Pine to Potomac

by E. K. Cressey

But Mr. Blaine had great respect for age and learning, and allowed no opportunity to show it to pass by unimproved. His early intercourse with his Grandfather Gillespie had developed largely veneration both for gray hairs and scholarly attainments, a veneration which had matured by associations with his teachers and great men of the nation whom he had met in his youthful days, and those whom he had since come to know and honor.

When Mr. Henry Winter Davis came on with his great naval speech, Mr. Blaine heard him with special pleasure, and had some very complimentary things to say of “the caustic, scathing, truthful, and deserved criticism of the naval department in building,” as Mr. Blaine said, “twenty iron-clad vessels, at a cost of ten millions of dollars, that will not stay on top of water.”

Mr. Pike had just taken him to task for this last statement, when the “hammer fell,” and Mr. Davis, showing his appreciation of the courtesies of Mr. Blaine, arose and said, “I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Maine may be permitted to proceed.” This was indeed a consideration which young members seldom received from the veterans of the House, and especially from one with a national reputation for scholarly attainments. But as “the debate in Committee of the Whole was closed by order of the House,” the Chair could not grant the request, and just here Mr. Blaine’s shrewdness and intimate knowledge of parliamentary rules showed itself. “I move,” he said, “to amend the amendment, by striking out the first line; that will entitle me to the floor for a few minutes longer.”

Then he went on to give an official fact, as he called it, and he knew well the value of such things; there was nothing “fine-spun” about them, but strong and stubborn, and full of power to convince. “Out of ninety British steamers,” he said, “caught within a given period in attempting to run the blockade, only twelve were caught by vessels built by the present administration of the navy department; while seventy-eight were caught either by purchased vessels, or vessels inherited from the old navy. I submit, sir, that this fact bears with crushing force on the practical question of the speed and efficiency of vessels of the new navy.” It is bad enough to swindle the government at any time, and in any thing, but in times of war to swindle her in the construction of iron-clad vessels that will not float, yet needed at once for active service, and produce twenty of them at half a million dollars apiece, was enough to arouse the indignation not only of the older member, Mr. Davis, but also of the younger man, Mr. Blaine.

And this now gave him a new, fresh start, untrammeled by crutch or cane, casting him wholly upon his own resources, and placing him where he must put forth all the power in him, or utterly fail.

“When the Jeannette went down, crushed and sunken by the ice,” writes Lieutenant Danenhouser, “we started with our boats southward, dragging them over the ice, broken and piled in every conceivable shape. We accomplished seven miles the first week, only to find, by taking observations, that the ice-floe had drifted us back to the northward twenty-seven miles, and so placing us twenty miles to the rear of the spot where we had started, and our ship had sunk.” They had intrepid spirits, but no firm ground; he had both the intrepid spirit and the firm ground on which to stand, and his victory was swift and certain.

Mr. Blaine never lost an opportunity to do a favor, or make a friend. Doing duty was his delight; getting hold of strong, plain, practical facts, and presenting them in a way that showed a constant, abiding interest in his constituency, that he was living and toiling for them, and had their best interest, and those of the entire state of Maine, and the whole country at heart.

Here is one of his plain, practical statements, showing his loyalty to home interests, as well as the business interests of the country. A vessel from his district had been chartered to government to carry a cargo of four hundred and fifty tons of coal from Philadelphia to New Orleans, for six thousand dollars. Upon her return her disbursements had been six thousand, two hundred and thirty-eight dollars and five cents. She received six thousand dollars in certificates of indebtedness from the government, then selling them at ninety-four, which made but five thousand six hundred and forty dollars in cash, showing a net cash loss of five hundred and ninety-eight dollars and five cents, besides the interest on advance, about two hundred dollars more.

“And now, sir,” said Mr. Blaine, “after this melancholy experience the tax-collector came forward and demanded of the owner of the vessel, two and one-half per cent. on the six thousand dollars which the government paid, as above, and on top of all losses already incurred actually compelled him to pay one hundred and fifty dollars under that section of the internal-revenue law, which we are seeking to amend.

“A man’s profit in business,” he goes on to say, “affords a fair basis of taxation, but it is a cruel mockery of one’s misfortune to assess a tax upon losses.”