Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-07-23
frank P. Blair, Jr.

Frank =. Blair. IT,, selected as the
Democratic candidate for Vice. Presiden-
cy, TO balance Seymour upon the same
principle that our forefathers In carry
ing their grain TO mill, having put the
grain into one end of n sack, found 1t
necessary, to keep 1t from sliding off, to
put a stone into the other. Seymour,
with his peace record, is the grain, and
Blair, with his war record, is the stone.
Seymour represents the North East,
and. Blair the Southwest. Seymour
represents the men who didn't fight,
and Blair represents the men who fought
but were sorry for it. Not to leave the
figure incomplete, the ass that carries
tn sack Is the Democratic party. Frank
p. Blair, jr., has q record much more
national and conspicuous than Seymour.
MIR. Blair, ST., as the founder ofthe Blair
dynasty, the editor of The Globe, and
stanch and valued supporter of General
jackson, and subsequently an organizer
OF the Republican party and supporter
OF Fremont, was one of the most sagac-
ious political managers the country has
ever known. Frank =. Blair, jr., was
born at Lexington, KY, Feb. 10, 1921,
was educated ut Princeton College, n.
j., and removing to st. Louis, adopted
the profession of the law. Entering
upon political life, he became a leader
of the Free Labor or Emancipation par
ty of Missouri. lie served as a private
in the Mexican war. In 1o48 he sus-
tanned Van Buren, and the Free Soil par
ty, opposing the extension OF Slavery
into the Territories, and advocating its
abolition in Missouri. In 1852 he was
elected from st. Louis County to the
Legislature of Missouri as an Abolition
ist, reelected in 1854, returned to Con-
gress in 1855, edited The Missouri DEM
ocrat, Radical Republican paper, and
continued in Congress until the out
break of the Rebellion, and was Chair
man of the Committee on Military AT
fairs. Entering the army in 1861, as
Colonel of Volunteers, he was soon after
appointed Brigadier-General by Presi-
dent Lincoln. lie divided his services
between Congress and the army to the
great disgust of his present political as
| sociates, who tried hard to have him
either deprived of his seat in Congress
or of his commission in the army. He
served with average credit, commanded
division of McPherson's corps in May
1862, and was appointed Major Gener-
al late in the same year, resigning his
seat in the XXXVIIIth Congress to de-
vote his entire time to the command,
but by the action of the House subse-
quently the seat was assigned to his
contestant, Samuel Knox. The Demo-
cratic party steadily reviled him as
civilian general or military poliman,
indebted for his position to political
favoritism. After McPherson's assign
ment to the Army of the Tennessee,
Gen. Blair succeeded to the command Of
the 18th Army Corps, formerly McPher-
sons, and continued to command it with
credit during Shernian's march to the
sea, and in the subsequent march to
Richmond. In 1866 he was appointed
by President johnson Collector of Gus
toms for the port of st. Louis. Toward
the latter days of President Lincoln's
administration the Blair family fell into
disfavor with the Republican party, who
at their Convention in Baltimore, re-
quested the removal of Montgomery
Blair from the Cabinet. Since then
Frank P. Blair and the rest of the fami-
ly have ranked as. Conservatives or
''soured Radicals" and supporters of re-
| construction on the Rebel basis. Mr..
Blair now turns up as makeweight.-
The grist which the Democratic party is
carrying to the mill is not Blair but Sey-
mour.-[N. Y. Tribune.