biography
Blaine was born on Jan. 31, 1830, in West
Brownsville, Pennsylvania. After teaching for
several years, he became a journalist in Maine in
1854 after his marriage to Harriet Stanwood. He
went into Republican politics in the 1850s and
served in the state legislature between 1859 and
1862. From 1863 to 1876 he sat in the U.S. House
of Representatives, serving as speaker (1869-75).
Blaine was moderate on Reconstruction issues. He
led the Half-Breed faction of the Republicans in a
feud with the Stalwart faction of Roscoe Conkling,
and the opposition of the Stalwarts helped to deny
him presidential nominations in 1876 and 1880.
As a leading contender for his party's
nomination in 1876, Blaine became embroiled in
charges of corruption relating to an Arkansas
railroad and the "Mulligan Letters" that bore on
his involvement. Whatever his actual role, the
episode made him unacceptable to reformers of the
day. This blow to his reputation probably cost him
the nomination in 1876 and hurt his chances again
in 1880. President James A. Garfield named him
secretary of state in 1881, but Garfield's term in
office was too brief to allow Blaine to develop a
foreign policy.
In the months of his secretaryship he gave
evidence of his interest in an isthmian canal,
Pan-Americanism, and reciprocal trade. After
Garfield was assassinated, Blaine resigned. In
1884 the Republicans at last selected Blaine as
their presidential candidate to run against the
Democrat Grover Cleveland. Some Republicans
bolted, old scandals were aired, and both parties
threw mud. Blaine was narrowly defeated, but he
had run better than his party and had laid the
basis for the party's success four years later.
By now he was the preeminent spokesman for a
protective tariff, helping to make that issue a
central part of Republican doctrine. He was not a
candidate in 1888 but supported Benjamin Harrison,
who made him secretary of state again in 1889.
Among the diplomatic problems that Blaine
confronted were disputes with Great Britain over
seals in Alaska and fishing in Canada. He convened
the first Pan-American conference in 1889, looked
toward the annexation of Hawaii, and succeeded in
getting reciprocal trade provisions included in
the McKinley Tariff of 1890. By 1892 his relations
with Harrison had deteriorated, and he resigned on
June 4, 1892. An abortive campaign to nominate him
at the Republican convention failed. He died on
Jan. 27, 1893.
The most charismatic politician of the Gilded
Age, Blaine provoked extreme reactions for and
against himself. He was a farsighted diplomat and
a party leader whose advocacy of the tariff was a
key to Republican dominance after 1894. Although
he never became president, his impact on his time
was larger and more enduring than that of the two
presidents with whom he worked.
