Thomas Erskine Carson

Thomas Erskine Carson (1791-1857) was an American politician from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, who served intermittently in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania Senate as a Whig from 1834 to 1853. During his last year in the State Senate, Carson was elected the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate. There Carson became interested in politics, first being elected as auditor of Franklin County from 1824 to 1827, and then being elected as one of Mercersburg's magistrates.

Carson was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, serving there from 1834 to 1835, and again from 1843 to 1844. He was also elected to two terms to the Pennsylvania senate, first from 1845 to 1847 and again from 1851 to 1853. During his latter term, Carson was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate. Carson remained loyal to the Whig party, even through its decline in the 1850s, and was an ardent supporter of Henry Clay.