USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 2
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"The registry of vessels engaged in American trade ; the appropriations for the army ; the still unsettled question of paying to the States their expenditures for raising troops in the war; the West India telegraph ; reorganization of the army; the reconstruction of the Southern States; equalization of taxes; and the celebrated controversy with the Hon. Roscoe Conkling over General Fry-called out his most brilliant talents, and fastened him to the hearts of the people."
On the question of reimbursement to the States he displayed a native equity, a knowl- edge of American precedents, and a convincing eloquence that carried the measure through to satisfactory consummation. Similar sense of sound justice appeared in his speech in favor of amending the National Constitution so as to admit of the taxation of exports, delivered in the Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 2d of March, 1865. The proposition for issuing an irredeemable paper currency met with his most intelligent and resolute hostility. He had no confidence in imaginary values, nor any favor for anything but an honest dollar. The mischiefs wrought by irredeemable paper currency in all lands were too familiar to his memory to allow him to consent to a measure fraught only with deccit and suffering.
Slavery was now eradicated. But enfranchisement was required to make the boon of personal liberty one of real and lasting worth. The right to buy ships abroad he refused,
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on the ground that "the shipowners who took British registers escaped the heavy war risks to which American registers were subjected, and now to place them on the same foot- ing with those who hazarded everything rather than sail under a foreign flag, would be flagrantly unjust." Mr. Blainc spoke with all the force of profound conviction. "If we are going to have free trade," he remarked, "let us have it cqually and impartially applied to all the industrial interests of the land ; but, for myself, I am opposed to it altogether. In theory and in practice I am for protecting American industry in all its forms, and to this end we must encourage American manufactures, and we must equally encourage American commerce."
Prolonged and exhausting labors now demanded time for physical recuperation, and in 1867 Mr. Blaine visited Europc, and spent several months in travelling for recreation and instruction in England and on the Continent.
Again elected to Congress in 1866 by the Republicans, and with the unfeigned respect of the Democrats, his abilitics as a ready and forcible debater, clear reasoner, sound legis- lator, and fcarlcss advocate of the principles and organization of the party of union and right again came into forceful operation. In the House of Representatives wide diversi- ties of opinion concerning currency and finance prevailed. The greatest of thinkers were often misled by novel and illusory theories. The national honor and prosperity were threatened with wreck and ruin amid the dangerous breakcrs. It was proposed, in contra- vention to the pledged faith of the nation, to pay the national debt with depreciated paper currency. This Blaine righteously opposcd. He held, in the pithy language of Nathaniel Macon, that "our Government was a hard-moncy Government, founded by hard-money men, and its debts were hard-money debts." His able and convincing speech in the House of Representatives was closed with the words : " I am sure 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 after-thought 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 would cost us incalculably more not to pay it." Such were the convictions of the vast majority of the American pcople, who nobly and honestly preserved cntirc faith with all the public creditors. The labor performed by Mr. Blaine in the Fortieth Congress,-1867-8,-was astonishing. Either as originator, or in committee, he was directly connected with measures concern- ing the army, navy, post-offices, Congressional library, Indian reservations, relief of indi- viduals, common carricrs between the States, Treasury Department, cotton tax, issue of United States bonds, funding bill, Mexican treaties, foreign commerce, election cases, river and harbor improvements, funeral of ex-President Buchanan, custom-house frauds, House rules, military laws, rcarrangement of the rooms in the Capitol, and even matters connected with the messengers, pages, and restaurant-keeper. The acknowledged leader
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of the Republican Party had sufficient sweep of genius and enterprise not only for the highest State affairs, but for the smallest matters. In this respect he reminds the observer of those great organizers and administrators, Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington, who held that the success of their grandest projects depended largely on attention to the small- est and least important details. James A. Garfield and himself were true yokefellows, and much alike in point of earnest patriotism and tireless industry.
