James G. Blaine
James G. Blaine | |
---|---|
28th and 31st United States Secretary of State | |
In office March 9, 1889 – June 4, 1892 | |
President | Benjamin Harrison |
Preceded by | Thomas F. Bayard |
Succeeded by | John W. Foster |
In office March 7, 1881 – December 19, 1881 | |
President | James A. Garfield Chester A. Arthur |
Preceded by | William M. Evarts |
Succeeded by | Frederick T. Frelinghuysen |
United States Senator from Maine | |
In office July 10, 1876 – March 5, 1881 | |
Preceded by | Lot M. Morrill |
Succeeded by | William P. Frye |
27th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives | |
In office March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1875 | |
Preceded by | Theodore Pomeroy |
Succeeded by | Michael C. Kerr |
Leader of the House Republican Conference | |
In office March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1875 | |
Preceded by | Theodore M. Pomeroy |
Succeeded by | Thomas Brackett Reed |
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 |
Personal details | |
Born | James Gillespie Blaine January 31, 1830 West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | January 27, 1893 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 62)
Resting place | Blaine Memorial Park, Augusta, Maine |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse |
Harriet Stanwood (m. 1850) |
Children | 7, including Walker |
Education | Washington and Jefferson College (BA) |
Signature | |
James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830 – January 27, 1893) was an American statesman and Republican politician who represented Maine in the United States House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1869 to 1875, and then in the United States Senate from 1876 to 1881.
Blaine twice served as Secretary of State, first in 1881 under President James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, and then from 1889 to 1892 under President Benjamin Harrison. He is one of only two U.S. Secretaries of State to hold the position under three separate presidents, the other being Daniel Webster. Blaine unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President in 1876 and 1880 before being nominated in 1884. In the 1884 general election, he was narrowly defeated by Democratic nominee Grover Cleveland. Blaine was one of the late 19th century's leading Republicans and a champion of the party's moderate reformist faction, later known as the "Half-Breeds".
Blaine was born in the western Pennsylvania town of West Brownsville and moved to Maine after completing college where he became a newspaper editor. Nicknamed "the Magnetic Man", he was a charismatic speaker in an era that prized oratory. He began his political career as an early supporter of Republican Abraham Lincoln and the Union war effort in the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, Blaine was a supporter of black suffrage, but opposed some of the more coercive measures of the Radical Republicans. Initially in favor of high tariffs, he later worked to lower tariffs and expand international trade. Railroad promotion and construction were important issues in his time and, as a result of his interest and support, Blaine was widely suspected of corruption in awarding railroad charters, especially with the emergence of the Mulligan letters. Though no evidence of corruption ever surfaced from these allegations, they nevertheless plagued his 1884 presidential candidacy.
As Secretary of State, Blaine was a transitional figure, marking the end of an isolationist era in foreign policy and foreshadowing the rise of the American Century that would begin with the Spanish–American War. His efforts to expand U.S. trade and influence began the nation's shift to a more active American foreign policy. Blaine was a pioneer of tariff reciprocity and urged greater involvement in Latin American affairs. An expansionist, Blaine's policies would lead in less than a decade to the U.S. acquisition of Pacific colonies and the establishment of dominance in the Caribbean.
Early life
Family and childhood
James Gillespie Blaine was born January 31, 1830, in
Blaine's biographers describe his childhood as "harmonious," and note that the boy took an early interest in history and literature.[9] At the age of thirteen, Blaine enrolled in his father's alma mater, Washington College (now Washington & Jefferson College), in nearby Washington, Pennsylvania.[10] There, he was a member of the Washington Literary Society, one of the college's debating societies.[11] Blaine succeeded academically, graduating near the top of his class and delivering the salutatory address in June 1847.[12] After graduation, Blaine considered attending Yale Law School, but ultimately decided against it, instead moving west to find a job.[13]
Teacher and publisher
In 1848, Blaine was hired as a professor of mathematics and ancient languages at the Western Military Institute in Georgetown, Kentucky.[13] Although he was only 18 years old and younger than many of his students, Blaine adapted well to his new profession.[14] Blaine grew to enjoy life in his adopted state and became an admirer of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay.[14] He also made the acquaintance of Harriet Stanwood, a teacher at the nearby Millersburg Female College and native of Maine.[15] On June 30, 1850, the two wed.[15] Blaine once again considered taking up the study of law, but instead took his new bride to visit his family in Pennsylvania.[16] They next lived with Harriet Blaine's family in Augusta, Maine, for several months, where their first child, Stanwood Blaine, was born in 1851.[16] The young family soon moved again, this time to Philadelphia where Blaine took a job at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind (now Overbrook School for the Blind) in 1852, teaching science and literature.[17]
Philadelphia's law libraries gave Blaine the chance to, at last, begin to study the law, but in 1853 he received a more tempting offer: to become editor and co-owner of the Kennebec Journal.[16] Blaine had spent several vacations in his wife's native state of Maine and had become friendly with the Journal's editors. When the newspaper's founder, Luther Severance, retired, Blaine was invited to purchase the publication along with co-editor Joseph Baker.[16] He quickly accepted, borrowing the purchase price from his wife's brothers.[18] In 1854, Baker sold his share to John L. Stevens, a local minister.[19] The Journal had been a staunchly Whig newspaper, which coincided with Blaine's and Stevens' political opinions.[19] The decision to become a newspaperman, unexpected as it was, started Blaine on the road to a lifelong career in politics.[20] Blaine's purchase of the Journal coincided with the demise of the Whig party and the birth of the Republican party, and Blaine and Stevens actively promoted the new party in their newspaper.[21] The newspaper was financially successful, and Blaine was soon able to invest his profits in coal mines in Pennsylvania and Virginia, forming the basis of his future wealth.[22]
Maine politics
Blaine's career as a Republican newspaperman led naturally to involvement in party politics. In 1856, he was selected as a delegate to
In 1858, Blaine ran for a seat in the Maine House of Representatives, and was elected.[24] He ran for reelection in 1859, 1860, and 1861, and was successful each time by large majorities. The added responsibilities led Blaine to reduce his duties with the Advertiser in 1860, and he soon ceased editorial work altogether.[27] Meanwhile, his political power was growing as he became chairman of the Republican state committee in 1859, replacing Stevens.[27] Blaine was not a delegate to the Republican convention in 1860, but attended anyway as an enthusiastic supporter of Abraham Lincoln.[27] Returning to Maine, he was elected Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives in 1861 and reelected in 1862.[24] With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he supported Lincoln's war effort and saw that the Maine Legislature voted to organize and equip units to join the Union Army.[28]
House of Representatives, 1863–1876
Elected to the House
Blaine had considered running for the
As a first-term congressman, he initially said little, mostly following the administration's lead in supporting the continuing war effort.
