W. Jasper Blackburn

William Jasper Blackburn (born July 24, 1820 in Randolph County , Arkansas , †  November 10, 1899 in Little Rock , Arkansas) was an American politician . Between 1868 and 1869 he represented the state of Louisiana in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Jasper Blackburn was initially tutored by his mother. In 1839 he moved to Batesville , where he completed an apprenticeship as a printer. Via Little Rock and Fort Smith he came to Minden , Louisiana in 1849 , where he founded the newspaper "Minden Herald". There he became mayor as a member of the Democratic Party in 1855. In 1859 he moved to Homer , where he also started a newspaper. In the lead up to the Civil War , Blackburn was a loyal supporter of the Union and an opponent of slavery . He maintained this stance during the war, which earned him a charge of high treason in Louisiana. He narrowly escaped a death sentence.

After the war, Blackburn became a member of the Republican Party . In 1867 he was a delegate to a meeting to revise the state constitution of Louisiana. He was also a district judge in Claiborne Parish for four years . It was a so-called "Administrative Judge". After the resumption of Louisiana to the Union Blackburn was at the first congressional elections after the war in the newly created fifth constituency of his state in the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC selected. There he took up his new mandate on July 18, 1868. Since he was no longer running in the regular elections of 1868, he could only end the current legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1869 .

Blackburn served in the Louisiana Senate between 1874 and 1878 . In 1880 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was a newspaper editor from 1881 to 1892. He died there on November 10, 1899.

Web links

• W. Jasper Blackburn in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• W. Jasper Blackburn in the database of Find a Grave (English)