VI.JOURNALISM.

IT was not the policy of Mr. Blaine to undertake a work for which he was not specially fitted. General adaptation and preparation were not enough; he must be master of the situation or not at all, so he did not sit down in the editorial chair at once. He was among a new people. He must know them. His paper was published at the state capital. He must know the state. He must know it politically, socially, morally, educationally, religiously. This required extensive travel. He must understand the demands of the people, their character and temperament.

TheKennebec Journalhad not yet risen to that standard of circulation and of excellence, its position warranted and required. In the words of one thoroughly conversant with its affairs, “The paper was badly run down.” It was the opposition paper, and had long been what, in common parlance is known as “the under dog in the fight.” There was the largest opportunityfor the display of the new editor’s push and tact in business matters. To these two things, therefore,—public acquaintance and business affairs,—he gave himself until November, 1854.

About this time a turn came in the political tide, and William Pitt Fessenden, “that good Whig,” was elected to the United States senate, routing the Pillsbury Democracy. Governor Crosby and his council were also Whigs.

Everything of a political character seemed highly favorable for the best editorial work, just as after the war the highest statesmanship was requisite to garner and perpetuate its results, crystalize its victories, and thus secure their glory untarnished.

So now conservatism, power, and radical might,—the one to hold, and the other to defend what had been gained,—were needful. It did not take long to catch the spirit of the hour. Mr. Blaine had been familiar with the fight from boyhood, and in the great campaign of General Harrison had seen, upon a grander scale, a similar victory. Now he was on the stage of action, in the responsibilities of life.

He had really entered the state in one of the happiest years, politically, of her history. It was not until several years later that the legislature of his old state of Pennsylvania defeated the express wish of President Buchanan upon thissame issue, and sent Gen. Simon Cameron to the senate in place of Mr. Buchanan’s selected candidate, John W. Forney. This, at the time, was said to be one of the most severe blows his administration could receive.

In Maine it was the voice of the people against the nefarious attempt to fasten slavery upon the territories, and against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Then the opponents of slavery were not all abolitionists. They were rather restrictionists. In an address delivered by Henry Ward Beecher about this time, he makes these two points,—

First.—“We must hedge in slavery as far as possible.”

Second.—“Ameliorate the condition of the blacks to the extent of our ability.”

There were, indeed, abolitionists then, red hot, just as there are prohibitionists now, and as events have proved, they were the vanguard of Vicksburg and Gettysburgh, where there were no compromises of the Missouri, or any other kind, and no Mason and Dixon’s line, but lines of battle. And in the one case the words “surrender of slaves,” written with bayonets dipped in blood, and in the other, resounding from cannon and battle charge, the only alternative, “give in or go under.”

But the great political battles were beingfought now, not to kill men, but to save them, and to avert, if possible, the dread arbitrament of civil war with its consequences, more dire than pen could write or tongue could tell. It was a time for greatest wisdom and loftiest courage.

Political life was the life of a soldier, and the political field a field of battle, as the assault upon Charles Sumner and Horace Greeley, at the nation’s capital testify.

No wonder the wise and prudent Pennsylvanian surveyed the field with great deliberation, and gained the fullest possible knowledge of the situation ere he balanced his spear for its first lunge. It was but the putting on of his full armor ere the soldier enters the fray. It was no business venture or financial investment merely, but rather the solemn dedication of himself to the nation’s weal.

Then and there the public career begins that has brought him to this hour. It is a career of alternate wildest storm and serenest sunshine. There were at this time, practically, four parties in Maine, and two great questions, both of them moral in character, namely: Temperance and Slavery. The Democratic party was split into two most radical sections, with slavery for their dividing line. Beside these were the Whigs and Liberalists.

The birth-hour of the Republican party was near at hand. The elements were in existence demanding organization. Already men in sympathy with each other upon the great questions of the day in the different parties and divisions had acted together upon occasions of great political importance, as in the election of Mr. Fessenden, an ardent Whig, to the senate. Anti-slavery men, of the Democratic party, could and did vote for him. The nation demanded the man, somewhat as to-day she demands another son of Maine. TheNew York Tribune, in an issue prior to his election, said,—“The nation wants him.” Not party names, but principles, ruled the hour.

