History has a funny way of sanding down the sharp edges of the people who shaped it. We like our heroes pure and our villains easy to spot. But Francis Preston Blair Jr. doesn't fit into a tidy box. He was a walking contradiction—a slaveholder who fought like a demon to end slavery’s expansion, a Republican founder who became a Democratic firebrand, and a Union General who eventually campaigned against the very rights of the people he helped liberate.
If you’ve ever walked through Forest Park in St. Louis, you’ve seen his statue. He looks stoic. In reality, he was anything but.
Why Francis Preston Blair Jr. Was the Ultimate Political Shape-Shifter
Frank Blair, as most people called him, was born into a political dynasty. His father was a member of Andrew Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet." Politics wasn't just a career for the Blairs; it was the family business. Honestly, Frank was a bit of a hell-raiser in his youth. He got kicked out of Yale. He got kicked out of the University of North Carolina. He finally managed to graduate from Princeton, but even then, it was only after he got into a barroom brawl during graduation week.
He moved to Missouri in 1842 to practice law with his brother Montgomery. But law was boring. Politics was where the action was. By the 1850s, the United States was tearing itself apart over slavery. Blair took a stand that was radical for a guy living in a slave state: he joined the Free Soil Party.
He wasn't an abolitionist in the way we think of them today. He didn't believe in racial equality. Far from it. Blair's opposition to slavery was mostly about "free labor." He thought slavery was an economic anchor dragging down white workers. He even advocated for "colonization"—the idea of sending freed Black people to Central or South America. It's a part of his legacy that makes modern historians wince, but at the time, it was a mainstream "moderate" position.
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Saving Missouri for the Union
When the Civil War finally kicked off in 1861, Missouri was a mess. The Governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, was a secret secessionist. He wanted Missouri to join the Confederacy. Francis Preston Blair Jr. wasn't about to let that happen.
Basically, Blair went rogue. He organized a pro-Union paramilitary group called the "Wide Awakes," mostly made up of German immigrants in St. Louis who hated slavery. He worked with a hot-headed Army captain named Nathaniel Lyon to secure the St. Louis Arsenal.
The St. Louis Arsenal Standoff
The arsenal held over 60,000 muskets. If the Confederates got them, Missouri was gone. Blair and Lyon didn't wait for permission. They moved the guns across the river to Illinois in the middle of the night. It was a bold move that basically kept Missouri in the Union by force.
Lyon eventually died at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, but Blair kept going. He transitioned from politician to soldier, eventually reaching the rank of Major General. He fought at Vicksburg and marched through Georgia with William Tecumseh Sherman. Ulysses S. Grant once said there was "no man braver" than Frank Blair.
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The Great Pivot: From Republican Hero to Democratic Rebel
Here is where the story gets weird. After the war, you’d think Blair would be the golden boy of the Republican Party. Instead, he turned his back on them.
He hated Radical Reconstruction. He thought the government was being too hard on the South and giving too many rights to newly freed Black citizens. By 1868, the man who had helped found the Republican Party was running for Vice President on the Democratic ticket.
His campaign was, frankly, ugly. He went on racist rants that were so intense they actually made other Democrats nervous. He called for the military to overthrow Reconstruction governments in the South. He and his running mate, Horatio Seymour, lost to Grant in a landslide.
Blair eventually made it to the U.S. Senate in 1871, representing Missouri one last time. But the fire was fading. He suffered a stroke in 1872 that left him partially paralyzed. He died in 1875 at just 54 years old.
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What Most People Get Wrong About His Legacy
You'll often hear people say Blair was a "traitor" to his own cause. That's not quite right. In his mind, he was always consistent: he wanted a Union for white men. When the Union was threatened by secession, he fought for it. When the Union was threatened (in his view) by Black suffrage, he fought against that too.
It’s a complicated, messy history. He was a man of immense courage and deeply regressive views. You can't tell the story of the Civil War in the West without him, but you also can't ignore the vitriol he spewed during Reconstruction.
Understanding the Blair Legacy Today
If you want to dive deeper into the real history of the 19th-century border states, here are some specific steps to take:
- Visit the Missouri Historical Society: They hold the most extensive archives of the Blair family correspondence, which reveals the "unfiltered" Frank Blair.
- Research the "Broadhead Letter": This 1868 document is where Blair laid out his plan to use the military to undo Reconstruction; it's essential reading for understanding why he became so controversial.
- Trace the German-American influence: Look into the "Turnverein" movements in St. Louis to see how Blair leveraged immigrant communities to save the Union.
Francis Preston Blair Jr. remains a reminder that history isn't a straight line toward progress. It’s a jagged series of zig-zags driven by people who are often right for the wrong reasons.