James G. Blaine

For more information on James Gillespie Blaine, visit Britannica.com.

James Gillespie Blaine (1830-1893) was the nearest thing to a political idol in a politically uninspiring era, serving in Congress from 1863 to 1881. As secretary of state, he laid the basis for American imperialism.

Of Scotch-Irish descent, James G. Blaine was born in West Brownsville, Pa., on Jan. 31, 1830. His father was a locally prominent officeholder, so Blaine was exposed to political talk - mostly a fierce Whig partisanship - from an early age. Though he was not really the genius that his followers later claimed him to be, Blaine graduated from Washington College in western Pennsylvania at the age of 13 and, soon after, taught at Western Military Institute, Georgetown, Ky. Blaine later maintained that he quit this position because of a growing distaste for Southern society, but this seems a politically convenient hindsight. In fact, Blaine wanted to study law, and a teaching position at an institute for the blind in Philadelphia provided him the opportunity to do so.

In 1850 Blaine married Harriet Stanwood of Augusta, Maine, and through her made connections which, 4 years later, took him further east in a curious example, for that time, of reverse migration. In Maine he became editor of a weekly newspaper and, a short time after, manager of the Portland Advertiser, the largest and most influential Whig newspaper in the state. Blaine soon took the paper into the Republican party; he was in fact one of the first Republicans in the state and was a delegate to the first Republican national convention in 1856. In 1858 he was elected to the state legislature and in 1859 was elected chairman of the Republican State Committee, a post he held until 1881, helping to make Maine one of the most solidly Republican states in the nation.

Personal Attributes

Blaine served as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives during 1861 and 1862. He was then elected to Congress, where he also served as Speaker from 1869 to 1875. In 1876 he was elected to the Senate from the state of Maine and was also a prominent candidate for his party's nomination as president. This rise in politics was due to his party regularity, in which he never faltered, his driving ambition (he virtually nominated himself as head of the House Republicans upon the death of Thaddeus Stevens), and his high dignity. Blaine was a man of great personal charm who, while he had few intimate friends, claimed a wide circle of devotees willing to stand by and support him to the end. He had few interests outside of politics, but he had numerous gifts that stood him well in the highly personalized political world of the "gilded age." His wit was as sharp in the smoking room as in the Capitol chambers, and he had an incredible memory for names and faces. One contemporary recalled standing with Blaine when a carriage stopped to greet them. "There is a man on that front seat whom I have not seen for twenty-seven years," Blaine said, "and I have got just two minutes and a half to remember his name." He did. Blaine was also known as a man who presided fairly over acrimonious debates in the touchy Reconstruction congresses, thus earning respect from many Democrats as well as from his partisans.

"Mulligan Letters" and Other Suspicions

Blaine hoped to be president in 1876 and was nominated as "the plumed Knight" by Robert Ingersoll in one of the most eloquent nominating speeches in the history of American conventions. But the Republicans were sensitive in that year to charges of political corruption, and Blaine's enemies in the party revived an affair which cast a shadow over his entire career. It had happened in 1869, when as Speaker of the House, Blaine had used his influence to preserve a land grant which the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad had been in danger of losing and, shortly thereafter, had acted as a sales agent for the railroad's bonds, pocketing a generous commission on sales to his Maine friends. The transaction had been recorded in a number of letters which Blaine had managed to secure but which were known to political enemies, who charged him with corruption. In an eloquent and emotional speech before Congress, Blaine quoted selectively from these "Mulligan letters," pleading that he was guilty of no wrongdoing and that he had actually lost money in the affair.

Most Republicans were convinced, but the incident soured the reform wing of the Republican party, which opposed Blaine throughout his career, and the affair provided regularly resuscitated campaign material for the Democrats. In fact, in an age of pervasive political corruption, Blaine's actions had been unexceptional for a man in his position; congressmen and other political leaders regularly received "favors" for services rendered or influence they could exert. But Blaine was more than an ordinary congressman, and he was ambitious to be a great deal more. His connections with the Little Rock Railroad proved to be even more costly than he realized at the time.

Blaine always lived better than his visible means of support seemed to sanction. He had made some money investing in Pennsylvania coal properties in the 1850s but was never an extremely wealthy man. He steadfastly refused to discuss his financial affairs, however, insisting that they were strictly personal.

