James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr.
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James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. (August 12, 1877 - June 21, 1952) was a U.S. Republican politician. He served in the New York State Assembly from 1905 until 1910, the U.S. Senate from 1915 until 1927, and as a United States Congressman from 1933 until 1951.
Wadsworth defeated Democrat James W. Gerard, the United States Ambassador to Berlin, to win election to the Senate in 1914. He was the Senate Minority Whip in 1915. He was re-elected in 1920. He was defeated by Robert F. Wagner in 1926.
Wadswoth was a firm proponent of individual rights and feared what he considered the threat of federal intervention into the private lives of Americans. He believed that the only purpose of the Constitution was to and limit the powers of government and to protect the rights of citizens. For this reason, he voted against the Eighteenth Amendment when it was before the Senate. Before it went into effect, Wadswort predicted that prohibition would result in widespread violations and contempt for law and the Constitution.
By the mid-1920s, Wadsworth was one of a handful of congressmen who spoke out forcefully and frequently against Prohibition. He was especially concerned that citizens could be prosecuted by both state and federal officials for a single violation of prohibition law. This seemed to him to constitute double jeopardy, inconsistent with the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution.
In 1926, he joined the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment and made 131 speeches across the country for the organization between then and repeal. His political acumen and contacts proved valuable in overturning National Prohibition. Wadsworth also opposed women's suffrage. His wife, Alice Hay Wadsworth, served as president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.
As a representative, Wadsworth opposed the Isolationism shared by many of his conservative Republican colleagues, opposed anti-lynching legislation on state's rights grounds, opposed minimum wage laws and most of FDR's domestic policy.
His son-in-law is Stuart Symington, the first Secretary of the Air Force and a Democratic U.S. Senator from Missouri.
He is buried in Temple Hill Cemetery, Geneseo, New York.
| Preceded by Elihu Root |
U.S. Senator (Class 3) from New York 1915-1927 |
Succeeded by Robert F. Wagner |
| Preceded by Archie D. Sanders |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 39th congressional district 1933–1945 |
Succeeded by W. Sterling Cole |
| Preceded by Joseph Mruk |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 41st congressional district 1945–1951 |
Succeeded by Harold C. Ostertag |
[edit] Sources
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Temperance Movement Groups and Leaders
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