Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1884 — JAMES G. BLAINE. [ARTICLE]

JAMES G. BLAINE.

A Non-Partisan Reception from the Business Men of Portland. (Portland (Me.) special.] The reception to Mr. Blaine by the business men of this city, at the City Hall to-night, was a brilliant one. The hall was packed, the seats having been removed and the audience standing, While the galleries were filled with ladies. Mr. Blaine held the reception in the Mayor’s office. At 8 o’clock he was conducted to the platform, leaning upon Congressman Reed’s arm, and being received with great cheering. Mr. Reed, in a happy speech, presented the-business men of Portland to Mr. Plaine, saying, jocularly, that if he attempted to present them individually it would soon be apparent that Mr. Blaine was better acquainted with them than he. George Woodman, as spokesman of the merchants, read an address to Mr. Blaine, signed by over 300 business men and firms of this citv. The address, after expressing gratification that a citizen of Maine had been made the recipient of the Presidential nomination, says: Although we have not been able to agree with you upon political questions, we have all had confidence in your integrity as a man and your purity and ability as a statesman, and we are united in a conviction that, should the people of the United States ratify the choice of your political associates, you will give the country an administration unrivaled in its wise solicitude and practical measures for the promotion of all our material interests, and for its painstaking care for the purification and perfection of all the public service. Mr. Blaine replied as follows: Fellow-citizens, I do not know how to express my sense of the great honor you pay me in this most cordial reception, all the more grateful because not tendered in a partisan spirit or for partisan advantages. For the business men of Portland I have, from personal knowledge, always entertained profound respect. In nocommunity has a higher standard of mercantile honor been maintained, nor a more taintless commercial credit, than in your city, and the prosperity you enjoy is the legitimate fruit of comprehensive intelligence, industry, and courageous enterprise. Though never a citizen of Portland, I was a resident among you for nearly three years, beginning in 1557 and ending in 1859. During that time I was editor of the Daily Advertiser. and in constant intercourse with the business and professional men of the city. I recall no more pleasant period, and in a wide sense no more profitable l>eriod in my life. A quarter of a century has since elapsed, marked with events of woildwide importance, but the flight of years has not dimmed my appreciation of the friendships I then formed, nor the great kindness I received in Portland. Were Ito recall the long list of eminent men of. both part'es, now nd more, whom I was then permitted to number among my friends, time would fail me, and this large assemblage, called for a friendly greeting of the living, would be turned to eulogy of a past generation." Introductions to Mr. Blaine followed, many gentlemen being introduced.