James Gillespie Blaine (1830-1893) was the nearest thing to a political idol in a politically uninspiring era, serving in Congress from 1863 to 1881. As secretary of state, he laid the basis for American imperialism.

Of Scotch-Irish descent, James G. Blaine was born in West Brownsville, Pa., on Jan. 31, 1830. His father was a locally prominent officeholder, so Blaine was exposed to political talk--mostly a fierce Whig partisanship--from an early age. Though he was not really the genius that his followers later claimed him to be, Blaine graduated from Washington College in western Pennsylvania at the age of 13 and, soon after, taught at Western Military Institute, Georgetown, Ky. Blaine later maintained that he quit this position because of a growing distaste for Southern society, but this seems a politically convenient hindsight. In fact, Blaine wanted to study law, and a teaching position at an institute for the blind in Philadelphia provided...