Charles Arnette Towne was an American politician. He represented Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1895 to 1897 and in the U.S. Senate from 1900 to 1901. He also represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1905 to 1907. He was the last Democrat senator from Minnesota, before the state's Democratic Party merged with the Farmer-Labor Party to form the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.

The 56th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1899, to March 4, 1901, during the third and fourth years of William McKinley's presidency. The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the 1890 United States census. Both chambers had a Republican majority. There was one African-American member, George Henry White of North Carolina, who served his second and final term as a representative in this Congress, and would be the last black member of Congress until 1928, and the last black member of Congress from the South until 1972.