Hearst was a MissourianⒶapparatus note; I was a MissourianⒶapparatus note. He was a long, lean, practical, common-sense,Ⓐapparatus note uneducated man of fifty, or thereabouts. I was shorter and better informed—at least I thought so. One day, in the Lick House in San Francisco, he said:

“I am a Republican; I expect to remain a Republican always. It is my purpose, and I am not a changeable person. But look at the condition of things. The Republican party goes right along, from year to year, scoring triumph after triumph, until it has come to think that the political power of the United States is its property, and that it is a sort of insolence for any other party to aspire to any part of that power. Nothing can be worse for a country than this. To lodge all power in one party and keep it there, is to insure bad government, and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public moralsⒶapparatus note. The parties ought to be so nearly equal in strength as to make it necessary for the leaders on both sides to choose the very best men they can find. Democratic fathers ought to divide up their sons between the two parties if they can, and do their best in this way to equalize the powers. I have only one son. He is a little boy, but I am already instructing him, persuading him, preparing him, to vote against me when he comes [begin page 316] of age, let me be on whichever side I may. He is already a good Democrat, and I want him to remain a good Democrat—until I become a Democrat myself. Then I shall shift him to the other party, if I can.”

It seemed to me that this unlettered man was at least a wise one. And I have never voted a straight ticket from that day to this. I have never belonged to any party from that day to this. I have never belonged to any church from that day to this. I have remained absolutely free in those matters. And in this independence I have found a spiritual comfort and a peace of mind quite above price.

WhenⒶapparatus note Blaine came to be talked of by the Republican leaders as their probable candidate for the PresidencyⒶapparatus note, the Republicans of Hartford were very sorry, and they thought they foresaw his defeat, in case he should be nominated. But they stood in no great fear of his nomination. The Convention met in Chicago, and the balloting began. In my houseⒶapparatus note we were playing billiards. Sam Dunham was present; also F. G. Whitmore, Henry C. Robinson, Charles E. Perkins and Edward M. BunceⒺexplanatory note. We took turns in the game, and, meanwhile, discussed the political situation. GeorgeⒺexplanatory note, the colored butler, was down in the kitchen on guard at the telephone. As fast as a ballot was received at the political headquarters down town, it was telephoned out to the house, and George reported it to us through the speaking-tube. Nobody present was seriously expecting the nomination of Mr. Blaine. All these men were Republicans, but they had no affection for Blaine. For two years, the Hartford Courant had been holding Blaine up to scorn and contumely. It had been denouncing him daily. It had been mercilessly criticisingⒶapparatus note his political conduct and backing up the criticisms with the deadly facts. Up to that time the Courant had been a paper which could be depended on to speak its sincere mind about the prominent men of both parties, and its judgments could be depended upon as being well and candidly considered, and sound. It had been my custom to pin my faith to the Courant, and accept its verdicts at par.

The billiard game and the discussion went on and on, and by and by, about mid-afternoon, George furnished us a paralysingⒶapparatus note surprise through the speaking-tube. Mr. Blaine was the nominee!Ⓐapparatus note The butts of the billiard cues came down on the floor with a bump, and for a while the players were dumb. They could think of nothing to say. Then Henry Robinson broke the silence. He said, sorrowfully, that it was hard luck to have to vote for that man. I said:

“But we don’t have to vote for him.”

Robinson said “Do you mean to say that you are not going to vote for him?”

“Yes,” I said,Ⓐapparatus note “that is what I mean to say. I am not going to vote for him.”

The others began to find their voices. They sang the same note. They said thatⒶapparatus note when a party’s representatives choose a man,Ⓐapparatus note that ends it. If they choose unwisely it is a misfortune, but no loyal member of the party has any right to withhold his vote. He has a plain duty before him and he can’t shirk it. He must vote for that nominee.

