CIVIL WAR INJURED UNIONIST CONGRESSMAN TN READMISSION ARNELL AUTOGRAPH SIGNED VF

Description

Here’s an Autograph of Civil War Era Tennessee Statesman
SAMUEL MAYES ARNELL
(1833 - 1903)
UNITED STATES
“UNCONDITIONAL UNIONIST PARTY”
CONGRESSMAN FROM TENNESSEE 1866-1871, UPON THE READMISSION OF TENNESSEE TO THE UNION,
MEMBER OF THE TENNESSEE STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1865-1866,
ACTIVELY SUPPORTING THE
UNION
, SUFFERING INJURY, THREATS TO HIS LIFE, and PROPERTY DAMAGE FROM
CONFEDERATE
FORCES,
MEMBER OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF TENNESSEE IN 1865,
POSTMASTER OF COLUMBIA, TN 1879-1884, and SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 1884-1886
ANTEBELLUM LEATHER MANUFACTURING BUSINESS INDUSTRIALIST and SLAVEOWNER.
-&-
AUTHOR OF
"‘TEN YEARS OF TENNESSEE HISTORY’ OR ‘THE WAR OF SECESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE, 1861-1871.’"
Although a slaveholder, Arnell sided with the Union during the Civil War and traversed Middle Tennessee urging Tennesseans to maintain their allegiance to the United States. His relentless, vocal opposition to the Confederacy earned him many enemies, forcing him to flee to Nashville for safety. A Whig before the war, Arnell subsequently became a Radical Republican and represented Lewis, Maury, and Williamson Counties in the Tennessee General Assembly of 1865-66. Arnell wrote and introduced two franchise bills to prevent ex-Confederates from voting in state and national elections, and expand voting rights to former slaves.
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HERE'S AN AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURE CARD BOLDLY SIGNED BY ARNELL:
“
S. M Arnell
Tennessee”
The document measures 3-
5/8
” x 1
¼
” and is in VF condition.
A WONDERFUL RELIC OF TENNESSEE CIVIL WAR ERA POLITICAL HISTORY.
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BIOGRAPHY of the HONORABLE
SAMUEL MAYES ARNELL
Samuel Mayes Arnell
(May 3, 1833 – July 20, 1903) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the
6th congressional district
of
Tennessee
in the
United States House of Representatives
. He was a staunch Unionist and served as a Republican. He had owned slaves. He later served as school superintendent and postmaster. He wrote a memoir.
Early life
He was born on May 3, 1833 at Zion Settlement, near
Columbia, Tennessee
in
Maury County
. He attended
Amherst College
in
Amherst, Massachusetts
, studied law, was admitted to the
bar
, and commenced practice in Columbia. He started a leather manufacturing business in 1859. He owned slaves. During the
Civil War
, he supported the
Union
actively, suffering injury, threats to his life, and property damage from
Confederate
forces.
Political offices
He was a member of the
Tennessee state constitutional
convention in 1865. He served in the
Tennessee House of Representatives
in 1865 and 1866, where he authored a series of bills to expand voting rights to former slaves and that attempted unsuccessfully to strip the voting rights of former Confederate soldiers and officials for periods of 5 and 15 years, respectively; however, the definitions used to expand rights to blacks are seen by some historians as also having established an early version of the "one-drop" rule in Tennessee law.
Upon the readmission of Tennessee to representation, he was elected as an
Unconditional Unionist
to the
Thirty-ninth Congress
. He was re-elected as a
Republican
to the
Fortieth
and
Forty-first Congresses
. He served from July 24, 1866 to March 3, 1871, but he was not a candidate for renomination in 1870. During the Forty-first Congress, he was the chairman of the
Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State
. He was chairman of the
United States House Committee on Education and Labor
during the Forty-first Congress. He also was a
delegate
to the
Republican National Convention
from Tennessee in 1868.
Private citizen
He resumed the practice of law in
Washington, D.C.
, then later returned to
Columbia, Tennessee
. He was the
postmaster
of Columbia from 1879 to 1885. He was the superintendent of public schools from 1885 to 1888. Near the end of his life, he authored his memoirs, "‘Ten Years of Tennessee History’ or ‘The War of Secession and Reconstruction in Tennessee, 1861-1871.’"
He died on July 20, 1903 in
Johnson City, Tennessee
in
Washington County
. He was
interred
in Monte Visa Cemetery.
References
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
.
"Congress slaveowners"
, The Washington Post, January 13, 2022,
Zebley, Kathleen R. (1994).
"Unconditional Unionist: Samuel Mayes Arnell and Reconstruction in Tennessee"
. Tennessee Historical Quarterly.
53
(4): 246–259.
ISSN
0040-3261
.
JSTOR
42627156
.
"Congress slaveowners"
, The Washington Post, January 13, 2022
Samuel Mayes Arnell Collection, MS-0823. University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville, Special Collections.
Archived
2011-09-27 at the
Wayback Machine
"44090_002"
Samuel Mayes Arnell (1833 - 1903) - Find A Grave Memorial
"'Ten Years of Tennessee History' | Calvin M. McClung Special Collections Catalog
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