Col. John C. Burch, US Senator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Christopher_Burch

John C. Burch, Secretary of the Senate, 1879-1881

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HOUSE, 3lst General Assembly, l855-57; representing Hamilton County;

SENATE, 32nd General Assembly, l857-59; representing counties of Hamilton, Bledsoe, Bradley, Marion, and Rhea;

Democrat;

Speaker of Senate in 32nd Assembly.

Born in Jefferson County, Georgia, October l7, l827; son of Morton Newman and Mary (Ballard) Burch. Graduated, l847, from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; studied law and admitted to Georgia bar, l849.

Married, c.l844, to Lucy Newell; eight children--Katherine Newell, Mary Ballard, John Christopher,Jr., Charles N., Robert Lee, and Lucius Edward, and two who died in infancy.

Began practice of law at Spring Place, Murray County, Georgia; removed to Chattanooga, Hamilton County, l852, and practiced until l859; removed to Nashville, Davidson County, l859, to become editor of Nashville Union and American, a leading Democrat paper of state; after Civil War, l869, purchased controlling interest in that paper and continued as chief editor until l873.

Appointed Comptroller of Tennessee May 1, 1873, and continued to January l4, l875; elected secretary of U.S. Senate, March 24, l879, and continued until death some two years later.

A strong advocate of Southern rights, he served during Civil War on staffs of Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, and Gen. Jones M. Withers, with rank of colonel.

Member Protestant Episcopal Church.

Died at Washington, D. C., July 28, 1881; buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville.

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John Burch was born in 1827 in Jefferson County, Georgia. On graduating from Yale College in 1847, he returned to Georgia to study and practice law. In 1852, he moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Three years later he won election to the state house of representatives and, in 1857, to the state senate. As speaker of the senate, he earned a reputation for judiciousness and parliamentary skill. In those especially turbulent times, Burch was particularly proud of the fact that the senate found no cause to overturn any of his procedural rulings.

In 1859, Burch became editor of the Nashville Union and American, Tennessee's most influential Democratic newspaper. At the start of the Civil War, he cast his lot with the Confederacy and served successively on the military staffs of Generals Gideon Pillow, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Jones Withers. At war's end, he resumed his Nashville law practice and, in 1869, purchased a controlling interest in the Union and American. Burch served subsequently as that paper's editor, business manager, and chief writer. In 1873, he became his state's comptroller, whose "onerous duties [he] discharged with great ability, rigid integrity and perfect justice and impartiality." Burch's parliamentary, administrative, and financial experience made him an ideal candidate to become the United States Senate's Secretary. Within days of Burch's election, Senate Democrats introduced a resolution returning to the Secretary and Sergeant at Arms exclusive authority to appoint and remove their staffs. For the past twenty-five years, the Senate had assigned to the Vice President power to override all such personnel actions. But in 1879, for the first time since the 1854 adoption of that standing order, the Vice President was not a member of the party that controlled the Senate majority. This change greatly irritated Republican leaders.

Rhode Island's Henry Anthony charged that the Democratic Caucus was now unfairly dictating the Senate's agenda and that the introduction of this resolution served as a good example of the Democratic "Juggernaut which rolls through the Senate, crushing out our venerable precedents, trampling upon our ancient usages, and breaking in upon the freedom of our discussions."

Democratic Senator George Pendleton, soon to become the father of the federal civil service system, responded that while an officer might faithfully discharge his duties, he could nevertheless, "by reason of his manner, be disagreeable to senators and therefore not a fit person to discharge acceptably the duties of the office." So long as Senate officers were responsible to members, Pendleton believed those officers should have authority to hire and fire staff without having to answer to an official "who, however high he may be in the Government, is not a Senator upon this floor and is not charged with the duties of a Senator."

In adopting the resolution, the Senate gave Burch a degree of authority greater than that exercised by his six predecessors. Burch proved to be a highly competent and universally respected Secretary. Members demonstrated that respect in March 1881, when the Senate found itself equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, by agreeing to keep him in office.

Unfortunately, Burch had little time to develop a lasting record of accomplishments. His death on July 28, 1881, assigned him the undesired distinction of being the Senate's shortest-serving Secretary to that time. His demise raised immediate concerns about disbursement of Senate funds, as no provision existed for any other official to assume the Secretary's financial responsibilities. Twenty years earlier, in 1861, the Senate had provided for the chief clerk to assume this role during the then-Secretary's illness. When the Senate convened in October 1881, it resolved the issue by appointing Chief Clerk Francis Shober as acting Secretary. Shober served effectively in that capacity until the Republicans regained control in March 1883. On that occasion, it became the Democrats' turn to raise arguments about the importance of continuity among the Senate's key officials.

Republicans smiled and held their elections.

GEDCOM Note

{geni:occupation} Lawyer, Journalist, Politician, fought in Civil War, first southern Secretary of the Senate after the US Civil War