Alexander Blair

“ After 1693 Blair was also a member of the Council of Virginia, of which he was for some time president. In this capacity he had rancorous disputes with Goveniors Edmund Andros, Francis Nicholson, and Alexander Spotswood, and by his representations to the home Government was instrumental in securing the removal of each in turn. It has been said of Blair that he did more than any other one man for the intellectual advancement of Virginia during the Colonial period. ”

“ The poet apologises for departing on one point from Blair (bk. xi. 1. 1446) , and the reader is sensible throughout that the poet is translating rather than producing original matter. While he modestly styles his work a ‘Rural Dyt’ (i.e. poem) and himself a ‘Burel man,’ or countryman, he was far from illiterate. Besides a knowledge of Latin he shows an acquaintance with the historical romances of Troy, Alexander the Great and Arthur, and with the astronomy of his time. He also has a very precise knowledge of Scottish topography. ”

“ Blair was not popular with the Union people of the North. The public distrust is strikingly illustrated by the following anecdote from the reminiscences of Henry Ward Beecher: "There was some talk, early in 1864, of a sort of compromise with the South. Blair had told the President he was satisfied that if he could be put in communication with some of the leading men of the South in some way or other, that some benefit would accrue. Lincoln had sent a delegation to meet Alexander Stephens, and that was all the North knew. ”

“ It has bred lawyers, statists, critics, savans, in plenty, but reared but few men of transcendant genius, and, so far as we remember, only five good poets,—Scott, Ferguson, Ramsay, Falconer, and Blair,—whom the manufacturing town of Paisley nearly matches with its Tannahill, Motherwell, Alexander and John Wilson. Blair was the eldest son of the Rev. David Blair, who was a minister of the Old Church of Edinburgh, and one of the chaplains to the King. ”

“ It would appear that even in Scotland [see William Birnie] and in Ireland presbyterians were received into the episcopal church without subscription.
Excommunicated and ejected, Blair, along with a company of others, 'fitted out a ship,' intending to go to New England in 1635. But the weather proved so boisterous that they were beaten back, and, returning to Scotland, he lived partly in that country and partly in England. Orders were issued in England for his apprehension in 1637, but he escaped to Scotland, and preached for some time in Ayr. ”

“ CAMPBELL, Sir ALEXANDER (1822–1892) , Canadian politician, born at the village of Heydon, near Kingston-upon-Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, on 9 March 1822, was the son of James Campbell, a physician of Scottish parentage, who, after residing for some time in Yorkshire, emigrated to Lachine, Lower Canada, in 1824. Alexander was educated first by the presbyterian minister at Lachine, then in the Roman catholic seminary of St.-Hyacinthe, and, on the removal of the family to Upper Canada, at the Kingston grammar school. He began the study of the law in 1836. ”

“ GALT, Sir ALEXANDER TILLOCH (1817–1893) , finance minister of Canada, was born at Chelsea, London, on 6 Sept. 1817, the youngest son of John Gait [q. v.] by his wife Elizabeth, only daughter of Alexander Tilloch [q. v.] His elder brother, Sir Thomas Gait (1815–1901) , settled, like himself, in Canada in early life, practised successfully at the Toronto bar, and became in 1869 judge of the court of common pleas in Ontario, and in 1887 chief justice of the court, being knighted in 1888, and retiring in 1894 (Times, 1 July 1901) . ”

“ Blair received his early education in Sunbury Grammar School and the University, Fredericton; and adopting medicine as a profession, completed his studies at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York. He then returned to his native province, and began the practice of his profession in St. Stephen, where he has succeeded in building up a good business. He takes an interest in Masonry, and is a Knight Templar. He has travelled a good deal, and found time to visit Europe, California, and several other Western states of America. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative ”

“ You are squeezing the life out of Blair by giving him money. You've always done it, because it was the easy thing to do. Let up on him! Give him a chance. Let him earn his money, or go without. Talk about making him independent—you've made him as dependent as a baby! I don't know my Bible as well as you do, but there is a verse somewhere—something about 'fullness of bread and abundance of idleness.' That's what's the trouble with Blair. ”

