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Blaine, James Gillespie

statesman, author, was born Jan. 31, 1830, in Washington county, Pa. He graduated at Washington college in 1847; adopted the profession of an editor; removed to Maine; and edited the Kennebec Journal and Portland Advertiser for several years. He served four years in the Maine legislature, two years as speaker of the house. In 1862 he was elected a representative from Maine to the thirtyeighth congress, serving as a member of the committee on post offices and post roads. Re-elected to the thirty-ninth congress, serving on the committee on military affairs, the special committee on the death of President Lincoln, and as chairman of the committee on the war debts of the loyal states. He was reelected to the fortieth and forty-first congresses, and made speaker of the house, holding the same position during the forty-second and forty-third congresses.

He was also re-elected to the forty-fourth congress; and in 1876 was elected United States senator, to fill a vacancy; and was re-elected for the term ending in 1883.

He resigned in 1881, to accept the post of secretary of state in the cabinet of President Garfield, serving from March until December of that year. He was an unsuccessful candidate for president of the United States in 1884. He was the author of Twenty Years of Congress. He died Jan. 27, 1893, in Washington, D. C.