Joseph Irwin France (October 11, 1873January 26, 1939) was a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the

United States 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 pow ...

, representing the

State of Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to it ...

from 1917 to 1923.

Early life

France was born in

Cameron, Missouri Cameron is a city in Clinton County, Missouri, Clinton, DeKalb County, Missouri, DeKalb and Caldwell County, Missouri, Caldwell counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was 8,513 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The C ...

, the son of Hanna Fletcher (née James) and Joseph Henry France. He attended the common schools in the area and the

Canandaigua Academy Canandaigua Academy is a high school (grades 9-12) in Canandaigua, New York, United States. It is part of the Canandaigua City School District. The school was named a national Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education ...

Canandaigua, New York Canandaigua (; ''Utaʼnaráhkhwaʼ'' in Tuscarora language, Tuscarora) is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, United States. Its population was 10,545 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ontario County; some administrat ...

. At the age of 11, he worked as a telegraph messenger. In 1895, he graduated from

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

in Clinton, New York, where he was a brother of

Theta Delta Chi Theta Delta Chi () is a social fraternity that was founded in 1847 at Union College, New York, United States. While nicknames differ from institution to institution, the most common nicknames for the fraternity are TDX, Thete, Theta Delt, and Thump ...

. He also attended the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

in Leipzig, Germany and finally, in 1897, graduated from the medical department of

Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

. France began to teach natural science at the Jacob Tome Institute of

Port Deposit, Maryland Port Deposit is a town in Cecil County, Maryland, United States. It is located on the east bank of the Susquehanna River near its discharge into the Chesapeake Bay. The population was 653 at the 2010 census. Geography Port Deposit is located a ...

, in 1897, but resigned later to enter the College of Physicians and Surgeons in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Maryland. He commenced the practice of medicine in Baltimore after graduation in 1903.

Career

France was elected to the

Maryland State Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single- ...

in 1906, serving until 1908. He left the Senate in 1908 to engage in the field of finance. He served as the secretary to the medical and surgical faculty of Maryland from 1916–1917. After a short time out of politics, France re-entered the political arena in 1916 and was elected to the United States Senate. During the 65th Congress, he served in the Senate as the chairman of the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine. France attempted to introduce an amendment to the

Sedition Act of 1918 The Sedition Act of 1918 () was an Act of the United States Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a neg ...

that would have ensured limited free speech protections, but the amendment was defeated, and France would remark that the legislation was criminal, repressive, and characteristic of the Dark Ages. France warned in March 1920 that "Republican liberals" would split off the Republican Party to form the "Anti-

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

Party". France introduced a joint resolution in the same month asking that dissenters imprisoned during World War I be pardoned. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1922, losing his seat to Democratic rival

William Cabell Bruce William Cabell Bruce (March 12, 1860May 9, 1946) was an American politician and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who represented the State of Maryland in the United States Senate from 1923 to 1929. Background Bruce was born in Charlotte County, V ...

. Following his defeat, France became President of the Republic International Corporation and also resumed the practice of medicine in Port Deposit. France also joined the

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

during this time. France opposed

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

primaries Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

during the Presidential campaign of 1932. He was giving a speech at the Republican Convention in Chicago when the microphone malfunctioned, leaving France continuing his speech while the sound system was repaired. Although he won some contests, receiving more popular votes than any other candidate including Hoover, few delegates were selected in the primaries and France was heavily defeated at the convention. When Senator

Phillips Lee Goldsborough Phillips Lee Goldsborough I (August 6, 1865October 22, 1946), was an American Republican Party (United States), Republican politician and member of the United States Senate representing Maryland, State of Maryland from 1929 to 1935. He was also ...

announced his retirement from the Senate in 1934, France attempted to win his seat. He was unsuccessful in the election of 1934, losing to Democratic rival

George L. P. Radcliffe George Lovic Pierce Radcliffe (August 22, 1877July 29, 1974) was a Democratic member of the United States Senate who represented Maryland from 1935 to 1947. Background Radcliffe was born on a farm at Lloyds, near Cambridge, Maryland. He attend ...

Relations with Russia

France was the first U.S. Senator to visit

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

, and consistently advocated cordial relations with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

.POLITICAL NOTES: France-for-President, April 20, 1931
/ref> In 1921 after having been sent to Russia to study economic conditions there, he met with Russian officials, including

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

, to assist in the release of

Marguerite Harrison Marguerite Elton Harrison (1879–1967) was an American reporter, spy, filmmaker and translator. She was also one of the four founding members of the Society of Woman Geographers. Biography Harrison was born Marguerite Elton Baker, one of two da ...

, an American journalist and convicted spy. Lenin wrote in a letter to

Georgy Chicherin Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (24 November 1872 – 7 July 1936), also spelled Tchitcherin, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician who served as the first People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from Ma ...

: The letter went on to relate that Marguerite Harrison was the sister-in-law of the Governor of Maryland and that Senator France's re-election was put in jeopardy by her incarceration. France attracted controversy in the United States by accusing Colonel Edward W. Ryan of the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

of fomenting the

Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion ( rus, Кронштадтское восстание, Kronshtadtskoye vosstaniye) was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian SFSR port city of Kronstadt. Locat ...

Civil rights

France spoke at a 1920 meeting of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

to support the enactment of the

Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (1918) was first introduced in the 65th United States Congress by Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States House of Representatives as H.R. 11279 in order “to protec ...

. France fought against voter disenfranchisement, and proposed an amendment to a railroad bill so that black train passengers paying a first-class fare could get first-class accommodations.

Personal life

In 1903 France married Evalyn Smith Tome, widow of millionaire

Jacob Tome Jacob Tome (August 13, 1810 – March 16, 1898) was an American banker, philanthropist, and politician who died as one of the richest men in the United States. He was the first millionaire of Cecil County, Maryland and an accomplished phi ...

. Evalyn France was the first woman to be president of a national bank. Three months after her death in 1927, France married a Russian woman named Tatiana Vladimirovna Dechtereva in Paris.The Political Graveyard: Index of Politicians
/ref> They divorced in July 1938.

Death

France died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

on January 26, 1939, at his home on the Tome estate in Port Deposit. He is buried at Hopewell Cemetery in Port Deposit.

References

External links

*
Joseph Irwin France papers
at the

University of Maryland Libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an of ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:France, Joseph Irvin 1873 births 1939 deaths Republican Party Maryland state senators Clark University alumni Hamilton College (New York) alumni People from Cameron, Missouri Candidates in the 1932 United States presidential election 20th-century American politicians Republican Party United States senators from Maryland Physicians from Maryland People from Port Deposit, Maryland