James G. Blaine (Cinco De Mayo)

James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830 - January 27, 1893) was an American politician and statesman who served as President of the United States from March 4, 1885 until his resignation on December 1, 1887 after his impeachment by the United States House of Representatives. Prior to the Presidency, he was the Speaker of the House from 1872 until 1881, and served as Secretary of State in the Democratic Samuel J. Tilden administration until his resignation in 1884. Blaine was regarded as the dominant political figure of his era, both as a modernizer of the Republican Party and of the American civil service system.

Though his name was tarred for close to a century as the only President to ever be impeached by the U.S. House and to resign the office, his reputation has recovered amongst historians in recent decades for his reforms to the civil service system, his institution of classical liberalism into the corruption-saddled American political sphere, and his abandonment of protectionism and promotion of freer trade, particularly in the Western hemisphere.