Louis Crosby Wyman (March 16, 1917 – May 5, 2002) was an American politician and lawyer. He was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

and, for three days, a U.S. Senator from

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

. This was one of the shortest tenures in Senate history. He was a member of the Republican Party.

Early life and career

Wyman was born on March 16, 1917, in

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...

, the son of Alice Sibley (Crosby) and Louis Eliot Wyman. He graduated from the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, m ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

in 1938 and from Harvard Law School in 1941. He was admitted to the bars of

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

and New Hampshire in 1941, and of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in 1957, and commenced the practice of law in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts, at

Ropes and Gray Ropes & Gray LLP is a global law firm with 13 offices located in the United States, Asia and Europe. The firm has more than 1,500 lawyers and professionals worldwide, and its clients include corporations and financial institutions, government ag ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he served in the Alaskan Theater as a lieutenant in the

United States Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

from 1942 to 1946. He also served as general counsel to a

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 ...

committee in 1946; secretary to Senator Styles Bridges in 1947; counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Foreign Economic Cooperation from 1948 to 1949; attorney general of

from 1953 to 1961; president of the National Association of Attorneys General in 1957; and as legislative counsel to the

Governor of New Hampshire The governor of New Hampshire is the head of government of New Hampshire. The governor is elected during the biennial state general election in November of even-numbered years. New Hampshire is one of only two states, along with bordering Verm ...

in 1961; member and chairman of several state legal and judicial commissions. His attempts to investigate alleged communists as attorney general lead to the Supreme Court case '' Sweezy v. New Hampshire'', which ruled against the state and Wyman on due process grounds. He was elected as 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 ...

to the

U.S. House The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from in 1962. He was swept out in the Democratic landslide of

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 Patriarc ...

, but regained his seat in 1966 and was reelected three more times.

Senate election

Wyman did not run for reelection to his House seat in 1974, opting instead to run for the Senate seat that was due to come open by 20-year incumbent

Norris Cotton Norris Henry Cotton (May 11, 1900 – February 24, 1989) was an American politician from the state of New Hampshire. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a U.S. Representative and subsequently as a U.S. Senator. Early life Cotton was ...

's retirement. The initial returns showed him defeating Democratic candidate John A. Durkin by 355 votes on election night. Durkin demanded a recount, which resulted in Durkin winning by ten votes.

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Meldrim Thomson Meldrim Thomson Jr. (March 8, 1912 – April 19, 2001) was an American politician who served three terms as the 73rd governor of New Hampshire from 1973 to 1979. A Republican, he was known as a strong supporter of conservative political values. E ...

then certified Durkin as the winner. However, Wyman demanded another recount in which he prevailed by two votes. Cotton resigned on December 31, 1974; Thomson appointed Wyman to the seat for the balance of the term ending January 3, 1975, to give him a leg up in seniority. This appeared to end the dispute, but Durkin appealed to the full Senate, which is the final arbiter of Senate elections per the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

. The

Senate Rules Committee The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, also called the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, is responsible for the rules of the United States Senate, administration of congressional buildings, and with credentials and qualificat ...

, which has jurisdiction over the results of Senate elections, then deadlocked on whether to seat Wyman for the 1975–1981 term pending the resolution of the dispute. On January 14, the Senate returned the matter to the Rules Committee, which returned 35 disputed points to the full Senate based on 3,000 questionable ballots. However, the Senate was unable to break a deadlock on even one of the 35 points. After seven months of wrangling which included six unsuccessful Democratic attempts to seat Durkin, Wyman, having never been seated, proposed that he and Durkin run again in a special election. Durkin agreed, and the Senate declared the seat officially vacant on August 8, 1975, pending the new election. Thomson appointed Cotton to his old seat in the meantime. The special election was held on September 16, and Durkin won handily, defeating Wyman by nearly 28,000 votes—ending what is still the closest Senate election since the people gained the right to directly elect Senators with the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913.

Later life

Wyman served as an associate justice of the

New Hampshire Superior Court The New Hampshire Superior Court is the statewide court of general jurisdiction which provides jury trials in civil and criminal cases. There are 11 locations of the Superior Court, one for each county and two in Hillsborough County. Jurisdictio ...

from 1978 to 1987. He was a resident of Manchester, N.H. and

West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. The populati ...

, until his death due to cancer on May 5, 2002. Wyman's remains were cremated, and the ashes scattered at sea.

References

Official Congressional Directory: 93rd Congress (1974)

Manual for the New Hampshire General Court (1979), page 412

External links

Retrieved on 2008-01-25 , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wyman, Louis C. 1917 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American lawyers American anti-communists Deaths from cancer in Florida Harvard Law School alumni Massachusetts lawyers New Hampshire Attorneys General New Hampshire lawyers New Hampshire state court judges Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire Republican Party United States senators from New Hampshire United States Navy officers United States Navy personnel of World War II University of New Hampshire alumni

Early life and career

Senate election

Later life

See also

References

External links