fast behind them, they didn't have the ability to execute that plan. we only found one vels, but the rest of the flotilla could be up here in the narrows of the river, under the land of the shoreline over here you see now. >> you can watch this or other american artifacts programs at any time at c-span.org/history and watch "american artifacts" every sunday at 8:00 a.m., 7:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. on c-span thr three. now "the contenders," on key political figures who ran for president and lost but nevertheless changed history. we feature former speaker of the house of james g. blaine. he served as secretary of state for three american presidents and republican candidate for president in 1884.

this 90-minute program was reported at the blaine house in augusta, maine and he's sunday through labor day weekend at this time, watch "the contenders" here on american history tv, here on c-span3. ♪ ♪ >> you're looking at some of the images from the 1884 presidential election and listening to a campaign song in support of james g. blaine of

maine and his running mate, john logan. we're live from the blaine house in augusta, maine, home of james g. blaine and since 1920, the official residence of maine's governor. inside the blaine house with main's sitting governor paul lepage. governor, this house is filled with blaine memorabilia. do you have a sense of the man while you're here? >> yes. first of all, welcome to maine and welcome to the people's house. >> thank you. >> mr. blaine is here every day, and we see his spirit every evening. we always say good night to him. >> what is your sense -- many people have lived in this house over the years, but he 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 are you publrepublican party in mai but a national leader and started maine on its course to where we are now, and very

influential both in the press, state government, federal government. man was a powerhouse, big-time powerhouse on a national scale and very proud to be honored to be allowed to stay here, be a steward of the house for the next four years. >> as governors go, you probably have the best commute in america, it's right across the street from the capitol building. >> it's great. but if he was here today, i'd ask him to put a tunnel under the road. >> we're here today to learn more about james g. blaine. for many people, he's faded into the pages of history. tonight, we'll learn more about the republican party of the state. thanks for hosting us. >> thank you so much. welcome to the state of maine and to the people's house. >> thank you. we're going to be live for the next hour and a half learning more about james g. blaine's america. and about the republican party

that he was so influential in bringing to the state. we're going to be moving into the reception room here at the governor's mansion. two guests are waiting for me and they'll be my guests throughout the program. while we're getting set up in there, we'll show you a clip from a roundtable discussion that c-span hosted. we spoke about james g. blaine. >> 1884 against cleveland. >> before that he had run for the republican nomination. and ironically, in 1876, it was blaine who prevented us lessees s. grant -- or 1880 that prevented prevent ed everybody lysses grant from coming back. he was secretary of state under three presidents. >> what else did he do? >> he was in congress, speaker of the house. very effective iron willed

speaker. >> he changed some of the rules in the house. i'm not sure exactly which rules they are. it seems to me speakers of the house are always changing rules somewhat to their advantage, but, you know, a smart, capable guy, but corrupt probably. >> and, 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 perhaps than it would today. >> do you have anything to say mr. blaine. >> curious. what do you think would have happened had he won? >> i think he would turn out to be -- put it this way. i think he would be regarded the best president between lincoln and t.r. >> very interesting. >> why? >> because he was assertive, he

intellectual heft, he had a lot of talent. people are consumed -- they lust after the presidency. u.s. a distorting, warping, ma lig unanimouscy that they suffer from, and if they survive it and win the office, i think blaine is someone like clay. clay and blaine have a great deal in common. they are both very charismatic, polarizing figures who i think in office would have distinguished themselves. >> and as promised, we are in the reception room at the blaine house, let me introduce me to our two special guests with us for this program. earl shuttle worth, main's state historian and director of maine's historic preservation commission. and elizabeth blair is an expert on the civil war region era of history. set the stage for us, about mid

1880s america. 20 years past the civil war. what was the country like at that time as we're going into this election where he was a contender? >> i would start by saying we're a long ways past the civil war in many ways. and it's indicated by the fact that there is going to be a democratic president that is elected that year and that would have been unthinkable a short time before that. that's one thing to say. >> why is that unthinkable? >> be rubpy cans were winners of the war and they had controlled reconstruction. and it feels like a handoff to the south to let the democrats come into the white house. >> i'll stay with you for a second. maine is your expertise. talk to you about north and south america, country, northern and southern states, excuse me, and the difference in the economies? >> the civil war had crushed the economy in the south. so one of the key goals of reconstruction was to get the economy up and running again and 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 internally as well as nationally, but maine hadn't been in the union all that long. >> maine had originally been part of massachusetts, since the colonial times, became a state in 1820, went into the union as the 23rd state. we were part of the missouri compromise. missouri was slave, maine was free. and by the post civil war period, maine had initially suffered a bit of a setback during the civil war. we had 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, main really ge really

back on its feet. maine always had wonderful resource-based industry. we had ice, we had granite, we had lumber, we also had textiles, we had shoes and blaine really was very much a part of -- and a beneficiary of this very robust which at the time. >> he contended against the democrat, grover cleveland who won first and nonsequentially later on. the republican party that nominated him, this was his third try for the white house, unsuccessful to getting the nomination two times earlier, what was the key to his success in securing the nomination in 1884? >> persistent always is part of the story i suppose. and he was certainly recognized as a leading, leading figure in the republican party. no question. one of his many nicknames was mr. republican, and he was certainly a leading figure. that was part of the story. >> he also had some great enemies at the time, trying to

deny him the nomination, so explain the split in the republican party if you will, please. >> there were a group of moderates, they were called in 1884, the mug lumps and they were the intelligencea from boston, new york, philadelphia. these were folks who believed blaine was a very corrupt individual. you think, for example, of henry adams who wrote democracy and the senator and democracy who was a dark figure was james g. blaine, modeled upon him. he did have very strong enemies, even within his own party. >> ultimately, this was a very close election. tell me about the results. >> i think he only loses by 3 on or -- 30 or 40 electoral votes. >> the actual election itself, 10 million people vote and he loses the vote by 25,000

nationally. and the key was new york state. >> a rising young star, theodore roosevelt, beginning to make his presence known. was he an influence in the outcome of the election? >> he was considered a mug wump, and that's a trend that begins his career in that direction,. t >> what's interesting about this election, it was highly personal. >> highly personal in a way we often don't think 19th century politics were. but they were highly personal. starting with andrew jackson, things get very personal. it's a fight about blaine as a corrupt politician, but perhaps cleveland had a child out of wedlock and they are slinging nasty mud out of each other. >> two phrases that most even high school students study in history books from this campaign. first of all is the phrase, rum,

romanism, and rebellion. who said it, where did it come from, why it was so important in the campaign? >> a minister named bershard and a week before the election, he gave a talk that blaine was party to, in which he denounceed the democratic party of the party of rum, romanism, and rebellionism. rum, prohibition, romanism, the catholic church, and rebellionism, the south. it's one of the phrases that apparently contributed to blaine's loss. >> and isn't the problem that blaine didn't denounce it. so people believed that was -- many people thought he said it is what i understood. and it's that he really didn't denounce it. >> it affected the new york catholic vote in the end? >> absolutely. >> that's right. >> was there a -- an anticatholic move in the country

in some sectors? >> certainly. even still. there has been since the 1840s, since the irish were first immigrating. and some will say it went farther back. and the temperance movement rubbing up against that as well. >> second phrase, you alluded to this, and grove cleveland saw this. ma, ma, where is my pa? he has gone to the white house, ha, ha, ha. what was that about? >> that was about this accide accusation nah cleveland had a child out of wedlock somewhere and 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, not to deny. >> right. >> and apparently to pay child support. find the child and pay for its orphan -- pay for the child in the orphanage. >> a lesson for modern

politicians? i also have a book here, the media, newspapers, were paern at the time. but this was a book that james g. blaine wrote. "2 0 years of congress" it helpd set the stage for his campaign i understand. and it was very well received. >> first volume, he began to write it in 1881, shortly after he was secretary of state for the first time. first volume published in 1884, maybe just in time for the campaign. second volume didn't appear until 1886. however, it was a highly popular two-volume best seller, apparently sold tens of thousands of copies and it was his personal account of his experienced in washington from the time of the civil war to the early 1880s. >> and he made a lot of money from this? >> he did indeed. >> it was one of the reasons he was able to buy this house, do you know? >> i think it contributed to that -- well, not this house,

though. the house we're now in, goes back much earlier. in 1862, a critical year for him. speaker of the maine house of representatives, and at the same time, he is also running for congress for the first time and in 1862, he buys this house for $5,000, and he and his wife harriet move in with their family. this house had been built a few years before, in the 1830s, by a retired sea captain and becomes his great political center for the rest of his life. >> hosted many dignitaries here, hosted meetings here. >> you have to bear in mind, in 1859, blaine becomes the chair of the republican party in maine, and it's a post he holds until he becomes secretary of state in 1881. in the 20 or so year period, this house is election central for the republican party in maine, as well as the spring board for his national

campaigns. >> and if people could see the state capital is right outside our windows here. >> yes. >> the parking lot is across the street. >> a very strategic decision to acquire this house. >> and ulyssess. grant stayed here a couple of days. >> we'll invite viewers in in a little bit into the conversation here in the contender series. we're looking at 14 men, and all men given the presidential 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 in the outset, someone known intenty, but fallen behind in the history books. we're going to spend some time digging into what made him so well known and what made him fail in his bid to the white house. our phonelines open, and we take

