Isaac N. Arnold
Isaac N. Arnold | |
---|---|
![]() Arnold in 1884 | |
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromIllinois's1stdistrict | |
In office March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1865 | |
Preceded by | Elihu B. Washburne |
Succeeded by | John Wentworth |
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromIllinois's2nddistrict | |
In office March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863 | |
Preceded by | John F. Farnsworth |
Succeeded by | John F. Farnsworth |
Member of theIllinois House of Representatives | |
Personal details | |
Born | Hartwick, New York,US | November 30, 1815
Died | April 24, 1884 Chicago,Illinois, US | (aged 68)
Resting place | Graceland Cemetery |
Political party | Republican |
Isaac Newton Arnold(November 30, 1815 – April 24, 1884) was an American attorney,politician,and biographer who made his career in Chicago. He served two terms in theUnited States House of Representatives(1860–1864) and in 1864 introduced the first resolution in Congress proposing a constitutional amendment toabolishslaveryin the United States. After returning to Chicago in 1866, he practiced law and wrote biographies ofAbraham LincolnandBenedict Arnold.
Early life, education, and career
[edit]Born inHartwick, New York,Arnold was the son of Sophia M. and Dr. George Washington Arnold, natives ofRhode Islandwho had migrated to New York after the Revolutionary War.[1]He attended common schools, followed by theHartwick Seminaryin 1831–1832. There he joined the Philophronean Society, who debated the issues of the day, including theabolitionofslavery.[2]
From 1832 to 1835, Arnold taught school in Otsego County. He studied law with Richard Cooper, and later with Judge E. B. Morehouse of Cooperstown. Admitted to the bar in 1835 at the age of 20, Arnold became a partner of Morehouse.[1]
Migration west
[edit]Excited by other possibilities, in 1836 Arnold moved to Chicago, a small village developing as population migrated west after completion of theErie Canalin New York, which connectedGreat Lakesshipping to the port of New York City. He became a law partner ofMahlon D. Ogden.When Chicago was incorporated the following year, in 1837 Ogden was elected mayor and Arnold city clerk.[1]He left office to attend to his law practice, through which he got to know and befriend fellow Illinois lawyerAbraham Lincoln.[1]
In 1842, Arnold was elected to theIllinois House of Representativesas aDemocratand served three terms. He was a Democratic presidential elector in 1844.[3]
Inspired by the issue of abolishing slavery, Arnold was a delegate to the national Free Soil Convention in 1848. He left the Democrats to become an organizer of theFree Soil Partyin Illinois. Arnold served one term in the state house from 1855 to 1856 under the Free Soil banner.[3]
In 1860 he joined theRepublican Partyand won election to the U.S. House that year. He was reelected in 1862. A strong supporter of President Lincoln during his tenure in Congress, Arnold pushed emancipation in the territories and nation. He defended Lincoln against critics, including within his party.[1]
In March 1862, during theAmerican Civil War,Arnold introduced a bill to abolish slavery inU.S. territories,which became law in June 1862. In February 1864, he introduced a resolution for a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery throughout the United States, saying:
You can have no permanent peace while slavery lives..... Your contest with it is to the death. Your implacable enemy now reels and staggers. Strike the decisive blow. You could not if you would, and you ought not if you could, make terms of compromise with slavery.
— Excerpted from "The Power, Duty, and Necessity of Destroying Slavery in the Rebel States" Speech of Hon. Isaac Newton Arnold of Illinois, delivered in the House of Representatives, January 6, 1864.
He was the first Congressman to introduce a resolution to abolish slavery.[2]In 1865 theThirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitutionwas ratified and slavery was ended.
In 1864 Arnold faced a strong challenge from the DemocratJohn L. Scripps,the postmaster in Chicago, whose appointment he had opposed. By then, Scripps controlled a large field of patronage because of his position. In addition, German Americans made up 25 percent of Arnold's constituents in 1860, and they were unhappy with him about continued drafts of men into the Army. Arnold withdrew from the race in favor of the RepublicanJohn Wentworth,the popular former mayor. Wentworth won the seat.[1]
Arnold accepted a presidential appointment from Lincoln as the Sixth Auditor of theTreasury Department.[3]
In 1866, Arnold left Washington and returned to his law practice in Chicago.
Literary career
[edit]Arnold was rapidly working on a book about Lincoln. He publishedThe History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slaveryin 1867.[2]This was considered a general history that suffered from not having sufficient research.[1]
He did years of research on an earlier historical figure, writing a biography entitledThe Life of Benedict Arnold: His Patriotism and His Treason(1880).[2]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Grave_of_Isaac_Newton_Arnold_%281815%E2%80%931884%29_at_Graceland_Cemetery%2C_Chicago.jpg/150px-Grave_of_Isaac_Newton_Arnold_%281815%E2%80%931884%29_at_Graceland_Cemetery%2C_Chicago.jpg)
Dismayed by contemporary accounts of Lincoln byWilliam H. HerndonandWard Hill Lamon,Arnold wrote a new biography,The Life of Lincoln(1884), to concentrate on the years of his presidency and refute some of the personal controversial accounts. It was well received at the time, reviewed by the press in the US and Great Britain and, in the late 1940s, it was described as "one of the best of the early biographies."[1]It was reprinted in 1994.[1]
Arnold died April 24, 1884, and was buried atGraceland Cemeteryin Chicago.
Works
[edit]- Arnold, Isaac N.(1880).Arnold, The life of Benedict Arnold - his patriotism and his treason.Jansen, McClurg & Company.
- Arnold, Isaac N.(1880).Benedict Arnold at Saratoga.Harvard University.
- Arnold, Isaac N.(1885).Arnold, The life of Benedict Arnold - his patriotism and his treason.Jansen, McClurg.ISBN9780795004339.
References
[edit]- ^abcdefghiRawley, James A. (1998). "Isaac Newton Arnold, Lincoln's Friend and Biographer".Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association.19(1): 39–56.JSTOR20148963.
- ^abcd"Isaac Newton Arnold".Paul F. Cooper, Jr. Archives.Hartwick College. Archived fromthe originalon January 5, 2013.
- ^abc"Isaac Newton Arnold",Congressional Biographies
Sources
[edit]- United States Congress."Isaac N. Arnold (id: A000288)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds.,Dictionary of American Biography,20 vols. and supplements (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1928–), 1:368–69
External links
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Works by Isaac Newton ArnoldatProject Gutenberg
- Works by or about Isaac N. ArnoldatInternet Archive
- Isaac N. Arnold,The Life of Benedict Arnold,reprint 1905, full text available at Google Books
- 1815 births
- 1884 deaths
- People from Hartwick, New York
- Illinois Democrats
- Illinois Free Soilers
- Members of the Illinois House of Representatives
- New York (state) lawyers
- Illinois lawyers
- American biographers
- American male biographers
- Burials at Graceland Cemetery (Chicago)
- Politicians from Chicago
- Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois
- 19th-century American legislators
- Historians from New York (state)
- Historians from Illinois
- 19th-century American lawyers
- 19th-century Illinois politicians