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THE
Bay State Monthly
_A Massachusetts Magazine_
OF
LITERATURE, HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND STATE PROGRESS
* * * * *
VOLUME II
* * * * *
BOSTON
JOHN N. McCLINTOCK AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
No. 31 MILK STREET
1885
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by John N.
McClintock and Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress
at Washington. All rights reserved.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
* * * * *
Ames, Lieutenant Governor Oliver James W. Clarke, A.M. 185
Bartholdi Colossus William Howe Downes 153
Battle of Shiloh General Henry B. Carrington 330, 367
Bermuda Islands, Early History of James H. Stark 277
Blaine, James Gillespie 1
Boston, Taverns of in Ye Olden Time David M. Balfour 106
Boston Herald 22
Our National Cemeteries Charles Cowley. LL.D. 58
Cleveland, Grover Henry H. Metcalf 61
Cleveland, Grover, and The Roman
Catholic Protectory Charles Cowley, LL.D. 243
Dark Day Elbridge H. Goss 254
Easy Chair Elbridge H. Goss 306
Editor's Table 120
Elizabeth: A Romance of Francis C. Sparhawk
Colonial Days 82, 159, 236, 296, 375
Fitchburg, Historical Sketch of Ebenezer Bailey 226
Fitchburg in 1885 Atherton P. Mason, M.D. 341
Gaston William Arthur P. Dodge 245
Gems from the Easy Chair 372
Glorifying Trial by Jury Charles Cowley, LL.D. 82
Gold, Past and Future of David M. Balfour 359
Groton, Boundary Lines of Old--III
IV Hon. Samuel Abbott Green, M.D. 12, 69
Lancaster, Historical Sketch of Hon. Henry S. Nourse 261
Lee, William George L. Austin, M.D. 309
Lothrop, Daniel John N. McClintock, A.M.
(Illustrated) 121
Middlesex Canal Lorin L. Dame, A.M. 96
Names and Nicknames Gilbert Nash 255
National Bank Failures George H. Wood 373
New England Conservatory of Music Mrs. M.J. Davis (Illustrated) 132
Phillips, Wendell 306
Pittsfield, Historical Sketch of Frank W. Kaan (Illustrated) 193
Protection of Children Ernest Nusse 89
Publishers Department--Chromo--
Lithography 89, 174
Robinson, George Dexter Fred W. Webber, A.M. 177
Rogers, Robert, the Ranger Joseph B. Walker 211
Reuben Tracy's Vacation Trips. II. Elizabeth Porter Gould 368
Saugus, Historical Sketch of E.P. Robinson (Illustrated) 140
Shepard, Charles A.B. George L. Austin, M.D. 312, 316
Summer on the Great lakes, A Fred. Myron Colby 42
Sunday Travel and the Law Chester F. Sanger 231
Wachusett Mountain and Princeton Atherton P. Mason 35
Webster, Daniel, Reminiscences of Hon. George W. Nesmith, LL.D. 252
Wallace, Hon. Rodney Rev. S. Leroy Blake, D.D. 317
POETRY.
A Glimpse Mary H. Wheeler 276
Fitchburg Mrs. Caroline A. Mason 328
Heart and I Mary Helen Boodey 295
My Mountain Home William C. Sturoc 366
Roused From Dreams Adelaide Cilley Waldron 225
Sails 81
Washington and the Flag Henry B. Carrington 41
STEEL ENGRAVINGS.
James G. Blaine 1
Grover Cleveland 61
Daniel Lothrop 121
George D. Robinson 177
Oliver Ames 185
William Gaston 245
William Lee 309
Charles A.B. Shepard 313
Rodney Wallace 317
* * * * *
[Illustration: James G. Blaine]
THE BAY STATE MONTHLY.
_A Massachusetts Magazine._
VOL. II. OCTOBER, 1884. No. 1.
* * * * *
JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE.
In the long list of illustrious men who have held the high office
of President of the United States, a few names stand out with such
prominence as to be constantly before the American people. While Adams,
Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson, Grant, and others, did the country service
that never will be forgotten, it is indisputable that Washington,
Lincoln, and Garfield gained a firmer hold upon the confidence and
affection of the masses than any others. And now, as we approach another
presidential campaign, the result of which is to place in the highest
office of the nation a new man, it is alike a source of pride and
satisfaction that the Republican party has put in nomination a man, who,
if elected, will bring to the discharge of his duties as high a degree
of honesty as Washington, as thorough an acquaintance with human nature
as Lincoln, and as profound a knowledge of political economy as
Garfield. Through all the years of his manhood he has been a central
figure in American politics, and his achievements are indelibly written
on almost every page of American history for the last quarter of a
century. With such a man as a candidate the country may well
congratulate itself that if he proves to be the choice of the majority
he will, by his ability and experience, bring as great renown to the
office as any of his predecessors, and that under his guidance the
material prosperity and intellectual growth of the nation will be such
as to gain for his administration great popular favor, the admiration of
his friends, and the respect of all nations.
