presidential election and listening to a campaign song in support of that year's republican nominee, james g. blainemaine and his running mate, john logan. tonight our contenders series continues. 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. we're inside the blaine house with maine'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. absolutely. 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 because we always say good night to him. >> what is your sense -- i mean, the house was built many years ago and many people have lived in the 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 republican party in maine, but a national leader and started maine on its course to where we are now, and

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

we have less than 20 minutes left in our 90 minutes on james g. blaine. hillsborough, ohio, this is chris. hi, chris. >> caller: hi. i'm you arious about blaine's relations with thadeus stephens and charles sumner, both radical republicans before and during and after the civil war. the relationship with sumner might be particular lynn interesting to sumner's chair of the senate foreign relations committee. >> thanks very much. >> is that something you can take? >> well, i could tell -- particularly thaddeus stephens, blaine made a name for himself when he first was elected to congress by taking on the thadeous stephens who everybody was afraid of. and contradicting him. i don't know exactly what his relationship was with sumner was but blaine was not a radical republican. he was a moderate in that regard. he still wanted to build the republican party in the south. and that's why he was so strongly for suffrage for the -- for the freed slaves. and -- and for that part of reconstruction. but he was not for, you know, tremendous punishment for the south some

we now return to maine and our discussion on the life of james g. blaine. >> you are looking at a live picture of the james g. blaine house in augusta, maine, state capitol. it is now the official residence of maine's governor, has been since 1920. we are live tonight inside of governor's mansion. guest of the governor and his fami family. to learn more about the house's longtime owner, james blaine, won the nomination in 1884, failed to win the presidency and yet made a mark this country we are learning more about mitt. our two guests joining us earl, maine state historian. elizabeth leonard, history department chair at colby college and specialist in civil war america. we are taking your telephones calls. i'm going to give thank you phone numbers. we are getting great questions tonight. 202-737-0001 for eastern and central time zones. we welcome your involvement in this. tell me about maine -- little bit more about maine and this time period. we talked about earlier on about him coming here as a young man. how difficult would it have been for him to esta

our program on james g. blaine airs again tonight on c-span3.ext sunday we continue our contender series featuring william jennings bryan. you can watch the contenders on american history tv each sunday at 8:30 a.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. through labor day weekend. >>> 25 years ago on june 12th, 1987, president ronald reagan delivered a speech at the brandenburg gate of the berlin wall and called on soviet president miguel gorbachev to "tear down that wall." here's that 25-minute speech. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you very much. chancellor cole, governor mayor deacon, ladies and gentlemen, 24 years ago president john f. kennedy visited berlin and speaking to the people of this city and the world at the city hall since then two other presidents have come each in his turn to berlin and today i myself make my second visit to your city. [ applause ] we come to berlin, we american presidents, because it's our duty to speak in this place of freedom. but i must confess, we are drawn here by other things as well. by the feeling of history in th

it will be james g. blain, 90 minutes. my favorite story, it's not a great story though, is when lewis gatow is citying in the park and garfield president walks across lafayette park on the way to blain's apartment supposedly and gatow is sitting there. there's nobody around james garfield. give us the james g. blain relationship with garfield. >> not good. the thing about blain, though, is he was the kind of guy that burned the bridges with lots of people. i think of blain as brilliant. >> there's another one of those. why continental? >> ran in 1884 against cleveland. ironically, it was blain who prevented grant from coming back -- or rather 1880. it was blain who prevented grant from making a comeback and winning a third term. >> besides being secretary of state for james garfield and arthur -- >> and harrison. he was secretary of state under three presidents. >> what else did he do? >> he was in congress, he was speaker of the house, he was a very effective iron-willed speaker. >> he changed some of the rules in the ho

what was the legacy, what's the importance to america today of james g. blaine having been a politician here? >> i think his influence as secretary of state was very important. it's a great legacy. his desire to build some kind of cohesion between the north american and south american and central american states. >> i think there's that, and i think also if you look back across his long career in public life, it is that he is one of the key builders of the republican party in the 19th century. he's there in the beginning in 1854, and he's still there almost 40 years later as probably their most powerful and most identifiable figure. >> and maine today has a republican governor and two republican senators and congressional delegation here is democrat, correct? >> correct. yeah. >> the congressional democrat. our state legislature is all republican too. >> we're out of time. we'll thank a number of people here. first of all, governor and family for hosting us at the governor's mansion tonight. and paul, the director of the blaine house here and the staff has been

. >>> next sundays, we continue our contenders series with former speaker of the house james g. blaine. you can watch the contenders here on american history tv each sunday at 8:30 a.m., 7:30 p.m., and 10:30 p.m. through labor day weekend. >>> you are an environmental a historian. what does that mean? >> i would say environmental history is a relatively new kind of history that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, which tries to see the role of non-human nature -- plants, animals, diseases, the landscape -- in american history, or world history. >> not just recent history. >> all the way back to the glaciers or however far you want to go back. i think that the great insight of environmental history and mark's book is really a fulfillment of this vision. we understand the world better. we understand the past better. if we don't treat human beings in isolation. we're in nature. our lives are dependent upon natural systems

next sunday we continue or contenders series featuring former speaker of the house james g. blaine from maine who served as secretary of state for three american presidents. you can watch "the contenders" here on american history tv each sunday at 8:30 a.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. through labor day weekend. >> you are an environmental historian, what does that mean? >> so, i would say environmental history is a relatively new kind of history that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s which tries to see the role of non-human nature. plants, animals, diseases, the landscape, geophysical processes in american history or world history. it's not limited to -- >> not just recent history. >> all the way back to the glaciers or however far you want to go back. i think the great insight of environmental history and mark's book is really a fulfillment of this vision is that we understand the world better. we understand the past better if we don't treat human beings in isolation from the rest of creation, fromth

next sunday we continue or contenders series featuring former speaker of the house james g. blaine from maine who served as secretary of state for three american presidents. you can watch "the contenders" here on american history tv each sunday at 8:30 a.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. through labor day weekend. >>> sunday on q and a. >> i think the problem is with walter cronkite people see him as the friendly man, which he was to everybody, but there's another side of him thatmented to be the best. he was obsessed with ratings and beating hutly brinkley report every night. he's probably the fiercest competitor i've written about, and i've written about presidents and generals. cronkite's desire to be the best was very pronounced. >> best-selling author douglas brinkley on his biography of walter cronkite tonight at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span. >>> writing is a transactional process. writing assumes reading. it goes back to that question about, you know, a tree falling in the forest, if there's no one there to hear it. you know, if you've written a really wonderful novel, one