Pine to Potomac

by E. K. Cressey

Political life was the life of a soldier, and the political field a field of battle, as the assault upon Charles Sumner and Horace Greeley, at the nation’s capital testify.

No wonder the wise and prudent Pennsylvanian surveyed the field with great deliberation, and gained the fullest possible knowledge of the situation ere he balanced his spear for its first lunge. It was but the putting on of his full armor ere the soldier enters the fray. It was no business venture or financial investment merely, but rather the solemn dedication of himself to the nation’s weal.

Then and there the public career begins that has brought him to this hour. It is a career of alternate wildest storm and serenest sunshine. There were at this time, practically, four parties in Maine, and two great questions, both of them moral in character, namely: Temperance and Slavery. The Democratic party was split into two most radical sections, with slavery for their dividing line. Beside these were the Whigs and Liberalists.

The birth-hour of the Republican party was near at hand. The elements were in existence demanding organization. Already men in sympathy with each other upon the great questions of the day in the different parties and divisions had acted together upon occasions of great political importance, as in the election of Mr. Fessenden, an ardent Whig, to the senate. Anti-slavery men, of the Democratic party, could and did vote for him. The nation demanded the man, somewhat as to-day she demands another son of Maine. The New York Tribune, in an issue prior to his election, said,—“The nation wants him.” Not party names, but principles, ruled the hour.

Less than ninety days after Mr. Blaine, quill in hand, made his bow on the 10th of November, 1854, to the people of Augusta and to the state of Maine, the Republican party was in existence, a full-fledged organization. Conventions had met a little earlier in Wisconsin and in one of the counties of Maine for a similar purpose. Mr. Blaine was with the movement, heart and soul. He was present at its birth, and rejoiced in its existence. It had come into existence full of life and power, as it had taken nearly all the life and power out of the other parties.

It had taken a minority of the Democrats, a majority of the Whigs, and all of the Anti-slavery or Liberty party. “Liberty national, Slavery sectional,” was upon its shield. No one, of course, stopped to ask, in the rejoicing of the hour, how in the name of reason liberty could be national and slavery sectional. But they were organized for victory, as right against wrong. How auspicious and full of promise that Mr. Blaine should celebrate the twenty-fifth year of his remarkable life by entrance with this party of progress and of power upon its marvelous career, himself an integral part of it, and a power within it.

About this time John L. Stevens, a man of great good sense, takes Mr. Baker’s place, a large law-practice demanding his attention, as co-editor of the Journal. But Mr. Stevens is so occupied with the details of party organization, that most of the editorial work at this time falls to Mr. Blaine, and it shows great vigor and ability.

One who was associated with him intimately at this time, in professional life, speaks of him as “a man of great natural and acquired ability, and of adaptation, familiar with all questions of government, with a remarkable facility for getting at the core of a question, a man of genius and talent to a striking degree”; and as we went over year after year of editorials, some of them very striking and forceful in their headings, about the time the young party of great men was fairly on its feet, and had become the target for rifle shots from the enemy, the old man turned, and with that peculiar emphasis which always comes with conviction of the truth, said, “He always calculated to draw blood, if there was a tender spot.”

He invariably struck to demolish when fighting his great political battles. There was no play about it, and none could doubt the moral earnestness of the man. It was a battle of great moral ideas with him all the way through.

But his work was more largely literary in conducting the paper. It would be difficult to find more solid or instructive reading in any paper during those years. Mr. Blaine was himself a great reader of the best journals and reviews, and with a high standard ever before him, not only in his own ideals, but also in the great papers of the nation at his command, and having high aims and a mind whose rich stores were constantly increased, and with all his varied powers of expression, books were reviewed, the substance of lectures given, and the best lecturers of the day entertained Augusta audiences, and a multitude of articles upon various subjects abounded.