James Gillespie Blaine, the nominee of the Republican party for
President of the United States, was born on January 31, 1830, in
Washington County, in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, in West
Brownsville, a village on the west bank of the Monongahela. Here Neil
Gillespie, before the British army left America at the close of the
Revolution, had established his family, purchasing the land of the
Indians. Nearly twenty years later the Blaines came from Carlisle,
seeking investment and development in this new West, and the father of
James G. Blaine, who had left Carlisle when a child, married the
daughter of Neil Gillespie the second.
The first of the Blaine family of whom much is known was Colonel Ephraim
Blaine, who lived at Chester, and in the Revolution was purveyor-general
of the Pennsylvania troops, and incidentally of the whole Revolutionary
array. He married Rebekah Galbraith in 1765. Elaine is a well-known
Scotch name. Galbraith and Gillespie are Scotch-Irish; in fact, the
ancestors of James G. Blaine were nearly all Scotch and Irish. It is a
circumstance worthy of comment that Blaine comes from a stock which has
furnished the United States with many of her ablest public men, notably
among them being Andrew Jackson and Horace Greeley.
Colonel Ephraim Blaine had two sons named Robert and James, and each of
these sons named his son for Colonel Ephraim Blaine. Old Ephraim Blaine
did not leave his property to his sons, but to these two grandsons, (1)
Ephraim, who remained in Carlisle, and (2) Ephraim Lyon Blaine, who grew
up in western Pennsylvania. Ephraim Lyon Blaine was named for his
mother, Miss Lyon, the daughter of Samuel Lyon from about Carlisle.
Ephraim Lyon Blaine married Miss Gillespie, a devout member of the Roman
Catholic Church, but most of their seven children--five boys and two
girls--adhered to the traditional faith of the Blaines. The second of
these sons, James Gillespie Blaine, is the subject of this sketch. He
would have inherited large blended fortunes, had not his father, like
his grandfather, been a spendthrift. Therefore, soon after James G.
Blaine was born his parents had to move out of the big house which they
could no longer keep up, and occupy a frame-house called the Pringle
dwelling, also in West Brownsville, about a quarter of a mile distant.
Here young Elaine lived and went to school both in Brownsville and in
West Brownsville, until his father was elected prothonotary of the
county, in 1843, when the whole family removed to Little Washington,
twenty-four miles distant.
James G. entered Washington College in 1843, being then thirteen years
of age, and became at once prominent as a scholar among the two or three
hundred other lads from all parts of the country. He was also a leader
in athletic sports. He was not a bookworm, but he was a close student
and possessed the happy faculty of assimilating knowledge from books and
tutors far more easily and quickly than most of his fellows. In
debating-societies he held his own well, and was conspicuous by his
ability to control and direct others.
After leaving college young Blaine started for Kentucky to carve out his
own fortune. He went to Blue Lick Springs and became a professor in the
Western Military Institute, in which there were about four hundred and
fifty boys. A retired officer who was a student there at the time
relates that Professor Blaine was a thin, handsome, earnest young man,
with the same fascinating manners he has now. He was popular with the
boys, who trusted him and made friends with him from the first. He knew
the given name of every one, and he knew his shortcomings and his strong
points. He was a man of great personal courage, and during a fight
between the faculty of the school and the owners of the springs,
involving some questions about the removal of the school, he behaved in
the bravest manner, fighting hard but keeping cool. Revolvers and knives
were freely used, but Blaine only used his well-disciplined muscle.
Colonel Thornton F. Johnson was the principal of the school, and his
wife had a young ladies' school at Millersburg, twenty miles distant.
There Blaine met Miss Harriet Stanwood, who subsequently became his
wife. She was a Maine girl of excellent family sent to Kentucky to be
educated.
After teaching for a while Blaine left Kentucky and went to Philadelphia
to study law. While there he taught for a short time at the blind asylum
and also wrote for the newspapers. He soon, however, was irresistibly
attracted to the State of Maine, and left his native State for a home in
the community with which his name is now indissolubly connected. It is
somewhat remarkable that this ambitious young man should have gone East
instead of West, choosing a State which the young men were fast
leaving--one whose population in the last forty years has increased very
little. He is, indeed, almost the only man who has gone East in the last
half-century and risen to any prominence.
Mr. Blaine went to Maine in 1853, and soon afterward married Miss
Stanwood, whose family are well known in New England. Through their
influence he soon found an occupation in journalism, and until 1860 was
actively engaged in editing at different times the Kennebec Journal and
the Portland Daily Advertiser. He retained a part ownership in the
Kennebec Journal until it began to hamper him in his political career,
and then he sold out. A friend has said of him as a journalist: "I have
often thought that a great editor, as great perhaps as Horace Greeley,
was lost when Mr. Blaine went into politics. He possesses all the
qualities of a great journalist: he has a phenomenal memory; he
remembers circumstances, dates, names, and places more readily than any
other man I ever met."
