The New International Encyclopædia/Blair, Montgomery

BLAIR, Montgomery (1813-83). An American lawyer and politician, the son of Francis P. Blair, Sr. He was born in Franklin County. Ivy., graduated at West Point in 1835, and served for several months in the first Seminole War. He then resigned from the service, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1839, and began to practice in Saint Louis. He was for a time United States district attorney for Missouri, was mayor of Saint Louis in 1842-43, and from 1843 to 1849 was judge of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1852 he removed to Maryland, where he devoted his attention as a lawyer chiefly to important cases before the United States Supreme Court, and quickly became prominent as a Democrat in State politics. From 1855 to 1858 he was United States solicitor in the Court of Claims, and in 1857 was the counsel for the defendant in the celebrated Dred Scott Case (q.v.) and made an able argument in support of his side. Strongly disapproving of the attitude of the Democratic Party toward the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, he joined the newly organized Republican Party in 1856, and in 1860 was Chairman of the State Republican Convention. In 1861 he became a member of Lincoln's Cabinet as Postmaster-General, and in this capacity served with great ability until September, 1864, when he resigned. His term is notable in the history of the department from the fact that during it money-orders first came into use, and such improvements as free delivery in cities and the sorting of the mails on postal cars were introduced. After the war, Blair returned to the Democratic Party, and in 1876-77 was conspicuous as a supporter of Tilden in the famous Tilden-Hayes controversy.