Svoboda | Graniru | BBC Russia | Golosameriki | Facebook

BLAINE, James Gillespie

BLAINE, James Gillespie
Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
About this object
1830–1893

Biography

BLAINE, James Gillespie, a Representative and a Senator from Maine; born in West Brownsville, Washington County, Pa., January 31, 1830; graduated from Washington College, Washington, Pa., in 1847; taught at the Western Military Institute, Blue Lick Springs, Ky.; returned to Pennsylvania; studied law; taught at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind in Philadelphia 1852-1854; moved in 1854 to Maine, where he edited the Portland Advertiser and the Kennebec Journal; member of the Maine state house of representatives, 1859-1862, serving the last two years as speaker; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1863, to July 10, 1876, when he resigned; Speaker of the House (Forty-first through Forty-third Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for nomination for President on the Republican ticket in 1876 and 1880; appointed and subsequently elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Lot M. Morrill; reelected and served from July 10, 1876, to March 5, 1881, when he resigned to become Secretary of State; chair, Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Forty-fifth Congress); chair, Senate Committee on Rules (Forty-fifth Congress); Secretary of State in the Cabinets of Presidents James Garfield and Chester Arthur, from March 5 to December 12, 1881; unsuccessful Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1884; Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Benjamin Harrison 1889-1892, when he resigned; aided in organizing and was the first president of the Pan American Congress; died in Washington, D.C., January 27, 1893; interment in Oak Hill Cemetery; reinterment at the request of the State of Maine in the Blaine Memorial Park, Augusta, Maine, in June 1920.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

[ Top ]

External Research Collections

American Antiquarian Society

Worcester, MA
Papers: Correspondence in Bolton-Stanwood family papers, ca. 1843-1944. Finding aid.

Boston Public Library

Boston, MA
Papers: 1 document.

Brown University

Providence, RI
Papers: Correspondence in the John Milton Hay papers, 1854-1914.

Filson Club Historical Society

Louisville, KY
Papers: 1849-1886. 3 letters. Also references in various collections.

Harvard University
Houghton Library

Cambridge, MA
Papers: Correspondence in the William Warland Clapp papers, 1819-1891 (bulk 1840-1891).

Indiana Historical Society

Indianapolis, IN
Papers: Correspondence in the Albert Gallatin Porter papers, 1759-1942; William Robeson Holloway papers, 1824-1899; and Lew Wallace papers, 1799-1923 (bulk 1846-1906). Finding aid.

Knox College
Seymour Library

Galesburg, IL
Papers: 1 letter (January 9, 1891) in Post family papers, 1857-1895.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC
Papers: Correspondence in James G. Blaine family papers, 1777-1945, 49 containers, available on 21 microfilm reels. Includes drafts of letters and speeches, State department dispatches, draft of Blaine's book Twenty Years in Congress, and a scrapbook of clippings relating to the 1884 election.
Additional Papers: Correspondence in Jedediah Hotchkiss papers, 1835-1908; Whitlaw Reid family papers, 1795-1970; Joseph Rosewell Hawley papers, 1638-1906; Nathaniel Prentice Banks papers, 1829-1911; Frederick Douglass papers, 1841-1964, available on 34 microfilm reels; Jesse W. Fell papers, 1806-1957; Crosby Noyes Boyd autograph collection, 1791-1901; and Sayles Jenks Bowen papers, 1839-1882. Finding aid.

Maine Historical Society

Portland, ME
Papers: Miscellaneous personal and political letters.

Maine State Archives

Augusta, ME
Papers: Ca. 200 letters (1861-1865) in Records of Adjutant General of Maine, Civil War correspondence. Concern Civil War and Washington political scene.

Massachusetts Historical Society

Boston, MA
Papers: Ca. 50 items (1863-1892) in various collections including correspondence in Henry Cabot Lodge papers, 1745-1966; and George Fred Williams papers, 1877-1898.

New Jersey Historical Society

Newark, NJ
Papers: Autograph letters in the Halsey family papers, 1859-1934.

New York Public Library

New York, NY
Papers: Correspondence in Cyrus West Field papers, 1845-1900; and Levi Parsons Morton papers, 1868-1920. Finding aid.

Pierpont Morgan Library

New York, NY
Papers: 1856-1884. 3 items.

State Historical Society of Iowa

Des Moines, IA
Papers: 1 folder of correspondence, Iowa Senate resolution (1890) expressing sympathy to Blaine and B. F. Tracy, and 1 page manuscript, "Twenty Years in Congress."

State Historical Society of Wisconsin

Madison, WI
Papers: Correspondence in the William Pitt Fessenden papers, 1820-1869, on 4 microfilm reels. Originals owned by Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME. Permission to use microfilm must be obtained from Bowdoin College Library.

Syracuse University
George Arents Research Library

Syracuse, NY
Papers: Correspondence in the William J. Arkell collection, 1881-1894; Joseph Warren Keifer papers, 1858-1929 (bulk 1881-1883); and Collis Potter Huntington papers, 1797-1904.

University of Michigan
Bentley Historical Library

Ann Arbor, MI
Papers: In Frank Willis Wheeler papers, 1888-1917; Caleb Dwinell Randall papers, 1855-1902; Isaac Marston papers, 1869-1887; and James Burrill Angell papers, 1845-1916.

