tion into your private correspondence? could do." That was the worst he He paused. The silence was expectant. But One Thing to Complete the Circle of Evidence. There is but one witness whom I could not have, to whom the Judiciary Committee, taking into account the great and intimate connection he had with the transaction, was asked to send a cable despatch,— and I ask the gentleman from Kentuckey if that despatch was sent to him?" "Who?" suggested Mr. Frye, in an undertone. Mr. Knott responded blandly, "I will reply to the gentleman that Judge Hunton and myself have both endeavored to get Mr. Caldwell's address, and have not yet got it." Then came the unexpected and upsetting question from Mr. Blaine, "Has the gentleman from Kentucky received a despatch from Mr. Caldwell?" The House was breathless. "I will explain that-directly," replied Mr. Knott. 66 "I want a categorical answer," demanded Mr. Blaine. "I have received," gasped Mr. Knott, "a despatch purporting to be from Mr. Caldwell." "You did!" "How did you know I got it?" asked Mr. Knott in the very fatuity of surprise. "When did you get it?" questioned Mr. Blane, sternly. the gentleman from Kentucky to answer when he got it." "Answer my question first," parried Mr. Knott. "I never heard of it until yesterday." "I want Mr. Blaine thrust aside the frivolous questioning, and for all answer towered down the aisle, holding high a despatch in his uplifted hand, and standing in the open space in front of the Speaker, in full view of the whole assembly, in the very face of Mr. Knott he pronounced with deliberate intense distinctness: "You got a despatch last Thursday morning at 8 o'clock from Josiah Caldwell completely and absolutely exonerating me from this charge,— AND YOU HAVE SUPPRESSED IT!" There was one instant of silence. Then went up from the great congregation such a sound as never those halls had heard before. It was not a shout, not a cheer, but rather a cry, the primal inarticulate voice of all souls, fused in one, a victorious voice of horror, anger, exultation, triumph; rising, swelling, sinking, renewing in an ecstacy that could not end. The House simply went to pieces. The vast audience dissolved into individual human beings abandoned to individual expression. For fifteen minutes nothing else was done. It seemed as if nothing else ever would be done. The Speaker is reported to have called to order, but only the reporters heard him. He is said to have complained piteously that he was not responsible, that the door-keepers had let in upon the floor twice as many visitors as there were members, and that the House would be cleared if the applause was repeated; but the applause was repeated at will, and no one left till he chose to go. Mr. Blaine at length rose and offered a resolution, the most extraordinary perhaps that ever was offered in a Legislative assembly, or that an investigating committee ever encountered, a resolution which, in fact, put the investigating committee under investigation by the accused: Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to report forthwith to the House whether in acting under the resolution of the House of May 2, relative to the purchase by the Pacific Railroad Company of seventy-five land-grant bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad, it has sent any telegrams to one Josiah Caldwell, in Europe, and received a reply thereto. And, if so, to report said telegram and reply, with the date when said reply was received, and the reasons why the same has. been suppressed. "And after that," suggested Mr. Blaine, rapidly, "add 'or whether they have heard from Josiah Caldwell in any way.' Just add those words, and what.' Give it to me and I will modify it;" and seizing a pen he swiftly scratched in the words, called the previous question on the resolution, and with another wild, long-continued applause from floor and gallery, the House adjourned and the audience slowly melted away. * * * The investigating committee practically disappeared on the fifth of June. They had some meetings afterwards, but they had been permancutly deflected from their original purpose, and the question henceforth before them was not the entanglement of Mr. Blaine, but the disentanglement of Mr. Knott. The nature, motive, and methods of the investigation had been too thoroughly exposed for it ever again to assume standing among men. In the committee room and on the floor of the House Mr. Blaine spoke a few rare words of haughty and supreme contempt which proved to be parting words, and appeared before them After he had gone some signs of malign life stirred in the House, but Mr. Blaine's friends finding that their magnanimity had been abused by the "culprits"-to use General Garfield's designation-turned no more. BLAINE PROVES HIS INNOCENCE. 