Part 16

It should be with some pride and glory now, after the honorable history of the national debt thus far, and which has given to the nation the credit of the world, that Mr. Blaine remembers that so early in the discussion, when the ideas of the many were crude, and only those of the few were clear, that he closed his speech with these splendid words,--words which embody the steady policy of the government from that time to the present:--

“I am sure,” said Mr. Blaine, “that in the peace which our arms have conquered, we shall not dishonor ourselves by withholding from any public creditor a dollar that we promised to pay him; nor seek by cunning construction and clever afterthought to evade or escape the full responsibility of our national indebtedness. It will doubtless cost us a vast sum to pay that indebtedness, but it will cost us incalculably more not to pay it.”

It took Gen. Benj. F. Butler two days to reply to this speech of Mr. Blaine’s, in which he bloomed forth as a greenbacker of fullest flower and strongest fragrance. This led Mr. Blaine to say:--

“We have a loan distinctly defined, well known to the people, that has a specific rate of interest, a certain time to run, and express condition on which it is to be paid; but the gentleman from Massachusetts is for brushing this all aside and placing before the country a species of legal-tender notes which have no fixed time to run, bear no interest, have no standard of value, and which the government is under no obligation to pay at any particular time, and which may indeed never be called in for redemption.”

And all of this reminded Mr. Blaine of a story:--

“I think the gentleman must have borrowed his notions of finance from a man who failed a few years since in one of the eastern cities of Maine, and who wrote over his store-door, ‘Payment suspended for thirty days.’ A neighbor passing by said to him, ‘You have neglected to date your notice.’ ‘Why, no,’ said he, ‘I did not intend to date it; it would run out if I did.’ And so the gentleman was to issue a government legal tender that never runs out.”

The sitting of congress during the winter of 1867 and 1868, was long and tedious, extending from November on into July. Mr. Blaine was on the committee on appropriations, and had charge of the army-appropriation bill on its passage through the House. The army had been reduced to sixty regiments, and thirty-two million dollars asked to pay them, while before the war twenty-five million dollars for the army, consisting of only nineteen, or as Mr. Blaine put it, “a regiment under the Democratic administration preceding the war cost more than double in gold what it costs now under General Grant in paper, or in other words, that it cost on an average over a million of dollars in gold to a regiment then, and when General Grant was in charge, about half a million to a regiment.”

It required great patience, courage, and intelligence to stand by such a bill for two or three days, answer all questions, meet all objections and opposition, and keep sweet all through; for it was made a political question, as nearly every measure was, and so the opposition party would sit there and resist and vote in a bunch, but usually to no purpose. The great impeachment trial had come on, and was being conducted by the senate in the presence of members of the House.

This caused their adjournment after the morning hour until three o’clock, daily. The managers of the trial, chosen by the House, were John A. Bingham, George S. Boutwell, James F. Wilson, Benjamin F. Butler, Thomas Williams, John A. Logan, and Thaddeus Stevens.

Having faithfully performed all his work upon the great committee, and seen to it that every trust confided to him in congress was sacredly discharged, he procured an indefinite leave of absence, after being there day and night for some eight months, and not being one of the managers of the impeachment trial, and having no active part to take in its proceedings, and so he went home to conduct the summer campaign, giving himself, however, but two months for this purpose. He had been absent in Europe, the summer before, and now he had been re-nominated to congress for the fourth time, something unusual in the district, as he had been elected three times already.

It would not do to fail, having been thus honored by his party. So notwithstanding his long, hard siege in congress, and which had brought him more than ever into official communication with heads of departments and the general of the army, he devotes July and August to hard campaign-work, discussing before the people the great questions of the currency, and the war-debt, etc., that had filled his mind in congress. His experience there had been just the needed preparation for this field-work, which was little more than justifying their congressional actions and explaining them.

The great question of the campaign was, “hard or soft money,” as it was called. The seeds of the greenback heresy, it will be recalled, had been sown broadcast in Mr. Garfield’s Western Reserve district in Ohio, and the convention met to renominate him had declared for soft money, when he was called in for a speech. He was a hard-money man, and nothing else, and could not stultify himself. He was begged by friends not to antagonize the convention, but his firm reply was, “I shall not violate my conscience and my principles in this matter,” and so he made it known to the convention without any compromise. It was such an exhibition of courage, integrity, and of all manly power, that they nominated him at once by acclamation.

Mr. Blaine encountered the same heresy, and wrung its neck most vigorously. He was up in the art, as he had just had extensive experience in congress. But 1868 was a presidential year. U. S. Grant and Horatio Seymour were the candidates.

