Memorial Edition.  Life and Work of James G. Blaine.  INTRODUCTION


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Memorial Edition.  Life and Work of James G. Blaine.  
by John Clark Ridpath, LL. D., General Selden Connor, Ex-Governor 
of Maine, and other eminent friends of Mr. Blaine.
A National Gallery of Pictures and Portraits.
Philadelphia:  Historical Publishing Company 1893.
Copyright, 1893, by H. S. Smith.
(All Rights Reserved.)

pages xxv - xxxii

BLAINE - A TYPE.

Every age has produced its typical men. Every country has had them and has
profited by them. The type men stand higher than the multitude. They are to
the masses what the composite photograph is to the many faces that give it
character. The philosophy of the photograph is this: it expresses the
common and, therefore, the perfected humanity of all. It presents the
average humanity, and at the same time the highest He who has given close
attention to the character of the composite will be surprised to find in it
the existence of all, and to note, what is much more important, namely, the
sublimation of all into spirituality and beauty, It is possible to take a
large group of persons and to transform their faces into one, so that that
one shall be at once beautiful and spiritual suggesting the fine faces of
the old masters.

It is thus in the type-man of a given period. He is its average expression,
and at the same time its highest expression. In the nature of the case he
must be one of many. There is a curious sentiment of Lavater, that the
proportion of genius to the vulgar is like one to a million; but genius
without tyranny, without pretension, that genius which judges the weak with
equity, the superior with humanity, and equals with justice, is like one to
ten millions!

Certain it is that we cannot look upon a really great man without advantage
to ourselves. The more we study him the greater will be our profit from
observation and knowledge of his methods, deeds and thoughts. For us the
man of the epoch is a living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant
to be near; a light which lightens the dark places of the world and the
gloom of human hearts; and this, not as a kindled lamp only, but rather as
a natural luminary, shining by the grace of the spirit; a brilliant source
of native, original inspiration, of manhood, and heroism, in whose radiance
all minds are cheered and ennobled.

In the world's records the typical men are not too plentiful. The history
of some is interleaved with the annals of those times called barbaric, and
of the dark ages back of barbarism; but even then they sowed the seeds of
that civilization which has fructified and flourished in the liberal
enlightenment of the present day.

From the earliest ages of human history the type-men have appeared here and
there. They have come according to the demands of the given age. Sometimes
they have appeared in the midst of sorrows, wars and pestilence. Sometimes
they have come as the redressers of wrong. In one age the type-man is
Alexander or Socrates. Sometimes the type-man is a conqueror, and sometimes
a martyr for truth. Sometimes he lives and flourishes, and anon he dies. In
all cases his life enters into the life of the epoch and is transmitted to
after ages.

Far back in the centuries the type-men appear as the topmost points of
light in the landscape of the world. In such ages the deeds and lives of
the type men are substantially the history of the times in which they live.
What they accomplished becomes the most instructive part of human annals.
How much interest, for example, would the history of the eighth century
possess for the reader of to-day were the achievements of Charlemagne
omitted? He it was whose master-mind laid the first solid foundation for a
permanent system of government and institutions in an age of doubt and
darkness. He was the author of many of the best laws of mediaeval Europe.
He was the promoter of the best elements of civilization. Succeeding to an
empire torn by intestine feuds, he checked its turbulence with vigor and
address; compelled the recognition of national law; inspired the wide
circuit of Europe with a common interest and common objects, and led men to
pursue these interests and to maintain these objects with collective
counsel as well as with united efforts.

This great Middle-Age type-man founded the original of all royal societies
and academies, and was the first to combine in one military monarchy a
feudal nobility, a somewhat free commons and a kind of constitutional
assembly of States. He may be regarded as the father of the modern State
system of Europe. He has claims, which are universally acknowledged, to the
regard and veneration of the ages which have benefited from his doings and
his life. The world dates a new era from his wise and beneficent reign.
Insensibly it may be, but. surely, his spirit pervades the thoughts and
politics of all modern nations,, teaching them, by precept and example
which cannot be too highly esteemed, how best to pursue the gradual paths
of an aspiring change.

