Leverett A. Saltonstall (September 1, 1892June 17, 1979) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He served three two-year terms as the 55th Governor of Massachusetts, and for more than twenty years as a United States senator (1945–1967). Saltonstall was internationalist in foreign policy and moderate on domestic policy, serving as a well-liked mediating force in the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

. He was the only member of the Republican Senate leadership to vote for the censure of

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...

Early years

Leverett Saltonstall was born in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to Richard Middlecott Saltonstall and Eleanor Brooks Saltonstall. The Saltonstall family, a wealthy Boston Brahmin family, had deep colonial roots, as did that of his mother.Reichard, p. 223 Saltonstall was able to trace his ancestral roots to the '' Mayflower''; his grandfather and great-grandfather, both also named Leverett Saltonstall. His father was a lawyer; his mother was the daughter of Peter C. Brooks III, a beneficiary of the large fortune of his same-named grandfather. He was educated at the private Noble and Greenough School, and then attended the

Evans School for Boys The Mesa Ranch School was a ranch school in Mesa, Arizona, that was established in 1902 by H. David Evans, a Briton with a Cambridge education who arrived in Arizona in 1899.Louis C. Hughes (1916): ''Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, mode ...

in Mesa, Arizona, an upper-crust

ranch school A ranch school is a type of school used in rural areas of the Western United States. History The ranch school movement began in the Western United States in the early 1900s as a way to educate children who lived on ranches in remote and rural area ...

, along with Nicholas Roosevelt, nephew to family friend Theodore Roosevelt. He then entered Harvard, graduating in 1914, and graduated from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1917. He was active in varsity sports at Harvard, notably serving as captain of the Junior Varsity

crew team Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is d ...

that won the prestigious

Grand Challenge Cup The Grand Challenge Cup is a rowing competition for men's eights. It is the oldest and best-known event at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing cl ...

at the

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thre ...

in 1914 – the first American crew ever to do so. He also played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and hockey, scoring a dramatic overtime goal in a 1914 win over the legendary

Hobey Baker Hobart Amory Hare "Hobey" Baker (January 15, 1892 – December 21, 1918) was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century. Considered the first American star in ice hockey by the Hockey Hall of Fame, he was also an accomplished Ame ...

's Princeton team. Saltonstall married Alice Wesselhoeft (1893–1981) of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, in 1916, while still in law school. Together they had six children, including Emily (1920–2006), at one time the daughter-in-law of Richard Byrd and a former WAVE; Peter Brooks Saltonstall, killed in action on Guam in 1944;

William L. Saltonstall William Lawrence Saltonstall (May 14, 1927 – January 23, 2009), an American politician, was a member of the Massachusetts Senate from 1967 to 1979. He was a Republican and a resident of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. He led an unsucce ...

(1927–2009), a member of the Massachusetts Senate; and Susan (1930–1994), a horse breeder.

Military service and entry into politics

After graduation, Saltonstall entered the United States Army. He served as a first lieutenant in the

301st Field Artillery 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many socie ...

Regiment in the 76th Division in World War I, spending six months in France. He was discharged in 1919, and then entered the law firm of his uncle. Saltonstall, a socially progressive Republican, entered politics as an alderman in Newton, Massachusetts, serving from 1920 to 1922, while simultaneously serving as second assistant district attorney of Middlesex County under his uncle,

Endicott Peabody Saltonstall Endicott Peabody Saltonstall (April 15, 1879 – December 19, 1922) was an American attorney who served as District Attorney of Middlesex County, Massachusetts from 1921 to 1922. Early life Saltonstall was born on December 25, 1872, to Leverett ...

, from 1921 to 1922. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives that same year; there he rose to the position of

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

, which he held from 1929 to 1937. In 1930 Saltonstall became a compatriot of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Governor of Massachusetts

In 1936, Saltonstall decided to seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts. In the party convention, conservative forces prevailed in securing the nomination for

John W. Haigis John William Haigis, Sr. (July 31, 1881 – 1960) was an American newspaper publisher, businessman and politician. Haigis was the editor and publisher of the '' Greenfield Recorder''. Haigis was the founder of WHAI radio. Marriage and family On ...

. Saltonstall's friends were able to engineer his nomination for

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

. Both Haigis and Saltonstall were defeated by their Democratic rivals, although Saltonstall's margin of defeat, just over 7,000 votes, was small enough to merit a recount; he demurred. He ran again for governor two years later, and won a decisive victory over former Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, who had been involved in a bruising Democratic primary fight against the incumbent Charles F. Hurley. He was reelected in 1940 and 1942; the 1940 election win was by an extremely narrow margin. During his tenure, Saltonstall mediated a Teamsters strike, reduced taxes, and retired 90 percent of the state's debt. He served as president of the National Governors Association from 1943 to 1944. In 1944, he also served as the fifth president of the

Council of State Governments The Council of State Governments (CSG) is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization in the United States that serves all three branches of state government. Founded in 1933 by Colorado state Sen. Henry W. Toll, CSG is a region-based forum that ...

U.S. Senator

In 1944, Saltonstall was elected to the United States Senate in a special election to fill the unexpired term created by the resignation of U.S. Senator

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (July 5, 1902 – February 27, 1985) was an American diplomat and Republican United States senator from Massachusetts in both Senate seats in non-consecutive terms of service and a United States ambassador. He was considered ...

He was re-elected three times, serving from 1945 to 1967. Early in his first term, in April 1945 he was one of a dozen Senators and Congressmen who toured the

Buchenwald Concentration Camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

at the invitation of Gen.

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, ...

to attest to the reality of Nazi atrocities. Those he defeated included

John H. Corcoran John Hubert Corcoran Jr. (January 15, 1897 – December 28, 1945) was a Massachusetts politician who served on the Cambridge, Massachusetts City Council and as the Mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Corcoran's father, John Hubert Corcoran ...

in 1944, John I. Fitzgerald in 1948, Foster Furcolo in 1954, and

Thomas J. O'Connor Thomas Joseph O'Connor Jr. (July 27, 1925 – September 11, 1996) was an American politician who served as mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts. Early life O'Connor was born on July 27, 1925 in Springfield. He was one of seven children of milkman ...

in 1960. During his tenure in the Senate, he served as the Senate Republican Whip and on five influential Senate committees. He also served as the chair of the Senate Republican Conference, 1957–1966. He was viewed as a political moderate, and served as a mediating force between the party's conservative and progressive wings. He was an unspectacular but effective legislator, good at drafting legislation and finding compromise language. When he left office, after more than thirty years in politics, he had few political enemies.Reichard, p. 224 Saltonstall voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

, and

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the

Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...

Death and legacy

Saltonstall opted not to run for reelection in 1966, in part to provide an opportunity for his seat to Edward Brooke, a rising star in Massachusetts Republican circles. He retired to his farm in

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

, where he spent his remaining years as a gentleman farmer. Leverett Saltonstall died of congestive heart failure in 1979 aged 86, and is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. The

Saltonstall Building 100 Cambridge Street, formerly the Leverett Saltonstall Building, is a high-rise building located in the Government Center district of Boston, Massachusetts. The building stands at 396 feet (121 m) with 22 floors. It was completed in 1965 and un ...

in downtown Boston is named for him.

References

Sources

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External links

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