New York, Wednesday, January 24, 1906
Tells of the defeat of Mr. Blaine for the Presidency1, and how Mr. Clemens's, Mr. Twichell's, and Mr. Goodwin's votes were cast for Cleveland.
It is plain, I think, that this old article was written about twenty-two years ago, and that it followed by about three or four months the defeat of James G. Blaine for the Presidency and the election of Grover Cleveland, the Democratic candidate--a temporary relief from a Republican-party domination which had lasted a generation. I had been accustomed to vote for Republicans more frequently than for Democrats5, but I was never a Republican and never a Democrat2. In the community, I was regarded as a Republican, but I had never so regarded myself. As early as 1865 or '66 I had had this curious experience: that whereas up to that time I had considered myself a Republican, I was converted to a no-party independence by the wisdom of a rabid Republican. This was a man who was afterward6 a United States Senator, and upon whose character rests no blemish7 that I know of, except that he was the father of the William R. Hearst of to-day, and therefore grandfather of Yellow Journalism--that calamity8 of calamities9.
Hearst was a Missourian; I was a Missourian. He was a long, lean, practical, common-sense, uneducated man of fifty or thereabouts. I was shorter and better informed--at least I thought so. One day, in the Lick House in San Francisco, he said:
"I am a Republican; I expect to remain a Republican always. It is my purpose, and I am not a changeable person. But look at the condition of things. The Republican party goes right along, from year to year, scoring triumph after triumph, until it has come to think that the political power of the United States is its property and that it is a sort of insolence10 for any other party to aspire11 to any part of that power. Nothing can be worse for a country than this. To lodge12 all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration13 of the public morals. The parties ought to be so nearly equal in strength as to make it necessary for the leaders on both sides to choose the very best men they can find. Democratic fathers ought to divide up their sons between the two parties if they can, and do their best in this way to equalize the powers. I have only one son. He is a little boy, but I am already instructing him, persuading him, preparing him, to vote against me when he comes of age, let me be on whichever side I may. He is already a good Democrat, and I want him to remain a good Democrat--until I become a Democrat myself. Then I shall shift him to the other party, if I can."
It seemed to me that this unlettered man was at least a wise one. And I have never voted a straight ticket from that day to this. I have never belonged to any party from that day to this. I have never belonged to any church from that day to this. I have remained absolutely free in those matters. And in this independence I have found a spiritual comfort and a peace of mind quite above price.
When Blaine came to be talked of by the Republican leaders as their probable candidate for the Presidency, the Republicans of Hartford were very sorry, and they thought they foresaw his defeat, in case he should be nominated. But they stood in no great fear of his nomination14. The convention met in Chicago and the balloting16 began. In my house we were playing billiards17. Sam Dunham was present; also F. G. Whitmore, Henry C. Robinson, Charles E. Perkins, and Edward M. Bunce. We took turns in the game, and, meanwhile, discussed the political situation. George, the colored butler, was down in the kitchen on guard at the telephone. As fast as a ballot15 was received at the political headquarters downtown, it was telephoned out to the house, and George reported it to us through the speaking-tube. Nobody present was seriously expecting the nomination of Mr. Blaine. All these men were Republicans, but they had no affection for Blaine. For two years the Hartford Courant had been holding Blaine up to scorn and contumely. It had been denouncing him daily. It had been mercilessly criticizing his political conduct and backing up the criticisms with the deadly facts. Up to that time the Courant had been a paper which could be depended on to speak its sincere mind about the prominent men of both parties, and its judgments19 could be depended upon as being well and candidly20 considered, and sound. It had been my custom to pin my faith to the Courant and accept its verdicts at par4.
The billiard game and the discussion went on and on, and by and by, about mid-afternoon, George furnished us a paralyzing surprise through the speaking-tube. Mr. Blaine was the nominee21! The butts22 of the billiard cues came down on the floor with a bump, and for a while the players were dumb. They could think of nothing to say. Then Henry Robinson broke the silence. He said, sorrowfully, that it was hard luck to have to vote for that man. I said:
"But we don't have to vote for him."
