Francis Preston Blair Sr. was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and influential figure in national politics advising several U.S. presidents across party lines.
Blair c. 1870
Blair in May 1845 by Thomas Sully
Francis Preston Blair and his wife Eliza Violet Gist at The Silver Spring
Entrance to Blair House in Washington, D.C.
The Hampton Roads Conference was a peace conference held between the United States and representatives of the unrecognized breakaway Confederate States on February 3, 1865, aboard the steamboat River Queen in Hampton Roads, Virginia, to discuss terms to end the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward, representing the Union, met with three commissioners from the Confederacy: Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, and Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell.
The Conference took place on the River Queen, near Union-controlled Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia.
CSA Vice President Alexander Stephens had been trying to end the war since 1863.
John A. Campbell had already attempted once to broker peace between Confederates and the Lincoln administration.
Francis Preston Blair traveled back and forth between Richmond, VA, and Washington, DC, relaying messages between Davis and Lincoln.
