possible the preparation of the second volume of his Twenty Years of Congress (1886), and of a volume of Political Discussions (1887).
His name was again before the Republican convention of 1888, but was early withdrawn, and upon Harrison's accession to the Presidency, Blaine was again placed in charge of the State Department and was enabled to develop a line of policy proposed in 1881, but at that time reversed by his successor. Not only did he adopt a vigorous course with reference to the seal-fisheries, but his especial energy was devoted to plans for establishing close commercial relations with the South American States and for securing arrangements of reciprocity in trade with other foreign nations. He resigned in June, 1892, on the approach of the nominating convention, before which it was expected that both Blaine and Harrison might be candidates. Blaine's name was presented, but with no success. After a protracted illness, he died, January 27, 1893. Consult Gail Hamilton, Biography of James G. Blaine (Norwich, 1895).
BLAINVILLE, blăN'vē̇l', Henri Marie Ducrotay de. See Ducrotay de Blainville.
BLAIR. A city and county-seat of Washington County. Neb., 25 miles north by west of Omaha, on the Chicago and Northwestern, and the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha railroads (Map: Nebraska, H 2). It contains a Danish college. The city is the market for the agricultural products and live stock of the vicinity. Population, in 1890, 2069; in 1900, 2970.
BLAIR, Andrew Alexander (1846—). An American chemist, born in Woodford County, Ky. He studied at the United States Naval Academy, and was made an ensign in the navy, but afterwards devoted himself to analytical chemistry, especially analysis of iron and its ores. From 1875 to 1878 he was employed in testing iron and steel for the United States Government at the Watertown Arsenal, and from 1879 to 1881 acted as chief chemist to the United States Geological Survey and the Tenth Census. At the termination of this engagement he devoted himself to the practice and improvement of the methods of technical analysis. Besides a number of original papers and reports on various special subjects of metallurgy, he wrote The Chemical Analysis of Iron.
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.
BLAIR, Francis Preston. Jr. (1821-75). An American lawyer, politician, and soldier, born in Lexington, Ky. He graduated at Princeton in 1841, was admitted to the bar in 1843, and removed to Saint Louis to practice law. In the Mexican War he served in the United States Army as a private. Afterwards he was editor for a time of the Missouri Democrat, became prominent in State politics, was a member of the Missouri Legislature from 1852 to 1856, and after 1856 served for several years in Congress as a Republican. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was the leader of the Union Party in Missouri, and by his energy, tact, and political sagacity was largely instrumental in preventing that State from joining the Confederacy. In April, 1861, he entered the Federal Army as a colonel, and before the close of the following year had risen successively to the rank of brigadier-general (August, 1862) and of major-general (November 29, 1862). He led a division under Sherman at Vicksburg in 1862-63, commanding the assault upon Chickasaw Bluffs (December 29, 1862), and in 1864 took a prominent part, as division commander and temporarily as commander of the Seventeenth Corps, in the famous march to the sea. He was nominated as Collector at Saint Louis and as Minister to Austria by President Johnson in 1866, but, owing to his views on reconstruction, the Senate refused to confirm either appointment. Afterwards he joined the Democratic Party, was its candidate for Vice-President in 1868, and from 1870 to 1873 was a member of the United States Senate. He published The Life and Public Services of Gen. William O. Butler (1848).
BLAIR, Henry William (1834—). An -American politician and lawyer, born in Campton. N. H. He received an academic education, was admitted to the bar in 1859, and was prosecuting attorney for Grafton County in 1860. During the war he was lieutenant-colonel of the Fifteenth New Hampshire Volunteers. He was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1866: of the State Senate, from 1867 to 1868; and Republican Representative in the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses. From 1879 to 1891 he was United States Senator. He was appointed Minister to China in 1891, but that Government declined to receive him because of a bill which he had introduced for the purpose of restricting Chinese immigration. A bill to prohibit the sale and manufacture of liquors placed him in the van of the temperance ranks. The Blair Common-School Bill, appropriating $77,000,000 to the States in proportion to their illiteracy, was another of his measures.
BLAIR, Hugh (1718-1800). A Scottish divine and man of letters. He was born in Edinburgh, April 7, 1718. He was educated at the university of his native city, where he attracted the attention of his instructors by an Essay on the Beautiful. In October, 1741, he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Edinburgh; and after occupying the churches of
