Although he was opposed to slavery, Attorney Montgomery Blair kept his distance from more radical abolitionists, and derided those who believed in "equality and fraternity between the races". He joined the Dred Scott case as it came before the US Supreme Court, and argued without success that Scott should be deemed a free man because he had lived in free territory of the United States. During the administration of Abraham Lincoln he was appointed Postmaster General, and as the American Civil War raged his Maryland home was burned to the ground by Confederate forces. At the war's conclusion he opposed voting rights for blacks, and returned to the Democratic Party. His father was journalist F. Preston Blair, and his cousin was Missouri Governor B. Gratz Brown. His brother, Francis Blair, Jr., was a US Senator, as was his father-in-law, Levi Woodbury. His great-grandson was actor Montgomery Clift.
[1] A Democrat during most of his political career, Blair later joined the Free Soil Party, and then aligned with the new anti-slavery Republican Party.
Father: F. Preston Blair (journalist, b. 12-Apr-1791, d. 18-Apr-1876)
Mother: Eliza Violet Gist Blair (b. 10-Nov-1794, m. 21-Jun-1812, d. 5-Jul-1877)
Sister: Elizabeth Blair Lee (b. 20-Jun-1818, d. 13-Sep-1906)
Brother: Francis Preston Blair, Jr. ("Frank", US Senator, b. 19-Feb-1821, d. 9-Jul-1875)
Sister: Juliet Blair (b. 22-Feb-1816, d. 30-Oct-1819)
Brother: James Blair (US Naval officer, b. 7-Oct-1819, d. 15-Dec-1852)
Wife: Caroline Buckner Blair (m. 1836, d. 1844 childbirth, three children)
Daughter: Elizabeth Blair Comstock ("Betty", b. 1840, d. 1872)
Wife: Mary Elizabeth Woodbury Blair (b. circa 1822, m. 1847, two daughters, three sons)
Daughter: Minna Blair Richey (b. 1850, d. 1919)
Son: Woodbury Blair (b. 1852, d. 1933)
Daughter: Marie Blair (b. 1854, d. 1862)
Son: Gist Blair (b. 1860, d. 1940)
Son: Montgomery Blair, Jr. (b. 1865, d. 1895)
University: Transylvania University
University: US Military Academy, West Point (1835)
US Postmaster General (1861-64)
US Justice Department US Solicitor (1855-58)
UK Official Judge, Court of Common Pleas (1848-49)
Mayor of St. Louis, MO (1842-43)
US Justice Department District Attorney for Missouri (1840-41)
Missouri Bar Association 1839
Scottish Ancestry
