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 Jonathan Grossman

Ruth: Bridges and Boundaries

DAS ALTE TESTAMENT IM DIALOG

an outline of an old testament dialogue
Vol. 9

Peter Lang
Ruth: Bridges and Boundaries is a literary close reading of the text as a
bridge between the anarchic period of the Judges and the monarchic
age that begins with the birth of David, as reflected through Ruth’s ab-
sorption process within Bethlehemite society. This bridge is constructed
from three main axes: the theological perception that human actions
have the power to shape and advance reality; the moral-legal perception
that the spirit of the law must be privileged over the letter of the law
and social conventions; and the principle that the institute of monarchy
must be based upon human compassion. The commentary traces the
narrative sequence through the paradigm of this three-fold cord, show-
ing how these threads are woven throughout the book. This innovative
reading is illustrated with an unprecedented psychological analysis of
Ruth as a narrative of transition, using modern psychological theories.

This contemporary yet textually faithful literary commentary offers new

insight into the inner workings of the text of Ruth as literary master-
piece. Academic yet accessible, this work provides tools for readers of
Ruth and the field of biblical narrative in general.

Dr. Jonathan Grossman is a faculty member of the Department of Bible

at Bar Ilan University. His main field of interest is the Bible as literature. His
book Esther: The Outer Narrative and the Hidden Reading was published in 2011.
Ruth: Bridges and Boundaries
DA S A LT E T E S TA M E N T I M D I A L O G
an outline of an old testament dialogue

Band / Vol. 9

Herausgegeben von / edited by

Michael Fieger & Sigrid Hodel-Hoenes

PETER LANG
Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien
 Jonathan Grossman

Ruth: Bridges
and Boundaries

PETER LANG
Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien
Bibliographic information published by die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet
at ‹http://dnb.d-nb.de›.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book

is available from The British Library, Great Britain

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015940486

I would like to thank the Mofet Institute and the Ihel Foundation of Bar Ilan University
for making the research of this study possible.

Umschlaggestaltung: Thomas Jaberg, Peter Lang AG

ISSN 1662-1689 pb. ISSN 2235-5707 eBook

ISBN 978-3-0343-1674-3 pb. ISBN 978-3-0351-0850-7 eBook

This publication has been peer reviewed.

© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2015

Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the
permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................. 9
The Book of Ruth’s Dating and Objectives........................................ 9
The Structure of the Book of Ruth................................................... 22
Artistic Structure.................................................................................... 26
Theology in the Book of Ruth............................................................ 31
Attitude Towards the Law.................................................................... 38
The Narrative’s Employment of Legal Discourse............................ 40
Intertextuality Reflecting Violation of the Law ............................... 47
The Story of Judah and Tamar............................................................ 48
Time and Space in the Book of Ruth................................................. 53
Time......................................................................................................... 55
Space........................................................................................................ 58
Introduction to Chapter 1.................................................................... 65
Exposition (1:1–6)..................................................................................... 71
The Long Way Home: Naomi and Her
Daughters-in-Law (1:7–18).............................................................. 87
Naomi’s Second Soliloquy (11–14)..................................................... 95
Naomi’s Third Soliloquy (15)............................................................. 102
“Wherever You Go, I Will Go” (16–17).......................................... 104
Silent Acquiescence (18)..................................................................... 110
Naomi (and Ruth’s) Return to Bethlehem (1:19–22).......................... 113
Introduction to Chapter II................................................................. 126
Ruth and Boaz’s Encounter in the Field (2:1–23)............................... 131
The Solitary Gleaner (2–3)................................................................. 135
Boaz and His Boy in the Field (4–7)................................................. 142
Boaz Addresses Ruth (8–9)................................................................ 156
Ruth’s Response (10)........................................................................... 161
Boaz’s Response (11–12).................................................................... 163
Ruth’s Reaction (13)............................................................................. 167
 Lunchtime Conversation (14–16)...................................................... 169
The Remains of the Day (17)............................................................ 172
Ruth’s Return to Naomi (18–22)....................................................... 174
The Structure of Ruth 2..................................................................... 186
Introduction to Chapter III................................................................ 193
Ruth and Boaz’s Encounter at the Threshing-Floor (3:1–18)........... 199
Naomi’s Suggestive Suggestion (1–5)............................................... 202
Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing-Floor (6–13)................................ 212
Boaz’s Reaction (10–13)...................................................................... 227
Daybreak (14–15)................................................................................. 235
Uncovering and Covering................................................................... 236
Ruth’s Return to Naomi (16–18)....................................................... 240
Naomi’s Reaction................................................................................. 247
The Structure of Ruth 3..................................................................... 250
Introduction to Chapter IV................................................................ 253
Before the Law (4:1–12).......................................................................... 261
Gathering at the Gate (1–2)............................................................... 261
The First Dialogue – the Redeemer Consents to
Redeem the Field (3–4).................................................................. 267
The Second Dialogue – From Redemption to
Acquisition (5–8)............................................................................ 278
“The Wife of the Deceased” – From Two Widows
to One Couple................................................................................ 283
From the Redeemer to Boaz ............................................................. 285
Boaz’s Declaration (9–10)................................................................... 293
The People’s Blessing: Security and Estate (11–12)....................... 297
Two Mothers in Bethlehem (4:13–17).................................................. 305
Marriage and Birth (13)....................................................................... 305
The Choiring of the Town:
Let Your Name be Called (14–15)............................................... 309
The Feminine Signature (14–17)....................................................... 313
“The Father of Jesse the Father of David” (17)............................ 323

6
Appendix – The Lineage of Peretz (4:18–22)..................................... 327
Afterword.................................................................................................. 333
Reading the Story in Light of Winnicott ........................................ 335
Bridges................................................................................................... 340

7
Introduction

The Book of Ruth’s Dating and Objectives

Opinions regarding the time of the book of Ruth’s composition are

polarized, generally falling under one of two adamant approaches:
some date its compilation to the period of the united monarchy, dur-
ing David or Solomon’s reign,1 where others postpone its writing to
the period of the Second Temple (although some argue that it origi-
nates in between, during the reign of Hezekiah or Josiah).2 Obviously,