It were possible to select example after example of the typical 11 e among
the various peoples who have risen and flourished in Western Europe.
France, Germany, England, Italy have abounded in characters of this kind.
From the day of Godfrey to the day of Count Cavour; from Richelieu to
Gambetta; from Cromwell to Wellington; from Barbarossa, to Bismarck, we
find such characters. standing here and there, lifted somewhat above their
age, but expressing its common hope as well as its loftiest purpose.

In like manner the history of our own country has been adorned with the
names of type-men as great as the greatest. The student of American annals.
need not seek far to find such names and to share the common glory which
they have diffused in the Western Hemisphere, and indeed throughout the
world. It was our good fortune to begin our active governmental life as a,
people under the influence and guidance of one such a man. Washington was
in every sense the expression of the common hope of our colonial Americans,
and at the same time the expression of the highest honor, loyalty and
patriotism of that period in history. He was a man whose judgment was
ripened by the most arduous experience in the struggle for his country's
independence whose intelligence was comprehensive and admirably adapted to
the exigencies of his administration. Every word of high encomium yet
applied to man belongs to him; for in his eyes duty was the law of correct
life; duty, the upholding principle through which the weakest become
strong; without which all strength is unstable as water.

Washington believed that the conviction of duty implies the soundest
reason, the strongest obligation of which our nature is susceptible, and
while " he stood firm before the. thunder, he yet worshiped the still,
small voice." Duty he regarded as the prompting of conscience. Washington
was a conscientious man; and his intelligence directed conceptions of duty
to heroic deeds. An auspicious occasion assisted him; but any occasion for
the exercise of heroism would have proved equally auspicious. Patriotism,
nobility and soldiership are all synonyms of duty, and these qualities
culminated in his life. He was the man of the eighteenth century, as was
Charlemagne of the eighth-not so much by force of his genius as by his
purity and trustworthiness. He was faithful in small things as well as in
great. Every talent conferred upon him was put to the best possible use. He
followed the dictates of conscience whatever way they led. " Honest,
truthful, diligent," were the catch-words of his creed. His best products,
as are those of all deliberate men, were happy and sanctifying thoughts,
which, when once formed and put into practice, are capable of extending
their fertilizing influence from generation to generation for thousands of
years.

The life of Washington has been so often written that it is unnecessary in
this place to refer to it further than to point out the thorough
conscientiousness, the self- sacrificing spirit, the purity of motive with
which he enter', upon and carried to completion the liberation and
independence of his country No man could be more pure, no man more self-
denying. In victory he was self-controlled; in defeat, unshaken. Throughout
he was magnanimous and pur( In his life it is difficult to learn which to
admire most ardently, the nobility of his character, the firmness of his
patriotism, or the purity of his conduct but the combination made him a man
of divine temper, and " take him for al in all," it is not to be expected
that we shall look upon his like again.

The intermediate period in our country's history is not wanting in met
worthy to be the successors of the great archetypes of the revolutionary
age It would appear that statesmanship in America at length succeeded to
the sword The violence of our first age was succeeded by the intellectual
contests of the second period. The first age had been the age of the making
of the constitution. The second age was the period of the interpretation
and application of the constitution. It was an age of adjustments and
adaptations, The institutions of the country had been formed theoretically
in expectation of national wants and conditions. At length the genius of
America arose and must be fitted to the work of the fathers. That work had
to be interpreted for the American mind, and adjusted to the facts which
had arisen spontaneously in the second quarter of our century.

The interpreters were the type-men of that age. They were great in their
kind. The fame of Webster and Clay, of Calhoun and Benton was well earned
in the contentions of a great arena. They were the successors of Hamilton
and Marshall. They filled up a large part of the public histories of our
country -for a considerable section of time. They shone with peculiar
lustre through all the domains of the expanding Republic, and were seen
from remote distance across the seas. Already the American name had been
recognized for a half century or more in the highest circles of European
thought and purpose. Franklin had made us great, not only in Prance, but
throughout Western Europe.

