Grant felt if he ran for president it would have been because of conklin and he could have been the de facto president. Grants presidency, he was not a particularly strong president. And particularly when you look at reconstruction during this period, a lot of problems. When you look at corruption during his period, when people look back on corrupt presidencies, they jump out with grant and harding as the ones that lead the list there. An ill grant weakened by bad health and would not have been a strong figure elected. He wanted to block blaine. He just wanted to make sure blaine didnt get. Could you explain more about how he could be serving microphone, please. How he could be serving in the civil war and being elected to congress but he cant be there . Did that happen a lot . How did that work . The answer is yes, it did. Not a lot, but anyone can be elected to congress if you are a hey, just look down the block. Anyone can be elected to congress as long as they are 25 years of age and a resident of the state they live in or 30 and a resident of the state in the senate. You dont necessarily have to show up. I mean today they count votes and see what your percentage is of voting. But just you get elected. Doesnt mean you necessarily have to show up. Obviously if you dont show up enough, constituents will not reelect you. But certainly since he was a significant general in the civil war, everyone understood he wasnt physically there. So i will hang out. Some of you are wanting to go and find out whats happening in the hockey game. Next week is mckinley. Another set of really fascinating stories. On saturday, cspans issues spotlight looks at police and Race Relations. Well show you president obama at the Memorial Service for Police Officers killed in dallas. A speech by senator tim scott about his own interactions with the police. And washington, d. C. , police chief kathy lanier describing her agencys community policing. Heres a review. There are good Police Officers. There are good Police Officers. There are good people doing a very difficult job under very difficult circumstances. We have to make very difficult decisions sometimes. And they deserve our support. Because it is a tough job. My contention is that the number of officers that will annwillfu abuse your civil rights are limited in number. There are good officers in the country. Watch issues spotlight on police and Race Relations saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Now the contenders, our 14week series on key political figures who ran for president and lost. But who, nevertheless, changed political history. We feature former speaker of the house, james g. Blaine of maine who also served as secretary of state for three american president s, and was the republican candidate for president in 1884. This 90minute program was recorded at the blaine house in augusta, maine. Each sunday at this time, through labor day weekend, you can watch the contenders here on American History tv, on cspan3. Youre looking at some of the images from the 1884 president ial election and listening to a Campaign Song in support of that years republican nominee, james g. Blaine of maine, and his running mate, john logan. Tonight our contenders series continues. Were live from the blaine house in augusta, maine, and since 1920 the official residence of maines governor. We are inside the blaine house with maines sitting governor, paul la page. Governor, do you have a sense of the man here . First of all, welcome to maine and welcome to the peoples house. Mr. Blaine is here every day. We see his spirit every evening because we always say goodnight to him. What is your sense of living the house was built many years ago. Many people have lived in it over the years but he really is present in a lot of ways. What have you come to learn about the man by living in his midst . He not only was a very strong supporter and founder of the Republican Party in maine, but a National Leader and started maine on its course to where we are now and very, very influential, both in the press, in state government, federal government. The man was a have powerhouse, bigtime powerhouse on a national scale. Very proud to be honored, to be allowed to stay here and be a steward of the house for the next four years. As governors go, you probably have the best commute in america because it is right across the street from the capitol building. Its great. If he was here today, i would ask him to put a tunnel under the road. And maybe better air conditioning. Well, were really pleased to be here tonight to learn more about james g. Blaine. I know for many people, hes really faded into the pages of history. But tonight were going to learn more about the man who brought the Republican Party to the state and about your state and that time period. Thanks for hosting us. Well, thank you so much. Again, welcome to the state of maine and to the peoples house. Thank you. Were going to be live for the next hour and a half learning more about james g. Blaines america and about the Republican Party that he was so influential in bringing to this state. Were going to be moving into the Reception Room here at the Governors Mansion. Two guests are waiting for me and they will be my guests throughout the program. While we are getting set up in there, lets show you a clip from a roundtable discussion that cspan hosted talking about james g. Blaine and his times. Well see you in just a minute or so. 1884 against cleveland. Before that he was running for the republican nomination and ironically, 1876 it was blaine who prevented Ulysses Grant from coming back or rather, 1880. It was blaine who prevented grant from making a comeback and winning a third time. Besides being secretary of state for James Garfield