Alvin Hawkins

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Alvin Hawkins (December 2, 1821–April 27, 1905) was governor of Tennessee from 1881 to 1883. He was a native of Kentucky who had been brought to Tennessee at age four. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1843 and opened a law practice. In his early political career, Hawkins was a Whig.

Elected to Congress in 1862 as a Union supporter, Hawkins was denied his seat due to the secession of Tennessee from the Union (an act by his fellow Representatives that would seem to suggest that secession was legally possible and binding). He was later appointed United States Attorney for West Tennessee during the latter stages of the Civil War.

He was elected governor as a Republican in 1880. Partly due to difficulties caused by the state's relatively large indebtedness, he was renominated by the Republican Party in 1882 but defeated in November by Democrat challenger William B. Bate. After Hawkins' term ended in 1883, only two more Republicans were to serve as governor of Tennessee, for a total of only six years, until the election of Winfield Dunn in 1970.