Less than ninety days after Mr. Blaine, quill in hand, made his bow on the 10th of November, 1854, to the people of Augusta and to the state of Maine, the Republican party was in existence, a full-fledged organization. Conventions had met a little earlier in Wisconsin and in one of the counties of Maine for a similar purpose. Mr. Blaine was with the movement, heart and soul. He was present at its birth, and rejoiced in its existence. It had come into existence full of life and power, as it had taken nearly all the life and power out of the other parties.

It had taken a minority of the Democrats, amajority of the Whigs, and all of the Anti-slavery or Liberty party. “Liberty national, Slavery sectional,” was upon its shield. No one, of course, stopped to ask, in the rejoicing of the hour, how in the name of reason liberty could be national and slavery sectional. But they were organized for victory, as right against wrong. How auspicious and full of promise that Mr. Blaine should celebrate the twenty-fifth year of his remarkable life by entrance with this party of progress and of power upon its marvelous career, himself an integral part of it, and a power within it.

About this time John L. Stevens, a man of great good sense, takes Mr. Baker’s place, a large law-practice demanding his attention, as co-editor of theJournal. But Mr. Stevens is so occupied with the details of party organization, that most of the editorial work at this time falls to Mr. Blaine, and it shows great vigor and ability.

One who was associated with him intimately at this time, in professional life, speaks of him as “a man of great natural and acquired ability, and of adaptation, familiar with all questions of government, with a remarkable facility for getting at the core of a question, a man of genius and talent to a striking degree”; and as we went over year after year of editorials, some of themvery striking and forceful in their headings, about the time the young party of great men was fairly on its feet, and had become the target for rifle shots from the enemy, the old man turned, and with that peculiar emphasis which always comes with conviction of the truth, said, “He always calculated to draw blood, if there was a tender spot.”

He invariably struck to demolish when fighting his great political battles. There was no play about it, and none could doubt the moral earnestness of the man. It was a battle of great moral ideas with him all the way through.

But his work was more largely literary in conducting the paper. It would be difficult to find more solid or instructive reading in any paper during those years. Mr. Blaine was himself a great reader of the best journals and reviews, and with a high standard ever before him, not only in his own ideals, but also in the great papers of the nation at his command, and having high aims and a mind whose rich stores were constantly increased, and with all his varied powers of expression, books were reviewed, the substance of lectures given, and the best lecturers of the day entertained Augusta audiences, and a multitude of articles upon various subjects abounded.

Within fifty days after he became editor, thelegislature met, and it devolved on him to gather in the substance of their speeches and addresses, and record the principal part of their doings. This brought him into immediate and extensive acquaintance with members of the senate, whose hall he chose to visit chiefly. They soon became acquainted with him, and saw and felt his power.

His life was stirring and active, and upon a scale quite in contrast with the life of a recluse teaching in the Blind Institute in Philadelphia, and quietly reading law only a year before.

Though a man of strong impulse at times, it is intelligent, purposeful, and under such control that upon such occasions he has won his highest praise for brilliancy. He has made mistakes and blunders, and has had his share of regrets and misgivings, giving ample proof that he is a member of the human family.

Mr. Blaine’s old foreman, who was afterwards proprietor of the paper, Howard Owen, says that he wrote most of his editorials at home, and came down to the office to see his numerous friends, and that they would have great times pounding for “copy” while he was entertaining hosts of friends in the office below. One who knows him well has written of him as a conversationalist.

Mr. Blame has few equals. He has a keenappreciation of fun, and can tell a story with a wonderful simplicity. There is no dragging prelude, no verbose details preceding a stupid finale; the story is presented always dramatically, and fired almost as from a gun, when the point is reached.

The dinner-table in the Blaine house is the place where the gayest of good-natured pleasantry rules. From six to eight the dinner speeds under cover of running talk upon the incidents of the day.

Mr. Owen says that “when they came to ‘making up the form’ Mr. Blaine would stand over him and attend to every detail, decide the location of every article, and give just that prominence that would produce the best effect.” It showed the interest he took in the children of his own brain, and the great activity of the man.

His force of intellect, strength of constitution, and great endurance have been a marvel to many.