337 and tore them in pieces. Deprived of the vitality which his presence lent, the committee never pulled itself together enough to make a report (The foregoing is taken from Gail Hamilton's Biography of Mr. Blaine). Proctor Knott, however, afterward said: “I have no knowledge of any transaction of Mr. Blaine's inconsistent with the highest integrity." The The Louisville Courier (Democratic) said: Blaine threw the letters in the face of the public, and lo! there is nothing in them.” 2 Immediately after Blaine's defense in the House, some questioned the authenticity of the cable despatch received by Proctor Knott and signed Caldwell. Mr. D. B. Sickels, who for a long time held intimate business relations with Mr. Caldwell, cabled to him upon the subject, and June 9 received the following reply: "To Sickels, New York. "Cabled Committee June 1, full explanation. eousness. Caldwell." The narration of events we will continue in Gail Hamilton's words: There was no need that the investigating committee should report. Mr. Blaine had made his own report to the great tribunal, to the highest Court of Appeal on earth, the People, and received from them at once and forever, not merely the award of innocence, but the plaudit of rightThenceforth he became, and as long as he lived remained, the one prominent Republican candidate for the presidency, more eagerly desired by a larger number than any president had ever been, and followed and loved as a leader with an ardor that had relation to no place except that which he had made in the hearts of the people; and it is to be observed that the bulk of his nominating vote came always from the electing States, while the very candidates who were brought forward to defeat him in the nomination depended upon the Blaine votes for electionand received them. Nevertheless, g. EVIL DID A DEADLY WORK. To a nature as delicately organized as strongly endowed, friendly yet seclusive, of honor in the blood and therefore not on the lips, this struggle fierce and prolonged, against the cold, close coil of the political devil-fish, had a slimy repulsion utterly apart from the glow of manly combat with wind and wave. Standing up steadfastly to the defense of his reputation, in which the hopes, the faith and the welfare of a great multitude were centered and attacked, Mr. Blaine was not infrequently overtaken by a sudden horror of inward loathing which only an ever present sense of the wide interests involved enabled him to surmount. 1 Chicago Inter-Ocean, editorial, June 2 Same citation. 17, 1876. During all that hideous time no word of impatience broke from him to mar the intense sympathy of the household whose life was bound up in him. When once he was endlessly pacing back and forth through the long suite of rooms, silent, absorbed, a detaining hand was laid on his arm, he said gently, "Do not mind me," but continued his walk. Once lying on the sofa, ill with a slight malaria, he suddenly raised his clenched hand high and exclaimed in a voice thick with emotion, "When I think-when I think-that there lives in this broad land one single human being who doubts my integrity, I would rather have stayed" but instantly controlled himself and did not finish the sentence. His magnificent bearing in front of the fight, his stately and splendid march to an unprecedented personal triumph, permitted no hint of the acuteness of his suffering. His patience and gentleness at home were beyond words. The severe strain removed, a reaction came. On the Sunday after he had snatched his case from the suppression and suffocation of the committee, and had submitted it to the impartial judgment of men, he came from his chamber to the drawing-room well and strong as usual to all appearance. Through the spring he had been several times somewhat indisposed from malaria and disgust; but this morning he pronounced himself fresher and more elastic than he had felt for some days, and telegraphed cheerfully to his friends in Cincinnati who were already gathering for the convention that was formally to meet on the next Wednesday. When summoned to breakfast he walked into the dining-room with a child perched on each shoulder. It was a warm day and the carriage was suggested for church, but he preferred to walk. Nearing the church door, with no comprehensible warning He Sank Down Unconscious upon the stone step in the arms of his wife, who could save him only from falling. Help was instantly at hand. An omnibus standing on the street was driven up, in which he was laid and taken immediately home. For the sake of air he was placed upon the floor in the hall, with the doors wide open while a bed was prepared in the drawing-room. So quickly the tidings flew that the street was blocked with a sorrowful, sympathetic throng who gazed incredulous at the prostrate form. General Sherman, utterly skeptical, bent over the bed and called "Blaine! Blaine" as if it were a summons to battle; but only the ring of his own voice shook the air, and only his own lip quivered. The house filled with friends who went where they listed, but the master was far away, locked in impenetrable sleep. Hour after hour numbered themselves into days while this slumber held him; then the clouds slightly parted, slowly lifted, gradually, yet at the end suddenly, |