Francis Preston Blair, Sr.

After Lincoln's re-election in 1864, Francis Preston Blair had thought that his former close personal relations with the Confederate leaders might aid in bringing about a cessation of hostilities.

With Lincoln's consent he had gone unofficially to Richmond and induced President Jefferson Davis to appoint commissioners to confer with representatives of the United States (although this may have been a result of internal pressure).

This results in the futile "Hampton Roads Conference" of February 3, 1865.

Blair, born at Abingdon, Virginia, had moved to Kentucky, had graduated from Transylvania University in 1811, had taken to journalism, and had contributed to Amos Kendall's paper, the Argus, at Frankfort.

In 1830, having become an ardent follower of Andrew Jackson, he had been made editor of the Washington Globe, the recognized organ of the Jackson party.

In this capacity, and as a member of Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet", he had long exerted a powerful influence; the Globe was the administration organ until 1841, and the chief Democratic organ until 1845; Blair had eased to be its editor in 1849.

During his time in Washington serving Jackson, Blair had acquired in 1836 what later becomes known as the Blair House.

Even though he held slaves, Blair had become convinced after the Mexican War that slavery should not be extended beyond where it was currently allowed.

In 1848, he had actively supported Martin Van Buren, the Free Soil candidate, for the presidency, and in 1852 he had supported Franklin Pierce, but soon afterwards had helped to organize the new Republican Party, and had presided at its preliminary convention at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in February 1856.

He had been influential in securing the nomination of John C. Frémont at the June 1856 convention.

At the 1860 convention, he had initially supported the nomination of Edward Bates as president.

When it was clear that Bates would not be nominated, Blair had supported the nomination of Abraham Lincoln.

Francis Blair is the father of Montgomery Blair, a member of President Lincoln's cabinet.

The elder Blair had taken it upon himself to advise Lincoln.

On April 17, 1861, just three days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, Lincoln had asked Francis Blair to convey his offer to Colonel Robert E. Lee to command the Union Army.

The next day, Lee had visited Blair across Lafayette Square from the White House.

Lee had blunted Blair’s offer of the Union command by saying: “Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves at the South, I would sacrifice them all to the Union; but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native State?” (http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=663&subjectID=2)

By 1862, Blair had told his slaves that they could "go when they wished."

He said that "all but one declined the privilege," choosing to stay on as servants. (Goodwin, D. K. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005; Chapter 17)

Peabody is awarded the United States Congressional Gold Medal on March 16, 1867.

Also in 1867, he is awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Harvard University, and an Honorary Doctorate in Civil Law by Oxford University.

Renowned Washington banker and art patron William Wilson Corcoran is one of Peabody’s longtime business associates and friends.

Peabody is known to have provided benefactions of well over eight million dollars, most of them in his own lifetime.

In America, Peabody has founded and supported numerous institutions in New England and elsewhere.

With the close of the American Civil War, he  stablishes the Peabody Education Fund to "encourage the intellectual, moral, and industrial education of the destitute children of the Southern States." 

This will establishes public education in the South.

His grandest beneficence, however, is to Baltimore; the city in which he had achieved his earliest success.

In February 1867, on one of several return visits to the United States, and at the height of his financial success, the name of the well-known British-American banker had been suggested by Francis Preston Blair as a possible Secretary of the Treasury in the cabinet of President Andrew Johnson.

At about the same time, his name was also mentioned in newspapers as a future presidential candidate.

Peabody describes the presidential suggestion as a "kind and complimentary reference", but considers that he is too old for either office. (Parker, Franklin (1995). George Peabody: A Biography (2nd ed.). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. pp. 164-5, 203, 214.)