Luke P. Blackburn
Luke P. Blackburn | |
---|---|
Kentucky State Representative | |
In office 1843–1844 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Luke Pryor Blackburn June 16, 1816 Woodford County, Kentucky, U.S. |
Died | September 14, 1887 (aged 71) Frankfort, Kentucky, U.S. |
Resting place | Frankfort Cemetery |
Political party | |
Spouses | Ella Gist Boswell
(m. 1835; died 1856)Julia Churchill (m. 1857) |
Relations | J. C. S. Blackburn (brother) James W. Blackburn (brother) |
Alma mater | Transylvania University |
Profession | Physician |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Confederate States of America |
Years of service | 1862–1864 |
Rank | Surgeon, blockade runner |
Luke Pryor Blackburn (June 16, 1816 – September 14, 1887) was an American physician, philanthropist, and politician from Kentucky. He was elected the 28th governor of Kentucky, serving from 1879 to 1883. Until the election of Ernie Fletcher in 2003, Blackburn was the only physician to serve as governor of Kentucky.
After earning a medical degree at Transylvania University, Blackburn moved to Natchez, Mississippi, and gained national fame for implementing the first successful quarantine against yellow fever in the Mississippi River valley in 1848. He came to be regarded as an expert on yellow fever and often worked pro bono to combat outbreaks. Among his philanthropic ventures was the construction of a hospital for boatmen working on the Mississippi River using his personal funds. He later successfully lobbied Congress to construct a series of similar hospitals along the Mississippi.
Although too old to serve in the military, Blackburn supported the Confederate cause during the Civil War. In the early days of the war, he acted as a civilian agent for the governments of Kentucky and Mississippi. By 1863, he was aiding Confederate blockade runners in Canada. In 1864, he traveled to Bermuda to help combat a yellow fever outbreak that threatened Confederate blockade running operations there. Shortly after the war's end, a Confederate double agent accused him of having carried out a plot to start a yellow fever epidemic in the Northern United States that would have hampered the Union war effort. Blackburn was accused of collecting linens and garments used by yellow fever patients and smuggling them into the Northern states to be sold. The evidence against Blackburn was considerable, although much of it was either circumstantial or provided by witnesses of questionable reputation. Although he was acquitted by a Toronto court, public sentiment was decidedly against him throughout much of the United States. Today, historians still disagree as to the strength of the evidence supporting Blackburn's role in the alleged plot. Any plot of this nature was destined to fail, however; in 1900, Walter Reed discovered that yellow fever is spread by mosquitoes, not by contact.
Blackburn remained in Canada to avoid prosecution by U.S. authorities, but he returned to his home country in 1868 to help combat a yellow fever outbreak along the
Early life and family
Luke Blackburn was born June 16, 1816, in
Blackburn obtained his early education in the local public schools.[1] At age sixteen, he began a medical apprenticeship under his uncle, physician Churchill Blackburn.[3] During his apprenticeship, he aided his uncle in treating victims of cholera outbreaks in Lexington and Paris.[4] He later matriculated to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he earned a medical degree in March 1835.[5] After graduation, he opened a medical practice in Lexington and was instrumental in combating a cholera epidemic in nearby Versailles.[6] He accepted no payment for his services during the epidemic.[7]
On November 24, 1835, Blackburn married his distant cousin, Ella Gist Boswell.[8][9] Boswell's father, Dr. Joseph Boswell, had died in the Lexington cholera epidemic a year earlier.[7] The couple's only child, son Cary Bell Blackburn, was born in 1837.[8] Just before Cary's birth, Blackburn invested heavily in the hemp rope and bagging industry and suffered a significant financial loss when the business venture subsequently failed.[8] In 1843, Blackburn was elected as a Whig to the Kentucky House of Representatives and served a single, undistinguished term.[10] He did not seek re-election, and in 1844, he and his younger brother opened a medical practice in Frankfort, Kentucky.[8]