Reconstruction and impeachment
Blaine was reelected in 1864 and, when the
Monetary policy
Continuing his earlier battle with Stevens, Blaine led the fight in Congress for a strong dollar. After the issuance of 150 million dollars in greenbacks—
Speaker of the House
During his first three terms in Congress, Blaine had earned for himself a reputation as an expert of parliamentary procedure, and, aside from a growing feud with Roscoe Conkling of New York, had become popular among his fellow Republicans.[41] In March 1869, when Speaker Schuyler Colfax resigned from office at the end of the 40th Congress to become vice president,[42] the highly regarded Blaine was the unanimous choice of the Republican Congressional Caucus to become Speaker of the House for the 41st Congress.[43] In the subsequent March 4, 1869, election for Speaker, Blaine easily defeated Democrat Michael C. Kerr of Indiana by a vote of 135 to 57.[44] Republicans remained in control of the House in the 42nd and 43rd congresses, and Blaine was re-elected as speaker at the start of both of them.[44] His time as speaker came to an end following the 1874-75 elections which produced a Democratic majority in the House for the 44th Congress.[45]
Blaine was an effective Speaker with a magnetic personality. In the words of Washington journalist
During Blaine's six-year tenure as Speaker his popularity continued to grow, and Republicans dissatisfied with Grant mentioned Blaine as a potential presidential candidate prior to the 1872 Republican National Convention.[49] Instead, Blaine worked steadfastly for Grant's re-election.[49] Blaine's growing fame brought growing opposition from the Democrats, as well, and during the 1872 campaign he was accused of receiving bribes in the Crédit Mobilier scandal.[50] Blaine denied any part in the scandal, which involved railroad companies bribing federal officials to turn a blind eye to fraudulent railroad contracts that overcharged the government by millions of dollars.[50] No one was able to satisfactorily prove Blaine's involvement. Though not an absolute defense, it is true that the law that made the fraud possible had been written before he was elected to Congress. But other Republicans were exposed by the accusations, including Vice President Colfax, who was dropped from the 1872 presidential ticket in favor of Henry Wilson.[50]
Although he supported a general
Blaine Amendment
Once out of the speaker's chair, Blaine had more time to concentrate on his presidential ambitions, and to develop new policy ideas.[55] One result was a foray into education policy. In late 1875, President Grant made several speeches on the importance of the separation of church and state and the duty of the states to provide free public education.[56] Blaine saw in this an issue that would distract from the Grant administration scandals and let the Republican party regain the high moral ground.[55] In December 1875, he proposed a joint resolution that became known as the Blaine Amendment.[55]
The proposed amendment codified the church-state separation Blaine and Grant were promoting, stating that:
No State shall make any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and no money raised by taxation in any State for the support of public schools, or derived from any public fund therefor, nor any public lands devoted thereto, shall ever be under the control of any religious sect; nor shall any money so raised or lands so devoted be divided between religious sects or denominations.[b]
The effect was to prohibit the use of public funds by any religious school, although it did not advance Grant's other aim of requiring states to provide public education to all children.[60] The bill passed the House but failed in the Senate.[55] Although it never passed Congress, and left Blaine open to charges of anti-Catholicism, the proposed amendment served Blaine's purpose of rallying Protestants to the Republican party and promoting himself as one of the party's foremost leaders.[55]
1876 presidential election
Mulligan letters
Blaine entered the 1876 presidential campaign as the favorite, but his chances were almost immediately harmed by the emergence of a scandal.[61] Rumors had begun to spread in February that Blaine had been involved in a transaction with the Union Pacific Railroad which had paid Blaine $64,000[c] for some Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad bonds he owned even though they were nearly worthless. In essence, the alleged transaction was presented as a sham designed to bribe Blaine.[61] Blaine denied the charges, as did the Union Pacific's directors.[63] Blaine claimed that he never had any dealings with the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad except to purchase bonds at market price and that he had lost money on the transaction.[63] Democrats in the House of Representatives, however, demanded a congressional investigation.[64] The testimony appeared to favor Blaine's version of events until May 31, when James Mulligan, a Boston clerk who had been employed by Blaine's brother-in-law, testified that the allegations were true, the he had arranged the transaction, and that he had letters to prove it.[64] The letters ended with the damning phrase: "Kindly burn this letter."[64] When the investigating committee recessed, Blaine met with Mulligan that night in his hotel room. What happened between the men is unclear, but Blaine acquired the letters or, as Mulligan told the committee, snatched them from Mulligan's hands, and fled the room. In any event, Blaine had the letters and refused the committee's demand to turn them over.
