Montgomery Blair

Blair was born in Franklin County, Kentucky, site of the state capital of Frankfort. His father, Francis Preston Blair, Sr., was editor of The Washington Globe and a prominent figure in the Democratic Party during the Jacksonian era. As a boy, Montgomery "often listened to the talk of his father and Andrew Jackson."Allan Nevins, The War for the Union, vol. 1: The Improvised War, 1861-1862 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1959), p. 43.

Blair graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point. After a year of service in the Seminole War, however, he left the U.S. Army, married Caroline Rebecca Buckner of Virginia, and began studying law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.

Blair began to practice law in 1839 in St. Louis, Missouri. He served as U.S. District Attorney from 1839 to 1843 and later as judge of the court of common pleas from 1843 to 1849. After the death of his first wife, Carolina, in 1844, he later married Mary Elizabeth Woodbury, daughter of Levi Woodbury.Moroney, p. 5;https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015016417332 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208220354/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015016417332 |date=February 8, 2024 }}

Blair moved to Maryland in 1852 and devoted himself to the practice of law, principally in the Supreme Court of the United States. He was United States Solicitor in the Court of Claims from 1855 to 1858.

Image:Emancipation proclamation.jpg|thumb|350px|First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln by Francis Bicknell Carpenter (1864) (Clickable image—use cursor to identify.)|alt=A dark-haired, bearded, middle-aged man holding documents is seated among seven other men.]]

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The Blairs, like many other nationalist Democrats, but unusual for politicians from the border states, had abandoned the Democratic Party in the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and had been among the founding leaders of the new Republican Party. Four years after Blair switched political parties, President Buchanan removed Blair from his position as Solicitor of the United States Court of Claims in 1858.

While the Blairs, as a family, were often characterized as conservative on the issue of slavery, Blair notably served as counsel for Dred Scott, in association with George T. Curtis, when the enslaved African-American took his case to the Supreme Court in 1857. Scott was the slave of an U.S. Army doctor who took his enslaved servant along for prolonged stays in free territory.

On Scott's behalf, Blair argued that the time the black man had spent in the free state of Illinois and in Minnesota, free territory since the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, made him a free man. The ruling by Court's majority against Scott's right to freedom is often cited as one of the contributing causes of the American Civil War. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney affirmed that the black man had no rights "that the white man was bound to respect" and that black slaves could not be considered American citizens despite having been born in the U.S. This landmark decision was denounced as a step toward the "nationalization" of slavery by Lincoln and others opposed to the expansion of that institution. Conservative as he may have been on other aspects of the slavery issue, Blair's work in the case of Dred Scott vs. Sandford suggests a willingness to embrace more progressive viewpoints.

In 1860, Blair took an active part in support of Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign. After his election, Lincoln appointed Blair to his cabinet as Postmaster General in 1861. Lincoln expected Blair, who advocated taking a firm stance with the southern states, to help balance more conciliatory members of his cabinet.Goodwin, 2005, Chapter 11. While Postmaster-General, Blair instituted a uniform rate of postage and free delivery in cities, began the sale of money orders by post offices to reduce the mailing of currency to reduce post office robberies, and also started the use of railway mail cars, an idea which had been suggested by George B. Armstrong (d. 1871), of Chicago, general superintendent of the United States railway mail service from 1860 to his death.

Blair called for the First International Postal Conference, which was held in Paris in 1863 and began the process that led to the Universal Postal Union.{{Cite web |url=http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/history/about-history.html |title=Universal Postal Union About history |access-date=February 12, 2016 |archive-date=May 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200510150428/http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/history/about-history.html |url-status=dead }}

In September 1864, Lincoln accepted an earlier offer by Blair to resign. Lincoln's action may have been a response to the hostility of the Radical Republican faction, which believed Blair's retirement should follow the withdrawal of John C. Frémont as a candidate in the 1864 presidential election. Blair told his wife that Lincoln acted "from the best motives" and that "it is for the best all around." After he left the cabinet, Blair still campaigned for Lincoln's re-election in 1864, and Lincoln and the Blair family retained close ties.Goodwin, 2005, Chapter 24.

File:PG-MBlair-Postbellum.jpg

Differing from the Republican Party on the Reconstruction policy, Blair gave his adherence to the Democratic Party after the Civil War, along with his brother, Francis Preston Blair Jr., who was the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1868.

In 1876, Blair, along with Matthew H. Carpenter and Jeremiah S. Black, was counsel to Secretary of War William W. Belknap during the House of Representatives investigation into the Trader post scandal.[https://archive.org/details/perleysreminisce02poor/page/310/mode/1up?view=theater Poore, Ben. Perley, Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, Vol.2, pp.310-311 (1886)]. Blair asked the House Investigation Committee chaired by Hiester Clymer to drop the charges against Belknap if the latter resigned office. Clymer, however, declined Blair's offer.

