This was the last great question in the discussion of which Mr. Blaine took part on the floor of the House, his colleagues in 1869 electing him to the office of speaker, vacated by the promotion of Schuyler Colfax to the vice-presidency.  The vote stood one hundred and thirty-five votes for Blaine to fifty-seven for Kerr, of Indiana.  Mr. Blaine proved himself eminently fitted for the position.  As a speaker he may be classed with Henry Clay and General Banks, who are acknowledged to have been the best speakers we have ever had.  Blaine was their equal in every respect.  The whole force of such a statement as this cannot be felt unless it is fully understood that the speaker of the House of Representatives stands next to the President in power and importance in the United States.  The business of Congress is done largely by committees, and the committees of the House are appointed and shaped by the speaker.  Then, to say that Blaine was one of our three ablest speakers is to say a great deal, for a long line of very able men have filled the speaker’s chair.  His quickness, his thorough knowledge of parliamentary law and of the rules, his firmness, clear voice, impressive manner, his ready comprehension of subjects and situations, and his dash and brilliancy, really made him a great presiding officer.  He rose to a high place not only in the estimation of his Republican friends, but also of his Democratic opponents, and he was re-elected to the speakership in 1871 and again in 1873.  In 1875, the Democratic majority took control, and Mr. Blaine resumed his place on the floor to win fresh laurels as a debater, and to discomfit the majority in many a projected scheme which his quick eye detected and his ready words exposed.

The governor of Maine, on the tenth of July, 1876, appointed Mr. Blaine to the national Senate, in place of Mr. Morrill, who had resigned to become secretary of the treasury.  He was afterward elected for the unexpired term and the full term following.  On his appointment he wrote to his constituents thus:—­

Beginning with 1862, you have, by continuous elections, sent me as your representative to the Congress of the United States.  For such marked confidence, I have endeavored to return the most zealous and devoted service in my power, and it is certainly not without a feeling of pain that I now surrender a trust by which I have always felt so signally honored.  It has been my boast, in public and in private, that no man on the floor of Congress ever represented a constituency more distinguished for intelligence, for patriotism, for public and personal virtue.  The cordial support you have so uniformly given me through these fourteen eventful years is the chief honor of my life.  In closing the intimate relations I have so long held with the people of this district, it is a great satisfaction to me to know that with returning health I shall enter upon a field of duty in which I can still serve them