Opinion swiftly turned against Blaine. The June 3 The New York Times carried the headline "Blaine's Nomination Now Out of the Question." Blaine took his case to the House floor on June 5, theatrically proclaiming his innocence and calling the investigation a partisan attack by Southern Democrats in revenge for his exclusion of Jefferson Davis from the amnesty bill of the previous year.[65] He read selected passages from the letters aloud and said, "Thank God Almighty, I am not afraid to show them!" Blaine even succeeded in extracting an apology from the committee chairman. The political tide turned anew in Blaine's favor, but the pressure had begun to affect Blaine's health, and he collapsed while leaving church services on June 14.[66] His opponents called the collapse a political stunt, with one Democratic newspaper reporting the event as "Blaine Feigns a Faint." Rumors of Blaine's ill health, combined with the lack of hard evidence against him, garnered him sympathy among Republicans and, when the Republican convention began in Cincinnati later that month, he was again seen as the frontrunner.[67]
Plumed Knight
Though he was damaged by the Mulligan letters, Blaine entered the convention as the favorite.[68] Five other men were also considered serious candidates: Benjamin Bristow, the Kentucky-born Treasury Secretary; Roscoe Conkling, Blaine's old enemy and now a Senator from New York, Senator Oliver P. Morton of Indiana; Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio; and Governor John F. Hartranft of Pennsylvania.[68]
Blaine was nominated by Illinois orator Robert G. Ingersoll in what became a famous speech:
This is a grand year—a year filled with recollections of the Revolution ... a year in which the people call for the man who has torn from the throat of treason the tongue of slander, the man who has snatched the mask of Democracy from the hideous face of rebellion ... Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine from the state of Maine marched down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen foreheads of every traitor to his country and every maligner of his fair reputation.[69]
The speech was a success and Ingersoll's description of Blaine as a "plumed knight" remained a nickname for Blaine for years to come.[67] On the first ballot, no candidate received the required majority of 378, but Blaine had the most votes, with 285, and no other candidate had more than 125.[70] There were a few vote shifts in the next five ballots, and Blaine climbed to 308 votes, with his nearest competitor having just 111.[70] On the seventh ballot, however, the situation shifted drastically because anti-Blaine delegates began to coalesce around Hayes. By the time the balloting ended, Blaine's votes had risen to 351, but Hayes surpassed him with 384, a majority.[70]
Blaine received the news at his home in Washington and telegraphed Hayes his congratulations.[71] In the subsequent contest of 1876, Hayes was elected after a contentious compromise over disputed electoral votes.[72] The results of the convention had further effects on Blaine's political career because Bristow, having lost the nomination, resigned as Treasury Secretary three days after the convention ended.[71] President Grant selected Senator Lot M. Morrill of Maine to fill the cabinet post, and Maine's governor, Seldon Connor, appointed Blaine to the now-vacant Senate seat.[71] When the Maine Legislature reconvened that autumn, it confirmed Blaine's appointment and elected him to the full six-year term that would begin on March 4, 1877.[71][d]
United States Senate, 1876–1881
Blaine was appointed to the Senate on July 10, 1876, but did not begin his duties there until the Senate convened in December of that year.
On monetary issues, Blaine continued the advocacy for a strong dollar that he had begun as a Representative.
His time in the Senate allowed Blaine to develop his foreign policy ideas. He advocated expansion of the
1880 presidential election
Hayes had announced early in his presidency that he would not seek another term which meant that the contest for the Republican nomination in 1880 was open to all challengers—including Blaine.[86] Blaine was among the early favorites for the nomination, as were former President Grant, Treasury Secretary John Sherman of Ohio, and Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont.[87] Although Grant did not actively promote his candidacy, his entry into the race re-energized the Stalwarts and when the convention met in Chicago in June 1880, they instantly polarized the delegates into Grant and anti-Grant factions, with Blaine the most popular choice of the latter group.[88] Blaine was nominated by James Frederick Joy of Michigan, but in contrast to Ingersoll's exciting speech of 1876, Joy's lengthy oration was remembered only for its maladroitness.[89] After the other candidates were nominated, the first ballot showed Grant leading with 304 votes and Blaine in second with 284; no other candidate had more than Sherman's 93, and none had the required majority of 379.[90] Sherman's delegates could swing the nomination to either Grant or Blaine, but he refused to release them through twenty-eight ballots in the hope that the anti-Grant forces would desert Blaine and flock to him.[90] Eventually, they did desert Blaine, but instead of Sherman they shifted their votes to Ohio Congressman James A. Garfield, and by the thirty-sixth ballot he had 399 votes, enough for victory.[90]
Garfield placated the Stalwarts by endorsing Chester A. Arthur of New York, a Conkling loyalist, as nominee for vice president, but it was to Blaine and his delegates that Garfield owed his nomination.[91] When Garfield was elected over Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock, he turned to Blaine to guide him in selection of his cabinet and offered him the preeminent position: Secretary of State.[92] Blaine accepted, resigning from the Senate on March 4, 1881.[93]
Secretary of State, 1881
Foreign policy initiatives
Blaine saw presiding over the cabinet as a chance to preside over the Washington social scene, as well, and soon ordered construction of a
Garfield's assassination
On July 2, 1881, Blaine and Garfield were walking through the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington when Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau,[101] a disgruntled lawyer and crazed office seeker who had made repeated demands for Blaine and other State Department officials to appoint him to various ambassadorships for which he was grossly unqualified or were already filled.
