Walter F. George

Walter F. George

Walter Franklin George (born January 29, 1878 in Preston , Webster County , Georgia , † August 4, 1957 in Vienna , Georgia) was an American lawyer and politician . He represented the state of Georgia in the US Senate .

Early years

Walter George was born on January 29, 1878 on a farm near Preston. He attended public school and then Mercer University in Macon . He was admitted to the bar in 1901 and then opened a practice. George then worked as a judge on Georgia's Court of Appeals in 1917 and as a member of the Supreme Court of Georgia between 1917 and 1922.

senator

George resigned from his position on the Supreme Court to run for a seat in the US Senate, vacated by the death of Thomas E. Watson . George won the extraordinary election, but instead of taking his seat in Congress on November 21, 1922, he allowed Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton to be appointed. She was the first woman to represent Georgia in the Senate. He took up the position on November 22, 1922, one day later. George was re-elected in 1926 for his first six-year term. His tenure in the Senate was from 1923 to 1957. At that time the Republicans in Georgia were very weak, so the actual election campaign in Georgia took place in the Democratic primary. In 1938, George faced a particularly difficult pre-election campaign after angering many Democrats by resisting certain aspects of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program.

When World War II broke out in Europe , George was the first member of the Isolationist faction in the Senate, but later supported the Lending and Lease Act between the United States and Britain. When the United States entered the war, George helped the Legislature finance it while chairing the finance committee. Throughout his career, George was known as a proponent of legislation in promoting farmers. He was also an advocate of racial segregation, as were most of the Southern Senators of the time. This was best seen in the spring of 1956 when he signed the Southern Manifesto , which spoke out against racial integration in public institutions.

George was a member of twelve Senate committees and chaired five, including the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations between 1940 and 1941, and between 1955 and 1957. He also served as chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee between 1941 and 1947, as well between 1949 and 1953. He was also temporary President of the Senate between 1955 and 1957. During his tenure in the Senate, George was known for his political oratory, as well as one of the Senate's finest public speakers.

In early 1957, shortly after his resignation from the Senate, George was appointed special envoy to NATO by President Dwight D. Eisenhower . He served in this position for six months before becoming seriously ill. Walter George died on August 4, 1957 in Vienna. He was buried in the Vienna Cemetery .

Honors

The Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University , Walter F. George High School in Atlanta, and Walter F. George Lake in western Georgia were named after him. Furthermore, the Walter F. George Foundation was established in 1947 when the Law School at Mercer University was named after him. This should grant scholarships to the Mercer Law students who aim to pursue careers in the civil service.

George's portrait hangs in Georgia’s State Capitol in Atlanta.

In 1960 the United States Postal Service issued a $ 0.04 postage stamp in honor of George. The official place of issue was Vienna, George's last place of residence.

literature

• Mixon, Val G. "The Foreign Policy Statesmanship of Senator Walter F. George: 1955-1956." West Georgia College Review 1973 6: 29-41. ISSN  0043-3136
• Zeigler, Luther Harmon, Jr. "Senator Walter George's 1938 Campaign." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1959 43 (4): 333-352. ISSN  0016-8297
• Jamie H. Cockfield: A giant from Georgia: the life of US senator Walter F. George, 1878–1957 , Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press 2019, ISBN 9780881466768 .

Web links

• Walter F. George in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)