Drawn by the city's prosperous economy, the Blackburns relocated to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1847.[8] Luke Blackburn quickly became an active member of the community, helping found a temperance society, joining a militia group, and becoming the administrator of a local hospital.[11] He became a close associate of Jefferson Davis and William Johnson.[11] In 1848, Blackburn served as the city's health officer and implemented the first successful quarantine against a yellow fever outbreak in the Mississippi River valley.[10] Using his own personal funds, he established a hospital for boatmen who navigated the Mississippi River.[6] He also successfully lobbied the Congress to establish a hospital in Natchez; upon its completion in 1852, he was appointed surgeon there.[6] In 1854, he implemented another successful quarantine against yellow fever.[10] The Mississippi Legislature commissioned Blackburn to lobby the Louisiana State Legislature to establish a quarantine at New Orleans to protect cities along the Mississippi River; Louisiana authorized him to organize such a system.[6]
Blackburn and his son Cary traveled to
Civil War
Blackburn's sympathies lay with the
A devastating outbreak of yellow fever struck the island of Bermuda in April 1864.[18] The island was a major base of operations for Confederate blockade runners, and the epidemic threatened their continued operations there.[18] At the request of Charles Monck, the Governor General of the United Provinces of Canada, Blackburn traveled to Bermuda to aid soldiers and civilians there.[6] Blackburn continued his ministrations until mid-July when he briefly returned to Halifax.[19][20] The epidemic on the island continued, and Blackburn returned there in September to continue aiding the victims.[21] He remained there until the outbreak abated in mid-October.[21] For his efforts in Bermuda, Blackburn received 100 British pounds and a commendation from Queen Victoria.[22] Although little is known of his actions in Canada for the remainder of the war, he was rumored to have been part of a plot to incite massive insurrections in New England as a diversion, allowing fellow Confederate agent Thomas Hines to lead a prison break at Camp Douglas in Chicago.[23] When word of the plot was leaked to Union officials, they sent troops to reinforce Boston, Massachusetts, Blackburn's rumored target, quashing his role in the operation.[23]
Yellow fever plot
On April 12, 1865, just days after the
Independent of Hyams' testimony, officials in Bermuda had received information that Blackburn had collected a second cache of "contaminated" garments and linens.[20] According to this information, Blackburn contracted with Edward Swan, a hotel owner in St. George's, to store them until mid-1865 and then ship them to New York City, in an attempt to start an outbreak there.[25] Acting on this intelligence, Bermudan officials raided Swan's hotel and found three trunks of garments and linens with stains consistent with the "black vomit" symptomatic of yellow fever.[26] Swan was arrested and charged with violating the local health code.[27] The contents of the trunks were soaked with sulfuric acid and buried.[26]
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln just two days after Hyams related his story to Canadian officials heightened U.S. interest in arresting Blackburn to connect the assassination to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his operatives in Canada.[27] The U.S. Bureau of Military Justice ordered Blackburn's arrest for attempted murder, but an arrest could not be effected because Blackburn was in Canada, beyond the Bureau's jurisdiction.[5] The subsequent discovery of the cache of garments and linens in Bermuda convinced Canadian authorities to act.[27] They arrested Blackburn on May 19, 1865, charging him with violation of Canada's neutrality in the Civil War.[27] He was held for trial on $8,000 bond.[28] In October 1865, a Toronto court acquitted Blackburn on grounds that the trunks of garments had been shipped to Nova Scotia, which was out of the court's jurisdiction.[28][29] A charge of conspiracy to commit murder was dropped after Blackburn's attorney reminded the court that such a charge could only be made if the accused had made an attempt on the life of a head of state.[28] Blackburn did not testify in the trial and only spoke of the plot years later when he denounced it as "too preposterous for intelligent gentlemen to believe."[26]
Historians disagree as to the strength of the evidence against Blackburn, and many of the federal and Confederate records relating to the case have been lost.
Post-war humanitarian work
After his acquittal, Blackburn remained in Canada to avoid arrest and prosecution by U.S. authorities.
No attempt to arrest Blackburn was made, and he returned to Kentucky with his family in early 1873.
