620

J.C.S. Blackburn.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 130.00 USD
J.C.S. Blackburn.
Of Ky. Confederate Lt. Col. Worked in 1860 Presidential campaign of John C. Breckinridge. Aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. William Preston, fighting at Chickamauga; commanded cavalry in District of Miss. and East Louisiana. Five-term Ky. Congressman, Sen., a Democratic nominee for President in 1896, then supporting William Jennings Bryan and Free Silver. Gov. of Panama Canal Zone 1907-09. Years later, Blackburn told a reporter the remarkable story of his first appearance in a U.S. court:

"I was a very young man, beginning the practice of law, and for the first time, I was appearing in a United States court in Chicago. The opposing counsel was Isaac N. Arnold, one of the most distinguished men of Chicago. When the case was reached I was so nervous that I became bewildered and made only a feeble effort. I was about to sit down and let the case go by default, as it were, when a tall, homely, loose-jointed man sitting in the bar, whom I had noticed giving close attention to the case, arose and addressed the court in behalf of the position I had assumed in my feeble argument, making the points so clear that when he closed, the court sustained my demurrer. I didn't know who my volunteer friend was, but Mr. Arnold got up and attempted to rebuke him for interfering in the matter, when I, for the first time, heard that he was Abraham Lincoln of Springfield. Mr. Lincoln, in his good-natured reply to Mr. Arnold's strictures on his interference, said that he claimed the privilege of giving a young Kentucky lawyer from the State of his birth a boost when struggling with his first case, especially if he was pitted against an experienced practitioner. Of course, I thanked him, and departed the court as proud as a young field marshal. I never saw Mr. Lincoln again, and he probably never recalled the young struggling lawyer that he so kindly assisted and rescued from defeat in his maiden effort before a United States tribunal."--kentuckyancestors.org.

Blackburn finally was able to reciprocate - in 1914 - when as Pres. Wilson's Special Resident Commissioner of the Lincoln Memorial, he was the sole speaker at its groundbreaking, echoing his devotion, notwithstanding their opposition during the war. The fifth-highest mountain in the U.S. is named for Blackburn, in Alaska. Bold presentation signature on ivory card. Lacking in Shaw, and added from another old collection in 1970s.