Part 19

“Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world’s interest; from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death, and he did not quail. Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment; but through days of deadly languor; through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne; with clear sight and calm courage he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell? What brilliant, broken plans; what baffled high ambitions; what sundering of strong, warm manhood’s friendships; what bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him a proud, expectant nation; a great host of sustaining friends; a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood’s day of frolic; the fair, young daughter; the sturdy sons, just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day and every hour the reward of a father’s love and care; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demands. Before him, desolation and great darkness! And his soul was not shaken.

“His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nation’s love; enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin’s bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the divine decree.

“As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness, and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within hearing of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean’s changing wonders; on its far sails, whitening in the morning light; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a further shore, and felt, already upon his wasted brow, the breath of the eternal morning.”

XVII.

SECRETARY OF STATE.

Mr. Blaine was a member of the cabinets of President Garfield and of President Arthur for ten months, retiring at his own request, in January, 1881.

The Foreign Policy of the Garfield administration, as conducted by Mr. Blaine, was emphatically a Peace Policy. It was without the motive or disposition of war in any form. It was one of dignity and uprightness, as a work of twelve hundred and fifty pages, entitled “Foreign Relations of the United States for 1881,” and another book entitled “War in South America, and attempt to bring about Peace, 1880-81,” a book of about eight hundred pages, both printed by the United States Government, and now before us, amply testify.

Its two objects, as distinctly stated by him, were: 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 increase 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.

The second depended on the first. For three years Chili, Peru, and Bolivia had been engrossed in war, and the friendly offices of the United States Government had barely averted it between Chili and the Argentine Republic, postponed it between Guatemala and Mexico; so also it might in these South American Republics. War was threatened between Brazil and Uruguay, and foreshadowed between Brazil and the Argentine states.

To induce the Spanish American states to adopt some peaceful mode of adjusting their frequently recurring contentions, was regarded by President Garfield as one of the most honorable and useful ends to which the diplomacy of the United States could contribute; and in the line of the policy indicated, is a letter from Mr. Blaine to Gen. S. A. Hurlbut, United States Minister to Peru. While it shows the spirit of the president, it shows as well the hand and heart of his secretary:--

“DEPARTMENT OF STATE, “WASHINGTON, June 15, 1881.

“SIR:--The deplorable condition of Peru, the disorganization of its government, and the absence of precise and trustworthy information as to the state of affairs now existing in that unhappy country, render it impossible to give you instructions as full and definite as I would desire.

“Judging from the most recent despatches from our ministers, you will probably find on the part of the Chilian authorities in possession of Peru, a willingness to facilitate the establishment of the provisional government which has been attempted by Senor Calderon. If so you will do all you properly can to encourage the Peruvians to accept any reasonable conditions and limitations with which this concession may be accompanied. It is vitally important to Peru, that she be allowed to resume the functions of a native and orderly government, both for the purposes of internal administration and the negotiation of peace. To obtain this end it would be far better to accept conditions which may be hard and unwelcome, than by demanding too much to force the continuance of the military control of Chili. It is hoped that you will be able, in your necessary association with the Chilian authorities, to impress upon them that the more liberal and considerate their policy, the surer it will be to obtain a lasting and satisfactory settlement. The Peruvians cannot but be aware of the sympathy and interest of the people and government of the United States, and will, I feel confident, be prepared to give to your representations the consideration to which the friendly anxiety of this government entitles them.

“The United States cannot refuse to recognize the rights which the Chilian government has acquired by the successes of the war, and it may be that a cession of territory will be the necessary price to be paid for peace....

“As a strictly confidential communication, I inclose you a copy of instructions sent this day to the United States minister at Santiago. You will thus be advised of the position which this government assumes toward all the parties to this deplorable conflict. It is the desire of the United States to act in a spirit of the sincerest friendship to the three republics, and to use its influence solely in the interest of an honorable and lasting peace.

“JAMES G. BLAINE.”

The appointment of William Henry Trescot as Spanish envoy, with the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary to the republics of Chili, Peru, and Bolivia, was done in the same regard, not only of the nation’s honor, but also of peace and that commerce which brings prosperity and happiness.

