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J. C. S. Blackburn
Governor of Panama Canal Zone
In office April 1, 1907 – December 4, 1909
Appointed by	Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	Richard Reid Rogers
Succeeded by	Maurice Thatcher
Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus
In office June 4, 1906 – March 4, 1907
Preceded by	Arthur Pue Gorman
Succeeded by	Charles Allen Culberson
United States Senator from Kentucky
In office March 4, 1901 – March 4, 1907
Preceded by	William Lindsay
Succeeded by	Thomas H. Paynter
In office March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1897
Preceded by	John S. Williams
Succeeded by	William J. Deboe
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 7th district
In office March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1885
Preceded by	James B. Beck
Succeeded by	William Breckinridge
Personal details
Born	Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn (1838-10-01)October 1, 1838 Spring Station, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	September 12, 1918(1918-09-12) (aged 79) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Relatives	Luke P. Blackburn (Brother) James W. Blackburn (Brother)
Education	Centre College (BA)
Signature

Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn (October 1, 1838 – September 12, 1918) was an American politician and lawyer who was a Democratic U.S. Representative and Senator from Kentucky and Governor of Panama Canal Zone. A skilled and spirited orator, he was a prominent trial lawyer known for his skill at swaying juries.

Biography

Blackburn was born on October 1, 1838, near Spring Station, Kentucky. He was the younger brother of Kentucky governor Luke P. Blackburn.

He attended Sayres Institute in Frankfort and graduated from Centre College in Danville in 1857. He studied law in Lexington and was admitted to the bar in 1858. He practiced in Chicago until 1860 when he returned to Woodford County, Kentucky, and entered the Confederate Army as a private in 1861.

A staff officer, by the end of the Civil War Blackburn had attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he settled in Arkansas, where he was engaged as a lawyer and a planter in Desha County until 1868 when he returned to Kentucky and opened law offices in Versailles.

He was a member of the State house of representatives from 1871 to 1875. He was then elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1875 - March 3, 1885). He was the chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia (Forty-fifth Congress) and the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War (Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses).

In 1885, U.S. Army Lt. Henry T. Allen named a mountain after Joseph Blackburn. Mount Blackburn is the highest peak in the Wrangell Mountains of the state of Alaska and the fifth highest peak in the United States.

He was elected to the United States Senate in 1884, was reelected in 1890, and served from March 4, 1885, to March 3, 1897. He failed to be reelected in 1896. He was the chairman of the Committee on Rules (Fifty-third Congress). He was once again elected to the United States Senate in 1900 and served from March 4, 1901, to March 3, 1907, but failed in his next election bid in 1906. Loosely associated with the free-silver wing of the Democratic party, he was well known nationally and his name was placed in nomination for the presidency in 1896.

He was appointed Governor of the Panama Canal Zone by President Theodore Roosevelt on April 1, 1907. He resigned and returned to his estate in Woodford County.

He died on September 12, 1918, in Washington, D.C. He was interred in the State Cemetery in Frankfort.

References

1. ^ "Jos. C. S. Blackburn, Ex-senator, Is Dead. Aged Kentuckian Served in Three Administrations and Was Civil Governor of Canal Zone". The New York Times. September 13, 1918. p. 11. Retrieved April 14, 2021 – via NewspaperArchive. Joseph C. S. Blackburn, former Senator from Kentucky and in recent years a Resident Commissioner of the Lincoln Memorial Commission, died early today at his home here. He was stricken shortly after arising with a recurrence of heart attack from which he was a chronic sufferer. ...
2. Baird, Nancy Disher (1979). Luke Pryor Blackburn: Physician, Governor, Reformer. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-0248-0.
3. "S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. November 9, 1903. p. 36. Retrieved July 2, 2023.

Further reading

• United States Congress. "J. C. S. Blackburn (id: B000508)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Johnson, E. Polk (1912). A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 778–780. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
• McAfee, John J. (1886). Kentucky politicians : sketches of representative Corncrackers and other miscellany. Louisville, Kentucky: Press of the Courier-Journal job printing company. pp. 17–19.

External links

• Media related to Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn at Wikimedia Commons

v t e United States senators from Kentucky
Class 2	Brown Thruston Clay Bibb Walker Barry Hardin Crittenden Johnson Bibb Crittenden Morehead J. Underwood Thompson Powell Guthrie McCreery Stevenson Beck Carlisle Lindsay Blackburn Paynter James Martin Stanley Sackett Robsion Williamson M. Logan Chandler Stanfill Cooper Chapman T. Underwood Cooper Barkley Humphreys Cooper Huddleston McConnell
Class 3	Edwards Marshall J. Breckinridge Adair Clay Pope Bledsoe Talbot W. Logan Talbot Rowan Clay Crittenden Metcalfe Clay Meriwether Dixon Crittenden J. C. Breckinridge Davis Machen McCreery Williams Blackburn Deboe McCreary Bradley Camden Beckham Ernst Barkley Withers Clements Morton Cook Ford Bunning Paul

v t e Chairs of the United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
Rules (1870–1947)	Ferry Blaine Morgan Frye Aldrich Blackburn Aldrich Spooner Knox Crane Overman Knox Curtis Moses Copeland Neely Byrd
Rules and Administration (1947–present)	Brooks Hayden Jenner Green Hennings Mansfield Jordan Cannon Pell Mathias Ford Stevens Warner McConnell Dodd McConnell Dodd Lott Feinstein Schumer Blunt Shelby Blunt Klobuchar McConnell (designate)

v t e Chairmen of the United States House Committee on the District of Columbia
Lewis Love Van Horne Lewis Kent Tucker Herbert Kent Alexander Powers Doddridge Washington Chinn Shepard Bouldin W. Johnson Underwood Campbell Hunter Chapman Inge Brown Ficklin Hamilton Matteson Dodd Goode Carter Conkling Lovejoy Dumont Ingersoll Cook Starkweather Hale Buckner Blackburn Hunton Neal Barbour Hemphill Grout Hemphill Heard Babcock Smith B. Johnson Mapes Zihlman Focht Reed Zihlman Norton Palmisano Randolph McMillan Dirksen McMillan Simpson McMillan Diggs Dellums Stark

• 1838 births
• 1918 deaths
• Arkansas lawyers
• Illinois lawyers
• Kentucky lawyers
• Centre College alumni
• American planters
• Democratic Party United States senators from Kentucky
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky
• People from Woodford County, Kentucky
• People of Kentucky in the American Civil War
• Confederate States Army officers
• Farmers from Illinois
• Farmers from Arkansas
• 19th-century American lawyers
• Phi Delta Theta members
• 20th-century United States senators
• 19th-century United States senators
• 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives