ng,
Father Abraham,' would give it. We must not lose this campaign, and I
am alarmed by the prospect of losing it in my name."

"But," I interposed, "it is the report and the public opinion that
General Sherman would not consent to be a candidate; that he would
throw the party down that would nominate him. Why not try the other
Sherman?"

Mr. Blaine's response was that John Sherman would have the like
difficulty in carrying New York that he would have himself. The
element of military heroism was wanting. He had written to General
Sherman on the subject, and of course the General thought he could
not consent to be President--for that was what it amounted to--but his
reasoning was fallacious. If General Sherman had the question put to
him--whether to be President himself or turn the office over to the
Democratic party, with the Solid South dominant--he would see his duty
and do it, though his reluctance was real.

I said General Sherman could not consent to appear in competition with
his brother John at Chicago, though he had a funny way of looking
on John in West Point style as a "politician," and that was an
insuperable difficulty; and that, Mr. Blaine did not seem to have
thought of as a serious element in the case, but he realized the force
of it. I was anxious to hear more about the correspondence between
Blaine and General Sherman; but was only told that the letter to the
General was a call to consider that circumstances might arise, and
should do so, in which the General's sense of duty could be appealed
to, and be as strong as that to take up arms had been when the Union
demanded defenders.

[Illustration: MR. BLAINE AT HIS DESK IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT.

From a photograph by Miss F.B. Johnston.]

Arrived at Chicago, I soon ascertained that Mr. Blaine had been doing
a good deal of talking of the same kind I had heard, but he had
not been able to impress the more robust of those favorable to his
nomination with the view that he should be heeded. They insisted that
he was not wise, but timid; that he did not like war and would do too
much for peace; that he especially miscalculated when he said he could
not carry New York, for he was the very man who could carry it;
that his personal force was far beyond his own estimation; that his
intuitions were like those of a woman, but were not infallible; that
his singing the campaign was a fancy; that "Marching Through
Georgia" would wear out, and was of the stuff of