It has long been felt, and is felt deeply to-day, that there are many kindly offices of state which this great nation may offer to weaker, feebler, and distressed peoples, for their good and for our glory; that it is not enough to be simply an example and an asylum, but to be a potent benefactor in a direct and personal way, teaching them that peace, not war, is the secret of growth and greatness. This, in effect, was the object of the peace congress, which was a cherished design of the administration, and to which Mr. Blaine was fully committed.

No wonder that such a project commanded the thought and enlisted the sympathies of such men as Garfield and his great _premier_; and Mr. Blaine tells us that it was the intention, resolved on before the fatal shot of July 2d, to invite all the independent governments of North and South America to meet in such a congress at Washington, on March 15, 1882, and the invitations would have been issued directly after the New England tour the president was not permitted to make. But the invitations were sent out by Mr. Blaine on the 22d of November, when in Mr. Arthur’s cabinet. It met with cordial approval in South American countries, and some of them at once accepted the invitations. But in six weeks President Arthur caused the invitations to be recalled, or suspended, and referred the whole matter to congress, where it was lost in debate, just as the Panama congress was wrecked when Mr. Clay was secretary of state over fifty years ago.

It was argued that such an assemblage of representatives from those various states would not only elevate their standard of civilization, and lead to the fuller development of a continent at whose wealth Humboldt was amazed, but it would also bring them nearer us and turn the drift of their European trade to our American shores. As it is, they have a coin balance of trade against us every year, of one hundred and twenty millions of dollars, and this money is shipped from our country to Europe, to pay for their immense purchases there. Their petroleum comes from us, but crosses the Atlantic twice before it gets to them, and the middle-men in Europe receive a larger profit on it than the producers of the oil in north-western Pennsylvania.

It may be both wise and prudent, in order to completeness of biography, to state two aspersions,--one of war, and the other of gain,--cast upon the policy of Mr. Blaine.

William Henry Trescot, in a published letter dated July 17, 1882, states “his knowledge of certain matters connected with Mr. Blaine’s administration as secretary of state”:--

“2. As to your designing a war, that supposition is too absurd for serious consideration. If you had any such purpose it was carefully concealed from me, and I left for South America with the impression that I would utterly fail in my mission if I did not succeed in obtaining an _amicable settlement of the differences_ between the belligerents.

“3. In regard to the Cochet and Landreau claims, it is sufficient to say that you rejected the first, absolutely. As to the second, you instructed General Hurlbut to ask, if the proper time for such request should come, that Landreau might be heard before a Peruvian tribunal in support of his claim.

“General Hurlbut, although approving the justice of Landreau’s claim in his dispatch of Sept. 14, 1881, never brought it in any way to the notice of the Peruvian government. During my mission in South America, I never referred to it, so that, in point of fact, during your secretaryship the Landreau claim was never mentioned by ministers of the United States, either to the Chilian or Peruvian government. It could not, therefore, have affected the then pending diplomatic questions in the remotest degree.”

But for these he appeared and answered, in company with Mr. Trescot, before the House committee on foreign affairs, Hon. Charles G. Williams, of Wisconsin, chairman.

“He received a vindication,” is the simple report.

“I think Mr. Blaine has rather enjoyed his opportunity, and his triumph,” writes one. “It is inspiring to have Mr. Blaine associated with public affairs again, if only as a witness before a committee. How the country rings with his name, the moment he breaks silence! His familiar face, framed in rapidly whitening hair; his elastic figure, growing almost venerable, from recent associations; his paternal manner toward young Jimmie, his name-sake son, whom by some whim of fancy, he had with him during the examination,--all these were elements of interest in the picture.”

And now comes a beautiful prophecy, two years old, which shows how one may argue his way into the future by the hard and certain logic of events. It is this: “The administration will have to do something that shall appeal strongly to the popular heart; something out of the line of hospitalities within its own charmed circle; something magnetic and heroic, or else ‘Blaine, of Maine,’ will become so idolized in the minds of the people that he will be invincible in 1884.”

In all of his foreign correspondence there is, in one particular, a striking likeness between Mr. Blaine and President Lincoln,--the man is not lost in the statesman, but rather the man is the statesman.