But the reform wing and the "stalwart" wing of the party, which was dedicated to blatant spoilsmanship, were strong enough in 1876 and 1880 to keep him from the presidential nomination. Finally, in 1884, the stalwarts were discredited and the reform wing was unable to resist Blaine's nomination. Unfortunately, it was not a Republican year and Blaine was narrowly defeated by the Democrat, Grover Cleveland.

Secretary of State

In 1889 Blaine was named secretary of state by President Benjamin Harrison. He had already served briefly in that post under James Garfield. He was a dynamic foreign minister. He pushed an aggressive attitude toward Great Britain and laid the basis for the Pan-Americanism and United States economic penetration of Latin America that would come to fruition later, under his admirer Elihu Root, during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Blaine resigned from Harrison's Cabinet 3 days before the Republican convention in 1892, possibly in hopes of again receiving the party's nomination, but in vain. He was taken ill soon thereafter and, though a lifelong hypochondriac, neglected himself in his final illness. He died at the age of 62 on Jan. 27, 1893.

Further Reading

The most comprehensive biography of Blaine is David Saville Muzzey, James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days (1934). All the standard accounts of the era's politics take note of him. A fair sampling of different points of view would include Matthew Josephson, The Politicos, 1865-1896 (1938); John A. Garraty, The New Commonwealth, 1877-1890 (1968); and H. Wayne Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley (1969).

Additional Sources

Tutorow, Norman E., James Gillespie Blaine and the presidency: a documentary study and source book, New York: P. Lang, 1989.

• Born: Jan. 31, 1830, West Brownsville, Pa.
• Political party: Republican
• Representative from Maine: 1863–76
• Speaker of the House: 1869–76
• Senator from Maine: 1876–81
• Died: Jan. 27, 1893, Washington, D.C.

Aggressive in debate, bold in behavior, and greedy for wealth and power, James G. Blaine dominated American politics during the decades after the Civil War. “Other leaders were admired, loved, honored, revered, respected,” one senator observed, “but the sentiment for Blaine was delirium.” As presiding officer, Blaine used his power to recognize speakers in order to bring more order to the House by controlling floor scheduling. Blaine's forceful leadership made him a frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1876, until he was accused of having taken railroad stocks as a bribe. A brokerage firm bookkeeper, James Mulligan, produced some incriminating letters that Blaine had written. Blaine went to Mulligan's room, seized the letters, and selectively read them to the House to vindicate himself. Although he lost the Presidential nomination, Blaine went on to serve as senator and secretary of state. At last, in 1884, he became the Republican candidate for President, but suspicions about his financial dealings still haunted him, and Blaine lost what was then considered the “dirtiest campaign in history” to the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland.

Sources

• David S. Muzzey, James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days (1934; reprint, Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1963)

(1830-1893), politician and secretary of state. Blaine was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial political leaders of the late nineteenth century. He was instrumental in shifting the Republican party from the ideological issues of the Civil War to the economic and organizational appeals of the years 1877 to 1893. Born in Pennsylvania, Blaine attended Washington and Jefferson College and then taught in Kentucky at the end of the 1840s. He became a follower of the Whig leader from that state, Henry Clay. He moved to Maine during the 1850s, entered the newspaper business, and joined the young Republican party. Elected four times to the state legislature, he served as Speaker before moving on to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1862.

Blaine spent the next thirteen years in the House, including six years as Speaker between 1869 and 1875. He was identified with the moderate "Half-Breed" Republicanism that opposed the "Stalwart" faction of his bitter enemy Roscoe Conkling of New York. In general, Blaine believed that his party had to overcome its identification with the Civil War, pursue business-oriented policies such as the protective tariff, and build a national organization that would give the Republicans majority status.

Blaine was elected to the Senate in 1876 and became a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Then a scandal over an Arkansas railroad that he had allegedly aided as Speaker and the disclosure of documents known as the Mulligan Letters tarnished his reputation. Friends called him the "Plumed Knight" of American politics, but he was not nominated. In 1880 he supported James A. Garfield, spoke out for the protective tariff, and helped the party to victory. Garfield named him secretary of state, but the brief presidency that followed limited Blaine's accomplishments.

