Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1885 — Frank P. Blair’s Grit. [ARTICLE]

Frank P. Blair’s Grit.

The campaign of 1868 was attended by a deal of sporadic killing and bloodshed, and it was a dangerous thing for a Democrat to speak as Blair and Phelps spoke throughout the State, In one of the southwestern towns a coterie of Bepublicans swore that Frank P. Blair should not make a speech in that town. On the night in question the Court House was filled with an angry, excited crowd, through which Gen. Blair rapidly made his way to the front. Arriving at the stand, he drew with his right hand a navy revolver and laid it carefully down, saying: “Fellow-citizens, I have come to speak to you of the political issues now agitating the State.” Here he drew from his left hip pocket another navy revolver and placed it as carefully on the desk, continuing without interruption: “And I propose to address you without fear or favor. ” Thence he plunged into his argument, hurling the bitterest invectives against certain measures, but making no reference to his revolvers. He spoke for nearly two hours amid the profoundest silence.— St. Louis Republican.