Leverett A. Saltonstall (September 1, 1892 – June 17, 1979) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He served three two-year terms as the 55th Governor of Massachusetts, and for more than twenty years as a United States senator (1945–1967). Saltonstall was internationalist in foreign policy and moderate on domestic policy, serving as a well-liked mediating force in the Republican Party. He was the only member of the Republican Senate leadership to vote for the censure of Joseph McCarthy.
After graduation, Saltonstall entered the United States Army.[2] He served as a first lieutenant in the 301st Field Artillery Regiment in the 76th Division in World War I, spending six months in France. He was discharged in 1919,[11] and then entered the law firm of his uncle.[2]
In 1936, Saltonstall decided to seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts. In the party convention, conservative forces prevailed in securing the nomination for John W. Haigis. Saltonstall's friends were able to engineer his nomination for lieutenant governor. Both Haigis and Saltonstall were defeated by their Democratic rivals, although Saltonstall's margin of defeat, just over 7,000 votes, was small enough to merit a recount; he demurred. He ran again for governor two years later, and won a decisive victory over former Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, who had been involved in a bruising Democratic primary fight against the incumbent Charles F. Hurley.
He was reelected in 1940 and 1942; the 1940 election win was by an extremely narrow margin. During his tenure, Saltonstall mediated a Teamstersstrike, reduced taxes, and retired 90 percent of the state's debt. He served as president of the National Governors Association from 1943 to 1944. In 1944, he also served as the fifth president of the Council of State Governments.
In 1944, Saltonstall was elected to the United States Senate in a special election to fill the unexpired term created by the resignation of U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. He was re-elected three times, serving from 1945 to 1967. Early in his first term, in April 1945 he was one of a dozen Senators and Congressmen who toured the Buchenwald Concentration Camp at the invitation of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to attest to the reality of Nazi atrocities. Those he defeated included John H. Corcoran in 1944, John I. Fitzgerald in 1948, Foster Furcolo in 1954, and Thomas J. O'Connor in 1960. During his tenure in the Senate, he served as the Senate Republican Whip and on five influential Senate committees. He also served as the chair of the Senate Republican Conference, 1957–1966. He was viewed as a political moderate, and served as a mediating force between the party's conservative and progressive wings. He was an unspectacular but effective legislator, good at drafting legislation and finding compromise language. When he left office, after more than thirty years in politics, he had few political enemies.[12] Saltonstall voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,[13]1960,[14] and 1964,[15] as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[16][17] Saltonstall was one of thirteen Republican senators to vote in favor of the creation of Medicare. As a senator, Saltonstall was described by The Washington Post as neither liberal or conservative, but as being on the side of common sense.[18][19]
Death and legacy
Saltonstall opted not to run for reelection in 1966, in part to provide an opportunity for his seat to Edward Brooke, a rising star in Massachusetts Republican circles. He retired to his farm in Dover, where he spent his remaining years as a gentleman farmer.[12]
^"S.J. RES. 29. APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION BANNING THE POLL TAX AS PREREQUISITE FOR VOTING IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS". GovTrack.us.
^"TO PASS S. 1564, THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965".
^TO PASS H.R. 6675, THE SOCIAL SECURITY AMENDMENTS OF 1965
^Leverett Saltonstall, Ex-Senator From Massachusetts, Dies; Richard Pearson, The Washington Post, June 18, 1979
Sources
Bingmann, Melissa (2015). Prep School Cowboys: Ranch Schools in the American West. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN9780826355447. OCLC 897467026.
Falla, Jack (2010). Open Ice: Reflections and Confessions of a Hockey Lifer. Mississauga, Ontario: John Wiley. ISBN9780470738719. OCLC 373450213.
Mead, Mead, ed. (1921). Harvard's Military Record in the World War. Harvard University Press. p. 836. OCLC 1191594.
Reichard, Gary (1999). "Saltonstall, Leverett". Dictionary of American National Biography. Vol. 19. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 223–224. ISBN9780195206357. OCLC 39182280.
