Presbyterian congregation of Druniblade in 1S42, but the next year he seceded and joined the Free Church of Scotland. From 1844 to 1SU8 he was minister at Pilrig in Leith Walk, Edinburgh, where he took a leading part in founding and managing model dwellings for the poor. From 18G8 to 1897 he was professor of pastoral theol- ogy in New College. Edinburgh. In 1892 he was chosen moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church. He was also one of the promoters and for several years the president of the Pan-Prcsb-terian Alliance, which holds councils in Oreat Britain and America. From the University of Edinburgh he received the degree of D.D. (1864). and from the Universitv of Aberdeen that of LL.D. (1872). He died at North Berwick. Blaikie edited The Free Church ilagazine (1849-53): The yorfh British Keciew (1860-63); The Sunday Magazine (1873-74); and The Catholic Pre.ibijterian (1879-83). His »S'i(r Lectures to the ^yorking Classes (1849) and Better Days for the Working People (1863), were widely popular. His best work is The Per- sonal Life of Darid Livingstone (1880). Among his numerous other books are: Bible History (18.59); Outlines of Bible Geography (1861); Heads and Hands in the World of Labor (1865); The Work of the Ministry (1873); Leaders in Modern Philanthropy (1884); Heroes of Israel (1894); Thomas Chalmers (1896); and Memoir of Darid Broirn (1898).
BLAINE, James Gillespie (1830-93). An
eminent American statesman and political leader.
His great-grandfather was Ephraim Blaine
(1741-1804), an officer on the Patriot side in the
American Revolution, who served from 1778 to
1782 as Commissary-General of the Northern
Department. James was born, of Scotch-Irish
parentage, at Brownsville, Pa., on January 31,
1830, and was educated in the common schools
and at Washington College, Pa., where he graduated
in 1847. After spending several years as a
teacher, first in the Western Military Institute,
at Blue Lick Springs, Ky., and subsequently in
the Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind in
Philadelphia, he became in 1854 one of the
editors of the Kennebec (Maine) Journal; and three
years later, although retaining his home at
Augusta, undertook the editorship of the Portland
Advertiser, an influential daily. In 1858 he was
elected to the Legislature by the Republicans,
and remained in that body four years, during
two of which he served as Speaker. In 1859
he became Chairman of the Republican State
Committee — a position of leadership in local
politics which he retained until 1881. His
rapid rise to influence and prominence in
the State made natural his election, in 1862, to
Congress, where he served for seven successive
terms, during three of which he was Speaker of
the House of Representatives. He was a
pronounced Republican and a vigorous supporter
of the Administration during the war. He
nevertheless opposed the issue of greenbacks, and
successfully urged an important modification to
the Stevens plan of reconstruction. (See
Reconstruction.) As Speaker he attained unusual
success, and his conduct was uniformly marked
by great readiness and ability. His course in
this position, however, provoked acute controversies,
the effect of which was seen when the
Democrats secured control of the House in 1875, and
when Blaine's impassioned opposition to the
inclusion
of Jefferson Davis (q.v.) in a general
amnesty, on the ground of the latter's alleged
complicity in the “gigantic murders and crimes of
Andersonville,” was followed by a vigorous effort
of the Democrats to connect him with the Pacific
Railroad frauds. This culminated in the highly
dramatic incident of June 5, 1876, when the
accused produced in the House of Representatives
the ‘Mulligan Letters’ (q.v.), and offered what
was considered an ample vindication of his
course. The incident continued for a decade to
be a cause of disturbance within the Republican
Party, but its immediate effect was the enhancement
of Blaine's prestige, and his strong and
almost successful candidacy for the Presidential
nomination. Upon the seventh ballot he received
351 votes, when a combination of all his
opponents upon Hayes effected his defeat. The
Electoral Commission (q.v.), which was created
by the two Houses to decide the contested election,
was vigorously opposed by Blaine on the
ground that the powers conferred upon it
exceeded those of Congress itself. Having been
elected to the Senate in 1876, he worked against
the Bland Silver Bill, opposed the unrestricted
immigration of the Chinese, and favored strongly
the policy of subsidizing various industries. He
continued to occupy such a position of leadership
that in 1880 he was again a candidate for the
Republican nomination, and became in the
convention the most formidable opponent of Grant,
who had already served two terms as President.
The defeat of the third-term candidate appearing
to a majority of the delegates to be the
most important matter, and the nomination of
Blaine seeming impossible without causing serious
discord, the adherents of Blaine and John
Sherman united on the thirty-sixth ballot in
throwing the nomination to Garfield, who
defeated General Hancock in the ensuing election.
Upon Garfield's inauguration, Blaine became
Secretary of State; but the death of the President
being followed by a reorganization of the
Cabinet, he resigned the position in December of
the same year. After his sudden retirement
from the public service he devoted his time largely
to the preparation of his Twenty Years of
Congress, the first volume of which appeared in
1884, attracted widespread attention, and for
the most part met with a favorable reception.
Again, in 1884, he was a candidate for the Presidential nomination, and this time was successful, although the bitterness of opposition within the party was such that in some States, notably in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, large numbers of independent Republicans voted in the ensuing election for the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland, whose record as Governor of New York made it possible for him, by a small plurality, to carry that pivotal State and so secure the election, after a campaign remarkable for personal abuse and bitterness. It has been claimed that the State of New York, and consequently the national election, was lost to Blaine chiefly as the result of a persistent misrepresentation of his attitude toward Roman Catholics, consequent upon an unfortunate phrase, ‘Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion,’ used by a Republican clergyman, the Rev. Samuel D. Burchard (q.v.), in speaking of the Democratic Party; but the effect of the phrase has doubtless been considerably exaggerated. The leisure enforced upon Blaine by his defeat made