1 For example: C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (Vol. 2;
Trans. by J. Martin; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973) 437; S. R. Driver, An Intro-
duction to the Literature of the Old Testament (New York: Meridian, 1956) 454–56;
J. M. Myers, The Linguistic and Literary Form of the Book of Ruth (Leiden: Brill,
1955) 16–32; W. Rudolph, Das Buch Ruth, Das Hohe Lied, Die Klagelieder (KAT
17; Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1962) 26–29; G. Gerle-
mann, Rut, Das Hohelied (BKAT; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1965) 23–28; M. Weinfeld,
“Ruth, Book of,” Encyclopedia Judaica 14.522 (Heb.). For the claim that the book
of Ruth was composed earlier, in the period of the Judges (with the exception
of the report of David’s birth at the story’s end) see: L. B. Wolfenson, “The
Character, Content, and Date of Ruth,” The American Journal of Semitic Languages
and Literatures 27 (1911) 285–300. He himself is convinced that the story was
written earlier, mainly based on the customs that feature in the narrative, such
as the removal of the shoe, for example.The basis for this approach can be
found in the Babylonian Talmud: “Samuel wrote his book, Judges, and Ruth”
(B. Bat. 14b).
2 Among those who adopt Wellhausen’s approach and date its compilation later:
A. Bertholet, Das Buch Ruth (KHAT, Tübingen 1898) 49; Ernst Sellin, Introduc-
tion to the Old Testament, Revised and Rewritten by George Fohrer; (Nashville:
Abingdon, 1968) 226; R.J. Meinhold, Einführung in das Alte Testament: Geschichte,
Literatur und Religion Israels (Giessen: Töpelmann, 1919) 336; R. H. Pfeiffer,
Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941) 718;
P. Joüon, Ruth: commentaire philologique et exégétique (Rome: Institut Biblique Pon-
tifical, 1953) 12–13; J. Meinhold, Einführung in das AlteL. Vesco, “La date du livre
as many have commented, the question of its dating colors the under-
standing of its objectives. Those who claim that Ruth was written dur-
ing the united monarchy tend to place emphasis on the themes of
kindness, or upon David’s genealogy; those who date the book to the
period of the Second Temple tend to read it in polemical discourse
with Ezra’s condemning of marriage with foreign women. While I
do not wish to address the question of Ruth’s dating in these pages,
I nonetheless seek to distinguish between the latter and the question
of the narrative’s objectives. Of course, it is not always possible to
do so, given that different periods raise different issues that must be
addressed.3 This is evident in the relationship between the two param-
eters in the context of our narrative: whoever is convinced that the

de Ruth,” RB 74 (1967) 235–247; Ernst Sellin, Introduction to the Old Testament:

Geschichte, Literatur und Religion Israels (Giessen: Töpelmann, 1919) 336; A., Re-
vised and Rewritten by George Fohrer; (Nashville: Abingdon, 1968) 226; A. La-
Cocque, “Date et milieu du livre de Ruth,” RHPR 59 (1979) 583–93; J. L. Vesco,
“La date du livre de Ruth,” RB 74 (1967) 235–247; Y.Y. Zakovitch, Ruth, Mikra
Leyisra’el (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1990) 33–35 (Heb.); F. Polak, “Epic Formulae in
Biblical Narrative and the Origins of Ancient Hebrew Prose,” Te’uda: Studies in
Judaica 7 (1991) 9–54 (Heb.); Y. Amit, Hidden Polemics in Biblical Narrative (Bos-
ton: Brill, 2000) 86; Alexander Rofé, Introduction to the Literature of the Hebrew
Bible (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2006) 191–93 (Heb.); A. Rofè, “Gōren Haśśěʿōrîm in
Ruth 3:2 – Rabbinic Hebrew in a Biblical Book,” Language Studies 11–12 (2008)
283–286 (Heb.).
For the claim that Ruth was compiled during Hezekiah’s reign in particular, see:
W. W. Cannon, “The Book of Ruth,” Theology 16 (1928) 314–15; W. Rudolph,
Das Buch Ruth, Das Hohe Lied, Die Klagelieder, (KAT 17; Gütersloh: Gütersloher
Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1962) 29 (who is inclined to date the story later, but
raises the period of Hezekiah’s reign as a convenient possibility); M. D. Gow,
The Book of Ruth: Its Structure, Theme and Purpose (Leicester: Apollos, 1992) 201
(who mentions the periods of Hezekiah or Josiah as likely candidates, but still
favors the period of David’s reign as the most suitable time of its compilation
[202]). See also Gray’s review: J. Gray, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (NCBC; London:
Eerdmans, 1967) 398–400. Adele Berlin writes that “Nowadays, opinions incline
towards its compilation during the period of the Return to Zion.” (“The His-
torical Novellas: Ruth, Esther and Daniel,” in Biblical Literature: Introductions and
Studies [ed. T. Talshir; Vol. 1; Jerusalem: Yad Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, 2011] 417–27).
3 Gray, Ruth, 400.

10
text’s main objective is to legitimize marriage with foreign women will
favor the period in which this issue comes to a head,4 but the reverse
order may also transpire: as mentioned above, one who is certain that
the text was compiled during the period of the Second Temple will
seek out social conflict that the text seems to address, and the question
of foreign women is an obvious candidate. Even so, I believe that the
interdependence of these parameters may be severed – so that dating
the text to the time of the Second Temple, say, does not necessitate
the conclusion that the issue of marriage to foreign women forms the
underlying basis for its compilation, for those who returned to Zion
faced other challenges, particularly in relation to their conception of
the reinstitution of the Judean kingship. Therefore, even if the ques-
tion of dating is left open (similarly to Harrison, and others),5 there is
room to address the question of the story’s objective. I will first review
some of the main positions that have emerged in relation to the story’s
objective.
Some scholars have contested the very idea of looking for an
“objective” within the book of Ruth. Yehezkel Kaufmann, for exam-
ple, writes that “within the book, there is no hint of an ‘objective,’
nor the faintest suggestion of the tension of a religious denomina-
tional war. The story is idyllic, all peace and tranquility… Ruth’s fate
is told for story’s sake, without “objective.”6 However, I favor the
more accepted position in research, which holds that Ruth does in
fact harbor “objectives.” It can be reasonably posited that attempts

4 Thus, for example, after asserting its objective as a polemic against separatism,
Yaira Amit writes: “It thus seems that the book of Ruth was written in wake
of a polemic concerning marriage to foreign women that took place during the
Second Temple period” (Amit, Hidden Polemics, 86).
5 R. K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson,
2004) 1059–62.
6 Y. Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel (Jerusalem: Bialik, 1960) 211 (Heb.). Similar
arguments were made by: H. Gunkel, “Ruth,” in Reden und Aufsätze (Göttingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1913) 88–89; R. Gordis, “Love, Marriage, and Busi-
ness in the Book of Ruth: A Chapter in Hebrew Customary Law,” in A Light
unto My Path (ed. H. Bream, R. Heim, C. Moore; Philadelphia: Temple Univer-
sity Press, 1974).

