Pine to Potomac

by E. K. Cressey

The words “Liberty” and “Freedom,” in Mr. Blaine’s paper always began with capital letters.

The religious tone and character of the paper is worthy of note. It furnished a column of “Religious Intelligence” each week. Many of its selected articles, notices of books, its correspondence, and even editorials, were deeply religious. The work of that time was solemn, serious business. There was much of the Puritan and Pilgrim in the people then. There was a reliance upon God, a demand for his wisdom expressed in prayer and song and sermon, that told that the importance and magnitude of the great principles at stake were fully appreciated. There had been so much failure in the past, so many parties had been organized and proved inadequate, and still the encroachments of slavery, the nation’s foe, continued with an audacity unparalleled. Already Kansas was conceded to the slave-power; secession was already in the air. The great war was only seven years in the future. A Charleston paper had stated the issue distinctly, “We must give up slavery or secede,” as it viewed the first contests and sweeping victories of the new party. And Mr. Blaine, in a ringing editorial of caustic power, quoting the entire paragraph, said, “This is the exact issue, squarely stated.”

His life in Kentucky and extensive winter trips through the South had been a revelation to him, and were now an inspiration. He knew what was in the South, and he knew what was in the North, and he knew that they could not keep house together for centuries, with slaves in the country, without quarreling. And, moreover, he knew that the destinies of the country could not be divided. She could not remain half slave and half free. The South itself was not satisfied with this, as all their measures of legislation at their various state capitals, and in Washington clearly indicated. Slavery must conquer or be conquered. Blaine saw it at that early day, as anyone may in the light of more recent events.

But this was not the position or demand of the Republican party then. Anti-slavery did not mean abolition. In 1855 the Free Democratic party, as it was called, was achieving victories in the state of New York, and various phases of the great question were championed in different states and sections, until the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. And it was not until about two years of the war were gone, and it was imperatively demanded as a war-measure; not until it had been held back for months by the sagacious Lincoln, after it was written, that the emancipation of the slave was proclaimed in states then in armed rebellion. But it was a fact fated and decreed, signed, sealed, and delivered in a higher than earthly tribunal, long years before.

There are always high-wrought souls, keenly alive and sensitive to issues of the hour, who seem ordained to catch the foreshadowing of events and report to others of duller and heavier mould. Mr. Blaine had projected himself upon the future with the use of his princely personal power, and with an eagle eye had read out the doom and destiny of that “peculiar institution” which violated the fundamental principle of the government, the great end for which it was established,—a doom which nothing could avert. God’s time for liberty had come, and chosen men far out upon the frontier of human thought had watched its dawn and seen it mount the heavens.

But first, the shining of this same sun must produce a similar harvest of ideas, where the mists of a false and sophistical political philosophy, and the fogs of a wrong and vicious science of government, and an unnatural and cruel selfishness and monopoly of liberty prevent the cleanest vision, the fullest knowledge, and the most righteous thought.

At this time Mr. Blaine was closely and sharply following the course of the Pro-slavery party. We give a single extract from his paper in 1855, as showing what facts the party had to stir its thought and fire its heart,—facts that read strangely in the light of to-day, and which had a strange, ominous look even then.

“Slave Trade—It is said that the business of fitting out slavers is carried on extensively in New York. The Commercial Advertiser believes the practice to be ‘alarmingly and disgracefully prevalent,’ and the Tribune states, on good authority, that thirty vessels are annually fitted out there, for the purpose of procuring slaves upon the west coast of Africa.

“This is no more than following out the political creed of the more advanced wing of the progressive pro-slavery Democracy. The Charleston papers, which support President Pierce’s administration, boldly advocate the re-opening of the African Slave Trade, with the view of making ‘niggers’ cheaper. The ‘party’ in New England are not as yet up to the work, but another Presidential election will fetch them. Progress is the distinct feature of the age.”

Some are ready now with their verdict of principle, despite the mists and fogs and storms; yet not all. The party of Freedom organized in counties and states all over the country, must be brought together, unified and organized as a great national party; a convention must be held and all must be invited who can be induced to affiliate. It is a preliminary meeting, as it precedes the great organization. They want to get acquainted and see their strength. It is to be a time of great argument and powerful speeches. Where so appropriate to hold it as in the goodly city of Philadelphia? Whigs, Know-nothings, Free-soilers, are to be there; anti-slavery Democrats, and staunch Republicans.