and, contended that representation should be based on
population instead of voters, as being fairer to the North, where the
ratio of voters varied widely, and he insisted that it should be
safeguarded by security for impartial suffrage. This view prevailed, and
the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was substantially Blaine's
proposition. In the same spirit he opposed a scheme of military
governments for the southern states, unless associated with a plan by
which, upon the acceptance of prescribed conditions, they could release
themselves from military rule and resume civil government. He was the
first in Congress to oppose the claim, which gained momentary and
widespread favour in 1867, that the public debt, pledged in coin, should
be paid in greenbacks. The protection of naturalized citizens who, on
return to their native land, were subject to prosecution on charges of
disloyalty, enlisted his active interest and support, and the agitation,
in which he was conspicuous, led to the treaty of 1870 between the
United States and Great Britain, which placed adopted and native
citizens on the same footing.

As the presidential election of 1876 approached, Blaine was clearly the
popular favourite of his party. His chance for securing the nomination,
however, was materially lessened by persistent charges which were
brought against him by the Democrats that as a member of Congress he had
been guilty of corruption in his relations with the Little Rock & Fort
Smith and the Northern Pacific railways.[1] By the majority of
Republicans, at least, he was considered to have cleared himself
completely, and in the Republican national convention he missed by only
twenty-eight votes the nomination for president, being finally beaten by
a combination of the supporters of all the other candidates. Thereupon
he entered the Senate, where his activity was unabated. Currency
legislation was especially prominent. Blaine, who had previously opposed
greenback inflation now resisted depreciated silver coinage. He was the
earnest champion of the advancement of American shipping, and advocated
liberal subsidies, insisting that the policy of protection should be
applied on sea as well as on land. The Republican national convention
of 1880, divided between the two nearly equal forces of Blaine and
General U.S. Grant--John Sherman of Ohio also having a considerable
following--struggled through thirty-six ballots, when the friends of
Blaine, combin