Rosenberg, Chaim (2015). Yankee Colonies across America: Cities upon the Hills. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. ISBN9781498519847. OCLC 934035950.
Saltonstall, Nora (2004). "Out Here at the Front": The World War I Letters of Nora Saltonstall. Boston: University Press of New England. ISBN9781555535988. OCLC 249962709.
leverett, saltonstall, senator, saltonstall, redirects, here, other, uses, senator, saltonstall, disambiguation, great, grandfather, grandfather, this, article, includes, list, general, references, lacks, sufficient, corresponding, inline, citations, please, h. Senator Saltonstall redirects here For other uses see Senator Saltonstall disambiguation For his great grandfather see Leverett Saltonstall I For his grandfather see Leverett Saltonstall II This article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations March 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message Leverett A Saltonstall September 1 1892 June 17 1979 was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts He served three two year terms as the 55th Governor of Massachusetts and for more than twenty years as a United States senator 1945 1967 Saltonstall was internationalist in foreign policy and moderate on domestic policy serving as a well liked mediating force in the Republican Party He was the only member of the Republican Senate leadership to vote for the censure of Joseph McCarthy Leverett SaltonstallSaltonstall in 1934Chair of the Senate Republican ConferenceIn office January 3 1957 January 3 1967LeaderKenneth S WherryStyles BridgesRobert A TaftWilliam F KnowlandDeputyMilton YoungPreceded byEugene MillikinSucceeded byMargaret Chase SmithSenate Minority WhipIn office January 3 1955 January 3 1957LeaderWilliam F KnowlandPreceded byEarle ClementsSucceeded byEverett DirksenIn office January 3 1949 January 3 1953LeaderKenneth S WherryStyles BridgesPreceded byScott W LucasSucceeded byEarle C ClementsSenate Majority WhipIn office January 3 1953 January 3 1955LeaderRobert A TaftWilliam F KnowlandPreceded byLyndon B JohnsonSucceeded byEarle C ClementsUnited States Senatorfrom MassachusettsIn office January 4 1945 January 3 1967Preceded bySinclair WeeksSucceeded byEdward BrookeChair of the National Governors AssociationIn office June 20 1943 May 28 1944Preceded byHerbert O ConorSucceeded byHerbert B Maw55th Governor of MassachusettsIn office January 5 1939 January 4 1945 1 LieutenantHorace T CahillPreceded byCharles F HurleySucceeded byMaurice J TobinSpeaker of the Massachusetts House of RepresentativesIn office January 1929 January 1937Preceded byJohn HullSucceeded byHorace T CahillPersonal detailsBorn 1892 09 01 September 1 1892Chestnut Hill Massachusetts U S DiedJune 17 1979 1979 06 17 aged 86 Dover Massachusetts U S Political partyRepublicanSpouseAlice Wesselhoeft m 1916 wbr EducationHarvard University BA LLB NicknameSaltyMilitary serviceAllegiance United StatesBranch service United States ArmyYears of service1917 1919RankFirst LieutenantUnit301st Field ArtilleryBattles warsWorld War I Contents 1 Early years 2 Military service and entry into politics 3 Governor of Massachusetts 4 U S Senator 5 Death and legacy 6 See also 7 References 8 Sources 9 External linksEarly years Edit Miss Eleanor Brooks Mrs Richard Middlecott Saltonstall John Singer Sargent 1890 Leverett Saltonstall was born in Chestnut Hill Massachusetts to Richard Middlecott Saltonstall and Eleanor Brooks Saltonstall The Saltonstall family a wealthy Boston Brahmin family had deep colonial roots as did that of his mother 2 Saltonstall was able to trace his ancestral roots to the Mayflower 3 his grandfather and great grandfather both also named Leverett Saltonstall His father was a lawyer his mother was the daughter of Peter C Brooks III 4 a beneficiary of the large fortune of his same named grandfather 5 He was educated at the private Noble and Greenough School 6 and then attended the Evans School for Boys in Mesa Arizona an upper crust ranch school along with Nicholas Roosevelt nephew to family friend Theodore Roosevelt 7 He then entered Harvard graduating in 1914 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1917 2 He was active in varsity sports at Harvard notably serving as captain of the Junior Varsity crew team that won the prestigious Grand Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1914 the first American crew ever to do so 8 He also played football