On the 4th of March, 1869, James G. Blaine was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives by more than a two-thirds majority vote. Cool, courteous, decided, and impartial, even his opponents admitted his excellence as a presiding officer during the whole of his six years' term of office. Engrossing public duties were relieved by oratorical and literary labors. He found time to prepare scores of political campaign speeches, and to write many important addresses and magazine articles. One of the best of the latter appeared in the North American Review, under the title, "Ought the Negro to be Dis- franchised?" To this question he returned a wise and emphatic negative answer, adding, " I wish to speak for the millions of all political parties, and in their name to declare that the Republic must be strong enough, and shall be strong enough, to protect the weakest of its citizens in all their rights."
The elections of 1874 placed the Democrats in the majority in the House of Repre- sentatives. Mr. Blaine again took his seat among the members, and assumed the leader- ship of his party. The nation's ultimate good was his only aim. In 1876 the agitation of the currency question became exciting and dangerous. His unchangeable opinion of the essential nature and value of the circulating medium was in harmony with that of those who never believed in any other than a specie standard for our currency. The gradual resumption of specie payments was the true policy of the country. "No nation," said he, " has ever succeeded in establishing any other standard of value ; no nation has ever made the experiment except at great cost and sorrow ; and the advocates of irredeemable money to-day are but asking us to travel the worn and weary road travelled so many times before-a road that has always ended in disaster, and often in disgrace."
In January, 1876, he and Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia were pitted against each other in debate over the proposition to grant a general amnesty to all the rebels against the Government who took part in the War of 1861-65. The contest ended in the complete discomfiture of the latter. This converted the Southern Democrats and their Northern allies into vindictive and relentless enemies of the great statesman. With patient, dogged malignity, it was sought to find some pretext on the strength of which he might be punished and crushed. His private business transactions were pitched upon for this purpose. The purchase of some railroad bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad was made the basis of accusations against his personal integrity, and of prostitut- ing his official powers for private gain. A full vindication of himself-a vindication that
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was intelligently accepted by honest men who were politically unfriendly-followed. In the closing words of that conclusive refutal of all charges, he solemnly and manfully said, "I have never done anything in my public career for which I could be put to the faintest blush in any presence, or for which I cannot answer to my constituents, my conscience, and the great Searcher of hearts." Subsequent developments and discussions have only confirmed his right to that manly and most enviable claim. His private correspondence with Warren Fisher of Boston, which extended over many years, and related to many purely business transactions between them, fell into the hands of one Mulligan, who had sustained a clerkly relation to Fisher, and who was decidedly unfriendly to Mr. Blaine. Mulligan took this private correspondence with him to Washington, when summoned before the Democratic Committee that was appointed to investigate Blaine, and to defeat his nomination for the Presidency by the National Republican Convention. That Mulli- gan had no right to those letters, either in law or equity, was a matter of no moment to the conspirators. Others might bear the burden of crime; they proposed to reap its profits. After repeated remonstrances with Mulligan, the latter gave up the correspondence, together with his personal memorandum of its contents, to Mr. Blaine, and afterward made representations of such character as to the method by which he was induced to sur- render them as will justify any shrewd observer of human nature in believing only such portion of his statements as he chooses. Blaine, as a personal privilege, boldly read all the letters to the House, and had them printed in the record of its proceedings. It is possible that this subtle manœuvre of the enemy accomplished its object temporarily. For the time being he seemed to be less successful in defence of himself than he had been of his country. Speaking of the latter, Robert G. Ingersoll said, before the Convention, "Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congress, and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen fore- head of every defamer of this country and maligner of its honor." This eloquent charac- terization fastened upon its subject the sobriquet of the " plumed knight." His nodding casque was not, however, to appear in the forefront of the Republican host at this junc- ture. Governor R. B. Hayes received the nomination, and also the honor of election. On the 10th of July, 1876, Mr. Blaine was appointed successor to the Hon. Lot M. Morrill in the U. S. Senate, and while holding that position did most excellent service as a public speaker in different parts of the country in advocary of the claims of Governor Hayes.
