Blaine was elected as a
Republican to the
Thirty-eighth Congress and to the six succeeding
U.S. Congress and served from
March 4, 1863, to
July 10, 1876, when he resigned. He was
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives for three terms—during the
41st through
43rd Congresses. He served as chairman of the
U.S. House Committee on Rules during the 43rd through
45th Congresses, followed by over four years in the
Senate.
The House was the fit arena for his political and parliamentary ability. He was a ready and powerful
debater, full of resource, and dexterous in controversy. The tempestuous politics of the
Civil War and
Reconstruction period suited his aggressive nature and constructive talent. The measures for the rehabilitation of the states that had seceded from the Union occupied the chief attention of Congress for several years, and Blaine bore a leading part in framing and discussing them. The primary question related to the basis of representation upon which they should be restored to their full rank in the political system. A powerful section contended that the basis should be the body of legal voters, on the ground that the South should not be given more seats as long it it disenfranchised
Freedmen. Blaine, on the other hand, contended that representation should be based on population instead of voters, as being fairer to the North, where the ratio of voters varied widely, and he insisted that it should be safeguarded by security for impartial
suffrage. This view prevailed, and the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was substantially Blaine's proposition.
Blaine opposed the
Radical republican scheme of military governments for the southern states, insisting there be a clear path by which they could release themselves from military rule and resume civil government. He was the first in Congress to oppose the claim, which gained momentary and widespread favor in
1867, that the public debt, pledged in coin, should be paid in
greenbacks. He took up the cause of naturalized American citizens who, on return to their native land, were subject to prosecution on charges of disloyalty. His work led to the treaty of 1870 between the United States and Britain, which placed adopted and native citizens on the same footing.
When President
Andrew Johnson appointed General
Hugh Ewing as U.S. Minister to Holland in 1866, Blaine urged for Ewing to be recalled and replaced with his brother Charles. Blaine told the President that Hugh was 'acting badly', although this seems to have arisen out of Blaine's personal conflict with President Johnson. Blaine himself was disingenous, having represented to prominent politicians in Ohio including Senator
John Sherman that he was doing everything possible to nominate his close personal friend Ohioan General
Roeliff Brinkerhoff for the post. Nonetheless, Blaine's request to recall General Ewing was never acted upon, and he served until 1870.
In 1875, allegedly to promote the
separation of church and state, Blaine proposed a
constitutional amendment that would prohibit the use of public funds by any religious school. The amendment did not pass at the federal level, falling only four votes of the required two-thirds majority in the Senate, but a majority of states subsequently adopted similar laws, which are commonly known as
Blaine Amendments. The amendment did not forbid generic religious instruction at public schools, so long as it was not under the control of a particular sect. (Indeed, public schools continued to teach Biblical studies and religious instruction for some years even in states which adopted
Blaine Amendments.)
Catholics denounced the Blaine Amendment as anti-Catholic, but it was strongly supported by pietistic Protestants, especially Methodists, Baptists and Congregationalists.
Blaine was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination for
President on the Republican ticket in 1876. (See
U.S. presidential election, 1876, U.S. presidential election, 1880.) His chance for securing the 1876 nomination, however, was damaged by persistent charges that as a member of Congress he had been guilty of corruption in his relations with the
Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway and the
Northern Pacific Railway. By the majority of Republicans, he was considered to have cleared himself completely, and at the Republican National Convention he missed the nomination for President by only 28 votes, being finally beaten by a combination of supporters of all the other candidates going to
dark horse nominee Rutherford B. Hayes. He was mocked by political opponents as
Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the State of Maine!
Blaine was appointed and subsequently elected as a Republican to the
United States Senate. He served for four years, and his political activity was unabated— currency laws were especially prominent in his legislative portfolio. Blaine, who had previously opposed
greenback inflation, now resisted depreciated
silver coinage. He championed the advancement of American shipping, and advocated liberal subsidies, insisting that the policy of protection should be applied on sea as well as on land.
He was re-elected and served from
July 10, 1876, to
March 5, 1881, when he resigned to become
Secretary of State. While in the Senate, he held the minor chairmanships of the
U.S. Senate Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (45th Congress) and
U.S. Senate Committee on Rules (also 45th Congress). During this period he tried again for a Presidential nomination: The Republican national convention of 1880, divided between the two nearly equal forces of Blaine and former President
Ulysses Grant—John Sherman of Ohio also having a considerable following—struggled through 36 ballots, when the friends of Blaine, combining with those of Sherman, succeeded in nominating
James A. Garfield.
