Blair, Francis Preston, 1791–1876, American journalist and politician

Blair, Francis Preston, 1791–1876, American journalist and politician, b. Abingdon, Va. Through the Frankfort, Ky., journal Argus of Western America, which he edited with Amos Kendall Kendall, Amos (kĕn`dəl), 1789–1869, American journalist and statesman, b. Dunstable, Middlesex co., Mass.
..... Click the link for more information. , Blair was an ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson. At William T. Barry's suggestion, he traveled to Washington and established the Washington (D.C.) Globe in Dec., 1830, which exerted great political influence as the Jacksonian "court journal" until 1841. Along with Kendall, Blair also was one of the leading members of the Kitchen Cabinet Kitchen Cabinet, in U.S. history, popular name for the group of intimate, unofficial advisers of President Jackson . Early in his administration Jackson abandoned official cabinet meetings and used heads of departments solely to execute their departmental duties,
..... Click the link for more information. . In Washington he also founded the Congressional Globe (now the Congressional Record ), in which the daily proceedings of Congress were recorded. When James K. Polk became President, Blair, a Van Buren Democrat, was forced to sell his interest in the Washington Globe to Thomas Ritchie. Later, because of his antislavery views, Blair was one of the founders of the Republican party, and he presided over its first national convention in 1856. In 1865 he engineered the futile Hampton Roads Peace Conference Hampton Roads Peace Conference, meeting held on Feb. 3, 1865, on board the Union transport River Queen in Hampton Roads, Va., with the object of ending the Civil War. President Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward represented the Union, and A. H.
..... Click the link for more information. . An influential adviser to President Lincoln during the early years of the Civil War, he eventually returned to the Democratic party because he was opposed to radical Republicanism.

Bibliography

See W. E. Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics (1933); A. M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson (1945); B. J. Hendrick, Lincoln's War Cabinet (1946).

Blair, Francis Preston, 1821–75, American political leader

Blair, Francis Preston, 1821–75, American political leader and Union general in the Civil War, b. Lexington, Ky., son of Francis Preston Blair Blair, Bonnie Kathleen, 1964–, American speed skater, b. Cornwall, N.Y. An outstanding technical skater, she won more individual gold medals (five) in Olympic competition than any other American woman, and her total of six Olympic medals is the most ever won by
..... Click the link for more information. (1791–1876). A St. Louis lawyer, Blair led the Free-Soil party in Missouri in 1848, served as state legislator (1852–56), and as Congressman (1857–59; June, 1860; 1861–62). In Congress he attacked slavery as harmful to the interests of poor whites and became an energetic Lincoln supporter in 1860. Instrumental in keeping Missouri loyal to the Union by seizing, with Nathaniel Lyon Lyon, Nathaniel, 1818–61, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Eastford, Conn. After serving against the Seminole and in the Mexican War, he was stationed in California and Kansas until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he was put in command of the St.
..... Click the link for more information. , secessionist Camp Jackson and the U.S. arsenal early in 1861, he was appointed major general of volunteers (Nov., 1862) and served in the Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and Atlanta campaigns. After the Civil War, Blair was denied political preferment by the radical Republicans and in 1868 ran for Vice President on the unsuccessful Democratic ticket with Horatio Seymour. He helped overthrow the radicals in Missouri in 1870 and was elected to the state legislature, which, in turn, sent him to the U.S. Senate (1871–73).

Bibliography

See W. E. Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics (1933); B. J. Hendrick, Lincoln's War Cabinet (1946).

Blair, Francis Preston (1791–1876) journalist; born in Abingdon, Va. A founding editor of the Washington, D.C. Globe, a Democratic party paper, in 1830, he was a member of President Andrew Jackson's "kitchen cabinet" of advisers. For a time he also published the Congressional Globe, a predecessor of the Congressional Record. Opposed to the extension of slavery, he helped organize the Republican Party and became a close adviser to Abraham Lincoln.