Blaine was nominated for the presidency by the Republicans in 1884. Although he campaigned vigorously, he could not overcome the lingering questions about his honesty and lost to the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland. (The celebrated "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" incident was not a significant element in his narrow defeat.) During the next four years, Blaine continued to champion the tariff and emphasize the Republican organization. He campaigned for Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and became secretary of state again in 1889. He pursued better relations with Latin America through the Pan-American Conference of 1889 and advocated reciprocal trade agreements and the annexation of Hawaii. Worsening relations with the president and his failing health caused Blaine to resign in June 1892 and make a futile challenge to Harrison's renomination.

Blaine's celebrated popularity did not long outlast his death in 1893. He was, however, the key figure in the organizational history of the Republican party between 1870 and 1890. His advocacy of the tariff and his stress on party unity were important elements in the quest for a national electoral majority that dominated the Republicans during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Bibliography:

H. Wayne Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877-1896 (1969); David S. Muzzey, James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days (1934).

Author:

Lewis L. Gould

See also Elections: 1884; House of Representatives; Republican Party.

James Gillespie Blaine
31st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1875
President	Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by	Theodore M. Pomeroy
Succeeded by	Michael C. Kerr
28th & 31st United States Secretary of State
In office March 7, 1881 – December 19, 1881 March 7, 1889 – June 4, 1892
Preceded by	William M. Evarts Thomas F. Bayard
Succeeded by	Frederick T. Frelinghuysen John W. Foster
United States Senator from Maine
In office July 10, 1876 – March 5, 1881
Preceded by	Lot M. Morrill
Succeeded by	William P. Frye
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 3rd district
In office March 4, 1863 – July 10, 1876
Preceded by	Samuel C. Fessenden
Succeeded by	Edwin Flye
Born	January 31, 1830 West Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Died	January 27, 1893 Washington, D.C.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Harriet Stanwood Blaine
Alma mater	Washington & Jefferson College
Profession	Law, Politics
Religion	Congregationalist

James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830 – January 27, 1893) was a U.S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time United States Secretary of State, and champion of the Half-Breeds. He was a dominant Republican leader of the post-Civil War period, obtaining the 1884 Republican nomination, but losing to Democrat Grover Cleveland.

Contents 1 Family 2 Early career 3 Congressional career 4 Secretary of State and run for the presidency 5 Later life and death 6 Monuments and memorials 7 In fiction 8 Bibliography 9 References 10 External links

Family

Blaine was born in West Brownsville, Washington County, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. His parents were Ephraim Lyon Blaine and his wife Maria Gillespie. The Blaines were Scots-Irish Americans.^[1][2] According to Blaine's entry in the "Representative Men of Maine" (1893), "Ephraim L. was an intellectual, an educated, and, in many respects, a brilliant man, but he was not regarded as a practical man. He was a graduate of Washington College. In 1820 he married Maria Gillespie, a granddaughter of Neal Gillespie, who came to America from the north of Ireland in 1771. The husband was a Presbyterian and the wife a Roman Catholic of the milder form." ^[3] Ephraim reportedly "laid out the original plan of the town of West Brownsville" in 1831.^[2]

His paternal grandfather was named James Blaine, the first of the family to settle in Brownsville. He was elected Justice of the Peace for several years.^[2] His paternal great-grandfather Col. Ephraim Blaine (1741-1804), served in the Continental Army during the American War of Independence, from 1778 to 1782 as commissary-general of the Northern Department.^[3] His wife was Rebekah Galbraith.^[2]

Early career

With many early evidences of literary capacity and political aptitude, Blaine graduated at Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College) in nearby Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1847, where Blaine was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Theta chapter). Subsequently, Blaine taught at the Western Military Institute in Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky, and from 1852 to 1854, he taught at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind in Philadelphia. During this period, also, he studied law. Blaine married Harriet Stanwood on June 30, 1850.

After settling in Augusta, Maine, in 1854, he became editor of the Kennebec Journal, and subsequently on the Portland Advertiser.

He soon abandoned editorial work for a more active public career. He served as a member in the Maine House of Representatives from 1859 to 1862, serving the last two years as speaker. He also became chairman of the Republican state committee in 1859, and for more than 20 years personally directed every campaign of his party. Among Blaine's admirers, he was known as the "Plumed Knight."

