Peace Tree Farm

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Way back when, when Robert Byrd joined the Senate

Upon the death of Robert C. Byrd late last month, many commentators marked the remarkable length of his tenure in the Senate by pointing out that Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House when he took office. Byrd served in the Senate for more than 51 years, having eclipsed the record previously held by Strom Thurmond more than four years ago. Interestingly, last month Daniel Inouye of Hawaii also passed Thurmond’s mark to take second place. Inouye also supplanted Byrd as the Senate’s President pro tempore, traditionally reserved for the majority party’s longest-serving Senator ... and thus he now stands third in presidential succession, behind the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

While the Ike metaphor has been widely noted, I’ve seen next to nothing about the makeup of the Senate into which Byrd arrived. When the 86^th Congress convened on January 3, 1959, it was a very different body than what we see today, but it was also remarkably changed from the legislative body that had closed its second session of the 85^th Congress on August 24, 1958. Herewith, a few observations about the United States Senate when Robert C. Byrd first joined the world’s greatest deliberative body™:

The 1958 election was an unmitigated disaster for President Eisenhower’s party. When its activities for the 85^th Congress were completed, the United States Senate was narrowly Democratic, 49-47, continuing a status quo of razor-thin majorities that had existed since 1950—48D-48R in the 82^nd Congress (Democratic majority only because Vice President/President of the Senate Alben Barkley broke the tie), 48R-47D-1I in the 83^rd (Wayne Morse was the Independent), 47D-47R-1ID-1I in the 84^th (Thurmond called himself “Independent Democrat”, Morse still Independent, Dems in the majority). In a sharp break from that deadlock, the 86^th Congress’s Senate convened as a body with 64 Democrats and 34 Republicans.
If you sum the above counts, you’ll see that the Senate had gained two members at the start of the 86^th Congress. That’s Alaska, which had become a state in 1958. It elected two Democrats, Territorial Governor Bob Bartlett and Ernest Gruening (later to gain respect as one of two Senators to vote against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution). Hawaii, admitted to the Union in 1959, would elect its first Senators in the late summer of 1959, and they (one from each party) would take office immediately thereafter.
Not only was the 1959 freshman class large—17 members (14 D, 3 R), along with West Virginia Democrat Jennings Randolph, who filled a vacant seat in a special election and was sworn in immediately after the 1958 election—it was also very distinguished. Among those joining Robert Byrd in taking the Senate’s oath of office for the first time were Philip A. Hart (D-MI), Edmund Muskie (D-ME), Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT), Hugh Scott, (R-PA), and Eugene J. McCarthy (D-MN).
Except for the two Alaskans, every single Democratic freshman filled a previously-Republican seat, and all but three did so by defeating the incumbent Republican Senator. The three GOP freshmen all succeeded retiring Republicans.
In addition to the newly-elected Senators already discussed, the class of 1959 included (alphabetically by state):
- Clair Engle, Democrat, California. (Male, BTW.)
- Vance Hartke, Democrat, Indiana.
- Howard Cannon, Democrat, Nevada. He beat the incumbent.
- Harrison (Pete) Williams, Democrat, New Jersey.
- Kenneth Keating, Republican, New York.
- Stephen Young, Democrat, Ohio. Defeated the incumbent.
- Frank Moss, Democrat, Utah. Ousted the incumbent.
- Winston Prouty, Republican, Vermont.
- Gale McGee, Democrat, Wyoming. Another one who beat the incumbent. (Male, BTW.)

Several of the freshman Senators in the 86^th Congress became the first Democrats to hold that particular seat in a long time. For example, the California seat won by Engle had been Republican since 1899. He defeated the sitting Governor in that 1958 Senate race, replacing a Senator who had retired to run for Governor(!). Engle’s Senate predecessor also lost his race, to Pat Brown, Jerry’s father. The Minnesota seat taken by Gene McCarthy had previously been occupied by Democrats only twice, 1858-1863 (the seat’s first occupant after statehood) and for six weeks while the Senate was in adjournment in 1900-1901. Ed Muskie’s seat had been Republican since 1917. For the record, Maine’s senior Senator was Republican Margaret Chase Smith, the only woman in the Senate at that time.