11
to detect the story’s objective stem – consciously or unconsciously –
from the book’s integration into the biblical canon. Thus, for example,
Moshe Weinfeld attempts to justify his search for the story’s objective:
“We have not found stories in the Holy Writ that serve no kind of
religious-didactic purpose.”7 The conflicts hinted at within the story
touch upon ethical-ideological issues (notably, attitude towards the
Other), and the characters are illuminated through their attitude to the
Other, presenting the reader with models of appropriate behavior, and
behavior that the author frowns upon. It is therefore problematic to
say that the story is lacking in didactic objective.8 However, Jack Sasson
is correct in asserting the difficulty of pinpointing a single, exclusive
objective within the book of Ruth9 – like every good story, the story
of Ruth is multifaceted and multilayered, and several themes can be
traced within it.
Indeed, scholars have raised a wide range of objectives, and here I
wish to present five of the notable approaches among them:

7 M. Weinfeld, “Megillat Rut – Takhlitah Ve-Reka Chibbura,” Turei Yeshurun 1 (1966)

10.
8 Scholarly disputes regarding the concept of the objective within a story is be-
yond the scope of the study of the book of Ruth, and beyond the scope of
Bible Studies in general – rather, it is a fundamental question that relates to
storytelling and story-writing at large. Goethe, for example, complained about
his classic work, Faust, to his young friend Eckermann in a letter dated May 6th,
1827: “The Germans are, certainly, strange people. By their deep thoughts and
ideas, which they seek in everything and fix upon everything, they make life
much more burdensome than is necessary… do not imagine all is vanity, if it is
not abstract thought and idea. They come and ask what idea I meant to embody
in my Faust; as if I knew myself, and could inform them” (Conversations of Goethe
with Johann Peter Eckermann [Ed. J.K. Moorhead; Trans. by John Oxenford; Cam-
bridge MA, Da Capo, 1998] 205). His words were to no avail, and many studies
and debates have been dedicated to the meaning of Faust and its objectives. The
work has overshadowed its creator.
9 M. Sasson, Ruth: A New Translation with A Philological Commentary and A Formal-
ist-Folklorist Interpretation (2nd ed.; JSOT 10; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
1989) 232.

12
1. The Genealogy of King David. The story ends with the presentation
of Obed as David’s grandfather (4:17), leading some to conclude
that these lines are the main objective of the entire story.10 Driv-
er and Hubbard read the book of Ruth as “an introduction to
Davidic kingship” that fills in the genealogical gaps of David’s
line in the book of Samuel, one that glorifies David through his
ancestry.11 Hals considers the genealogical objective of the book
of Ruth in a theological light: divine providence led to his birth.12
A different formulation of this approach claims that this book
was written in order to reinforce the Davidic line during periods
in which it was challenged (even, perhaps, after the split between
Judea and Israel).13 Indeed, the story’s conclusion encourages this
reading, although, as others have commented, linking the Davidic
dynasty to a Moabite woman does not help justify his descend-
ants’ right to reign, and if this were indeed the narrative objective,
then Ruth’s origins would more likely have been downplayed.14
2. A Moral Message – the Importance of Hesed, Kindness: There is no
doubt that the theme of kindness and compassion is central to
10 See different formulations of this idea in: W. Dommershausen, “Leitwortstil in
der Ruthrolle,” in Theologie im Wandel (ed. J. Neumann and J. Ratzinger; Munich:
Wewel, 1967) 394; Joüon, Ruth, 2; Y. Zakovitch, Inner-biblical and Extra-biblical
Midrash and the Relationship Between Them (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2009) 244 (Heb.).
11 Driver, Introduction, 453–54; R. L. Hubbard, The Book of Ruth (NICOT; Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988) 39–42.
12 R. M. Hals, The Theology of the Book of Ruth (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969) 17–19.
13 A. A. Anderson, “The Marriage of Ruth,” JSS 23 (1978) 172; R. E. Murphy,
Wisdom Literature (FOTL 13; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981) 87.
14 See on this topic, among others: H. H. Rowley, “The Marriage of Ruth,” in The
Servant of the Lord and Other Essays on the Old Testament (London: Lutterly, 1952)
185; E. Würthwein, Die Fünf Megilloth (HAT 18; 2nd ed.; Tübingen: Mohr/Sie-
beck, 1969) 3; Sasson, Ruth, 186. And compare to the words of the Babylonian
Talmud: “Doeg the Edomite said to [Saul], If you’re inquiring about whether or
not he is fit to rule, you’d best ask whether or not he’s fitting to be part of the
community or not, for he is descended from Ruth the Moabite” (Yebam. 76b).
Although of course, if we are to adopt Gerlemann’s (aforementioned) opinion
that the story was written before the deuteronomic prohibition of marriage
with Moabites, then this problem is less acute – although the question of why
King David is presented as the descendant of a foreigner still stands.

