Year: 1876

it would be driven to the ranks of the Lib
erals of 1872 for candidate, where. s5 pe
sure it might wisely go, but will rJt Mr.
Blaine's united assaiants would doubtless
have laid more stress upon the argyll
mcnt that he is, as "a prominent kc-
publican, responsible in a large measure
for the b,unders and follies of the party,
were it not fDr the fact that their own candi-
date. Mr.. Bristow, is IN the same relation with
the party and a much more intimate ono with
Giants istration-distinctly committed
to many of its most odious measures, not
known to have protested against any OF them,
identified with the Louisiana outrage and IN
cluded in the infamous dispatch of Belknap
that the President and all of us approve what
"you have DONE" appointed originally to
subordinate office by Grant and kept in place
and promoted from time to time solely by
Grants personal favor. 1t was perhaps be-
cause of this weakness in the argument that
the anti Blaine men felt themselves forced TO
make their fight against him in the direction
of his official and personal integrity. They
made the wrong issue, and we think the pop
uar Judgment is that they have failed i'll it.
No candid man, as it seems to us, can read the
history of the Blaine charges and investiga-
tions which have taken so much space in the
newspapers for several weeks past, without
reaching a conclusion favorable to his entire
innocence. No open accusation has been made
that he has not freely and frankly met and
answered; and in every instance he has
driven his accusers back from the open
charge to the safer refuge of suggestion,
hint, and insinuation. The very thing
has occurred which THE TRIBUNE few weeks
ago pointed out as possible to happen from
the overzeal of those gentlemen who claimed
to he Secretary BrstOw's special advocates and
supporters they have aroused popular sympa-
thy for Mr.. Blaine. and have put him in the
strong position of having been already under
the heaviest possible fire, and so have given
him the leading place among candidates.


Had the reports which have been circulated
touching his personal integrity and official
purity been shown to be well founded and
true. they would have been fatal to Mr..
Blaine's ambition. Not only that; they would
have ruined him forever as public man.
Even az the facts were, and he able as he has
shown himself to demonstrate his own inno-
cence and the -groundle-sness of the charges,
he might, by delay, have been destroyed as
candidate. 1t was possible to have kept
back the charges and sprung them upon
the Convention and the country at
time when they could not be met and their
falsity shown in season to counteract their
influence. In this he has been extremely for
tunate, and his assailants, if they hoped to
defeat him at all hazards, equally unfortunate.
We do net by any means consider Mr. Blame
the ideal candidate, or the best even that the
Republicans might nomnate but we rejoice
that he has come ont of the trial to which he
has been subjected by the continued attacks
upon him with his official and personal char
acter unstained. We have regretted tle yiiu-
lence with which he has been assailed, and we
can do no less than congratulate him on the
success OF his defense.