Just as the type-men of the fourth and fifth decades took the character of
publicists, jurists and orators-turning as it were the reverse civil side
of American life to the obverse side of war-so the obverse side came again
with the epoch ,of disunion. Then arose a new class of statesmen and public
men. just as the old style of literary production had given place to new
creative methods. conforming more strictly to the American genius, and less
assimilated to British models, so a new type of men arose, strictly
American, great in stature, patriotic and powerful.

Of this kind was the immortal Lincoln. His greatness, both intellectual and
moral, was as gigantic as it was inexplicable.

                    E'en to the dullest peasant standing by, 
                   Who fasten'd still on him a wondering eye, 
                    He seemed the master-spirit of the land."

He was incomparable, and his character and achievements more difficult of
analysis than those of any American in history. The great charms of the man
were his honesty, geniality and faithfulness, and these will always remain
the pre-eminent charms of our poor humanity. But we must not forget that
Lincoln encountered obstacles, assumed duties, and cast out impediments
which were entirely unknown to American citizenship previous to his time.
Difficulties and calamities sharpened his apprehension, and called into
activity all the faculties of his powerful intellect. His mind was
brightest in disaster-most alert under defeat.

It has been said that Madame de Maintenon would never have approached a
throne had not her cradle been rocked in a prison. So with hundreds who
have risen to greatness. There was needed something in their path before
they could rise to the gaze of the world. Difficulties are a mere stimulus
to men like Lincoln, supplying the discipline which greatly assists their
onward and upward course. He, like thousands of great men before him, was a
disciple of Plato, but, perhaps, unconsciously so; at any rate he followed
the advice of that wonderful philosopher, " Let men of all ranks, whether
they are successful or unsuccessful, rest satisfied."

But the qualities of Lincoln most difficult of analysis were those which
compelled the admiration and respect of the civilized world ; which
conquered the prejudices of political opponents, and commanded the love of
all who knew him personally. Said a Virginian who had called upon him at
the prompting of idle curiosity: " I believe he is the greatest man in the
world. When I went there I expected to find a fellow to make fun of ; but I
am the one to laugh at I He knows more about my State than I do, and I was
born in 'Old Virginia,' and thought I knew all about her."

The incident appears simple in the reading, but it illustrates the power of
Lincoln over every mind with which he came in contact. And this is the
power no one has yet attempted to analyze, although some observers call it
"personal magnetism," and seem content to pass it without attempting
explanation. It was possessed in a large degree by Henry Clay, and
attracted the people toward him like the obedient steel which turns forever
to the pole. Garfield had the same power in a degree which remains a wonder
to his friends ; and Blaine was endowed with it almost beyond precedent or
example. It is the magnetism-if that is the proper term-of intellectual
supremacy; the regality of mind which is apparent to the world, but of
which the possessor is unconscious; which cannot result from instruction,
but is self-born and springs up in the midst of disadvantages. It works its
solitary but irresistible way through all obstacles, while nature seems to
delight in disappointing the assiduities with which art seeks to convert
dullness to brilliancy.

Nature scatters the seeds of genius to the winds; and though some may
perish among the stony places of the world, and some may be choked by the
thorns and brambles of early adversity, yet others will now and then strike
root even in the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up into the sunshine,
and spread over their sterile birthplace all the beauties of vegetation.
Although genius may be conscious of its advantages in minds like those
referred to, it is rarely aware of its superiority to associate minds; its
achievements which others celebrate are frequently but its ordinary
performances.

