Thomas Ara Spence

Thomas Ara Spence ( born February 20, 1810 Accomack County, Virginia; † November 10, 1877 in Washington DC ) was an American politician. Between 1843 and 1845 he represented the state of Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Thomas Spence attended the common schools and then studied until 1829 at Yale College. After a subsequent study of law and qualifying as a lawyer, he began in Snow Hill to work in this profession. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Whig Party launched a political career.

In the congressional elections of 1842 Spence has been selected in the sixth electoral district of Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he became the successor of John T. Mason on March 4, 1843. Since he resigned in 1844 to run again, he was able to complete only one term in Congress until March 3, 1845. This period was characterized by the tensions between President John Tyler and the Whigs. It was also at that time already been discussed about a possible annexation of the independent Republic of Texas since 1836 by Mexico.

After the dissolution of the Whigs in the 1850s, Spence joined the Republican Party, founded in 1854. He owned large plots of land with iron ore deposits in Worcester County. Between 1857 and 1867 he worked in the district as a judge. He then practiced as a lawyer in Salisbury. From 1872 to 1877 he was a prosecutor ( Assistant Attorney General ) in the Ministry of Postal Services. Thomas Spence died on November 10, 1877 in the German capital Washington.