One president was being impeached, and another being elected. Mr. Blaine had done what was necessary for him in the case of one, and now was doing what he could for the other. He had not taken the most advanced grounds regarding the impeachment. He was quite inclined to be conservative; and while he did not oppose, neither did he vehemently demand it at all hazards. It was serious business, and he viewed it with the broad, comprehensive mind of a statesman.

It was like “tearing up the foundation of things,” as he said. He had a deep and delicate sense of honor about it. The president was the chief man of the nation, there by the suffrages of a great people. Results seem to show that all were finally brought to Mr. Blaine’s conclusions, if not to his temper of mind upon the subject. He simply did not make any violent speeches in its favor, as so many did, but acted effectively with his party for the right. His strength was used in the campaign. He wanted a new president of the right stamp, and knew that if faithful work was done, they would have one in less than a year. So to this task he addressed himself with his accustomed energies, and not without success, which had come to be almost a matter of course, though hard, hot fights were made against him.

General Grant received two hundred and fourteen votes in the electoral college, to eighty-four for Mr. Seymour, and again the Republican sky was ablaze with great and wide-spread victory.

XIV.

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS.

The future had no clouds for Mr. Blaine as he returned for the fourth time to Washington as a member-elect to congress. He was in manhood’s prime, backed by a splendid record of triumph on the field of political contest, and of achievement in the arena of debate. He was thoroughly conversant with the affairs of the House in every detail of rule or measure, and was widely known and recognized as among the most popular and efficient members. His knowledge, gathered from wide fields of travel, experience, and observation, was vast; his powers thoroughly disciplined and under the finest control; his acquaintance extensive, and his rank high in personal and political friendships.

Schuyler Colfax, the former speaker, was vice-president now; standing next to General Grant, the new president. Who should take his place? This was the question that filled Mr. Blaine with high anticipations.

Granting his fitness and ability, which, perhaps, no one who knows him at all would question, the still greater question is how to win the prize, how to secure the position. It is purely a question of votes, and the one thing that secures them is personal influence. It may come of the individual’s own exertions, his power to command, the charm of his name, the fascination of his character, the magnetism of his person. But it is a matter of stupendous strength and of transcendent abilities for one to lift himself so far above his fellows as to win their suffrages in such a place as that, by his own unaided personal attractions.

Here was the great argument, but not the active agent. There must be some one to state the case, to manage it, to make the appeal, some one strong friend or more, who has grit and gumption to put it through, and see it done,--that man is Thaddeus Stevens, of his native state of Pennsylvania. He is the one of all others to do this thing.

Of few men’s power Mr. Blaine had a loftier idea than of Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. There was indeed a trio who attracted and held the admiration of Mr. Blaine, and he has sketched their characters most vividly. Will you hear him as he says:--

“The three most distinguished parliamentary leaders hitherto developed in this country, are Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglas, and Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. They were all men of consummate ability, of great earnestness, of intense personality, differing widely each from the others, and yet with a single trait in common,--the power to command. In the give and take of daily discussion, in the art of controlling and consolidating reluctant and refractory followers, in the skill to overcome all forms of opposition, and to meet with competency and courage the varying phases of unlooked-for assault, or unsuspected defection, it would be difficult to rank with these a fourth name in all our congressional history.

“But of these Mr. Clay was the greatest. It would, perhaps, be impossible to find in parliamentary annals, greater power than when, in 1841, at sixty-four years of age, he took the control of the Whig party from the president who had received their suffrages, against the power of Webster in the cabinet, against the eloquence of Choate in the senate, against the herculean efforts of Caleb Cushing and Henry A. Wise in the House. In unshared leadership, in the pride and plenitude of power, he hurled against John Tyler, with deepest scorn, the mass of that conquering column which had swept over the land in 1840, and drove his administration to shelter behind the lines of his political foes.

“Mr. Douglas achieved a victory scarcely less wonderful, when, in 1854, against the secret desires of a strong administration, against the wise counsel of the older chiefs, against the conservative instincts and even the moral sense of the country, he forced a reluctant congress into a repeal of the Missouri Compromise.

“And now we come to Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, who, in his contests from 1865 to 1868, actually advanced his parliamentary leadership until congress tied the hands of the president, and governed the country by its own will, leaving only perfunctionary duties to be discharged by the executive. With two hundred millions of patronage in his hands at the opening of the contest, aided by the active force of Seward in the cabinet, and the moral power of Chase on the bench, Andrew Johnson could not command the support of one-third in either House against the parliamentary uprising of which Thaddeus Stevens was the animating spirit and the unquestioned leader.”

And this was the man who stood at Mr. Blaine’s right hand in this matter of the speakership.

