The fame of Blaine does not decline, but increases and will endure.
It was not his destiny to fill the greater office created by our
Constitution, but with a distinction exceeding that of the majority of
Presidents, he is enrolled, with Clay, Webster, and Seward, among the
illustrious Secretaries of State. The defeat of James G. Blaine for
the Presidency in 1884 will rank among the memorable disappointments
and misfortunes of the people with that of Henry Clay, forty years
before.
Late in the week before the meeting of the Chicago National Republican
Convention in 1884, I received in Cincinnati a telegram from Mr.
Blaine requesting me to call on him in Washington, where he lived on
the opposite side of Lafayette Square from that of the celebrated
old house where he spent his last days. He was engaged on his "Twenty
Years in Congress." I called on him the day after his despatch reached
me, making haste, for I was about to go to Chicago; and he first said
he feared he had sent for me on an insufficient errand, and after
a moment's pause began to speak of the approaching convention, and
quickly used the expression--"I am alarmed."
[Illustration: MR. BLAINE IN 1891.
This is accounted one of the best portraits of Mr. Blaine in
existence. It is from a photograph taken at Bar Harbor in the autumn
of 1891 by Mr. A. von Mumm Schwartzenstein, then _Charge d'Affaires_
of the German Empire at Washington, and is here reproduced by the kind
permission of Mr. W.E. Curtis.]
"Concerning what are you frightened?" I inquired; and added: "You
surely are not afraid you are not going to be nominated?"
He responded with a flash of his eyes and a smile: "Oh, no; I am
afraid I shall be nominated, and have sent for you for that reason,
and want you to assist in preventing my nomination." I shook my head,
and Mr. Blaine asked: "Why not?"
I said I had not been so long in his confidence and known by his
friends to be of them, to venture upon such an enterprise as working
in opposition. If I should appear actively against him, no matter how
I presented the matter, the easy answer to any argument of mine would
be that I had relapsed into personal antagonism to him. I then said:
"I have not heard of this;" and asked: "Are there many who know that
you are against your candidacy?" He said he had talked freely to
that effect, and mentioned William Walter Phelps as one who was fully
acquainted with his views, and also Colonel Parsons, of the Natural
Bridge, Virginia, then in the house. I said: "Mr. Blaine, I think
it is too late. I have looked over the field, and your nomination is
almost certain--the drift is your way. Why precisely do you object,
and what exactly do you think should happen?" He replied in his
rapid way with much feeling, and I believe his very words were: "The
objection to my nomination is that I cannot be elected. With the South
solid against us we cannot succeed without New York, and I cannot
carry that State. There are factions there and influences before
voting and after voting, such that the party cannot count upon
success with me. I am sure of it--I have thought it all over, and my
deliberate judgment is as I tell you. I know, too, where I am strong
as well as where I am weak--and we might, if we should get into the
campaign with my name at the head of the ticket, think we were going
to win. We would get to believing it, perhaps, but we should miss it
in the end, if not by a great deal, just a little. With everything
depending on New York," he continued, "it would be a mistake to
nominate me. This is not new to me--I have weighed all the chances.
Besides"--and here he kindled--"why should we let the country go into
the hands of Democrats when we can name a ticket that is certain to be
elected--one that would sweep every Northern State?"
"What is it?" I asked.
The answer came with vivid animation: "William T. Sherman and Robert
T. Lincoln." This idea was instantly amplified. "The names of Sherman
and Lincoln put together would be irresistible. That ticket would
elect itself. We should have a campaign of marching and song. We need
the inspiration, and 'Marching Through Georgia' and 'We Are Coming,
Father Abraham,' would give it. We must not lose this campaign, and I
am alarmed by the prospect of losing it in my name."
"But," I interposed, "it is the report and the public opinion that
General Sherman would not consent to be a candidate; that he would
throw the party down that would nominate him. Why not try the other
Sherman?"
Mr. Blaine's response was that John Sherman would have the like
difficulty in carrying New York that he would have himself. The
element of military heroism was wanting. He had written to General
Sherman on the subject, and of course the General thought he could
not consent to be President--for that was what it amounted to--but his
reasoning was fallacious. If General Sherman had the question put to
him--whether to be President himself or turn the office over to the
Democratic party, with the Solid South dominant--he would see his duty
and do it, though his reluctance was real.
I said General Sherman could not consent to appear in competition with
his brother John at Chicago, though he had a funny way of looking
on John in West Point style as a "politician," and that was an
insuperable difficulty; and that, Mr. Blaine did not seem to have
thought of as a serious element in the case, but he realized the force
of it. I was anxious to hear more about the correspondence between
Blaine and General Sherman; but was only told that the letter to the
General was a call to consider that circumstances might arise, and
should do so, in which the General's sense of duty could be appealed
to, and be as strong as that to take up arms had been when the Union
demanded defenders.
[Illustration: MR. BLAINE AT HIS DESK IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT.