had served his purpose.
Blaine has made a systematic and thorough study of politics and
political affairs. Constitutional history and international law he made
it his business to master. Above all, he has studied men, has learned by
careful observation how to handle, to mould, to use his fellow-beings.
No man in America to-day is more learned in everything pertaining to the
science of statesmanship than James G. Blaine. It is the fashion in this
country to decry professional politicians, to uphold the doctrine that
the office should seek the man and not the man the office. Yet there can
be no more honorable profession than the service of one's country, and
surely no man should be blamed for fitting himself for that service as
thoroughly and as carefully as for any other profession.

A man of Mr. Blaine's ability, of his rare knowledge of parliamentary
usages, and, above all, of his ambitions, was not likely to remain long
content with the position of a representative in the State Legislature.
As early as 1859 he had an ambition to go to Congress, and he was talked
of as a candidate in 1860. But Anson P. Morrill was nominated, Mr.
Blaine not having strength enough to obtain the honor. In 1862 Mr.
Blaine was nominated to the office, although he was not then so desirous
of it as he had been two years before. His patriotic utterances in the
convention which nominated him met with a hearty response, and he was
elected over his Democratic competitor by the largest majority that had
ever been given in his district, it exceeding three thousand. This
majority he held in six succeeding and consecutive elections, running it
up in one exciting contest to nearly four thousand.

During his first term in Congress Mr. Blaine gave himself up to study
and observation, but in the next Congress, the Thirty-ninth, he gained
some prominence, and from that time to the end of his congressional
career he occupied a foremost place among the Republican leaders. His
reputation was that of an exceedingly industrious committeeman. He was a
member of the post-office and military committees, and of the committees
on appropriations and rules. He paid close attention to the business of
the committees, and took an active part in the debates of the House,
manifesting practical ability and genius for details. The first
remarkable speech which he made in Congress was on the subject of the
assumption by the general government of the war debts of the States,