James Gillespie Blaine (31 January 1830 – 27 January 1893) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-ME 3) from 4 March 1863 to 10 July 1876 (succeeding Samuel C. Fessenden and preceding Edwin Flye), a US Senator from Maine from 10 July 1876 to 5 March 1881 (succeeding Lot M. Morrill and preceding William P. Frye), and United States Secretary of State from 7 March to 19 December 1881 (succeeding William M. Evarts and preceding Frederick T. Frelinghuysen) and from 9 March 1889 to 4 June 1892 (succeeding Thomas F. Bayard and preceding John W. Foster). He was also Speaker of the House from 4 March 1869 to 4 March 1875, succeeding Theodore M. Pomeroy and preceding Michael C. Kerr.
Biography[]
James Gillespie Blaine was born in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania in 1830 to a Presbyterian father of Scots-Irish descent and a mother of Irish Catholic descent; while his sisters were raised as Catholics, he and his brothers were raised as Presbyterians. After college, he moved to Maine and became a newspaper editor, and he was nicknamed "the Magnetic Man" for his charismatic oratory. He served as a delegate to the 1856 Republican National Convention, and he converted to his wife's Congregationalist faith that same year. Blaine served in the State House from 1858 to 1861, and he was an enthusiastic supporter of Abraham Lincoln. He went on to serve in the US House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876 and support the Union war effort during the American Civil War and support African-American suffrage during Reconstruction. He opposed some of the more coercive measures of the Radical Republicans, and, while he was initially a protectionist, he later advocated for lower tariffs and championed the railroad industry, leading to allegations of corruption. Blaine was also a leader of the liberal "Half-Breeds" during the 1870s and 1880s, and he unsuccessfully sought the GOP presidential nomination in 1876 and 1880, being passed over by fellow Half-Breeds Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield, respectively. Blaine instead went on to serve as Garfield's Secretary of State before being replaced during Chester A. Arthur's administration. He won his party's nomination in 1884, but the allegations of corruption against him led to the Democrat Grover Cleveland's narrow victory over Blaine (with the help of "Mugwumps" in the GOP), becoming the first Democrat elected President in 28 years. Blaine returned to head the State Department from 1889 to 1892, supporting a more active foreign policy, pioneering tariff reciprocity, and urging greater involvement in Latin American affairs. He died in 1893.