Arthur Sewall

Arthur Sewall (born November 25, 1835 in Bath , Maine , † September 5, 1900 in Small Point , Maine) was an American businessman and politician . He was the Democratic Party's candidate for vice presidency alongside William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 presidential election .

Origin and professional development

Arthur Sewall's ancestors had emigrated from England and settled in Massachusetts in the early 17th century . His great-great-uncle David Sewall was appointed first federal district judge for the District of Maine , which was still part of Massachusetts at the time, by US President George Washington in 1789 . His brother Dummer, Arthur Sewall's great-grandfather, served as Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army and sat in the Massachusetts Senate .

William Dunning Sewall, Arthur's father, made wealth as a shipbuilding entrepreneur; in the coastal town of Bath, a center of this industry, he was its best-known representative. After completing his training, Arthur Sewall joined the family business; a year later he and one of his two older brothers founded E. & A. Sewall , which soon took over the business of the original Sewall company. Her name was changed to Arthur Sewall & Co. after her brother's death in 1875 . This company also held a leading position in US shipbuilding for a long time. Arthur Sewall was also active in other areas of business; so he was from 1884 to 1893 director of the Maine Central Railroad and President of the Bath National Bank .

Political activities

Sewall never applied for an election before or after the presidential election in 1896. He took part in 1876 as a representative of Maine at the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis and sat from 1888 to 1896 as a delegate of his state on the Democratic National Committee . The fact that he was elected running mate of William Jennings Bryan at the Democratic nomination convention, which took place in Chicago in July 1896 , was considered a concession to the conservative wing of the party. With Bryan, who was 36 years old at the time, there was a very young and progressive presidential candidate who also received the support of the Populist Party . Especially the party members from New England , who were troubled by this circumstance, should be won back with the nomination. With Thomas E. Watson , a congressman from Georgia , the Populist Party had put up a runner-up candidate for Bryan.

Ultimately, the two Democratic candidates lost the election to Republicans William McKinley and Garret Hobart . These received 271 votes in Electoral College , Bryan had 176 votes, with only one state less than McKinley won. 27 members of the electoral college from ten of the 22 states won by the Democrats did not vote for Sewall, but for Thomas E. Watson as Vice President. While William Jennings Bryan ran twice ( 1900 and 1908 ) for the presidency, Arthur Sewall died four years later in Small Point, a small town in Sagadahoc County . His grandson Sumner Sewall also became a politician, but belonged to the Republican Party. He was governor of the state of Maine from 1941 to 1945 . His father Harold , Arthur Sewall's son, sat in the Senate and House of Representatives from Maine .

In 2008 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , St. Louis' largest daily newspaper, referred to Arthur Sewall in a commentary on the upcoming presidential election . There it was said that with Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin , John McCain had chosen "the least qualified running mate since the Swedenborgian shipbuilder Arthur Sewall in 1896". The term "Swedenborgian" refers to Sewall's membership of the New Church , a religious community whose followers are also called "Swedenborgians" based on their founder.

Individual evidence

↑ Obama gets newspapers' support. In: St. Louis Post-Dispatch. October 13, 2008, archived from the original on October 21, 2012 ; accessed on January 27, 2019 (English).

Web links

Biography ( Memento from May 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

personal data
SURNAME	Sewall, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American entrepreneur and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	November 25, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bath , Maine
DATE OF DEATH	5th September 1900
Place of death	Small Point , Maine

[1] Obama gets newspapers' support. In: St. Louis Post-Dispatch. October 13, 2008, archived from the original on October 21, 2012 ; accessed on January 27, 2019 (English).