and hockey 9 scoring a dramatic overtime goal in a 1914 win over the legendary Hobey Baker s Princeton team 10 Saltonstall married Alice Wesselhoeft 1893 1981 of Jaffrey New Hampshire in 1916 while still in law school Together they had six children 2 including Emily 1920 2006 at one time the daughter in law of Richard Byrd and a former WAVE Peter Brooks Saltonstall killed in action on Guam in 1944 William L Saltonstall 1927 2009 a member of the Massachusetts Senate and Susan 1930 1994 a horse breeder citation needed Military service and entry into politics EditAfter graduation Saltonstall entered the United States Army 2 He served as a first lieutenant in the 301st Field Artillery Regiment in the 76th Division in World War I spending six months in France He was discharged in 1919 11 and then entered the law firm of his uncle 2 Saltonstall a socially progressive Republican entered politics as an alderman in Newton Massachusetts serving from 1920 to 1922 while simultaneously serving as second assistant district attorney of Middlesex County under his uncle Endicott Peabody Saltonstall from 1921 to 1922 He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives that same year there he rose to the position of Speaker of the House which he held from 1929 to 1937 2 In 1930 Saltonstall became a compatriot of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Governor of Massachusetts Edit Saltonstall as governor See also 1939 Massachusetts legislature 1941 1942 Massachusetts legislature and 1943 1944 Massachusetts legislature In 1936 Saltonstall decided to seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts In the party convention conservative forces prevailed in securing the nomination for John W Haigis Saltonstall s friends were able to engineer his nomination for lieutenant governor Both Haigis and Saltonstall were defeated by their Democratic rivals although Saltonstall s margin of defeat just over 7 000 votes was small enough to merit a recount he demurred He ran again for governor two years later and won a decisive victory over former Boston Mayor James Michael Curley who had been involved in a bruising Democratic primary fight against the incumbent Charles F Hurley He was reelected in 1940 and 1942 the 1940 election win was by an extremely narrow margin During his tenure Saltonstall mediated a Teamsters strike reduced taxes and retired 90 percent of the state s debt He served as president of the National Governors Association from 1943 to 1944 In 1944 he also served as the fifth president of the Council of State Governments U S Senator Edit Saltonstall with Boston Mayor John F Collins 1960 1968 In 1966 Collins ran to succeed Saltonstall when he retired but lost in the Democratic primary to former Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody who in turn lost to Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke In 1944 Saltonstall was elected to the United States Senate in a special election to fill the unexpired term created by the resignation of U S Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr He was re elected three times serving from 1945 to 1967 Early in his first term in April 1945 he was one of a dozen Senators and Congressmen who toured the Buchenwald Concentration Camp at the invitation of Gen Dwight Eisenhower to attest to the reality of Nazi atrocities Those he defeated included John H Corcoran in 1944 John I Fitzgerald in 1948 Foster Furcolo in 1954 and Thomas J O Connor in 1960 During his tenure in the Senate he served as the Senate Republican Whip and on five influential Senate committees He also served as the chair of the Senate Republican Conference 1957 1966 He was viewed as a political moderate and served as a mediating force between the party s conservative and progressive wings He was an unspectacular but effective legislator good at drafting legislation and finding compromise language When he left office after more than thirty years in politics he had few political enemies 12 Saltonstall voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 13 1960 14 and 1964 15 as well as the 24th Amendment to the U S Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 16 17 Saltonstall was one of thirteen Republican senators to vote in favor of the creation of Medicare As a senator Saltonstall was described by The Washington Post as neither liberal or conservative but as being on the side of common sense 