Congressional career

James G. Blaine in his younger years.

Blaine was elected as a Republican to the 38th United States Congress and to the six succeeding U.S. Congresses and served from March 4, 1863, to July 10, 1876, when he resigned. He was Speaker of the House for three terms—during the 41st through 43rd United States Congresses. He served as chairman of the Rules Committee during the 43rd through 45th United States Congresses, followed by over four years in the Senate.

The measures for the rehabilitation of the states that had seceded from the Union occupied the chief attention of Congress for several years, and Blaine bore a leading part in framing and discussing them. The primary question related to the basis of representation upon which they should be restored to their full rank in the political system. A powerful section contended that the basis should be the body of legal voters, on the ground that the South should not be given more seats as long it disenfranchised freedmen. Blaine, on the other hand, contended that representation should be based on population instead of voters, as being fairer to the North, where the ratio of voters varied widely, and he insisted that it should be safeguarded by security for impartial suffrage. This view prevailed, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was substantially Blaine's proposition.

James G. Blaine in about 1885.

Blaine opposed the scheme of military governments for the Southern states supported by the Radical Republicans, insisting there be a clear path by which they could release themselves from military rule and resume civil government. He was the first in Congress to oppose the claim, which gained momentary and widespread favor in 1867, that the public debt, pledged in coin, should be paid in greenbacks. He took up the cause of naturalized American citizens who, on return to their native land, were subject to prosecution on charges of disloyalty. His work led to the treaty of 1870 between the United States and Britain, which placed adopted and native citizens on the same footing.

In 1875, allegedly to promote the separation of church and state, Blaine proposed a constitutional amendment that would prohibit the use of public funds by any religious school. The amendment did not pass at the federal level, falling four votes short of the required two-thirds majority in the Senate, but a majority of states subsequently adopted similar laws, which are commonly known as Blaine Amendments. The amendment did not forbid generic religious instruction at public schools, so long as it was not under the control of a particular sect. (Indeed, public schools continued to teach Biblical studies and religious instruction for some years even in states which adopted Blaine Amendments.)

James G. Blaine

Catholics denounced the Blaine Amendment as anti-Catholic. It was strongly supported by religious non-Catholics: Protestants, especially Methodists, Baptists and Congregationalists.

Blaine was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination for President on the Republican ticket in 1876. (See United States presidential election, 1876, United States presidential election, 1880.) His chance for securing the 1876 nomination, however, was damaged by persistent charges that as a member of Congress he had been guilty of corruption in his relations with the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway. By the majority of Republicans, he was considered to have cleared himself completely, and he missed the nomination for President by only 28 votes at the Republican National Convention, being finally beaten by a combination of supporters of all the other candidates going to dark horse nominee Rutherford B. Hayes. He was mocked by political opponents as "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the State of Maine!"

Blaine was appointed and subsequently elected as a Republican to the Senate. He served for four years, and his political activity was unabated — currency laws were especially prominent in his legislative portfolio. Blaine, who had previously opposed greenback inflation, now resisted depreciated silver coinage. He championed the advancement of American shipping, and advocated generous subsidies, insisting that the policy of protection should be applied on sea as well as on land.

Blaine was re-elected and served from July 10, 1876, to March 5, 1881, when he resigned to become Secretary of State. While in the Senate, he held the minor chairmanships of the U.S. Senate Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (45th Congress) and U.S. Senate Committee on Rules (also 45th Congress). During this period he tried again for a Presidential nomination: the Republican National Convention of 1880, divided between the two nearly equal forces of Blaine and former President Ulysses Grant — John Sherman of Ohio also having a considerable following — struggled through 36 ballots, when the friends of Blaine, combining with those of Sherman, succeeded in nominating James A. Garfield.