13
Other documents randomly have
different content
But his work was more largely literary in conducting the paper. It
would be difficult to find more solid or instructive reading in any
paper during those years. Mr. Blaine was himself a great reader of
the best journals and reviews, and with a high standard ever before
him, not only in his own ideals, but also in the great papers of the
nation at his command, and having high aims and a mind whose rich
stores were constantly increased, and with all his varied powers of
expression, books were reviewed, the substance of lectures given,
and the best lecturers of the day entertained Augusta audiences,
and a multitude of articles upon various subjects abounded.
Within fifty days after he became editor, the legislature met, and it
devolved on him to gather in the substance of their speeches and
addresses, and record the principal part of their doings. This brought
him into immediate and extensive acquaintance with members of the
senate, whose hall he chose to visit chiefly. They soon became
acquainted with him, and saw and felt his power.
His life was stirring and active, and upon a scale quite in contrast
with the life of a recluse teaching in the Blind Institute in
Philadelphia, and quietly reading law only a year before.
Though a man of strong impulse at times, it is intelligent, purposeful,
and under such control that upon such occasions he has won his
highest praise for brilliancy. He has made mistakes and blunders,
and has had his share of regrets and misgivings, giving ample proof
that he is a member of the human family.
Mr. Blaine’s old foreman, who was afterwards proprietor of the paper,
Howard Owen, says that he wrote most of his editorials at home, and
came down to the office to see his numerous friends, and that they
would have great times pounding for “copy” while he was
entertaining hosts of friends in the office below. One who knows him
well has written of him as a conversationalist.
Mr. Blame has few equals. He has a keen appreciation of fun, and
can tell a story with a wonderful simplicity. There is no dragging
prelude, no verbose details preceding a stupid finale; the story is
presented always dramatically, and fired almost as from a gun, when
the point is reached.
The dinner-table in the Blaine house is the place where the gayest of
good-natured pleasantry rules. From six to eight the dinner speeds
under cover of running talk upon the incidents of the day.
Mr. Owen says that “when they came to ‘making up the form’ Mr.
Blaine would stand over him and attend to every detail, decide the
location of every article, and give just that prominence that would
produce the best effect.” It showed the interest he took in the
children of his own brain, and the great activity of the man.
His force of intellect, strength of constitution, and great endurance
have been a marvel to many.
He has lived his life on a rising tide, amid immense prosperity, and
the great cheerfulness of temper thus produced has made life less a
drag and more a joy to him.
He struck the current at the start, caught at its flood that “tide in the
affairs of men that leads on to fortune.”
He got into the national drift of the new party and has kept it ever
since. It was like a splendid ship, all staunch and strong, launched at
his hand; he sprang aboard, was soon at the helm, and has steadily
passed along the line of honorable promotion.
There have been storms whose fury has been terrific; and there
have been triumphs whose brightness has reflected the nation’s
glory.
The paper improved in every way. They procured the state printing,
and an increased circulation.
Mr. Blaine’s pleasant home on Green Street, where most of his
children were born, was one of comfort and happiness.
He soon became a favorite in Augusta, and among the public men of
the state. People love to hear good things said well, and he never
failed in this.
He soon appears on the Republican Central Committee. The party is
victorious from the start, and elects Anson P. Morrill Governor. Mr.
Morrill is still living in Augusta, hale and hearty at eighty-one, a great
reader, and soon after his nomination called upon Mr. Blaine to
congratulate him. The name of J. G. Blaine appears as chairman of
the Republican Central Committee soon after its organization, and
the following year he is presented as a candidate for the legislature.

Residence of James G. Blaine, Augusta, Maine.

