Leverett Saltonstall (politician, 1892)

Leverett Saltonstall

Leverett Saltonstall (born September 1, 1892 in Chestnut Hill , Massachusetts , † June 17, 1979 in Dover , Massachusetts) was an American politician and governor of the state of Massachusetts from 1939 to 1945 . Between 1945 and 1967 he represented his state in the US Senate .

Early years and political advancement

Leverett Saltonstall, whose great-grandfather of the same name had sat for Massachusetts in the US House of Representatives from 1838 to 1843 , attended the public schools in his home country and then studied law at Harvard University until 1917 . During the First World War he served as a first lieutenant in the US Army . After the war he worked as a lawyer in Boston . Saltonstall joined the Republican Party . Between 1920 and 1922 he was a councilor in Newton . He was also a district attorney in Middlesex County . From 1923 to 1936 he was a member of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts , where he was the speaker of this chamber since 1929 as the successor to John C. Hull . In 1936 he unsuccessfully applied for the office of lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Governor

In 1938, Saltonstall was elected governor of his state with 53:45 percent of the vote against the Democrat James Michael Curley . He took up his new office on January 5, 1939 and was able to exercise it until January 3, 1945 after several re-elections. During this time the budget deficit was reduced and taxes lowered. The governor also had to deal with a truck drivers' strike. The second part of his reign was determined by the events of World War II , in which the United States had participated since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Food and fuel were also rationed in Massachusetts. Young men were drafted for military service and production was switched to armaments. At the same time a defense council was formed. Governor Saltonstall was also chairman of the National Governors Association in 1944 .

US Senator

On November 7, 1944 Saltonstall was as Class 2 Senator in the Congress elected. There he replaced Sinclair Weeks on January 4, 1945 , who in turn was only a temporary solution after Henry Cabot Lodge's resignation in 1944 . In 1948, 1954 and 1960 Saltonstall was confirmed as a senator. This enabled him to exercise his mandate between January 4, 1945 and January 3, 1967. As a Senator he was from 1953 to 1955 Chairman of the Armed Forces Committee and at times parliamentary group leader and whip of the Republicans.

After the end of his tenure in the Senate, Saltonstall withdrew from politics. He has been a curator and director of several investment firms and charities. In 1963 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Saltonstall died of heart failure on June 17, 1979. Saltsonstall had six children with his wife Alice Wesselhoeft.

Web links

• Leverett Saltonstall in the National Governors Association (English)
• Leverett Saltonstall in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Leverett Saltonstall in the database of Find a Grave (English)