14 Facts About Arthur Sewall

Arthur Sewall was an American shipbuilder from Maine, best known as the Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1896, running mate to William Jennings Bryan.

The only elective offices Sewall held were as councilman and alderman in the town of Bath, Maine.

On November 25,1835, Arthur Sewall was born to William and Rachel Sewall in Bath, Maine.

In 1892 Arthur Sewall launched the Roanoke, which at the time was the world's largest wooden ship.

Arthur Sewall served as President of the Maine Central railroad from 1884 to 1893 and served as President of the Bath National Bank.

Arthur Sewall attended every Democratic National Convention between 1872 and 1900 with the exception of 1876, though he was a strong admirer of the Democratic Party's nominee for president that year, Samuel Tilden, and believed from then on that the election was stolen from Tilden in 1876.

Arthur Sewall was defeated in a race for the US Senate in 1893.

Arthur Sewall's selection is believed to have been an effort to win votes among conservative and New England members of the party who were disturbed by the populist aspects of William Jennings Bryan.

Arthur Sewall was in favor of high tariffs and almost imperialistic in foreign policy, so he and Bryan agreed largely only on the monetary question.

Arthur Sewall was one of the few politicians who was an adherent of Swedenborgiansm, a religion based on the writings of Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg.

Arthur Sewall's main vice-presidential opponent, Garret A Hobart, was an Eastern banker and industrialist who had served on his party's national committee.

Arthur Sewall was Bryan's running mate for the first of Bryan's three times as the Democratic presidential nominee.

On September 5,1900, Arthur Sewall died in Small Point, Maine, from apoplexy.

Arthur Sewall is interred in Oak Grove Cemetery in Bath, Maine.