and for chester arthur. And Benjamin Harrison. He was secretary of state under three president s. What else . Was he elected he was in congress, he was speaker of the house. He was a very effective ironwilled speaker. He changed some of the rules in the house. Im not sure exactly which rules they are. Seems to me speakers of the house are always changing can rules somewhat to their advantage. But a smart, capable guy but corrupt. Remember, this was the period after the civil war when congress was much more central, much more potent, than it had been. The reaction against the strong executive set in. So to be speaker of the house, to be a power in congress, in the 1870s, 1880s meant a lot more than perhaps today. I was curious, what do you think would have happened had he won . How would he have changed i think he would have turned out to be put it this way. I think he would be regarded as the best president between lincoln and t. R. Because he was assertive. Because he had intellectual heft. Because he had he had a lot of talent. And i think once he had actually people are consumed by they lust after the president s. It is a distorting, warping malignancy that they suffer from. If they win and survive the office clay and blaine have a great deal in common. Theyre both very charismatic, polarizing figures who i think in office would have distinguished themselves. As promised, we are in the Reception Room at the blaine house. My two special guests, Earl Shuttleworth is maines state historian, also the director of maines Historic Preservation commission. Thanks for being here. Elizabeth leonard, chair of the History Department at maines Colby College and an expert on the civil war era of history. Let me have you set the stage for us, about mid 1880s america, 20 years past the civil war. Whats the country like at the time we are going into this election and he is a contender . I would start by saying we are a long ways past the civil war in many ways. I think thats indicated by the fact that there is going to be a democratic president that is elected that year, and that would have been unthinkable just a short time before that. Thats one thing to say. Why would it have been unthinkable . Because the republicans were the winners of the war and they had controlled the government for a long time and they had controlled reconstruction. And it feels to many like a handoff to the south to let the democrats come in to the white house. Now ill stay with you for a second because maine is your expertise. But talk to me about north and south america countries. Northern and Southern States and the difference in the economies. Well, the civil war had of course crushed the economy in the south and so one of the key goals of reconstruction was to get the economy up and running again. That was largely on the way to success certainly by the middle of the 1880s. But it is on i would say, very much northern terms how the south is being rebuilt. James g. Blaine was a powerhouse by 1884. Known internationally, as well as nationally. But maine really hadnt been in the union all that long. Well, maine had originally been part of massachusetts since the colonial times. Became a state in 1820. We went into the union as the 23rd state. We were part of the missouri compromise. Missouri was slave, maine was free. And by the postcivil war period, maine had initially suffered a bit of a setback during the civil war which sent about 70,000 men to the war. About 10,000 had been lost and our population in that decade of the 1860s actually did not grow. But by the period of the 1884 election, maine was really getting back on its feet. Maine has always had wonderful resourcebased industries. So we had ice, we had granite, we had lumber. We also had textiles. We had shoes. Blaine was really was very much a part and a beneficiary of this very robust economy at the time. He contended against the democrat Grover Cleveland who won first, and then sequentially later nonsequentially later on. The Republican Party that nominated him, this was his third try for the white house. Unfortunately to get even the nomination two times earlier. What was the key to his success in securing the nomination in 1884 . Well, persistence always is part of the story, i suppose, and to continue to try, as he did. He was certainly recognized as a leading, leading figure in the Republican Party. Theres no question. I mean one of his many nicknames was mr. Republican. He was certainly a leading figure, and that would be part of the story. He also had some great enemies at the time trying to deny him the nomination. Explain the split in the Republican Party, if you will, please. Yes. Well there were a group of moderates. They were called in 1884 the mudwomps. They were in many cases the intelligence from boston, from new york, from philadelphia. These were folks who believed that blaine was a very corrupt individual. You think, for example, of henry adams who wrote democracy, and the senator in democracy who was a dark figure is james g. Blaine, modeled upon him. So he did have very strong enemies even within his own party. Ultimately this was a very close election. Will you tell me about the results . I think he only loses by 30 or 40 electoral votes. Is that correct . Yes. And the actual vote itself, 10 Million People vote. And he loses the election by 25,000 votes nationally. And the key to the loss is the loss of new york state. About 1,000 votes. New york state was also the place where rising star, young star, Theodore Roosevelt was beginning to make his presence known. Was he an influence in the outcome of the election . He was considered a mudwomp, one of the liberals. Indeed that is a trend that begins his career in that direction, at least into the 1890s. Whats