He has lived his life on a rising tide, amid immense prosperity, and the great cheerfulness of temper thus produced has made life less a drag and more a joy to him.

He struck the current at the start, caught at its flood that “tide in the affairs of men that leads on to fortune.”

He got into the national drift of the new party and has kept it ever since. It was like a splendid ship, all staunch and strong, launched at his hand; he sprang aboard, was soon at the helm, and has steadily passed along the line of honorable promotion.

There have been storms whose fury has been terrific; and there have been triumphs whose brightness has reflected the nation’s glory.

The paper improved in every way. They procured the state printing, and an increased circulation.

Mr. Blaine’s pleasant home on Green Street, where most of his children were born, was one of comfort and happiness.

He soon became a favorite in Augusta, and among the public men of the state. People love to hear good things said well, and he never failed in this.

He soon appears on the Republican Central Committee. The party is victorious from the start, and elects Anson P. Morrill Governor. Mr. Morrill is still living in Augusta, hale and hearty at eighty-one, a great reader, and soon after his nomination called upon Mr. Blaine to congratulate him. The name of J. G. Blaine appears as chairman of the Republican Central Committee soon after its organization, and the following year he is presented as a candidate for the legislature.

Residence of James G. BlaineResidence ofJames G. Blaine, Augusta, Maine.

Residence ofJames G. Blaine, Augusta, Maine.

He enters a city seventy-five years older than himself, rich with numbers of strong men, but is taken up and speedily honored with a place in the councils of the state.

It was an era of great and almost constant political conventions. The remnants of the Whig party and the Know-nothings kept up a struggle for existence, but they were doomed, and failed to submit gracefully to the inevitable. They must be watched and won, if possible, to the new party of the future, whose substantial, steadfast principles,—as expressed by Mr. Blaine and his editorial colleague, Joseph Baker, in their inaugural,—were freedom, temperance, river and harbor improvement within constitutional limits, homesteads for freemen, and a just administration of the public lands of the state and nation; and the present testifies how well those principles, embracing all that were needful then in a political party, have been carried out.

The words “Liberty” and “Freedom,” in Mr. Blaine’s paper always began with capital letters.

The religious tone and character of the paper is worthy of note. It furnished a column of “Religious Intelligence” each week. Many of its selected articles, notices of books, its correspondence, and even editorials, were deeply religious.The work of that time was solemn, serious business. There was much of the Puritan and Pilgrim in the people then. There was a reliance upon God, a demand for his wisdom expressed in prayer and song and sermon, that told that the importance and magnitude of the great principles at stake were fully appreciated. There had been so much failure in the past, so many parties had been organized and proved inadequate, and still the encroachments of slavery, the nation’s foe, continued with an audacity unparalleled. Already Kansas was conceded to the slave-power; secession was already in the air. The great war was only seven years in the future. A Charleston paper had stated the issue distinctly, “We must give up slavery or secede,” as it viewed the first contests and sweeping victories of the new party. And Mr. Blaine, in a ringing editorial of caustic power, quoting the entire paragraph, said, “This is the exact issue, squarely stated.”

His life in Kentucky and extensive winter trips through the South had been a revelation to him, and were now an inspiration. He knew what was in the South, and he knew what was in the North, and he knew that they could not keep house together for centuries, with slaves in the country, without quarreling. And, moreover, he knew that the destinies of the country couldnot be divided. She could not remain half slave and half free. The South itself was not satisfied with this, as all their measures of legislation at their various state capitals, and in Washington clearly indicated. Slavery must conquer or be conquered. Blaine saw it at that early day, as anyone may in the light of more recent events.

But this was not the position or demand of the Republican party then. Anti-slavery did not mean abolition. In 1855 the Free Democratic party, as it was called, was achieving victories in the state of New York, and various phases of the great question were championed in different states and sections, until the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. And it was not until about two years of the war were gone, and it was imperatively demanded as a war-measure; not until it had been held back for months by the sagacious Lincoln, after it was written, that the emancipation of the slave was proclaimed in states then in armed rebellion. But it was a fact fated and decreed, signed, sealed, and delivered in a higher than earthly tribunal, long years before.