I said that no party held the privilege of dictating to me how I should vote. That if party loyalty wasⒶapparatus note a form of patriotism, I was no patriot, and that I didn’t think I was much of a patriot anywayⒶapparatus note, for oftener than otherwise what the general body of Americans regarded as the patriotic course was not in accordance with my views; that if there was any valuable difference between being an American and a monarchist it lay in the theory that the American could decide for himself what is patriotic and what isn’t; whereas the king could dictate the monarchist’s [begin page 317] patriotism for him—a decision which was final and must be accepted by the victim; that in my belief I was the only person in the sixty millions—with Congress and the Administration back of the sixty millions—who was privileged to construct my patriotism for me.

They said “Suppose the country is entering upon a war—where do you stand then?Ⓐapparatus note Do you arrogate to yourself the privilege of going your own way in the matter, in the face of the nation?”

“Yes,” I said,Ⓐapparatus note “that is my position. If I thought it an unrighteous war I would say so. If I were invited to shoulder a musket in that cause and march under that flag, I wouldⒶapparatus note decline. I would not voluntarily march under this country’s flag, nor any other, when it was my private judgment that the country was in the wrong. If the country obliged me to shoulder the musket I could not help myself, but I would never volunteer. To volunteer would be the act of a traitor to myself, and consequentlyⒶapparatus note traitor to my country. If I refused to volunteer,Ⓐapparatus note I should be called a traitor, I am well aware of that—but that would not make me a traitor. The unanimous vote of the sixty millions could not make me a traitor. I should still be a patriot, and, in my opinion, the only one in the whole country.”Ⓐapparatus note

There was a good deal of talk, but I made no converts. They were all candid enough to say that they did not want to vote for Mr. Blaine, but they all said they would do it nevertheless. Then Henry Robinson said:

“It is a good while yet before election. There is time for you to come around; and you will come around. The influences about you will be too strong for you. On election dayⒶapparatus note you will vote for Blaine.”

I said I should not go to the polls at all.

GeneralⒶapparatus note Hawley, the editor-in-chief (and he was also commander-in-chief of the paper),Ⓐapparatus note was at his post in CongressⒺexplanatory note, and the telegraphing to and fro between the Courant and him went on diligently until midnight. For two years the Courant had been making a “tar baby” of Mr. Blaine, and adding tar every day—and now it was called upon to praise him,Ⓐapparatus note hurrah for him, and urge its well instructed clientele to elevate the “tar baby” to the chief magistracy of the nation. It was a difficult position, and it took the Courant people and GeneralⒶapparatus note Hawley nine hours to swallow the bitter pill. But at last GeneralⒶapparatus note Hawley reached a decision, and at midnight the pill was swallowed. Within a fortnight the Courant had acquired some facility in praising where it had so long censured; within another month the change in its character was become complete—and to this day it has never recovered its virtue entirely, though under Charles Hopkins Clark’s editorshipⒺexplanatory note it has gotten back 90 per cent of it, by my estimate.Ⓐapparatus note

Charles Dudley Warner was the active editor at the time. He could not stomach the new conditions. He found himself unable to turn his pen in the other direction and make it proceed backwards, therefore he decided to retire his pen altogether. He withdrew from the editorship, resigned his salary, lived thenceforth upon his income as a part proprietor of the paper, and upon the proceeds of magazine work and lecturing, and kept his vote in his pocket on election dayⒶapparatus note Ⓔexplanatory note.

The conversation with the learned American memberⒺexplanatory note of the Board of scholars which revisedⒶapparatus note the New Testament did occur as I have outlined it in that old article. He was vehement in his [begin page 318] denunciation of Blaine, his relative, and said he should never vote for him. But he was so used to revising New Testaments that it took him only a few days to revise this one. I had hardly finished with him when I came across James G. Batterson. Batterson was President of the great TravelersⒶapparatus note Insurance CompanyⒺexplanatory note. He was a fine man; a strong man; and a valuable citizen. He was fully as vehement as that clergyman had been in his denunciations of Blaine—but inside of two weeks he was presiding at a great Republican ratification meeting; and to hear him talk about Blaine and his perfections, a stranger would have supposed that the Republican party had had the good fortune to secure an archangel as its nominee.

