Overbearing Quotes
He was a veteran reporter who had worked with many different administrations.
The Boers were the decedents of the original Dutch farmers who came to South Africa. They were uneducated, lower class emigrants from Holland who, unlike the British who came later and were primarily interested in trade, were farmers and wanted to acquire the rich South African land for permanent settlement with no place for the blacks who were emigrating from Central Africa to acquire the same land. The result was a conflict between the whites of South Africa—the Boers who wanted to own as much land as possible and wanted the Blacks to be their slaves or very low wage workers with no rights at all, and the English whose laws made the Blacks citizens with rights. When the English ended up controlling South Africa the Boers with their own Afrikaner language and culture felt that the English whites were selling them out. The lower class Boers were insulted that under the English law, they were no better than Black farmers. They wanted to separate from the English so they could totally dominate the Blacks and strived for independence which led to the Boer Wars. Although the Boers lost to the English, they bred and populated South Africa and eventually came to dominate it politically. It was the Boers—also called Afrikaners—who were the ones who introduced Apartheid and created the racist society that caused so much difficulty in the late 20th century.
What was amazing about this attack was that at the time Conkling was one of the most powerful Republicans in the nation and Blaine was just a young member of the House. Also, the House rules prohibited the personal attack on another member. Blaine carefully phased his attack in the abstract but everyone knew to whom he was referring. Most, even within the party, agreed with the personal criticism of Conkling although he was much admired as a politician and political leader. After this House speech, all the political cartoonists depicted Conkling as a turkey gobbler in full strut. “Supereminent” is an adjective which was and is not commonly used, but is perfect for the quotation. Blaine’s attack on Conkling immediately made him a national figure and he succeeded Conkling as the national leader of the Republican party.
This book called into question U.S. foreign policy in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic.
