Representative Rice Alexander Pierce

Rice Alexander Pierce (July 3, 1848 – July 12, 1936) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a Democratic Representative from Tennessee in the United States Congress from 1883 to 1905. Over the course of seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, he represented Tennessee’s 9th congressional district and participated actively in the legislative process during a significant period in American history, advocating for the interests of his constituents.

Pierce was born on July 3, 1848, in Dresden, Weakley County, Tennessee. He attended the common schools of Tennessee in his youth. During the American Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Army as a member of the Eighth Tennessee Cavalry, entering military service while still a young man. After the war, seeking further education, he attended school in London, Ontario, Canada. He then pursued legal studies in Halifax, North Carolina, and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1868, marking the formal beginning of his legal career.

In 1869, Pierce commenced the practice of law in Union City, Obion County, Tennessee, which would remain his home and professional base for most of his life. He quickly became active in local affairs and was elected mayor of Union City in 1872. Building on his growing reputation as a lawyer and public official, he was elected district attorney general of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit of Tennessee in 1874. He was re-elected to that office in 1878 and served continuously as district attorney general until 1883, gaining extensive experience in public prosecution and judicial administration.

Pierce entered national politics as a member of the Democratic Party and was first elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth Congress, serving from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1885. Although he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1884, he returned to Congress after being elected to the Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses, serving from March 4, 1889, to March 3, 1893. Again unsuccessful in his bid for election to the Fifty-third Congress in 1892, he later regained his seat and was elected to the Fifty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses. In this final stretch of his congressional career, he served from March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1905. Across these nonconsecutive terms, Pierce contributed to the legislative work of the House during an era marked by post-Reconstruction realignments, economic change, and the rise of new national issues, consistently representing the Democratic Party and the interests of Tennessee’s 9th district.

After his congressional service ended when he was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election to the Fifty-ninth Congress in 1904, Pierce resumed the practice of law in Union City, Tennessee. He remained an influential figure in state Democratic politics and later served as chairman of the Tennessee Democratic state campaign committee in 1929, underscoring his continued engagement in public affairs well into the twentieth century.

Rice Alexander Pierce died in Union City, Tennessee, on July 12, 1936, at the age of 88 years and 9 days. He was interred in the City Cemetery in Union City. His long career as a lawyer, local official, district attorney general, and seven-term member of the United States House of Representatives reflected decades of involvement in Tennessee and national politics during a transformative period in American history.