Charles Edward Bennett

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Charles Edward Bennett (December 2, 1910 - September 6, 2003) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida from 1949 to 1993. He was a Democrat.

He was born in Canton, New York and moved to Jacksonville, Florida by the end of his childhood. Bennett is an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He was a lawyer and a member of the United States Army during World War II before being elected to Congress from what was then the 2nd District. He was reelected 21 more times from this Jacksonville-based district, which was renumbered as the 3rd in 1967. He rarely faced serious opposition even as Jacksonville fell under increasing Republican influence.

In 1951, he began proposing a code of ethics for government employees, nicknamed The Ten Commandments. After the Sherman-Adams Affair, the code was adopted as the first Code of ethics for Government Service in 1958. In 1954, he sponsored the bill that added the words In God We Trust to both the nation's coins and currency. He signed the Southern Manifesto, but later sought and received strong support in Jacksonville's growing black community.

Bennett was set to run for a 23rd term in 1992 in the renumbered 4th District. However, his Republican opponent, city council president Tillie K. Fowler--his first serious Republican opponent in years--slammed him for being in Washington for too long. Fowler had been born in 1942, six years before Bennett won his first election. Bennett was stung by these attacks and abruptly ended his bid for reelection.

Bennett died in Jacksonville in 2003 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He is still the longest-serving member of either house of Congress in Florida's history. The Charles E. Bennett Federal Building[1] is named after him.