John Edwards (Arkansas)

John Edwards ( born October 24, 1805 in Louisville, Kentucky, † April 8, 1894 in Washington DC ) was an American politician. Between 1871 and 1872 he represented the third electoral district of the state of Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

John Edwards initially received only an average education and later studied law. He then moved to Indiana, where he was a deputy in the 1845-1846 House of Representatives of the State. Between 1849 and 1852 he lived in California before he returned to Indiana and there was in 1853 in the state Senate. In 1855 he moved to Iowa, and was a delegate to a meeting to revise the constitution of this state. Between 1856 and 1860 he was also a deputy in the Iowa House of Representatives. Since 1858 he was president of this chamber. In 1857 he founded the newspaper "The Patriot".

During the Civil War, Edwards was a soldier in the army of the Union. There he rose to 1864 to brigadier general of volunteers unit. After the end of the war, Edwards settled in Fort Smith ( Arkansas). In August 1866 he was appointed by President Andrew Johnson as head of the tax authority ( assessor of internal revenue ) appointed in his field. This office he held until 1869. Politically, he joined a faction of the Republican Party, the Liberal Republican Party was called. In 1870 he was chosen as their candidate against the actual Republican candidate, the incumbent Thomas Boles in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington. There he took on 4 March 1871 its seat. But Boles lodged an objection against the election results. After this appeal was upheld, Edwards had to give up his seat again on 9 February 1872. Thomas Boles then ended the term of office until March 3, 1873.

John Edwards has subsequently sought no higher political office. He settled in the federal capital, Washington, where he died in 1894. Edwards was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.