Year: 1872

which enoins "Na de mOrtatS ntsi bo


num- the dead say nought but good.
| Perhaps a strict adherence to this max.


i'm should restrain our pen from record


ing against the name of Austin Blair


the title which he has richly earned, and


which henceforth he must wear, "Apos'
! tate.


Henceforth he is dead to the friends


that loved him, to the party that trusted


him and crowned him with honors, and


to the great cause of freedom and pro-
gress, to which he had so often bowed
allegiance. He is not the first, nor,
alas, will not be the last, soldier in a
groat cause, against whose name it must
truthfully be written, "deserted 70 the
enemy, on tie day Of battle, becasse
he ,cos not promoted


We have been among those who have
delighted to honor Austin Blair, and for
that reason all the keener is the pain
and modification of his betrayal of his
trust. In anger and resentment at
real or fancied grievances he has desert.
ed his colors, deserted his principles, de-
serted his party, and placed himself in
the front rank of his life long enemies,
among those whom his very soul abhors
and contemns, for the purpose of wreak-
ing vengeance upon the party that has
made him all he is, and given him the
very sword with which he now turns to
wound, and if possible to slay her. This
step, though bitter pain, is scarcely a
surprise TO his old friends who have
watched his career for the past two
years


The grand mistake that Mr.. Blair
has made was in supposing that he had
some sort Of proprietary claim upon the
Republican party of Michigan. When
the first Republican convention met,
under the oaks at Jackson in 1854,
it found Austin Blair a young and as
piring attorney, Of good ability and
practice. His friends say he made, or
assisted to make, the Republican party.
This is mistake. 1t is one of those
sophistries that mislead many, and has
mislead Mr.. Blair. The Republican
party was not made by men. It was
one of those great, irresistible moral
tidal waves among men, set in motion
by the hand of God, for his own purpo.
ses. They are like the tornadoes Of the
tropics, begotten in the very mature ot
things, and resistlessly overturning op.
posing articles, but purifying the moral
atmosphere of the world. When slave.
ry, in the pride and insolence of his
might, sought to enthrone itself as the
autocrat of this continent, the moral and
religious sense Of the Nation gathered
itself into a great tidal wave, which
swept over the country, deluging States,
swamping old parties, overturning the
traditions and policies of the past. The
tidal wave was named the Republican
party. Some there were strong enough,
and daring enough TO climb to the
crest of that wave, and as they were
swept and borne resistlessly along with
and by it, fancied tha. they had created
the wave, and that they were guiding
and propelling it, instead of being borne
along by it. Among these bold top ri.
ders was Austin Blair. The wave bore
him on to the State Senate, to the Ma
tional Convention at Chicago; it bore
him into the Governors chair. Then
came the ''fusion movement of g." By.
ron g. Stout, an avowed Republican,
was nominated by the Democrats and
Republican soreheads. But the party
of freedom chose to carry out her ends,
with her chosen instruments, and for
the second time he was borne into the
chair of State. Gov. Blair will do well
now to remember the contest of 1862
The great war then raging brought him
prominently to the front and made him
a conspicuous figure in the State and
Nation. The possession of power and
breath of popular applause turned his
head, and he became possessed of the
spirit of ambition. His heart was set
upon the United States Senatorship,
and nothing has been able to convince
him that that high Office did not belong
to him of right, and that he has not
been defrauded in not being elected to
it; and because the people Of the State
have not been able to see it in the same
light he has become soured, morose, EN-.
bittered, and finally treacherous. But
his honors did not cease with the Gov.
ernorship. Three times in succession
the Republican party of his own district
have elected him to the Lower House
Of Congress.


Since the Republican party came into
existence there has been scarcely year
that Mr.. Blair has not been kept in
some high position of honor and trust.
Surely this ought to have satisfied any
moderate ambition, but it did dot salts.
fly his. Four times he has been a can.
didate for the United States Senator.
ship, and four times he has been defeat.
ed. Gradually it dawned upon him
that the party did not acknowledge his
proprietorship; and, flying in disgust
from the scene of his defeat at Lansing,
he wrote his famous letter of February
OS 1890. 90 H. E,sb xrb; 81 u a..-. L -.