The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-01-03

was simply Duff Green's fiscal agency
granted by the Pennsylvania legisla-
ture, changed in name and used for
the construction of the Union Pacific
Railway.
PROSPERITY OF THE GLOBE.
Green's alienation from the jackson
administration brought Amos Kendall
to the front. He was one of the ablest
political leaders of his day, and then
held the position of Fourth Auditor of
the Treasury. Kendall brought Francis
P. Blair to Washington, who, like Ken
dali, was then resident of Kentucky
and who was known to the President as
the author of number of able political
articles defending Jackson. Mr.. Blair
located in Washington and established
the Globe. The able and pungent ar
ticles of Blair and Kendall soon gave
the new administration organ a nation
al reputation. Mr. Blair's connection
with the Globe continued nearly twenty
years, and during that period it was
accepted by all as the ablest exponent
of Democratic faith. Mr.. Blair was
not only one of the ablest political
writers of his day, but lie was broad
gauge political manager. He became
the confidential adviser of jackson,
and he and Kendall were credited with
the authorship of some of Jackson's
best state papers. While the Globe
under Mr.. Blair did not approach the
dignity and courtesy which were al
ways displayed in Mr.. Gales National
Intelligencer, which was its chief dis
putant in all political discussions, it
did not descend to the violent vituper-
alton Of the Duane school.
| BLAIRs INDEPENDENT COURSE.
The overthrow OF Mr. Blair by Polk
il lS45 was the first public confes-
sion by the administration that the
Calhoun element of the Democratic
party had lriumphed over the mastery
of jackson; and while Mr.. Blair, de-
voted follower of Jackson, ceased to he
Democratic leader, he became very
important and dangerous factor in dis
turbing Democratic aims and success.
President Polk sought to conclliate
him by rendering the Spanish mission,
but it was peremL torily declined. Mr..
Blair exhibited his dissent from Demo
cratic leadership at that time by sup
porting Van Buren against Cass in
1S4S, and while he joined in the sup
port of Pierce in 1852, he was one of
the first and among the boldest to de-
nouncc the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise in 1854. The revolution that
followed the overthrow of the Missouri
Compromise presented a confusing
mass of discordant political elements,
with opposition to the extension of slav-
cry as the single principle of cohesion.
The occasion called for the ablest and
ripest leadership, and Mr.. Blair was
the one man most conspicuous of all in
meeting that great emergency.
He was more nearly the founder of
l., Il publican party than any other
one man, and he presided at the Pitts
burg conference in January. 1856,
which proclaimed the organization of
the party that made Abraham Lincoln
President four years later. 1t is known
that Henry J. Raymond wrote the ad-
dress that defined the purposes of the
new political organization, but the mast
er spirit of the whole movement, and
one whose counsels were most general
ly accepted, was Francis P. Blair. He
not only was most prominent in the Or
ganization of the party and in defining
its policy, but if Francis P. Blair had
not then been living John c. Fremont
would not have been the Republican
candidate for President in 1856. 1t was
Mr.. Blair who created Fremont as
Presidential possibility, and it was the
faith of Weed, of Greeley, of Wilmot,
and of many others in the political sa-
gacity of Mr.. Blair that made them
accept his candidate. He chose Ere
mont not only because of the romance
that attached to his career in the army
and as an explorer, but because lie was
entirely unknown in politics beyond
the fact that he was the son-in-law of
Senator Thomas II. Benton, and he
was the one man possessing some
measure of national fame who present
ed no sharp antagonisms to the vari-
Gus discordant elements out of which
the Republican party was created.
met Mr.. Blair many times in the
early days of the Republican organiza-
tion. He was not a man of imposing
presence nor specially attractive in
manner He lacked the finely chisel-
ed face and outward intellectual signs
of Gales. but he impressed all who
came into contact with him with his
mastery ability as political leader.
He was always incisive and unimpas-
stoned in conversation, and | do not
recall single instance in which he
ever made public speech. met Linn
in Philadelphia in conference with ST.
mon Cameron, Thurlow Weed, and
Henry Wilson after the October elec-
tion of 1856, when the Fremont ticket
was defeated by only few thousands.