Guiteau, a self-professed Stalwart, believed that after assassinating the President, he would strike a blow to unite the two factions of the Republican Party, allowing him to ingratiate himself with Vice President Arthur and receive his coveted position.[102] Guiteau was overpowered and arrested immediately, while Garfield lingered for two and a half months before he died on September 19, 1881. Guiteau was convicted of killing Garfield and hanged on June 30, 1882.[103]
Garfield's death was not just a personal tragedy for Blaine; it also meant the end of his dominance of the cabinet, and the end of his foreign policy initiatives.[104] With Arthur's ascent to the presidency, the Stalwart faction now held sway, and Blaine's days at the State Department were numbered.[104] While Arthur asked all of the cabinet members to postpone their resignations until Congress recessed that December, Blaine nonetheless tendered his resignation on October 19, 1881, but he agreed to remain in office until December 19, when his successor would be in place.[105]
Blaine's replacement was
Private life
Blaine began the year 1882 without a political office for the first time since 1859.[107] Troubled by poor health,[f] he sought no employment other than the completion of the first volume of his memoir, Twenty Years of Congress.[109] Friends in Maine petitioned Blaine to run for Congress in the 1882 elections, but he declined, preferring to spend his time writing and supervising the move to the new home.[25] His income from mining and railroad investments was sufficient to sustain the family's lifestyle and to allow for the construction of a vacation cottage, "Stanwood" on Mount Desert Island, Maine, designed by Frank Furness.[110] Blaine appeared before Congress in 1882 during an investigation into his War of the Pacific diplomacy, defending himself against allegations that he owned an interest in the Peruvian guano deposits being occupied by Chile, but otherwise stayed away from the Capitol.[111] The publication of the first volume of Twenty Years in early 1884 added to Blaine's financial security and thrust him back into the political spotlight.[112] As the 1884 campaign loomed, Blaine's name was being circulated once more as a potential nominee, and despite some reservations, he soon found himself back in the hunt for the presidency.[113]
1884 presidential election
Nomination
In the months leading up to the 1884 convention, Blaine was once more considered the favorite for the nomination, but President Arthur was contemplating a run for election in his own right.[114] George Edmunds was again the favored candidate among reformers and John Sherman had a few delegates pledged to him, but neither was expected to command much support at the convention.[115] John A. Logan of Illinois hoped to attract Stalwart votes if Arthur's campaign was unsuccessful. Blaine was unsure he wanted to try for the nomination for the third time and even encouraged General William T. Sherman, John Sherman's older brother, to accept it if it came to him, but ultimately Blaine agreed to be a candidate again.[116]
William H. West of Ohio nominated Blaine with an enthusiastic speech and after the first ballot, Blaine led the count with 334½ votes.[117] While short of the necessary 417 for nomination, Blaine had far more than any other candidate with Arthur in second place at 278 votes.[117] Blaine was unacceptable to the Arthur delegates just as Blaine's own delegates would never vote for the President, so the contest was between the two for the delegates of the remaining candidates.[117] Blaine's total steadily increased as Logan and Sherman withdrew in his favor and some of the Edmunds delegates defected to him.[117] Unlike in previous conventions, the momentum for Blaine in 1884 would not be halted.[118] On the fourth ballot, Blaine received 541 votes and was, at last, nominated.[118] Logan was named vice presidential nominee on the first ballot, and the Republicans had their ticket.[118]
Campaign against Cleveland
The Democrats held
The campaign focused on the candidates' personalities, as each candidate's supporters cast aspersions on their opponents. Cleveland's supporters rehashed the old allegations from the Mulligan letters that Blaine had corruptly influenced legislation in favor of railroads, later profiting on the sale of bonds he owned in both companies.[122] Although the stories of Blaine's favors to the railroads had made the rounds eight years earlier, this time more of his correspondence was discovered, making his earlier denials less plausible.[122] Blaine acknowledged that the letters were genuine, but denied that anything in them impugned his integrity or contradicted his earlier explanations.[122] Nevertheless, what Blaine described as "stale slander" served to focus the public's attention negatively on his character.[122] On some of the most damaging correspondence, Blaine had written "Burn this letter," giving Democrats the last line to their rallying cry: "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine, 'Burn this letter!'"[123]
To counter Cleveland's image of superior morality, Republicans discovered reports that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child while he was a lawyer in Buffalo, New York, and chanted "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?"—to which the Democrats, after Cleveland had been elected, appended, "Gone to the White House, Ha! Ha! Ha!"[124] Cleveland admitted to paying child support in 1874 to Maria Crofts Halpin, the woman who claimed he fathered her child named Oscar Folsom Cleveland.[124] Halpin was involved with several men at the time, including Cleveland's friend and law partner, Oscar Folsom, for whom the child was also named.[124] Cleveland did not know which man was the father, and is believed to have assumed responsibility because he was the only bachelor among them.[124] At the same time, Democratic operatives accused Blaine and his wife of not having been married when their eldest son, Stanwood, was born in 1851; this rumor was false, however, and caused little excitement in the campaign.[125][h] Halpin disputed the claims of being involved with several men, accusing Cleveland of raping and impregnating her, then institutionalizing her against her will to gain control of their child.[126][127]
Both candidates believed that the states of New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut would determine the election.
Party leader in exile
Blaine accepted his narrow defeat and spent most of the next year working on the second volume of Twenty Years of Congress.
Blaine and his wife and daughters sailed for Europe in June 1887, visiting England, Ireland, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, and finally Scotland, where they stayed at the summer home of Andrew Carnegie.[137] While in France, Blaine wrote a letter to the New-York Tribune criticizing Cleveland's plans to reduce the tariff, saying that free trade with Europe would impoverish American workers and farmers.[138] The family returned to the United States in August 1887.[137] His letter in the Tribune had raised his political profile even higher, and by 1888 Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, both former opponents, urged Blaine to run against Cleveland again.[138] Opinion within the party was overwhelmingly in favor of renominating Blaine.[139]
As the state conventions drew nearer, Blaine announced that he would not be a candidate.[139] His supporters doubted his sincerity and continued to encourage him to run, but Blaine still demurred.[139] Hoping to make his intentions clear, Blaine left the country and was staying with Carnegie in Scotland when the 1888 Republican National Convention began in Chicago.[140] Carnegie encouraged Blaine to accept if the convention nominated him, but the delegates finally accepted Blaine's refusal.[140] John Sherman was the most prominent candidate and sought to attract the Blaine supporters to his candidacy, but instead found them flocking to former senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana after a telegram from Carnegie suggested that Blaine favored him.[141] Blaine returned to the United States in August 1888 and visited Harrison at his home in October, where twenty-five thousand residents paraded in Blaine's honor.[142] Harrison defeated Cleveland in a close election, and offered Blaine his former position as Secretary of State.[143]
Secretary of State, 1889–1892
Harrison had developed his foreign policy based largely on Blaine's ideas, and at the start of his term, Harrison and Blaine had very similar views on the United States' place in the world.