Wielding a strong, vigorous, aggressive pen, Mr. Blaine soon made its
power felt among politicians. He went to Maine at a time when the Whig
and Democratic parties were breaking up. Previous to 1854 the Democratic
party had governed the State for a quarter of a century, but its power
was broken in the September election of that year, through a temporary
union of the anti-slavery and temperance elements. In 1855 the different
wings of the new party were well consolidated, and in the famous Frémont
campaign of 1856 they carried the State, electing Hannibal Hamlin
governor by twenty-four thousand majority. Mr. Blaine, during all these
exciting times, did not by any means confine himself to writing
political leaders. He took an active part in politics, attending
Republican meetings throughout the State, and soon made himself one of
the recognized Republican leaders in Maine. Of this period of his
career, the late Governor Kent, of Maine, who himself stood in the front
rank of public men in his State, once wrote as follows:--
"Almost from the day of his assuming editorial charge of the Kennebec
Journal, at the early age of twenty-three, Mr. Elaine sprang into a
position of great influence in the politics and policy of Maine. At
twenty-five he was a leading power in the councils of the Republican
party, so recognized by Fessenden, Hamlin, the two Morrills, and others,
then, and still, prominent in the State. Before he was twenty-nine he
was chosen chairman of the executive committee of the Republican
organization in Maine--a position he has held ever since, and from which
he has practically shaped and directed every political campaign in the
State, always leading his party to brilliant victory. Had Mr. Blaine
been New-England born, he would probably not have received such rapid
advancement at so early an age, even with the same ability he possessed.
But there was a sort of Western _dash_ about him that took with us
Down-Easters; an expression of frankness, candor, and confidence, that
gave him from the start a very strong and permanent hold on our people,
and, as the foundation of all, a pure character and a masterly ability
equal to all demands made upon him."
Mr. Blaine's early political addresses, and especially the ability which
he displayed in them as a debater, won him great local reputation, and,
during the Frémont campaign, he achieved a distinction as a speaker
which insured him a seat in the Legislature, in 1858, though he was not
yet thirty years of age and had been but five years in his adopted
State. The ability which he displayed as a legislator was so marked that
his constituents returned him four years in succession, and the
Legislature, recognizing his talents, elected him speaker in 1860 and
1861, a rare honor for so young a man. As a presiding officer he
displayed those fine qualifications which afterward made him one of the
most brilliant of the long line of able men who have occupied the
speaker's chair in the National House of Representatives.
By this time Mr. Blaine had become a professional politician. In other
words he had given up all other occupations and made politics his sole
employment. This is a fact worthy of serious consideration, for few men
in this country have avowedly chosen politics as a calling and succeeded
in it as James G. Blaine has succeeded. Most of our statesmen, like
Webster and Lincoln, have been eminent lawyers. Blaine studied law
thoroughly, but never applied for admission at the bar. Some, like
Greeley, have been eminent journalists. Blaine made journalism merely a
means to an end, discarding it as soon as it had served his purpose.
Blaine has made a systematic and thorough study of politics and
political affairs. Constitutional history and international law he made
it his business to master. Above all, he has studied men, has learned by
careful observation how to handle, to mould, to use his fellow-beings.
No man in America to-day is more learned in everything pertaining to the
science of statesmanship than James G. Blaine. It is the fashion in this
country to decry professional politicians, to uphold the doctrine that
the office should seek the man and not the man the office. Yet there can
be no more honorable profession than the service of one's country, and
surely no man should be blamed for fitting himself for that service as
thoroughly and as carefully as for any other profession.
A man of Mr. Blaine's ability, of his rare knowledge of parliamentary
usages, and, above all, of his ambitions, was not likely to remain long
content with the position of a representative in the State Legislature.
As early as 1859 he had an ambition to go to Congress, and he was talked
of as a candidate in 1860. But Anson P. Morrill was nominated, Mr.
Blaine not having strength enough to obtain the honor. In 1862 Mr.
Blaine was nominated to the office, although he was not then so desirous
of it as he had been two years before. His patriotic utterances in the
convention which nominated him met with a hearty response, and he was
elected over his Democratic competitor by the largest majority that had
ever been given in his district, it exceeding three thousand. This
majority he held in six succeeding and consecutive elections, running it
up in one exciting contest to nearly four thousand.
During his first term in Congress Mr. Blaine gave himself up to study
and observation, but in the next Congress, the Thirty-ninth, he gained
some prominence, and from that time to the end of his congressional
career he occupied a foremost place among the Republican leaders. His
reputation was that of an exceedingly industrious committeeman. He was a
member of the post-office and military committees, and of the committees
on appropriations and rules. He paid close attention to the business of
the committees, and took an active part in the debates of the House,
manifesting practical ability and genius for details. The first
remarkable speech which he made in Congress was on the subject of the
assumption by the general government of the war debts of the States, in
the course of which he urged that the North was abundantly able to carry
on the war to a successful issue. This vigorous speech attracted so much
attention that two hundred thousand copies of it were circulated in 1864
as a campaign document by the Republican party. In the winter of 1865-66
Mr. Blaine was very energetic in promoting the passage of reconstruction
measures. In the early part of 1866 he proposed a resolution which
finally became the basis of that part of the fourteenth amendment
relating to congressional representation. In the second session of the
Thirty-ninth Congress he also distinguished himself by the "Blaine
amendment" to the military bill, which was universally discussed in the
public press of the day.
