Young Teacher, Destined to Be a Famous
Statesman, Enforced Discipline in the
Class-Room.
James G. Blaine's early youth was spent on the banks of the Monongahela,
where he received the rudiments of his education from his father, an
extremely cultivated man. A common-school course followed, and in due time
he entered Washington College, from which he was graduated at the age of
eighteen.
A few years later he became a teacher of mathematics in a college in
Kentucky, where he gained the respect of his neighbors by quelling,
unarmed, a serious rebellion against his authority, notwithstanding the
fact that his opponents were armed with guns and knives.
It was in Maine, however, as half owner of the _Kennebec Journal_, in
Augusta, and later of the Portland _Advertiser_, at a salary of two
thousand dollars a year, that he first entered the political field.
Possessed of a remarkable memory for facts, and having the minutiae of
local politics at his tongue's end, he was handicapped by a dislike for
stump-speaking. One of his first speeches was made under especially trying
circumstances.
A celebrated orator billed to speak on campaign issues had failed to put
in an appearance; and Blaine, being present, was forced by some of his
Augusta friends to ascend the platform. Nervous and entirely unprepared,
he began, however, by telling a story. He likened his situation to that of
a farmer, who had a horse for which he asked five hundred dollars. A
horse-trader offered him seventy-five dollars for the animal.
"It's a devil of a drop," said the farmer; "but I'll take it."
This anecdote caused much laughter, and at once put him in close touch
with his audience.
From that time the "Man from Maine" began to be heard of. His political
advance was rapid. The fact that he was not born a New Englander was not a
detriment to him, for, as one of his contemporaries said, "There was a
sort of Western dash about him that took with us Down-Easters." In 1862 he
was elected to Congress, and began his long and distinguished career of
public service at Washington.