Pacific diplomacy
Blaine and Harrison wished to see American power and trade expanded across the Pacific and were especially interested in securing rights to harbors in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Pago Pago, Samoa.[146] When Blaine entered office, the United States, Great Britain, and the German Empire were disputing their respective rights in Samoa.[147] Thomas F. Bayard, Blaine's predecessor, had accepted an invitation to a three-party conference in Berlin aimed at resolving the dispute, and Blaine appointed American representatives to attend.[147] The result was a treaty that created a condominium among the three powers, allowing all of them access to the harbor.[147]
In Hawaii, Blaine worked to bind the kingdom more closely to the United States and to avoid its becoming a British
Latin America and reciprocity
Soon after taking office, Blaine revived his old idea of an international conference of Western hemisphere nations.[150] The result was the First International Conference of American States, which met in Washington in 1890.[150] Blaine and Harrison had high hopes for the conference, including proposals for a customs union, a pan-American railroad line, and an arbitration process to settle disputes among member nations.[150] Their overall goal was to extend trade and political influence over the entire hemisphere; some of the other nations understood this and were wary of deepening ties with the United States to the exclusion of European powers.[150] Blaine said publicly that his only interest was in "annexation of trade," not annexation of territory, but privately he wrote to Harrison of a desire for some territorial enlargement of the United States:
I think there are only three places that are of value enough to be taken ... One is Hawaii and the others are Cuba and Porto Rico [sic]. Cuba and Porto Rico are not now imminent and will not be for a generation. Hawaii may come up for decision at an unexpected hour and I hope we shall be prepared to decide it in the affirmative.[151]
Congress was not as enthusiastic about a customs union as Blaine and Harrison were, but tariff reciprocity provisions were ultimately included in the McKinley Tariff that reduced duties on some inter-American trade.[152] Otherwise, the conference achieved none of Blaine's goals in the short-term, but did lead to further communication and what would eventually become the Organization of American States.[152]
In 1891,
Relations with European powers
Blaine's earliest expressions in the foreign policy sphere were those of a reactionary Anglophobe, but by the end of his career his relationship with the United Kingdom had become more moderate and nuanced.[158][i] A dispute over seal hunting in the waters off Alaska was the cause of Blaine's first interaction with Britain as Harrison's Secretary of State. A law passed in 1889 required Harrison to ban seal hunting in Alaskan waters, but Canadian fishermen believed they had the right to continue fishing there.[160] Soon thereafter, the United States Navy seized several Canadian ships near the Pribilof Islands.[160] Blaine entered into negotiations with Britain and the two nations agreed to submit the dispute to arbitration by a neutral tribunal.[161] Blaine was no longer in office when the tribunal began its work, but the result was to allow the hunting once more, albeit with some regulation, and to require the United States to pay damages of $473,151.[j][161] Ultimately, the nations signed the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911, which outlawed open-water seal hunting.
At the same time as the Pribilof Islands dispute, an outbreak of mob violence in
Retirement and death
Blaine had always believed his health to be fragile, and by the time he joined Harrison's cabinet he truly was unwell.[164] The years at the State Department also brought Blaine personal tragedy as two of his children, Walker and Alice, died suddenly in 1890.[165] Another son, Emmons, died in 1892.[165] With these family losses and his declining health, Blaine decided to retire and announced that he would resign from the cabinet on June 4, 1892.[164] Because of their growing animosity, and because Blaine's resignation came three days before the 1892 Republican National Convention began, Harrison suspected that Blaine was preparing to run against him for the party's nomination for president.[164]
Harrison was unpopular with the party and the country, and many of Blaine's old supporters encouraged him to run for the nomination.[166] Blaine had denied any interest in the nomination months before his resignation, but some of his friends, including Senator Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania and James S. Clarkson, chairman of the Republican National Committee, took it for false modesty and worked for his nomination anyway.[167] When Blaine resigned from the cabinet, his boosters were certain that he was a candidate, but the majority of the party stood by the incumbent.[168] Harrison was renominated on the first ballot, but die-hard Blaine delegates still gave their champion 182 and 1/6 votes, good enough for second place.[168]
Blaine spent the summer of 1892 at his Bar Harbor cottage, and did not involve himself in the presidential campaign other than to make a single speech in New York in October.[169] Harrison was defeated soundly in his rematch against former president Cleveland and when Blaine returned to Washington at the close of 1892, he and Harrison were friendlier than they had been in years.[170] Blaine's health declined rapidly in the winter of 1892–1893, and he died in his Washington home on January 27, 1893, four days before turning sixty-three.[171] After a funeral at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington.[171] He was later re-interred in Blaine Memorial Park, Augusta, Maine, in 1920.[171]
Legacy
A towering figure in the Republican party of his day, Blaine fell into obscurity fairly soon after his death.[172] A 1905 biography by his wife's cousin, Edward Stanwood, was written when the question was still in doubt, but by the time David Saville Muzzey published his biography of Blaine in 1934, the subtitle "A Political Idol of Other Days" already spoke to its subject's fading place in the popular mind, perhaps because of the nine men the Republican Party nominated for the presidency from 1860 to 1912, Blaine is the only one who never became president. Although several authors studied Blaine's foreign policy career, including Edward P. Crapol's 2000 work, Muzzey's was the last full-scale biography of the man until Neil Rolde's 2006 book. Historian R. Hal Williams was working on a new biography of Blaine, tentatively titled James G. Blaine: A Life in Politics, until his death in 2016.[173]
During the 2016 United States presidential election, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were compared to Blaine for their controversies. Blaine's status as a former Secretary of State who sought to erase evidence of his personal corruption drew parallels to Clinton,[174] while his appeals to anti-Chinese sentiment were compared to Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric.[175] Similarly, the Mugwumps who opposed Blaine in 1884 have been compared to the Never Trump movement.[176]
Notes
- ^ The house was donated to the State of Maine by Blaine's daughter, Harriet Blaine Beale, in 1919 and is now used as the Governor's residence.