Belknap was impeached by the House of Representatives for receiving illicit payments from the Fort Sill trader post on the American frontier as Secretary of War. Belknap had been granted sole power by Congress to choose sutlers to operate lucrative trader posts that sold supplies to U.S. soldiers and Indians. Belknap resigned over the scandal and was acquitted in a United States Senate trial during the summer of 1876. Many senators did not believe that Congress could convict a private citizen, but the Senate passed a resolution that stated Congress had that power.

In 1882, Blair unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Representative from Maryland's sixth district.

Blair's {{convert|600|acre|km2|adj=on}} manor in present-day Silver Spring, Maryland was named Falkland. In 1864, during the Civil War, Confederate General Jubal Early occupied Silver Spring before the Battle of Fort Stevens. After the engagement, fleeing Confederate soldiers burnt the mansion.{{cite news |title=Interesting Particulars of the Rebel Invasion |work=Evening Star |date=July 15, 1864 |page=2 |url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX-NB&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=C60H50SGMTQxMTY2ODA4Ni43NTc1ODE6MTo3OnJhLTk2NjY&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=6&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=6&p_docnum=2&p_docref=v2:13D5DA85AE05A305@EANX-NB-13DAD1F38DE812E8@2402068-13D889C51F2B37B0@1-13DB45353A703C50@ |access-date=September 25, 2014 |archive-date=February 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207050722/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/home/login?destination=infoweb.newsbank.com%3Fdb%3DEANX-NB%26wedirect%3Dtrue |url-status=live}}

File:Montgomery Blair Mausoleum.JPG]]

After several years afflicted with "inflammation of the spinal membranes," he died in Silver Spring, Maryland on July 27, 1883.

Funeral services were held at Rock Creek Church, and he was buried at Rock Creek Cemetery.{{cite news |title= Montgomery Blair: A Prominent Figure in Political History Passes Away |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= July 28, 1883 |page= 1 |id= {{ProQuest|137873011}} }} In memory of Blair, the United States Post Office closed on July 30, 1883.

Blair's first wife was Caroline Rebecca Buckner of Virginia; they married in 1836, and she died in 1844. His second wife was Mary Woodbury, a daughter of Levi Woodbury. They had one daughter, Minnie Blair, and three sons, Woodbury Blair, Gist Blair, and Montgomery Blair Jr., all of whom became attorneys. Montgomery Blair and Mary Woodbury Blair are the great-grandparents of actor Montgomery Clift.

• Blair is portrayed by actor Lew Temple in the 2012 film Saving Lincoln.
• In the 2012 film Lincoln, Blair is inaccurately portrayed by actor Byron Jennings. In the film, Blair is incorrectly depicted as being opposed to the 13th Amendment, referring to it as "rash and dangerous." In reality, though Blair began the Civil War more concerned with punishing secessionists and restoring the union than abolishing slavery, he accepted the abolition of slavery as necessary despite disliking abolitionists by 1863.{{cite news| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/the-not-quite-free-state-maryland-dragged-its-feet-on-emancipation-during-civil-war/2013/09/13/a34d35de-fec7-11e2-bd97-676ec24f1f3f_story.html| title = The not-quite-Free State: Maryland dragged its feet on emancipation during Civil War - The Washington Post| newspaper = The Washington Post| access-date = June 29, 2020| archive-date = June 26, 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200626184050/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/the-not-quite-free-state-maryland-dragged-its-feet-on-emancipation-during-civil-war/2013/09/13/a34d35de-fec7-11e2-bd97-676ec24f1f3f_story.html| url-status = live}}
• To commemorate the centennial of the First International Postal Conference, Blair's portrait appeared on a U.S. airmail stamp, Scott catalogue C66, was issued in 1963.

• Speech on the Causes of the Rebellion (1864)

Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland is named after Blair.

Notes

{{reflist}}

Bibliography

• {{EB1911|wstitle=Blair, Francis Preston|volume=4|pages=33–34}}
• {{NIE}}
• Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. {{ISBN|1-4165-4983-8}} (electronic edition).

Further reading

• Davis, Madison. The Public Career of Montgomery Blair: particularly with reference to his services as Postmaster General of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Columbia Historical Society, 1910
• Moroney, Rita Lloyd. Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963 44p.

• [http://www.mlwh.org/inside.asp?ID=84&subjectID=2 Biography]
• [http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=83&subjectID=7 Mr. Lincoln and Friends: Montgomery Blair] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173315/http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=83&subjectID=7 |date=March 3, 2016 }}
• [http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=67&subjectID=4 Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Montgomery Blair] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031735/http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=67&subjectID=4 |date=March 4, 2016 }}
• [http://www.mlwh.org/inside.asp?ID=84&subjectID=2 Mr. Lincoln's White House: Montgomery Blair]

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