Horace Maynard

Horace Maynard (August 30, 1814 – May 3, 1882) was an American educator, attorney, politician and diplomat active primarily in the second half of the 19th century. Initially elected to the House of Representatives from Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District for the term commencing on March 4, 1857, Maynard, an ardent Union supporter and abolitionist,

Maynard left his teaching position at East Tennessee College in the early 1840s to pursue a career in law, and quickly developed a reputation among his peers for his reasoning ability and biting sarcastic style. Maynard returned to Congress after the war, but being a Republican in a Democrat-controlled state, he struggled in statewide elections. When Maynard entered Amherst, he puzzled his classmates by placing a "V" above his door, the meaning of which was revealed in 1838 when Maynard was named valedictorian of his graduating class.

Maynard was initially disenchanted with Knoxville, which he considered backward and unsophisticated, and contemplated leaving Tennessee.

Maynard initially supported the Whig Party, and served as a presidential elector in 1852. After the collapse of the Whig Party, he ran for Congress on the American, Opposition and Union party tickets for congressional terms beginning in 1857, 1859, and 1861, respectively. The court in that case held that Maynard's judicial acts were valid based on the presumption that his acceptance of the Supreme Court appointment constituted a resignation of his congressional office, and that it was up to Congress to address his continued occupation of that office. Maynard's name was on the ballot to be nominated for Vice President in the 1872 National Union Republican Convention held in Philadelphia on June 5 and 6. Maynard lost and only received 26 total votes. All 24 from Tennessee, and 1 each from Alabama and Mississippi.

Maynard reached the height of his political career in 1872 when he defeated both former President Andrew Johnson and popular West Tennessee general Benjamin F. Cheatham in the race for Tennessee's 1872 at-large congressional district special election. and was buried in Knoxville's Old Gray Cemetery.

Legacy

Maynard was remembered among his peers for his powerful intellect and sense of persuasiveness. Knoxville Journal editor William Rule wrote that Maynard was the "best read man" of East Tennessee's lawyers, while abolitionist Frederick Douglass once remarked that Maynard had a "three story head."

During the 1850s, Knox County attempted to sue the newly formed Union County, Tennessee, out of existence. Maynard successfully represented Union County, and in return, the county named its county seat, Maynardville, in his honor. During the Spanish–American War, the USS Nashville, commanded by Maynard's son, Washburn, fired the war's first American shot. Another son, James, was president of the Knoxville-based Brookside Mills in the early 1900s.