- ^ While the First Amendment already imposed the first two restrictions on the federal government, they were not deemed to apply to the states until 1947[57] and 1940,[58] respectively.[59]
- ^ Equivalent to $1.83 million in 2023[62]
- ^ Before the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, Senators were chosen by their states' legislatures.
- ^ Equivalent to $149 million in 2023[83]
- ^ The exact state of Blaine's health is debatable; many of his biographers believe him to have been a hypochondriac.[108]
- Phryne before the Areopagus, a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
- ^ The rumor arose because the Blaines had not filed a marriage license when they married in 1850. Licenses were not required in Kentucky until 1852.[125]
- ^ Some scholars have suggested that Blaine's Anglophobia was always more for political advantage than out of genuine sentiment.[159]
- ^ Equivalent to $14.8 million in 2023[83]
- ^ Equivalent to $758,499 in 2023[83]
References
Citations
- ^ Muzzey, p. 6; Russell, p. 5.
- ^ Crapol, p. 1.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 1.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 2–3.
- ^ a b Muzzey, p. 5; Russell, p. 5.
- ^ Rose, pp. 30–31; Muzzey, p. 5.
- ISBN 9780674627345.
- ^ Rolde, p. 28.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 12–14; Russell, p. 8; Crapol, p. 2.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 4, 14; Russell, p. 8.
- ^ McClelland, p. 127.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 15; Russell, pp. 9–10.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 16–17; Russell, p. 12.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 17–19; Rolde, pp. 38–39.
- ^ a b Muzzey, p. 20; Russell, p. 28.
- ^ a b c d Muzzey, pp. 21–22; Russell, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Rolde, p. 47.
- ^ Rolde, p. 49.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 22–23, 27; Russell, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 24; Crapol, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 27; Crapol, p. 4.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 28; Crapol, p. 18.
- ^ a b Muzzey, p. 29; Crapol, p. 9.
- ^ a b c d Muzzey, p. 30; Russell, pp. 50–51.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 228–232.
- ^ Rolde, p. 56.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 31–32; Rolde, pp. 63–69.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 32–35; Crapol, p. 19.
- ^ a b Muzzey, p. 37.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 39; Crapol, pp. 20–21; Russell, p. 99.
- ^ a b Crapol, p. 20; Muzzey, pp. 42–43.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 42–47; Russell, pp. 101–106.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 48–49; Russell, pp. 130–136.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 50–51.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 52–53.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 57; Russell, pp. 172–175.
- ^ Blaine, p. 379, v. 2.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 58.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 53–57.
- ^ Hoogenboom, pp. 358–360.
- ^ Russell, p. 186; Muzzey, p. 62; Summers, p. 5.
- ^ "Representative Schuyler Colfax of Indiana". Historical Highlights. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 62–63.
- ^ a b Follett, Mary Parker (1909) [1st ed., 1896]. The speaker of the House of Representatives. New York: Longmans, Greene, and Company. p. 340. Retrieved August 23, 2019 – via Internet Archive, digitized in 2007.
- ^ Crapol, p. 41.
- ^ Poore, Ben. Perley, Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, Vol. 2, p. 211 (1886).
- ^ Muzzey, p. 62; Crapol, p. 33; Summers, pp. 5–6.
- ^ a b Muzzey, p. 64.
- ^ a b Muzzey, p. 66.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 67–70; Russell, pp. 211–217.
- ^ Smith, p. 545; Muzzey, pp. 74, 77–82; Russell, pp. 266–272.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 75.
- ^ a b Muzzey, p. 71.
- ^ Summers, pp. 59–61.
- ^ a b c d e Crapol, pp. 42–43; Green, pp. 49–51.
- ^ Smith, pp. 568–571; Green, pp. 47–48.
- ^ See Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947).
- ^ See Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296 (1940).
- ^ Green, pp. 39–41.
- ^ Green, p. 38.
- ^ a b Crapol, p. 44; Muzzey, pp. 83–84; Thompson, pp. 3, 19.
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 84–86.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 87–93; Crapol, p. 44; Summers, pp. 62–63.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 93–94.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 99–100.
- ^ a b Crapol, p. 45.
- ^ a b Hoogenboom, p. 261; Muzzey, pp. 104–107.
- ^ Quoted in Muzzey, p. 110.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 111–112; Hoogenboom, p. 263.
- ^ a b c d Muzzey, p. 115.
- ^ Hoogenboom, pp. 274–294; Muzzey, pp. 116–127.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 128.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 129.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 130–133; Hoogenboom, pp. 318–325, 351–369.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 140–141; Summers, p. 65.
- ^ Hoogenboom, pp. 392–402.
- ^ a b c d e f Muzzey, pp. 135–139; Crapol, pp. 50–51.
- ^ Unger, p. 217.
- ^ a b Hoogenboom, pp. 356–359.
- ^ Unger, pp. 358–359.
