james gillsepie blaine
united states congressman
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.