calls at 20 minutes past the hour and we welcome your questions or comments about the gilded age in america and the burgeoning republican party. i mention we are going to be talking about some of his other campaigns and i wanted to go back to 1876, the first time he ran for the white house. he was nominated at that time at the convention by someone who coined a term, the queen night, a gentleman by the name of robert ingersoll. why you know anything more abou and why it stuck? >> in my understanding, it was in defense of blaine and corruption of the railroad industry and that's how inger sol wanted to introduce him, that not everyone thought he was as corrupt as some thought he

was. >> why did the phrase stuck? >> he seems to have been the kind of person who really had great admirers and tremendous enemies and detractors and i think his admirers thought he was a great hero. >> and i think also it was kind of a label that stung because in the cartoons of the day, both pro and con, the plume knight was a wonderful image to create. a lot of interest still in romantic literature, old english literature. he was often shown in liz beetian costume or as a knight. >> we are looking at one of the political cartoons you brought along. how important were they in affecting the elections in those days? >> they were tremendously important. pictorial public i had indications abounded in america for the first time. very widespread, very easily produced and in the case of the political journals, had you the

judge, pro republican, and in the pages of those magazined, this one we're seeing now comes from the judge. a pro-blaine cartoon, which shows blaine as the sort of learned elder statesman in his blooum knight costume, elizabethan cost assume acostuml around him are letters from states begging him to become president. >> you told us about the mug wumps in 1884. colorful names back in 1876 include the half breeds and the stalwarts. >> the half breeds, referring to those republicans who didn't support grant and the stallworths to those who did. >> that's right. >> and which faction was plain?

>> the half breeds. >> essentially, a short time before the mullican letters were

.

last few months of his life, he was truly ill. >> had braves disease. >> he was also relentlessly ambitious, and i read somewhere that there was no one who yearnedor hungered for the presidency more than james blaine. >> throughout his career, charges of corruption from days promoting the railroad lobbied in congress stuck with him. another political cartoons, the tattooed james g. blaine, which refers to on the tattooed man,

many of the charges against him. will you tell us more about that episode, why it was so significant? >> this comes from puck, the election in 1884. actually a tremendously powerful image in that election, in that -- it -- it is recognized as maybe one of the factors that helped defeat blaine. essentially, blaine is shown -- in the midst of that crowd are his running mate -- >> does history really record

whether or not, in fact, he was corrupt? >> well, think i actually the mulligan letters, the accusation, as opposed to being his defense, and he tried very hard to make them seem as if they had no value. i read something about him slamming them down on the desk and daring people to read the letters. once he had stolen them from whoever had them in the first place. he went to the hotel and said let me see the letters, and he took the letters and disappeared with them, never returned with them. i don't think there is any clarity that he was not guilty. it's pretty clear he was -- somebody called him jay gould's handyman or jay gould's busboy or something to that effect. that he was so tight with the railroad industry. that it was unlikely he was innocent. >> and they continued to dog him. in the 1884 campaign, someone published what was believed to be a version of the mullican letters and a pamphlet, and he

never quite resolved that. >> we'll involve some of our viewers. first call forevrom roger, watc us in atlanta. you are on air. >> caller: hi, how are you tonight? >> great. thank you. >> caller: i finished reading the recent byography of speaker reid. w from two people powerful in the republican party, they seemed very distant. is that true or just a feature of the byography? >> no, i think are you correct. you are mentioning thomas bracket reed, born in portland in 1839. so just a little younger than blaine. went to boden college and spent his entire public life as a congressman. he rose to be speaker, like blaine was also speaker from

1869 to '75. wroo reed served in the 1890s. i think corruption was never a question in relation to reed. reed was a very -- totally honest, forthright individual, person of great integrity, and i think in addition to that, reed is as scribed as a towering figure in the history of the development of the congress, considered by many to be one of the three or four most influential speakers of the house in the history of the house. primarily because of reed's rules, reform of the house. the recognition that the majority rule had to be counted and had to be taken into account. >> next caller is jim, watching us in san francisco. hi, jim. >> caller: hi. i think you're right on the major issues here. i mean, it seems to me the country was going through a

major transition from the old money having formalized their ethical values and then they would transition the country with the railroads into big industry corporations, and raising money for corporations and very different sets of values, and so the question is, you know, how could someone who is busy making all of the deals and representing wall street maintain any kind of public reputation in this situation? >> certainly i think one answer to that would be that there was a great recognition of his sheer power. and so he -- because he was so powerful, and could do so much for the party and for its other goals, people could set aside -- some people at least could set aside his apparent -- very close relationship with the railroads and the industry. >> next is t