The Home Journal

FRANK P. BLAIR, JR.
He Casts his Lot with the South

The Hancock Club, says the New Orleans Bee of the 28th ult., through their President, Capt. Pinckney Smith, invited Gen. Blair to partake of their hospitalities last night. The General accepted the invitation, and was received with cordiality. A full turn-out of the members testified to the esteem in which their distinguished guest was held. A sumptuous supper in honor of the occasion was laid in the rooms of the club, corner Carondelet and Gravier streets. Full justice having been done thereto, the President, in a few words, gracefully expressed the pleasure of the Club in meeting Gen. Blair, to which that gentleman replied with much good taste and feeling. He said in substance that he had taken his place in the ranks of the army of the United States in good faith, for the purpose of preserving the Union of the States on the basis of the Constitution, and that the war ended by the surrender of the Southern States without their being required to consent to any dishonorable conditions. Subsequently new oppressive conditions had been imposed on the South by the dominant faction in Congress, to which he had not given his assent. Those conditions were not such as the North should exact nor the South agree to. He had therefore cast his lot with the South, preferring to share her fate and participate in the disfranchising acts and other disabilities which Congress had seen fit to subject her. Gen. Harry T. Hays responded on the part of the Club, complimenting Gen. Blair as an honorable foe. An hour or two was passed most agreeably in the interchange of friendly sentiments.