Isaac Newton Arnold

Isaac Newton Arnold (November 30, 1815 – April 24, 1884) was an American politician who made his career in Chicago. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives (1860–1864) and in 1864 introduced the first resolution in Congress proposing a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery in the United States. After returning to Chicago in 1866, he practiced law and wrote biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Benedict Arnold.

Biography

Early life, education, and career Born on November 30, 1815 in Hartwick, New York, He attended common schools, followed by the Hartwick Seminary in 1831–1832. There he joined the Philophronean Society, who debated the issues of the day, including the abolition of slavery.

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. He was admitted to the bar in 1835 (at the age of 20) and became a partner of Morehouse. 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. In 1866, Arnold left Washington altogether and returned to his law practice in Chicago.

Literary career Arnold was rapidly working on a book about Lincoln. He published The History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery in 1867. This was considered a general history that suffered from not having sufficient research.

He did years of research on an earlier historical figure, writing a biography entitled The Life of Benedict Arnold: His Patriotism and His Treason (1880).

Dismayed by contemporary accounts of Lincoln by William H. Herndon and Ward 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." It was reprinted in 1994.

Death

Arnold died April 24, 1884, and was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

Works