One of the highest forms of human force is that which combines military
genius with statesmanship. It is as it were the union of physical agencies
with thought-the combination of body and spirit. This form of force was
,exemplified in many of our type-men in the epoch under consideration. A
few were statesmen pure and simple. A still larger number were military
leaders quite innocent of civic abilities. But many have the combination of
both powers. Such men are at once the glory and the menace of their,
country. When history presents a character combining in itself the genius
of the military captain with the genius of statesmanship, and the union is
inflamed with ambition, the resultant personage is likely to be the pride
and the danger of his age. This is true in particular of democracies and
republics. Fortunately, however, if the republic be one of intelligence and
virtue, if it be dominated by the aristocracy of patriotism, the danger
from such source is reduced to a minimum. Many of our statesmen of the
civil war period might have been successful generals in the field. Some
successful generals showed themselves to be also men of the cabinet. Not a
few had great ambitions; but it does not appear that a single one had the
ambition or desire-to say nothing of the power to subvert his country.

It was in this great group of type-men that James G. Blaine made his
appearance. He came in the guise of a statesman. He appeared as a type of
the American statesman's life and character. We shall have occasion in
another part to dwell upon the fact that Blaine was distinctively a man of
civil propensities. We call such a civilian, to distinguish him from the
military leader. It is clear that Blaine did not possess military talents;
or if he possessed any gift in that direction, it was not conspicuous. His
was the genius for civil affairs. He had the instincts and biases of the
political and popular leader. He was the type-man of the hustings and the
House.

Let us dwell upon and emphasize this truth as it is fundamental to the
consideration of Blaine's character and worth. It is well to begin a
biography with the discovery and exposition of the dominant fact in the
life of the personage under consideration. A man's life begins with his
spirit, his purpose, his passion rather than with his birth. We should
seize, first of all, the leading trait of the man,' and allow all the rest
to form itself around this central nerve of will and personality. Blaine
was a civilian-a great civilian. That is the key to his character and work.
He was a man of civil affairs. For this work he had a genius and passion.
This element of action and desire expressed itself in the first movements
of his youthful career and continued to inspire him until, in his last
days, he saw the lingering sunset reflected from the dome of the Capitol.

Not only is this the fundamental characteristic of Blaine's personality and
place in history, but it is the essential of the type which he represents.
American life is largely-perhaps too largely --- civil and political. It
were well if the political passion were not so strong upon us. But it
remains true that our sixty-five millions sway and bend and fluctuate under
the passions and motions of the political life. It is thus not far from
true to regard the politician as the typical American.

If thus much be conceded, then James G. Blaine may almost be regarded as
the highest type of American citizen and leader. This is to say, that he
has expressed in his life -and activities a larger part of the common life
and the common activities of his countrymen than almost any other. Mark the
singleness of his career. Though that career has been multifarious, though
it has run deviously, it has nevertheless been as single as it is singular.
Blaine would be a great statesman. He would rise to the rank of first
statesman of the age. However much his ship may have been tossed on stormy
seas, however much the skies may at times have been draped with thick and
impenetrable clouds, he nevertheless kept ever his eye to the North Star,
or to that part of his heavens where he thought the North Star was hidden.

We thus find in the great type-character of which we are to speak in the
following pages a singular unity as well as persistency of purpose. Let us
premise that Blaine for the present hour is suffering as much from the
hurts and obscurations of contemporaneity as he is glorified by the current
sympathies and admiration of his countrymen. We may not as yet discover
precisely how he will be revealed to the men of the next age. He may be
exalted, and he may suffer loss. Clay and Webster died forty years ago.
Their respective, statures have been revealed since their going. True, they
had the admiration of their contemporaries when they passed away; but the
true estimate has come afterward.

So it will be with Blaine. Nearness for the present hour blurs the vision.
There is spherical and chromatic aberration-optical illusions not a few-as
we turn our vision to the life and work of this remarkable personage. Only
a few things are clear and distinct. One is, that he held a large share of
the interest and admiration of his countrymen for more than a score of
years. Another is, that he will, in a larger or lesser measure, be regarded
hereafter as one of the principal type-men of the greatest epoch which has
thus far arisen in American history. From this point of view we desire to
narrate his life and work. Not without both interest and esteem for the man
and his great part in the public events of the last quarter of a century do
we enter upon the task of recording as much as may at present be gleaned
respecting his personal life and his conspicuous and dramatic action in the
arena of our nationality.