Louisville's
About the same time as his gubernatorial campaign began, Blackburn appeared before the Kentucky General Assembly to advocate measures to protect the state against disease outbreaks, including the creation of a state board of health and the construction of quarantine centers in the state's border towns. To a large degree, his pleas fell upon deaf ears, with the exception of his proposal for the state board of health, which was created in March 1878. Soon after, news came that yellow fever had appeared in the lower Mississippi Valley earlier than usual; by August 1878, it had reached epidemic proportions. Blackburn advocated implementing quarantines to deal with the influx of people fleeing north to escape the disease, but many of the state's doctors did not believe yellow fever could survive as far north as Kentucky. Some towns in the Jackson Purchase region attempted to implement crude quarantines, but the city of Louisville completely ignored Blackburn's advice and welcomed refugees from the South. Blackburn temporarily halted his gubernatorial campaign and traveled to Louisville to help treat those who arrived there already suffering from the disease.[39]
On September 5, the mayor of Hickman, Kentucky, a small western town along the Mississippi River, telegraphed the state board of health, informing them that yellow fever had reached epidemic levels in the city and requesting that Blackburn be sent to them as soon as possible. Blackburn arrived on September 7 to find that roughly 20 percent of the town's population were ill with yellow fever. He organized cleanup crews to disinfect the town and a squad of Negroes to guard vacated homes. In late September, when it appeared the Hickman epidemic was waning, Blackburn traveled to Chattanooga and Martin, Tennessee, to render aid, but within ten days, he received word that the outbreak in Hickman had resurged and spread to nearby Fulton, Kentucky. Blackburn returned to the area and continued his ministrations until late October, when the outbreak had fully subsided.[40]
Governor of Kentucky
Returning to Louisville, Blackburn was fêted at the Galt House hotel.
Due to ill health, Blackburn could not take an active part in the campaign.
In late May 1879, the Republican-leaning Cincinnati Gazette reported on Blackburn's alleged plot to infect northern cities with yellow fever during the Civil War, apparently the first time the incident had been reported in Kentucky. The newspaper formed a special department for the sole purpose of investigating the claims against Blackburn and published a daily column in which it related the department's findings. In the wake of the Gazette's investigation, other Northern newspapers, including the
In the general election, Blackburn defeated Evans by a vote of 125,790 (56%) to 81,882 (36%), the largest Democratic margin of victory in a decade.[10][48] Greenback Party candidate C. W. Cook garnered 18,954 votes, approximately 8 percent of the total votes cast.[49] These votes came mainly at the expense of Blackburn and the Democrats.[49] Until the election of Ernie Fletcher in 2003, Blackburn would be the only physician elected governor of Kentucky.[5]
Financial reform
Immediately after his election, Blackburn began planning ways to balance the state's budget.[50] In his 1880 address to the legislature, Blackburn reported that since 1867, the state had spent three million dollars more than it had taken in.[51] Previous administrations had paid for the excess by using money from the federal government for "war claims" by the state and money from the state's sinking fund.[50] Further, an economic depression had lowered property values and the state legislature had, in response to public demand, lowered taxes, further shrinking government income.[50] Blackburn forcefully asserted that the situation must be remedied.[52]
In response to recommendations from the governor, the General Assembly enacted cost-saving reforms in the judicial system, including the abolition of criminal, chancery, and common pleas courts, dividing the state instead into 18 circuit court districts.[53] The number of jurors required for certain cases was reduced, juror salaries were set at a fixed rate, and penalties were established for soliciting jury duty.[54] Reimbursement amounts for transporting and caring for prisoners were capped to prevent inflation of costs by local law enforcement.[51] Salaries of state officials were reduced by 20 percent.[55] The state property tax was also increased from 40 to 45 cents per $100 of taxable property, and laws were strengthened to facilitate the collection of delinquent taxes.[51][53]
Penal reform
Blackburn's primary focus was on reforms to the state's penal system. According to Blackburn, 953 prisoners were being held at the state penitentiary, although the structure only contained 780 cells.[56] Conditions in the penitentiary were poor and resulted in many illnesses. One fifth of the state's prisoners suffered from pneumonia in 1875.[57] When Blackburn became governor in 1879, the mortality rate of the almost one thousand inmates in the state penitentiary was over 7 percent.[57] Scurvy caused by poor nutrition afflicted 75 percent of prisoners.[57] Blackburn compared conditions at the penitentiary to the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta.[56]
