The statesman who played an important role in the realization of the first International Conference of the American Union.
(1830-1893) American politician and statesman. He played an important role in the realization of the first International American Association Conference. He was born on January 31, 1830, in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania. He died in Washington on January 27, 1893. He was the son of a local ruler. After graduating from Washington College, he left his education at the Western Military Institute. He later studied law. He settled in the State of Maine in 1854.
James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830 – January 27, 1893) was an American statesman and Republican politician who represented Maine in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1869 to 1875, and then in the United States Senate from 1876 to 1881.
He was the editor-in-chief of the Kennebec Journal, which supported the Republican Party and later worked as the editor of the Portland Advertiser, the most influential side of the Whig Party in the State of Maine. He attended the first national convention of the newly formed Republican Party in Maine in 1856. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1858 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1862. He became the Speaker of the Assembly in 1868, garnering a large number of supporters with his ability to speak.
He was one of the party's presidential candidates at the Republican Party's National Convention in 1876. However, when it was announced before Congress that his name was involved in a corruption case, he lost the presidential candidacy by 25 votes to Rutherford Hayes. He was appointed to a vacant position in the Senate right after the elections, and by winning the following elections, he was entitled to continue this duty for another term. He was also unsuccessful in the presidential candidacy election of 1880. He left his position in the Senate and was appointed foreign minister.
During this duty, he planned a system that foresees the settlement of disputes between the countries of the Americas through arbitration in order to reduce tensions between the countries of North and South America and to strengthen the Monroe Doctrine. In 1881, he reiterated his view that the Conference of the American League should be convened to prevent wars in the Western Hemisphere. This idea was the beginning of the Pan-American movement. When President Garfield was assassinated in 1881, Blaine resigned from his post, and the next minister followed suit. He was elected the Republican nominee for president in 1884, but that year Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland won the presidency. In 1889, when the Republican Party nominee was elected president, Blaine became secretary of state again. He was the general secretary of the first International Conference of American States. At the conference, it was adopted as a principle to conclude bilateral agreements between countries. Blaine's proposals for arbitration and the establishment of a customs union were not accepted. Blaine also worked to increase trade with South American countries.
He resigned from his post as foreign minister in 1892. He hoped to be among the presidential candidates of the Republican Party, but this did not materialize.