William E. Jenner
William E. Jenner | |
---|---|
United States Senator from Indiana | |
In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1959 | |
Preceded by | Raymond E. Willis |
Succeeded by | Vance Hartke |
In office November 14, 1944 – January 3, 1945 | |
Preceded by | Samuel D. Jackson |
Succeeded by | Homer E. Capehart |
Member of the Indiana Senate from Lawrence County, Martin County, and Orange County | |
In office November 7, 1934 – June 1, 1942 | |
Preceded by | John Carle Sherwood[1][2][3] |
Succeeded by | James Edward Armstrong |
Personal details | |
Born | July 21, 1908 Marengo, Indiana, U.S. |
Died | March 9, 1985 Bedford, Indiana, U.S. | (aged 76)
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Janet Paterson Cuthill |
Alma mater | Indiana University Bloomington |
Profession | Lawyer |
William Ezra Jenner (July 21, 1908 – March 9, 1985) was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Indiana. A Republican, Jenner was an Indiana state senator from 1934 to 1942, and a U.S. senator from 1944 to 1945 and again from 1947 to 1959. In the Senate, Jenner was a supporter of McCarthyism.
Background
Jenner was born in Marengo, Indiana, on July 21, 1908,[4] to L.L. Woody and Jane McDonald Jenner.[5]
He attended Lake Placid Preparatory School in New York before attending Indiana University Bloomington, where he graduated in 1930. Jenner worked as an elevator operator in the old House Office Building while attending night classes at the George Washington University Law School. Jenner later graduated with a law degree from Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington.[4]
Career
After law, Jenner practiced law in Paoli and later in Shoals.[4]
Indiana Senate
Jenner entered politics in 1934, when he was first elected to the Indiana State Senate in 1934. He was minority leader from 1937 to 1939, and then majority leader and president pro tempore from 1939 to 1941.
In 1940, Jenner ran for Governor of Indiana, finishing second at the Republican state convention.
In 1942, during
U.S. Senate
One month after his discharge from the Army Air Corps, Jenner was elected to the
He ran for the Senate in 1946 defeating Congressman Charles M. La Follette 1,994 to 105 at the Republican state convention. He then won the general election by over 150,000 votes.
He ran for governor of Indiana for a second time in 1948, winning a plurality on the first ballot at the Republican state convention. Jenner lost the nomination on the second ballot to Holbart Creighton 885 to 931.
Jenner was re-elected to the Senate in 1952.[4] Jenner voted in favor of the Senate amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 on August 7, 1957,[8] but did not vote on the House amendment to the bill on August 29, 1957.[9]
McCarthyism
In Congress, Jenner was the chairman of the
He was also a member of the Subcommittee on Internal Security.[10] He was a strong supporter and friend of Joseph McCarthy and engaged in McCarthyism.[10][11] Jenner and McCarthy were both part of "a core of isolationist Republicans in the Senate" along with Herman Welker of Idaho and George W. Malone of Nevada.[4] In 1950, when McCarthy accused a number of State Department employees of being secret Communists (see Tydings Committee), Jenner supported him, claiming that the State Department had engaged in "the most scandalous and brazen whitewash of treasonable conspiracy in our history" and stating: "Considering the fact that we are now at war... how can we get the Reds out of Korea if we cannot get them out of Washington?"[12] When McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954, Jenner gave a speech suggesting that the censure resolution "was initiated by the Communist conspiracy."[13]
In the Senate, Jenner was a strident opponent of General
In 1951, after President Truman
Jenner introduced legislation that sought to strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction "in all the areas where it had interfered with the anticommunist program," a measure that Senator Lyndon B. Johnson maneuvered to oppose. Ultimately, Jenner's measure was tabled by a vote of 49-41.[18]
A consistent opponent of American
Jenner claimed that the United Nations had infiltrated the American educational system in 1952.
In 1958, he did not seek re-nomination.
Later life
After leaving the Senate, Jenner practiced law in Indianapolis and was the owner of the Seaway Corporation, a land development company.[4][19] He also owned farms in Indiana and Illinois.[19]
Personal life and death
In 1933, Jenner married Janet Paterson Cuthill (1908–2002) and had a son, William Edward Jenner (1942–2019).
William Ezra Jenner died age 76 on March 9, 1985, of a respiratory illness at Dunn Memorial Hospital in Bedford, Indiana.[4][19]
Jenner was interred at Crest Haven Memorial Gardens in Bedford, Indiana.[7]
References
- ^ "Offices by County". 28 September 2019.
- ^ "Offices by County". 28 September 2019.
- ^ "Offices by County". 28 September 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Isabel Wilkerson, William E. Jenner, Ex-Senator, Dead, New York Times (March 11, 1985).
- ^ Irving Leibowitz, "Senator William E. Jenner" in Indiana History: A Book of Readings (ed. Ralph D. Gray: Indiana University Press, 1994), p. 365.
- ^ James H. Madison, Indiana through Tradition and Change: A History of the Hoosier State and Its People 1920–1945 (Indiana Historical Society Press, 2016), p. 403.
- ^ a b c JENNER, William Ezra, (1908-1985), Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- ^ "Senate – August 7, 1957" (PDF). Congressional Record. 103 (10). U.S. Government Printing Office: 13900. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
- ^ "Senate – August 29, 1957" (PDF). Congressional Record. 103 (12). U.S. Government Printing Office: 16478. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
- ^ a b Robert Griffith, The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate (University of Massachusetts Press, 1996), p. 196.
- ^ James Cross Giblin, The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy (Clarion Books, 2009), pp. 252-254.
- ^ Giblin, p. 114-15.
- ^ Giblin, p. 252.
- ^ Ed Cray, General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman (1990: Cooper Square Press ed. 2000), pp. 685-86.
- ^ Brian R. Farmer, American Conservatism: History, Theory and Practice (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2005), p. 256.
- ^ a b Cray, p. 686.
- ^ Farmer, p. 256.
- ^ Lucas A. Powe Jr., The Supreme Court and the American Elite, 1789-2008 (Harvard University Press, 2009), p. 238.
- ^ a b c d e "Anti-Communist Ex-Sen. William E. Jenner Dies". Los Angeles Times. March 13, 1985.
- ^ Wilkerson, Isabel (11 March 1985). "William E. Jenner, Ex-Senator, Dead". The New York Times.
- ^ "Who Were the Senate Isolationists?". Richard F. Grimmett. The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 42, No. 4 (November 1973), p. 479.
- ^ "The Literature of Isolationism, 1972–1983". Justus D. Doenecke. The Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring 1983), p. 174.
- ^ Leibowitz, p. 369.
External links
Media related to William E. Jenner at Wikimedia Commons
- United States Congress. "William E. Jenner (id: J000093)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- William E. Jenner at Find a Grave
- "Let's Put America First"; address delivered by Jenner on February 14, 1955