ve a vast reduction in our taxes. And
we can do this without repudiation in any form, either open or covert,
avowed or indirect, but with every obligation of the government
fulfilled and discharged in its exact letter and in its generous spirit.

"And this, Mr. Speaker, we shall do. Our national honor demands it; our
national interest equally demands it. We have vindicated our claim to
the highest heroism on a hundred bloody battle-fields, and have stopped
at no sacrifice of life needful to the maintenance of our national
integrity. I am sure that in the peace which our arms have conquered, we
shall not dishonor ourselves by withholding from any public creditor a
dollar that we promised to pay him, nor seek, by cunning construction
and clever afterthought, to evade or escape the full responsibility of
our national indebtedness. It will doubtless cost us a vast sum to pay
that indebtedness--but it would cost us incalculably more not to pay
it."

This speech, here referred to, occurring, as it did when the ablest
speakers were interested, was pronounced as a marvel. The great rows of
figures which he gave, but which space will not allow us to give,
illustrates the man, and his thorough mastery of all great public
questions. He never enters a debate unless fully prepared; if not
already prepared, he prepares himself. His reserve power is wonderful.
What a feature of success is reserve power.

In 1876 occurred one of the most remarkable contests ever known in
Congress. The debate began upon the proposition to grant a general
amnesty to all those who had engaged in the Southern war on the side of
the Confederacy; of course this would include Mr. Davis. Hon. Benjamin
H. Hill, of Georgia, one of the ablest Congressmen in the South, met Mr.
Blaine on the question. As space will not permit us to go into detail at
all as we would like to, we give simply an extract from one of Mr.
Blaine's replies:

"I am very frank to say that in regard to all these gentlemen, save one,
I do not know of any reason why amnesty should not be granted to them as
it has been to many others of the same class. I am not here to argue
against it. The gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Kasson) suggests 'on their
application.' I am coming to that. But as I have said, seeing in this
list, as I have examined it with some care, no gentleman to whom I think
there would be any objection, since amnesty has already become so
general--and I am not going back of that ques