New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-04-17
A Dccayed Family.
bankruptcy of the Blairs-Laek of Ability
the Cause.

Until recently our otherwise free and pros
porous country has lacked that which is to
nation what a choice bouquet is to wine.
Everything pertaining to us has been some
what grievously spck-and-span. To strang-
crs from countries more venerable, the smell
Of recent varnish has been too perceptible,
and these facts have found their apologists
in our midst. AS a people we have blushed
for, and have endeavOred to shake Off, our
newness as a curse. The odor of age was
wanting. We have gentility, but it fairly
rolls in gold. We have choice families, but
they are not in the least threadbare in guise
or pinched in resources. Such godsend as
a "decayed family" has here pofore found no
mention in American annals. But as winter
brings frost, the lapse Of time as certainly
brings decay to man. And so this country
can now boast of al least one decayed family.
A family whose members have figured more
or less prominently in public affairs for thirty
six wears, but whom the events Of the last
ninety days must admOnish that they have
been set aside and left to lonely contem-
plation of their not uneyentiul life. We
allude to the Blairs.
The elder Blair, though not prominent in
public affairs for many years past has the
credit of shaping the destinies of his sons.
Yet neither has achieved, in a wider field
even than the father occupied, anything like
the fame won by their progenitor. The
eldest Blair has enjoyed a fame not much
less notable than that of his friend and pat
ron, Andrew Jackson. 1t may be said, with
no violence to history and no discredt to
jackson, that the student Of political history
may be puzzled to decide where Jackson's
fame begins or where Blair's leaves OH.
They were necessary to each other, and they
share alike, in the annals of their time
What Jackson would have been without
Francis z. Blair no man can decide. What
Blair would have been without Andrew Jack
son is beyond the knowledge of man to say.
And II Is no mean compliment to any one to
say that he was necessary to round up the
fame of any extraordinary character. Diverse
minds do not melt into each other, but run
their several courses distinct.
But the high grade OF helpiulness does not
appear 10 have descended from father TO sons.
Search contemporaneous records as we may,
no instance appears where either of the
younger Blairs was necessary to any body,
or attempted to help any body but himself
The elder of the two served period in Mr..
Lincoln's cabinet, but cannot be said to have
achieved success. The younger represented
a Missouri district in the House and attracted
some attention by his free-soi proclivi.ies
He accepted 4 commission in the army. hut
/ valor or discretion. His next prominent APP
| pearing was as a Democratic candidate for
/ Vice President, on which occasion he made
/ so free use OF his pen that the leading organ
OF his party proposed to drop his name from
/ the ticket.
From the dust Of thi, defeat he cgI,rgc.l
only To secure d seat in The senate .. HE
United States as a Democrat. From that
high position he managed TO control the
Cincinnati Convention for Horace Greeley
and his cousin Gratz Brown. Bythat lever.
age he no doubt assisted to compel the sur.
render of his party at Baltimore. The
tragedy is known Of all men. So, up to thai
event, the younger Blair had succeeded in
helping nobody but himself, and failed in
rendering himself useful to any party under
the heavens. The Democratic party, coming
at last to true estimate Of the Blairs. coolly
shut the door Of preferment in his face, the
other day, when he asked for a continuance
in his Senatorial Office.
The Blair family has thus completed il.
revolution about its pIimary-self. The sons
lacking real ability, traded largely upon pa
ternal fame and as fame cannot be substi
tuted for judgment, the bankruptcy into which
they have fallen was inevitable. They have
tried every party, helped themselves to ths