Pine to Potomac

by E. K. Cressey

But Mr. Blaine had another great interest in the political campaign of this year. A Mr. Morse, of Bath, had been in congress from another part of the third Maine district, in which Augusta is located, and it was thought time for a change, and Gov. A. P. Morrill wanted Blaine to run, but Morse was a strong man and Blaine was young, and a new man comparatively, and though he was speaker of the House of Representatives, he thought it not prudent at that time to subject himself to such a test. “Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.”

Mr. Blaine was in a good position, and growing rapidly, and so he urged the strong and sagacious governor to try it himself, and Blaine went into the campaign and helped achieve the victory,—for victory it was by seven thousand majority.

Mr. Blaine, it would seem, who possessed an instinct for journalism so wonderful and fine, possessed one equally well-developed for politics. He well-knew that his rapid promotion would awaken jealousies, prejudice, and envy, and also that he needed and must have time to grow. There was one at least in the state legislature who had been in congress, and he did not wish to “advance backward,” as the colored servant of the rebel General Buckner called it.

Mr. Blaine is a man of caution and carefulness, because he is a man of great thoughtfulness and deliberation. When he has thought a subject through, and it is settled, and he feels just right, he is ready, and his courage rises, and so he moves with great power and determination. If the action seems rash to any, it is because they are not informed upon a subject upon which he is conversant.

Mr. Blaine had seen his man nominated at Chicago, and triumphantly elected over a stupendous, well-organized, and desperate opposition. He himself is returned to the legislature. His friend, Ex-Gov. A. P. Morrill, is secured for congress, and Israel Washburn, Jr., a grand Republican, elected governor over the man who felt and learned to fear the power of Mr. Blaine in the legislature the year before, Ephraim K. Smart. But, notwithstanding all of these triumphs, and the prospective cleansing and regeneration of the country, the present condition is most appalling.

Secession is the chief topic throughout the South, and in every debating society in every college, and in every lyceum in every town or city, the question is being discussed with the greatest warmth, “Can a Southern state secede?” or “Can the government coerce a state?” The old doctrine of state rights and state sovereignty is the form of the topic in other quarters.

With many the question was clear on the asking of it; with others the constitutional powers of self-preservation, of self-existence, and self-perpetuation had to be presented with the arguments and the acumen of a statesman. Perhaps Mr. Blaine, as an editor, never dealt with a question in a more masterly way. It was the question of the hour continually forcing itself upon attention.

It was the constant assertion of the Southern press that they would. They believed all sorts of unkind things about the great and kindly Lincoln. The fact is, the South had never before been defeated in a contest for the presidency when slavery was involved in the issue. This was their pet and idol. They would guard it at all hazards. Fanaticism they regarded as the animus of the anti-slavery movement, and an abolitionist to them was a malefactor.

A grave responsibility now was on those who “broke down the adjustments of 1820, and of 1850.” But the year was closing, and the glare of a contest more fierce than that through which we had passed, was on the nation. It seemed inevitable. They had grown so narrow, intolerant, and cruel, that the light of present political truth did not penetrate them.

“Southern statesmen of the highest rank,” said Mr. Blaine, “looked upon British emancipation in the West Indies as designedly hostile to the prosperity and safety of their own section, and as a plot for the ultimate destruction of the Republic.” They were suspicious, and filled with alarm; and it was needless, as the action of Mr. Lincoln in proclaiming emancipation was only when, in the second year of the war, it was necessary.