“ The King and indeed everybody else agreed with Johnson, the after time did not, and surely no human being now-a-days reads the once famous Rhetoric and the once famous Sermons. Blair was vain about everything. Finical about his dress, he was quite a sight as he walked to service in the High Kirk. “His wig frizzed and powdered so nicely, his gown so scrupulously arranged on his shoulders, his hands so pure and clean, and everything about him in such exquisite taste and neatness.” ”

“ When they reached the flat, even his dislike of the popular Professor Marling could not overcome Blair's admiration for the laboratory that celebrity had abandoned. Here were the things he had yearned for, too absent-minded to remember that he possessed the money wherewith to purchase them. He had not yet become acquainted with the fact that he was a rich man. ”

“ Blair I knew very well by sight. I had heard him speak in the canvass of 1858, possibly several times, but I had never spoken to him. As the troops marched out of the enclosure around the arsenal, Blair was on his horse outside forming them into line preparatory to their march. I introduced myself to him and had a few moments' conversation and expressed my sympathy with his purpose. This was my first personal acquaintance with the Honorable—afterwards Major-General F. P. Blair. Camp Jackson surrendered without a fight and the garrison was marched down to the arsenal as prisoners of war. ”

“ These are times to think on these things, my boy, if we really love our country. No man liveth unto himself. His home, his state, his country is in a degree blessed or cursed for his sake. Dear Blair, you cannot be a true patriot without God's grace to help you rule your heart, guard your lips,23 and purify your life. May you this day begin, for your own sake as well as for that of your country, to serve the God of our fathers. He has mercifully spared you the bitter self-reproach to which you might have been doomed. Go in repentance to his footstool, and he will abundantly pardon. ”

“ Blair's voice rose again, ever higher and more metallic:—
"I dunno what you've got to complain of more'n the rest of us. Look at that dress you've got on,—a good thick thibet, an' mine's a cheap, sleazy alpaca they palmed off on me because they knew my eyesight ain't what it was once. An' you're settin' right there in the sun, gittin' het through, an' it's cold as a barn over here by the door. My land! if it don't make me mad to see anybody without no more sperit than a wet rag! If you've lost anybody, why don't ye say so? ”

“ Blair, in the voice of one who speaks perforce after long sufferance, "I'd ha' died in my tracks afore I'd left my comfortable home down in Tiverton Holler. Story-'n'-a-half house, a good sullar, an' woods nigh-by full o' sarsaparilla an' goldthread! I've moved more times in this God-forsaken place than a Methodist preacher, fust one room an' then another; an' bad is the best. ”

“ Here was an end, in their minds, to the Fairport Guard, and every other species of fun in which Blair had been so long a leader and abettor.
Blair was at first inclined to shrink from his old companions; but as the right spirit grew and strengthened within him, he mingled among them more freely, actuated by the desire to win new citizens for the kingdom of heaven, and to guide46 his wild associates into such paths as would make them a blessing to their native land. ”

“ The words had hardly passed from the lips of the British officer, when Blair laid his hand calmly on the railing, and exclaimed, "Now, God helping me, you may tear me limb from limb, and I will be true to my country and my home."
"It's no use. He'll keep his word. You can't force 'im," shouted Hal Hutchings, the tears coursing down his cheeks.68
The wild winds swept through the rigging, and the storm came on with sudden violence. ”

“ Here is some work for you to do for your country. We must try to make a good American citizen out of Hal, and a good Christian at the same time. The poor fellow is deeply grateful to you, and you will have a powerful influence over him."
"I can't bear the English," said Blair warmly. "I don't like any foreigners, for that matter. It don't seem to me they are the right stuff to make American citizens out of. Give me the native-born Yankee, free and independent from37 his cradle upwards. ”

