OPENING A LITTLE CAMPAIGN ALL BY HIMSELF.
PUCK, September 6th, 1882.
The Summer of 1882 was just changing to Fall when Mr. Blaine made a notable speech at Portland, Me., which was generally received as an announcement of his determination to seek the nomination for the Presidency in 1884. In this speech, which attracted great attention, he stated with singular clearness his position in politics, affirming the moral right of the Republican Party to a continuance in rule on the strength of its record. This was, we believe, the first clear, frank and open enunciation of this idea in all its naked simplicity. It has formed since then the stock in trade of many candidates and of countless campaign orators, but the credit of putting it fairly and squarely before the people belongs to Mr. Blaine, and it should be noted that the time he chose to express his views was one in which most Republicans were offering apologies or explanations for the past and present shortcomings of their party. Mr. Blaine reaped no personal benefit from the enterprise he displayed in taking this bold stand, but he undoubtedly gave his party a lesson in audacity by which it profited materially. It was what might be called a “bluff,” and it was certainly a big and effective bluff. At the time when it was made its far-sighted cleverness was under-estimated, and its insincerity was so apparent that the reader of that day could have had little difficulty in seeing why Puck suggested to Mr. Blaine to abandon his extreme and untenable position, and to take another, which would have been at once more credible and more popular. It is curious that the idea with which Mr. Blaine inspired his party should have been the means of his own undoing, and, in some measure, of electing Mr. Harrison to the Presidency over his head.
