The Seattle Post Intelligencer

CLAY AND BLAINE.

Chicago Times.

The striking parallel between the career of Clay and the career of Blaine, which has often been pointed out, is rendered more complete by the event of the 6th inst. The defeat of Clay by Polk in 1844 left him still ambitious for the presidency, still anxious that opportunity should again be afforded him to make the race. When the Whig convention met four years later, the convention, greatly to Clay's chagrin, turned for its candidate to Zachary Taylor, then fresh from the fields of Mexico.

In the election which followed, Taylor was triumphant, just as by the election of Harrison the Republican party is restored to the power it lost under the candidacy of Blaine.

More politic than Clay, who gave vent to feelings of chagrin and bitterness, Blaine was an outspoken champion of Harrison.

Clay remained in the senate until his death. The similarity of public service and general career between these men will be rounded out if, instead of taking the place in the administration which he can command, he shall arrange to return to the senate, there to pass the remainder of an existence which his physical appearance indicates as not likely to be prolonged beyond an ordinary senatorial term.

Blaine, like Clay, is destined never to attain the presidency.

History has a curious way of repeating itself. In 1840 the Whigs, having elected Harrison, looked with confidence to a long career of party control just as with the return of their party in 1888 the Democrats counted on continued ascendency. In the electoral college Harrison had 234 electoral votes against Van Buren's 60, and the majority of the popular vote was with him. Four years later Polk carried both the popular and the electoral vote, and the Whigs went out to regain power four years later only to lose it again when Pierce was chosen president. The Republican party may now fancy that it has come to stay, But the readiness with which changes may be made has just been illustrated in one of many such elections.