k it wise to put
at the head of a movement for reform and for purity of administration,
a man whose supporters must defend him against such charges,
and who must admit that he had most unwisely of his own accord
put himself into a position where such charges were not only
possible, but plausible. But I was exceedingly anxious that
a candidate should be found who would be not only agreeable
to Mr. Blaine and his supporters, but whom, if possible, they
should have a large influence in selecting.

Such a candidate, it was hoped, might be found in Mr. Bristow.
He was a great favorite in his own State. He was a man of
spotless integrity and great ability. He had been a Union
soldier. He was from Kentucky, and his selection as a candidate
would remove the charge of sectionalism from the Republican
Party, and tend to give it strength with the white people
of the South. He had made an admirable Attorney-General,
and an admirable Secretary of the Treasury. He had been appointed
to the Cabinet by Grant. He had not been long enough in public
service to have encountered the enmities which almost always
attach themselves to men long in office, and he represented
no clique or faction. He was a man of clean hands and of
pure heart. For a good while it seemed as if the rival aspirations
of Blaine and Bristow might exist without ill-feeling, so
that when the time came, the supporters of either might easily
give their support to the other, or agree without difficulty
in the support of some third person. I gave a banquet at
Wormley's in the spring of 1876, which I hoped might have
some tendency toward this desired harmony. There were about
forty guests. Mr. Blaine sat on my right hand as the guest
of honor, and Mr. Bristow on the left. They talked together,
as I sat between them, during the whole evening in the most
friendly and delightful way, telling humorous anecdotes relating
to their own campaigns, as pleasantly as if they had been
describing the canvass of some third person whom they were
both supporting. I do not believe there was at that time
in the heart of either a tinge of anger against the other.

But as the contest went on, Mr. Blaine seems to have become
possessed with a belief that the bitter public attacks upon
him were instigated by Bristow. Some of the Kentucky papers
had been specially bitter. The Republican Convention opened
in Cincinnati, Wednesday, June 14. The Sunday morning before
Mr. Blaine