Blaine/Logan campaign poster

Secretary of State and run for the presidency

Blaine was Secretary of State in the cabinets of James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur; later, when he took the same job in President Benjamin Harrison's Cabinet, he became the second and last person to hold this position in two non-consecutive terms. After Garfield's death on September 19, 1881, Arthur asked all of the cabinet members to postpone their resignations until Congress recessed that December. Blaine initially agreed but changed his mind in mid-October and left office December 19.^[4] During his two months under Arthur, Blaine dedicated his time to forging his own achievements in an attempt to improve his chances in the 1884 presidential election. In June 1884, he was nominated to run for president by his party on the fourth ballot at the 1884 Republican National Convention.^[5]

He was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for President in 1884; he was the only nonincumbent Republican nominee to lose a presidential race between 1860 and 1912, and only the second Republican Presidential nominee to lose at all. Republican reformers, called "Mugwumps," supported Cleveland because of Blaine's reputation for corruption. After heated canvassing, he lost by a narrow margin in New York. Many, including Blaine himself, attributed his defeat to the effect of a phrase, "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion", used by a Protestant clergyman, the Rev. Samuel D. Burchard, on October 29, 1884, in Blaine's presence, to characterize what, in his opinion, the Democrats stood for. "Rum" meant the liquor interest; "Romanism" meant Catholics; "Rebellion" meant Confederates in 1861.

An 1884 cartoon in Puck magazine ridicules Blaine as the tattooed-man, with many indelible scandals.

The phrase was not Blaine's, but his opponents made use of it to characterize his hostility toward Catholics, some of whom probably did switch their vote. Blaine's mother was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent and his sister was a nun, and speculation was that he might gain votes from a heavily Democratic group. However, Catholics were already suspicious of Blaine over his support of the Blaine Amendments.

Refusing to be a presidential candidate again in 1888, he became Secretary of State in President Benjamin Harrison's Cabinet from 1889 to 1892.

His service in the State Department was distinguished by several notable steps. In order to promote the friendly understanding and cooperation of the nations on the American continents, he projected a Pan-American Congress which, after being arranged for and led by Blaine as its first president, was frustrated by his retirement. (Its most important conclusions were the need for reciprocity in trade, a continental railway and compulsory arbitration in international complications.) Shaping the tariff legislation for this policy, Blaine negotiated a large number of reciprocity treaties which augmented the commerce of his country.

James Blaine in his office (1890).

He upheld American rights in Samoa, pursued a vigorous diplomacy with Italy over the lynching of 11 Italians accused of being Mafiosi who murdered the police chief in New Orleans in 1891, held a firm attitude during the strained relations between the United States and Chile over a deadly barroom brawl involving sailors from the USS Baltimore; and carried on with Britain a controversy over the seal fisheries of Bering Sea — a difference afterward settled by arbitration. Blaine sought to secure a modification of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, and in an extended correspondence with the British government strongly asserted the policy of an exclusive American control of any isthmian canal which might be built to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Blaine resigned on June 4, 1892, on the eve of the meeting of the Republican National Convention. His name, when once again submitted for consideration by the delegates, drew little support.

Later life and death

In his later years, he wrote Twenty Years of Congress (1884-1886).

Blaine played a role in founding Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and he served as a longtime trustee (1863-1893) of the college. Blaine received an honorary degree from Bates in 1869.

Blaine died in Washington, D.C. at the age of 62 of a heart attack and was interred in Oak Hill Cemetery. Reinterment took place in the Blaine Memorial Park, Augusta, Maine, in June 1920.

Monuments and memorials

Blaine Mansion in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. circa 1900

• Counties named in his honor include Blaine County, Idaho; Blaine County, Montana; Blaine County, Oklahoma; and Blaine County, Nebraska.
• The cities of Blaine, Washington, and Blaine, Minnesota, and the towns of Blaine, Maine, and Blain, Pennsylvania are named after him.
• There is a James G. Blaine school in Chicago and in Philadelphia.
• His home in Augusta, Maine, Blaine House, is now the official residence of the Governor of Maine.
• His home in Washington, D.C., Blaine Mansion, is a contributing property to the Dupont Circle Historic District and Massachusetts Avenue Historic District.
• The railroad depot in what became the town of Cornelia, Georgia (October 22, 1887) was named Blaine in his honor.

In fiction

Blaine is featured as the President of the United States in Harry Turtledove's Timeline 191 novel How Few Remain, in which he leads the United States to defeat against the Confederate States of America in the Second Mexican War. He also is a character in Gore Vidal's 1876, about the election of 1876.