He enters a city seventy-five years older than himself, rich with
numbers of strong men, but is taken up and speedily honored with a
place in the councils of the state.
It was an era of great and almost constant political conventions. The
remnants of the Whig party and the Know-nothings kept up a
struggle for existence, but they were doomed, and failed to submit
gracefully to the inevitable. They must be watched and won, if
possible, to the new party of the future, whose substantial, steadfast
principles,—as expressed by Mr. Blaine and his editorial colleague,
Joseph Baker, in their inaugural,—were freedom, temperance, river
and harbor improvement within constitutional limits, homesteads for
freemen, and a just administration of the public lands of the state
and nation; and the present testifies how well those principles,
embracing all that were needful then in a political party, have been
carried out.
The words “Liberty” and “Freedom,” in Mr. Blaine’s paper always
began with capital letters.
The religious tone and character of the paper is worthy of note. It
furnished a column of “Religious Intelligence” each week. Many of its
selected articles, notices of books, its correspondence, and even
editorials, were deeply religious. The work of that time was solemn,
serious business. There was much of the Puritan and Pilgrim in the
people then. There was a reliance upon God, a demand for his
wisdom expressed in prayer and song and sermon, that told that the
importance and magnitude of the great principles at stake were fully
appreciated. There had been so much failure in the past, so many
parties had been organized and proved inadequate, and still the
encroachments of slavery, the nation’s foe, continued with an
audacity unparalleled. Already Kansas was conceded to the slave-
power; secession was already in the air. The great war was only
seven years in the future. A Charleston paper had stated the issue
distinctly, “We must give up slavery or secede,” as it viewed the first
contests and sweeping victories of the new party. And Mr. Blaine, in
a ringing editorial of caustic power, quoting the entire paragraph,
said, “This is the exact issue, squarely stated.”
His life in Kentucky and extensive winter trips through the South had
been a revelation to him, and were now an inspiration. He knew what
was in the South, and he knew what was in the North, and he knew
that they could not keep house together for centuries, with slaves in
the country, without quarreling. And, moreover, he knew that the
destinies of the country could not be divided. She could not remain
half slave and half free. The South itself was not satisfied with this,
as all their measures of legislation at their various state capitals, and
in Washington clearly indicated. Slavery must conquer or be
conquered. Blaine saw it at that early day, as anyone may in the light
of more recent events.
But this was not the position or demand of the Republican party
then. Anti-slavery did not mean abolition. In 1855 the Free
Democratic party, as it was called, was achieving victories in the
state of New York, and various phases of the great question were
championed in different states and sections, until the election of
Abraham Lincoln in 1860. And it was not until about two years of the
war were gone, and it was imperatively demanded as a war-
measure; not until it had been held back for months by the sagacious
Lincoln, after it was written, that the emancipation of the slave was
proclaimed in states then in armed rebellion. But it was a fact fated
and decreed, signed, sealed, and delivered in a higher than earthly
tribunal, long years before.
There are always high-wrought souls, keenly alive and sensitive to
issues of the hour, who seem ordained to catch the foreshadowing of
events and report to others of duller and heavier mould. Mr. Blaine
had projected himself upon the future with the use of his princely
personal power, and with an eagle eye had read out the doom and
destiny of that “peculiar institution” which violated the fundamental
principle of the government, the great end for which it was
established,—a doom which nothing could avert. God’s time for
liberty had come, and chosen men far out upon the frontier of human
thought had watched its dawn and seen it mount the heavens.
But first, the shining of this same sun must produce a similar harvest
of ideas, where the mists of a false and sophistical political
philosophy, and the fogs of a wrong and vicious science of
government, and an unnatural and cruel selfishness and monopoly
of liberty prevent the cleanest vision, the fullest knowledge, and the
most righteous thought.
At this time Mr. Blaine was closely and sharply following the course
of the Pro-slavery party. We give a single extract from his paper in
1855, as showing what facts the party had to stir its thought and fire
its heart,—facts that read strangely in the light of to-day, and which
had a strange, ominous look even then.
“Slave Trade—It is said that the business of fitting out
slavers is carried on extensively in New York. The
Commercial Advertiser believes the practice to be
‘alarmingly and disgracefully prevalent,’ and the Tribune
states, on good authority, that thirty vessels are annually
fitted out there, for the purpose of procuring slaves upon
the west coast of Africa.
 “This is no more than following out the political creed of
the more advanced wing of the progressive pro-slavery
Democracy. The Charleston papers, which support
President Pierce’s administration, boldly advocate the re-
opening of the African Slave Trade, with the view of
making ‘niggers’ cheaper. The ‘party’ in New England are
not as yet up to the work, but another Presidential election
will fetch them. Progress is the distinct feature of the age.”
Some are ready now with their verdict of principle, despite the mists
and fogs and storms; yet not all. The party of Freedom organized in
counties and states all over the country, must be brought together,
unified and organized as a great national party; a convention must
be held and all must be invited who can be induced to affiliate. It is a
preliminary meeting, as it precedes the great organization. They
want to get acquainted and see their strength. It is to be a time of
great argument and powerful speeches. Where so appropriate to
hold it as in the goodly city of Philadelphia? Whigs, Know-nothings,
Free-soilers, are to be there; anti-slavery Democrats, and staunch
Republicans.
Mr. Blaine was there. It continued for eight days. Its value lay in the
full and free discussion of the absorbing questions of the day, by
people widely separated and subjected to varied local influences.
Men were influenced by mercantile and commercial, by social and
domestic interests; by educational and religious interests, and it is
almost impossible for many minds of most excellent, though
conservative quality, to rise above fixed orders of things to the clear
apprehension and vigorous grasp of a great principle.
Early education or neglect, also, may have dwarfed or blunted
perceptions and capabilities; but, however, they came largely to see,
eye to eye, and great progress was made. There was a lengthening
of cords and strengthening of stakes, and on the 22d of February,
1856, the Republicans met in Pittsburgh and appointed its national
committee, and arranged for its first nominating convention. The aim
of the party, according to Mr. Blaine’s voluminous report, had been
declared to be “the restoration of the government to the policy of its
founders; its ideal of patriotism, the character of Washington; its vital
philosophy, that of Jefferson; its watchwords, American enterprise
and industry, Slavery sectional, Freedom national.”
The delegates of twelve Northern states withdrew from the
Philadelphia convention, and left the New York and Southern
delegates to their fate.
Mr. Blaine’s work is principally at home, within the boundaries of his
adopted state. But fiercer than ever, the fires of the great conflict are
raging.
Jefferson has remarked, that “in the unequal contest between
freedom and oppression, the Almighty had no attribute that could
take part with the oppressor.” And yet the Democratic party, in
violation of its name and prestige could invoke the shades of this
great man; could continue its warfare upon the life of the nation, and
its encroachments upon the constitution, and violation of a plighted
faith wherever slavery made its frightful demands.
At the head of his editorial column, Mr. Blaine kept these words,
printed in capitals, from the last great speech delivered by Henry
Clay in the United States senate, “I repeat it, sir, I never can and I
never will, and no earthly power can make me vote, directly or
indirectly, to spread slavery over territory where it does not exist.
Never, while reason holds its seat in my brain; never, while my heart
sends its vital fluid through my veins, never!”
Wm. H. Seward was battling against “the fall of constitutional liberty”
in the senate. The Fugitive Slave Act had passed in 1850, and the
Missouri Compromise abrogated in 1854, and now an extreme
measure is pending to protect United States officers in the arrest of
fugitive slaves. Mr. Blaine prints the great speech in full. It had the
true Republican ring.
Mr. Blaine’s final editorial for 1855, prior to the Republican
convention, and first presidential campaign, is every way so fine a
summary of the situation, and affords so clear a view of the man in
all the moral earnestness of his powers and wide comprehension of
the subject, that we give two or three extracts from his editorial in the
Kennebec Journal of Dec. 28, 1855, on the “Condition of the
Country”:—
“It is the settled judgment of our ablest and best
statesmen, that the present is a more momentous period
than any through which the country has passed since the
Revolution. The issue is fairly before the American people,
whether Democracy or Aristocracy, Liberty or Despotism,
shall control the government of this Republic.... The
contest enlists on one side the intelligence, the
conscience, the patriotism, and the best energies of the
American people. On the other are engaged the avarice,
the servility, the ignorance, and the lust of dominion which
characterize human depravity in every age and nation.
“There are in reality but two sides to this great question.
There is no ground of neutrality. As true now is it as it was
in the days of the Great Teacher of liberty and salvation,
that men cannot serve opposite principles at the same
time.... The deepening cry from all quarters is that the
White House must be cleansed, and all the channels to
and from the same thoroughly renovated. The march of
slavery must be stopped or the nation is lost. Only by the
firm and practical union of all true men in the nation can its
most valuable interests be preserved.
... “We are, then, for a common union against the National
Administration, on the basis of restoring the Missouri
Prohibition against slavery in the territories, forgetting past
distinctions and priority in the combination. Who shall be
the standard-bearer of this patriotic and conservative
Opposition in the great struggle of ’56? Whoever the right
man may be,—whether he has his home in the East or the
West, in the North or the South, we care not, if he is but
the statesman to comprehend the hour, and is equal to the
necessities of the country, we hope to see him
triumphantly elected. We only ask that he be loyal to
Liberty, a sworn defender of the Union on its constitutional
basis, in favor of bringing back our government to the
principles and policy of its founders, and pledged to undo
the giant wrong of 1854. To enlist in such an opposition,
patriotism, the memory of our Revolutionary sires,
everything sacred in our history, the welfare of posterity,
invoke us. In such a ‘union for the sake of the Union’ we
shall all be Republicans, all Whigs, all Democrats, all
Americans.”
 VII.
IN THE LEGISLATURE.

