Proceedings of the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York, on the Life and Character of James Gillespie Blaine. Albany, February 13, 1893. [In Memoriam. James Gillespie Blaine]

Albany, New York: James B. Lyon, 1893. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 0x0x0. First edition. No jacket. Front board soiled, hinges starting, ink stamp on title page. 1893 Hard Cover. 58 pp. Olive green boards with gilt title and illustration of James Gillespie Blaine on front board. James G. Blaine, (born Jan. 31, 1830, West Brownsville, Pa., U.S.—died Jan. 27, 1893, Washington, D.C.), a leading Republican politician and diplomat for 25 years (1868–93), who was particularly influential in launching the Pan-American Movement with Latin-American countries. Blaine graduated from Washington (now Washington and Jefferson) College in Washington, Pa., in 1847 and then taught school for the next six years. He moved to Augusta, Maine, in 1854 to become editor and part owner of the Kennebec Journal, a crusading Republican newspaper. In 1856 he attended the first national convention of the newly organized Republican Party. He served in the Maine state legislature from 1858 until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1862. After the Civil War, he favoured a more moderate Reconstruction policy than the radicals of his party, although he was a strong advocate of black suffrage. In 1868 Blaine was elected speaker of the House, where his eloquence and leadership won him a devoted body of followers. He became known as the “Plumed Knight,” an appellation given him by Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll of Illinois, who offered Blaine’s name in nomination at the National Republican Convention of 1876. Blaine failed, however, to reply convincingly to charges that he had used his office for personal gain, and on the seventh ballot he lost the nomination to Rutherford B. Hayes.