Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/310

282 the Virginia legislature established circuit courts, and directed the judges of the court of appeals to perform the duties of circuit judges, Judge Blair, with his colleagues, remonstrated, and declared the act unconstitutional. He was a delegate to the convention that drew up the federal constitution, and with Washington and Madison, alone of all the Virginia delegates, voted for its adoption. He afterward supported it also in the state convention. In September, 1789, he was appointed by Washington a justice of the U. S. supreme court, and in 1796 resigned his seat.

BLAIR, John Insley, capitalist, b. in Warren co., N. J., 22 Aug, 1802; d. in Bhurstown, N. J., 2 Dec, 1899. He was descended from John Blair, who came to this country from Scotland in 1720, and his education was limited to a few months of schooling during the winter, ceasing when he reached the age of eleven. About 1813 he entered the store of a relative in Hope, N. J., for the purpose of learning business, and remained so occupied until 1821, when he settled in Blairstown, N. J. Here, with his relative, John Blair, he established a general country store, but two years later the partnership was dissolved, and the business continued independently by John I. Blair before he was of age. For forty years he remained in this place, constantly extending his business and acquiring branches at Marksborough, Paulina, Huntsville, N. J., and Johnsonsburgh, N. Y., in which his brothers and broth- ers-in-law were associated with him as partners. During these years Mr. Blair was also developing business interests in other lines, such as flour-mills, the manufacture of cotton, and the marketing of the produce of the country round about, and also in wholesaling many goods to other stores. He likewise filled the office of postmaster in Blairstown for forty years. About 1833 he became associated with others in the development of iron-mines in the vicinity of Oxford Furnace, a forge that had been in operation in pre-revolutionary times. Success in this venture led, in 1840, to his being connected with the organization of the Lackawanna coal and iron company. His ownership and interest in the building of railroads for the transportation of the outputs from the mines, of which he was part proprietor, followed as a matter of course. The road from Owego to Ithaca, N. Y., was bought and rebuilt by him and his associates during 1849. Later, the Legget's Gap road, from Scranton to Great Bend, was constructed, and thrown open in 1851. In 1852, by consolidation, building, and reorganisation, the corporation known as the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad came into existence. In the development of this road he was actively interested, and is one of its largest stockholders. It has since been entirely rebuilt, and is a most valuable property, transporting over 6,700,000 tons of coal in 1885, and its combined cost and capital amount to $100,000,000. He has been engaged in railroad building in Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Missouri, and Texas. He was the organizer of the railroad system of Iowa, having built the first railroad across that state from the Mississippi to the Missouri rivers, and subsequently more than 2,000 miles in Iowa and Nebraska. He was one of the original directors of the Union Pacific railroad, and was a director in seventeen companies, as well as president of three. Mr. Blair was likewise controlling owner of a large number of other wealthy corporations both in the east and the west. Pie has been a life-long attendant upon and supporter of the Presbyterian church, to whose institutions he has at various times given upward of $500,000. Among these benefactions is $70,000 to the college of New Jersey, Princeton, of which, in 1860, he became a trustee; $57,000 to Lafayette; and upward of $100,000 to the Blair Presbyterian Academy. In the eighty towns that he has laid out in the west, more than 100 churches have been erected, largely through his liberality. In politics Mr. Blair has always been a strong republican, and he was the candidate of that party for governor of New Jersey in 1868. He has also been a delegate to every national republican convention since the organization. One of his daughters married Charles Scribner. founder of the publishing-house in New York.

BLAIR, Montgromery, statesman, b. in Franklin CO., Kv., 10 May, 1813; d. in Silver Spring, Md.. 27 July, 1883. He was a son of Francis P. Blair, Sr., was graduated at West Point in 1835, and, after serving in the Seminole war, resigned his commission on 20 May, 1836. He then studied law, and, after his admission to the bar in 1839, began practice in St. Louis. He was appointed 0. S. district attorney for Missouri, and in 1842 was elected mayor of St. Louis. He was raised to the bench as judge of the court of common pleas in 1843, but resigned in 1849. He removed to Maryland in 1852, and in 1855 was appointed U. S. solicitor in the court of claims. He was removed from this office by President Buchanan in 1858, having left the democratic party on the repeal of the Missouri compromise. In 1857 he acted as counsel for the plaintiff in the celebrated Dred Scott case. He presided over the Maryland republican convention in 1860, and in 1861 was appointed postmaster-general by President Lincoln. It is said that he alone of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet opposed the surrender of Fort Sumter, and held his resignation upon the issue. As postmaster-general he prohibited the sending of disloyal papers through the mails, and introduced various reforms, such as money-orders, free delivery in cities, and postal railroad cars. In 1864 Mr. Blair, who was not altogether in accord with the policy of the administration, told the president that he would resign whenever the latter thought it necessary, and on 23 Sept. Mr. Lincoln, in a friendly letter, accepted his offer. After this Mr. Blair acted with the democratic party, and in 1876-7 vigorously attacked Mr. Hayes's title to the office of president.

BLAIR, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Ulster, Ireland, 14 June, 1712; d. 5 July, 1751. He came, while young, to Pennsylvania, and received his education at William Tennant's "Log College," in Neshaminy, Pa. He was licensed to preach by the Philadelphia presbytery on 9 Nov., 1733, and in September, 1734, accepted a call to Middletown and Shrewsbury. N. J. He was one of the original members of New Brunswick presbytery, formed in 1738, and in November, 1739, took charge of the church at New Londonderry, or Fogg's Manor, in Chester co.. Pa. Shortly after his settlement there he established a seminary, at which young men were educated, some of whom were afterward prominent in the Presbyterian church, among them Rev. Samuel Davies and Rev. John Rodgers. In the controversy about revivals, which followed the visit of Whitefield to this country, and which finally divided the Presbyterian church, Mr. Blair sided with the so-called " New Side." His principal writings were collected by his brother John (Philadelphia, 1754). with an elegy by Samuel Davies, and Dr. Finley's funeral sermon. This volume contains an elaborate treatise on "Predestination and Reprobation."—His brother. John, clergyman, b. in Ireland in 1720; d. in Walkill, Orange