Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/202

 sentiment prevailed and the same activity been displayed in New York, Blaine would have been elected. At this time I had some correspondence with a young man there who took the same view, named Theodore Roosevelt. As upon many other occasions, the people of Pennsylvania showed that they had a keener perception of what was likely to prove helpful to the needs of the country than the Conklings and Curtises of New York, and when we look back and see how near we came, thirty years before the opening of the Panama Canal, to losing, through dullness of comprehension, the Sandwich Islands, the key to the Pacific, we can appreciate the risks we ran in the defeat of Blaine. In a more narrow and personal point of view, in his defeat the “Half Breeds” lost the chance of control of the party as they had before through the assassination of Garfield.

Without knowing who was the author of the address, the Inquirer said that it was “admirable in tone and conclusive in argument;” the Bulletin said that it “showed much clearness and ability;” the Times said that it was “one of the most important documents that had been contributed to the campaign;” the New York Times said that “they make a very clever use of the reputation they got,” and the Springfield Republican, ever sneering, supercilious and mistaken, said that “it gauges the profundity of the Pennsylvania mind.”

The address commented upon over the country and producing an effect in an important national contest is here inserted:

The undersigned Republicans of Pennsylvania, relying for the proof of the earnestness of their convictions upon acts of independence, which in 1881 and in 1882 received the support of 50,000 voters, venture to present some considerations to those Republic i ans of other states who may be in doubt as to their duty with reference to the nominations made by the National Convention. 188