LIFE

AND PUBLIC SERVICES

OF

HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.

THE BRILLIANT ORATOR AND SAGACIOUS STATESMAN. THE BOSOM
FRIEND OF THE LAMENTED GARFIELD, AND NOW THE CHOICE OF
THE NATION FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. PREPARED
WITH GREAT CARE BY HIS FRIEND AND ASSOCIATE,

H. J. RAMSDELL, ESQ.,

For over twenty years a prominent Journalist at Washington.

ALSO,

The Life of the Courageous Soldier, Famous Senator and
Nominee for the Vice-Presidency,

GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN,

BY BEN PERLEY POORE,

Author of Life of Napoleon, Gen. Burnside, &c., for thirty years a popular
Journalist at Washington, and twenty-two years an Officer of the U.S. Congress.

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.

BOSTON, MASS :
WILSON BROthers, Publishers.

Copyright, According to Act of Congress,

By ALFRED HAMILTON,

1884.

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PREFACE.

CAMPAIGN Biographies are a national necessity. Why? Curiosity concerning candidates prompts many persons to secure and read them, but there is a broader and deeper reason for their production than the demand of mere curiosity.

Our Presidents are far from being absolute monarchs. The humblest citizen has no need to stand in personal fear of our Chief Magistrate. He is a citizen among his fellow-citizens, like them amenable to the laws of the land. And yet the Presidency is no sinecure. The President is not a figure head to the good "Ship of State." Nor is he the commander. He is rather the pilot. His hand is on the helm. He directs the movements so long as they be presumptively right and reasonably safe; but there is a commander in the embodied nation whose word can dismiss the pilot, and whose might can control the ship, whether it be for her safety or her loss. The people know their power. They make and

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