The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1881-03-23
THE NEW CABINET.
Biographical Sketches of its Members.
Personal ana Political Antccc,lcnts OF
blaine, Window, KirkwOOd, Lincoln.
Hunt, james and MacVeagh.

FfrsonNt ana Political AntCcctlcnts of
Blaine, Window, KirkwOOd, Lincoln.
Hunt, James and MacNeash.
New York Herald,
JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, SECRETARY
OF STATE.
Few public men in America are better
known than Senator James c. Blaine,
ex-Speaker of the House of Representa-
tives, and few are likely to maintain
themselves 50 steadily in the forefront of
the political battle field for many years
to come. As Premier of the new adj
ministratisn Mr.. Blaine will share with
President Garfield the chief responsible
tiles of policy which will be largely
his own, at least to degree unusual in
the annals of recent governments. Mr..
Blaine, AS is well known, is citizen of
Maine and native of Pennsylvania, but
it is not 50 well understood that he may
be considered, in geographical sense as
sn "Ohio man." having been born in the
center of the Ohio Valley, much nearer
the Beautiful River" than either Hayes
or Sherman. He comes of Revolution
airy stock, his great-grandfather, Col.
Ephriam Blaine, a native OF Scotland,
having fought with prince Charley at
| Culloden in the '45, and afterward par
ticipated in the American Revolution as
commissionary general of the Middle de
partment during the Revolutionary war.
His maternal grandfather, James Giles
pie settled upon large tract of land in
the Monongahela Valley soon after the
Revolution, that region being considered
then Il part of Virginia. His father,
Ephriam l.. Blaine married Miss Gill
Iespie, and James G. Blaine, one of seven
children, was born Jan. 81, 1880 on
Indian Hill farm, West Brownsville,
Union township, on the Monongahela, in
Washington county, Pa. The county
seat was the thriving village of Wash
ington-usually known as little Wash
ington"-a town which has become
prominent of late years by its cremation
furnace and by the visits of Gen. Grant
! to the members of his family who reside
there. "Little Washington is also no.
ted rs the seat of one of the oldest col
legcs of the Ohio Valley and there,
after preparation at school in Lancas-
ter, o., where he resided with his uncle,
Senator Thomas Ewing, the future
Premier graduated in 1917, with the
highest honors Of a class Of thirty-three
members, at the early age of seventeen
years. In 1850 he went to Georgetown,
Ky, as a teacher at a military academy,
and married, about 1858, Miss Harriet
Stanwood, a lady who taught an adjon
ing district school. She belonged to II
prominent family of Maine, and this
marriage was the occasion of the rcmOv-
al of Mr.. Blaine to that State. lie had
previously taught OS52) in the Penn.
sylvania Institution for the Blind at
Philadelphia, at the same time studying
law and writing for the Philadelphia
Inquirer. He speedily became connected
with the Kcnnebec Journal, published at
Augusta, the State Capital, and was for
a time editor of the Portland Advertiser,
but soon returned to his former post at
Augusta. In 1857 he was elected to the
State Legislature, where he sat for five
years, during two of which he served as
Speaker. In 1862 he was elected to
Congress, to which he was regularly rc-
elected until 1876, when he was chosen
to the Senate in place of ex-senator Lot
NJ. Morrill, In December, 1869, he was
elected Speaker of the Forty-tirst Con-
gress, was reelected in 1871 and 1873
and was defeated in 1878 by his Demo.
cratic competitor, Michael c. Kerr the
Democrats having clear majority in
that House As every one knows, Mr.,
Blaine was brilliantly successful as a
Speaker, having complete command of
parliamentary rules, and possessing that
gift of personal magnetism which marks
the leaders of men. As an orator and
legislator he was one of the notable fig,
ures of Congress long before he became
it. presiding officer and began to be
mentioned as possible President soon
after his first election to the Speaker
ship. At Cincinnati in 1876 he narrow
ly escaped the Republican nomination,
and at Chicago in 1880 was the leading
candidate until almost the last moment,
when his followers threw their votes for
James Abram Garfield, thus securing
his nomination. He occupies a fine
house at Washington, where he diSpenses
hospitality; has six children, two of his
sons already practicing law, and has a
natural taste for diplomacy, for which
his character eminently fits him. He
has an imposing personal presence, a
phenomenal memory and reputation
for stcadfast loyalty to political friends.
WILLIAM WINDOW, SECRETARY or THE
TREASURY.
The second prize in the Garfield Cabi
net falls to Senator William Window, of
Minnesota, who had some following in
the Chicago Convention of 1880 as a
possible Ozark horse" Mr.. Window,
like many other meritorious politicians,
was originally an "Ohio man." having
first seen the light May 10, 1927, in Bel
mont county, o., almost on the banks of
the Beautiful River" near Wheeling
West Va, not fifty miles, Gas the crow
flies" from the birth place Of James c.
Blaine His parents were both from
Virginia, his paterna! grand parents
were from North Carolina, and his ma
ternal grand parents were Pennsylvania
Quakers named Spencer. William Win
dom was brought up on a farm. In
clearing up the "claim," splitting rails
and chopping frewood, he welded the
AK with the same agility as our martyr
President. His early schooling was de-
fective, but he attended an academy at
Mount Vernon, o., for several terms
when a young man, studying law at the
same time, and was admitted to the bar
at that place in 1850. Two years later
he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of
Knox county, but in 1855 he settled at
Winona, MIMI, which has ever since
been his residence. In 1858 he was
elected to Congress as a Republican, and
was continued in his seat for ten years,
serving on the committees on Public
I o,Jo and puhl;o Exnond;turos anil tho