In 1867 Mr. Blaine made a trip to Europe, returning in time to fight
against the greenback heresy, of which he was the foremost opponent. In
December he made an elaborate speech on the finances, in which he
analyzed Mr. Pendleton's greenback theory. "The remedy for our financial
troubles," said he, "will not be found in a superabundance of
depreciated paper currency. It lies in the opposite direction, and the
sooner the nation finds itself on a specie basis the sooner will the
public treasury be freed from embarrassment and private business be
relieved from discouragement. Instead, therefore, of entering upon a
reckless and boundless issue of legal tenders, with their constant
depreciation, if not destruction, of value, let us set resolutely to
work and make those already in circulation equal to so many gold
dollars."
This was the last great question in the discussion of which Mr. Blaine
took part on the floor of the House, his colleagues in 1869 electing him
to the office of speaker, vacated by the promotion of Schuyler Colfax to
the vice-presidency. The vote stood one hundred and thirty-five votes
for Blaine to fifty-seven for Kerr, of Indiana. Mr. Blaine proved
himself eminently fitted for the position. As a speaker he may be
classed with Henry Clay and General Banks, who are acknowledged to have
been the best speakers we have ever had. Blaine was their equal in every
respect. The whole force of such a statement as this cannot be felt
unless it is fully understood that the speaker of the House of
Representatives stands next to the President in power and importance in
the United States. The business of Congress is done largely by
committees, and the committees of the House are appointed and shaped by
the speaker. Then, to say that Blaine was one of our three ablest
speakers is to say a great deal, for a long line of very able men have
filled the speaker's chair. His quickness, his thorough knowledge of
parliamentary law and of the rules, his firmness, clear voice,
impressive manner, his ready comprehension of subjects and situations,
and his dash and brilliancy, really made him a great presiding officer.
He rose to a high place not only in the estimation of his Republican
friends, but also of his Democratic opponents, and he was re-elected to
the speakership in 1871 and again in 1873. In 1875, the Democratic
majority took control, and Mr. Blaine resumed his place on the floor to
win fresh laurels as a debater, and to discomfit the majority in many a
projected scheme which his quick eye detected and his ready words
exposed.
The governor of Maine, on the tenth of July, 1876, appointed Mr. Blaine
to the national Senate, in place of Mr. Morrill, who had resigned to
become secretary of the treasury. He was afterward elected for the
unexpired term and the full term following. On his appointment he wrote
to his constituents thus:--
Beginning with 1862, you have, by continuous elections, sent me as your
representative to the Congress of the United States. For such marked
confidence, I have endeavored to return the most zealous and devoted
service in my power, and it is certainly not without a feeling of pain
that I now surrender a trust by which I have always felt so signally
honored. It has been my boast, in public and in private, that no man on
the floor of Congress ever represented a constituency more distinguished
for intelligence, for patriotism, for public and personal virtue. The
cordial support you have so uniformly given me through these fourteen
eventful years is the chief honor of my life. In closing the intimate
relations I have so long held with the people of this district, it is
a great satisfaction to me to know that with returning health I shall
enter upon a field of duty in which I can still serve them in common
with the larger constituency of which they form a part.
While in the Senate Mr. Blaine advocated the Chinese immigration bill,
and opposed the electoral commission and Bland silver legislation. Here,
as throughout his political career, he was never on the fence on any
question. His position has always been clear and he has always taken
strong grounds.
Mr. Elaine was a candidate for the presidential nomination in 1876, and
came within twenty-seven votes of being successful. His vote increased
from two hundred and ninety-one on the first ballot to three hundred and
fifty-one on the seventh, but he was beaten by a combination against him
of the delegates supporting Morton, Conkling, Hartranft, Bristow, and
Hayes, who united upon Hayes, and made him the nominee. He was also one
of the leading candidates for the presidential nomination at the
Republican National Convention in Chicago, in June, 1880. Out of a total
of seven hundred and fifty-five he received, on the first ballot, two
hundred and eighty-four votes. On the thirteenth and fourteenth ballots
he received his highest vote, two hundred and eighty-five, which very
gradually declined to two hundred and fifty-seven on the thirty-fifth
ballot. On the thirty-sixth ballot General Garfield was nominated by a
combination of the elements opposed to General Grant and a third term.
As before, Mr. Blaine yielded to the inevitable, remaining true to his
party principles, and contributing his aid to the election of James A.
Garfield.
When President Garfield made up his Cabinet he offered Mr. Blaine the
control of the state department. This is how Mr. Blaine accepted the
offer:
WASHINGTON, December 20, 1880.
