Blaine was undoubtedly the most ill-informed of our great diplomats; yet a trace of greatness lingers about him.

The exact reverse of John Quincy Adams, he knew neither law nor history, and he did not always inspire others with confidence in his integrity.

On the other hand, the magnetic charm of his personality won many to a devotion such as none of our great men except Clay has received.

Blaine saw, moreover, though through a glass darkly, farther along the path which the United States was to take than did any of his contemporaries.
It was his fate to deal chiefly in controversy with those accomplished diplomats, Lord Salisbury and Lord Granville, and it must have been among the relaxations of their office to point out tactfully the defects and errors in his dispatches.

Nevertheless when he did not misread history or misquote precedents but wielded the broadsword of equity, he often caught the public conscience, and then he was not an opponent to be despised.
Blaine at once undertook the defense of the contention that Bering Sea was "closed" and the exclusive property of the United States, in spite of the fact that this position was opposed to the whole trend of American opinion, which from the days of the Revolution had always stood for freedom of the high seas and the limitation of the water rights of particular nations to the narrowest limits.