n
the fall of 1882 he had interfered in the campaign in New York, allowing
his Secretary of the Treasury, Charles J. Folger, while retaining that
office, to be the Republican candidate for governor. This had led to the
belief that the patronage was being used for local purposes, and had
stirred up an opposition to Folger which defeated him. Arthur's veto of
the Chinese Exclusion Bill and the River and Harbor Bill further
increased his unpopularity in various sections. He failed to win over
the Blaine faction, who regarded him as an intrusive accident and waited
impatiently for the next national convention.

Blaine was the leader of the Republican party in 1884, so far as it had
a leader, and he possessed all the weaknesses of such a leader as well
as personal weaknesses of his own. Rarely has it been possible to
nominate or to elect one who has gained a dominant place through party
struggles. Such men, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and their kind, have
commonly created enough enemies, as they have risen, to make them
unavailable as leaders of a national ticket. Blaine was handicapped like
these. His prolonged fight against Conkling and the Stalwarts created a
breach too deep to fill, while the old questions respecting his honor
would not down.

Early in 1884 Blaine was the leading candidate for the nomination in
spite of all opposition. The Republican National Committee was in charge
of men who sympathized with him. Dorsey had resigned as its secretary
after the star-route exposure, though his associate in land
speculations, Stephen B. Elkins, remained as one of the managers. The
control was in the hands of men who had close affiliation with the old
organization, and of the manufacturers who had blocked tariff revision
in 1883. It was improbable, in the opinion of many independents, that a
tariff reduction could be got from an Administration headed by Blaine;
they questioned his sincerity upon civil service reform; and they
thought it not right that any man, concerning whose character there was
a doubt, should be President. They put forward, within the party,
Senator George F. Edmunds, whom they had desired in 1880, and who had
since become President of the Senate. Other candidates with local
followings were General John A. Logan, of Illinois, John Sherman, and
the President himself.

The Chicago Convention of the Republican party, meeting early in June,
was the scene of a battle between the two elements in the party. At t