BLA1NK .IAMKS (il LLKSI'l K. 



87 



Meantime, in vacations, ho was breaking < -"li- 

 on his father's farm and rowing on theneauti- 

 ful streams ..f his native region. In response to 

 an invitatimi t" at tend the Centennial celebra- 

 tion of Washington County, sent him in 1881, 

 Mr. I'. la i ne wrote: 



It would l>e im]>08Bible to overestimate the Ix-n.-li- 

 eont and widespread influence \vliieh Washington 

 and .leil'erson College have exerted on the civiliza- 

 tion of that great country between the Alleghanies 

 uiul the Mississippi river. Their graduates have been 

 prominent in the pulpit, at the bar-on the bench, and 

 in the high stations or public life. During my service 

 of eighteen years in Congress 1 have met a larger 

 number of the alumni of Washington and Jefferson 

 than of any other single college in the United States. 

 It was inevitable that a county thus peopled should 

 grow in strength, wisdom, and wealth. Its60, 000 in- 

 nabitants are favored far beyond the average lot of 

 man. 1 have myself visited many celebrated spots 

 in Europe and in America, and 1 have nowhere wit- 

 nessed a more attractive sight than was familiar to 

 my eyes in boyhood from the old Indian Hill Farm 

 where I was born. 



Identified as I have been for twenty-eight years 

 with the great and noble people of another section of 

 the Union, 1 have never lost any of my attachment 

 for my native county and my native State. Wherever 

 I may be in life or whatever my fortunes, the county 

 of Washington, as it anciently was, taking in both 

 sides of the Monongahela, will be sacred in my mem- 

 ory. I shall always recall with pride that my ances- 

 try and kindred were and are not inconspicuously 

 connected with its history, and that on either side of 

 the beautiful river, in the Protestant and in the Catho- 

 lic cemeteries, five generations of my own blood sleep 

 in honored graves. 



After graduation he went to Blue Lick, Ky., 

 to take a professorship in the Western Military 

 Institute. Here he met Miss Harriet Stanwood, 

 of Maine, who was teaching in Millersburg, whom 

 he afterward married. After a year or two of 

 teaching, Mr. Elaine returned to Pennsylvania 

 to study law, and during his course he contrib- 

 uted to the press and taught. For two years he 

 was instructor in the Institution for the Blind 

 at Philadelphia. His father had died in the 

 meantime. 



In 1853 Mr. Blaine and his wife went to re- 

 side in her native town, Augusta, Me, where Mr 

 Blaine purchased a half interest in the " Kenne- 

 bec Journal," and became its editor. As a prep- 

 aration for his work he studied the files of the 

 newspaper from its beginning, and familiarized 

 himself with the public matters of every county 

 in the State. He edited the paper for four years, 

 and Gov. Kent said of him : 



Almost from the day of his assuming editorial 

 charge of the " Kennebec Journal," at the age of 

 twenty -three, Mr. Blaine sprang into a position of 

 great influence in the politics and policy of Maine. 

 At twenty-five he was a leading power in the coun- 

 cils of the Republican party, so recognized by Fessen 

 den, Ilainlin, and the two Merrills, and others then 

 and still prominent in the State. Before he was 

 twenty-nine he was chosen chairman of the Execu- 

 tive Committee of the Republican organization in 

 Maine. 



The youthful journalist attacked the penal 

 and reformatory institutions of the State, giving 

 dates and facts to support his charges, and Lot 

 M. Morrill, who was Governor, in reply ap- 

 pointed Mr. Blaine commissioner to examine 

 and report publicly upon their condition. Mr. 

 Blaine visited not only those establishments, but 



made careful examination of the methods of 

 management in fifteen other States, and upon 

 this information founded an elaborate report 

 containing many practical suggestions for im- 

 provement, which, being adopted and enforced, 

 worked great changes for the hotter, and put the 

 institutions on a paying financial basis. He 

 threw himself with ardor into the movement 

 that resulted in the formation of the Republican 

 party, and he was a delegate to the first national 

 Republican convention. 



In 1858 Mr. Blaine was elected to the* State 

 Legislature. After leaving the editorial chair 

 of the " Journal," he accepted that of the " Port- 

 land Advertiser," although he continued to re- 

 side in Augusta. His first essay in book-making 

 was a biography of Hon. Luther Severance, who 

 founded the " Kennebec Journal," and was ap- 

 pointed minister to Hawaii in 1850. 



In 1862 he was elected to Congress, and, as was 

 his custom, spent the early part of his service in 

 quiet and exhaustive study of the history and 

 existing conditions of the interests then pending, 

 which were among the most momentous in our 

 annals, for the civil war was at its height. The 

 most important matter considered by Congress 

 during his first term was the raising of money 

 to carry on the war, and one of his earliest 

 speeches was in demonstration of the ability of 

 the Government to carry it to a successful issue. 

 In his "Twenty Years of Congress" he thus 

 writes in reference to Mr. Lincoln's first procla- 

 mation of emancipation : 



It was the final notice to those engaged in rebellion 

 that every agency, every instrumentality would be 

 employed by the 'Government in its struggle for self- 

 preservation. It brought as Mr. Lincoln intended it 

 should bring the seriousness of the contest to the 

 hearts and consciences of the loyal States. ... If the 

 Administration was to be defeated, he was determined 

 that defeat should come upon an issue that involved 

 the whole controversy If the purse of the nation was 

 to be handed over to the control of those who were 

 not ready to use the last dollar in the war for the 

 preservation of the Union, the President was resolved 

 that every voter in the loyal States should be made 

 to comprehend the deadly significance of such a 

 decision. 



As a debater he had ready weapons. On one 

 occasion, referring to his long quotations from a 

 colleague, he said : " 1 have read a great deal 

 from the Senator this morning, and shall read 

 more before I get through." "Perhaps that will 

 be the best part of your speech, except what you 

 read from Webster," was interpolated. " I am 

 obliged to the Senator for the exception," said 

 Mr. Blaine ; " it is equal to Dogberry's injunc- 

 tion, ' Put God first.' * 



Mr. Blaine was re-elected to the Thirty-ninth 

 Congress, and when he was returned to the Forty- 

 first Congress so great had become his influence 

 that he was unanimously chosen Speaker of the 

 House. Probably no man who has occupied that 

 post has gained wider reputation for his rulings 

 or added more to his fame. By continual service 

 there for six years he was largely cut off from 

 debate or active part in the proceedings. In re- 

 gard to the basis of representation upon which 

 the late seceded States should return to the 

 Union, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, chairman of the 

 committee, proposed that representation should 

 be apportioned according to the number of legal 



