John Blair (October 1731-August 31, 1800) was a signer of the Constitution of the United States. He was elected to Virginia's Supreme Court of Appeals and was appointed a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1798, by President George Washington. John Blair was active in the Episcopal church in Williamsburg, Virginia.
In a letter to his sister, at the time of her husband's death, John Blair expressed:
<With much grief of my own and real sympathy for yours, I sit down to write you a Letter of Condolence on as great a Loss as could have befallen you...but an event no way contingent but absolutely certain itself it being appointed for all men once to die....
Let us seek for comfort where alone it may be found, let us learn a dutiful acquiescence in whatsoever proceeds from that Great Being from whom we ourselves proceeded and who being the sole Author of all our enjoyments has an undoubted Right to withdraw them in his own good time and whose Goodness so conspicuous in his General Providence may be as eminent for aught we know though not so plainly discerned even when He deals to us the bitter cup of Affliction.
We may all profit in the School of Adversity if we will but make a proper use of its Sacred Lessons. If in this life only we had hope it would indeed be harder to acquire a due serenity of mind upon the loss of a beloved Friend.
If he were absolutely extinct, to forget him would be perhaps necessary to our Peace of Mind. But now as our Holy Religion teaches we may contemplate him translated to a better Life and ineffably enjoying all that variety of Bliss which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor the Heart conceived.
May the Celestial vision forever preserve you from the Gloominess of Grief and reconcile you to all the Dispensations of Him who cannot err. My situation both with Respect to my Family and Fortune (all being in the Power of the Enemy and much in their possession) is bad enough. But I trust for a happy issue and for power to bear all His appointments as I ought.> 1731JB001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1731JB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Blair, in a letter to his sister, at the time of her husband's death. Frederick Horner, History of the Blair, Banister and Braxton Families (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1898), pp. 68-69. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987).