BLAINE'S DEFEAT.
Question. How do you account for the defeat of Mr. Blaine?
Answer. How do I account for the defeat of Mr. Blaine? I will answer: St. John, the Independents, Burchard, Butler and Cleveland did it. The truth is that during the war a majority of the people, counting those in the South, were opposed to putting down the Rebellion by force. It is also true that when the Proclamation of Emancipation was issued a majority of the people, counting the whole country, were opposed to it, and it is also true that when the colored people were made citizens a majority of the people, counting the whole country, were opposed to it.
Now, while, in my judgment, an overwhelming majority of the whole people have honestly acquiesced in the result of the war, and are now perfectly loyal to the Union, and have also acquiesced in the abolition of slavery, I doubt very much whether they are really in favor of giving the colored man the right to vote. Of course they have not the power now to take that right away, but they feel anything but kindly toward the party that gave the colored man that right. That is the only result of the war that is not fully accepted by the South and by many Democrats of the North.
Another thing, the Republican party was divided—divided too by personal hatreds. The party was greatly injured by the decision of the Supreme Court in which the Civil Rights Bill was held void. Now, a great many men who kept with the Republican party, did so because they believed that that party would protect the colored man in the South, but as soon as the Court decided that all the laws passed were unconstitutional, these men felt free to vote for the other side, feeling that it would make no difference. They reasoned this way: If the Republican party cannot defend the colored people, why make a pretence that excites hatred on one side and disarms the other? If the colored people have to depend upon the State for protection, and the Federal Government cannot interfere, why say any more about it?
I think that these men made a mistake and our party made a mistake in accepting without protest a decision that was far worse than the one delivered in the case of Dred Scott. By accepting this decision the most important issue was abandoned. The Republican party must take the old ground that it is the duty of the Federal Government to protect the citizens, and that it cannot simply leave that duty to the State. It must see to it that the State performs that duty.
Question. Have you seen the published report that Dorsey claims to have paid you one hundred thousand dollars for your services in the Star Route Cases?
Answer. I have seen the report, but Dorsey never said anything like that.
Question. Is there no truth in the statement, then?
Answer. Well, Dorsey never said anything of the kind.
Question. Then you do not deny that you received such an enormous fee?
Answer. All I say is that Dorsey did not say I did.*
—The Commercial, Louisville, Kentucky, October 24, 1884.
[* Col. Ingersoll has been so criticised and maligned for
defending Mr. Dorsey in the Star Route cases, and so
frequently charged with having received an enormous fee,
that I think it but simple justice to his memory to say that
he received no such fee, and that the ridiculously small
sums he did receive were much more than offset by the amount
he had to pay as indorser of Mr. Dorsey's paper. —C. F.
FARRELL.]