18 19 Death and legacy EditSaltonstall opted not to run for reelection in 1966 in part to provide an opportunity for his seat to Edward Brooke a rising star in Massachusetts Republican circles He retired to his farm in Dover where he spent his remaining years as a gentleman farmer 12 Leverett Saltonstall died of congestive heart failure in 1979 aged 86 and is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem Massachusetts The Saltonstall Building in downtown Boston is named for him See also EditMassachusetts legislature 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 Massachusetts House of Representatives 5th Middlesex district List of members of the American LegionReferences Edit Tobin Becomes State s 53d Governor Today The Boston Globe January 4 1945 p 1 Retrieved March 16 2018 via pqarchiver com a b c d e f Reichard p 223 Rosenberg p 266 Saltonstall Brooks Lewis family papers 1863 1982 gt Biographical Sketches Massachusetts Historical Society Retrieved 2017 02 08 Saltonstall p 251 Leverett Saltonstall Papers 1906 1981 Massachusetts Historical Society Retrieved 2017 03 03 Bingmann p 27 Leverett Saltonstall and his Harvard Crew Life Magazine June 13 1949 p 39 Massachusetts Blueblood Life Magazine October 17 1938 p 13 Falla p 212 Mead p 836 a b Reichard p 224 HR 6127 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957 GovTrack us HR 8601 PASSAGE OF AMENDED BILL HR 7152 PASSAGE S J RES 29 APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION BANNING THE POLL TAX AS PREREQUISITE FOR VOTING IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS GovTrack us TO PASS S 1564 THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 TO PASS H R 6675 THE SOCIAL SECURITY AMENDMENTS OF 1965 Leverett Saltonstall Ex Senator From Massachusetts Dies Richard Pearson The Washington Post June 18 1979Sources EditBingmann Melissa 2015 Prep School Cowboys Ranch Schools in the American West Albuquerque NM University of New Mexico Press ISBN 9780826355447 OCLC 897467026 Falla Jack 2010 Open Ice Reflections and Confessions of a Hockey Lifer Mississauga Ontario John Wiley ISBN 9780470738719 OCLC 373450213 Mead Mead ed 1921 Harvard s Military Record in the World War Harvard University Press p 836 OCLC 1191594 Reichard Gary 1999 Saltonstall Leverett Dictionary of American National Biography Vol 19 New York Oxford University Press pp 223 224 ISBN 9780195206357 OCLC 39182280 Rosenberg Chaim 2015 Yankee Colonies across America Cities upon the Hills Lanham MD Lexington Books ISBN 9781498519847 OCLC 934035950 Saltonstall Nora 2004 Out Here at the Front The World War I Letters of Nora Saltonstall Boston University Press of New England ISBN 9781555535988 OCLC 249962709 External links EditUnited States Congress Leverett Saltonstall id S000021 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved January 25 2008 Leverett Saltonstall Find a Grave Retrieved January 25 2008 Political officesPreceded byJohn Hull Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives1929 1937 Succeeded byHorace T CahillPreceded byCharles F Hurley Governor of Massachusetts1939 1945 Succeeded byMaurice J TobinPreceded byHerbert O Conor Chair of the National Governors Association1943 1944 Succeeded byHerbert B MawParty political officesPreceded byJohn W Haigis Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts1938 1940 1942 Succeeded byHorace T CahillPreceded byHenry Cabot Lodge Jr Republican nominee for U S Senator from Massachusetts Class 2 1944 1948 1954 1960 Succeeded byEdward BrookePreceded byKenneth S Wherry Senate Republican Whip1949 1957 Succeeded byEverett DirksenPreceded byEugene Millikin Chair of the Senate Republican Conference1957 1967 Succeeded byMargaret Chase SmithU S SenatePreceded bySinclair Weeks United States Senator Class 2 from Massachusetts1945 1967 Served alongside David I Walsh Henry Cabot Lodge Jr John F Kennedy Benjamin A Smith II Ted Kennedy Succeeded byEdward BrookePreceded byScott W Lucas Senate Minority Whip1949 1953 Succeeded byEarle C ClementsPreceded byLyndon B Johnson Senate Majority Whip1953 1955Preceded byEarle C Clements Senate Minority Whip1955 1957 Succeeded byEverett DirksenPreceded byRichard Russell Jr Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee1953 1955 Succeeded byRichard Russell Jr Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Leverett Saltonstall amp oldid 1152494329, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
