Josiah O. Wolcott

Josiah O. Wolcott

Josiah Oliver Wolcott (born October 31, 1876 in Dover , Delaware ; †  November 11, 1938 ibid) was an American lawyer and politician ( Democratic Party ) who represented the state of Delaware in the US Senate .

Life

After visiting the Wilmington Conference Academy in his hometown of Dover Josiah Wolcott continued his education at Wesleyan University in Middletown ( Connecticut ) away and set there in 1901 his degree. He was inducted into the Delaware Bar in 1904 and began practicing as a lawyer in Wilmington .

Wolcott took his first public office in 1909 as Deputy Attorney General of Delaware. After his election as Attorney General in 1912, he took this position on January 21, 1913 and remained there until January 16, 1917. In the first popular election of a US Senator, introduced by the 17th Amendment , Wolcott stood for the Democrats on; his opponents were Republican incumbent Henry A. du Pont and former Republican Congressman Hiram R. Burton , who ran for Independent. Although 49.7 percent did not mean an absolute majority, the remaining votes were shared by du Pont (44.8 percent) and Burton (4.6 percent) as well as the socialist William C. Ferris (1 percent), giving Wolcott a relative majority Victory was enough.

He moved into the Senate on March 4, 1917, where he belonged to the Democratic majority faction and, among other things, became chairman of the Committee for the Control of Expenditures of the Ministry of Commerce . Between 1918 and 1919 he served on the Overman Committee , an early forerunner of the Committee on Un-American Activities , which examined German and Bolshevik activities. On July 2, 1921, Wolcott resigned after he was surprisingly offered the chairmanship of the State Chancery by the Republican Governor of Delaware, William Denney . He accepted the appointment as Chancellor of Delaware , assuming that the spiritual father of this action was T. Coleman du Pont , who was appointed Wolcott's successor in the Senate by Governor Denney.

Wolcott remained Chancellor until his death in 1938 and earned a high reputation nationwide in that post. In recognition of his services, the Josiah Oliver Wolcott Fellowship is awarded annually at the Law School of Widener University in Chester . The five students who will receive this prestigious scholarship will be given the opportunity to serve in the State Supreme Court or Registry Court for a limited period of time.

Web links

Commons : Josiah Oliver Wolcott  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Josiah O. Wolcott in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Josiah O. Wolcott in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Senators from Delaware