Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson[4] (March 19, 1812 – August 24, 1873) was an American attorney, politician, and judge, active primarily in East Tennessee during the mid-19th century.

[1] In subsequent decades, this newspaper, commonly called Brownlow's Whig, grew to become one of the most influential and controversial papers in the Southern United States.

On October 29, 1840, he debated rising Democratic politician Andrew Johnson to a draw as the two campaigned for William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren, respectively.

[1] In 1846, Nelson successfully defended Brownlow from a libel charge in a well-publicized trial prosecuted by future Confederate judge West Humphreys.

The Baltimore Patriot reported that Nelson's speech "fell like a thunderbolt on the House," while the pro-Democrat Louisville Courier warned that the Fire-Eaters may have awakened "the wrong passenger.

[1] As the secession debate reached a fevered pitch in the wake of Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860, Nelson campaigned vigorously to keep Tennessee in the Union.

[8] In subsequent weeks, Nelson, Johnson, Brownlow and Horace Maynard canvassed East Tennessee, delivering hundreds of speeches and encouraging the region's residents to reject secession.

Other delegates, led by Oliver Perry Temple and John Netherland, rejected this as too extreme, and adopted a resolution petitioning the legislature for separation without threatening violent resistance.

[1] In April 1864, at a meeting of the revived East Tennessee Convention, Nelson led a faction which called for a return to the Union, but still rejected the abolition of slavery.

[8] In the late-1860s, Nelson continued to oppose the Radical Republican policies of his long-time friend Brownlow, who was now governor, and aligned himself with Johnson, now president.

[1] Back in Tennessee, Nelson signed a petition calling on the state's judges to ignore Brownlow's attempts to disenfranchise former Confederates.

[1] On September 27, 1871, Nelson's son, David, shot and killed Alabama attorney James Holt Clanton on Gay Street in Knoxville.