The poor conditions at the penitentiary were partially because the state leased management of the facility to private contractors, who frequently neglected prisoners' needs to cut costs.[57] These contractors often provided benefits such as cheap laundry services and free meals to legislators to secure contracts and encourage them to ignore their abuse of prisoners.[57] Blackburn called for the contract system to be replaced with a system of oversight by wardens employed by the state.[56]
Before the General Assembly could act on his recommendations, Blackburn began granting
In the 1880 legislative session, the General Assembly approved Blackburn's recommendation to construct a new state penitentiary in Eddyville.[57] Legislators also responded to Blackburn's call for a warden system, authorizing the state to employ a warden, deputy warden, clerk, physician, and chaplain for the penitentiary.[58] As a means of alleviating overcrowding, the Assembly allowed private contractors to lease convict labor from the penitentiary.[57] These contractors would be responsible for feeding, clothing, housing, and caring for the prisoners in their charge.[60] With no oversight of these contractors, however, prisoner abuses again occurred, including malnutrition, overwork, and beatings that often resulted in injury and death.[57] Finally, legislators adopted, for the first time in state history, a rudimentary parole process.[57] Due to his extensive record of reforming the state prison system, Blackburn is considered "the father of prison reforms in Kentucky".[5]
Other reforms
Blackburn was also a zealous advocate for improved river navigation. He persuaded the legislature to apply a $100,000 allocation from the U.S. Congress to the improvement of navigation along the
Blackburn's other accomplishments included establishing a state railroad commission and reorganizing the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College.[10][62] Kentucky A&M had been separated from Kentucky University under Blackburn's predecessor, James B. McCreary; Blackburn now advocated that it be put under the control of and supported by the state.[63] This was done, and the rechartered institution, located at Lexington, became known commonly as the State College; in 1916, it was renamed the University of Kentucky.[63]
Later life and death
Despite his record of reforms, Democratic party leaders were largely displeased with Blackburn and his administration.[64] They decried his record number of pardons and resented the fact that he did not give more consideration to party service and loyalty when appointing individuals to state jobs.[65] Further, state newspapers noted a lack of eloquence by the governor, and this provided additional fodder for Blackburn's critics.[64] Having announced at the beginning of his term that he would seek no further political office, Blackburn nonetheless attempted to defend his record in a speech at the 1883 Democratic nominating convention, but boos and shouts for him to sit down almost drowned out the address.[55][65][66] Finally, Blackburn responded to the heckling by saying he expected to be criticized for his reforms, but that anyone who charged his administration with corruption was a "liar—a base and infamous liar".[67] At this, the clamor from the crowd became deafening, and Blackburn was forced to end his address and take his seat.[67]
Blackburn retired from public life at the expiration of his term.[66] He briefly visited a Virginia resort before returning to his apartment at Louisville's Galt House and resuming his medical practice.[1][68] While attending the 1883 National Conference of Charities, Blackburn was lauded for his prison reforms by guest speaker George Washington Cable.[68] He also received praise at a similar conference in Saratoga Springs, New York, a few weeks later.[68]
A few months after his return to Louisville, Blackburn opened a sanatorium near Cave Hill Cemetery.[69] His failing health impeded the success of the endeavor, however, and in January 1887, he returned to the state capital of Frankfort—a city he regarded as his home—knowing that death was near.[69] After a prolonged illness, he became comatose and died September 14, 1887.[69] He was buried in Frankfort Cemetery.[1]
On May 27, 1891, the state erected a monument over Blackburn's grave.
Notes
- ^ a b c d "Kentucky Governor Luke Pryor Blackburn". National Governors Association
- ^ Powell suggests that Blackburn was born in neighboring Fayette County, but all other sources list Woodford County.
- ^ a b c d e f Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 2
- ^ Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, pp. 3–5
- ^ a b c d e Baird in Kentucky's Governors, p. 111
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Perrin, Battle, and Kniffin
- ^ a b Powell, p. 64
- ^ a b c d e Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 7
- ^ Perrin gives Blackburn's wife's name as Ella Guest Boswell.
