James G. Blaine -- a great president that never was?

[pragmatic liberal]

American presidents in the post-civil war era are generally seen as being fairly weak and unimpressive.

To some extent, I wonder if this was due to regional and factional disputes that existed within both parties. Neither party typically managed to nominate for president a truly strong leader -- instead, drawn-out conventions tended to nominate dark-horse compromise nominees. So instead of major Republican leaders like John Sherman, you instead got people like James Garfield, Rutherford Hayes and Benjamin Harrison.

After Grant, the ONE Republican nominee who was truly a major national figure was James G. Blaine. I don't know all that much about him, other than the fact that he was, despite some history of corruption, arguably more progressive than Cleveland and was a fairly effective party leader. He also served twice as secretary of state and was fairly interventionist in office.

What kind of president would he have been? Simply based on the fact that he, unlike all the other Republican nominees post-Grant, was a major and powerful figure within Congress, it seems to me like he would have been a fairly influential and strong president. Perhaps enough so that he would today have been seen as "great" or "near-great," possibly making the U.S. a major (and engage) world power many years earlier than it did in real-life. 

[ilikeverin]

He was a true Stalwart; in other words, a slimeball.

[exopolitician]

He was from Maine....and he lied. Thats about all I know

[Erc]

He was a true Stalwart; in other words, a slimeball.

Are you serious?  James G. Blaine, was, if anything, not a Stalwart.  The definition of Stalwart was, for fair while, defined by being opposed to Blaine's nomination to the Presidency.


And, in response to the original post, would people stop sliming the name of James Garfield for no good reason?   He didn't do much---but that's only because he was only conscious for a couple months of his Presidency.  With the possible exception of FDR, I'm pretty sure every President would be remembered as ineffectual if we judged them solely on the first couple months of their administration.

[ilikeverin]

He was a true Stalwart; in other words, a slimeball.

Are you serious?  James G. Blaine, was, if anything, not a Stalwart.  The definition of Stalwart was, for fair while, defined by being opposed to Blaine's nomination to the Presidency.

I always learned it as Mugwumps v. Stalwarts.  The mugwumps were anti-Blaine, ergo the Stalwarts were pro-Blaine.

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I agree.  James Garfield would've made a fine president if he had had the chance to govern.  At the very least, he could've come up with another mathematical proof

[Dr. Cynic]

Blaine was actually born not far from here in Brownsville, PA.

In any case, from everything I've ever read of Blaine, he seems to have been a sleazy gilded age leech.