Time went on. Election dayⒶapparatus note was close at hand. Late one frosty night, TwichellⒶapparatus note, the ReverendⒶapparatus note Francis Goodwin and I were tramping homeward through the deserted streets in the face of a wintry gale, after a séanceⒶapparatus note of our Monday Evening Club,Ⓐapparatus note and after a supper-table debate over the political situation, in which the fact had come out—to the astonishment and indignation of everybody, the ladies included—that three traitors were present. That Goodwin, TwichellⒶapparatus note and I were going to keep our votes in our pockets instead of casting them for the archangel. Along in that homeward tramp, somewhere, Goodwin had a happy idea, and brought it out. He said,Ⓐapparatus note

“Why are we keeping back these three votes from Blaine? Plainly the answer is,Ⓐapparatus note to do what we can to defeat Blaine. Very well then, these are three votes against Blaine. The common-senseⒶapparatus note procedure would be to cast six votes against him by turning in our three votes for Cleveland.”

Even TwichellⒶapparatus note and I could see that there was sense in that, and we said,Ⓐapparatus note

“That is a very good thing to do and we’ll do it.”

On election dayⒶapparatus note we went to the polls and consummated our hellish design. At that time the voting was publicⒺexplanatory note. Any spectator could see how a man was voting—and straightway this crime was known to the whole community. This double crime,—in the eyes of the community. To withhold a vote from Blaine was bad enough, but to add to that iniquity by actually voting for the Democratic candidate was criminal to a degree for which there was no adequateⒶapparatus note language discoverable in the dictionary.

From that day forth, for a good while to come, Twichell’sⒶapparatus note life was a good deal of a burden to him. To use a common expression, his congregation “soured” on him, and he found small pleasure in the exercise of his clerical office—unless perhaps he got some healing for his hurts, now and then, through the privilege of burying some of those people of his. It would have been a benevolence to buryⒶapparatus note the whole of them, I think, and a profit to the community. But if that was Twichell’sⒶapparatus note feeling about it, he was too charitable in his nature and too kindly to expose it. He never said it to me, and I think that if he would have said it to any one, I should have been the one.

TwichellⒶapparatus note had most seriously damaged himself with his congregation. He had a young family to support. It was a large family already, and it was growing. It was becoming a heavier and heavier burden every year—but his salary remained always the same. It became less and less competent to keep up with the domestic drain upon it, and if there had ever been any prospect of increasing this salary, that prospect was gone now. It was not much of a salary. It was four thousand dollars. He had not asked for more, and it had not occurred to the congregation to [begin page 319] offer it. Therefore his vote for ClevelandⒺexplanatory note was a distinct disaster to him. That exercise of his ostensible great American privilege of being free and independent in his political opinions and actions,Ⓐapparatus note proved a heavy calamity. But the ReverendⒶapparatus note Francis Goodwin continued to be respected as before—that is publicly; privately he was damned. But publicly he had suffered no harm. Perhaps it was because the public approval was not a necessity in his case. His father was worth seven millions, andⒶapparatus note was old. The Reverend FrancisⒶapparatus note was in the line of promotion, andⒶapparatus note would soon inherit.

As far as I was myself concerned, I did not need to worry. I did not draw my living from Hartford. It was quite sufficient for my needs. Hartford’s opinion of me could not affect it;Ⓐapparatus note and besides it had long been known among my friends that I had never voted a straight ticket, and was therefore so accustomed to crime that it was unlikely that disapproval of my conduct could reform me—and maybe I wasn’t worth the trouble anyway.

By and by, about a couple of months later, New Year’sⒶapparatus note Eve arrived, and with it the annual meeting of Joe’s congregation and the annual sale of the pews.