Robinson said, "Do you mean to say that you are not going to vote for him?"
"Yes," I said, "that is what I mean to say. I am not going to vote for him."
The others began to find their voices. They sang the same note. They said that when a party's representatives choose a man, that ends it. If they choose unwisely it is a misfortune, but no loyal member of the party has any right to withhold24 his vote. He has a plain duty before him and he can't shirk it. He must vote for that nominee.
I said that no party held the privilege of dictating25 to me how I should vote. That if party loyalty26 was a form of patriotism28, I was no patriot27, and that I didn't think I was much of a patriot, anyway, for oftener than otherwise what the general body of Americans regarded as the patriotic29 course was not in accordance with my views; that if there was any valuable difference between being an American and a monarchist it lay in the theory that the American could decide for himself what is patriotic and what isn't; whereas the king could dictate30 the monarchist's patriotism for him--a decision which was final and must be accepted by the victim; that in my belief I was the only person in the sixty millions--with Congress and the Administration back of the sixty millions--who was privileged to construct my patriotism for me.
They said, "Suppose the country is entering upon a war--where do you stand then? Do you arrogate31 to yourself the privilege of going your own way in the matter, in the face of the nation?"
"Yes," I said, "that is my position. If I thought it an unrighteous war I would say so. If I were invited to shoulder a musket32 in that cause and march under that flag, I should decline. I would not voluntarily march under this country's flag, or any other, when it was my private judgment18 that the country was in the wrong. If the country obliged me to shoulder the musket, I could not help myself, but I would never volunteer. To volunteer would be the act of a traitor34 to myself, and consequently traitor to my country. If I refused to volunteer, I should be called a traitor, I am well aware of that--but that would not make me a traitor. The unanimous vote of the sixty millions could not make me a traitor. I should still be a patriot, and, in my opinion, the only one in the whole country."
There was a good deal of talk, but I made no converts. They were all candid3 enough to say that they did not want to vote for Mr. Blaine, but they all said they would do it, nevertheless. Then Henry Robinson said:
"It is a good while yet before election. There is time for you to come around, and you will come around. The influences about you will be too strong for you. On election day you will vote for Blaine."
I said I should not go to the polls at all.
The Courant had an uncomfortable time thence until midnight. General Hawley, the editor-in-chief (and he was also commander-in-chief of the paper), was at his post in Congress, and the telegraphing to and fro between the Courant and him went on diligently35 until midnight. For two years the Courant had been making a "tar33 baby" of Mr. Blaine, and adding tar every day--and now it was called upon to praise him, hurrah36 for him, and urge its well-instructed clientele to elevate the "tar baby" to the Chief Magistracy of the nation. It was a difficult position and it took the Courant people and General Hawley nine hours to swallow the bitter pill. But at last General Hawley reached a decision and at midnight the pill was swallowed. Within a fortnight the Courant had acquired some facility in praising where it had so long censured37; within another month the change in its character was become complete--and to this day it has never recovered its virtue38 entirely39, though under Charles Hopkins Clark's editorship it has gotten back 90 per cent of it, by my estimate.
Charles Dudley Warner was the active editor of the time. He could not stomach the new conditions. He found himself unable to turn his pen in the other direction and make it proceed backward, therefore he decided40 to retire his pen altogether. He withdrew from the editorship, resigned his salary, lived thenceforth upon his income as a part proprietor42 of the paper and upon the proceeds of magazine work and lecturing, and kept his vote in his pocket on election day.
The conversation with the learned American member of the board of scholars which revised the New Testament44 did occur as I have outlined it in that old article. He was vehement45 in his denunciation of Blaine, his relative, and said he should never vote for him. But he was so used to revising New Testaments46 that it took him only a few days to revise this one. I had hardly finished with him when I came across James G. Batterson. Batterson was president of the great Travelers' Insurance Company. He was a fine man, a strong man, and a valuable citizen. He was fully23 as vehement as that clergyman had been in his denunciations of Blaine--but inside of two weeks he was presiding at a great Republican ratification47 meeting; and to hear him talk about Blaine and his perfections, a stranger would have supposed that the Republican party had had the good fortune to secure an archangel as its nominee.
