The New International Encyclopædia/Blair, Francis Preston

BLAIR, Francis Preston (1791-1876). An American journalist and politician, born in Abingdon, Va. He graduated at Transylvania University, Ky., in 1811, and soon afterwards became prominent in State politics. He strongly supported Henry Clay for the Presidency in 1824, but in 1828 became an enthusiastic adherent of Andrew Jackson. In 1830 he went to Washington, on Jackson's invitation, to assume the editorship of the Globe, which was the official organ of the Democratic Party until 1845, when President Polk forced Blair's resignation. Blair supported Van Buren in 1848 and Pierce in 1852, but afterwards joined the newly organized Republican Party, and in 1856 presided over the Pittsburg Convention. In 1860 he was an active supporter of Abraham Lincoln. In December, 1864, he made an unofficial visit to Richmond, and proposed to Jefferson Davis and others who were influential in the Confederate Government the arrangement of a peace on the basis of a joint campaign by the Northern and Southern armies against Maximilian in Mexico. This proposal, though wholly unofficial, led to the famous peace conference of February 3, 1865, at Hampton Roads, between President Lincoln and the Confederate representatives, Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell.