JAMES G. BLAINE - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED CHECK 07/12/1879 - HFSID 102203

JAMES G. BLAINE
James G. Blaine signs a check to pay W. E. Chandler $2,500.00.
Partly Printed Check signed: "James G. Blaine" as U.S. Senator, 7½x2¾. National Metropolitan Bank, Washington, D.C., 1879 July 12. "Pay to credit of W.E. Chandler (of his note proceeds) or order Twenty five hundred Dollars…." Two-cent Internal Revenue stamp affixed at left. JAMES G. BLAINE (1830-1893), who began his political career in the Maine state House of Representatives (1859-1862; Speaker 1861-1862), later served as a Republican U.S. Congressman (1863-1876; Speaker of the House, 1868-1875) and U.S. Senator (1876-1881) from the state. Secretary of State under Presidents Garfield and Arthur (1881) and Benjamin Harrison (1889-1892), Blaine was nominated for President at five consecutive Republican National Conventions: 1876, 1880, 1884, 1888 and 1892. He won the nomination in 1884, but lost the November election to New York Governor Grover Cleveland after a campaign characterized by mud-slinging on both sides. WILLIAM E. CHANDLER, (1835-1917) First Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (1865-1867), was a newspaper publisher and editor in New Hampshire and a neighbor of Blaine in Maine during the 1870s and 1880s. He later served as Arthur's Secretary of the Navy (1882-1885) and represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate (1887-1901). Pencil notes (unknown hand) on verso. Fine condition.