If you missed any part of this program, well air it again tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern right here on cspan3. Cspan is touring cities across the country exploring American History. Next, a look at our visit to the blaine house in augusta, maine. Youre watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. I want to welcome you to the blaine house, since 1919, the home of maines 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 twostory, hipped roof federal house, which was to be his retirement home. One of the early features that survives in the house from his time is the beautiful winding staircase, and i think it is a tribute to the architecture of the staircase that subsequent owners of the house and subsequent generations have never changed it. It goes right back to the 1830s. Blaine lived here until his death in 1893, mrs. Blaine kept the property to her death in 1903, and then after world war i their daughter Harriet Blaine beale donated the house and grounds to the state of maine for the purpose of a governors home. Sadly her son, Walker Blaine beal in world war i and he had actually owned the house and then upon his death the house reverted back to her and she recognizing that it probably wasnt going to go on in the family and in addition to that recognizing the need that maine had and the close proximity of the blaine house to our state house across the street, she donated the house for the purpose of the governors home. This is the state reception room. When the house was built in 1833 this was two rooms, and then when the blaines acquired the house in 1862, in 69 and again in 1872 they made some major changes to the house which included opening up both these two rooms into one big reception room. This really reflects the fact that in the blaine period of ownership from 1862 into the early 1900s that there was a lot of entertaining that went on in this house related to blaines role as a leader of the republican party. He went from there to being a state representative in 1859, and he was the speaker of the state house of representatives. He moved onto become a congressman in 1863. That lasted until the mid1870s when he became a senator. He tried three times to run for president. In 1876 was the first time and thats when he really had the most momentum. He was very much focused on moving quickly from being speaker of the u. S. House of representatives into the presidency. He narrowly missed that nomination. It went instead to rutherford b. Hayes and in 1880 his name was put in nomination, and he again did not have quite enough support, and finally in 1884 he was nominated and he ran against Grover Cleveland and narrowly lost in that national election. This is mr. Blaines study and library, and this is part of the addition to the house that the blaines made in 1872, and it is the room that still remains the closest to what blaine and his family would have known back in the victorian period. When the house became the home for the governors in 1920, the decision was made to preserve this room much as it was in the earlier period, so it has become the repository for many artifacts that relate to blaine. The first one well look at is blaines desk when he was editor of the kennebec journal. He came to augusta in the 1850s to be a newspaper editor, and this desk was made especially for him at the time, and then when he left the newspaper to go on for his political career, the desk stayed there and in recent years the journal still being published every day, they very kindly gave the desk to the blaine house so it can be viewed by the public. Our second desk that were looking at is a much more elaborate one. When the u. S. Capitol was expanded in the late 1850s and early 1860s thomas walter, the architect for that expansion designed these very elaborate desks and chairs for the senators, and in the 1870s and 80s as senators would use these and retire, they would be able to take them with them and so blaine took this as a memento and brought it back to his home here in augusta. There is a particularly interesting feature here. That is this little feature that opens on the desk. This card is very precious in that it was written for blaine by abraham lincoln, richmond, the capital of the confederacy was opened to be able to be visited. They wrote this authorization, allow the bearer, honorable mr. Blaine to pass from city point, that was in virginia, to richmond and return. A. Lincoln, april 7, 1865. Two days later general lee surrenders to general grant at appomattox, and within two days lincoln is assassinated. This is a very historic photo that reflects the fact in summer of 1889 mr. And mrs. Blaine shown in the photograph in the center, mrs. Blaine in the white dress, james blaine to the right, they invited the president of the united states, Benjamin Harrison, to spend several days with them at their summer home in bar harbor on mount desert. One of the reasons for this president ial trip to maine was the fact that james g. Blaine at that time was serving under Benjamin Harrisons cabinet. Blaine had been u. S. Secretary of state under garfield and briefly under president arthur, but then in 1889 Benjamin Harrison appointed him secretary of state and he held that position through most of the harrison administration. Where did blaine get most of his money from . Well, there is a lot of discussion about that. His political detractors would have said that it was illgotten in some ways. That was one of the issues he ran into when he was trying to get the nomination in 1876 at just at the time that he was vying to are that nomination issues came up about whether he had ill gotten gains so to speak to simplify it. Thats one of the issues that made it difficult for him to obtain the nomination in 1876. By the early 1880s it was the fact that he had written an extremely popular twovolume memoir called twenty years in congress. It was a bestseller of its time. It sold tens of thousands of copies. It netted him a great deal of money. Were now in the billiard room which is one of the rooms that was built as part of the addition that the blaines made to the house in 1872. This is also a room which has been a place to hang photographs and in some cases the christmas cards of the previous first families. The first family was the millikens, and this is a large family, Carl Milliken and his
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