Mr. Blaine was on the committee of military affairs with Mr. Stevens. He became known to him thoroughly as a man with talent for indefatigable toil, and a genius for doing hard and difficult things with great certainty and despatch. He was just the man to attract the attention, and be admired, respected, and loved by a man of Mr. Stevens’ consummate ability, and to be selected by him for promotion and honor. And the hour had come for just that honor, the highest in the gift of the House.

It was the third office in the nation, with a salary three thousand dollars greater than that of United States senator, and equal to the salary of vice-president or secretary of state. And so by virtue of his recognized fitness, and the power of this great friend, the office comes to him, and he comes to it.

Some think, and perhaps rightly, that his tilt with Mr. Conkling popularized him greatly with the members of the House, who thoroughly enjoyed it, and so prepared the way to the honor which in point of fact was his by right of nature. But six years was a long time to wait, yet he waited, and was rewarded. And still it was not waiting, but working, with him, occupying the stronghold he had made for himself in the manifold business of the House.

But now he is taken from this, and out of the arena of debate, and yet lifted into greater prominence and power; appointing all the great committees of the House, a task requiring the highest order of ability in the knowledge of men; deciding all questions, and exercising a controlling influence over legislation.

There is little power men employ in all the great work of life, but he needs it in its rarest form. He must be a broad, a wide, a universal man; in sympathy with all, so far as right and justice are concerned. There are the choice, the crowned ones from every congressional district in all the states and territories, and he is the choice, the crowned one among them,--their chosen chief.

Tennyson’s words press for utterance right here, as we see him step from the floor to the speaker’s chair:--

“Divinely gifted man, Whose life in low estate began, And on a simple village green.

“Who breaks his birth’s invidious bar, And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blow of circumstance, And grapples with his evil star.

“Who makes by force his merit known, And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mould a mighty state’s decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne.

“And moving up from high to higher, Becomes on Fortune’s crowning slope The pillar of a people’s hope, The centre of a world’s desire.”

It was only by the proof of character, the most solid and reliable, he could possibly have secured the friendship of Mr. Stevens. And not his alone, but the friendship of Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, who nominated Mr. Blaine as candidate for speaker, and who, as senior member, swore him in.

It was a proud day for Mr. Washburne, the staunch friend of General Grant, to witness his inaugural, and then, as the true friend of Mr. Blaine, aid so largely in putting him into the speaker’s chair the same day.

Mr. Stevens was not there to enjoy the triumph of his friend, but his endorsement was good as a letter of credit.

When the ballot was concluded it read:--Whole number of votes cast, one hundred and ninety-two; necessary for a choice, ninety-seven; Mr. Blaine received one hundred and thirty-five; Mr. Kerr received fifty-seven.

Mr. Dawes and Mr. Kerr conducted him to the chair, when he addressed the House as follows:--

“GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

“I thank you profoundly for the great honor which your votes have just conferred upon me. The gratification which this signal mark of your confidence brings to me, finds its only drawback in the diffidence with which I assume the weighty duties devolving upon me. Succeeding to a chair made illustrious by such eminent statesmen, and skilled parliamentarians as Clay, and Stevenson, and Polk, and Winthrop, and Banks, and Grow, and Colfax, I may well distrust my ability to meet the just expectations of those who have shown me such marked partiality. But relying, gentlemen, upon my honest purpose to perform all my duties faithfully and fearlessly, and trusting in a large measure to the indulgence which I am sure you will always extend to me, I shall hope to retain, as I have secured, your confidence, your kindly regard, and your generous support.

“The forty-first congress assembles at an auspicious period in the history of our government. The splendid and impressive ceremonial which we have just witnessed in another part of the capitol [Grant’s inauguration], appropriately symbolizes the triumphs of the past, and the hopes of the future, a great chieftain, whose sword at the head of gallant and victorious armies, saved the Republic from dismemberment and ruin, has been fitly called to the highest civic honor which a grateful people can bestow. Sustained by a congress which so ably represents the loyalty, the patriotism, and the personal worth of the nation, the president this day inaugurated will assure to the country an administration of purity, fidelity, and prosperity; an era of liberty regulated by law, and of law thoroughly inspired with liberty.

“Congratulating you, gentlemen, on the happy auguries of the day, and invoking the gracious blessings of Almighty God on the arduous and responsible labors before you, I am now ready to take the oath of office, and enter upon the discharge of the duties to which you have called me.”

It is a curious coincidence that General Schenck, of Ohio, who startled Mr. Blaine with the charge of irrelevancy at his first utterance on the floor, but was so utterly discomfited afterwards, is now the first one to address him as “Mr. Speaker,” and Mr. Kerr, his competitor, soon follows.

It was at this session that new members from reconstructed states appeared, and many were the objections made to this new member and that, because of disloyalty. It was to present a charge of this kind that Mr. Schenck arose.

