Professional and Political Career
Naudain established a practice at Cantwell's Bridge, now Odessa, before age 21 and gave medical service in the War of 1812 as surgeon of the Delaware Regiment. While carrying out his medical practice, Naudain was elected to the State House and served there in the 1817 and 1818 sessions and again in the 1826 session, when served with his brother, Elias Naudain from Kent County. Arnold was elected Speaker. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1822, 1824 and 1828, losing each time to Louis McLean. In 1828 he was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He lost again running for Governor of Delaware in 1832 against Democrat Caleb P. Bennett.
Filling the vacancy left by the resignation of Louis McLane, he was elected by the Delaware General Assembly on January 7, 1830 to the United States Senate and served from his election until he resigned on June 16, 1836. During the 24th Congress he was the Chairman of the Committee on Claims. Naudain was an anti-Jacksonian when first elected, and became associated with the Whigs as that party formed.
Naudain served as a member of the board of trustees at Newark College, later the University of Delaware, from 1833 to 1835. An active Presbyterian layman, Naudain proposed that the University decline the proceeds of a state lottery due to the opposition of his church. As a result the state threatened to ask the college to return proceeds purchased from the college's endowment, since they had been financed by an earlier lottery. However the board of trustees voted 13-0 against rejecting the lottery proceeds. Naudain was one of seven trustees who refused to vote and subsequently resigned his position on the board.
Feeling his private business suffering, Naudain resigned from the U.S. Senate and resumed the practice of medicine in Wilmington. From 1841 until 1845 he was appointed to the position of Collector of the port and superintendent of Light Houses on the Delaware River. That year he moved to Philadelphia and continued his medical practice there, returning to Delaware in 1857. He was a Freemason, serving at one time as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Delaware.
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