University of Virginia
Alderman Library

Charlottesville, VA
Papers: Correspondence in various collections. Finding aid.

Washburn-Norlands Library

Livermore Falls, ME
Papers: Ca. 40 letters in the Israel Washburn papers, 1841-1883. Concern events on Capitol Hill during the Civil War. Finding aid.

Yale University Libraries
Manuscripts and Archives

New Haven, CT
Papers: In the James Watson Webb papers, 1819-1967 (bulk 1819 1890); Evarts family papers, 1753-1960 (bulk 1798-1901); Thomas Collier Platt papers, 1851-1915; Frost family papers, 1710-1923; Mary Ann Phelps Montgomery collection, 1746-1939; William Smith Mason collection, 1800-1929; Samuel Bowles papers, 1853-1890; and S. Griswold Flagg collection, 1825-1938.
Research Libraries Information Network In addition to the institutions listed above, items are also cataloged in collections at: Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, NY; Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, CT; Harvard University, Baker Library, Cambridge, MA; Jefferson County Historical Society, Watertown, NY; Johnstown Historical Society, Johnstown, NY; Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, WI; and University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, IA.
[ Top ]

Bibliography / Further Reading

Bastert, Russell H. "Diplomatic Reversal: Frelinghuysen's Opposition to Blaine's Pan-American Policy in 1882." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 42 (1955-1956): 653-71.

___. "A New Approach to the Origins of Blaine's Pan American Policy." Hispanic American Historical Review 39 (1959): 375-412.

Beale, Harriet Stanwood (Blaine), ed. Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine. 2 vols. New York: Duffield & Co., 1908.

Blaine, James G. Political Discussions, Legislative, Diplomatic, and Popular, 1856-1886. Norwich, CT: Henry Bill Publishing Co., 1887.

___. "The Presidential Election of 1892." North American Review 15 (November 1892): 513-525.

___. Twenty Years of Congress: From Lincoln to Garfield. 2 vols. Norwich, Conn.: Henry Bill Publishing Co. 1884-1886

Coulter, E. Merton. "Amnesty for All Except Jefferson Davis: The Hill-Blaine Debate of 1876." Georgia Historical Quarterly 56 (Winter 1972): 453-94.

Crapol, Edward P. James G. Blaine: Architect of Empire. Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2000.

Green, Steven K. "The Blaine Amendment Reconsidered." American Journal of Legal History 36 (January 1992): 38-69.

Hamilton, Gail. Biography of James G. Blaine. Norwich, Conn.: The Henry Bill Publishing Company, 1895.

Harrison, Robert. "Blaine and the Camerons: A Study in the Limits of Machine Power." Pennsylvania History 49 (July 1982): 157-75.

Healy, David. James G. Blaine and Latin America. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001.

Johnson, Willis Fletcher. Life of James G. Blaine, "The Plumed Knight." 1892. Enlarged ed. Philadelphia: Atlantic Publishing Co., 1893.

Kitson, James T. "The Congressional Career of James G. Blaine, 1862-1876." Ph.D. dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1971.

Klinkhamer, Marie Carolyn. "The Blaine Amendment of 1875: Private Motives for Political Action." Catholic Historical Review 62 (April 1956): 15-49.

Maine. Legislature. Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of James Gillespie Blaine of Augusta. Augusta: Augusta, Burleigh & Flynt, 1893.

Muzzey, David S. James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days. 1943. Reprint. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1963.

Peel, Roy Victor. "James G. Blaine: A Study in Political Leadership." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1927.

Peskin, Allan. "Blaine, Garfield, and Latin America: A New Look." Americas 36 (July 1979): 79-89.

Pierce, James W. Life of the Honorable James G. Blaine, Containing an Account of His Last Sickness and Death. Baltimore: R.H. Woodward & Co., 1893.

Rolde, Neil. Continental Liar From the State of Maine: James G. Blaine. Gardiner, Maine: Tilbury House Publishers, 2007.

Russell, Charles Edward. Blaine of Maine: His Life and Times. New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corp., 1931.

Sewell, Mike. "Political Rhetoric and Policy-Making: James G. Blaine and Britain." Journal of American Studies 24 (April 1990): 61-84.

Sherman, Thomas Henry. Twenty Years with James G. Blaine. New York: Grafton Press, 1928.

Spetter, Allan B. "Harrison and Blaine: Foreign Policy, 1889-1893." Indiana Magazine of History 65 (September 1969): 215-27.

Stanwood, Edward. James Gillespie Blaine. 1905. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1972.

Summers, Mark Wahlgren. Rum, Romanism, & Rebellion: The Making of a President 1884. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Tutorow, Norman E. James Gillespie Blaine and the Presidency. New York: Peter Lang Co., 1989.

Tyler, Alice Felt. The Foreign Policy of James G. Blaine. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1927. Reprinted, Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1965.

Volwiler, Albert T. "Harrison, Blaine, and American Foreign Policy, 1889-1893." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 79 (1938): 637-48.

Wilgus, A. Curtis. "James G. Blaine and the Pan American Movement." Hispanic American Historical Review 5 (1922): 662-708.

Winchester, Richard C. "James G. Blaine and the Ideology of American Expansionism." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Rochester, 1966.

[ Top ]