Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson | |
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's1st district | |
| In office March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861 Prisoner of War during 37th U.S. Congress | |
| Preceded by | Albert Galiton Watkins |
| Succeeded by | Nathaniel Green Taylor |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1812-03-19)March 19, 1812 |
| Died | August 24, 1873(1873-08-24) (aged 61) Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Resting place | Old Gray Cemetery Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Political party | Whig Party Opposition Party Union Party Democratic Party |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Stuart Mary Jones[2] |
| Children | 11[3] |
| Alma mater | East Tennessee College[2] |
| Profession | Attorney, Politician, Judge |
Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson[4] (March 19, 1812 – August 24, 1873) was an American attorney, politician, and judge, active primarily inEast Tennessee during the mid-19th century. He representedTennessee's 1st Congressional District in the 36th U.S. Congress (1859–1861), where he gained a reputation as a staunch pro-Union southerner. He was elected to a second term in 1861 on the eve of theCivil War, but was arrested byConfederate authorities before he could take his seat.
As early as the 1830s, Nelson had gained a reputation as an effectiveWhig Party campaigner, but due to family considerations, he did not run for office until 1859. In December of that year, Nelson gained international renown for an explosive anti-secession speech he delivered before Congress. As president of theEast Tennessee Convention, Nelson campaigned to keep Tennessee in the Union, but maintained a neutral position after his arrest.
After the war, Nelson opposed the radical initiatives of his long-time friend, GovernorWilliam G. Brownlow, and used his position on the state supreme court to overturn many of Brownlow's policies.[1] Nelson served on the defense team of PresidentAndrew Johnson duringJohnson's impeachment trial in 1868, and was elected to theTennessee Supreme Court in 1870.[1]
Nelson was born on Eskridge Farm in ruralRoane County, Tennessee, the second son of farmer and land agent David Nelson and his wife, Phoebe White Nelson.[3] In 1826, at the age of just 14, he delivered a speech in defense ofNative American rights before the First Presbyterian Church inKnoxville. He graduated from East Tennessee College (now theUniversity of Tennessee) in 1828, and studied law in Knoxville under Thomas L. Williams. After his admission to thebar in 1832, he moved toElizabethton to practice law.[1]
In Elizabethton, Nelson took an active role in the promotion of Whig ideals. He was appointed acting district attorney in 1833, and campaigned on behalf of Whig presidential candidateHugh Lawson White in 1836. Around 1839, Nelson met William G. "Parson" Brownlow, and encouraged him to start a pro-Whig newspaper.[1] In subsequent decades, this newspaper, commonly calledBrownlow's Whig, grew to become one of the most influential and controversial papers in the Southern United States. Brownlow's rival,Landon Carter Haynes, read law with Nelson in the late 1830s.[5]
Around 1840, Nelson moved his practice toJonesborough in Washington County, where he would remain for two decades. On October 29, 1840, he debated rising Democratic politicianAndrew Johnson to a draw as the two campaigned forWilliam Henry Harrison andMartin Van Buren, respectively.[1] In 1846, Nelson successfully defended Brownlow from alibel charge in a well-publicized trial prosecuted by futureConfederate judgeWest Humphreys.[6] Whig officials consistently encouraged Nelson to run for office, but Nelson always declined, stating that officeholders' salaries were inadequate to support his family.[1]
In 1851, Nelson was appointed commissioner to China, but again declined the appointment due to inadequate salary. Later that year, East Tennessee representatives in the state legislature made a vigorous push to have Nelson appointed to the U.S. Senate, but the legislature choseJames C. Jones instead.[1]
In 1859, Nelson ran against Haynes for Tennessee's 1st Congressional District seat. After a fierce campaign that saw the candidates debate one another several dozen times, Nelson edged Haynes by a narrow margin.[1] On December 7 of that year, in response to a series of pro-secession speeches by SouthernFire-Eaters before the House of Representatives earlier that day, Nelson delivered a powerful pro-Union speech that provoked "loud applause" from the House floor and gallery.[7] Responding to Nelson, Virginia congressmanRoger Pryor mocked the fact that Nelson mentioned only the Union and not the Constitution, as though he adored the former more than the latter. Nelson shot back:
