History of Campton Lower Village, (Grafton County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Henry William Blair, senator, was born in Campton, N.H., Dec. 6, 1834. In the intervals of farm labor he attended the village school and the Plymouth academy, and at the age of seventeen began to teach. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and a year later became prosecuting attorney for Grafton county. He volunteered in the army in 1861, was chosen captain of the 15th N.H. volunteers and had achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel when, in 1863, he was obliged to resign on account of a severe wound received at the siege of Port Hudson. In 1866 he was elected to the N. H. house of representatives and to the N. H. senate in 1867 and again in 1868. He was a representative in the 44th and 45th U.S. congresses, and after declining a reelection in 1878, was chosen United States senator in 1879 and again in 1885. He was appointed by President Harrison minister to China in 1891, but as he was about to start for that country the Chinese government notified the officials at Washington that it was unwilling to accept Mr. Blair as minister, owing to language used by him against the Chinese in various speeches. During his senatorial career he was especially interested in the educational, temperance, labor and financial measures which came up for discussion. He was the author of the "Blair Common School Bill," calling for an immense appropriation to be distributed among the states in proportion to their illiteracy, and he twice succeeded in passing the bill through the senate, but never succeeded in obtaining the concurrence of the house of representatives in the measures proposed. The amount of the appropriation in the original bill was $105,000,000; the senate passed the bill in the 48th Congress, reducing the amount to $77,000,000, and again in the 49th Congress, making the amount $79,000,000. The first bill presented by him to the U. S. senate prohibited the manufacture and sale of distilled liquors in the United States after 1890. This radical measure gave him a wide reputation. He is the author of "Temperance Movement or The Conflict of Man with Alcohol."

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Campton Lower Village, (Grafton County) New Hampshire

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