_My dear Garfield_,--Your generous invitation to enter your Cabinet
as secretary of state has been under consideration for more than three
weeks. The thought had really never occurred to my mind until, at our
late conference, you presented it with such cogent arguments in its
favor, and with such warmth of personal friendship in aid of your kind
offer. I know that an early answer is desirable, and I have waited only
long enough to consider the subject in all its bearings, and to make up
my mind, definitely and conclusively. I now say to you, in the same
cordial spirit in which you have invited me, that I accept the position.
It is no affectation for me to add that I make this decision, not for
the honor of the promotion it gives me in the public service, but
because I think I can be useful to the country and to the party; useful
to you as the responsible leader of the party and the great head of the
government. I am influenced somewhat, perhaps, by the shower of letters
I have received urging me to accept, written to me in consequence of the
mere unauthorized newspaper report that you had been pleased to offer me
the place. While I have received these letters from all sections of the
Union, I have been especially pleased, and even surprised, at the
cordial and widely extended feeling in my favor throughout New England,
where I had expected to encounter local jealousy and, perhaps, rival
aspiration.
In our new relation I shall give all that I am and all that I can hope
to be, freely and joyfully, to your service. You need no pledge of my
loyalty in heart and in act. I should be false to myself did I not prove
true both to the great trust you confide to me and to your own personal
and political fortunes in the present and in the future. Your
administration must be made brilliantly successful and strong in the
confidence and pride of the people, not at all directing its energies
for re-election, and yet compelling that result by the logic of events
and by the imperious necessities of the situation. To that most
desirable consummation I feel that, next to yourself, I can possibly
contribute as much influence as any other one man. I say this not from
egotism or vainglory, but merely as a deduction from a plain analysis of
the political forces which have been at work in the country for five
years past, and which have been significantly shown in two great
national conventions. I accept it as one of the happiest circumstances
connected with this affair that in allying my political fortunes with
yours--or, rather, for the time merging mine in yours--my heart goes
with my head, and that I carry to you not only political support, but
personal and devoted friendship. I can but regard it as somewhat
remarkable that two men of the same age, entering Congress at the same
time, influenced by the same aims and cherishing the same ambitions,
should never, for a single moment in eighteen years of close intimacy,
have had a misunderstanding or a coolness, and that our friendship has
steadily grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength. It is
this fact which has led me to the conclusion embodied in this letter;
for however much, my dear Garfield, I might admire you as a statesman, I
would not enter your Cabinet if I did not believe in you as a man and
love you as a friend. Always faithfully yours,
JAMES G. BLAINE.
Mr. Blaine's diplomatic career began with his appointment as secretary
of state on March 5, 1881, and ended with his resignation on December
19, three months after President Garfield's death. The two principal
objects of his foreign policy, as defined by himself on September 1,
1882, were these: "First, to bring about peace, and prevent future wars
in North and South America; second, to cultivate such friendly
commercial relations with all American countries as would lead to a
large increase in the export trade of the United States, by supplying
those fabrics in which we are abundantly able to compete with the
manufacturing nations of Europe." President Garfield, in his inaugural
address, had repeated the declaration of his predecessor that it was
"the right and duty of the United States to assert and maintain such
supervision and authority over any interoceanic canal across the isthmus
that connects North and South America as will protect our national
interests." This policy, which had received the direct approval of
Congress, was vigorously upheld by Secretary Blaine. The Colombian
Republic had proposed to the European powers to join in a guaranty of
the neutrality of the proposed Panama Canal. One of President Garfield's
first acts under the advice of Secretary Blaine was to remind the
European governments of the exclusive rights which the United States had
secured with the country to be traversed by the interoceanic waterway.
These exclusive rights rendered the prior guaranty of the United States
government indispensable, and the powers were informed that any foreign
guaranty would be not only an unnecessary but unfriendly act. As the
United States had made, in the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850, a special
agreement with Great Britain on this subject, Secretary Blaine
supplemented his memorandum to the powers by a formal proposal for the
abrogation of all provisions of that convention which were not in accord
with the guaranties and privileges covenanted for in the compact with
the Colombian Republic. In this state paper, the most elaborate of the
series receiving his signature as secretary of state, Mr. Blaine
contended that the operation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty practically
conceded to Great Britain the control of any canal which might be
constructed in the isthmus, as that power was required, by its insular
position and colonial possessions, to maintain a naval establishment
with which the United States could not compete. As the American
government had bound itself by its engagements in the Clayton-Bulwer
treaty not to fight in the isthmus, nor to fortify the mouths of any
waterway that might be constructed, the secretary argued that if any
struggle for the control of the canal were to arise England would have
an advantage at the outset which would prove decisive. "The treaty," he
remarked, "commands this government not to use a single regiment of
troops to protect its interests in connection with the interoceanic
canal, but to surrender the transit to the guardianship and control of
the British navy." The logic of this paper was unanswerable from an
American point of view.