Even more information about the Senate in 1959 follows…

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There were quite a few political family connections scattered through the members of the Senate as the 86^th Congress convened:

One of Robert Byrd’s colleagues when he joined the Senate was Democratic Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts ... Senator John F. Kennedy.
Connecticut’s senior Senator in the 86^th Congress was Republican Prescott Bush, whose son and grandson may be more familiar to us, over half a century later.
And of course Connecticut’s newly-elected junior Senator was the father of today’s senior Senator, Christopher Dodd.
Tennessean Albert Gore Sr. was, as you are no doubt aware, the father of Senator/Vice President/Nobel Laureate Al Gore.
After first-term Senator Richard Neuberger (D-OR) died in 1960, his widow Maurine Neuberger won the special election to replace him. She continued by serving one full term in the Senate.
Russell B. Long (D-LA) was a scion of his state’s pre-eminent political dynasty. He remains the only Senator whose father (Huey, the Kingfish) and mother (Rose) were both former Senators. Many other Longs have been elected to many other offices in Louisiana.
Maryland Republican J. Glenn Beall was the father of another Republican Senator from Maryland. Oddly, J. Glenn Beall Jr.‘s first name was John, whereas the father’s was James. How can he claim juniorhood with a different first name?
Wallace F. Bennett (R-UT) was soon-to-retire Bob Bennett‘s father. The younger Bennett is also a Utah Republican.
When ebullient Hubert Humphrey, later the VP and nearly President, died during his second time in the Senate, his widow Muriel Humphrey was appointed in his stead. Unlike Maurine Neuberger, who was elected rather than appointed, she served only until a special election was completed.
Harry Flood Byrd (D-VA) was not related in any way to Robert C. Byrd. He was, however, the brother of aviation pioneer and polar explorer Richard E. Byrd and the father of his Senatorial successor Harry Flood Byrd Jr. (D/I-VA). At age 95, the younger Byrd is currently the oldest living ex-Senator.

In 1959, the United States Senate was replete with men (and, as noted above, one woman) of great renown in the history of the body. For instance, the Senate’s current page of Featured Biographies displays profiles of (along with the aforementioned Hart, Kennedy, Scott, Smith, and Thurmond):

George Aiken, R-VT (1941-1975), who famously suggested that we should “declare victory and leave” Vietnam.
Dennis Chavez, D-NM (1935-1962), the nation’s first Latino Senator.
John Sherman Cooper, R-KY (1946-1949, 1952-1955, 1956-1973).
Norris Cotton, R-NH (1954-1974, 1975-1975).
Everett M. Dirksen, R-IL (1951-1969), Minority Leader who helped invoke cloture on the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Sam Ervin, D-NC (1954-1974), chairman of the Watergate investigative committee.
J. William Fulbright, D-AR (1945-1974).
Theodore F. Green, D-RI (1937-1961).
Carl Hayden, D-AZ (1927-1969), who was elected Arizona’s very first Congressman in 1912 and served 15 years there before becoming Senator.
Mike Mansfield, D-MT (1953-1977).
Wayne Morse, R/I/D-OR (1945-1969), the other anti-Tonkin Gulf vote. “R/I/D” means Republican (through 1953), Independent (through 1957), Democrat.
Richard B. Russell, D-GA (1933-1971).

Amazingly, even after running through the numerous distinguished names in the above lists, we still haven’t talked about many of the great Senators who were already serving on the day Robert C. Byrd arrived in 1959. Consider, for example, the 86th Congress’s Senate Majority Leader, one Lyndon Baines Johnson. In 1972, in addition to voting for George McGovern as President I proudly cast a vote for New Jersey’s senior Senator, Republican Clifford P. Case, and had I ever resided in New York I would have been just as proud to pull the lever for Republican Jacob K. Javits. The last Democratic Senator from Idaho, Frank Church, was in the Senate when Byrd arrived. Tennessee was represented by two-time Vice Presidential candidate C. Estes Kefauver and Albert Gore Sr. Ralph Yarborough wasn’t the last Democratic Senator from Texas, but he was certainly the last liberal one. Wisconsin’s William Proxmire had just been elected to a full six years after filling out the late, unlamented Joe McCarthy’s term.

As for my current home state, Washington was represented by two exemplary Democrats. Sure, Henry M. Jackson was a Cold War liberal, claimed as a progenitor by the neocons of the 1990s and 2000s. But he was also a passionate and powerful friend of the environment. And “the Senator from Boeing” did a great deal of good for Washington’s businesses, industries, and people. As the longtime chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the state’s senior Senator, Warren G. Magnuson, may have been even more effective in supporting the development of Washington’s infrastructure. Magnuson made money available for dams and highways, backed the Park Place Market against the forces of “urban renewal”, brought the 1962 World’s Fair (and the Space Needle) to Seattle. He pioneered consumer protection legislation, championed research in healthcare and science, kept supertankers out of Puget Sound. Between them, “Scoop” and “Maggie” were major players in the United States Senate when Robert C. Byrd began his lengthy and meritorious service in that body.

My original plan for this post was to extend it to a consideration of how many Senators filled the seats of Byrd’s original colleagues during his tenure in office. It’s a topic that still interests me, and I intend to present it sometime soon. Fact is, I’m a bit surprised myself at the length and depth to which this one ran, but I had huge fun with the 1958 election and the composition of the Senate in the 86th Congress!

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Posted by N in Seattle on 07/11 at 02:12 PM
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