Newell Sanders

Newell Sanders

Newell Sanders (* 12. July 1850 in Owen County , Indiana ; †  26. January 1939 in Lookout Mountain , Tennessee ) was an American politician of the Republican Party . He was a member of the US Senate from 1912 to 1913 as a representative of the state of Tennessee.

After completing his schooling, Newell Sanders attended Indiana University in Bloomington and graduated there in 1873. He then opened a book shop, which he ran until 1877. That year he moved to Chattanooga , where he worked in the production of farm supplies. From 1881 to 1882 he was a member of the city's school board, and between 1882 and 1886 he was a local councilor. He also served on the governing body of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway , Tennessee's oldest railroad company.

When US Senator Robert Love Taylor , a Democrat , died on March 31, 1912, Newell Sanders was appointed by Tennessee's Republican Governor Ben W. Hooper as his acting successor. He took his oath of office as Senator on April 11, 1912 and remained in Congress until January 24, 1913 . On that day, he was replaced by Democrat William R. Webb, who won the by-election . Sanders did not run for re-election; since the senators were still elected by the state parliaments at this point in time and the Democrats had the majority in Tennessee, this would have been almost hopeless. During his brief tenure in the Senate, he was Chairman of the Committee on National Banks .

As a result, Newell Sanders went back to his activity as a businessman. However, in 1922 - in the meantime the 17th amendment to the constitution , according to which the senators were elected by the people - he strove for a return to the Senate. Against the Democratic incumbent Kenneth McKellar , he got 32 percent of the vote. Sanders was the last Republican Senator from a former Confederate state until 1961, when John Tower in Texas won the election. In Tennessee a Republican was not re-elected until 1967 with Howard Baker .

Web links

• Newell Sanders in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Newell Sanders in the database of Find a Grave (English)