When Mr. Blaine entered political life, though not of his ilk, there were William L. Marcy, of New York, Secretary of State; Robert M’Clelland, of Michigan, Secretary of the Interior; James Guthrie, of Kentucky, Secretary of the Treasury; Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, Secretary of War; James Dobbins, of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, Attorney-general, and James Campbell, of Pennsylvania, Postmaster-general. Webster, Corwin, Stuart, Conrad, Graham, Crittenden, and Hall had been in Mr. Fillmore’s cabinet. The time for Republican victory was drawing nigh, and the young editor was in position to help bring it on.
It was the centennial of the city’s history. The celebration was very beautiful, an account of which appeared in Mr. Blaine’s paper, the Kennebec Journal, of July 6, 1854, and seemed auspicious of his arrival in the city, and the inauguration of his work.
Augusta is about midway between towns that boast two of the leading institutions of learning in the state, Colby University at Waterville, and Bowdoin College at Brunswick, where Longfellow graduated, and his class-mate, Hon. James W. Bradbury, who was, about this time, United States Senator from Maine, when the great men of the nation,—Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Douglas, Cass, and others,—were discussing in the senate the constitutional and slavery questions involved in the compromise measures.
It was a time and place where great historic interests centered. It had been the scene of grave military operations, a fort and outposts on the nation’s frontier, less than a hundred years before, had been conspicuous in the French and Indian wars.
The mind of Blaine was not long, with his practical methods of historic research, in threading out lines of history, entering the labyrinths of knowledge of a mighty past, and a great and wondrous present, boxing the compass historically, as it were, until he knew the past and present of his adopted state, and of New England, as he had known his native state.
He came with no beat of drum and blare of trumpet, but quietly, with no parade or display, and went to work with good grace and strong determination. He brought his capital with him. It had not been embezzled, nor squandered, nor stolen. It was in a portable bank in which he had been depositing his investments, or investing his deposits, steadily for nearly twenty years. Already he had drawn compound interest, and yet, unlike air, water or money, the more he drew, the more there was on deposit, bright and clear with the polish of the mint. He had invested in solid, reliable knowledge and education. He had taken stock in James G. Blaine, taught and trained him to think, to know, to talk, to write, and act. There is always a demand for just such men. Communities want them, the state and nation wants them. From the distant South, explored and carefully surveyed and estimated, he had come to the farthermost North and East, and here for life his home is to be.
VI.
JOURNALISM.
IT was not the policy of Mr. Blaine to undertake a work for which he was not specially fitted. General adaptation and preparation were not enough; he must be master of the situation or not at all, so he did not sit down in the editorial chair at once. He was among a new people. He must know them. His paper was published at the state capital. He must know the state. He must know it politically, socially, morally, educationally, religiously. This required extensive travel. He must understand the demands of the people, their character and temperament.