As Abraham Lincoln in all his giant form appears upon the forefront of every public document that came from his hand, so James G. Blaine is photographed from life in every state-paper that bears his name. He copies no model, he stands on no pedestal,--his personality is free and untrammeled in every utterance.

In his paper to Mr. Lowell, our Minister to England, of Nov. 29, 1881, we get a full view of the man at his work.

A modification of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of April 19, 1850, is the subject in hand. His instructions had been sent ten days before. A week afterwards the response of Lord Granville to his circular note of June 24, in relation to the neutrality of any canal across the Isthmus of Panama, had been received.

And so he proceeded to give a summary of the historical objections to the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and the very decided differences of opinion between the two governments, to which its interpretation has given rise. And this he does with singular skill and aptness, which is not unusual to him, when the philosophy of history is needful as the servant of his genius.

No less than sixteen direct quotations of from two to eight lines each, are given in a letter of six large pages, taken from the discussion of the subject for thirty years, while the main body of the letter, in its various parts, shows a comprehensive grasp of details, a familiarity with utterances of the leading men of the past, and with England’s operations under the treaty, as to prove conclusively that in the highest realms of statesmanship, mastery is still the one word that defines the man.

His previous letter of instructions, presenting an analysis of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, singling out the objectionable features to be abrogated, and stating his reasons, is of the same clear, strong type, compactly written, and applying the great arguments of common sense to a subject of international importance.

“The convention,” he says, “was made more than thirty years ago, under exceptional and extraordinary conditions, which have long since ceased to exist,--conditions which at best were temporary in their nature, and which can never be reproduced.

“The development of the Pacific coast places responsibility upon our government which it cannot meet, and not control the canal now building, and just as England controls the Suez canal.

“England requires and sustains an immense navy, for which we have no use, and might at any time seize the canal, and make it impossible for us to marshal a squadron in Pacific waters, without a perilous voyage ourselves around the Horn.”

Great events of permanent importance would doubtless have been the result, had the president and his secretary been permitted to continue as they were for the full term of office. Already Mr. Blaine was showing himself a master in the arts of diplomacy, not with aught of cunning artifice or sly interrogation, but with straight-forward, solid utterances upon the great interests of the nation’s weal. Not only of the loved and honored president did the assassin’s bullet deprive us, but also of the services of Mr. Blaine, as well. A Providence more kind seems to be giving him back to the nation, to complete their unfinished work.

XVIII.

HOME LIFE OF MR. BLAINE.

In his “Letters to the Joneses” J. G. Holland describes various homes as possessing all the elements of an empire, a kingdom, a monarchy, or a republic. Mr. Blaine’s home is a republic. Every member of his family seems to be on an absolute equality; and he, as one, has described him, and an intimate friend confirmed it, is more like a big brother than aught beside. Certainly he is no emperor, no monarch, czar, or king. He is not even president or governor, nor chieftain there, or general; but rather the senior member of the family, the head by right of priority. He is there deeply loved, greatly respected, and highly honored. Why need he be a tyrant where a father’s wisdom and a father’s love will serve him best and win high encomiums of praise? Why not shine on when he enters there, as well as in the places of the state and nation, or in the simpler walks and haunts of men? Why put out his light when among those who most admire and love? Why ring down the curtain upon all those splendid qualities of soul that make him famous in the world abroad, when in the charmed circle of those who love and share his fame and honor?

Mr. Blaine’s first home in Augusta was the eastern half of a large, brown, double house, on Green Street, nearly opposite the Methodist church. It was a simple, unpretentious, pleasant home, all through his editorial, legislative, and on into his congressional life. It was where he did the hard work of those first years, where he made his friends and bound them to him, where he entertained them and gave them cheer. His business was a constant thing with him; he never quit or laid it aside; and it was a great part of his business to get acquainted. He took them to his home; it was open to all, and there was a seat for any and all at his table. He kept open house the year around. When friends came it was hard to get away; he would hold on to them as he would to a book. He loved the people; they were a study to him; a very joy and pleasure, a real delight. Among the people he is perfectly at home, and they are made to feel that “come and see me” means just that, and all that that means. He is like a father or big brother out among them. They all knew him, and knew where he lived,--in that “brown house on Green Street.” This was back in those years before he was so largely in Washington, and before he had his pleasant and more commodious house and grounds near the capitol.

