Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-07-24


excitement. The Grant column stood
grim and firm. Some of the Biainy
States stood fast and some swung e
Garfield. Amid this wavering Main,
was reached, and Maine, the state OF
Blaine. cast her vote for Garfield. Ihat
was the signal that Blalne's friends
recognized the hopelessness of his
cause, and sought to rally all the OBJ.
ponents of Grant on the new candidate
1t was at that fateful moment that Sen
ator John P. Jones, who had for weeks
been diligently preparing the way by
his arguments, hurried around to Sen
ator Conkling and anxiously whisper
ed: Nov is your chance to do the
great act throw the vote of New Yorl,
for Blaine" But New York follows
close after Maine on the roll, and Mr..
Conkling answered: There isn't time
to poll the delegation" Cast the
vote" responded Jones, "and poll the
delegation afterward." But almost
while they spoke New York was called !;
the momentous decision, which must
have been instantaneous to be effective.
quivered and was delayed; the STAN
pede was not checked, and Garfield
was nominated
Had Mr.. Conkling followed Senator.
Jones advice and cast the vote of New
York for Blaine it would undoubtedly
have changed the fate of the day. 1t
would instantly have stopped the
swing to Garfield and would have car
ried back those who had already swung
to him. More than that, the Grant col
umn implicitly followed Conkling and
would have gone wherever he pointed
the way. Whether Mr.. Conkling real
ly meditated that crucial step, whether
he would have taken it If there had
been little more time, no man can alb
solutely answer, for no man could al
together fathom the recesses of his
mind. He was well-nigh inscrutable.
But there were facts that pointed to
such thought, as already indicated, and
there are further indications of the
same kind. The writer of this article
left Chicago the morning following the
nomination on the same train with Sen
ator Conkling, and spent much of the
day with him. Senator Conkling
spoke with great freedom, and unre-
servedly said that he would rather
have had Blaine nominated than Gar
field. In that conversation, with his
strong prejudices, he described Gar
field as an "angle-worm," the very
word he used when he told General
James the day before that mo angle
worm ticket shall be nominated" He
may or may not have had Garfield in
his mind when he made that prediction;
it is probable that he was defining
what he considered a type rather than
an individual. The steady plea of Sen
ator Jones and others that either Grant
or Blaine should be nominated had un-
made an impression on him
His biography, in describing his atti-
tude to the Presidency, says: "he fur
ther declared that either Grant or
Baine should be nominated and that
there should be no dark horse"
SPLENDID AND DRAMATIC POS
SIBILITY.
Jf a. ho almost ;Doopooiy,bIo +bo+ A6r
could be brought to tolerate
one toward whom he had such personal
as he undoubtedly had to-
ward Mr.. Blaine, it is to be remembered
that whatever their personal differen-
ces mutual friends had enforced the
of full political under
standing. He doubtless had less perso-
nal feeling against Garfield than
against Blaine. But, on the other hand,
1t was urged upon him that Blaine rep
the same general party spirit
and purposes which he himself embod
led, and that satisfactory adjustment
could be reached. His objection to
Blaine grew out of an incident; his OBJ
lection to Garfield was temperamental.
At any rate there was more than en-
ough in the undercurrents leading up
to the nomination of 1880 to stimulate
and justify the most interesting specu-
Iations as to the possibilities, and GER
tainly there was never anything more
in the history of American
politics whether for the immediate aud
ience, sure at first to be dazed and then
exultant, or for the wider country, sure
at first to be astonished and then en-
than would have been the
sudden turn by which James G. Blaine
should have been nominated for the
under the inspiration, of
Roscoe Conkling!
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