Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1884 — BLAINE IN THE DUMPS. [ARTICLE]

BLAINE IN THE DUMPS.

The New York Sun’s Washington Correspondent Says the Plumed Knight Is Sown in the Month. Deserted by His Old-Time Vigor, and Disheartening His Friends by His Gloom Over the Prospects of the Uanvass, [New York telegram.] A special from Washington to the Sun taints a gloomy picture of Mr. Blaine’s mental condition and its effect upon the campaign. It says: Blaine is causing those who are managing his canvass no little anxiety. He is no longer the dashing and audacious plumed knight of 1876. He is a changed man. Though always the most cautious and secretive of men, he used to conceal these traits by an assumption of dash and pluck that was a most artistic as well as longsustained piece of acting. Now, however, his friends find that this brilliant aggressiveness is gone. He seems to be not only timid but almost indifferent If he has any great interest in the approaching canvass he does not reveal it. He simply urges his friends to go on with the canvass in their own way and let him be at peace so far as possible. That was not at all what the energetic Elkins and the diplomatic Phelps expected when they procured his nomination. They looked for an abundance of brilliant suggestions and the proposition of some audacious and overwhelming line of policy for carrying on the canvass from the candidate, but Blaine has, so far, seriously disappointed them. The plumed knight has already received a great deal of information concerning the political situation, and he thinks it Justifies hfs despondency. He claims at all events that his political forecasts last winter were correct, and that the country has entered upon a canvass that will be unique, and will show some unexpected results, which the wisest man cannot now predict. While Blaine has no snch organized force of clerks, letter-openers, and assistants as were at Mentor in 1880, yet he has a bright and energetic son and a diligent secretary, and through them a great deal of correspondence is conducted. The news that has already come to Augusta agrees in the main with that received by the National Committee. It is far from cheering, though it is not thought by Blaine’s friends to justify his own gloom, and, while they do not share it, they are very anxious about some of the States that have been counted surely Republican. Unless there be a change of sentiment in these States before November the party is in very serious danger of losing some of them, and it is certain to lose others. The committees have not failed to take notice that the Western Germans, Prohibitionists, Labor, and IrishAmerlcan voters, Independent Republicans, and Gen. Butler are to eleot the next President, unless, in fact, the House of Representatives does, a contingency which some regard as far from impossible. There is no such fiery and overwhelming desire that Blaine shall go to the White House as there was in 1876. This Is precisely what Blaine saw to be the case last winter. He knew his heyday was in 1876, and that since then his popularity has waned, like that of all politicians who have passed their day. All the flattery of the men who sought him last winter could not dissuade him from that belief. Blaine last winter said the rank and file of the two parties would not decide the battle, but, deserters would, and he knew his candidacy would result in a large number of desertions. Blaine himself regards the choice of Cleveland as an unwise one for the Democratic party, yet he thinks thatm spite of the bad nomination the desertions are going to be! great enough in some States now regarded as surely Republican to cost the party those States. The Republican managers both of the National Congressional Committee and the National Committee are in despair. Reports confirm the suspicion of some shrewd politicians who were at the Chicago convention that the Blaine enthusiasm was not genuine, but was manufactured to a great degree, if not to some extent bought. It has been an open secret among Blaine’s close friends that he has never recovered from the shock Guiteau’s piatol caused him. He was arm-in-arm with Garfield when the assassin fired. He saw the President totter and fall, and believed that the next shot would be received by himself. The effect of that shot was to give him what is known in his own State as “the hypo.” For a few days before the convention met he seemed to be like his old self, and after he was nominated he displayed to those nearest him some of the energy that was characteristic of him in the days of his prime, but that did not last long. After the Democratic convention the old conviction that he cannot be elected returned, and with it his depression of spirits. He is now said to be despondent, and those who are nearest him believe that unless this hypochondria can be shaken off, all the work of the canvass must be done without much help from him.<

The belief that he cannot be elected has been strengthened in Mr. Blaine's mind by the complications that have entered into the canvass by the nomination of a Prohibition and an Anti-Monopoly candidate, who will help to make Kansas, Wisconsin, California, Michigan, Illinois, and possibly Ohio doubtful. It may be asked, therefore, why did Blaine consent to the use of his name for the nomination? The solution will probably be found in the reply made by Blaine to a newspaper man of this city the day befo.e he left Washington for Augusta: “What do you think will be the result at Chicago?” asked the journalist. “I neither know nor care,” answered Blaine, with emphasis, that left no doubt as to his sincerity. “But,” persisted the interviewer, “if you cannot succeed yourself you must at all events have some second choice.” “If I have Ido not care to indicate it. I have only one wish in the matter, and that is to beat this nfan Arthur. In order to accomplish this neither my friends nor myself will shirk any responsibility or spare any expense." “To boat this man Arthur," as they expressed it, was the controlling motive at Chicago. Had President Arthur not been a candidate for renomination it may be questioned if Blaine would have permitted the use of his name. People who are studying the situation carefully say that St. John, tho Prohibition candidate, will receive not less than 30,000 votes In Kansas alone, and that nine-tenths of these will come from the old Republican organization. In Kansas, too, is found the curious political inconsistency, which is very noticeable in some other States, and that is that the Germans, of whom there are probably 26,000, are now hostile to the Republican ticket. The conviction has seized these people that Blaine is a prohibitionist and that the Republican party is responsible for the sumptuary laws that have been enacted in many States. Now the Prohibitionists are opposing the Republican party because thev assert that it is not for the suppression of the liquor traffic. Between these two the Republicans In Kansas run some risks of falling into a minority. In Wisconsin the German vote is reported to be almost solidly anti-Republican, and the Prohibitionists claim 20,000 votes. The German press of the State Is hostile to Blaine, and the reports received at the Democratic headquarters here are that the Republican ticket will be In a minority of 10,000 votes unless the situation changes between this and November. In Michigan and California, where the AntiMonopoly feeling is very strong, Gen. Butler will poll a heavy vote. “ Ohio, always a sate State In a Presidential year, is not at all certain In October next. It is believed there that the situation will not be unlike what it is in Wisconsin, and that the Democrats will profit by the defection of both the Germans and the Prohibitionists. Altogether It will be the most unique and curiously complicated campaign that has been seen in this country. Joining the Cleveland^olumn. “Three-fourths of the German Republicans in Illinois will vote for Cleveland and Harrison,” said Mr. Herman Raster, editor of the Chicago Staats-Zeitung. “They will vote for the Democratic candidates rather than for Blaine and Oglesby on account of the prohibition law. It was no special Prohibition party that enacted that law, but the Republicans as a party, and hence they want to punish the Republicans as a

party, and to punish them in the spot where it will do the most harm. They will, therefore, vote against Blaine and in favor of Cleveland. This opinion is based upon information collected by trustworthy traveling agents. Capt. Bauhns, a former resident of this city and a stanch Republican, tells me that he stands nearly alone in Kansas. He says that from 90 to 95 per cent, of the Germans In that State who formerly voted the Republican tioket will vote for Cleveland." —Chicago IS'etcs.