In February, 1879, Senator Blaine argued strongly in favor of the bill to restrict Chinese immigration, on the grounds that it is not entirely voluntary ; that nine tenths are adult males; that it is incapable of assimilation, is physically and morally pestilent, is degrading to native labor, and likely to overwhelm and corrupt the American population ; also that restriction is in harmony with treaty obligations, with commercial interests, with
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national safety, with enlightened religious sentiment, and with due regard to the rights of labor. His powerful logic, though not squaring altogether with the eternally true abstrac- tions on which American institutions are built, is yet conclusive. The ideal is not reached per saltum. The Author of all good, in His conduct of human affairs, brings it about by degrees. Congress accepted Blaine's statesmanly putting of the case, and adopted the course that he recommended.
The shrewd manoeuvring of Roscoe Conkling, who had never forgiven the excoria- tion received from the hands of Blaine on the floor of Congress, prevented the nomination of the latter for the Chief Magistracy of the nation at the Republican Convention of 1880. The noble and lamented Garfield received that honor. Just before his inauguration he tendered to Mr. Blaine the Secretaryship of the State Department. The universal expression of public opinion was in favor of acceptance. Many reasons prompted com- pliance with Garfield's wishes. "I can but regard it as somewhat remarkable," wrote he to the President, "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."
Resigning Senatorial functions, Mr. Blaine took his post at the head of Garfield's Cabinet on the 4th of March, 1881. His personal influence was immediately felt in every department of the Government, and notably in its foreign policy. Two principal objects of the latter were to bring about peace and prevent future wars in North and South America, and 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 which we can easily furnish in competition with the manufacturing nations of Europe. To effect these benevolent designs it was resolved to invite all the indepen- dent governments of both sections of the continent to meet in a Peace Congress at Washington. The cowardly pistol-shot of the fiendish assassin Guiteau temporarily sus- pended all movements in this direction. President Arthur caused all invitations to be recalled. Should negotiations be successfully resumed, a closer commercial connection will almost infallibly be one of the consequences. Then, in place of paying an annual balance of $120,000,000 against us in current exchanges, we may liquidate it in manufac- tured articles of American production. Not only that, but the guarantee and guardianship of the Inter-Oceanic Canal will be entrusted to American hands, and the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine be embodied in a purely American policy. Peace, under a well-digested system of arbitration, will be the normal condition of the entire continent, and unprece- dented prosperity will bless all its inhabitants. Such an arrangement as that proposed by Mr. Blaine will be "a signal victory of philanthropy over the selfishness of human ambi-
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tion, a complete triumph of Christian principles, as applied to the affairs of nations." The example of scventeen independent nations solemnly agreeing to abolish the arbitrament of the sword, and to settle all disputes by reasonable methods of adjudication, will exert a salutary influence over all civilization, and upon all the generations of the future. Should such a desiderated state of affairs be reached, the name of James G. Blaine must always be identified with it.
The terrible grief into which the nation was plunged by the assassination of Garfield was mitigated by the confidence that its interests were safe in the hands of Blaine. On the 27th of February, 1882, the latter delivered a magnificent and judicious oration on his murdered friend in the hall of the House of Representatives at Washington. It was in every way worthy of the subject, the orator, the audience, and the occasion.
Three months after the death of Garfield, Secretary Blaine resigned his portfolio in the Cabinet, retired to the privacy of domestic life, and devoted his energies to the com- position of an accurate and comprehensive history of Congress during the twenty years intervening between Lincoln and Garfield. The first volume, published in 1884, covered the history of the causes of the Civil War, and of the important events of that dreadful struggle. It is clear, calm, concise, and equitable ; a very valuable addition to historical literature ; a remarkable book by a remarkable man.
The " Maine State Steal" of 1880 is another event which cannot be passed over in silence. It was an attempt of the Democrats, aided by Fusionist Republicans, to fraudu- lently capture the State Government. Blaine was summoned from Washington, and the cause of the people was put into his hands. Through his wise counsel, bloodshed and anarchy were averted, and peace and constitutional order re-established.
The summer of 1884 brought interruption to the quiet domestic pursuits of the brilliant retired statesman. The popular demand for his nomination to the Presidency was too strong to be resisted ; and in June, at the National Republican Convention in Chicago, on the fourth ballot, he received 544 votes, against 207 cast for President Arthur. When the news of his nomination arrived, Blaine was quietly resting at his own home in Augusta, Maine. Neighbors and friends flocked in to congratulate him. The post and the telegraph poured in cxpressions of satisfaction from all quarters. The best and greatest men of the nation sent felicitations. A special train brought the Pacific Coast delegation to greet him, and a few days later the Committee of the National Con- vention arrived, with official notification of the honor conferred upon him. General Henderson, the Chairman of the Committee, at the conclusion of the proceedings, took a step forward, and said, "To one and all of you I introduce the next President of the United States."