HE great year of Republicanism dawns, in which its friends

are to meet, and its foes are to feel its power. Men had
been hearing the voice of conscience on the moral
questions of the nation. Money had stiffled it with some; for
others the climate and location were not propitious; blight and
mildew had struck some,—darkness to them was light, black was
white. Some, perchance, held the truth in unrighteousness; trimmers
and time-servers abounded. But the press and the pulpit had been
great educators. God was in the contest, and it was beginning to be
apparent. There were light and glory all about the sky, but
reformations that reform, and revolutions that revolutionize have in
them not only forceful, but voluntary powers. There are always those
who will not be persuaded or won, on all grave questions. They must
be passed by or overpowered.
To get men into position upon all questions of the nation’s life and
destiny, it is needful to first get the questions into position.
Republicans had undertaken a herculean task. It was not the
emancipation of slaves, but of the nation itself. The thraldom of a
mighty woe was on her.
Mr. Blaine entered the year with the same great purpose, and the
same bold enunciation of principles. He was a true knight. His pen
was mightier than the sword. It was never idle, never cold. From
home to office, and office to senate, and back to office and home he
went, day by day, wherever truth and right could be served.
Washington’s birthday came soon, and with it the Republican
gathering at Pittsburgh, and then the great convention that
nominated Frémont and Dayton at Philadelphia, in the summer of
1856;—Blaine was there; it was on his native heather. Never had
men listened so intently since the farewell address of Washington;
rarely had they thought, and felt, and resolved so deeply.
Conscience and will, intelligence and love, were in all they thought,
and said, and did. They chose their men for standard-bearers, and
fought out the hard, bitter fight. It was a good fight, and they kept the
faith.
It was on his return from the convention in Philadelphia that he was
selected, of all who went, to report to the citizens at home. It was his
first oratorical effort in Augusta, if not his first since leaving college.
His pen had done the work. There had been no demand for oratory.
He surprised himself and astonished his hearers, and from that hour
the door was open for him to enter the state legislature.
An old friend and neighbor of Mr. Blaine has, since his nomination,
given the following sketch of the speech:—
“This was his first public effort. He was then twenty-six years of age.
Although remarkably ready and easy of speech and holding a
practiced and powerful pen, he had an almost unconquerable
repugnance to letting his voice be heard, except in familiar
conversation, where his brilliant powers of statement and argument,
his marvelous memory of dates and events in political history, and
his acquaintance with, and keen estimate of the public men and
parties of the day, were the delight and wonder of all who listened to
him. The writer well recalls the trepidation, at once painful and
ludicrous, with which he rose to address the meeting. In confronting
the sea of faces, almost every one of which was known to him, he
seemed to be struggling to master the terror that possessed him. He
turned pale and red by turns, and almost tottering to the front, he
stood trembling until the generous applause which welcomed him
had died away, when, by a supreme effort, he broke the spell, at first
by the utterance of some hesitating words of greeting and thanks,
and then gathering confidence, he went on with a speech which
stirred the audience as with the sound of a trumpet, and held all
present in breathless interest and attention to its close. From that
moment Mr. Blaine took rank among the most effective popular
speakers of the day; but it may be doubted if among the many
maturer efforts of his genius and eloquence upon the political
platform or the legislative tribune, he has ever excited an audience to
a more passionate enthusiasm, or left a profounder impression upon
the minds and hearts of his hearers.”
His editorials of this year would fill a large volume, and all bold,
trenchant, and uncompromising in tone. His experience of the year
before had just fitted him for this hard, strong work. The temptation is
exceedingly great to make copious extracts, for it is our single effort
to cause the man to appear in all the just and worthy splendor of his
enduring manhood, and if a scar is found in all of wide research, no
hand shall cover it.
Not alone the great cause, but the great men who embodied it, were
to him an inspiration. Next to books, men were his study. He studied
the nation in them, and all the questions they incarnated. Henry
Wilson was to him an inspiration. “All praise to the cold and lofty
bearing of Henry Wilson at the Philadelphia convention,” he writes of
him in his issue of June 22, 1854. And all the great, strong men of
the party loomed up before him at full stature, and had a large place
in his affections. They were the apostles of liberty to him.
The last year of Mr. Blaine’s journalistic career in Augusta was tame
compared with other years, and yet the paper continued a splendid
specimen of what the leading paper at the state capital ought to be,
—rich in every department, and justly noted for the courage and
acumen of its editorial writings.
The great presidential campaign had resulted in the election of
James Buchanan, to whom the Richmond Enquirer immediately
gave this friendly word of caution: “The president elect will commit a
fatal folly if he thinks to organize his administration upon any other
principle than that of an avowed and inflexible support of the rights
and institutions of the slave-holding states. He who is not with us is
against us, and the South cannot attach itself to an administration
which occupies a neutral ground, without descending from its own
lofty and impregnable position.”
In announcing the cabinet of Mr. Buchanan and the Dred Scott
decision in the same issue, Mr. Blaine says,—“The conquest of
slavery is complete. President, cabinet, congress, judiciary, treasury,
army, navy, the common territory of the union are all in its hands to
be directed as its whims shall direct.” The five great acts in the
drama of national shame and degradation he mentions as, “the
Fugitive Slave Act, repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the raid on
Kansas, election of James Buchanan, and the supreme court
decision in the Dred Scott case.”
It was a great deal for the nation to endure, but it was the thing to
arouse the nation to the iniquity to be overthrown by the Republican
party in the next election. Five of the nine judges were from the
South, and two of the others, Nelson and Grier, were selected with
special regard to their fidelity to the slave-holding interests of the
South.
But there was some honor and joy in the fact that Hannibal Hamlin
was Governor of Maine, and United States senator elect. His
inaugural address Mr. Blaine heads,—“A Paralytic Stroke.”
It was, indeed, a time for great men to speak out, and this Mr. Hamlin
did with power. So greatly had the Journal prospered under the firm
management of Stevens and Blaine, that they removed from the
office at the corner of Oak and Water Streets, which it had occupied
for twenty-four years, and at great expense, added new and
improved machinery. This had scarcely been done a month when Mr.
Blaine’s name disappears from its management. He had sold his
interest in the paper for “a good, handsome price,” and invested it all,
