... “We are, then, for a common union against the National Administration, on the basis of restoring the Missouri Prohibition against slavery in the territories, forgetting past distinctions and priority in the combination. Who shall be the standard-bearer of this patriotic and conservative Opposition in the great struggle of ’56? Whoever the right man may be,—whether he has his home in the East or the West, in the North or the South, we care not, if he is but the statesman to comprehend the hour, and is equal to the necessities of the country, we hope to see him triumphantly elected. We only ask that he be loyal to Liberty, a sworn defender of the Union on its constitutional basis, in favor of bringing back our government to the principles and policy of its founders, and pledged to undo the giant wrong of 1854. To enlist in such an opposition, patriotism, the memory of our Revolutionary sires, everything sacred in our history, the welfare of posterity, invoke us. In such a ‘union for the sake of the Union’ we shall all be Republicans, all Whigs, all Democrats, all Americans.”
VII.
IN THE LEGISLATURE.
THE great year of Republicanism dawns, in which its friends are to meet, and its foes are to feel its power. Men had been hearing the voice of conscience on the moral questions of the nation. Money had stiffled it with some; for others the climate and location were not propitious; blight and mildew had struck some,—darkness to them was light, black was white. Some, perchance, held the truth in unrighteousness; trimmers and time-servers abounded. But the press and the pulpit had been great educators. God was in the contest, and it was beginning to be apparent. There were light and glory all about the sky, but reformations that reform, and revolutions that revolutionize have in them not only forceful, but voluntary powers. There are always those who will not be persuaded or won, on all grave questions. They must be passed by or overpowered.
To get men into position upon all questions of the nation’s life and destiny, it is needful to first get the questions into position. Republicans had undertaken a herculean task. It was not the emancipation of slaves, but of the nation itself. The thraldom of a mighty woe was on her.
Mr. Blaine entered the year with the same great purpose, and the same bold enunciation of principles. He was a true knight. His pen was mightier than the sword. It was never idle, never cold. From home to office, and office to senate, and back to office and home he went, day by day, wherever truth and right could be served.
Washington’s birthday came soon, and with it the Republican gathering at Pittsburgh, and then the great convention that nominated Frémont and Dayton at Philadelphia, in the summer of 1856;—Blaine was there; it was on his native heather. Never had men listened so intently since the farewell address of Washington; rarely had they thought, and felt, and resolved so deeply. Conscience and will, intelligence and love, were in all they thought, and said, and did. They chose their men for standard-bearers, and fought out the hard, bitter fight. It was a good fight, and they kept the faith.
It was on his return from the convention in Philadelphia that he was selected, of all who went, to report to the citizens at home. It was his first oratorical effort in Augusta, if not his first since leaving college. His pen had done the work. There had been no demand for oratory. He surprised himself and astonished his hearers, and from that hour the door was open for him to enter the state legislature.
An old friend and neighbor of Mr. Blaine has, since his nomination, given the following sketch of the speech:—