"If I mistake not, it is the common sentiment of the secessionists of the South, that they talk about the Constitution, but say nothing about the Union. When I talk about the Union, what do I talk about? I talk about that thing which is the result of the American Constitution."[7]
After further debate, Pryor was visibly stumped, and Nelson was hailed as a hero by the House's pro-Union faction. TheBaltimore Patriot reported that Nelson's speech "fell like a thunderbolt on the House," while the pro-DemocratLouisville Courier warned that the Fire-Eaters may have awakened "the wrong passenger."[7]The Times (of London) called Nelson's speech "the highest product of American oratory."[2] The secession issue dominated the remainder of Nelson's congressional term. He spoke against both abolitionism and secession, and was a member of the House Committee of 33 on reconciliation.[1]
As the secession debate reached a fevered pitch in the wake ofAbraham Lincoln's election in November 1860, Nelson campaigned vigorously to keep Tennessee in the Union. On April 27, 1861, pro-Union and pro-Confederate factions held simultaneous rallies at opposite ends ofGay Street in Knoxville, and Nelson spoke alongside Andrew Johnson at the pro-Union rally.[8] In subsequent weeks, Nelson, Johnson, Brownlow andHorace Maynard canvassed East Tennessee, delivering hundreds of speeches and encouraging the region's residents to reject secession. While Tennessee voted to secede on June 8, most counties in East Tennessee remained solidly pro-Union.[8]
On May 30, Nelson was named president of the East Tennessee Convention, which met to discuss forming a separate state in East Tennessee. At the convention's June meeting, Nelson proposed a resolution that would create such a state, and violently resist Confederate occupation, if necessary. Other delegates, led byOliver Perry Temple andJohn Netherland, rejected this as too extreme, and adopted a resolution petitioning the legislature for separation without threatening violent resistance.[1] Nevertheless, the legislature rejected the petition, and dispatched Confederate troops to occupy the region.
Nelson was reelected to Congress in 1861, and attempted to travel to Washington, D.C., to take his seat. While passing through Kentucky, however, he was captured by Confederate authorities, and jailed inRichmond. Confederate presidentJefferson Davis ordered Nelson released, however, after Nelson agreed not to oppose the Confederate government, and Nelson returned to his home in Jonesborough.[1] He published an article in theKnoxville Register in 1862 expressing his opposition to theEmancipation Proclamation, but nevertheless followedAmbrose Burnside's Union forces to Knoxville in late 1863.[1]
While in Knoxville, Nelson wrote several poems about his wartime experiences, one of which was published asSecession, Or Prose in Rhyme and East Tennessee, A Poem.[1] In April 1864, at a meeting of the revived East Tennessee Convention, Nelson led a faction which called for a return to the Union, but still rejected the abolition of slavery. This brought him into conflict with Brownlow and Maynard, who both supported Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. Nelson supportedGeorge B. McClellan in the presidential election of 1864.[8]
In the late-1860s, Nelson continued to oppose theRadical Republican policies of his long-time friend Brownlow, who was now governor, and aligned himself with Johnson, now president. After the House voted to impeach Johnson in 1868, Johnson asked Nelson to join his defense team athis impeachment trial in April of that year. For nearly two days, Nelson gave a point-by-point refutation of the impeachment charges, and the Senate voted to acquit Johnson on May 16.[1]
Back in Tennessee, Nelson signed a petition calling on the state's judges to ignore Brownlow's attempts todisenfranchise former Confederates. Brownlow blasted most of the petition's signers, but remained cordial in his disagreements with Nelson. In 1870, Nelson was elected to the Tennessee Supreme Court, and helped overturn many of the decisions of his Radical Republican predecessors.[1]
On September 27, 1871, Nelson's son, David, shot and killed Alabama attorneyJames Holt Clanton on Gay Street in Knoxville. Nelson convinced his son to surrender, and posted his $25,000 bond (which was signed by Brownlow, who was now a senator). Nelson resigned his position on the state supreme court to focus on his son's trial. On May 30, 1873, David Nelson was acquitted of the charge of murder.[9]
Nelson delivered the dedicatory address at the opening ofStaub's Theatre in Knoxville on October 1, 1872,[10] and spent his last years advising local politicians and teaching Sunday school at Knoxville's Second Presbyterian Church. He contractedcholera in late August 1873, and died on August 24.[1] He is interred in an unmarked grave inOld Gray Cemetery.
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's 1st congressional district March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861 | Succeeded by |
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