CHAPTER VII.

NOTIFICATION OF THE NOMINEES.

AT an early hour on the morning of Saturday, June 21st, the streets of Augusta, Me., began to assume a lively appearance, and long before the hour set for the committee appointed by the National Convention to notify Mr. Blaine of his nomination to the Presidential candidacy of the Republican party to perform that duty, a considerable crowd of citizens collected around the Augusta House to gaze upon the members of this distinguished body.

Promptly at eleven o'clock the national committee of notification proceeded in a body to Mr. Blaine's residence, where they were received by Mrs. Blaine. As the day was very warm, and the rooms of the mansion were crowded almost to suffocation, it was suggested that the presentation of the addresses be made upon the lawn. Accordingly, the committee and guests proceeded to a well-shaded portion of the grounds, where a circle was formed and all present stood with uncovered heads, making an impressive scene, the rustling of spreading branches of great elms

and the buzzing of insects being the only sounds to disturb the stillness.

When all was in readiness Mr. Blaine was escorted to the lawn, where he stood within the arc of the semi-circle, General Henderson then stepped forward and presented the address of the committee. Reading from manuscript, he spoke as follows:

"Mr. Blaine, your nomination for the office of the President of the United States by the National Republican Convention recently assembled at Chicago is already known to you. The gentlemen before you, constituting the committee composed of one member from each State and Territory of the country, and one from the District of Columbia, now come, as the accredited organ of that convention, to give you formal notice of nomination and request your acceptance thereof. It is, of course, known to you that, beside your own, several other names,among the most honored in the councils of the Republican party, were presented by their friends as candidates for this nomination. Between your friends and friends of gentlemen so justly entitled to the respect and confidence of their political associates, the contest was one of generous rivalry, free from any taint of bitterness and equally free from the reproach of injustice.

"At an early stage of the proceedings of the Convention it became manifest that the Republican States, whose aid must be invoked at last to insure success to the ticket, earnestly desired your nomination. It was equally manifest that the desire so earnestly expressed by delegates from those States was but a truthful reflection of an irresistible popular demand. It was not thought nor pre

tended that this demand had its origin in any ambitious desires of your own, or in organized work of your friends, but it was recognized to be what it truthfully is, a spontaneous expression by free people of love and admiration of a chosen leader. No nomination would have given satisfaction to every member of the party. This is not to be expected in a country so extended in area and so varied in interests. The nomination of Mr. Lincoln in 1860 disappointed so many hopes and overthrew so many cherished ambitions that for a short time disaffection threatened to ripen in open revolt. In 1872 discontent was so pronounced as to impel large masses of the party in organized opposition to its nominees. For many weeks after the nomination of General Garfield, in 1880, defeat seemed almost inevitable.

"In each case the shock of disappointment was followed by sober second thought. Individual preferences gradually yielded to convictions of public duty. Promptings of patriotism finally rose superior to irritations and animosities of the hour. The party in every trial has grown stronger in the face of threatened danger. In tendering you the nomination it gives us pleasure to remember that those great measures which furnished causes for party congratulations by the late convention at Chicago, and which are now crystallized into the legislation of the country, measures which have strengthened and dignified the nation, while they have elevated and advanced the people, at all times and on all proper occasions, received your earnest and valuable support. It was your good fortune to aid in protecting the nation against the assaults of armed treason. You were present and helped to unloose the shackles of the slave. You assisted in placing new guarantees of freedom in the Federal Constitution. Your voice was potent in preserving national

faith when false theories of finance would have blasted national and individual prosperity. We kindly remember you as the fast friend of honest money and commercial integrity In all that pertains to security and repose of capital, dignity of labor, manhood elevation and freedom of people, right of the oppressed to demand and duty of the Government to afford protection, your public acts have received the unqualified indorsement of popular approval. But we are not unmindful of the fact that parties, like individuals, cannot live on the past, however splendid the record. The present is ever charged with its immediate cares, and the future presses on with its new duties, its perplexing responsibilities. Partics, like individuals, however, that are free from stain of violated faith in the past, are fairly entitled to presumption of sincerity in their promises for the future.

"Among the promises made by the party in its late convention at Chicago are economy and purity of administration; protection of citizens, native and naturalized, at home and abroad; the prompt restoration of the navy; a wise reduction of surplus revenue, relieving the taxpayers without injuring the laborer; preservation of public lands for actual settlers; import duties, when necessary at all, to be levied, not for revenue only, but for the double purpose of revenue and protection; regulation of internal commerce; settlement of international differences by peaceful arbitration, but coupled with the reassertion and maintenance of the Monroe doctrine as interpreted by the fathers of the republic; perseverance in the good work of civil service reform, to the end that dangers to free institutions which lurk in power of official patronage may be wisely and effectually avoided; honest currency based on coin of intrinsic value, adding strength to the public credit and giving renewed vitality

to every branch of American industry. Mr. Blaine, during the last twenty-three years the Republican party has builded a new republic-a republic far more splendid than that originally designed by our fathers. Its proportions, already grand, may yet be enlarged; its foundations may yet be strengthened and its columns be adorned with beauty more resplendent still. To you, as its architect in chief, will soon be assigned this grateful work."

During this address Mr. Blaine stood under a shady elm, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes intently fixed on the ground. At the conclusion his son, Walker Blaine, stepped forward and handed him a manuscript, from which he read the following reply:

"Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the National Committee: I receive not without deep sensibility your official notice of the action of the National Convention already brought to my knowledge by the public press.' I appreciate more profoundly than I can express the honor which is implied in the nomination for the Presidency by the Republican party of the nation, speaking through the authoritative voice of duly accredited delegates. To be selected as a candidate by such an assemblage from lists of eminent statesmen whose names were presented fills me with embarrassment. I can only express my gratitude for so signal an honor, and my desire to prove worthy of the great trust reposed in me. In accepting the nomination,