interesting about the 1884 election that has some echoes of today is that it was highly personal. Highly personal. Often in a way we dont think today 19th century politics works. But starting with Andrew Jackson things get very personal and it is in many ways a fight about blaine as a corrupt poll six, but then perhaps cleveland had a child out of wedlock where it in the country and so on. Theres slinging, nasty mud, at each other. Theres two phrases are most Even High School students study in their history books that are from this campaign. First of all is the phrase rum, romanism and rebellion. Who said it, where did it come from and why was it so important in the campaign . That was a minister named birschard. About a week before the election he gave a talk that blaine was party to in which he denounced the Democratic Party as the party of rum, romanism and rebellion. Rum, prohibition. Romanism, the Roman Catholic church. And rebellion, the south. And that phrase was carried quickly by the telegraph and newspapers all over the country. And it is one of the phrases that apparently contributed to blaines loss. Isnt the problem that blaine didnt denounce it. No. No. So people believed that that was many people actually thought he had said it, is what i understand. Rather, it is just that he didnt denounce it. Affected the new York Catholic vote in the end . Very much. Absolutely. There was an anticatholic mood in the country in some sectors . Certainly. Even still. There had been since the 184s when the irish first were immigrating in such large numbers. Some would say that anticatholic sentiment went back farther than that. Yes, think that persisted, too. The prohibitionists, the Temperance Movement also running up against that as well. The second phrase is ma, ma, where is pa . Gone to the white house, ha, ha, ha. Whats that all about . Thats about this acquisition that cleveland had a child out of wedlock somewhere and in fact that he was not the moral upstanding man that could be set up to challenge the corrupt and devious blaine. Now he chose a tactic, as i read, which was not to deny. And apparently to pay Child Support and find the child and pay for its orphan pay for the child and the orphanage. A lesson perhaps for modern politicians. Just come out and admit it. I have a book here. Obviously the media, the newspapers were partisan at the time but this is a book that james g. Blaine wrote 20 years in congress which helped set the stage for his campaign, i understand. And this was very well received. Yes. The first volume he began to write it in 1881 i think shortly after he was secretary of state for the first time. And the first volume was published in 1884. Maybe just in time for the campaign. The second volume didnt appear until 1886. However, it was highly popular twovolume best seller. Apparently sold tens of thousands of copies. And it was his personal account of his personal experiences in washington from the time of the civil war to the early 1880s. He made a lot of money from this. He did indeed. Was it one of the reasons he was able to buy this house, do you know . Yes, i think it contributed to that. Well, not this house though. The house that were now in actually goes back much earlier. In 1862, which is a critical year for him, hes speaker of the maine house of representatives, and at the same time hes also running for congress for the first time. And its in 1862 that he buys this house, for 5,000, and he and his wife, harriet, move in with their family. This house had been built just a few years before in the 1830s by a retired sea captain. And this becomes his great Political Center for the rest of his life. In other words, he hosted many dignitaries here, had lots of meetings here. Bear in mind that in 1859, blaine becomes the chair of the Republican Party in maine. And it is a post he holds until he becomes secretary of state in 1881. In that 20 or so year period, this house is Election Central for the Republican Party in maine, as well as the springboard for his national campaigns. If people could see the State Capitol is right outside our windows here. Yes. The parking lot is across the street from the State Capitol building. It was a very strategic decision to acquire this house. I heard Ulysses Grant visited here. Yes. In fact stayed here a couple of days. I want to tell our viewers that were going to invite you in this a little bit in the conversation here in our contenders series. We are looking at 14 men they are all men, given the president ial election process in this country who were candidates for president in their time, did not succeed in the quest for the white house but still had an outsized influence on American History. James g. Blaine, someone who was, as i mentioned at the outset, really known internationally, but has really fallen behind in the history books. Well spend some time tonight digging into what made him so wellknown and really why he ended up failing in his bid for the white house. Our phone lines will be open. Well take calls in probably about 20 minutes past the hour. We welcome your questions, comments or additions to our discussion of the gilded age in america and the burgeoning Republican Party and its influence on american life. Back in 1876, the first time he ran for the white house. He was nominated at the convention by someone who coined the term the plumed knight. Do you know any more about ingersoll and that speech . My understanding is it is a defense of blaine against accusations of corruption in connection with the railroad industry. He wanted to demonstrate he was not corrupt as some people had thought he had become. Why did it stick . He seemed to have been the kind of person who really had great admirers and tremendous enemies