Time went on. Election day was close at hand. Late one frosty night, Twichell, the Rev43. Francis Goodwin, and I were tramping homeward through the deserted48 streets in the face of a wintry gale49, after a séance of our Monday Evening Club, and after a supper-table debate over the political situation, in which the fact had come out--to the astonishment50 and indignation of everybody, the ladies included--that three traitors51 were present. That Goodwin, Twichell, and I were going to keep our votes in our pockets instead of casting them for the archangel. Along in that homeward tramp, somewhere, Goodwin had a happy idea, and brought it out. He said:
"Why are we keeping back these three votes from Blaine? Plainly the answer is, to do what we can to defeat Blaine. Very well, then, these are three votes against Blaine. The common-sense procedure would be to cast six votes against him by turning in our three votes for Cleveland."
Even Twichell and I could see that there was sense in that, and we said:
"That is a very good thing to do and we'll do it."
On election day we went to the polls and consummated52 our hellish design. At that time the voting was public. Any spectator could see how a man was voting--and straightway this crime was known to the whole community. This double crime--in the eyes of the community. To withhold a vote from Blaine was bad enough, but to add to that iniquity53 by actually voting for the Democratic candidate was criminal to a degree for which there was no adequate language discoverable in the dictionary.
From that day forth41, for a good while to come, Twichell's life was a good deal of a burden to him. To use a common expression, his congregation "soured" on him and he found small pleasure in the exercise of his clerical office--unless, perhaps, he got some healing for his hurts, now and then, through the privilege of burying some of those people of his. It would have been a benevolence54 to bury the whole of them, I think, and a profit to the community. But if that was Twichell's feeling about it, he was too charitable in his nature and too kindly55 to expose it. He never said it to me, and I think that if he would have said it to anyone, I should have been the one.
Twichell had most seriously damaged himself with his congregation. He had a young family to support. It was a large family already, and it was growing. It was becoming a heavier and heavier burden every year--but his salary remained always the same. It became less and less competent to keep up with the domestic drain upon it, and if there had ever been any prospect56 of increasing this salary, that prospect was gone now. It was not much of a salary. It was four thousand dollars. He had not asked for more, and it had not occurred to the congregation to offer it. Therefore his vote for Cleveland was a distinct disaster to him. That exercise of his ostensible57 great American privilege of being free and independent in his political opinions and actions proved a heavy calamity. But the Rev. Francis Goodwin continued to be respected as before--that is, publicly; privately58 he was damned. But publicly he had suffered no harm. Perhaps it was because the public approval was not a necessity in his case. His father was worth seven millions, and was old. The Rev. Francis was in the line of promotion59 and would soon inherit.
As far as I was myself concerned, I did not need to worry. I did not draw my living from Hartford. It was quite sufficient for my needs. Hartford's opinion of me could not affect it, and besides it had long been known among my friends that I had never voted a straight ticket, and was therefore so accustomed to crime that it was unlikely that disapproval60 of my conduct could reform me--and maybe I wasn't worth the trouble, anyway.
By and by, about a couple of months later, New-Year's Eve arrived, and with it the annual meeting of Joe's congregation and the annual sale of the pews.
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presidency
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| n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期) | |
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democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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democrats
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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blemish
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| v.损害；玷污；瑕疵，缺点 | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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13
deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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14
nomination
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| n.提名，任命，提名权 | |
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ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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balloting
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| v.（使）投票表决( ballot的现在分词 ) | |
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billiards
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| n.台球 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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judgments
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| 判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判 | |
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candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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nominee
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| n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者 | |
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butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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withhold
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| v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡 | |
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dictating
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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arrogate
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| v.冒称具有...权利，霸占 | |
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musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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hurrah
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| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
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censured
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| v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的过去式 ) | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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testaments
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| n.遗嘱( testament的名词复数 )；实际的证明 | |
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ratification
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| n.批准，认可 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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49
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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51
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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consummated
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| v.使结束( consummate的过去式和过去分词 )；使完美；完婚；（婚礼后的）圆房 | |
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iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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