Bibliography

• Kennedy, David, and Lizabeth Cohen. "The American Pageant". 12th ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
• Morgan, H. Wayne From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877-1896. (1969).
• Muzzey, David Saville. James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days (1934), the standard biography online edition
• Rolde, Neil, Continental Liar from the State of Maine: James G Blaine, Gardiner, Maine, 2006
• Summers, Mark Wahlgren. Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 (2000) online version
• Conwell, Russell H. The Life and Public Services of James G. Blaine. 1884. American Publishing Co.
• Healy, David F. James G. Blaine and Latin America. 2001. University of Missouri Press.

References

1. ^ Heather Schillaci, "Blaine, James Gillespie"
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Boyd Crumrine, "History of Washington County, Pennsylvania with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men" (1882)
3. ^ ^{a b} "Bio of James Gillespie Blaine As found in "Representative Men of Maine" (1893), A Collection of Biographical Sketches."
4. ^ Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss. NY, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 256. ISBN 0-394-46095-2. 
5. ^ Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss. NY, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 284. ISBN 0-394-46095-2. 

• The Diary of John Beatty, Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, Vol. 59
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• James G. Blaine at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Bates College 2006 Alumni Directory

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: James G. Blaine

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Blaine, James Gillespie.

• James G. Blaine James G. Blaine at Find a Grave at Find A Grave

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Samuel C. Fessenden	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 3rd congressional district March 4, 1863 – July 10, 1876	Succeeded by Edwin Flye
Political offices
Preceded by Theodore M. Pomeroy	Speaker of the United States House of Representatives March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1873 December 1, 1873 – March 4, 1875	Succeeded by Michael C. Kerr
Preceded by William M. Evarts	United States Secretary of State Served Under: James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur March 7, 1881 – December 19, 1881	Succeeded by Frederick T. Frelinghuysen
Preceded by Thomas F. Bayard	United States Secretary of State Served Under: Benjamin Harrison March 7, 1889 – June 4, 1892	Succeeded by John W. Foster
United States Senate
Preceded by Lot M. Morrill	United States Senator (Class 2) from Maine July 10, 1876 – March 5, 1881 Served alongside: Hannibal Hamlin	Succeeded by William P. Frye
Party political offices
Preceded by James A. Garfield	Republican Party presidential candidate 1884	Succeeded by Benjamin Harrison

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v • d • e Cabinet of President James A. Garfield (1881) Vice President Chester A. Arthur Secretary of State James G. Blaine Secretary of the Treasury William Windom Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh Postmaster General Thomas Lemuel James Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt Secretary of the Interior Samuel J. Kirkwood

v • d • e Cabinet of President Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885) Vice President None (1881-1885) Secretary of State James G. Blaine (1881) • Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen (1881-1885) Secretary of the Treasury William Windom (1881) • Charles J. Folger (1881-1884) • Walter Q. Gresham (1884) • Hugh McCulloch (1884-1885) Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln (1881-1885) Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh (1881) • Benjamin H. Brewster (1881-1885) Postmaster General Thomas Lemuel James (1881) • Timothy O. Howe (1881-1883) • Walter Q. Gresham (1883-1884) • Frank Hatton (1884-1885) Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt (1881-1882) • William E. Chandler (1882-1885) Secretary of the Interior Samuel J. Kirkwood (1881-1882) • Henry Moore Teller (1882-1885)

v • d • e Cabinet of President Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893) Vice President Levi P. Morton (1889–1893) Secretary of State James G. Blaine (1889–1892) • John W. Foster (1892–1893) Secretary of the Treasury William Windom (1889–1891) • Charles W. Foster (1891–1893) Secretary of War Redfield Proctor (1889–1891) • Stephen B. Elkins (1891–1893) Attorney General William H. H. Miller (1889–1893) Postmaster General John Wanamaker (1889–1893) Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy (1889–1893) Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble (1889–1893) Secretary of Agriculture Jeremiah M. Rusk (1889–1893)

Persondata
NAME	Blaine, James Gillespie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	U.S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator from Maine and a two-time United States Secretary of State
DATE OF BIRTH	January 31, 1830(1830-01-31)
PLACE OF BIRTH	West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH	January 27, 1893
PLACE OF DEATH	Washington, D.C., U.S.

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