Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1884 — BLAINE’S RECORD. [ARTICLE]

BLAINE’S RECORD.

The Charges of the New York Herald Fully Answered. (From the Boston Journal.] In the New York Herald of July 28 appeared a lengthy sensational article, prepared for the sole purpose of proving that thirty years ago Mr. Blaine belonged to the Know-nothing party, and strongly favored its principal aims and objects. It needs scarcely be said that what Mr. Blaine’s political views may have been so long ago, when he was a very young man, is not now very important to any intelligent and honest citizen. A majority of the best public men in the country have essentially changed their opinions in that period of time. It is to the credit of Mr. Blaine that he has made great ■progress in his political education since 1854, and that he is now so able and popular a Statesman is commanding proof of his constant intellectual growth and of his ripe experience as apnblieWian - But it so happens that the main charges of the Herald as to his political opinions in 1854 and 1855 are not true. They are substantially these: 1. That being one of the editors of the Kennebec , h>umat during the political canvass in Maine in 1854, Mr. Blaine supported Isaac Reed, the Whig candidate for Governor, and then betrayed him. 2. That Mr. Blaine was a member of the Knownothing organization. 3. That certain riotous proceedings toward Catholic priests in Bath and Ellsworth in 1854 were excited, or at least not disapproved, by the Kennebec Journal, of which Mr. Blaine was editor. - 4. That tho Kennebec Journal and Mr. Blaine supported Anson P. Morrill, a Know-nothing, for Governor. 5. That the Kennebec Journal, with Mr, Blaine as one of its editors, continued a devoted advocate of the Know-nothing party until compelled to abandon it by public sentiment. The first allegation of the Herald is sufficiently answered in the statement that the owners and editors of the Kennebec Journal during the political campaign of 1854 are now both dead, and that they supported the Whig canaldate for Governor that year in good faith. Mr. Blaine did not become a citizen of Maine and one of the editors of the Kennebec Journal until several months after the political campaign of that year was terminated and the election held. 2. Mr. Blaine was not a member of thp Knownothing organization. On the contrary, learning that Mr. Stevens, who became his partner a few weeks after Mr. Blaine had become one of the editors and owners of the Kennebec Journal, was a nominal member of that organization and earnestly resolved to discard it and get It out of the way as unfit for the membership of freemen, Mr. Blaine commended his partner's resolution. 3. The riotous proceeding relative to Catholic priests in Bath and Ellsworth took place months prior to Mr. Blaine becoming a resident of the State, and months prior to his becoming one of the editors of the Kennebec Journal. 4. Anson P. Morrill, whom the Kennebec Journal supported for Governor in 1855, was nominated by the Republican State Convention early that year, and in the platform of this convention there was not one word or indication in favor of the special doctrints of Know-Noth-ings. In 1854, before Mr. Blaine came into the State, Anson P. Morrill was nominated and supported by the anti-slavery Whigs, by the Free Soil party, also by the Anti-Nebraska Democrats. . Just prior to the election of that year he was also indorsed by a majority of the KnowNothings jvhose organization had just been introduced in Maine. There was a contest tor the control of that organization between the antislavery men on the one side and the proslavery men and allies of the Democrats on the other. Wisely or unwisely, many anti-slavery men rushed into it to control it to prevent its being wielded by their opponents. Anson P. Morrill never was a member of this organization, and never cherished a particle of animosity against the foreign-born citizen. He was then what he is to-day, at 84 years of age, a large-minded, liberal, earliest Republican, and as true a patriot as lives within the limits of the republic. 5. Most emphatically Mr. Blaine, as one of the editors of the Kennebec Journal, did not remain —devoted to tire Know-nothing party until public opinion forced its abandonment; On the contrary, both he and his editorial associate, immediately after becoming owners and managers of the Kennebec Journal, did put themselves actively to the effort of inducing the members of that organization to abandon it and give full field to the Republican party. The Maine Legislature of 1855 was not a Know-Nothing body in spirit or purpose, but one of themostpure and respectable legislative bodies which ever assembled in the State. The distinctive Know-Nothings made but a small fragment of its members. AU of its measures may not have been necessary. But its action relative to naturalization was dictated by the desire to maintain the naturalization laws intact, to protect them against abuse and fraud, and thus prevent those shameful transactions in cities such as Tweeed and his gang practiced in New Xork, which were as much an outrage against the honest naturalized citizen as the native born. Since that Legislature closed its labors nearly thirty years have passed, most of which time the State has been under Republican rule r and during this period Mr. Blaine has been conspicuous in leadership, while not a naturalized citizen of the State has been deprived of his rights or experienced the least illiberal treatment by any action of Mr. Blaine. It is because he is in favor of all citizens being considered equal before the law and firmly maintaining their rights at home and abroad tcat the Herald in vain tries to mislead th? public as to the political principles of Mr. Blaine and his high ■ character as a statesman.