Editing Samuel Mudd (section)

==Later life==

The influence of his defense attorney, Thomas Ewing Jr., who had connections in President Johnson's administration, was one reason why Mudd was [[pardon]]ed by Johnson on February 8, 1869. He was released from prison on March 8, 1869, and returned to his home in Maryland on March 20, 1869.<ref name=MuddLife>{{cite book |editor-last=Mudd |editor-first=Nettie |date=1906 |title=The Life of Dr.&nbsp;Samuel A. Mudd |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofdrsamuel2018mudd |publisher=Neale Publishing Company |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofdrsamuel2018mudd/page/319 319]–320 }}</ref> On March 2, 1869, three weeks after he pardoned Mudd, Johnson also pardoned Spangler and Arnold.<ref>{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Andrew |date=1967 |title=The Papers of Andrew Johnson: September 1868-April 1869 |publisher=[[University of Tennessee Press]] |pages=334–335 }}</ref>
When Mudd returned home, well-wishing friends and strangers, as well as inquiring newspaper reporters, besieged him. Mudd was very reluctant to talk to the press because he felt it had misquoted him in the past. He gave one interview to the ''[[New York Herald]]'' after his release but immediately regretted it, and complained that the article had several factual errors and misrepresented his work during the yellow fever epidemic. On the whole, though, Mudd continued to enjoy the support of his friends and neighbors. He resumed his medical practice and slowly brought the family farm back to productivity. In 1873, Spangler traveled to the Mudd farm, where Mudd and his wife welcomed him. Spangler lived with the Mudd family for about 18&nbsp;months, earning his keep by doing carpentry, gardening, and other farm chores,<ref name=MuddLife/>{{rp|322}} until Spangler's death on February 7, 1875.

Mudd always had an interest in politics. In prison, he learned about political happenings by reading the newspapers that were sent to him. After his release, he again became active in community affairs. In 1874, he was elected chief officer of the local farmers association, the Bryantown Grange. In 1876, he was elected vice president of the local Democratic [[Samuel J. Tilden|Tilden]]-[[Thomas A. Hendricks|Hendricks]] presidential election committee. Tilden lost that year to [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] in a hotly-disputed election. The next year, Mudd ran as a Democratic candidate for the [[Maryland House of Delegates]], but was defeated by the popular Republican William Mitchell.<ref>{{cite book |last=Summers |first=Robert K. |year=2009 |title=Dr.&nbsp;Samuel A. Mudd at Fort Jefferson |pages=122–123 }}</ref>

Mudd's ninth child, Mary Eleanor "Nettie" Mudd, was born in 1878. In 1880, the [[Port Tobacco]] ''Times'' reported that Mudd's barn which contained almost 8000&nbsp;lb. of tobacco, two horses, a wagon, and farm implements was destroyed by fire.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}