Isaac Newton Arnold
| Isaac N. Arnold | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 1st district |
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In office March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1865 |
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| Preceded by | Elihu B. Washburne |
| Succeeded by | John Wentworth |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 2nd district |
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In office March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863 |
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| Preceded by | John F. Farnsworth |
| Succeeded by | John F. Farnsworth |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 30, 1815 Hartwick, New York |
| Died | April 24, 1884 (aged 68) Chicago, Illinois |
| Political party | Republican |
Isaac Newton Arnold (November 30, 1815, Hartwick, New York – April 24, 1884, Chicago) was an attorney, American politician, and biographer who made his career in Chicago. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives (1860-1864) and in 1864 introduced the first resolution in Congress proposing a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery in the United States. After returning to Chicago in 1866, he practiced law and wrote biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Benedict Arnold.
Born in Hartwick, New York, Arnold was the son of Sophia M. and Dr. George Washington Arnold, natives of Rhode Island who had migrated to New York after the Revolutionary War. He attended common schools, followed by the Hartwick Seminary in 1831-1832. There he joined the Philophronean Society, who debated the issues of the day, including the abolition of slavery.
From 1832-1835, Arnold taught school in Otsego County. He studied law with Richard Cooper, and later with Judge E. B. Morehouse of Cooperstown. Admitted to the bar in 1835 at the age of 20, Arnold became a partner of Morehouse.
Excited by other possibilities, in 1836 Arnold moved to Chicago, a small village developing as population migrated west after completion of the Erie Canal in New York, which connected Great Lakes shipping to the port of New York City. He became a law partner of Mahlon D. Ogden. When Chicago was incorporated the following year, in 1837 Ogden was elected mayor and Arnold city clerk. He left office to attend to his law practice, through which he got to know and befriend fellow Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln.
In 1842, Arnold was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Democrat and served three terms. He was a Democratic presidential elector in 1844.
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