The war between Chili and Peru had virtually ended with the capture of
Lima on January 17, 1881. The state department made strenuous exertions
to bring about the conclusion of an early peace between Chili and the
two prostrate states which had been crushed in war. The influence of the
government was brought to bear upon victorious Chili in the interest of
peace and magnanimity; but, owing to an unfortunate misapprehension of
Mr. Blaine's instructions, the United States ministers did not promote
the ends of peace. Special envoys were accordingly sent to South
America, accredited to the three governments, with general instructions
which should enable them to bring those belligerent powers into friendly
relations. After they had set out from New York Mr. Blaine resigned, and
Mr. Frelinghuysen reversed the diplomatic policy with such precipitate
haste that the envoys on arriving at their destination were informed by
the Chilian minister of foreign affairs that their instructions had been
countermanded, and that their mission was an idle farce. By this
reversal of diplomatic methods and purposes the influence of the United
States government on the South American coast was reduced to so low a
point as to become insignificant. Mr. Blaine's policy had been at once
strong and pacific. It was followed by a period of no policy, which
enabled Chili to make a conqueror's terms with the conquered and to
seize as much territory as pleased her rapacious generals.
The most conspicuous act of Mr. Blaine's administration of the state
department was his invitation to the peace congress. The proposition was
to invite all the independent governments of North and South America to
meet in a peace congress at Washington on March 15, 1882. The
representatives of all the minor governments on this continent were to
agree, if possible, upon some comprehensive plan for averting war by
means of arbitration, and for resisting the intrigues of European
diplomacy. Invitations were sent on November 22, with the limitations
and restrictions originally designed. Mr. Frelinghuysen lost no time in
undermining this diplomatic congress, and the meeting never took place.
On the morning of Saturday, July 2, President Garfield was to start from
Washington by the morning limited express for New York, en route for New
England and a reunion with his old college mates at the Williams College
commencement. His secretary of state accompanied him to the train, and
has recorded the great, almost boyish, delight with which the President
anticipated his holiday. They entered the waiting-room at the station,
and a moment later Guiteau's revolver had done its work. The country
still vividly remembers the devotion with which the head of the Cabinet
watched at the President's bedside, and the calm dignity with which,
during those long weeks of suspense, he discharged the painful duties of
his position. On September 6 the President was removed from Washington
to Elberon, whither he was followed the same day by Mr. Blaine and the
rest of the Cabinet. The apparent improvement in the President's
condition warranted the belief that he would continue to gain, and Mr.
Blaine went for a short rest to his home in Augusta. He was on his way
back to Elberon when the fatal moment came, and reached there the next
morning. It is the universal testimony of the press and people that,
during the weary weeks which intervened between the President's injury
and death, Mr. Blaine's every action and constant demeanor were
absolutely faultless. Selected by Congress to pronounce a formal eulogy
upon President Garfield, Mr. Blaine, on February 19, 1882, before
President Arthur and his Cabinet, both Houses of Congress, the Supreme
Court, the foreign legations, and an audience of ladies and gentlemen
which crowded the Hall of Representatives, delivered a most just,
comprehensive, and admirable address upon the martyr's great career and
character.
Since his withdrawal from President Arthur's Cabinet and his retirement
to private life at Augusta, Mr. Blaine has busied himself with his
history, entitled Twenty Years of Congress, the first volume of which
was given to the public last April. When finished, this work will cover
the period from Lincoln to Garfield, with a review of the events which
led to the political revolution of 1860. The story he tells in his first
volume is given with the simplicity and compactness of a trained
journalist, and yet with sufficient fulness to make the picture distinct
and clear in almost every detail. The book is as easy to read as a
well-written novel; it is clear and interesting, and commands the
attention throughout, the more for the absence of anything like
oratorical display or forensic combativeness. In literary polish it is
not beyond criticism, though occasional infelicities of expression and
instances of carelessness do not outweigh the general clearness and
force of style. It is not at all points unerring in portraiture, nor
infallible in judgment, though the writer's impartiality of spirit and
desire to be just are conspicuous, and he gives cogent reasons for
opinions expressed. But in broad and comprehensive appreciation of the
forces by which the development of public opinion has been affected, the
work is one of great merit. It seems to be entirely free from those
personal qualities which have characterized Mr. Blaine in politics. It
is very remarkable that a man so prominent as a partisan in political
affairs could have written a book so free from partisanship.
Mr. Blaine is now in his fifty-fifth year. Although above medium height,
he is so compactly and powerfully built that he scarcely seems tall. His
features are large and expressive; he is slightly bald and his neatly
trimmed beard is prematurely gray; his brows are lowering--his eyes
keen. On the floor of Congress he manifested marvelous power and nerve.
His voice is rich and melodious; his delivery is fluent and vigorous;
his gestures are full of grace and force; his self-possession is never
lost. He has appeared on the stump in almost every Northern State, and
is an exceedingly popular and effective campaign speaker. But it is not
when on the platform, speaking alone, that he has shown his greatest
strength. He is strongest when hard pressed by opponents in
parliamentary debate. He is a thorough believer in the organization of
men who think alike for advancing their views. He believes that in order
to carry out any great project it is necessary to have a party
organization, not for the purpose of advancing individual interests, but
to push ahead a great line of policy. He is a positive with the courage
of his convictions, and believes in aggressive politics. As a
consequence of this he has always had both very strong friends and very
bitter enemies. It is probable that no man in this country has had a
stronger personal following since the days of Harry Clay.
