The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-07-10

cences of the struggle between slavery and
freedom which ended in the civil war. The
son and namesake of an eminent politician,
who still survives after the battles of more
than half century, General Blair was early
educated in the political strategy of the times
but he marked out a career for himself which
seemed to run counter to all the teachings of
his youth and gave him high place among
the anti-slavery leaders of an epoch when it
was perilous to oppose the peculiar institu-
ton" of the South. Never an abolitionist in
the merely sentimental sense, he was from the
beginning of his political life powerful foe
of the system of forced labor which had OBJ
tanned such q strong hold in the Southern
States, and his fame will rest to q great ex-
tent upon his anti-slavery record. Starting
with his service in the Missouri Legislature
he was throughout his whole career in the
House of Representatives the earnest political
enemy of the slave system, and it is compli-
ment to his craftsmanship as we'll as his ora
tory that he advocated emancipation long be-
fore the results of the war made it necessity.
In those early days, while he was in the very
bud and flower of his youth, he evinced
grand courage in the part he took and earned
aleading place among the statesmen of an era
who have not yet come to be studied and
measured. His skill as o soldier is only q
secondary consideration in estimating his
character and the political courses of his
later years form but a very small part of the
value of his public service. The more recent
condition of national politics was unfavorable
to the career of man who was essentially
champion only in great crisis. But once in
the last quarter of century has champion
ship had o fair and free field for the display of
conspicuous ability, and it is only doing
proper honor to General Blair's memory to
say that in that epoch he outshone most of
his contemporaries.
Most of the public men of to-day are the
products of the war; but General Blair was
greatest when the war begun. AS Breckin-
ridge was the type of the young South of that
day, so Blair was typical of the young America
of the same period. The one was merely
Southern; the other American. The one was
sectional; the other national; and Breckin-
ridges brilliant qualities both as o debater
and leader were fairly rivalled by Blair's
originality and force. When Blair was
chosen to Congress new element was max
ing itself felt in American politics. The
Jacksonian era had become what the policy
of Madison had long been and the anti
slavery struggle now is-a "Reminiscences of the
past. Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Benton, were
all dead, and their Titanic contests were
fading into o tradition. New men had come
upon the scene, and with them new thoughts
and new purposes. Douglas was rapidly be-
coming the mouthpiece and champion of the
ster's place. Breckenridge, fresh from the
glories he had achieved in the House, was
President of the Senate. Buchanan was the
head Of the nation, and he was surrounded by
q Cabinet intent on making new empire of
the South. The republican party had just
come into existence, and Blair was among its
first representatives on the floor of the House.
1t was an era of political revolution as well
as civil war. Only strong man, as sound of
intellect as sincere of purpose, could make
commanding figure in such an epoch. If
Blair's success was not equal in politics and
and his services in Congress will yet demand
and obtain a higher recognition than it has
been the fashion to accord to them. He was
SO essentially American that his career in the
House is key to the study of the men and
measures Of his time, and that time is the
oa1,io in tho hictpru of tha Pc
public.
At the time of his death General Blair was
comparatively young man, but many of the
conspicuous men of the epoch to which he
belonged are already dead. The years Of the
war and Immediately preceding the war were
O severe tax upon the vitality of the partici-
pants in the struggles of the time. Douglas
died almost as soon as his work was accom-
plished. Sumner has been dead year or
more. Breckenridge, who was born the same
year with Blair, preceded him only few
weeks to the grave. In few years but few
of the statesmen of the anti-slavery struggle
will be left, and these, like General Blair's
father, Francis p. Blair, ST., the represen-
tative of an earlier but almost as strongly
marked era will only remain to remind this
and the next generation OF the giants of the
past
In the death of these men, statesmen and
soldiers, as one by one they drop into the
grave, there is cause for much sincere regret,
and none of them deserve to be more sincerely
mourned than General Blair. He had his
faults, but these proved only that he was
mortal, while his merits and services far out
shone them. As we lay him away to that
rest which comes at last as welcome boon to
all of us we can only remember his many
high and noble qualities, and with such
remembrances we would embalm him for his
obsequies.
Our Rihemen ut Wimbledon.
The special despatch which we publish this
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