Henry William Blair was an American lawyer, politician and soldier during the Civil War. He also represented New Hampshire's 1st and 3rd Districts in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1875 to 1879 and from 1893 to 1895.
Background
Henry Blair was born on December 6, 1834, at Campton, New Hampshire, United States, the son of William Henry and Lois (Baker) Blair, of Scotch-Irish descent. When he was only two years old his father died as the result of an accident, and his mother being unable to provide for the entire family, several children, including Henry, were brought up by neighbors. His mother died in 1846. Until the age of seventeen he lived with a neighboring farmer.
Education
Henry studied several terms at Plymouth Academy and New Hampshire Conference Seminary, his attendance being irregular because of the necessity of self-support. The strain on his health proved so severe that he was unable to enter college. In 1856 he began the study of law in the office of William Leverett of Plymouth, was admitted to the bar in 1859.
Career
In 1860 Blair was appointed solicitor for Grafton County. On the outbreak of the Civil War he promptly offered his services but was twice rejected as physically unfit, and it was not until the following year that he was accepted. Going to the front as captain in the 15th New Hampshire Volunteers he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, but was invalided home after being severely wounded at Port Hudson. He resumed practise but was handicapped by bad health for a number of years as a result of his army experience. He represented Plymouth in the lower house in 1866, and in the two succeeding years was chosen senator from the 11th district. Entering the Forty-fourth Congress in 1875, he was for the next twenty years a prominent figure in national affairs. He was a member of the House in the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, and Fifty-third Congresses, and senator from 1879 to 1891. Declining an appointment to the federal bench on his retirement from the Senate, he accepted President Harrison's offer of the post of minister to China. He was recalled while on his way to the Pacific Coast, however, on representations from the Chinese Government that his attitude on the immigration question had rendered him persona non grata.
On his retirement from active politics in 1895, Blair settled in Washington, D. C. , where he resumed the practise of law. Blair had the orthodox Republican faith in sound money, the tariff, and the pension system, and his arguments on these subjects were frequently printed in quantity for circulation as campaign documents. He also had, however, a strong humanitarian bent, firm religious convictions, and an enthusiasm, sometimes almost visionary, which frequently put his views far ahead of those of his contemporaries. In 1876, he introduced in the House a joint resolution amending the Constitution by prohibiting the manufacture, importation and sale of distilled liquors after January 1, 1900, a plan which he claimed would have some of the merits of the slave-trade clause of 1787, permitting time for the necessary educational work and the adjustment of property rights.
In 1881 he introduced in the Senate a bill proposing to "extend and vitalize" the common school system of the country by distributing among the states, on the basis of illiteracy, the sum total of $120, 000, 000 in annual instalments covering a period of ten years. This measure, or a substantially similar one, passed the Senate on three different occasions, only to die in committees of the House. Blair also introduced a constitutional amendment requiring the states to maintain free non-sectarian schools, and prohibiting religious establishments.
In 1890 he introduced in the Senate a resolution requesting the President to summon an international conference to deal with the suppression of the slave-trade, the traffic in alcohol and weapons with backward peoples in Africa and Asia, and, more important, to consider the problem of reduction and disbandment of existing military and naval establishments and the creation of tribunals for the peaceful settlement of controversies. More than once he demanded that the people of the District of Columbia be enfranchised and granted representation in Congress.
Achievements
Politics
Henry Blair was a member of the Republican Party. He also served as a member of the New Hampshire State House of Representatives in 1866; the New Hampshire State Senate from 1867 to 1868; and United States Senator from New Hampshire from 1879 to 1891.
Connections
Blair was married on December 20, 1859, to Eliza Ann Nelson.