Blaine is a man of great physical capacities. He has great powers of
application. His mind works quickly. He is as restless as the ocean and
has the power of accomplishing an immense amount of work. Another
quality which he possesses--rare but invaluable to a public man--is that
of remembering names and faces, of remembering men and all about them.
This ability is partly natural, partly the result of his training. He
has made it a study to get acquainted with men.
His knowledge of facts, dates, events, men in our history, is not only
remarkable, but almost unprecedented. It would be difficult to find a
man in the United States who can, on the instant, without reference to
book or note, give so many facts and statistics relating to the social
and political history of our country. This has been the study of his
life, and his memory is truly encyclopædic.
Mr. Blaine was not a poor man when he entered Congress in 1863, and he
is not a millionaire now. For twenty years he has owned a valuable coal
tract of several hundred acres near Pittsburgh. This yielded him a
handsome income before he entered Congress, and the investment has been
a profitable one during his public life. He is said to have speculated
more or less, and to have made and lost millions. Yet in general his
business affairs have been managed with prudence and shrewdness, and he
now has a handsome fortune. His home in Augusta, near the State House,
is a plain two-story house. Several institutions in the State have
received benefactions from him, and his charity and generosity are
appreciated at home. He is a member of the Congregational Church in
Augusta, and constant attendance at divine service is a practice that he
has always inculcated upon his family. He has constantly refused to take
religious matters into politics, but his respect for his mother's belief
has made him tolerant and charitable toward all sects. In his own house
he is a man of culture and refinement, a genial host, a courteous
gentlemen. No man in public life is more fortunate in his domestic
relations. He is the companion and confidant of every one of his six
children, and they fear him no more than they fear one of their own
number. Mrs. Blaine is a model wife and mother. The eldest son, Walker
Blaine, is a graduate of Yale College and of the Law School of Columbia
College. He is a member of the bar of several States, and has been
creditably engaged in public life in Washington. The second son, Emmons
Blaine, is a graduate of Harvard College and the Cambridge Law School.
The third is James G. Blaine, Jr., who was graduated from Exeter Academy
last year. The three daughters are named Alice, Margaret, and Harriet.
The eldest was married more than a year ago to Brevet-Colonel J.J.
Coppinger, U.S.A.
But however Mr. Blaine may have distinguished himself as an author, a
diplomatist, or a man of varied experience and knowledge, in the present
political campaign, in which he is destined to play so important a part,
he will necessarily be largely judged in a political sense, and as a
politician. What does the record show in these directions? Has he been
true or false to his political convictions? Assuredly no man, be he
friend or foe, can point to a single instance in Mr. Blaine's long and
varied political career, in which he has betrayed his political trust or
failed to respond to the demands of his political professions. Through
the anti-slavery period; during the trying years of the war; through the
boisterous struggle for reconstruction, and constantly since, Mr.
Blaine's voice has always been heard pleading for the cause of equality,
arguing for freedom, and combating all propositions that aimed to
restrict human rights or fetter human progress. That he has sometimes
been swayed by partisan rather than statesmanlike considerations is
highly probable, but even that can but prove his zeal and devotion to
party principles.
No one claims for him political infallibility, and his warmest admirer
will admit that he, like other men, has faults. But those who look upon
Mr. Blaine as an impetuous and rash politician have but to read his
letter of acceptance to see how unjust that judgment is. Calm,
dignified, and scholarly, it discusses with consummate ability the
issues that to-day are engaging the attention of the American people,
and whether it be the tariff question or our foreign policy, he shows a
familiarity with the subject that at once stamps him as a man of
remarkable versatility and rare accomplishments. As the standard-bearer
of the great Republican party, he will unquestionably inspire in his
followers great enthusiasm and determination, and, if elected to the
high office to which he has been nominated, there is every reason to
believe that he will make a Chief Magistrate of whom the entire people
will justly be proud.
* * * * *
THE BOUNDARY LINES OF OLD GROTON.--III.
By the Hon. Samuel Abbott Green.
The running of the Provincial line in 1741 cut off a large part of
Dunstable, and left it on the New Hampshire side of the boundary. It
separated even the meeting-house from that portion of the town still
remaining in Massachusetts, and this fact added not a little to the deep
animosity felt by the inhabitants when the disputed question was
settled. It is no exaggeration to say that, throughout the old township,
the feelings and sympathies of the inhabitants on both sides of the line
were entirely with Massachusetts. A short time before this period the
town of Nottingham had been incorporated by the General Court, and its
territory taken from Dunstable. It comprised all the lands of that town,
lying on the easterly side of the Merrimack River; and the difficulty of
attending public worship led to the division. When the Provincial line
was established, it affected Nottingham, like many other towns, most
unfavorably. It divided its territory and left a tract of land in
Massachusetts, too small for a separate township, but by its
associations belonging to Dunstable. This tract is to-day that part of
Tyngsborough lying east of the river.
