Background
COLYAR, Arthur St. Clair was born on June 23, 1818 in Washington County, Tennessee, United States, United States. Son of Alexander and (Sherill) Colyar.
Businessman congressman journalist lawyer
COLYAR, Arthur St. Clair was born on June 23, 1818 in Washington County, Tennessee, United States, United States. Son of Alexander and (Sherill) Colyar.
Public school.
He came from a poor family which eventually moved to Franklin, Tennessee. He was self-educated and studied law. He maintained a law office in Nashville but did not live in that city until 1866.
(His son, John B. Colyar, wrote A Boy's Opinion of General Lee.) A Whig, he became a Constitutional Unionist and opposed immediate secession. In 1863, he risked his life by defending Tennessee Unionists who had been unlawfully arrested. He was elected to the second House in May 1864.
He served on the Ways and Means Committee, generally supported the administration, and favored extending the tax-in-kind. He was a staunch opponent of any special privileges for Southern corporations. Along with John B. Baldwin (q■ v.) of Virginia, he tried to pressure Congress into negotiations with the North even before the Hampton Roads meeting.
After the war, Colyar became an important Democratic party leader but lost the race for governor in 1878. Colyar was an active lawyer who wrote for the Confederate Veteran. He also reorganized the Tennessee Coal and Railroad Company and became its president.
He was considered a conservative because of his 1867 appeal to allow the freedman the vote. From 1881 to 1884, he edited the Nashville American. He also wrote the Life and Times of Andrew Jackson.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.