The nomination of Mr. Blaine opened the flood-gates of detraction and calumny, and necessarily occasioned a campaign of blended defensive and offensive character. That the
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defensive was completely successful, can scarcely be questioned by an impartial observer. The offensive was singularly vigorous, eloquent, and gentlemanly. The popular enthu- siasm in his behalf increased as the decisive Tuesday in November drew near, and would doubtless have placed him in the Executive Chair-honored for more than a century by a long line of distinguished, able, and patriotic incumbents-but for the injudicious remarks of a clergyman, at a reception given to Mr. Blaine in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York. As it was, the plurality of Grover Cleveland in New York over that of James G. Blaine was less than 1200. The latter deserved the success, that a fortuitous indiscretion would not allow him to achieve. Mr. Blaine is still in the prime of vigorous manhood, is of unusually pleasing and dignified address, and in every element of strong, symmetrical, and cultured character is admirably fitted to hold the helm of the American ship of state-an office to which he may yet be called.
James G. Blaine was married in March, 1851, at Pittsburg, Pa., to Miss Harriet Stan- wood, of Augusta, Maine. She belongs to the grand old Puritan stock, and is descended in direct line from the Stanwood family of Ipswich, Mass. Tall, graceful, strong, easy and yet dignified in manner, she is a fit type of cultured American womanhood. Six children have blessed their union : Walker Blaine of Washington, D. C.,-who inherits much of the paternal genius,-is the eldest ; Emmons Blaine of Colorado, the second ; Alice, wife of Colonel Coppinger, the third; Margaret Isabella Blaine is the fourth ; James G. Blaine, Jr., the fifth ; and Harriet S. Blaine, the sixth and youngest.
ESSENDEN, WILLIAM PITT, was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, on the 16th of October, 1806. He was the oldest son of General Samuel Fessenden. From 1806 to 1809 he lived in Fryeburg, Maine, when he went to New Gloucester, where his father was practising law, and where he passed his early life till seventeen years of age. At a very early age he exhibited uncommon mental powers, an ardent love for reading, and great precocity in pre- paring for college. His studies were recited to the students in his father's office, and his future eminence was predicted even in his boyhood. At the age of eleven he had mastered the preparatory studies for college, but his father sent him to Fryeburg that he might spend a year on his uncle's farm. At this time he is described as a slender and handsome boy, possessing great quickness of apprehension, a strong memory, ardent feelings, and great conscientiousness. He entered Bowdoin College when he was twelve years old, and was graduated before he was seventeen. He at once began his law studies in the office of Honorable Charles S. Davies, a distinguished lawyer of Portland, and his father's friend.