- ^ Crapol, pp. 48–50; Muzzey, pp. 146–148.
- ^ Gross Domestic Product deflatorfigures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 148–151; Sewell, pp. 65–66.
- ^ Crapol, pp. 51–53.
- ^ Hoogenboom, p. 414.
- ^ Smith, p. 615; Muzzey, pp. 160–165.
- ^ Smith, p. 616; Muzzey, p. 167; Summers, pp. 65–66.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 169.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 171–172; Smith, pp. 616–617.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 173–174; Reeves, pp. 178–183; Crapol, p. 62.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 177–179.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 186.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 185.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 191–195.
- ^ a b c Crapol, pp. 62–64; Pletcher, pp. 55–56.
- ^ a b Crapol, pp. 65–66; Doenecke, pp. 55–57; Healy, pp. 57–60.
- ^ Doenecke, pp. 57–58; Crapol, p. 70.
- ^ Crapol, pp. 74–80; Doenecke, pp. 64–67; Healy, pp. 40–52.
- ^ Crapol, p. 81; Doenecke, pp. 71–73.
- ^ Peskin, pp. 595–597; Russell, pp. 385–386.
- ^ Peskin, pp. 589–590.
- ^ Peskin, pp. 606–607.
- ^ a b Crapol, pp. 81–82; Russell, p. 386.
- ^ a b Russell, p. 388; Reeves, pp. 255–257.
- ^ Doenecke, pp. 173–175; Reeves, pp. 398–399.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 225.
- ^ Summers, pp. 62, 125; Muzzey, pp. 225–227.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 226; Russell, p. 390.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 232–237.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 242–246; Crapol, pp. 71–73.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 253–255.
- ^ Crapol, p. 91; Muzzey, pp. 263–265.
- ^ Crapol, p. 91; Reeves, pp. 368–371.
- ^ Crapol, p. 92.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 273–277.
- ^ a b c d Muzzey, pp. 281–285; Reeves, p. 380.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 285–286; Reeves, p. 381.
- ^ Nevins, pp. 145–155; Muzzey, pp. 293–296.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 287–293; Nevins, pp. 156–159.
- ^ Nevins, pp. 187–188; Muzzey, p. 294, n. 2.
- ^ a b c d Nevins, pp. 159–162; Muzzey, pp. 301–304.
- ^ Nevins, p. 177; Muzzey, pp. 303–304.
- ^ a b c d Nevins, pp. 162–169; Muzzey, pp. 298–299.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 299–300; Crapol, p. 98.
- ^ Lachman, Charles (2014). A Secret Life. Skyhorse Publishing. pp. 285–288.
- ^ Bushong, William; Chervinsky, Lindsay (2007). "The Life and Presidency of Grover Cleveland". White House History.
- ^ Nevins, p. 181; Muzzey, p. 322.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 307–308; Reeves, pp. 387–389.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 308–309; Nevins, p. 170.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 316–318; Nevins, pp. 181–184; Crapol, p. 99.
- ^ Summers, pp. 289–303; Muzzey, pp. 322–325.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 326–341.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 341–343.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 347–348.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 348–349.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 354–359.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 361–369; Crapol, p. 106.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 368–372; Crapol, pp. 106–107.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 372–374.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 375–382; Calhoun, pp. 47–52.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 383.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 387–391; Calhoun, pp. 58–61.
- ^ Crapol, pp. 111–113; Calhoun, pp. 74–75.
- ^ a b c d Muzzey, pp. 389–391, 462–464; Calhoun, pp. 75–77.
- ^ Crapol, pp. 116–117; Calhoun, pp. 77–80, 125–126; Rigby, passim.
- ^ a b c Crapol, pp. 116–117; Muzzey, pp. 394–402.
- ^ a b c Crapol, pp. 123–125; Calhoun, pp. 125–126, 152–157.
- ^ a b c d e Crapol, pp. 125–129; Socolofsky & Spetter, pp. 204–207.
- ^ a b c d Crapol, pp. 118–122; Muzzey, pp. 426–437; Pletcher, pp. 56–57.
- ^ Crapol, pp. 122–124.
- ^ a b Crapol, pp. 120–122; Calhoun, pp. 81–82.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 415–416; Socolofsky & Spetter, p. 146; Healy, p. 207.
- ^ Crapol, pp. 130–131.
- ^ Muzzey, p. 418; Calhoun, p. 127.
- ^ a b c d Muzzey, pp. 419–421; Socolofsky & Spetter, pp. 147–149.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 421–423; Socolofsky & Spetter, pp. 150–152.
- ^ Crapol, pp. 105–106, 138–139.
- ^ Sewell, passim.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 403–405; Socolofsky & Spetter, pp. 137–138.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 408–409; Socolofsky & Spetter, pp. 140–143.
- ^ a b c d Socolofsky & Spetter, pp. 153–154; Muzzey, pp. 411–412.
- ^ a b Socolofsky & Spetter, pp. 155–156; Muzzey, pp. 412–414; Calhoun, pp. 126–127.
- ^ a b c Crapol, p. 132; Socolofsky & Spetter, p. 88.
- ^ a b Crapol, p. 121; Muzzey, p. 461.
- ^ Calhoun, pp. 134–139; Muzzey, pp. 468–469.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 469–472.
- ^ a b Muzzey, pp. 473–479.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 480–482.
- ^ Muzzey, pp. 484–487.
- ^ a b c Muzzey, pp. 489–491.
- ^ Rolde, p. xiii.
- ^ "SMU mourns loss of former dean and professor R. Hal Williams". Smu.edu. February 18, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
- ^ Dibacco, Thomas V. (May 19, 2016). 2016 contest could be like 1884 all over again. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
- ^ Gyory, Andrew (December 8, 2015). Don't think Trump will ever pass a Muslim Exclusion Act? Just ask Sen. James G. Blaine. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
- ^ Demaria, Ed (May 9, 2016). In #NeverTrump Movement, Echoes of 1884's 'Mugwumps'. NBC News. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
Sources
- Books
- Blaine, James G. (1886). Twenty Years of Congress. Vol. 2. Norwich, Connecticut: The Henry Bill Publishing Company.
