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Page 5
While in the Senate Mr. Blaine advocated the Chinese immigration bill,
and opposed the electoral commission and Bland silver legislation. Here,
as throughout his political career, he was never on the fence on any
question. His position has always been clear and he has always taken
strong grounds.
Mr. Elaine was a candidate for the presidential nomination in 1876, and
came within twenty-seven votes of being successful. His vote increased
from two hundred and ninety-one on the first ballot to three hundred and
fifty-one on the seventh, but he was beaten by a combination against him
of the delegates supporting Morton, Conkling, Hartranft, Bristow, and
Hayes, who united upon Hayes, and made him the nominee. He was also one
of the leading candidates for the presidential nomination at the
Republican National Convention in Chicago, in June, 1880. Out of a total
of seven hundred and fifty-five he received, on the first ballot, two
hundred and eighty-four votes. On the thirteenth and fourteenth ballots
he received his highest vote, two hundred and eighty-five, which very
gradually declined to two hundred and fifty-seven on the thirty-fifth
ballot. On the thirty-sixth ballot General Garfield was nominated by a
combination of the elements opposed to General Grant and a third term.
As before, Mr. Blaine yielded to the inevitable, remaining true to his
party principles, and contributing his aid to the election of James A.
Garfield.
When President Garfield made up his Cabinet he offered Mr. Blaine the
control of the state department. This is how Mr. Blaine accepted the
offer:
WASHINGTON, December 20, 1880.
_My dear Garfield_,--Your generous invitation to enter your Cabinet
as secretary of state has been under consideration for more than three
weeks. The thought had really never occurred to my mind until, at our
late conference, you presented it with such cogent arguments in its
favor, and with such warmth of personal friendship in aid of your kind
offer. I know that an early answer is desirable, and I have waited only
long enough to consider the subject in all its bearings, and to make up
my mind, definitely and conclusively. I now say to you, in the same
cordial spirit in which you have invited me, that I accept the position.
It is no affectation for me to add that I make this decision, not for
the honor of the promotion it gives me in the public service, but
because I think I can be useful to the country and to the party; useful
to you as the responsible leader of the party and the great head of the
government. I am influenced somewhat, perhaps, by the shower of letters
I have received urging me to accept, written to me in consequence of the
mere unauthorized newspaper report that you had been pleased to offer me
the place. While I have received these letters from all sections of the
Union, I have been especially pleased, and even surprised, at the
cordial and widely extended feeling in my favor throughout New England,
where I had expected to encounter local jealousy and, perhaps, rival
aspiration.
In our new relation I shall give all that I am and all that I can hope
to be, freely and joyfully, to your service. You need no pledge of my
loyalty in heart and in act. I should be false to myself did I not prove
true both to the great trust you confide to me and to your own personal
and political fortunes in the present and in the future. Your
administration must be made brilliantly successful and strong in the
confidence and pride of the people, not at all directing its energies
for re-election, and yet compelling that result by the logic of events
and by the imperious necessities of the situation. To that most
desirable consummation I feel that, next to yourself, I can possibly
contribute as much influence as any other one man. I say this not from
egotism or vainglory, but merely as a deduction from a plain analysis of
the political forces which have been at work in the country for five
years past, and which have been significantly shown in two great
national conventions. I accept it as one of the happiest circumstances
connected with this affair that in allying my political fortunes with
yours--or, rather, for the time merging mine in yours--my heart goes
with my head, and that I carry to you not only political support, but
personal and devoted friendship. I can but regard it as somewhat
remarkable that two men of the same age, entering Congress at the same
time, influenced by the same aims and cherishing the same ambitions,
should never, for a single moment in eighteen years of close intimacy,
have had a misunderstanding or a coolness, and that our friendship has
steadily grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength. It is
this fact which has led me to the conclusion embodied in this letter;
for however much, my dear Garfield, I might admire you as a statesman, I
would not enter your Cabinet if I did not believe in you as a man and
love you as a friend. Always faithfully yours,
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