james g. blainef maine and his running mate, john logan. tonight our series continues and we're live in the home of james g. blaine, and since 1920, the official residence of maine's governor. we're inside the blaine house with governor page. >> welcome to maine and welcome to the people's house. mr. blaine is here every day and we see his spirit every evening, because we always say good night 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 president 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 powerhouse, big-time powerhouse on a national scale and very proud to be honored to be allowed to stay here and be a s

this is home of james blain, and since 1920, the house for the governor. this house is filled with blaine memorabilia. do you have a sense of the man while you are here? >> absolutely. welcome to the house. mr. blaine is here every day and we see his spirit every evening. and we always say goodnight to him. >> the house was built many years ago. and what have you come to learn about the man by living in his house? >> he not only was a very strong supporter and founder of the republican party in maine, but also a national leader and he started maine on its course to where we are now. he was very influential in the state government and federal government. he was a powerhouse. a big time powerhouse on a massive scale. i am very honored to be a steward of the house. >> you probably have the best commute in america because this is right across the street from the capitol building. >> that's correct. >> there's maybe better air-conditioning. we are pleased to be here tonight to learn more about james g. blaine. for many people, he has faded into the pages of hist

he appoints james blaine to be secretary of state. blaine is a half breed, believes in civil service reform. he appoints a number of conkling supporters to other key positions in the cabinet. and then he appoints a number of others who are neither half breeds nor stalwarts. for example, he appoints robert todd lincoln, lincoln's son to be the secretary of war. the feud between conkling and garfield breaks out almost immediately. garfield appoints an enemy of conkling to be the port collector of new york. a judge by the name of william robertson. conkling says you can't appoint to that job. that's the job i control. garfield says, i'm president. conkling says, it's a new york job, you can't do it without me. garfield says, i've just appointed him. conkling says, i'll show you. i'll resign from the senate. and so he and the other senator from new york, thomas plat, both quit, believing that the new york legislature will reappoint him to come back to the senate and that will show garfield, i have support, you have to get my guy in. the n

james blaine is behind him here. here is the official white house picture.om, garfield, and the wife. she claims, and i don't know if this is accurate, she claims to have been the first mother of a president to move in to take care of the president's kids. may be true, i don't know. his inaugural address gives us a chance to look at what could have happened. he emphasizes the rights of african-americans. he believes they deserve the full rights of citizenship but he says they must be literate or they will be taken advantage of and stresses the need nor universal education. he goes on to talk about agriculture to the key for economic prosperity. we're growing all of this land and crops, but if we did scientific agriculture, if we study how to improve our crops and agriculture, we could double and triple what the use of the land is. he says i want the smithsonian among others to do research on how to improve the quality and the scientific nature of our agriculture. then he goes into an attack on this. the speech is applauded. people go nuts, they think this is

predominant colleagues of garfield's, including james t. blaine, spearheaded the fund-raising efforts. efforts were made between various competing garfield memorialization efforts for the statues in washington and the hospital in washington to do some collaborative fund-raising. but scattered press reports of each effort folding in favor of the other show the underlying rivalries between the projects. a grand reception and tea party was held may 6th in the capital rotunda. this is not the first -- i was hoping this was one of the first representations in the rotunda of this kind, but there had been others previously. refreshments were held in the rotunda and dancing in the hall. music was supplied by the marine band. despite last-minute issues, the event went off brilliantly with 6,000 people in attendance. an amusing side note, one of the documented -- one of the discontented press sniped as using the supreme court chamber as a cloak room and the hall as a ballroom with ladies of dubious reputation in attendance and the press suggested a majority

the campaign, he was running against a guy named james g. blaine. as the democrats like to say, james g. blaine, the continental liar from the state of maine. it really was that kind of vicious campaign. it all came down to new york state. new york had the largest number of electoral votes. whoever won new york state would win the election. it was that simple. a few days before the election, blaine appeared at a campaign event and was introduced by a protestant minister. the minister called the democrats the party of rum, romanism and rebellion. drunk, catholic, and disloyal, basically. this swung the catholic vote, especially new york city, to cleveland, who won -- carried new york by 1,000 votes out of 1.1 million cast. so it was an extremely close election but he won in 1884. in 1886, he finally married. he was still a bachelor when elected. he married a woman named francis folsom, who was 21 at the time. grover was 49. it was a 28 year age difference. i don't think we'll see another 21-year-old first lady again. it's possible. it's a good thing s

the campaign, he was running against a guy named james g. blaineas the democrats like to claim, james g. blaine, the continental liar from the state of maine and it was that kind of a vicious campaign and it came down to new york state. new york had the largest number of electoral votes at that time. whoever won new york state would win the election. it was that simple and a few days before the election, blaine appeared at a campaign event in new york and he was introduced by a protestant minister and the minister called the democrats the party of rum, romanism and rebellion. drunk, catholic and disloyal, basically and this swung the catholic vote especially in new york city to cleveland who carried new york by a thousand votes out of 1.1 million cast. so it was an extremely close election, but he won in 1884. in 1886 he finally married and he was a bachelor, and he married a woman named francis folsom, and grover was 29 and there was a 24-year-old age difference. i don't think we'll see a 21-year-old first lady again. it's possible. good thing sch

tonight we feature former speaker of the house james g. blaine of maine, who also served as secretary of state for three presidents and was the nominee in 1884. watch tonight, beginning at 8:00 eastern. enjoy american history tv, this week and every weekend on c-span3. every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3, go inside a different college classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights, and u.s. presidents to 9/11. >> thanks for your patience and for logging into class. >> with most college campuses closed due to the impact of coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. >> gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union but reagan met him halfway, reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. >> freedom of the press, i should mention, madison called it freedom of the use of the press and it is, indeed, freedom to print things, publish things. it is not a freedom for what we now refer onto institutionally as the press.