The noticeable feature of Mr. Blaine’s speakership is the expeditious manner in which business is conducted, and the consequent brevity of sessions.

It may be observed right here that Mr. Blaine’s friend, E. B. Washburne, chose rather to go as minister to Paris, and Hamilton Fish became secretary of state.

For two successive congresses Mr. Blaine was re-elected speaker by the large Republican majorities serving through the reconstruction period of the rebel states, and through most of General Grant’s two terms of the presidency. It was during this period his reputation became truly national.

He might have occupied the chair all the time, and taken things easy; but this was not his nature. It was his privilege to go upon the floor, and take up the gauntlet of debate. It was expected that things would become lively at once when he did so. There was a resolution one day for a committee to investigate the outrages in the South. Mr. Blaine had written the resolution, which was presented by his colleague, and asked for its passage; and, lest the _claquers_ should say he put only “weak-kneed Republicans” on the committee, he made Benj. F. Butler chairman, which in some almost unaccountable way greatly enraged Mr. Butler, who might have then contemplated accompanying Gen. John M. Palmer and others into the Democratic party, and so he telegraphed to newspapers and issued a circular which appeared on the desks of members, denouncing what he was pleased to call a trick, and used other vigorous language on the floor of the House. Of course the speaker could not sit quietly in the chair and be thus tempestuously assailed, so calling a future vice-president to the chair (Wheeler), he said, “I wish to ask the gentleman from Massachusetts whether he denies me the right to have drawn that resolution” (it was presented in the caucus first which had just re-nominated Mr. Blaine for speaker).

Mr. Butler replied, “I have made no assertion on that subject, one way or other.”

Mr. Blaine: “Did not the gentleman know distinctly that I drew it?”

“No, sir!” was the reply.

“Did I not take it to the gentleman and read it to him?”

“Yes, sir,” replied Mr. Butler.

“Did I not show him the manuscript?”

“Yes, sir,” was the reply.

“And at his suggestion,” continued Mr. Blaine, “I added these words, ‘and the expenses of said committee shall be paid from the contingent fund of the House of Representatives’ (applause), and the fact that ways and means were wanted to pay the expenses was the only objection he made to it.”

It appears that the resolution was considered as a test of the Republicanism of members. General Butler had been asked to take the chairmanship, but refused, and said he would have nothing to do with the resolution; but Mr. Blaine put him on the committee, and when asked why, replied, “Because I knew very well that if I omitted the appointment of the gentleman it would be heralded throughout the length and breadth of the country by the _claquers_, who have so industriously distributed this letter this morning, that the speaker had packed the committee, as the gentleman said he would, with ‘weak-kneed Republicans,’ who would not go into an investigation vigorously, as he would. That was the reason (applause), so that the chair laid the responsibility upon the gentleman of declining the appointment, and now the gentleman from Massachusetts is on his responsibility before the country,” and there we leave him.

It can but be with peculiar interest that we read the strong words of the oath taken so repeatedly by Mr. Blaine, and administered the second time by Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, after he had received one hundred and twenty-six votes, to ninety-two for Gen. George W. Morgan, of Ohio.

It kept a large committee busy to pass upon the character of members-elect and the legality of their election. Such was the broken condition of state governments in the South, so battered by war, and distracted by schism and contending factions. All of these perplexities adhered to applicants for membership in congress, presenting credentials of membership various in value as greenbacks and gold, and these same perplexities affected the staple of congressional measures.

Congress was increasing rapidly in the number of its members, so that while one hundred and ninety-two votes were cast at Mr. Blaine’s first election to the speakership in 1869, there were two hundred and sixty-nine votes cast at his election to the same office in 1873, of which number he received one hundred and eighty-nine, and Mr. Ferdinand Wood received seventy-six.

Mr. Blaine refers to it in his address to the “Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,” the last time he was elected speaker. “To be chosen,” he says, “speaker of the House of Representatives is always an honorable distinction; to be chosen a third time enhances the honor more than three fold; to be chosen _by the largest body that ever assembled in the Capitol_ imposes a burden of responsibility which only your indulgent kindness could embolden me to assume. The first occupant of this chair presided over a House of sixty-five members, representing a population far below the present aggregate of the state of New York. At that time there were not, in the whole United States, fifty thousand civilized inhabitants to be found one hundred miles distant from the flow of the Atlantic tide. To-day, gentlemen, a large majority of you come from beyond that limit, and represent districts peopled then only by the Indian and the adventurous frontiersman.

“The national government is not yet as old as many of its citizens, but in this brief span of time,--less than one lengthened life,--it has, under God’s good providence, extended its power until a continent is the field of its empire, and attests the majesty of its law.