Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson (March 19, 1812 – August 24, 1873) was an American attorney, politician, and judge, active primarily in East Tennessee during the mid-19th century. He represented Tennessee'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 the Civil War, but was arrested by Confederate authorities before he could take his seat.
As early as the 1830s, Nelson had gained a reputation as an effective Whig 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 the East 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, Governor William G. Brownlow, and used his position on the state supreme court to overturn many of Brownlow's policies. Nelson served on the defense team of President Andrew Johnson during Johnson's impeachment trial in 1868, and was elected to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1870.
Early life
Nelson was born on Eskridge Farm in rural Roane County, Tennessee, the second son of farmer and land agent David Nelson and his wife, Phoebe White Nelson. In 1826, at the age of just 14, he delivered a speech in defense of Native American rights before the First Presbyterian Church in Knoxville. He graduated from East Tennessee College (now the University of Tennessee) in 1828, and studied law in Knoxville under Thomas L. Williams. After his admission to the bar in 1832, he moved to Elizabethton to practice law.
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 candidate Hugh Lawson White in 1836. Around 1839, Nelson met William G. "Parson" Brownlow, and encouraged him to start a pro-Whig newspaper. In subsequent decades, this newspaper, commonly called Brownlow'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.
Around 1840, Nelson moved his practice to Jonesborough in Washington County, where he would remain for two decades. On October 29, 1840, he debated rising Democratic politician Andrew Johnson to a draw as the two campaigned for William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren, respectively. In 1846, Nelson successfully defended Brownlow from a libel charge in a well-publicized trial prosecuted by future Confederate judge West Humphreys. Whig officials consistently encouraged Nelson to run for office, but Nelson always declined, stating that officeholders' salaries were inadequate to support his family.
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 chose James C. Jones instead.
Congressional term, 1859 - 1861
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. On December 7 of that year, in response to a series of pro-secession speeches by Southern Fire-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. Responding to Nelson, Virginia congressman Roger 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."