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Here he remained nearly three years, when he went to New York and studied six months in the office of his uncle, Thomas Fessenden, after which he returned to Portland and fin- ished his four years' preparatory study in his father's office. When twenty-one years of age he was admitted to practice, and opened an office in Bridgeton, Maine, where he remained two years. In 1829 he returned to Portland, and became a member of his father's firm. In the mean time, besides studying hard in his profession, he devoted much attention to speaking and writing. When nineteen years old he delivered an address before the Port- land Benevolent Society. At twenty-one he delivered the Fourth-of-July oration in Portland, and in the following year an oration before the literary societies of Bow- doin College, at Commencement. During the next two years, before he was twenty- five, he prepared and delivered several other orations before different societies, on music, on temperance, on the drama, and on the necessity of a well-organized militia, and wrote numerous political and literary articles for the newspapers, some of which were widely copied. At this time he refused a nomination to Congress, but in the same year, 1831, accepted a nomination, and was elected to the Legislature from Port- land. In the Legislature, although one of the youngest members, he at once took the position of a leading member and an able debater, making speeches upon ques- tions connected with the Northeast Boundary, upon legal and constitutional questions, and upon the proposition to instruct the Senators and Representatives in Congress from Maine to vote against the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank. In this speech, besides defending the constitutionality of that measure, and exhibiting a compre- hension of financial principles, he uttered a declaration memorable in the light of his subse- quent action upon the impeachment of President Johnson, that upon questions of general interest he would never be controlled by instructions from the Legislature as to his conduct as a Member of Congress. He left the Legislature with the reputation of a leader in his party, an able lawyer, and a ready and accomplished debater. The following year he devoted himself to his profession, having been defeated in the election. The next year, 1834, he moved to Bangor, at once taking the first rank in a bar which numbered among its members the brilliant Jack Rogers; Appleton, afterward chief-justice ; Kent and Cutting, both for a long time judges of the Supreme Court ; and Hamlin, then beginning his distinguished career. In 1835 he returned to Portland, and in 1836 he formed a law partnership with William Willis, the historian of Portland, and of "The Courts and Lawyers of Maine." This partnership was very successful, and lasted for twenty years. Mr. Fes- senden at once took a prominent position, and successfully contested the leadership of the bar with his distinguished father. He was a most diligent student, uniting patient in- vestigation to an intuitive quickness of comprehension. As an advocate he was equally convincing before courts as well as juries. His style of speaking was without ornament, and remarkable for brevity, clearness, simplicity, and power of reasoning. He modelled
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his speaking upon the style of Benjamin Orr, one of the ablest lawyers of his day in New England, whose mode of speaking was as terse, plain, and irresistible as Jeremiah Mason's. His professional business became absorbing, and though keenly interested in politics, he refused all office for several years. In 1837 he was invited by Daniel Webster to accom- pany him upon his Western tour. This invitation he accepted, going through Pennsylvania to Wheeling, thence down the Ohio to Louisville, stopping at Lexington to enjoy the hospitalities of Henry Clay, mecting John J. Crittenden and Garrett Davis, who, like him- self, afterward becaine leading Whigs. From Louisville the party procecded down the Ohio to St. Louis, and returned home by way of Chicago, (then a village), and Buffalo. He again refused a nomination for Congress, but in 1839 he consented to again sit in the Legis- lature, and though in a minority, was, on account of his legal abilities, placed at the head of the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on the Revision of the Statutes. In 1840 he accepted a nomination for Congress and was elected, running largely ahead of his ticket, and being the only Whig elected from that district until the overthrow of the Democratic party by the antislavery agitation. In Congress he distinguished himself in debate, and made speeches upon the Bankrupt Bill, the Army Bill, and the Loan Bill. Refusing a renomination he returned to his profession with increased reputation, and devoted himself arduously to its practice. In 1845 and 1846 he again sat in the Legislature to look after measures in which his city was interested, and received the compliment of a nomination by his party for United States Senator. During this period he argued many important causes at the bar, one of which, before the United States Supreme Court at Washington, gave him a national reputation among lawyers, and was pronounced by Daniel Webster to be the best argument he had heard in twenty years. In this case he succeeded in obtaining the reversal of a decision by Judge Story in the court below against his client. While not. holding political office during this period, he warmly advocated Whig principles by fre- quent speeches upon the stump. Although not an Abolitionist, like his father, he was strongly antislavery in his political principles. In 1832 he was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated Henry Clay for President. In 1840 and 1848 he was a mem- ber of the Whig National Conventions, and advocated the nomination of Daniel Webster. In 1852 he was again a delegate to the Whig National Convention, and on account of his opposition to slavery voted against the platform which indorsed the compromise measures of 1850. He was nominated for Congress in 1850 against his refusal to be a candidate. The election was very close, and by an error in the returns was given to his opponent, the Honorable John Appleton, whose apparent majority was only thirty, but Mr. Fessenden refused to contest the seat. In 1850 he was solicited to be a candidate for United States Senator, it being thought that the antislavery mcn held the balance of power, but he de- clined to stand, and Mr. Hamlin was finally chosen by the votes of the antislavery mem- bers. In 1853 the antislavery agitation became fiercer than cver before by the introduc-
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