The question of a new meeting-house was now agitating the inhabitants
of Dunstable. Their former building was in another Province, where
different laws prevailed respecting the qualifications and settlement of
ministers. It was clearly evident that another structure must be built,
and the customary dispute of small communities arose in regard to its
site. Some persons favored one locality, and others another; some wanted
the centre of territory, and others the centre of population. Akin to
this subject I give the words of the Reverend Joseph Emerson, of
Pepperell,--as quoted by Mr. Butler, in his History of Groton (page
306),--taken from a sermon delivered on March 8, 1770, at the dedication
of the second meeting-house in Pepperell: "It hath been observed that
some of the hottest contentions in this land hath been about settling of
ministers and building meeting-houses; and what is the reason? The devil
is a great enemy to settling ministers and building meeting-houses;
wherefore he sets on his own children to work and make difficulties, and
to the utmost of his power stirs up the corruptions of the children of
God in some way lo oppose or obstruct so good a work." This explanation
was considered highly satisfactory, as the hand of the evil one was
always seen in such disputes.
During this period of local excitement an effort was made to annex
Nottingham to Dunstable; and at the same time Joint Grass to Dunstable.
Joint Grass was a district in the northeastern part of Groton, settled
by a few families, and so named from a brook running through the
neighborhood. It is evident from the documents that the questions of
annexation and the site of the meeting-house were closely connected. The
petition in favor of annexation was granted by the General Court on
certain conditions, which were not fulfilled, and consequently the
attempt fell to the ground. Some of the papers relating to it are as
follows:
A Petition of sundry Inhabitants of the most northerly Part of the first
Parish in _Groton_, praying that they may be set off from said
_Groton_ to _Dunstable_, for the Reasons mentioned.
Read and _Ordered_, That the Petitioners serve the Towns of
_Groton_ and _Dunstable_ with Copies of this Petition, that
they show Cause, if any they have, on the first Friday of the next
Sitting of this Court, why the Prayer thereof should not be granted.
Sent up for Concurrence.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 264), March 11, 1746.]
_Francis Foxcroft_, Esq; brought down the Petition of the northerly
Part of _Groton_, as entred the 11th of _March_ last, and refer'd.
Pass'd in Council, _viz._ In Council _May_ 29th 1747. Read again,
together with the Answers of the Towns of _Groton_ and _Dunstable_,
and _Ordered_, That _Joseph Wilder_ and _John Quincy_, Esqrs; together
with such as the honourable House shall join, be a Committee to take
under Consideration this Petition, together with the other Petitions and
Papers referring to the Affair within mentioned, and report what they
judge proper for this Court to do thereon. Sent down for Concurrence.
Read and concur'd, and Major _Jones_, Mr. _Fox_, and Col.
_Gerrish_, are joined in the Affair.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 11), May 29, 1747.]
_John Hill_, Esq; brought down the Petition of the Inhabitants of
_Groton_ and _Nottingham_, with the Report of a Committee of
both Houses thereon.
Signed _Joseph Wilder_, per Order.
Pass'd in Council, _viz._ In Council _June_ 5th 1747. The
within Report was read and accepted, and _Ordered_, That the
Petition of _John Swallow_ and others, Inhabitants of the northerly
Part of _Groton_ be so far granted, as that the Petitioners, with
their Estates petition'd for, be set off from _Groton_, and annexed
to the Town of _Dunstable_, agreable to _Groton_ Town Vote of
the 18th of _May_ last; and that the Petition of the Inhabitants of
_Nottingham_ be granted, and that that Part of _Nottingham_
left to the Province, with the Inhabitants theron, be annexed to said
_Dunstable,_ and that they thus Incorporated, do Duty and receive
Priviledges as other Towns within this Province do or by Law ought to
enjoy.
And it is further _Ordered_, That the House for publick Worship be
placed two Hundred and forty eight Rods distant from Mr. _John Tyng's_
North-East Corner, to run from said Corner North fifty two Degrees West,
or as near that Place as the Land will admit of.
Sent down for Concurrence.
Read and concur'd with the Amendment, _viz._ instead of those
Words, ... _And it is further Ordered, That the House for publick
Worship be_ ... insert the following Words ... _Provided that
within one Year a House for the publick Worship of_ GOD _be
erected, and_....
Sent up for Concurrence.
[Journal of the House of Repesentatives (page 26), June 6, 1747.]
To his Excellency William Shirley Esquire Captain General and Governour
in Chief in and over his Majestys Province of the Massachusetts Bay in
New England The Hon'ble: the Council and Hon'ble: House of
Representatives of the said Province in General Court Assembled at
Boston the 31'st. of May 1749.
The petition of the Inhabitants of the Town of Dunstable in the Province
of the Massachusetts Bay
Most Humbly Shew