“ According to Blair’s contention through life, Clay had confided to him in advance that, if such a contingency as did develop should arise in the congressional caucus, he would throw his support to Adams, and that he had protested against the plan. Whether true or not, that event marked the end of Blair’s interest in the political ambitions of the man from Ashland. From 1823 to 1827 he played a conspicuous part as one of the principals in the famous fight between the New and the Old Courts which all but reduced the State to a condition bordering on anarchy. ”

“ One hardly knows whether to smile or be provoked to see Blair, once the admired preacher of the coldest and tritest of sermons, looking down as from an eminence upon Barrow, and, while admitting ‘the prodigious fecundity of his invention,’ complaining of his ‘genius often shooting wild and unchastened by any discipline or study of eloquence,’ and of his style being irregular and incorrect ”

“ For the first time Blair's eyes filled with tears, and his chest swelled with strong emotion as he exclaimed, "Thank God, I have been able to be useful to my country and my home. This will fill my mother's heart with joy. To her I owe all in me that is worthy of praise."
"I believe I can trust you, my lad," said the captain. "I would not willingly76 have my name go out as one who would maim and torture a brave lad. My desperation is my excuse for my expedient of last evening. I want you to promise to keep that scene a secret. You may perchance some day have your own sins to cover. ”

“ Blair, on the other hand, never tarries long in such scenes; he does not dwell amidst, and brood over them like an owl, but crosses them with the swift brushing wing of a bird returning to her evening nest. He never goes out of his way to search for them—he sees and shows them merely because they meet him on his path. There is nothing morbid nor much that is melancholy in this poem. He takes the hard fact as it is, and paints it with all his force, but he does not seek to exaggerate or discolour it. ”

“ Blair blushed for the honor of his country, to find such men among her avowed defenders. Oaths and obscenity made even more hateful the rough narratives in which each strove to prove himself more hardened and abandoned than the last speaker. Blair's soul recoiled with horror from the taint of such companionship; yet for him there was no escape. Among these coarse rovers he was forced to eat and sleep, to live and labor, while many weeks went by. ”

“ Even apart from his blindness, which makes his poem a wonderful effort of memory, it is impossible to accept Mr. Tytler's description of him as ‘an ignorant man, who was yet in possession of authentic and valuable materials’ (Scottish Worthies, iii. 299) . No doubt he added imaginary incidents to the authentic materials he possessed. But the tradition of nearly two centuries must have already expanded Blair's narrative. The tale that the English queen fell in love with Wallace and of his conflict with a lion in France are examples of such additions. ”

“ It was there in Blair's white face—the dreadful truth. He wore a ribbon on his breast and he leaned on a crutch. For the instant, as father and son faced each other, there was something in Blair's poise, his look of an eagle, that carried home a poignant sense of his greatness. Lane thrilled with it and a lump constricted his throat. Then with Blair's ringing "Dad!" and the father's deep and broken: "My son! My son!" the two embraced.
In a stifling moment more it seemed, attention turned on Red Payson, who stood nearest. Blair's folk were eager, kind, soft-spoken and warm in their welcome. ”

“ She will have a white population of barely five millions against twenty-two millions—and her ports will be closed by our Navy—"
Blair interrupted and leaned close.
"And let me add, that as our leader you will not only command the greatest army ever assembled under the American flag, backed by a great Navy—but that your victory will be but the beginning of a career. From your window you see the White House and the Capitol. The man who leads the Union armies will succeed Mr. Lincoln as President."
Lee's protest was emphatic.
"I aspire to no office, Mr. Blair. I'm fifty-four years of age. ”

“ Given three good-natured young men, a satisfactory guide, a stretch of Labrador wild, and no cares of any sort, it is not surprising that the happy days and weeks followed one another into the maw of Time, until the date of departure for home drew near.
"I'd like to stay here forever," declared Blair, as he filled his pipe and stretched luxuriously before the fire. "Civilization has lost all charm for me."
"Go away with you!" scoffed Peter Boots, "that's a fine, ambitious spirit to show, and you a rising young author,—or about to become one." ”