TAPPAN. ARTHUR (1786-1865). An Ameri can merchant, philanthropist, and reformer, the brother of Benjamin and Lewis Tappan, horn at Northampton, Mass. He entered business in Portland, Maine, removed to Montreal, Canada, and after the War of 1812 established himself in the importing business in New York City. In 1827 he associated with himself his brother Lewis in the publication of the Journal of Commerce. He was largely interested in various religious, educational. and philanthropic institu tions. it is as an Abolitionist, however. that be will he longest remembered. He became inter ested in the American Colonization Society at its organization, hut having become convinced that the society was being used by the pro-slavery party to rid the country of free negroes, in order to establish slavery- more firmly, lie withdrew from it. In 1830 he paid a fine which cured the liberation of William Lloyd Garrison from imprisonment in Baltimore, and the ac quaintance which followed led to Tappan's iden tifying himself completely with the Abolition cause. In 1S33 he was one of the organizers of
the New York Anti-Slavery Society and of the American Anti-Slavery Society, of both of which organizations he became the first president. In 1840 he became president of the New American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which was or ganized by those anti-slavery men who disagreed with the Garrison party, and believed in carrying the slavery question into polities and forming a political party for that purpose. He was there fore. much interested in the Liberty, Free-Soil, and Republican parties. Ile spent the latter years of his life in retirement in New Haven. Consult Lewis Tappan, The Life of Arthur Tap pan (1371).