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165 Chapter 10 New Hampshire Politics Despite his national reputation, Henry Blair depended on political developments in New Hampshire to maintain himself in a position of power. Throughout the 1880s, economic developments in the state and Republican factionalism threatened to unseat him. He escaped defeat in 1885 but was overwhelmed by a strong opponent and changed conditions in 1891. After a brief return to Congress in an unexpected 1892 triumph, his electoral career was over. In the remaining twenty-five years of his life, he continued to advocate for political reform. He often worked as a lobbyist, maintaining contacts with such diverse individuals and groups as Booker T. Washington, William Howard Taft, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. His later years proved fulfilling despite the absence of political success. At the time of his death in 1920, two of his major reform interests—women’s suffrage and prohibition—were about to be added to the Constitution. As a seasoned politician, Blair recognized that his career depended on the ongoing support of those who had lifted him to power. Although the reform element in the Republican Party was his most important national constituency, Civil War veterans were his most significant backers at state and local levels. Since every individual in this bloc was a voter and usually a Republican, veterans often had a disproportionate voice in New Hampshire politics. Blair had worked hard to earn a reputation as the champion of their interests. He defended their cause numerous times in Congress, maintaining that the government had an implied contract with the veterans to protect them from adverse outcomes of their national service.1 He also showed his sure political instinct by appearing before a large number of veteran audiences in New Hampshire to share memories with his fellow comrades in arms and to keep alive old loyalties. He was a consistent speaker at the state Grand Army of the Republic encampments and was a widely sought after Memorial Day speaker.2 166 Henry W. Blair’s caMpaiGn to reforM aMerica Despite the high visibility of these activities, Blair probably won more votes from his quiet work on individual pension cases. Because of the enormous backlog of pension requests, the claims of many New Hampshire soldiers were seriously delayed. Direct intervention with federal officials to request that a case receive special handling often was the only solution. Blair was especially diligent in this activity. In one four-month period, he processed more than one thousand of these requests—about six times more than the average member of Congress.3 Having no professional office help until early 1884 and thereafter only the assistance of a single clerk, he made most of the trips to the pension office to check records and wrote most of the letters. When his personal intervention on behalf of individual veterans was not sufficient to secure the needed action , he introduced special bills into the Congress to secure the desired relief. During the Forty-eighth Congress, he introduced 139 individual veteran relief acts.4 These tireless efforts created a large following of highly motivated partisans who would do anything in their power to assist him politically. Beginning in the early 1880s, growing divisions within the New Hampshire Republican Party threatened Blair’s chances of returning to the Senate. The party was plagued by two interrelated problems that came to a head in the early 1880s. An older leadership refused to step aside for a younger generation and used its control of the party machinery to try to thwart its youthful rivals. At the same time, New Hampshire was experiencing rapid industrialization and urban population growth. The businessmen associated with this changed economy demanded to be part of the Republican hierarchy. A series of crises resulting from competing interests seemed likely to split the party into factions too weak to prevent the Democrats from gaining control of state government. The fight for the U.S. Senate seat during the June 1883 session of the legislature showed the shortsightedness of the traditional Republican leadership. For Blair, the situation seemed to be a rerun of the spring of 1878. Knowing that his seat would expire before the legislature met next in 1885, he tried to convince his U.S. Senate colleagues to pass a resolution requiring the New Hampshire legislature to elect his successor during the 1883 session.5 Congressman James F. Briggs introduced similar legislation into the House.6 Both initiatives failed, with Congress refusing to intervene...

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