The whole care of the home was upon Mrs. Blaine, who looked after everything down to the veriest _minutiæ_. She was thoroughly in sympathy with him, was pleased with what he enjoyed; and so was perfectly willing their home should be the rallying-place for his hosts of friends, who might come and go at will. The Maine legislature met at his house during the Garcelon trouble.

Mr. Blaine attended strictly to his work, and that meant the people,--strangers, and townspeople, one and all. He never, I am credibly informed, bought a pound of steak in his life, nor a barrel of flour; never went to a grocery store to buy anything. He has had no time or thought for things like these. He has been a student and teacher all his life; a close, deep, careful reader and thinker. He had never been in a printing-office in his life until he became editor, and had to learn the people, study them, get politics from their ways of thinking and looking at things; and it was a matter of principle with him to make the thing go. It is not a half-dozen things, but “This one thing I do,” with him, and he does it. But he has always been regular at his meals, as a matter of health, and so a law of life. He was no epicurean; cared only for the more substantial things of diet, and never seemed to be particular about what he ate, except one thing, and that he liked, and always wanted them in their season, and always had them. It was baked sweet apples and milk at the close of every meal. And then he would sit and read, and read, and read, especially after supper, and Mrs. Blaine, if she wanted him to move from the table, would say, “James! James!” and again, “James!” like enough half a dozen times before he would hear, and she pleasant and careful of him all the time. She has had mind and heart to know his worth, and has needed no one to tell her that teaching school in Kentucky has paid her a handsome dividend and is full of promise for the future. He has made no move but what she has seconded the motion. Her life is in his, and not a thing independent and apart from it.

One who knew her well in those early years, and knows her well to-day, said of Mrs. Blaine, “She is just as lovely as she can be; of superior culture, and a real, true mother.”

The gentleman who was Mr. Blaine’s foreman, and for a year and a half made his home with them, is most enthusiastic in their praise. He tells what a real mother Mrs. Blaine was to him if he was sick, or anything the matter with him, how she would take the best of care of him. Every winter they published a tri-weekly during the session of the legislature, and this kept him at the office late every-other night, and she would be “worried about him because he had to work nights,” and Mr. Blaine would say, “Howard, you are worth a dozen boys (shiftless, good-for-nothing boys, he meant), but you must not work so hard.” The humanities of life were the amenities to them.

This same man, who has since been editor and proprietor of Mr. Blaine’s old paper, said with depth of feeling, and strong emphasis, “I wish every voter in America had had my opportunity for eighteen months, right in his own home, to see and know Mr. Blaine, they would find out then what a royal man he is.”

In less than ten days after his nomination, parties of prominence, connected with a paper favorable to his election, but located in quite a city where a leading Republican paper affects to oppose him, visited Augusta, and called upon his political enemies, and enquired into his private, social, and domestic life, and they finally confessed there was no lisp or syllable of aught to tarnish his name or cause a blush. It is all pure, and sweet, and clear.

When Mr. and Mrs. Blaine first entered their Augusta home, a bright and beautiful baby boy was in the arms of Mrs. Blaine. He was the pride and joy of the home, their first-born. His name was Stanwood Blaine, taking his mother’s maiden-name. One short, bright year of sunshine, and prattle, and glee, and a dark cloud rested on that home; a deep sorrow stung the life of that father, and heavy grief oppressed the heart of the mother,--their little Stanwood was gone; he was among the jewels on high, and there he is to-day, while a lovely picture of him adorns the present home.

Since then, six children have been born to them,--John Walker, a graduate of Yale college, and a member of the Alabama Court of Claims; Robert Emmons, a graduate of Harvard college, now connected with the North-western Railroad, in Chicago; Alice, the wife of Colonel Coppinger; Margaret; James Gillespie, Jr., and Hattie, named for her mother, Harriet. Walker, the oldest, is about thirty-one years old, and unmarried. Hattie, the youngest, is fourteen years of age. All of the children have been born in Augusta, and with but two or three exceptions, in the old home on Green Street.