_PUCK, December 21st, 1881._
Mr. Blaine was the most highly honored of President Garfield’s cabinet
officers. In the convention that nominated Mr. Garfield he had been,
next to General Grant, Garfield’s most dangerous rival--or, perhaps it
would be more correct to say that he might have been, had the time been
ripe for him to exert his full strength. So, when President Garfield
died, and Mr. Arthur, who had been an unpopular candidate for the
Vice-Presidency, succeeded to the Presidential chair, two apparent
probabilities interested the populace. It was assumed, of course,
that a President must be a candidate for re-election and under such
circumstances it was thought that in all likelihood Mr. Blaine would
be far more powerful in the next convention than a President who owed
his elevation to mere accident. Thus, when Mr. Blaine made his bow and
retired from the cabinet formed by President Garfield, his very leaving
seemed to imply a threat that he would return to Washington only to
assume a prouder position.
PUCK of December 21st, 1881, says, discussing the possibility of Mr.
Blaine’s election to the Presidency:
“There are two or three miracles which we would gladly see worked in
this country. There is that great miracle which always seems near at
hand, yet which never seems nearer--the miracle of a great popular
awakening to a healthy political life.... Is it not a disgrace,
indeed, that we should talk about electing to the highest office in
the nation a man of whom an honest, unprejudiced and unbiased journal
has to say that although he is clever and strong, he has not an
absolutely unblemished record?! An absolutely unblemished record! Why,
a statesman’s record should be as unblemished as a woman’s should be.
And yet it is very possible that we shall find the man of whom this is
said the very best man whom it is possible to put at the head of our
Government in 1884. Is it not time for a miracle?”
It was pretty nearly time: the miracle was worked in 1884.
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