“Well, young man, you’ve made a right smart speech, but if it is a sin to hold slaves, how about Gineral Washington?”
This was one of Mr. Blaine’s strong points, to answer questions, and so keep up a running fire through his speech. He has lately told us how he enjoyed, not so much to turn the tables on the questioner, as to get at the minds of the people, and then turn on the light just where it is needed. But to this brave fellow up in Clinton, he quietly replied,
“Yes, but General Washington manumitted his slaves before he died.”
“Manu, what?”
“Manumitted them, set them free, gave them their liberty.”
“O yes,” and the man sat down.
In his stump speeches effectiveness is his chief object, and he strives with all the power in him to conquer his foe, and is fully determined to do it. He ascertains his weak point, and assaults him there. He does not apply his battering-ram all over the wall, but on that particular place of weakness. He sees the strong points, and has been noted for his ability to see almost at a glance, the strong and weak points of a bill. This has served him when canvassing for large majorities. He would study the enemy thoroughly, know him without mistake, beyond the possibility of ambush or surprise, and then enlist his own forces, and enough of them without fail for certain victory, organize them for something more than simple victory, plan the battle, and then call no halt until the work was done. None can be more elegant or choice and beautiful in the use of language when occasion requires, but in the canvas the great elements of style are plainness, great plainness, and force, tremendous force.
Mr. Blaine was a Republican before there was a party, and has fought, and written, and argued, and plead for all the great interests its existence has subserved, and of which it is the conservator to-day. That eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty, is not to be kept up on picket posts or parapets, but where laws are made and judged and executed. He learned his tactics in the war times, and up to the last experience in the House, he fought those he felt were traitors still and tried to crush him; and who shall not say that in point and fact the South has ruled the South the past fifteen years, as truly as though they were a separate people,—solid, separate, and distinct.
When elected to congress a great work opened up before Mr. Blaine. It was the work of preparation. His old methods of thoroughness must prevail; mastery must be his watchword still. Augusta was not Washington; Kennebec county was not the District of Columbia; Maine was not the nation, nor the state legislature the congress of the nation. The resources that gave him prominence and power in one sphere, would be but a small fortune in the other. This history of congress must be deeply studied, the history of men and of measures. He must know all. There may be dark spots on the sun, but must be none in his mind. They may be necessary there, but not here. The charge of ignorance must not be his. The craving to know devours all before it. Just over there in New Hampshire is the warning of Franklin Pierce, great in his own state, but little out in the nation. This is before him; but this is not the incentive. It is rather the habit of his life to touch bottom, and sides, and top.
This was sacred honor to him, to carry into a place or position to which he is called, what will fill it, or not to enter. So now he gives the winter largely to this work. It is sacred work to him. Manliness demands it; self-respect makes it imperative. But he loves it. It is opportunity to him. And surely with all his former years of conquest, no one ever came to such task with more of fitness for the task.