There are always high-wrought souls, keenly alive and sensitive to issues of the hour, who seem ordained to catch the foreshadowing of events and report to others of duller and heavier mould. Mr. Blaine had projected himself uponthe future with the use of his princely personal power, and with an eagle eye had read out the doom and destiny of that “peculiar institution” which violated the fundamental principle of the government, the great end for which it was established,—a doom which nothing could avert. God’s time for liberty had come, and chosen men far out upon the frontier of human thought had watched its dawn and seen it mount the heavens.

But first, the shining of this same sun must produce a similar harvest of ideas, where the mists of a false and sophistical political philosophy, and the fogs of a wrong and vicious science of government, and an unnatural and cruel selfishness and monopoly of liberty prevent the cleanest vision, the fullest knowledge, and the most righteous thought.

At this time Mr. Blaine was closely and sharply following the course of the Pro-slavery party. We give a single extract from his paper in 1855, as showing what facts the party had to stir its thought and fire its heart,—facts that read strangely in the light of to-day, and which had a strange, ominous look even then.

“Slave Trade—It is said that the business of fitting out slavers is carried on extensively in New York. TheCommercial Advertiserbelieves the practice to be ‘alarmingly and disgracefully prevalent,’ and theTribunestates, on good authority, that thirty vessels are annually fitted out there, for the purpose of procuring slaves upon the west coast of Africa.“This is no more than following out the political creed of the more advanced wing of the progressive pro-slavery Democracy. The Charleston papers, which support President Pierce’s administration, boldly advocate the re-opening of the African Slave Trade, with the view of making ‘niggers’ cheaper. The ‘party’ in New England are not as yet up to the work, but another Presidential election willfetchthem.Progressis the distinct feature of the age.”

“This is no more than following out the political creed of the more advanced wing of the progressive pro-slavery Democracy. The Charleston papers, which support President Pierce’s administration, boldly advocate the re-opening of the African Slave Trade, with the view of making ‘niggers’ cheaper. The ‘party’ in New England are not as yet up to the work, but another Presidential election willfetchthem.Progressis the distinct feature of the age.”

Some are ready now with their verdict of principle, despite the mists and fogs and storms; yet not all. The party of Freedom organized in counties and states all over the country, must be brought together, unified and organized as a great national party; a convention must be held and all must be invited who can be induced to affiliate. It is a preliminary meeting, as it precedes the great organization. They want to get acquainted and see their strength. It is to be a time of great argument and powerful speeches. Where so appropriate to hold it as in the goodly city of Philadelphia? Whigs, Know-nothings, Free-soilers, are to be there; anti-slavery Democrats, and staunch Republicans.

Mr. Blaine was there. It continued for eight days. Its value lay in the full and free discussionof the absorbing questions of the day, by people widely separated and subjected to varied local influences. Men were influenced by mercantile and commercial, by social and domestic interests; by educational and religious interests, and it is almost impossible for many minds of most excellent, though conservative quality, to rise above fixed orders of things to the clear apprehension and vigorous grasp of a great principle.

Early education or neglect, also, may have dwarfed or blunted perceptions and capabilities; but, however, they came largely to see, eye to eye, and great progress was made. There was a lengthening of cords and strengthening of stakes, and on the 22d of February, 1856, the Republicans met in Pittsburgh and appointed its national committee, and arranged for its first nominating convention. The aim of the party, according to Mr. Blaine’s voluminous report, had been declared to be “the restoration of the government to the policy of its founders; its ideal of patriotism, the character of Washington; its vital philosophy, that of Jefferson; its watchwords, American enterprise and industry, Slavery sectional, Freedom national.”

The delegates of twelve Northern states withdrew from the Philadelphia convention, and left the New York and Southern delegates to their fate.

Mr. Blaine’s work is principally at home, within the boundaries of his adopted state. But fiercer than ever, the fires of the great conflict are raging.

Jefferson has remarked, that “in the unequal contest between freedom and oppression, the Almighty had no attribute that could take part with the oppressor.” And yet the Democratic party, in violation of its name and prestige could invoke the shades of this great man; could continue its warfare upon the life of the nation, and its encroachments upon the constitution, and violation of a plighted faith wherever slavery made its frightful demands.

