Frank Blair’s Brother on the Stump for Emancipation

Hon. Frank Blair, of St. Louis, has a brother, James G. Blair, residing in Lewis county, Me., State of the curse of Slavery. The National Democracy of Clark county held a meeting at the county seat, Waterloo, a few days ago, and James G. Blair was called upon to address them, which he did.

He “declared his opposition to the agitation of the Slavery question, but at the same time admitted that he looked forward with delight to the coming of the time when Slavery would be blotted out in Missouri. Mr. Blair said that, while he endorsed the principle of non-intervention, he felt that he had a right to entertain a private opinion with regard to the subject of Slavery.”

He gave his private opinion on the subject at considerable length, and in bold, mailing language, against the continuance of Slavery in that State. He said:

“Not far distant in the future, I can behold the extinction of negro Slavery in Missouri; and in the morning of that day, the fresh footprints of the departing slave will be blotted out by the advancing steps of thousands of white freemen, who will come to people your rich lands, quicken your energies, develop you natural resources, increase the value of your farms, build up your cities and towns, spread wide your commerce, extend your already commenced railroads, erect your iron and other manufacturing establishments, and make yours the brightest, the proudest, and most prosperous star that glitters in that national constellation which gives light, and life, and hope, to the world! Let Missouri but keep the future in the view, and she must become the great interior agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing State of the Union.

“Yours is the white man’s State; and socially, politically, or any other way, the negro question cannot control its destinies. Further South, the slave may be of service to the people; but in your State he is a curse, both to those who hold him and to every man who does not hold him to service. He does not belong to the fixtures of your State, and it will be the brightest day in your history when he is emancipated, or removed from your soil. Missouri possesses elements of greatness not excelled (if equaled) by any State of the thirty-one, and is destined to be the finest State in the Confederacy. The exodus of Slavery from among you will date the period when Missouri will step to the head of the sisterhood of the Union!”

It may not be improper to say that the neighbors of Mr. Blair are talking of running him for Congress, to fill the seat made vacant by the election of Green to the United States Senate. Would it not be glorious to see the two noble Blairs in Congress from Missouri!