He makes use,
in attacking it, OF the weapons, which
tina. country has entrusted to his keeping
for its defense and protection. He does
not merit the respect which is sometimes
accorded brilliant traitors. No man of
more than the most mediocre calibre no
man of sound common sense, would in
yi,e the contempt of his own people and
Of those whose favor he would curry.
This Is what Thomas r. Bayard has done
There can be no doubt Of 1t, unless he has
been misrepresented by the English news
rapcrs, which are very careful in their
reports of such proceedings
He has again demonstrated the estimate
which Mr.. Blaine made of him In
Twenty Years of Congress That esti-
mate was unimpassiuned, it was written
from intimate knowledge of the man and
with the knowledge that If proved I'M
true by the course of events, 1T would
reflect upon him who made it. Bayard
as secretary OF state bore witness to the
truth of Mr.. Blaines estimate of him.
And this is time when people should
again turn to that chapter in Mr.. Blaine's
book. OF Bayard's service in the Senate
Mr.. Blaine wrote, that 1t had been
remarkable for one leading character
istic-"the power, or the accidental
fortune, to create public impression as
to his career, precisely the reverse Of its
actual history" The author then goes on
to substantiate this sweeping statement.
He points out that while Bayard had been
considered sound in his financial views he
Joined in the crusade to enforce the pay
ment of the national debt in deprecated
paper money: whereas on the southern
question he had been considered as
calm, considerable, and just" he had gone
farther than the most rancOrous rebel
leader of the South. These are the care
fully studied words from an official re-
port of Mr. Bsyard on the condition in
the South But whenever that party
(the Republican, shall go down, as 60
down it will at some time not long in the
future, that will be the end of the political
power of the negro among white men on
this continent" Mr.. Blaine says of this
his language was therefore, distinct
threat to override the Constitution in
order to strip the negro of the political
power, which the Constitution had con
ferred upon him" And this was con
tanned in an official report, not given
utterancc in the heat of debate. Mr.
Blaine also calls attention to the fact
that, as lawyer, Bayard had attained no
prominence, while commonly supposed to
have done so. As regarded learning and
culture he had not enjoyed facilities
greater than those OF the common school
or academy. We are left to conclude that
Mr. Bayard' S influence was due to the old
family from which he descended, to its
aristocratic power in the litsle state of
Delaware, to the sympathy he won from
the South by his ultra coppcrhead atti-
tude. These sources were not those from
which Americanism derives strength !;
nor from which Bayard would derive
Amcrcanism. Had there been possibility
of SO doing his was not the character to
assmilate it.
Bayard's case isn't partisan matter.
His attitude docs not represent the masses
of the Democratic party, be its faults
what they may, and we believe they are
many and serious. At least the majority
Ol Iue lliSH CUiHpUSiHS tidu parry dlo
American in heir sympathies. Bayard is
not American in his sympathies, never
will be. He has been all his life an
aristocrat of the snobbish variety. He
long ago budded, not unnaturally, into
an Anglo maniac of the most pronounced
type. He gave his daughter in marriage
to an English aristocrat. Since he has
been in England, as the ambassador of
this great republic, he has spent bis time
for the most part in hobnobbing with the
members of the English nobility and i'm
pressing them with the belief that he was
superior to the masses of his countrymen.
In order to ingratiate himself with the
Fitznoodles of English snobbery, with
whom he has been pleased to consort he
has not bcstated to belittle and disparage
the great country that gave him birth,
and which he has been supposed to rep
resent Any man who is ashamed of the
United States, may rest in the assurance