The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-02-26
MURDER! WHO MURDERED BLAINE

Washington, D. c., Feb. 20, 1896.-It
was an honorable ambition on the part
of the late James G.. Blaine to become
the chief executive of the great western
republic. Except, perhaps, as to Henry
Clay, no man in the United States ever
had such devoted followers,-at least,
from the noise they made one would
have been led to think So Why, in Min
neapolis, when he was defeated for
nomination in 1892, scores of these friends
beloved and wept like trounced school
boys,-the various Blaine delegations
packed their grips and fled from the city
as the Lot family fed from Sodom, never
looking back
The cause of the defeat of their leaoer
constituted the fifth thing which was
"too wonderful for them, and which
they knew not,"-thus adding a new
mystery to those which COMPOUNDED the
wise man as recorded in Proverbs chap
ter 80, verses Is, 9. But politics is pro-
gressive science and although it is as
impracticable today to trace ''the way
of an eagle in the air. as it was when
Solomon hob-nobbed with the Queen of
Sheba, now discoveries are the order of
the age, and the way Of the serpent
upon the rocks,'' has been traced with
engineering exactitude, and annotated
on our political chart.
To drop to the common comprehension,
let us say that it is generally known, or
ought to be, that Mr.. Blaine severely de-
nounced the act of 1873, demOnetizing
silver, and as soon as he discovered
Sherman's fraud, demanded a return to
the old coinage laws. Blaine's agrees
sive speech in 1878, in favor of opening
INT tn hn ofC il Of
the old ratio, and calling in question the
constitutional authority of congress to
restrict it's use was unconsciOusly put
with which the Ohio senator could beat
out Blaines brains Sherman so it
seems, laid down on Wall street to quiet
ly work the racket, hoping that in
Blaine's defeat he might get the nomin
alton himself with the aid of the gold
bugs and "the poor negroes" whom cam
didate Alger didn't buy according to
universal usage" as Gen. Sherman put
it to Alger. The scheme miscarried,-
Blaine was made to carry his own cross
up the rugged hill side, and after many
furrowing sorrows-after warding off
"the sings and arrows of outrageous
fortune" for many years. at Minneap
Oils, in the rosy month of June of 1892,
he was crucified on account of his out
spoken speech in 1873 in favor of re-
opening the minis to silver here was
1.-The very sea mark of his utmost sail"
and as the world knows, he died as
Clay died, and as Webster died, with
the grandest wish of his great American
heart denied him The Texas annexa-
ton inundated Clay; Webster's adhesion
to the slavery compromises of the con-
stitution, killed him; the idol of the Re-
publican hosts was stricken down by the
gold conspirators Of Threadneedle and
Wall streets, and in the house of his pro-
fessed friends who struck from corner
and in the dark. John Sherman was the
leader; endorsed himself he was COM
PEELED to accept Benz. Harrison. the I'M
willing choice of his poor negroes >
Southern delegates, were yet sub
jects for the auction block, and who,
according to universal usage" as Gen.
VIM. Tecumseh Sherman wrote Gen. AL
ger, were bought by Republican presi-
Dental aspirants,- VIM. T. tells AL
ger that he laughed at John" for being
left. This from the G. o. P. of high NOR
al ideas; with such examples from the
friends of the "cullud man and brudder,"
is it any wonder that the South have
practically nullified Article XIV. of
Amendments to the Constitution?
In my indignation at these libels on
American citizenship, am drifting from
my text: "Who murdered Blaine" The
answer is at hand: "The incarnate
fiends who, in 1873, destroyed half of the
redemption of primary money of the peo-
ple" Well, Blaine had been put out of
the way in 1892, and Harrison, what of
him? So it seems, and such was the
purpose,--if Harrison would pledge him
self to the gold standard and use his
office to repeal the Sherman silver act of
1890, he could have the pivotal electoral
vote of New York So it runs; Harrison
referred his inquisitOrs to the platform
that was pronounced uncertain and
therefore unsatisfactory" While nego-
tiations were pending, Grover Cleveland
was interviewed; with that pomposity
which he was wont to put on in the pres
ence of interlocutors, he, too referred
the gold bugs to his platform as his pol
itical chart. This was blind. The
Democratic platform was so drawn as to
inveigle the silver voters; there is not
a criminal today paying the penalty of
crime other than murder, who is not a
martyred saint compared to any one of
Tie dOlC 1ooCoIo WIZ oCOOO
sponsor for the gold and silver plank in
the declaration of principles and pur-
poses embodied in the platform of the
Intervals in 1S92,-covering both pOliti-
cal camps in fact. The gold bugs were
distressed; so runs the record, they pre-
ferred Harrison, but the Indiana Cana
liel refused to speak. The rest is told in
a few words,-Cleveland spoke; the spe-
cial session was agreed upon; John Sher-
man, now incensed that the presidency
had eluded his grasp, desiring the de-
feat of Harrison, consented to the bar
gain, and by VIGOROUSLY fraudulent
vote, and on a fearfully narrow margin,
the electoral vote of New York was given
to Cleveland, and with it the presidency.
Cleveland has paid the gold bugs well
for their suppodt, and in turn Cleveland
and Sherman appear to have been
treated right royalty by the gold bugs.
"The way of the serpent on the rocks,
is here made manifest, and we hear his
hiss and rattle But Blaine is dead
Silver is dead,-Enterprise is dead,-Na-
tional pride is dead,-in fact, Death
seems to have usurped the throne and
seized the sceptre; but the saddest spec
tacle in all this holocaust is to see James
G. Blaine's old guard shaking the bloody
fingers of the men who assassinated
him with the inhospitality with which
Macbeth murdered Duncan.
Potomac,