“And he simply replied, without any boasting, or in a way to make his honored friend feel that he felt his superior faculty in the least,—
“‘O, yes, it is, at times.’”
Gov. A. P. Morrill is a fine sample of a real down-east Yankee, of the old style; a man of sterling worth and integrity, and of the hardest of common sense, and takes a special pride in Mr. Blaine, as he was at one time of great assistance to him in a political way.
“The first time I saw Blaine,” he said, “was the night before my inauguration; he called at my hotel and wanted a copy of my address. He was simply a young man then, very pleasant in his manner. But how he has grown. Yes, that is the secret of it; he has been a growing man ever since, and so he has come right up and gone right along.”
His own re-election to the legislature is a minor matter in the campaign of ’60, in comparison with the election of Mr. Lincoln president. As this state votes earlier than many of the others, the effort is to roll up a large majority, and have great gains, so as to carry moral power with it, and thus encourage other states who are standing with them in the contest.
It is interesting to note the position of parties or presidential candidates at this time. Mr. Lincoln would prohibit by law the extension of slavery. This was exactly the position of the candidate with him for vice-president, the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, a strong friend of Mr. Blaine.
Mr. Hamlin had originally been a Democrat of the Andrew Jackson type, but when the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited the extension of slavery, was repealed, he entered the Republican party at its formation, and as candidate for governor in Maine in 1856, was a powerful factor in breaking down the Democratic party.
Mr. Breckenridge would extend slavery by law, and was of course the slave-holders candidate. Douglas, the candidate of the Northern Democrats, would not interfere; simply do nothing to procure for slavery other portions of the fair domain of Liberty to despoil. This, of course made him unpopular in the South, where the demand was for more states to conquer for our “peculiar institution.” The cry of the Douglas Democrats,—and they counted their wide-awakes by the thousand, who marched with torch and drum,—“The Constitution as it is, and the Union as it was.” The Bell and Everett faction were simply for saving the Union without telling how.
What a field these four great armies, each with its chosen leader, occupied, and each conducting a hot, fierce campaign, determined to win, and determined to believe they would win. Slavery was the great disturbing element. It was all a question of how to deal with this monster.
Mr. Lincoln was elected, and Blaine was again on the winning side.