his time. >> 1884 against cleveland. ironically, in 1876, it was b laine who prevented ulysses

grant from making a comeback and winning a third term. >> besides being secretary of state for james garfield and chester arthur -- >> he was secretary of state under three presidents. >> what else did he do? >> he was a speaker of the house. he was a governor. >> he changed some of the rules in the house. the speakers are always changing the rules somewhat to their advantage is. >> this was after the civil war when congress was much more central, much more potent than it had been. their reaction against the strong executive said in. to be the secret -- the speaker of the house, to be a power in congress meant a lot more fun than it would today. >> do you have anything to say?

>> what do you think would have happened if he won? i think he would be regarded as the best president between lincoln and tr. >> he was assertive, he had intellectual capacity. he had a lot of talent. i think that once he had actually achieved it -- people lost after the president's. this is a distorted malignancy that they suffer from. if they survive it and they win the office. i think that belaying is someone like clay. they have a great deal uncommon. -- i think that baline series."

we will take a short break and tell you what about the series. >> the contenders -- are life -- are look at the life of james g. blaine continues in a moment. for more information on our series "the contenders", but to our website at cpsan.org. they will find biographies of

all the candidates, portions of their speeches when available. and that is all at c-span.org/ thecondenders. we now return to maine and their discussion on the life of♪