THE NOMINATION OF MR. BLAINE.
THE Republican party in the United States has for twenty- four years enjoyed the strong sympathy of English Liberals, who saw from the first that their tenets would ulti- mately extinguish slavery. But it is impossible that this should last, in the face of a programme like that adopted by the Republican Convention of Chicago, followed by a nomination like that of Mr. Blaine. Half the sentences in that programme breathe the strongest spirit of Protection as a permanent policy for the nation ; while the other half are promises, like that of an eight-hours' law, intended only to catch votes. Pro- tection is openly defended as a means of keeping wages high, and as a plan for securing diversity of occupation ; while the depletion of the Treasury in order to avoid the surplus pro- duced by the high duties is promised almost in so many words. The surplus is to be " wisely " expended,—not reduced " horizon- tally," that is, by lowering taxation. A great effort, moreover, is to be made to catch agriculturists,—who hitherto have never been protected,—and thus to strengthen the weakest place in American Protection. It is impossible to tax imported cereals, because cereals are not imported, America producing millions of quarters of wheat and maize more than she can eat. But it is possible to protect grass ; and, accordingly, the sheep-owners are promised a heavy duty upon wool. The effect of that will be that the " homespun " which the immense majority of the people wear will be made dear for the benefit of the great flock-masters, and of the farmers who keep a few sheep each, and that a vast acreage which might be ploughed with greater advantage will be converted into pasture-land. It is impossible for English Liberals to regard such a programme as other than a system of taxing the whole people for the benefit of classes ; and their annoyance will be increased by the selection of Mr.
• Blaine as candidate for the Presidency. That gentleman, a man of a certain superficial brilliancy and eloquence, is believed throughout the Union to be the favourite candidate of the wire-pullers, the soul and brain of the "machine," the politician who, of all others, holds that corruption is unavoid- able in democratic politics. He has been selected by a junc- tion between his followers and those of Mr. Logan, and has repaid Mr. Logan's support with the nomination to the Vice- Presidency, and Mr. Logan is the nominee of the old Ring round General Grant, who used the President's name to pro- mote jobbing all over the Union. General Grant declared for him just before the Convention met. So well is this under- stood that the friends of Reform have already revolted ; and every newspaper in the Union which has hitherto defended purity in politics (except the New York Tribune) is declaring that the nomination cannot -stand. This question of purity' concerns England as much as America ; for we are growing rapidly democratic, and the success of the democratic system in America and Australia in securing at all events honest administration, directly concerns us here. If democrats plunder or misuse patronage, we prefer aristocrats to lead, even though they should advance unwillingly in the demo- cratic direction. It is the interest, therefore, of every Liberal in England, as well as his wish, that the American Inde- pendents should prevail.
Mr. Blaine's nomination is, therefore, a blow to every sound 'English Liberal, and would be even if he were not so pro- nounced a Jingo. But then he is a Jingo of the extreme type. He has always defended what is in principle a policy of con- quest. He is believed to hold that throime has arrived when the United States should become the North-American Republic, should persuade the Canadian Dominion to join it, and should extend its direct authority down to the Isthmus of Panama. He was, moreover, the Secretarywho denounced the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty,and its principle—the joint guardianship of the Panama Canal—upon the ground that the United States must control the inter-oceanic waterway, and who during the Peruvian War endeavoured to induce the Spanish-American States to place themselves under the avowed protectorate of the American Government. He claims, in fact, for the Union, under differ- ent forms, a sovereignty—or at least an effective and acknow- ledged leadership—throughout the two Americas, adding, that the trade of States like Peru naturally belongs to the people of the States, and not to those of Europe. Some of his schemes are, no doubt, either more moderate in reality than they seem on paper, or are defensible from the American point of view. He can hardly wish to conquer Canada, though he may desire to absorb it ; and, remembering our own feelings about the Suez Canal, we cannot wonder at American suspiciousness about a work which will be the direct waterway between the Eastern and Western States of the Union. But we must remember also that no Spanish-American or Indian who speaks Spanish wishes to be a citizen of the Union, that they must be subju- gated to be drawn in, and that there is therefore a flavour of aggressiveness and hauteur in all Mr. Blaine's utter- ance which is distinctly Jingo, and will be watched by all Liberals with the suspicion with which they watched Lord Beaconsfield.
But will Mr. Blaine succeed ? We should say, decidedly not. His party, taken as a whole, has been greatly worn by twenty-four years of nearly unbroken power. It did not at the last election receive its full vote, and it does not now return a majority of the Legislature. No doubt, election by States is greatly in his favour : the Protectionists will make desperate efforts on his behalf, and he appeals to a certain enthusiasm for aggrandisement in some of the Western States. But the body of the freeholders are opposed to Jingoism, being weary already of the foreign element in politics ; they see no advan- tage in quarrelling with a customer like Great Britain ; they hold Irish politics in quite separate scorn ; and they have an aversion, as deep as it is unreasonable, to a great increase of Catholic electors. They will not be greatly tempted by new territories; while they will greatly dislike, as they showed when the Peruvian scandal exploded, interference in South America. Moreover, defections will be large. The Reformers, even if nominally reconciled to Mr. Blaine—which will be a difficult arrangement even for a man of his resources to compass—will not go heartily to the polls ; and they control, besides a large native American vote, a majority of all who speak German and have learned politics from Carl Schurz. The German vote in the West is a heavy one, and apt to be thrown in a mass. To pay the Logan section for their support, Mr. Blaine has thrown over Mr. Robert Lincoln, who was the general nominee for the Vice-Presidency, and with him the im- mense influence which his name would have had over the negro vote. The negroes have never forgotten the Liberator. That vote will now be divided ; while the effort to catch the Irish vote in exchange will in all probability fail. The Irish will be pleased with the Republican promise to keep out Chinamen, and with the possibility that Mr. Blaine may quarrel with England ; but they are very local and clan- nish, and all over the Union their leaders have in local politics supported the Democratic party,—the party opposed by tradi- tion to Federal interference. They may desert for once ; but it is improbable that they will ; and if they do, their adhesion will not increase Mr. Blaine's popularity, the Irish being the strength of that Labour Party which alarms the holders of the soil. If, therefore, the Democrats have the nerve to declare for a heavy reduction of taxation, external and internal, and can secure a man of the type which attracts the freeholders—a man like General Garfield, who is thoroughly known, yet cannot be denounced as an aristocrat—they may carry sufficient States to seat their President. At present, their choice is obviously Mr. Tilden. But Mr. Tilden, though savage at his treatment in 1875, and originally an ambitious man, is growing very old, and will be content, as he has definitely announced, with the position of King-maker. If he finds a good candidate, the long and, on the whole, successful reign of the Republican party will, we believe, come to a temporary end. They will reappear, for they represent permanent tendencies in the Union ; but they must reappear as representatives of some principle a little more ideal than the right to tax all freeholders for the benefit of a few shareholders in mines, manufactories, and sheep- raising estates.
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