campaign memorabilia and listening to a group called the independent silver band as they sang in 1884 blaine/logan victory song. thank you for being with us tonight. ♪ hurrah, hurrah, hurrah for blaine, for logan and victory ♪ hurrah, hurrah >> our profile of presidential candidates continues wednesday night on american history tv with a look at williams jennings bryan. he served as secretary of state under president woodrow wilson. that's at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >>> book tv on c-span 2. 48 hours of non-fiction books and authors every weekend. here's featured programs this weekend. saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern on "afterwords" kimberly strassel argues the left is using tactics to usurp the political process in her book "the intimidation game how the left is silencing free speech." she's jond by jenny thomas, contributor to the daily caller. >> government abuse is largely one sided. when i started this -- i care about free speech and the first amendment. i'm a libertarian when it comes to this and i don't think -- you know, i have no allegiance to one party or the other and i went into t

memorabilia and particularly listening to a group called independent silver band as they sang in 1884 blaine/logan victory song. thank you for being with us tonight. ♪ >>> if you missed any part of this program, we'll air it again tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on c-span3. >> c-span is touring cities across the country exploring american history. next, a look at our visit to the blaine house in augusta, maine. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >>> i want to welcome you to the blaine house, since 1919, the home of maine's governors and their families. the house was actually built in 1833, by a captain james hall from bath, maine, for those of you who know maine, bath is a major ship building and seaport town. and captain hall decided in 1830 to retire from the sea, he bought this very strategically located piece of land, right across from the state house that year, 1830, and in 1833 he finished construction on a very handsome two-story, hipped roof federal house, which was to be his retirement home. one of the early features that survives in the h

memorabilia and particularly listening to a group called independent silver band as they sing in 1884 blaine/logan victory song. thanks for being with us tonight. ♪ >>> if you missed any part of this program, we'll air it again tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on c-span3. james garfield served nine terms in the house of representatives and only 200 days as the 20th president of the united states. before he succumbed to gunshot wounds from an 1881 assassination attempt. up next, ralph nurnberger discusses garfield's life and death. we'll hear about garfield's wade ranging entitle elect and about the complicated set of circumstances that ended in his death. this event from the smithsonian associates is about two hours. >> today, of the four presidential assassinations, the one that i find the most absolutely fascinating and interesting is the one we're going to discuss tonight, james garfield. for quite a number of reasons. first of all, garfield is one of the most intelligent presidents we have ever had. i mean, he is up there in the top half dozen, and when we go through his life, by the en

logan gave us memorial day declaration day. can you speak to the fact, was that a ticket balancing move in some sense or did it in part cover the fact that blaineot served? >> i think there's no question but that what is a political balance on the ticket. logan was very well known. the veterans vote was a very powerful force in the post-civil war period in america. blaine, because he was very much involved in an emerging political career, when the civil war broke out he was speaker of the house here in maine and in our maine house of representatives and he was about to run for congress so he did what many men did at the time and he actually bought a substitute. it cost about $300 to have someone else go in your stead. cleveland actually had done the same thing. it was a very interesting situation that prior to the 1884 campaign, you always had someone in office in the presidency, grant, and hayes and garfield, who had been civil war officers but blaine and cleveland were not. >> so whichever one of them had won, it would have been the break in the generation. >> we had a viewer who asked about his death so will you now tell us the story of his

blaine of maine, and his running mate, john logan. tonight our "contenders" series continues. from the blaine house in augusta, maine, and since 1920 the official residence of maine's governor. we are inside the blaine house with maine's 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 people's 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 governme government. the man was a have powerhouse, big-time powerhouse on a national scale. very proud to be honored, to be allowed to stay h