W. Jasper Blackburn

William Jasper Blackburn (July 24, 1820 – November 10, 1899) was an American printer, publisher and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from northwestern Louisiana from July 18, 1868, to March 3, 1869. A Republican during Reconstruction, he was elected to the Louisiana State Senate, serving from 1874 to 1878.^[1]

Biography

Blackburn was born on the Fourche de Mau in Randolph County in northeastern Arkansas. He received his early education from his mother. In 1839, he moved to Batesville to learn his printing trade. He resided in Little Rock in 1845, in Fort Smith in western Arkansas in 1846, and moved to Minden, the seat of Webster Parish, in 1849. There he established the first of several subsequent newspapers to use the name Minden Herald,^[1] eventually known as the Minden Press-Herald in the 20th century.

As a Democrat, Blackburn was elected mayor of Minden, then part of Claiborne Parish, and served a single twelve-month term from May 1855 to May 1856. Blackburn was opposed to slavery and supported the Union during the American Civil War. He left Minden in the late 1850s and settled in nearby Homer the seat of government of Claiborne Parish. There he published the Homer Iliad beginning in 1859. He rejected the growing strength of the Know Nothing Party in Louisiana and shifted to the regionally unpopular Republican Party during the war.^[2]

Blackburn worked openly against the Confederate States of America. He was tried in Confederate District Court in Shreveport on charges of having produced counterfeit Confederate currency. He narrowly escaped conviction by the jury, in a reported vote of 11-1. Had the verdict been unanimous of his guilt, Blackburn would have been executed. According to the official Minden city historian, John Agan, a faculty member at Bossier Parish Community College in Bossier City, Blackburn had made anti-Semitic remarks in print about a Jewish district judge. Apparently, the judge worked frantically to have Blackburn hanged. Some of Blackburn’s friends, however, intervened. He was spared conviction by one vote and thereafter granted a pardon. On his return to Homer, Blackburn continued publishing the Homer Iliad and dabbled in politics.^[2]

In 1867, Blackburn was elected as a member of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention. He was appointed as the administrative judge of Claiborne Parish, a position which no longer exists. On the readmission of Louisiana to the Union, Blackburn was elected as a Republican to the Fortieth Congress, served less than one calendar year, and did not seek renomination in 1868. Instead he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. He lost to the African American Oscar Dunn, who was elected to the second position on the Henry Clay Warmoth ticket.

After a four-year stint in the Louisiana Senate, Blackburn returned in 1880 to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he published the Arkansas Republican from 1881 to 1884 and The Free South from 1885 to 1892. He died in Little Rock and is interred there in Mount Holly Cemetery.^[1]

References

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana 1st district E. Livingston White Johnson White Slidell Sére St. Martin Dunbar Eustis Bouligny Sypher Lawrence Gibson Hunt St. Martin Wilkinson Meyer Estopinal O'Connor Fernández Hébert Tonry R. Livingston Vitter Jindal Scalise 2nd district Gurley Thomas Ripley Chinn Dawson la Branche Thibodeaux Conrad Bullard J.A. Landry Hunt Taylor Mann Sheldon Ellis Hahn Wallace Lagan Coleman Lagan Davey Buck Davey Gilmore Dupré Spearing Maloney T.H. Boggs Maloney T.H. Boggs L. Boggs Jefferson Cao Richmond 3rd district Brent Overton Bullard Garland Moore Dawson Harmanson Penn Perkins Davidson Newsham Darrall Acklen Darrall Kellogg Gay Price Broussard Martin Montet Mouton Domengeaux Willis Caffery Treen Tauzin Melancon J.M. Landry Boustany 4th district Bossier Morse Moore Jones Sandidge Landrum Vidal Newsham McCleery Boarman Smith Levy Elam Blanchard Ogden Breazeale Watkins Sandlin Brooks Waggonner Leach Roemer McCrery Fields McCrery Fleming 5th district Blackburn Morey Spencer Leonard Young King Newton Boatner Baird Ransdell Elder Wilson Mills McKenzie Passman Huckaby McCrery Cooksey Alexander McAllister Abraham 6th district Nash E. Robertson Lewis Irion E. Robertson S. Robertson Favrot Wickliffe Morgan Sanders, Sr. Favrot Kemp Sanders, Jr. Griffith Sanders, Jr. Morrison Rarick Moore Baker Cazayoux Cassidy Graves 7th district Pujo Lazaro De Rouen Plauche Larcade Thompson Edwards Breaux Hayes John Boustany 8th district Aswell Overton Dear Allen Doc McSween G. Long S. Long G. Long C. Long Holloway At-large Robertson Butler Johnston Sheridan Territory Clark Poydras