Joseph Blackburn was born on October 1, 1838, near Spring Station in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. He belonged to a family that had been prominent in the political history of Kentucky from the formation of the state. Several members served in the legislature; his father, Edward Blackburn, was a prosperous and well-known planter of considerable local influence; and a half-brother, Luke P. Blackburn, was governor from 1879 to 1883.
Joseph was educated at Centre College, from which he graduated in 1857. He read law in a private office and was admitted to the bar in 1858.
For the next two years Blackburn practised in Chicago but returned to Kentucky in 1860 in order to work for the election of Breckinridge. For Blackburn the Civil War interrupted a legal career not over-rich in promise. He joined the Confederate army and fought throughout the war with valor but without distinction. For a year he served on the staff of Brigadier-General Preston as volunteer aide-de-camp with the rank of captain and received special mention by that officer for good conduct at Chickamauga. Later he served as a lieutenant under Polk and in March 1864 was authorized to raise a cavalry company for special service along the Mississippi. His company was virtually independent, and its activities were such as to make it equally obnoxious to friend and foe.
After the war, Blackburn lived for a few years in Arkansas but returned to Kentucky in 1868. Family influence and the enthusiasm for Confederate veterans in the general reaction against military interference in Kentucky soon carried him into public life, sending him to the legislature in 1871 and again in 1873. This was followed by ten years, 1875-1885, in the national House of Representatives and twelve, 1885-1897, in the Senate. He failed of reelection in 1896 because of his ardent advocacy of free silver and his support of Bryan, but was elected for the third time in 1901. Beaten in 1907, he retired to private life and held no more offices except by appointment. Roosevelt appointed him governor of the Canal Zone, but he resigned after two years. In 1914 Wilson appointed him resident commissioner of the Lincoln Memorial and this position he held till his death.
For twenty years Joseph Blackburn was probably the most popular man in Kentucky. This was due to his genial disposition, his perfervid oratory, his war record, and his astonishingly retentive memory, which enabled him to call by name the majority of the voters of his state. As a legislator he cannot be placed in the first rank and his name is not connected with any great measure. He was a vigorous debater, whose powers of vituperation often provoked his opponents to physical violence. In the House he gained notoriety for his filibuster against accepting the decision of the electoral commission in 1877 and by his activity in unearthing the scandals of Grant's administration. In the Senate his debating powers and continued service combined to make him of considerable influence.
Joseph Blackburn was a member of Democratic party, from which he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 7th district (1875 – 1885) and the U. S. Senate from Kentucky (1885 - 1897; 1901 – 1907).
Blackburn was twice married; in 1858 to Therese Graham of Danville, who died in 1899; in 1901 to Mrs. Mary E. Blackburn of Washington, D. C.
