“Maryland Senator” John Marshall Butler Hand Signed TLS Dated 1961

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“Maryland Senator” John Marshall Butler Hand Signed TLS Dated 1961
ES-3041D
John Marshall Butler
(July 21, 1897 – March 14, 1978) was an American lawyer and politician. A
Republican
, he served as a
United States Senator
from
Maryland
from 1951 to 1963. Born in
Baltimore
,
Maryland
, to John Harvey and Eunice West (née Riddle) Butler, he received his early education at public schools in his native city. He worked as a
paperboy
and later an employee at a mattress factory. During
World War I
, he served as a private in 110th Field Artillery (
29th Division
) of the
US Army
from 1917 to 1918. After his military service, he returned to Baltimore and attended
Johns Hopkins University
(1919-1921) before joining his father's
real estate
business. He studied nights at the
University of Maryland School of Law
, where he received his law degree in 1926. After his admission to the bar, he joined the Baltimore law firm of Venable, Baetjer & Howard, where he worked until 1950. He served as a member of City Service Commission of Baltimore from 1947 to 1949. In 1950, Butler was elected as a
Republican
to the
United States Senate
from Maryland. In the Republican primary, he lost the popular vote to
D. John Markey
by a margin of 51%-49%, but won the nomination after receiving a larger unit vote count at the state convention.
[4]
In the general election, he faced four-term
Democratic
incumbent
Millard Tydings
. Butler received strong support from Senator
Joseph McCarthy
of
Wisconsin
, whose accusations of
Communist
infiltration into the
State Department
had been rejected by the
Tydings Committee
. During the campaign, McCarthy's staff distributed a pamphlet that featured a falsified photograph showing Tydings with Communist leader
Earl Browder
. Butler eventually defeated Tydings by a margin of 53%-46%.Following the election results, Tydings petitioned the Senate to disqualify Butler due to McCarthy's campaign tactics. The Senate subsequently convened a special subcommittee, which declared that Butler's campaign used "despicable methods" against Tydings and fined one of his aides ,000, but refused to expel Butler. Butler admitted to paying the printer of the pamphlet and described the falsified photograph as "a product of enthusiastic but ill-advised friends."
During his tenure in the Senate, Butler established himself as a staunch conservative. He sponsored the
Communist Control Act of 1954
, which outlawed the Communist Party and authorized the prosecution of Communist-infiltrated organizations. When the federal courts blocked some prosecutions, Butler submitted a constitutional amendment in 1955 to limit the court's jurisdiction and an omnibus bill in 1958 for the same purpose. He was one of the twenty-two Senators who voted against the
censure
of Senator McCarthy in 1954. He supported returning offshore oil lands to the states, and voted in favor of the non-interventionist
Bricker Amendment
. In 1956, Butler was re-elected to a second term after defeating Democrat
George P. Mahoney
by a margin of 53%-47%.
[6]
Former Senator Tydings had originally won the Democratic nomination, but later dropped out of the race due to poor health.
[4]
Butler decided not to seek re-election to a third term in 1962. Butler did not sign the 1956
Southern Manifesto
, and voted in favor of the
Civil Rights Acts of 1957
and
1960
, but did not vote on the
24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
.
[9]
In 1959 he was the lone Republican senator to vote against Hawaiian statehood.