Tom Stewart

Tom Stewart
Photo credited to the United States Senate Historical Office
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office November 9, 1938 – January 3, 1949
Preceded by	George L. Berry
Succeeded by	Estes Kefauver
Personal details
Born	(1892-01-11)January 11, 1892 Dunlap, Tennessee
Died	October 10, 1972(1972-10-10) (aged 80) Nashville, Tennessee
Political party	Democratic

Arthur Thomas Stewart (January 11, 1892 – October 10, 1972), more commonly known as Tom Stewart, was a Democratic United States Senator from Tennessee from 1939 to 1949.

Stewart was born in Dunlap, Tennessee. Stewart also had a sister called Lydia. He attended the former Pryor Institute, a private school, in Jasper, Tennessee and Emory College (now Emory University). He returned to Tennessee and attended Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University in Lebanon. Upon admission to the bar in 1913, he set up practice in Birmingham, Alabama. He moved back to Jasper, Tennessee in 1915 and practised there until 1919, then moved to Winchester, Tennessee.

In private practice in Winchester, he was elected district attorney for the former 18th Circuit for a term beginning in 1923. He served in this position until 1939. As a consequence, in 1925 Stewart was the chief prosecutor in the Scopes Trial. Stewart designed the prosecution's argument to preserve political control over the schools exclusively within the state legislature, thereby keeping the trial to the narrow, legal matters and forestalling attempts by the defense to introduce scientific testimony or to show there was not a conflict between evolution and the story of divine creation set forth in Genesis. Except for the willingness of William Jennings Bryan (hired by a Christian fundamentalist group to assist with the prosecution) to be cross-examined by Clarence Darrow, Stewart's positions controlled the trial and the Scopes defense had no recourse but to ask the jury to convict the defendant so the case could be appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court (which overturned the conviction on a legal technicality but upheld the constitutionality of the Butler Act).