- ^ a b c d e Harrison, p. 84
- ^ a b Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 8
- ^ Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 17
- ^ a b c d e f Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 18
- ^ Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 19
- ^ a b Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 20
- ^ a b c Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 21
- ^ a b Steers, p. 47
- ^ a b Steers, p. 48
- ^ a b c Bell, p. 104
- ^ a b c d e f Steers, p. 49
- ^ a b Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 25
- ^ a b c d e f g h Singer, "The Fiend in Gray"
- ^ a b Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 26
- ^ a b Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 29
- ^ Steers, pp. 49–50
- ^ a b c d e f Haines, "Did a Confederate doctor engage in a primitive form of biological warfare?"
- ^ a b c d Steers, p. 50
- ^ a b c Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 31
- ^ Steers, p. 51
- ^ Steers, pp. 48–54
- ^ Boltz, "Physician's deadly plan to sicken Yankees foiled"
- ^ Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 34
- ^ a b Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 36
- ^ a b c Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 37
- ^ a b c d e Baird in Register, p. 301
- ^ a b Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 40
- ^ a b Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 41
- ^ Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 42
- ^ Baird in Register, pp. 302–303
- ^ a b Baird in Register, p. 305
- ^ a b c Baird in Register, p. 306
- ^ a b c Baird in Register, p. 307
- ^ a b Baird in Register, p. 308
- ^ Tapp and Klotter, p. 164
- ^ a b c d Tapp and Klotter, p. 166
- ^ a b c Tapp and Klotter, p. 167
- ^ Baird in Register, pp. 309–311
- ^ Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 59
- ^ a b Tapp and Klotter, p. 170
- ^ a b c Tapp and Klotter, p. 173
- ^ a b c Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 71
- ^ Tapp and Klotter, p. 175
- ^ a b Tapp and Klotter, p. 177
- ^ Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 72
- ^ a b Harrison and Klotter, p. 261
- ^ a b c Tapp and Klotter, p. 178
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harrison and Klotter, p. 260
- ^ a b c d Tapp and Klotter, p. 180
- ^ Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 110
- ^ Baird in Kentucky's Governors, p. 113
- ^ Tapp and Klotter, pp. 182–183
- ^ Tapp and Klotter, p. 301
- ^ a b Tapp and Klotter, p. 200
- ^ a b Tapp and Klotter, p. 211
- ^ a b Tapp and Klotter, p. 213
- ^ a b Tapp and Klotter, p. 172
- ^ a b Tapp and Klotter, p. 215
- ^ a b c Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 114
- ^ a b c d Baird in Luke Pryor Blackburn, p. 115
- ^ a b Baird in Kentucky's Governors, p. 114
References
- Baird, Nancy Disher (1979). Luke Pryor Blackburn: Physician, Governor, Reformer. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-0248-0.
- Baird, Nancy Disher (October 1976). "Luke Pryor Blackburn's Campaign for Governor". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 74: 300–313.
- Baird, Nancy Disher (2004). "Luke Pryor Blackburn". In ISBN 0-8131-2326-7.
- Bell, Andrew McIlwaine (2010). Mosquito Soldiers: Malaria, Yellow Fever, and the Course of the American Civil War. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3561-7.
- Boltz, Martha M. (December 31, 2005). "Physician's deadly plan to sicken Yankees foiled". The Washington Times.
- Haines, J. D. (1999). "Did a Confederate doctor engage in a primitive form of biological warfare? The Northern press thought so". America's Civil War. 12 (4).
- ISBN 0-8131-1772-0. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
- ISBN 0-8131-2008-X.
- "Kentucky Governor Luke Pryor Blackburn". National Governors Association. Archived from the original on May 8, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2012.
- Perrin, William Henry; J. H. Battle; G. C. Kniffin (1888). Kentucky: A History of the State. Louisville, Kentucky: F.A. Battey and Company. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
- Powell, Robert A. (1976). Kentucky Governors. Frankfort, Kentucky: Kentucky Images. OCLC 2690774.
- Singer, Jane (June 1, 2003). "The Fiend in Gray". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- ISBN 0-8131-9151-3.
- Tapp, Hambleton; ISBN 0-916968-05-7.
Further reading
- Baird, Nancy Disher (November 1974). "The Yellow Fever Plot". Civil War Times Illustrated. 13: 16–23.