On Jan. 1, 1862, Mr. Blaine was re-nominated by acclamation, and
re-elected by an almost unanimous vote, Speaker of the Maine House of
Representatives. The war was enlarging the demand for legislation. All
great national issues must be discussed by the state legislatures, and
the demand for their adoption sprung from the people, a knowledge of
whose will could be best gained in this way. Resolutions were discussed
as regards confiscating the slaves, and arming them in the nation’s
defence, and so the representatives in congress were instructed and
encouraged, and their actions brought up as legislative measures and
endorsed.
Grave suspicions existed at this time in the minds of many in the state
of Maine, in view of the attitude of the British nation towards the
United States, and the feeling of a portion of the British people, as
developed by the Mason and Slidell affair, and the blockade-runners
fitted out in British ports. The exposed condition of the coast and
boundary line of Maine, had caused national alarm upon this subject to
center largely in the state.
“For more than four hundred miles,” said the governor, Israel Washburn,
Jr., in his inaugural address of January, 1862, “this state is
separated from the British Provinces of New Brunswick and Canada by a
merely imaginary line. Of the deep and bitter hostility to this country
of large numbers of the people, we have now, unhappily,” he goes on to
say, “the most indubitable proofs.
“Upon the coast of Maine there are more deep, accessible harbors,
capable of being entered by the largest ships of war, than can be found
on the entire coast-line of the slave-holding states; and yet since she
entered the federal Union in 1820, less than half has been expended for
her coast protection and improvement than was expended within ten years
for the building of a custom-house in the single city of Charleston.”
The old adage, “In time of peace prepare for war,” had not been
followed, and now commissioners are sent to Washington to present
the facts regarding Maine’s defenseless condition, and the engineer
department was directed, by order of Simon Cameron, Secretary of War,
to send a competent officer to examine and report upon the subject.
This is one of the topics filling the mind of Maine statesmen of this
time, and its importance is so presented and impressed, that on Jan.
17, one hundred thousand dollars was appropriated for Fort Knox on the
Penobscot River, Maine, one hundred thousand dollars for the fort on
Hog Island, Portland Harbor, and fifty thousand dollars each for these
two forts the following year.
Seldom were there so many bills of great importance to the state and
nation before the legislature, as at this and subsequent sessions. But
most of the time the speaker sat quietly in his chair, exercising the
functions of his office. Men seemed to be growing into greatness at
a single session; speeches of great effectiveness, and eloquent with
patriotic ardor, came to be a daily occurrence.
Union victories began to cheer the nation. General Thomas at Mill
Springs, Ky., had fought and won a glorious day. Forts Henry and
Donelson had fallen, and hordes of rebels had surrendered. Nashville
was occupied by Union troops, and Andrew Johnson was appointed governor
of Tennessee. Indeed, he was descending the steps of the Capitol at
Washington with a bevy of his friends, and just starting for the
capital of Tennessee, the very afternoon of March 7th, to which we are
about to call special attention.
No scene more brilliant graces the early history of Mr. Blaine, than
his reply to Hon. A. P. Gould, a distinguished lawyer of Thomaston,
and a member of the lower House, in vindication of the war-power of
congress. The hearty support of every Northern state was a necessity.
The following resolutions were passed by the Senate of Maine, on the
7th of February, 1862, by yeas twenty-four, nays four:--
“STATE OF MAINE.
“RESOLUTIONS RELATING TO NATIONAL AFFAIRS.
“_Resolved_, That we cordially endorse the administration of Abraham
Lincoln in the conduct of the war against the wicked and unnatural
enemies of the Republic, and that in all its measures calculated to
crush this rebellion speedily and finally, the administration is
entitled to and will receive the unwavering support of the loyal
people of Maine.
“_Resolved_, That it is the duty of congress, by such means as
will not jeopardize the rights and safety of the loyal people of
the South, to provide for the confiscation of estates, real and
personal, of rebels, and for the forfeiture and liberation of every
slave claimed by any person who shall continue in arms against the
authority of the United States, or who shall in any manner aid and
abet the present wicked and unjustifiable rebellion.
“_Resolved_, That in this perilous crisis of the country, it is
the duty of congress, in the exercise of its constitutional power,
to ‘raise and support armies,’ to provide by law for accepting the
services of all able-bodied men of whatever status, and to employ
these men in such manner as military necessity and the safety of the
Republic may demand.
“_Resolved_, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the senators
and representatives in congress from this state, and that they be
respectfully requested to use all honorable means to secure the
passage of acts embodying their spirit and substance.”
The resolutions were sent to the House for concurrence, and were there
referred to the committee of the whole. On the 6th and 7th of March,
Mr. Gould, of Thomaston, made an elaborate argument against them. At
the conclusion of his remarks he was replied to by Mr. Blaine, Speaker
of the House. The resolutions were subsequently adopted by the House
in concurrence with the Senate, by yeas one hundred and four, nays
twenty-six.
Mr. Gould had spoken for seven hours against the resolutions. The House
had gone into committee of the whole, with Mr. Frye, the present United
States senator, in the chair. The senate was present in a body, on one
side, the governor and his council on the other, and as many as could
enter, filled the galleries and vacant spaces, when Mr. Blaine, then
but thirty-two years of age, took up the gage of battle, and spoke for
two hours, and so utterly demolished the premises and conclusions of
his powerful antagonist as to carry the resolution through the House
with but few dissenting voices.
Mr. Blaine had been re-elected Speaker of the House by a vote of one
hundred and thirty-five out of one hundred and forty, at the present
session. All eyes were turned to him as the man for the occasion.
His old paper, the _Kennebec Journal_, with which he had had no
official connection for three years, says of the speech:--
“Never, in the legislative history of Maine, has there been such an
opportunity for a forensic effort as was presented in the House of
Representatives on Friday afternoon, at the close of the seven hours’
speech of Hon. A. P. Gould on the national resolutions. The expectation
of the legislature was that Hon. James G. Blaine would speak in defense
of the principles and the measures by which the Federal government will
be able to crush the Rebellion and restore the Republic to that true
and certain basis on which it was originally established. Mr. Blaine’s
speech occupied two hours, and was fully equal to the anticipations
of the unconditional friends of the government. From beginning to
close it was crowded with arguments and salient facts, interspersed
with due proportion of wit, satire, invective and telling hits against
the doctrines and positions of his opponent. It showed, with great
clearness and strength, that the power of confiscating the slaves of
rebels belongs to congress, and to no other power. It adhered firmly
to the long-recognized principle that _the safety of the Republic is
the supreme law_, before which every pecuniary interest must give way,
and advancing in this broad highway, so clearly defined by the highest
authorities of international law, and so luminous with the best light
of history, the speaker made a complete overthrow of the sophistry and
disloyalty of those who plead the defences of the constitution for the
security of traitors, as against the necessities of the Republic. The
speech was brilliantly eloquent, conclusive in argument, and in all
essential particulars was a success which cannot fail to add to the
reputation of the author.”