n defeat,
as it did for the first time since the election of Lincoln. He
was beaten in the Republican National Conventions by men of mediocre
ability when the party was victorious.

He was a leading candidate at the Cincinnati Convention, when Hayes
was nominated. I was there and heard Ingersoll's great speech
placing him in nomination. I have always felt that Blaine would
have been nominated by that convention if a strong, courageous
presiding officer had been in the chair. As I sat behind Mr.
McPherson, the presiding officer, and watched the proceedings, I
thought that if I had had that gavel in my hands there would have
been no adjournment and James G. Blaine would have been nominated.
An adjournment was secured, however; the lights were extinguished,
and the enemies of Blaine united, and Hayes became the nominee.

But at the convention held in Chicago, in 1884, no other candidate
was seriously considered, and Blaine was nominated for President
and Logan for Vice-President.

I had to do much in connection with Blaine in the campaign of 1884.
He was a very agreeable man so long as things went to suit him;
but he did not attempt to control himself when things went at all
against him. He was campaigning through Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois,
in 1884; I had been on the platform with him at Massillon, Ohio,
when the people would scarcely listen to any one except Mr. McKinley.
It was arranged that Blaine should come from La Fayette, Indiana,
to Springfield, Illinois. I was chairman of the delegation consisting
of one hundred of the most prominent men of the State, selected to
accompany him to Springfield. The delegation went to La Fayette,
and the Adjutant-General of the State and I waited on Mr. Blaine
at the residence of Mr. George Williams, who is still living and
whom I have always known intimately. Mr. Blaine's son came down
in response to our call, announcing that his father had retired,
ill, and would not be disturbed until eight o'clock in the morning.
At the hour appointed we still had difficulty in seeing him, and
finally I enlisted the assistance of Mr. McKinley, who was there,
and the Hon. Joseph Medill of _The Chicago Tribune_, to help me to
prevail upon Blaine to keep his engagement. He had come to the
conclusion that he ought to go back East; that he was needed there
more than he was in the West. The truth was that he was trying to
evade the Springfield engagement. I told him that there would be