beside money loaned from a brother-in-law, in coal lands in
Pennsylvania.
He urged his partner, Mr. Stevens, to sell out his interest and do the
same. This investment, says Mr. Stevens, was very fortunate, and
has yielded him handsome returns. But Mr. Blaine was wanted on
the Portland Daily Advertiser. John M. Wood, a man of wealth,
owned it, and was looking around for an able editor. Mr. Blaine had
acquired a reputation as editor, and was offered the position, which
he accepted at three thousand dollars a year salary, but never
removed to Portland.
This year of 1857 is remembered as the year of the great financial
crash. It was anything but a crash to Mr. Blaine. He had sold his
paper, which he had brought into a leading position in state
journalism, at a large advance, made a profitable investment of his
funds, gone on a salary of the first-class, for the time, and also been
nominated and elected a member of the state legislature, as one of
the two representatives of the city of Augusta.
His popularity is seen in the fact that at the time of this seeming
break-up, when if he had been a machine man with insatiable
political aspirations he would certainly have held on to his paper, and
parted with it at no price, he artlessly sells out and enters business
about eighty miles from home. But the people wanted him. He would
not leave their midst. He had served the cause of his espousal with
ability and fidelity for three years, and the time had come to honor
him.
It is not often that a man so young comes into an old established
state, and in a time so brief makes for himself a name and a place so
large.
It is only needful to read over the files of that paper from the first
hour his pen touched it to see that he had made for himself a place
so large. He had put himself into its columns, and so into the life both
of the state and the nation. He lived, and thought, and wrought for
that paper. That was the instrument of his power. The bold thunder of
artillery is heard along its columns; the charge of cavalry and the
sweep of infantry are seen and felt upon its pages. There is push,
and dash, and rush, and swing, and hurrah along the whole battle-
line where he stood and fought through those years. It was a manly
fight. He stood squarely to the line. It was all upon the broad scale of
the nation’s existence and welfare. He spoke the truth as such; he
had no dreams to tell.
He took no vacation, but summer and winter was at his post. In July
and August there is no relaxation, but the same dash of breakers on
the shore. No wonder he was in demand elsewhere, and the fee was
large. He was a business success, and had made a success of
politics thus far. The first Republicans of Maine had gone into office
mid the glow of his genius, and now his turn had come. It was a
weekly before, but now it was a daily, and a seat in the legislature to
fill beside. But he was abreast of the times, a full man, a large man,
with immense capabilities of work, and a strong, tenacious memory,
or he could never have done the work of two men steadily, and four
men much of the time, and a man destined for leadership. He took to
Portland all his powers, and soon was felt as fire is felt, or the rising
sun, for foes and friends learned speedily of his presence. Every day
was a field-day in politics then. It was a political revival all the year
round. No ponds or pools were visible. There were currents in every
stream. There was a mighty flood to the tides. The states were
raising men and building characters. They were mining gold and
minting it. Life then was a Bessemer steel-process; the heat was
intense, and hydraulic pressure drove out all impurities. The great
columbiads that did the execution were cast before the war; they
were large of calibre and deep of bore, and thoroughly rifled, for it
was the men who manned the guns in war times who made the guns
man the rebellion.
The clouds are drawing water and marshaling forces for the sweep
of a mighty storm,—the storm of a righteous judgment, of a holy
justice. It was God’s storm and must come. Already the lightning
played furiously along the sky, and mutterings of thunder could be
distinctly heard. The air grew thick, and heavy, and dark. All signs
were ominous. From throne to cloud, and cloud to brain, and brain to
pen, the electric current flew. Men were thinking the thoughts of God.
They were being filled with his vision and armed with his purpose.
No times were grander since men had pledged their lives, and
fortunes, and sacred honor at the shrine of Liberty, for its
perpetuation; and now their sons from heights of manhood just as
lofty, were breathing the same spirit and plighting the same faith.
How men stretch upward to a kingly height when such grand
occasions come, or wither and waste like froth on the billows that
charge along the shore!
It was promotion to rank of greater influence when Mr. Blaine took
his sceptre of power in Portland. Six times a week instead of once,
he went out in teeming editorials to the people. Every department of
the paper was enriched and felt the thrill of his presence. He was a
graduate in journalism now. Its ways were all familiar. His study of it
and experience had brought him the ability of hard, rapid work. It
was the testimony of his old associate at Augusta, that he would go
at once to the core of a subject, and get the wheat out of the chaff.
The beginning and ending of an article, he said, were its heavy parts,
and Mr. Blaine knew just where to look, whether in newspaper,
review, or book.
He always found what he wanted, and so was always armed to the
teeth with fact and incident, with argument and illustration. He had
the eye and ear and pen of the true journalist.
Some men have a peculiar faculty for getting at what is going on.
They seem to know by instinct. It is not always told them, but they
are good listeners, as all great men are. They are men of great
industry; search and research are ever the order with them.
Some men are sound asleep when the decisive hours of life are
passing, others seem ever awake It is this ability to see, and hear,
and feel, to catch and ever know, that has made Mr. Blaine a living
centre of the political intelligence of his time. As a student of history
he had learned the ways of men and nations, the policies of
governments, and the methods of their execution, their meteorology,
mineralogy, and ways of navigation,—for nations have all of these,
political weather, materials of construction, together with tides and
currents in their affairs, besides rocks and reefs and coasts of
danger. The right ways are always the great ways, the light the best
ways.
All the light of any subject comes from the truth it holds within, and
the man of mastery is the man of light and life and energy. It is
unfilled capacity that makes of so many the sounding brass and
tinkling cymbal. Unfed, untrained, and unworked minds have filled
the world with wrecks.
Mr. Blaine is climbing the ladder now. Coming up out of the ranks, as
some must come, with worth or worthlessness.
“Heaven is not reached by a single bound,
But we climb the ladder by which we rise.”
It was General Taylor’s great difficulty in Mexico to bring on a battle.
This at times requires the ablest generalship; but this he finally
succeeded in doing at Buena Vista, and so created the occasion of
his greatest victory. This was a power in the tactics of Mr. Blaine. He
was never afraid to attack, and never out of ammunition, however
long the siege or strong the foe.
Soon after he entered the legislature Mr. Blaine encountered
