Background
John Blaine was born on May 4, 1875, near Castle Rock, Grant County, Wisconsin, United States, the son of James Ferguson and Elizabeth (Johnson-Brunstad) Blaine. His father was of Scottish, his mother of Norwegian ancestry.
John Blaine was born on May 4, 1875, near Castle Rock, Grant County, Wisconsin, United States, the son of James Ferguson and Elizabeth (Johnson-Brunstad) Blaine. His father was of Scottish, his mother of Norwegian ancestry.
John attended school in the district and at the nearby village of Montfort. In 1896 he received the degree of LL. B. from Valparaiso University in Indiana.
Blaine began the practice of law at Boscobel, Wisconsin, where he was soon prominent in local politics. For three terms he was mayor of Boscobel and for four years a member of the Grant County board of supervisors. His introduction to state politics came in 1902 when he attended the Republican state convention as a La Follette delegate. From this time on he was closely identified with the Progressive wing of the state's badly split Republican party. As a La Follette progressive he sought in 1904 to wrest from the conservative incumbent the Republican nomination from the third Wisconsin district but failed. In 1909, during the first of two terms as state senator, he called striking attention to the heavy expenditures by means of which United States Senator Isaac Stephenson had won endorsement at the polls for reelection. Blaine did not prevent Stephenson's return to the Senate, but he did obtain a thorough legislative investigation which led to the passage of a more drastic corrupt-practices act. Blaine's frequent unwillingness to conform to party decisions caused him to be characterized as a "lone fighter" and a "bolter. " In 1912 he was a La Follette delegate to the Republican convention, and after the Taft-Roosevelt split he was one of the moving spirits in a "Wilson National Progressive Republican League. "
In 1914, when Emanuel L. Philipp, conservative Republican, won the primary nomination for governor, Blaine ran against him in the election as an independent. Philipp won, but Blaine's course served, as he had hoped, to hold the La Follette faction together. Although still nominally a Republican, Blaine supported La Follette for president in 1924, Smith in 1928, and Roosevelt in 1932. In 1918 he won the Republican nomination for attorney-general and served in that capacity during Philipp's third term. He and the conservative governor came to have a high regard for each other, and when Blaine sought the nomination for governor in 1920 Philipp gave him indirect aid.
For three terms, 1921-1927, Blaine served as governor, but during most of this period the state Senate was in conservative hands, and little reform legislation was enacted. In 1926 Blaine defeated for renomination United State Senator Irvine L. Lenroot, a Republican progressive who had broken with La Follette, and was elected. In the Senate Blaine became one of the most outspoken of the small group of progressives who consistently assailed the policies of the Coolidge and Hoover administrations. By this time he was known also as the leading opponent of the prohibition amendment, and he took great pride in sponsoring the legislation that made possible its repeal.
In international matters he was a thoroughgoing isolationist. He favored independence for the Philippines and cast the only vote against ratification by the Senate of the Briand-Kellogg peace pact. He was defeated for renomination in 1932 by John B. Chapple of Ashland, but Chapple was in turn defeated by the Democratic candidate, F. Ryan Duffy of Fond du Lac. After leaving the Senate Blaine planned to return to his law practice, but in June 1933 he was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to membership on the board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The following spring, while on a business trip to Wisconsin, he contracted pneumonia and died.
John Blaine achieved success as the 24th Governor of Wisconsin, which position he held from 1921 to 1927. Among the measures to receive his signature was one granting equal legal rights to women, and one providing for optional instead of compulsory military training at the state university. In administrative matters Blaine reorganized commissions and attacked personnel problems with vigor.
Blaine was a member of the Republican party. He also was a member of the Wisconsin Senate fome 1909 to 1912 and United States Senate from Wisconsin from 1927 to 1933.
Blaine was a born politician. He made friends easily and held their loyalty. He spoke forcefully, with a ready wit that took easy care of hecklers. He was a tireless campaigner and sometimes made as many as ten speeches in one day. He sensed sooner than most observers the changing currents of public opinion and was adroit in taking advantage of them. Believing that in politics, as well as in war, the best defensive was a vigorous offensive, he acted accordingly. Youthful in appearance, he was optimistic and enthusiastic, even when leading a forlorn cause.
Blaine was married August 23, 1904, at Boscobel to Anna C. McSpaden.
