Thomas Samuel Ashe

Thomas Samuel Ashe (July 21, 1812 – February 4, 1887) was an American lawyer and politician who served in the Confederate Congress, and U.S.

[1] In 1842, Ashe was elected to a single term in the North Carolina House of Commons.

He accepted the nomination only after Zebulon B. Vance and Augustus Merrimon declined to run.

In this election, waged under the supervision of the U.S. military and allowing African Americans to vote in large numbers for the first time, Ashe was defeated by the Republican nominee, William Woods Holden.

Although he chose not to run again in 1876, he was elected an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1878 and re-elected in 1886.