Samuel Ramsey Rodgers (1798 – July 14, 1866) was an American attorney, judge and politician, who served as Speaker of the Tennessee Senate during the months following the Civil War. He oversaw the passage of several important pieces of legislation in the senate, including the state's ratification of the

Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House of Representativ ...

. Rodgers remained loyal to the Union during the war, and chaired the convention that reorganized the state government in January 1865. Prior to the war, Rodgers served as U.S. Attorney for Tennessee's Eastern District (1850–1853), and taught at East Tennessee College (the forerunner of the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

Early life and career

Rodgers was born in

Greeneville, Tennessee Greeneville is a town in and the county seat of Greene County, Tennessee, United States. The population as of the 2020 census was 15,479. The town was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene, and it is the second oldest town i ...

. According to the historian

J. G. M. Ramsey James Gettys McGready Ramsey (March 25, 1797 – April 11, 1884) was an American historian, physician, planter, slave owner, and businessman, active primarily in East Tennessee during the nineteenth century. Ramsey is perhaps best known for h ...

, he was the son of James Rodgers, a farmer from Washington County who settled near the Ramsey House in Knox County in the early 1810s. Rodgers trained as a blacksmith before pursuing studies at East Tennessee College in

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state ...

.Death of Chancellor Rodgers
" ''Knoxville Whig'', 18 July 1866, p. 2. After excelling as a student, he worked as an instructor at the college from 1826 to 1827. He studied law under Senator

Hugh Lawson White Hugh Lawson White (October 30, 1773April 10, 1840) was a prominent American politician during the first third of the 19th century. After filling in several posts particularly in Tennessee's judiciary and state legislature since 1801, thereunde ...

, and was admitted to the bar in 1831.Death of Chancellor Rodgers
" ''Knoxville Whig'', 18 July 1866, p. 2. During the

Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", cross ...

(1832), Rodgers served as a commissary colonel, and thus the title "Colonel" would subsequently be associated with his name. In 1834, Rodgers organized a petition calling for the gradual abolition of slavery, which he submitted to the state constitutional convention then in session. In 1849, President

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

appointed Rodgers United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. He served in this position until 1853. In 1855, Rodgers ran as the American Party ("

Know Nothing The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

") candidate for the

Tennessee Senate The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly. The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any issue reg ...

seat representing

Knox Knox may refer to: Places United States * Fort Knox, a United States Army post in Kentucky ** United States Bullion Depository, a high security storage facility commonly called Fort Knox * Fort Knox (Maine), a fort located on the Penobscot River i ...

and Roane counties, and defeated Democrat and popular Knoxville businessman Joseph A. Mabry in the general election. He served on the senate's judiciary, internal improvements, and public grounds committees. During his term, he obtained funding for the Tennessee School for the Deaf and Dumb in Knoxville, and generally supported state funding for railroad construction. He left the senate at the end of his term in 1857. During the 1860 presidential election, Rodgers supported the Constitutional Union Party candidate John Bell, who sought to preserve the union by opposing both secession and abolition. In September 1860, Rodgers was one of five Bell supporters who confronted radical Alabama secessionist

William Yancey William Lowndes Yancey (August 10, 1814July 27, 1863) was an American journalist, politician, orator, diplomat and an American leader of the Southern secession movement. A member of the group known as the Fire-Eaters, Yancey was one of the mo ...

during one of Yancey's campaign events in Knoxville. Rodgers was one of the more vocal Unionists at a citywide assembly held in Knoxville in late 1860 to discuss the secession issue. In May 1861, Rodgers was among the Unionists who signed a call for the region's Union supporters to meet in Knoxville at what would become known as the

East Tennessee Convention The East Tennessee Convention was an assembly of Southern Unionist delegates primarily from East Tennessee that met on three occasions during the Civil War. The Convention most notably declared the secessionist actions taken by the Tennessee sta ...

. He attended this convention as a member of the Knox County delegation.
Proceedings of the East Tennessee Convention
' (H. Barry Book Company, 1861). Accessed at the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection, 24 December 2014.

Speaker of the state senate

Rodgers presided over the January 1865 convention that reorganized Tennessee's state government. This convention nominated radical Knoxville newspaperman William "Parson" Brownlow for governor, suggested a slate of candidates (including Rodgers) for the state legislature, and proposed an amendment to the state constitution outlawing slavery. In the March 1865 elections scheduled by the convention, Rodgers was elected to the Tennessee Senate seat for the new fifth district, which consisted of Knox and Roane counties (his previous constituency). When the state senate convened on April 5, Rodgers was elevated to

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

. In his acceptance speech, he stated the new senate's immediate purpose was to "restore this once proud, prosperous and happy state to its original place among the loyal States of the Union." He further proposed that the legislature take steps to ensure that the loyal people of Tennessee would never again be "governed by rebels." One of the senate's first actions was to ratify the

, which outlawed slavery. In May 1865, the state senate turned to a contentious piece of legislation known as the "Franchise Bill," which would bar former Confederates from voting. While the more radical members of the legislature, including Rodgers, vigorously supported the bill, some of the more moderate legislators (including Rodgers' House counterpart William Heiskell) opposed it. Speaking forcefully in favor of the bill, Rodgers stated that Rebels "had no right to live, much less to vote," and that it was "a piece of impudence for them to come here and ask the immunities of loyal citizens of America." In a subsequent speech, he stated that a truly repentant Rebel would ask only of Union leaders, "let me live in the country, I ask no part in the Government, I come back a hired servant." The bill eventually passed. In early June 1865, Governor Brownlow appointed Rodgers

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

(judge) of the state's eighth chancery district, which included Sevier, Blount, Monroe, McMinn, Roane, Knox, and Anderson counties. He resigned from the state senate on June 10, 1865, to take this position. He had also reportedly started suffering from the symptoms of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

, which may have contributed to his decision to leave the senate.

Later life

In May 1866, Rodgers chaired a convention of East Tennessee Radicals who sought to form a separate state in East Tennessee, much like the East Tennessee Convention Rodgers had attended in 1861. The Radicals were frustrated with the failure of the state legislature to pass a second, more restrictive Franchise Bill (several legislators who were opposed to the bill had fled the capital several weeks earlier to prevent a

quorum A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

, leaving the bill in limbo). Shortly after the convention adjourned, however, the legislature passed the bill, and support for East Tennessee statehood collapsed. Rodgers died from tuberculosis on July 16, 1866. He is buried in Knoxville's

Old Gray Cemetery Old Gray Cemetery is the second-oldest cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1850, the cemetery contains the graves of some of Knoxville's most influential citizens, ranging from politicians and soldiers, to artists an ...

. He was succeeded as chancellor by fellow attorney and Southern Unionist,

Oliver Perry Temple Oliver Perry Temple (January 27, 1820 – November 2, 1907) was an American attorney, author, judge, and economic promoter active primarily in East Tennessee in the latter half of the 19th century.Mary Rothrock, ''The French Broad-Holston Country: ...

.Appointment of Chancellor
" ''Knoxville Whig'', 25 July 1866, p. 2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodgers, Samuel Ramsey 1798 births 1866 deaths People from Greeneville, Tennessee Politicians from Knoxville, Tennessee People of Tennessee in the American Civil War Tennessee Whigs 19th-century American legislators Tennessee Republicans Tennessee state senators United States Attorneys for the Eastern District of Tennessee Tennessee state court judges University of Tennessee faculty Southern Unionists in the American Civil War 19th-century American judges 19th-century Tennessee politicians

Early life and career

Speaker of the state senate

Later life

See also

References