David I. Walsh
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| David Ignatius Walsh | |
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| In office January 8, 1914 – January 6, 1916 |
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| Lieutenant | Edward P. Barry (1914-1915) Grafton D. Cushing (1915-1916) |
| Preceded by | Eugene Foss |
| Succeeded by | Samuel W. McCall |
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| In office March 4, 1919 – March 3, 1925 (Class 2) December 6, 1926 – January 3, 1947 (Class 1) |
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| Preceded by | John W. Weeks (Class 2) William M. Butler (Class 1) |
| Succeeded by | Frederick H. Gillett (Class 2) Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (Class 1) |
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| In office 1913 – 1914 |
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| Governor | Eugene Foss |
| Preceded by | Robert Luce |
| Succeeded by | Edward P. Barry |
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| Born | November 11, 1872 Leominster, Massachusetts |
| Died | June 11, 1947 (aged 74) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Boston University |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
David Ignatius Walsh (November 11, 1872 - June 11, 1947) was a United States politician from Massachusetts. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Walsh was born in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, attending the public schools there until financial difficulties forced his family to relocate to Clinton, Massachusetts.[1] His parents were poor Irish Catholic immigrants; his father, a comb maker, died when Walsh, the ninth of ten children, was twelve. As a boy he picked and sold blueberries to help the family. His mother kept a boardinghouse for twenty-five people and was able to send all ten children through high school and five of them through college.[2] David was one of them, graduating from Clinton High School in 1890.[1] He then graduated from Holy Cross in 1893 and from Boston University Law School in 1897. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Fitchburg, Massachusetts in 1897, later practicing in Boston. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1900 to 1901. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1913 and as Governor from 1914 to 1916, and was a delegate at large to the Massachusetts constitutional convention in 1917 and 1918. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1919, to March 3, 1925; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1924; resumed the practice of law in Boston; elected to the United States Senate on November 2, 1926, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry Cabot Lodge and took his seat December 6, 1926; reelected in 1928, 1934 and 1940 for the term ending January 3, 1947; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946. During his Senate service, he held the posts of chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor (Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Congresses), and the Committee on Naval Affairs (Seventy-fourth through Seventy-seventh and Seventy-ninth Congresses). He retired from political activities and resided in Clinton, Mass., until his death in Boston on June 11, 1947. He is buried in St. John’s Cemetery, Clinton, Mass.
Walsh was the first Irish-Catholic Governor of Massachusetts and also its first Irish-Catholic Senator. As Governor, he fought hard for a Women's suffrage Amendment to the Massachusetts constitution, but this effort failed. He also led the way toward establishing stricter film censorship in Massachusetts after large protests against D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation. In the Senate, he was an isolationist, opposing an American alliance with the United Kingdom up to the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
[edit] References
- ^ a b O'Toole, David Outing the Senator: Sex, Spies, and Videotape (2005) pp. 19-20. ISBN 097719700X.
- ^ Mallan, John P. Review of Dorothy G. Wayman's David I. Walsh: Citizen-Patriot, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1. (March 1953), pp. 126-128.
[edit] External links
- David I. Walsh at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography
| Preceded by Robert Luce |
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts 1913–1914 |
Succeeded by Edward P. Barry |
| Preceded by Eugene N. Foss |
Governor of Massachusetts 1914–1916 |
Succeeded by Samuel W. McCall |
| Preceded by John W. Weeks |
United States Senator (Class 2) from Massachusetts 1919–1925 Served alongside: Henry Cabot Lodge, William M. Butler |
Succeeded by Frederick H. Gillett |
| Preceded by William M. Butler |
United States Senator (Class 1) from Massachusetts 1926–1947 Served alongside: Frederick H. Gillett, Marcus A. Coolidge, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Sinclair Weeks, Leverett Saltonstall |
Succeeded by Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. |
| Preceded by Jesse H. Metcalf Rhode Island |
Chairman of the Senate Education and Labor Committee 1933–1937 |
Succeeded by Hugo L. Black Alabama |
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