Alexander Morton Campbell (1907–1968) was an Indiana lawyer who served in the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

as Assistant

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

for the Criminal Division, formally from August 1948 through December 20, 1949, under

Tom C. Clark Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899June 13, 1977) was an American lawyer who served as the 59th United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1949 to 1967. Clark ...

as U.S. Attorney General (1945–49).

Background

Born in

Coldwater, Ohio Coldwater is a village in Mercer County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,427 at the 2010 census. History Coldwater was founded in 1838 and was originally called Buzzard's Glory for by David Buzzard who operated a general store. Cold ...

on April 14, 1907, Campbell grew up in Indiana. He attended high school in Fort Wayne. He attended

Olivet College Olivet College is a private Christian liberal arts college located in Olivet, Michigan. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It was founded in 1844 by missionaries from Oberlin College, and it followed Oberlin in becom ...

and

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

, where he received an LLB in 1930.

Career

Early career

In 1933, Campbell joined a law firm in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His office was located at the

Lincoln Bank Tower The Lincoln Bank Tower in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, is an Art Deco highrise building. Construction started in late 1929 with the building's opening on November 16, 1930. For decades, it was the tallest building in the state.Allen County, Indiana Allen County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 385,410, making it the third-most populous county in Indiana. The county seat and largest city is Fort Wayne, the second largest city in Indiana. ...

through 1936.

Justice Department offices in India

200px, Allen County Courthouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana In 1936, Campbell became principal deputy to James R. Fleming, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana. In Spring 1941, when Fleming left office, Campbell became acting attorney general. In November 1941, President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

formally appointed him to that position (U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana). In 1950 he ran for the U.S. Senate against

Homer E. Capehart Homer Earl Capehart (June 6, 1897 – September 3, 1979) was an American businessman and politician from Indiana. After serving in the United States Army during World War I, he became involved in the manufacture of record players and other produc ...

US Government

In Spring 1948, Campbell was asked to serve as acting

Assistant Attorney General Many of the divisions and offices of the United States Department of Justice are headed by an assistant attorney general. The president of the United States appoints individuals to the position of assistant attorney general with the advice and ...

for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, after T. Vincent Quinn resigned to run for office. Campbell received formal appointment Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in August 1948. Campbell argued for government in Christoffel v. United States against Harold Christoffel, a Wisconsin labor organizer, accused of perjury over

CPUSA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

membership. DOJ stood up a "lobbying investigation unit" to identify violations the

Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 The Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 is a statute enacted by the United States Congress to reduce the influence of lobbyists. The primary purpose of the Act was to provide information to members of Congress about those that lobby them. Th ...

(successor to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938. During his tenure, DOJ prosecuted cases including those of

Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...

Axis Sally Axis Sally was the generic nickname given to women radio personalities who broadcast English-language propaganda on behalf of the European Axis Powers during World War II. These included: * Mildred Gillars, a German-American who broadcast for Ge ...

Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in con ...

, and

Judith Coplon Judith Coplon Socolov (May 17, 1921 – February 26, 2011) was a spy for the Soviet Union whose trials, convictions, and successful constitutional appeals had a profound influence on espionage prosecutions during the Cold War. In 1949, three majo ...

. Notably, he was aware that the only witnesses against Iva Toguri D'Aquino (AKA Tokyo Rose) had perjured themselves, but pressed anyway for the conviction of D'Aquino, who was sentenced to 10 years for treason. In 1975 journalists uncovered the perjury, and in 1977 President Ford pardoned the innocent D'Aquino. Although aware of the perjury, Campbell declined to press for prosecution of the perjurers for fear that it would affect the prosecution of D'Aquino.

Hiss case

On November 1948, after

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...

first presented the Baltimore Documents (from Chambers' "life preserver" package), including handwritten and typewritten pages of

, into Hiss's libel suit against Chambers, Campbell drove with two assistants from Washington to Baltimore on behalf of Justice. The Department would investigate those documents, leading both Hiss and Chambers back to a Grand Jury for further testimony. In December 1948, Chambers surrendered remaining items, dubbed the "

Pumpkin Papers The Pumpkin Papers are a set of typewritten, handwritten, and microfilmed documents, stolen from the US federal government (thus information leaks) by members of the Ware Group and other Soviet spy networks in Washington, DC, during 1937-1938, wi ...

," really microfilm that Chambers had not yet surrendered. Justice used these materials to indict Hiss on two counts of perjury; Hiss was sentenced in January 1950. Campbell also questioned then congressional representative Richard Nixon regarding HUAC's role in the Hiss Case, including whether HUAC had the right to withhold the Pumpkin Papers microfilm from DOJ and the grand jury:

CAMPBELL: May I say this: that in all of my 13 years of experience as a United States Attorney the investigative agencies of the United States Attorney and the FBI did not permit any person to keep evidence which is vital and essential to the case. We don't permit the sheriffs to keep them, we don't permit anybody to keep them, because it's a highly important piece of evidence.

NIXON: As an attorney - I think all three of you are attorneys - you will know that what I am discussing has been a matter which for 150 years has been the rule of the House and of the Congress. All that I can tell you is that this is the situation. I mean, of course, if I were a sheriff I would turn it over to you, certainly; a sheriff can't keep it. But I mean there is a slight difference. I mean not much. I mean, I don't mean to say anything derogatory about a sheriff or about a Congressman.

During a 1962 television interview on ABC TV, Hiss lumped Campbell into a general group whom he "denounced as conspirators in a monstrous plot to convict him on concocted evidence" and included: the presiding judge at his second trial, the three appellate court justices who rejected his appeal, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, assistant attorney general Alexander M. Campbell, federal prosecutor Thomas F. Murphy, members of the New York grand jury who indicted him, jury members in his two trials who convicted him, and HUAC members and particularly Richard Nixon and Karl Mundt."

Later years

On December 20, 1949, Campbell resigned to run for Democratic nomination for one of Indiana’s 1950 seats in the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

but lost to incumbent Republican Senator

Homer Capehart Homer Earl Capehart (June 6, 1897 – September 3, 1979) was an American businessman and politician from Indiana. After serving in the United States Army during World War I, he became involved in the manufacture of record players and other produc ...

. He spoke publicly on Justice cases, e.g., "The Inside Story of the Recent Spy Trials" in an address to the Beth-El Men’s Club on April 26, 1950. John F

In 1956, he served as an Indiana delegate to the

1956 Democratic National Convention The 1956 Democratic National Convention nominated former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois for president and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee for vice president. It was held in the International Amphitheatre on the South Side of Chicag ...

in Chicago, which nominated a ticket of Adlai Stevenson with

Estes Kefauver Carey Estes Kefauver (; July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the Senate from 1949 until his d ...

, who lost to the incumbent ticket of

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

with

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

Personal and death

In 1968, Campbell died in El Paso, Texas.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Alexander Morton 1907 births 1968 deaths American prosecutors United States Assistant Attorneys General for the Criminal Division United States Attorneys for the Northern District of Indiana Indiana Democrats Indiana lawyers Indiana University Bloomington alumni People from Coldwater, Ohio People from Columbia City, Indiana Truman administration personnel