- Calhoun, Charles William (2005). Benjamin Harrison. New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-6952-5.
- Crapol, Edward P. (2000). James G. Blaine: Architect of Empire. Biographies in American Foreign Policy. Vol. 4. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources. ISBN 978-0-8420-2604-8.
- Doenecke, Justus D. (1981). The Presidencies of James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0208-7.
- Healy, David (2001). James G. Blaine and Latin America. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-1374-7. online
- ISBN 978-0-7006-0641-2.
- McClelland, William Craig (1903). "A History of Literary Societies at Washington & Jefferson College". The Centennial Celebration of the Chartering of Jefferson College in 1802. Philadelphia: George H. Buchanan and Company.
- Muzzey, David Saville (1934). James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company.
- Nevins, Allan (1932). Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company.
- Peskin, Allan (1978). Garfield: A Biography. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-210-6.
- ISBN 978-0-394-46095-6.
- ISBN 978-0-88448-286-4.
- Rose, Anne C. (2001). Beloved Strangers: Interfaith Families in Nineteenth-Century America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00640-9.
- Russell, Charles Edward (1931). Blaine of Maine. New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation.
- ISBN 978-0-684-84927-0.
- Socolofsky, Homer E.; Spetter, Allan B. (1987). The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0320-6.
- Summers, Mark (2000). Rum, Romanism & Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2524-2.
- ISBN 978-1-59740-431-0.
- Articles
- Green, Steven K. (January 1992). "The Blaine Amendment Reconsidered". The American Journal of Legal History. 36 (1): 38–69. JSTOR 845452.
- Pletcher, David M. (February 1978). "Reciprocity and Latin America in the Early 1890s: A Foretaste of Dollar Diplomacy". Pacific Historical Review. 47 (1): 53–89. JSTOR 3637339.
- Rigby, Barry (May 1988). "The Origins of American Expansion in Hawaii and Samoa, 1865–1900". The International History Review. 10 (2): 221–237. JSTOR 40105868.
- Sewell, Mike (April 1990). "Political Rhetoric and Policy-Making: James G. Blaine and Britain". Journal of American Studies. 24 (1): 61–84. JSTOR 27555267.
- Thompson, George H. (Spring 1980). "Asa P. Robinson and the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 39 (1): 3–20. JSTOR 40023148.
Further reading
- Bastert, Russell H. (March 1956). "Diplomatic Reversal: Frelinghuysen's Opposition to Blaine's Pan-American Policy in 1882". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 42 (4): 653–671. JSTOR 1889232.
- Devine, Michael. "Was James G. Blaine a Great Secretary of State?" Diplomatic History 27#5 (2003), Pages 689–693, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7709.00379
- Green, Steven K., "Requiem for State 'Blaine Amendments'", Journal of Church and State (2021)
- Grenville, John A. S. and George Berkeley Young. Politics, Strategy, and American Diplomacy: Studies in Foreign Policy, 1873–1917 (1966) pp. 74–101 on "The challenge of Latin America: Harrison and Blaine, 1889–1892"
- Khoo, Flora. "The Ideological Influence of Political Cartoons on the 1884 US Presidential Race." American Journalism 37.3 (2020): 372–396.
- Langley, Lester D. (1974). "James Gillespie Blaine: The Ideologue as Diplomat". In Merli, Frank J.; Wilson, Theodore A. (eds.). Makers of American Diplomacy: From Benjamin Franklin to Henry Kissinger. New York: Scribner. pp. 253–278. ISBN 978-0-684-13786-5.
- Makemson, Harlen (2004–2005). "One Misdeed Evokes Another: How Political Cartoonists Used 'Scandal Intertextuality' Against Presidential Candidate James G. Blaine". Media History Monographs. 7 (2): 1–21.
- Peskin, Allan (1979). "Blaine, Garfield and Latin America". Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History. 36 (1): 79–89. S2CID 147169121.
- Spetter, Allan. "Harrison and Blaine: Foreign Policy, 1889–1893" Indiana Magazine of History 65#3 (1969), pp. 214–227 online
- Tyler, Alice Felt (1927). The Foreign Policy of James G. Blaine. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. online
- Volwiler, A. T. "Harrison, Blaine, and American Foreign Policy, 1889–1893" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 79#4 (1938) pp. 637–648 online
- West, Stephen A. "Remembering Reconstruction in Its Twilight: Ulysses S. Grant and James G. Blaine on the Origins of Black Suffrage." Journal of the Civil War Era 10.4 (2020): 495–523. online
- Winchester, Richard Carlyle. "James G. Blaine and the Ideology of American Expansionism" (PhD dissertation, University Of Rochester; Proquest Dissertations Publishing, 1966. 6610831)
- Windle, Jonathan Clark. "James G. Blaine: His Pan American Policy and its Effect Upon the Mckinley Tariff Act of 1890" (Phd Dissertation, Florida Atlantic University; Proquest Dissertations Publishing, 1976. 1309472).
External links
- United States Congress. "James G. Blaine (id: B000519)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- "James G. Blaine, Presidential Contender" from C-SPAN's The Contenders
- Texts on Wikisource:
- "Blaine, James Gillespie". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
- "Blaine, James Gillespie". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
- "Blaine, James Gillespie". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
- "New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- "Blaine, James Gillespie". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.
- Cooper, Thompson (1884). . (eleventh ed.). London: George Routledge & Sons.
- Works by James G. Blaine at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about James G. Blaine at Internet Archive