Mr. Blaine was on the committee of military affairs with Mr. Stevens. He became known to him thoroughly as a man with talent for indefatigable toil, and a genius for doing hard and difficult things with great certainty and despatch. He was just the man to attract the attention, and be admired, respected, and loved by a man of Mr. Stevens’ consummate ability, and to be selected by him for promotion and honor. And the hour had come for just that honor, the highest in the gift of the House.
It was the third office in the nation, with a salary three thousand dollars greater than that of United States senator, and equal to the salary of vice-president or secretary of state. And so by virtue of his recognized fitness, and the power of this great friend, the office comes to him, and he comes to it.
Some think, and perhaps rightly, that his tilt with Mr. Conkling popularized him greatly with the members of the House, who thoroughly enjoyed it, and so prepared the way to the honor which in point of fact was his by right of nature. But six years was a long time to wait, yet he waited, and was rewarded. And still it was not waiting, but working, with him, occupying the stronghold he had made for himself in the manifold business of the House.
But now he is taken from this, and out of the arena of debate, and yet lifted into greater prominence and power; appointing all the great committees of the House, a task requiring the highest order of ability in the knowledge of men; deciding all questions, and exercising a controlling influence over legislation.
There is little power men employ in all the great work of life, but he needs it in its rarest form. He must be a broad, a wide, a universal man; in sympathy with all, so far as right and justice are concerned. There are the choice, the crowned ones from every congressional district in all the states and territories, and he is the choice, the crowned one among them,—their chosen chief.
Tennyson’s words press for utterance right here, as we see him step from the floor to the speaker’s chair:—
“Divinely gifted man,
Whose life in low estate began,
And on a simple village green.
“Who breaks his birth’s invidious bar,