James G. Blaine
James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830 – January 27, 1893) was an American statesman and Republican politician who represented Maine in the United States House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1869 to 1875, and then in the United States Senate from 1876 to 1881.
"James Blaine" redirects here. Not to be confused with James Blain.
James G. Blaine
January 27, 1893 (aged 62)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Blaine Memorial Park, Augusta, Maine
7, including Walker
Blaine twice served as Secretary of State, first in 1881 under President James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, and then from 1889 to 1892 under President Benjamin Harrison. He is one of only two U.S. Secretaries of State to hold the position under three separate presidents, the other being Daniel Webster. Blaine unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President in 1876 and 1880 before being nominated in 1884. In the 1884 general election, he was narrowly defeated by Democratic nominee Grover Cleveland. Blaine was one of the late 19th century's leading Republicans and a champion of the party's moderate reformist faction, later known as the "Half-Breeds".
Blaine was born in the western Pennsylvania town of West Brownsville and moved to Maine after completing college where he became a newspaper editor. Nicknamed "the Magnetic Man", he was a charismatic speaker in an era that prized oratory. He began his political career as an early supporter of Republican Abraham Lincoln and the Union war effort in the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, Blaine was a supporter of black suffrage, but opposed some of the more coercive measures of the Radical Republicans. Initially in favor of high tariffs, he later worked to lower tariffs and expand international trade. Railroad promotion and construction were important issues in his time and, as a result of his interest and support, Blaine was widely suspected of corruption in awarding railroad charters, especially with the emergence of the Mulligan letters. Though no evidence of corruption ever surfaced from these allegations, they nevertheless plagued his 1884 presidential candidacy.
As Secretary of State, Blaine was a transitional figure, marking the end of an isolationist era in foreign policy and foreshadowing the rise of the American Century that would begin with the Spanish–American War. His efforts to expand U.S. trade and influence began the nation's shift to a more active American foreign policy. Blaine was a pioneer of tariff reciprocity and urged greater involvement in Latin American affairs. An expansionist, Blaine's policies would lead in less than a decade to the U.S. acquisition of Pacific colonies and the establishment of dominance in the Caribbean.
Early life[edit]
Family and childhood[edit]
James Gillespie Blaine was born January 31, 1830, in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, the third child of Ephraim Lyon Blaine and his wife Maria (Gillespie) Blaine. He had two older sisters, Harriet and Margaret.[1] Blaine's father was a western Pennsylvania businessman and landowner, and the family lived in relative comfort.[2] On his father's side, Blaine was descended from Scotch-Irish settlers who first emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1745.[3] His great-grandfather Ephraim Blaine served as a Commissary-General under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War.[4] Blaine's mother and her forebears were Irish Catholics who immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1780s.[5] Blaine's parents were married in 1820 in a Catholic ceremony, although Blaine's father remained a Presbyterian.[5] Following a common compromise of the era, the Blaines agreed that their daughters would be raised in their mother's Catholic faith while their sons would be brought up in their father's religion.[6] James Blaine's cousin, Angela Gillespie, was a nun and founded the American branch of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.[7] In politics, Blaine's father supported the Whig Party.[8]
Blaine's biographers describe his childhood as "harmonious," and note that the boy took an early interest in history and literature.[9] At the age of thirteen, Blaine enrolled in his father's alma mater, Washington College (now Washington & Jefferson College), in nearby Washington, Pennsylvania.[10] There, he was a member of the Washington Literary Society, one of the college's debating societies.[11] Blaine succeeded academically, graduating near the top of his class and delivering the salutatory address in June 1847.[12] After graduation, Blaine considered attending Yale Law School, but ultimately decided against it, instead moving west to find a job.[13]
Teacher and publisher[edit]
In 1848, Blaine was hired as a professor of mathematics and ancient languages at the Western Military Institute in Georgetown, Kentucky.[13] Although he was only 18 years old and younger than many of his students, Blaine adapted well to his new profession.[14] Blaine grew to enjoy life in his adopted state and became an admirer of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay.[14] He also made the acquaintance of Harriet Stanwood, a teacher at the nearby Millersburg Female College and native of Maine.[15] On June 30, 1850, the two wed.[15] Blaine once again considered taking up the study of law, but instead took his new bride to visit his family in Pennsylvania.[16] They next lived with Harriet Blaine's family in Augusta, Maine, for several months, where their first child, Stanwood Blaine, was born in 1851.[16] The young family soon moved again, this time to Philadelphia where Blaine took a job at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind (now Overbrook School for the Blind) in 1852, teaching science and literature.[17]
Secretary of State, 1881[edit]
Foreign policy initiatives[edit]
Blaine saw presiding over the cabinet as a chance to preside over the Washington social scene, as well, and soon ordered construction of a new, larger home near Dupont Circle.[94] Although his foreign policy experience was minimal, Blaine quickly threw himself into his new duties.[95] By 1881, Blaine had completely abandoned his protectionist leanings and now used his position as Secretary of State to promote freer trade, especially within the western hemisphere.[96] His reasons were twofold: firstly, Blaine's old fear of British interference in the Americas was undiminished, and he saw increased trade with Latin America as the best way to keep Britain from dominating the region.[96] Secondly, he believed that by encouraging exports, he could increase American prosperity, and by doing so position the Republican party as the author of that prosperity, ensuring continued electoral success.[96] Garfield agreed with his Secretary of State's vision and Blaine called for a Pan-American conference in 1882 to mediate disputes among the Latin American nations and to serve as a forum for talks on increasing trade.[97] At the same time, Blaine hoped to negotiate a peace in the War of the Pacific then being fought by Bolivia, Chile, and Peru.[97] Blaine favored a resolution that would not result in Peru yielding any territory, but Chile, which had by 1881 occupied the Peruvian capital, rejected any negotiations that would gain them nothing.[98] Blaine sought to expand American influence in other areas, calling for renegotiation of the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty to allow the United States to construct a canal through Panama without British involvement, as well as attempting to reduce British involvement in the strategically located Kingdom of Hawaii.[99] His plans for the United States' involvement in the world stretched even beyond the Western Hemisphere, as he sought commercial treaties with Korea and Madagascar.[100]
Legacy[edit]
A towering figure in the Republican party of his day, Blaine fell into obscurity fairly soon after his death.[172] A 1905 biography by his wife's cousin, Edward Stanwood, was written when the question was still in doubt, but by the time David Saville Muzzey published his biography of Blaine in 1934, the subtitle "A Political Idol of Other Days" already spoke to its subject's fading place in the popular mind, perhaps because of the nine men the Republican Party nominated for the presidency from 1860 to 1912, Blaine is the only one who never became president. Although several authors studied Blaine's foreign policy career, including Edward P. Crapol's 2000 work, Muzzey's was the last full-scale biography of the man until Neil Rolde's 2006 book. Historian R. Hal Williams was working on a new biography of Blaine, tentatively titled James G. Blaine: A Life in Politics, until his death in 2016.[173]
During the 2016 United States presidential election, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were compared to Blaine for their controversies. Blaine's status as a former Secretary of State who sought to erase evidence of his personal corruption drew parallels to Clinton,[174] while his appeals to anti-Chinese sentiment were compared to Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric.[175] Similarly, the Mugwumps who opposed Blaine in 1884 have been compared to the Never Trump movement.[176]
