James Gillespie Blaine was an American statesman and Republican politician. Blaine twice served as Secretary of State, one of only two persons to hold the position under three separate presidents. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President in 1876 and 1880 before being nominated in 1884. He died in office in Washington, D.C. in 1913, leaving behind a wife and three children.
About James G. Blaine in brief
James Gillespie Blaine was an American statesman and Republican politician. Blaine twice served as Secretary of State, one of only two persons to hold the position under three separate presidents. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President in 1876 and 1880 before being nominated in 1884. He was one of the late 19th century’s leading Republicans and champion of the moderate reformist faction of the party known as the \”Half-Breeds\”. Blaine’s policies would lead in less than a decade to the establishment of the United States’ acquisition of Pacific colonies and dominance of the Caribbean. He died in office in Washington, D.C. in 1913, leaving behind a wife and three children. He is survived by his second wife, Harriet Stanwood Blaine, and their three children, James, Harriet and Margaret Blaine. The Blaines are buried in the Blaine family cemetery in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, where they were married in 1820 in a Roman Catholic ceremony. His great-grandfather Ephraim Blaine served as a Commissary-General under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. His mother and her forebears were Irish Catholics who immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1780s. His father was a western Pennsylvania businessman and landowner, and the family lived in relative comfort. In 1848 he was hired as a professor of mathematics and ancient languages at the Western Military Institute in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Although he was only 18 years old, Blaine adapted to his new profession well and became an admirer of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. He also made an acquaintance with Harriet Blaine Stanwood, a native of Augusta, Maine. On June 30, 1850, the two were married and moved to Maine, where the first child was born. In 1863, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until 1876. He then served as Speaker of the House from 1869 to 1875, and then in the Senate from 1876 to 1881. After college, he became a newspaper editor in Maine. He considered attending Yale Law School, but ultimately decided against it, instead moving west to find a job. He once considered taking up the law, but instead took his new bride to visit his family in Maine, but took up law instead, instead taking his new wife to visit her family in Augusta. He later became a teacher at the Millersburg Female College, where his children were born in 1847 and 1848. He went on to become a professor at the University of Maine in Augusta and later a lawyer. He served in the Maine House of Reps from 1863 to 1876, as well as the House of Representative from 1875 until his death in 1881, when he was succeeded by his son, James Blaine Jr. He became a member of the Republican National Committee in 1883. He wrote a book, The Magnetic Man, about his experiences as a politician and his time in Congress.
You want to know more about James G. Blaine?
This page is based on the article James G. Blaine published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
