13 Nov. 1809–20 July 1872
Although Arrington became involved in politics, his primary interest was the management of his estates and related commercial activities. While he remained in North Carolina to develop the family fortune, his older brother, Samuel Lewis, moved to Alabama, where the Arringtons had substantial interests. The two brothers remained confidants, regularly corresponding about business affairs, politics, family, and friends, and Arrington often made extended visits to Alabama to look after his interests there. His activities so enlarged the fortune left by his father that his estate was valued at over $300,000 in the 1860 census; he was one of the agricultural entrepreneurs in antebellum North Carolina to enslave over 100 people. His personal life, characterized by an industrious nature, a passion for blooded horses, and a strong consciousness of family ties, was typical of his class.
Even Arrington's engagement in government reflected an elitist sense of responsibility. While his legislative career was undistinguished, essentially passive and negative, he was a talented campaigner. Standing as a staunch Democrat when that party was very much in the minority in the state, he was elected to the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses, 4 Mar. 1841–3 Mar. 1845. In 1840 he defeated the incumbent, General M. T. Hawkins of Warren County, in the Sixth Congressional District, and in a memorable campaign of 1842, he was successful against the seemingly invincible Edward Stanley. His bid to the Twenty-ninth Congress, after redistricting, was thwarted by J. R. J. Daniel in 1844. There was an attempt in 1858 to bring him into the gubernatorial election, but, following his own inclination and the advice of his nephew, Jonathan A. Williams, Jr., he demurred in favor of Duncan K. McRae. McRae, despite Arrington's counsel, was bested by John W. Ellis. As a proponent of southern nationalism, Arrington was a member of the state's secession convention. In 1861 he was elected to the First Confederate Congress for the Fifth District and served on the Committee for Indian Affairs; he was defeated for reelection in 1863 by anti-secessionist Josiah Turner. His last major political service was performed as a delegate to the Union National Convention of 1866. Locally prominent, he was long the presiding justice for the court of pleas and quarter sessions in his county, and he was appointed a county commissioner following the May 16, 1868 act to better govern the former rebel areas.
Arrington's family ties attached both him and his brother closely to their Mann half-relations and extended into the Battle, Cooper, Drake, Williams, and Wimberly families of North Carolina. Arrington's first wife, Mary Jones Arrington (1820–51), was the daughter of Peter Arrington (1768–1837), purportedly the richest man in Nash County, and the mother of Mary Arrington Thorpe (d. 1883) and John Peter (b. 1851). Arrington's second wife, Kate Wimberly (1834–71), who was the daughter of Robert D. Wimberly of Edgecombe County, bore him nine children, of whom six sons lived to maturity.
Arrington was interred in the family burial plot at his plantation in Hilliardston. Presumably, his family still owns the portrait or copies mentioned in a will he prepared in 1858.