Ephraim K. Smart, one of the greatest men of his party, a man who
had been in congress, and afterward was twice their candidate for
governor. While in congress he had opposed the extension of
slavery in Kansas, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise which
limited slavery to the Southern states; but now, during the Buchanan
régime, when the party seemed hopelessly sold to slavery, he went
back on his record, swore by the party, and stood by its record,
regardless of his own.
Mr. Blaine was thoroughly posted, and when the time came turned it
against him in debate. It was a time of danger at the nation’s capital;
assaults were frequent, thrilling scenes were enacted everywhere.
Each hour brought the country nearer the verge of war. Our man was
fearless and he was strong,—strong in the right, strong in his
knowledge of the situation, strong in the command of his powers; so
with his ever aggressive spirit of true progress, he hurled his lance.
With a merciless skill he unfolded the history of the man, with all of
its inconsistencies, sophistry, and contradiction, and reaching the
climax he held it up to view, and advancing towards him (his name
was Ephraim), he said, with great dramatic power, “Ephraim is a
cake unturned, and we propose to turn him.”
Imagine if you can the bewildered consternation of the man! It was
one of Mr. Blaine’s first triumphs in the house, and a stride toward
the speaker’s chair.
With this same spirit and power he did his work at Portland. His
position afforded him the best opportunity for news of every sort, and
his legislative work was largely in the line of his editorial, so that
preparation for the one was fitness for the other. Yet life was full to
the brim. He was a man of immense vitality, and is to-day, as almost
daily intercourse with him can testify.
The first day of his duties in the legislature he is appointed chairman
of a committee of five to inform the newly-elected governor, Lot M.
Morrill, of his election. Thus he is recognized and honored as the
chief one, worthy to represent the body in the presence of the
governor.
A few days after, he presented a long, well-worded resolution that
the house, in concurrence with the senate, according to certain
forms of law indicated, proceed, upon the following Tuesday, at
twelve o’clock, to elect a United States senator to succeed Hon. Wm.
Pitt Fessenden, whose term expired on the fourth of March, of that
year. Also an important resolution submitting an amendment of a
legal character to their consideration, thus showing that his
knowledge of law was utilized by him as a law-maker.
As one of the chairmen of the State Prison committee of the house
he delivers a long speech upon the 17th and 18th of March in reply
to one delivered by the same Hon. E. R. Smart, who had opposed
resolutions presented by Mr. Blaine’s committee upon improving the
present prison and building another.
Mr. Smart was evidently the aggressor, and very much his senior in
age, but Mr. Blaine sharply tells him that large portions of his speech
were irrelevant, having been delivered the night before in a
democratic meeting downtown; calls him the Earl of Warwick to the
Democratic Plantagenets; compares him, with great vigor, to a
character in Gil Blas, who had written a book in support of certain
remedies sure to cure, and which, though utterly futile, he argued
with a friend he must continue to practice, because he had written
the book, and so Mr. Smart must inflict his speech because he had
written it.
Blaine was well-armed; had a wide array of statistics; had, indeed,
been over the ground thoroughly the year before with the governor,
and written it up for his paper, and showed himself competent to take
care of his committee.
A short time before this he had made a handsome little speech in
favor of a resolve introduced by this same leader of the Democracy,
in which he desired a new county formed, and his own town of
Camden made the shire-town, and yet Mr. Blaine’s measure, a
necessity, and for the public good, is violently assailed.
A careful examination of the proceedings of the legislature prove this
to be a fact, that Mr. Blaine was a devoted, constant, and faithful
member; that about every motion he made was carried; and that he
ranked in ability as a speaker, both in matter and method, with the
best of them. His three years’ work as an editor had made him well
acquainted with its members, and thoroughly conversant with the
ways of the house, so that he was thoroughly at home in their midst,
with none of the nervous diffidence which a new member from the
country, however good and honest he might be, would be very likely
to have. He spoke about as he wrote. He had written about five
hundred good, solid editorials in the previous years, as they issued a
tri-weekly during the session of the legislature, and in reporting its
doings had caught the drift of its operations.
Moreover, he had a good business preparation for his work. He had
been largely upon his own resources for ten years, and in the
business management of his paper, and in studying up the business
interests of the city and of the state, he had acquired experience and
knowledge. No one, it would seem, can read the record of his
speeches, short and long, or the motions he made, resolves he
offered, without being impressed that he had a clear, strong way of
looking at questions. He could tell the husk from the corn at a
glance, and if he had anything to do with a member’s speech would
tear off the husk without any ceremony and make quick search for
the corn.
But the affairs of the country were in a bad way as Mr. Blaine was
daily recording them. There had been over nine thousand business
failures in the country in 1857 and 1858; or, to be exact, there were
four thousand nine hundred and thirty-two in 1857, and four
thousand two hundred and twenty-five in 1858, with a loss of three
hundred and eighty-seven million four hundred and ninety-nine
thousand six hundred and sixty-two dollars, a sum in those days of
enormous proportion. Slave-holders, who had the power then, were
urging the purchase of Cuba, at a cost of two hundred million dollars,
for the purposes of slavery.
The country seemed to be at a stand-still, or going backwards. The
state of Vermont had increased in population but one thousand six
hundred and fifty-seven in ten years, from 1850 to 1860.
Senators Crittenden, of Kentucky, and Seward, of New York, had a
passage of words in the senate, and apologized.
Fessenden had been re-elected to the United States Senate, and
New Hampshire had gone Republican.
But Stephen A. Douglas had beaten Abraham Lincoln for the senate
from Illinois by a vote of fifty-eight to forty-four, and Seward had
introduced his famous bill for the repression of the slave trade, just to
bring the Southern senators into position on that subject, and this
only a year before Lincoln was nominated. It provided for ten
steamers, as a part of the navy, to cruise along the coast of Africa,
as the president might direct.
About this time Oregon is admitted as the second state on the
Pacific coast.
Mr. Blaine deals with all the questions of the day with skill and
effectiveness. A municipal election is going on in Portland, and Mr.
Blaine does his part by tongue and pen to aid in achieving a
Republican victory, which is triumphantly accomplished just as the
legislature is closing. But Mr. Blaine has time to deliver his best
speech of the session, on Friday before final adjournment on
Tuesday, April 5th, after a session of ninety days. Now he has nearly
nine solid months of straight editorial work. The one great object is