forward to the republican convention of 1880 and a duel between ulysses grant for a third time and james blaine and all the delegates get tired of it. on the 30th ballot, someone shouts out james garfield's name . garfield was there as a campaign chief and there's momentum that builds for garfield and he jumps up on stage and says i protest. , how can you give the nation to a man whos does not seek it? he gets it anyway. he throws on the ticket all them -- a man who embodies the spoils system, chester a arthur. but garfield was a man who is completely detached from party politics, who made a pledge -- he was born in a log cabin, had -- hid runaway slaves as a child. his big issues were universal education and suffrage and an to end the spoil system and the creation of a moder civil service. and we are supposed to get that vision but four months later he is shot by an office seeker who had met with chester arthur who writes in his letter of declaration that he killed garfield so that arthur could be president he expected to be rewarded as consul general in paris and obviously that didn't , happe

politics, we feature former speak of the house, james blaine of maine and served as secretary of state for three american presidents and the republican nominee for president in 1884. watch tonight. beginning at 8:00 eastern. enjoy american history tv. this week and every weekend, on c-span 3. >>> every saturday, at 8:00 p.m. eastern, on american history tv, on c-span 3, go inside a different college classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights, and u.s. presidents. to 9/11. >> thanks for your patience and for logging in to class. >> with most college campuses closed due to the impact of the coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. >> gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union but reagan met him halfway, reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. >> freedom of the press, which we will get to later, i should mention madison originally called it freedom of the use of the press, and it is indeed freedom to print things, and publish things. and it is not a freedom for what we no

tonight we feature former speaker of the house george james blaine of maine. he was the republican nominee for president in 1884. watch tonight beginning at 8:00 eastern. enjoy american history tv. this week and every weekend on c-span3. every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv at c-span3, go to a different classroom and hear about topics on civil rights and the u.s. presidents. to 9/11. >> thanks for your patience. >> reporter: with most classrooms closed due to the impact of the coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. >> gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union, but reagan met him halfway. reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. >> freedom of the press, i should mention madison called it freedom of the use of the press, and it is indeed freedom to print things and publish things. it is not a freedom for what we refer to now institutionally as the press. >> announcer: on c-span3 every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. lectures in history is also available as a pod

tonight we feature former speaker of the house james g. blain of maine who served as secretary of state and was the republican nominee for president in 1884. watch tonight beginning at 8:00 eastern. enjoy american history tv this week and every weekend on c-span3. >>> every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3, go inside a different college classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights, u.s. presidents to 9/11. >> thanks for your patience and logging into class. >> with most campuses closed, watch professors transfer to a virtual setting. >> reagan met him halfway, reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. >> freedom of the press, madison called it freedom of the use of the press and it is freedom to print things and publish things. >> lectures in history, on hern history tv on c-span3, every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. lectures in history is also available as a podcast. find it where you listen to podcasts. >> you're watching american history tv. every weekend on c-span3, exp

tonight, he served as speaker of the house before going to the senate, james blaine.mericanrs" history tv" on c-span3. >> the competition is on. to be a part of this years c-span studentcam video competition. middleton high school students, be the start of a national conversation by making a five minute to six minute documentary exploring the issue you want the president and congress to address in 2021. show supporting and opposing points of view and include c-span videos. the a winner. in total cash000 prizes including a grand prize of $5,000. the deadline is january 20, 2021. you will find competition rules, tips and more information on how to get started at our website, studentcam.org. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. the: we take a look at battle for control of the senate. we are joined by jessica taylor of the nonpartisan, cook political report. it will take a net gain of four seats for the democrats to take the senate, three if they also take the white house. how likely is that outcome as you survey the senate battlefield today? guest: in july, we were sayin

. >> 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♪

the guy sitting in the outer office waiting to talk to whatever secretary -- waiting to talk to james t. blaine saying i'm here, i'm waiting to be an envoy to france. here is a pamphlet i published as part of the campaign, so i deserve something for that. and no one ever really wanted to -- they brushed him off but didn't get rid of him. he kept wandering around, he would say there. run out on his bill. go to another hotel, stay there, run out on his bill. finally he decided he would take care of garfield and got a gun and shot him. >> before they paid for the positions. >> no one taking a position when i said most memorialized and remembered. what i was trying to get at, there were lots of ways he was memorialized with the streets, hospital, statue. you could argue that washington himself is memorialized in washington with the name, with his statue, but someone was saying wouldn't you consider washington heights to be named after him. well, okay, we'll quibble on that one. there is no -- there's finally a washington street. there hadn't been. so that's why i make the claim that it's ironic tha