At the head of his editorial column, Mr. Blaine kept these words, printed in capitals, from the last great speech delivered by Henry Clay in the United States senate, “I repeat it, sir, I never can and I never will, and no earthly power can make me vote, directly or indirectly, to spread slavery over territory where it does not exist. Never, while reason holds its seat in my brain; never, while my heart sends its vital fluid through my veins,NEVER!”

Wm. H. Seward was battling against “the fall of constitutional liberty” in the senate. The Fugitive Slave Act had passed in 1850, and the Missouri Compromise abrogated in 1854, and now an extreme measure is pending to protect United States officers in the arrest of fugitiveslaves. Mr. Blaine prints the great speech in full. It had the true Republican ring.

Mr. Blaine’s final editorial for 1855, prior to the Republican convention, and first presidential campaign, is every way so fine a summary of the situation, and affords so clear a view of the man in all the moral earnestness of his powers and wide comprehension of the subject, that we give two or three extracts from his editorial in theKennebec Journalof Dec. 28, 1855, on the “Condition of the Country”:—

“It is the settled judgment of our ablest and best statesmen, that the present is a more momentous period than any through which the country has passed since the Revolution. The issue is fairly before the American people, whether Democracy or Aristocracy, Liberty or Despotism, shall control the government of this Republic.... The contest enlists on one side the intelligence, the conscience, the patriotism, and the best energies of the American people. On the other are engaged the avarice, the servility, the ignorance, and the lust of dominion which characterize human depravity in every age and nation.“There are in reality but two sides to this great question. There is no ground of neutrality. As true now is it as it was in the days of the Great Teacher of liberty and salvation, that men cannot serve opposite principles at the same time.... The deepening cry from all quarters is that the White House must be cleansed, and all the channels to and fromthe same thoroughly renovated. The march of slavery must be stopped or the nation is lost. Only by the firm and practical union of all true men in the nation can its most valuable interests be preserved.... “We are, then, for a common union against the National Administration, on the basis of restoring the Missouri Prohibition against slavery in the territories, forgetting past distinctions and priority in the combination. Who shall be the standard-bearer of this patriotic and conservative Opposition in the great struggle of ’56? Whoever the right man may be,—whether he has his home in the East or the West, in the North or the South, we care not, if he is but the statesman to comprehend the hour, and is equal to the necessities of the country, we hope to see him triumphantly elected. We only ask that he be loyal to Liberty, a sworn defender of the Union on its constitutional basis, in favor of bringing back our government to the principles and policy of its founders, and pledged to undo the giant wrong of 1854. To enlist in such an opposition, patriotism, the memory of our Revolutionary sires, everything sacred in our history, the welfare of posterity, invoke us. In such a ‘union for the sake of the Union’ we shall all be Republicans, all Whigs, all Democrats, all Americans.”

“There are in reality but two sides to this great question. There is no ground of neutrality. As true now is it as it was in the days of the Great Teacher of liberty and salvation, that men cannot serve opposite principles at the same time.... The deepening cry from all quarters is that the White House must be cleansed, and all the channels to and fromthe same thoroughly renovated. The march of slavery must be stopped or the nation is lost. Only by the firm and practical union of all true men in the nation can its most valuable interests be preserved.

... “We are, then, for a common union against the National Administration, on the basis of restoring the Missouri Prohibition against slavery in the territories, forgetting past distinctions and priority in the combination. Who shall be the standard-bearer of this patriotic and conservative Opposition in the great struggle of ’56? Whoever the right man may be,—whether he has his home in the East or the West, in the North or the South, we care not, if he is but the statesman to comprehend the hour, and is equal to the necessities of the country, we hope to see him triumphantly elected. We only ask that he be loyal to Liberty, a sworn defender of the Union on its constitutional basis, in favor of bringing back our government to the principles and policy of its founders, and pledged to undo the giant wrong of 1854. To enlist in such an opposition, patriotism, the memory of our Revolutionary sires, everything sacred in our history, the welfare of posterity, invoke us. In such a ‘union for the sake of the Union’ we shall all be Republicans, all Whigs, all Democrats, all Americans.”

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