Samuel G. Arnold

American politician

Samuel Greene Arnold Jr. (April 12, 1821February 14, 1880) was an attorney and politician from Rhode Island. A Republican, he was most notable for his service as lieutenant governor and as a United States senator.

Born in Providence, Arnold received his early education under private tutors, then graduated from Brown University in 1841 and Harvard Law School in 1845. He was admitted to the bar in 1845, and practiced in Providence. He was also a historian, and he served as a trustee of Brown University from 1848 to 1880.

Arnold was elected Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island in 1852 and served as acting governor. In 1859, he was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he wrote the two volume History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1859. He was a member of the peace commission held at Washington, D. C., in 1861 in an effort to prevent the impending civil war. In March 1861, Arnold was again elected lieutenant governor after being nominated by the Constitutional Union and Democratic Conventions. He was again elected lieutenant governor in 1862. Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, Arnold was appointed as a military aide to Governor William Sprague with rank of colonel, and he raised the 1st Rhode Island Battery of light artillery, which went to Washington, D. C., and was mustered into the Union Army for three months. He was elected as a Republican to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James F. Simmons, and he served from December 1, 1862, to March 3, 1863. Arnold's grandnephew Theodore Francis Green was also a U. S. Senator from Rhode Island.