Sam Ervin

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(b. Morganton, North Carolina, 27 Sept. 1896; d. 23 Apr. 1985) US; member of the US House of Representatives 1946 – 7; US Senator 1954 – 74; chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Watergate 1973 – 4 Ervin graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1917. After service in France during the First World War, when he was twice cited for gallantry, he graduated LLB from Harvard Law School in 1922 and began practising law in Morganton. He served for several years as a circuit judge at county level.

His political career began in 1923 when he was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly. He was re-elected in 1925 and 1931. His debut in national politics came in 1946 when he was elected US representative to fill a vacancy caused by the death of his brother, Joseph W. Ervin. He did not seek re-election to the lower house but in 1954 was appointed to the US Senate, also to fill a vacancy. Regular re-election followed until 1974 when he decided to retire and return to his Morganton law practice.

Ervin was a Southern Democrat. In the 1950s and 1960s he opposed civil rights legislation designed to improve the position of blacks. He supported the policy of containment, accepted the high levels of military expenditure this entailed, and supported American intervention in Vietnam. His conservatism did not extend to condoning the activities of Senator Joseph McCarthy, whom he voted to censure in 1954. He also opposed a national system of surveillance of dissidents in 1970.

During his twenty years as a Senator Ervin acquired a reputation as an authority on American constitutional law. This led to his appointment as chairman of Watergate committee hearings. Though a courteous Southerner with a folksy manner, Ervin was determined that constitutional propriety should be upheld. This turned him into a formidable opponent of the perpetrators of the Watergate débâcle and it led to fierce televised clashes with President Nixon and his aides. Showing characteristic modesty, Ervin described himself as "just an ol' country lawyer from Dixie" but the part he played in the Watergate investigations transformed him into a guardian of the constitution and American folk hero.

Despite his self-deprecating claims, Sam Ervin was no simple backwoodsman. He was a widely read, erudite man, famed for his inexhaustible store of quotations. He was a shrewd politician, of broadly conservative but independent judgement and unshakeable dedication to constitutional principles. After retiring from the Senate in 1974 he wrote his own account of Watergate and published his autobiography, Preserving the Constitution.

Lawyer, judge, and U.S. senator, Sam J. Ervin, Jr. (1896-1984) became a popular figure during one of the most trying times for the United States, when he chaired the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - the Watergate Committee.

Sam Ervin was born September 27, 1896, in Morganton, North Carolina. His ancestors, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, fled from religious persecution to settle in the new land in 1732. Educated in public schools and blessed with an insatiable appetite for learning, Ervin earned his college degree from the University of North Carolina in 1917, enlisted in World War I, and was wounded in combat in France. At one point during the war Ervin resigned his commission as a lieutenant as that was the only way he could return to the front and combat. A much decorated hero for his actions, when he returned home he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1922. From the mid-1920s until the mid-1950s he practiced law when he was not called to higher duties: as a representative to the North Carolina General Assemblies of 1923, 1925, and 1931; as a criminal court judge (Burke County) from 1935 to 1937; as a U.S. representative for one year (1946) to finish the term of office vacated by the death of his brother; and as an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1948 to 1954.

Ervin was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor William B. Umstead when Senator Clyde R. Hoey from North Carolina died in the summer of 1954. He was elected to complete that term in November of 1954 and was reelected by more than 60 percent of the vote in 1956, 1962, and 1968. During his 20 years in the Senate, Ervin served on several committees of note: the select committee investigating (and ultimately censuring) Senator Joseph McCarthy for activities which disgraced the Senate during McCarthy's anti-Communist smear campaign (1954); the select committee investigating labor racketeering, involving illegal activities in labor or management (1957-1960); and the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the Watergate Committee) in 1973 and 1974, which he chaired. He also served as chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights and succeeded in protecting the rights of persons in the military, of the mentally ill, of the criminally accused, and of American Indians. (However, he consistently opposed a liberal interpretation of the Constitution to facilitate legislation supporting civil rights during the 1960s.) In addition to the Judiciary Committee and the select committees, Ervin's regular assignments were on the Armed Services and Government Operations committees.

Ervin's role as chairman of the Watergate Committee allowed most of the country to observe through televised hearings several characteristics for which he is remembered: a person who held the Constitution in the highest regard and found trespassers to be among the lowest of criminals; a trial judge and attorney who knew how to press witnesses and generate relevant information; and, because of the nature of his appointment as chairman, an individual who was generally above partisan politics, even though he was usually classified as a conservative by his voting record.

Throughout his career, Ervin maintained that a strict interpretation of the Constitution was very important. He was intolerant of those who meddled with the Constitution, be they activist judges or individuals who violated the tenets of that document. While seldom outwardly critical of individuals, Ervin maintained that those individual freedoms protected by the Constitution - particularly those restrictions upon government - were the most sacred protections guaranteed by the Constitution and were necessary for the preservation of democratic government.

In retirement, Ervin practiced "a little law" in Morganton, North Carolina. He died April 23, 1984, of respiratory failure. He was survived by his wife, Margaret Bruce Bell, whom he married in 1924, and by two daughters and a son.

Further Reading

The only biography of Sam Ervin is Paul R. Clancy, Just a Country Lawyer (1974). Sam Ervin wrote of his experiences with the Watergate Committee in The Whole Truth: The Watergate Conspiracy (1980). The role of Senator Ervin during the Watergate era is documented in Samual Dash, Chief Counsel: Inside the Ervin Committee (1976). Ervin's views on the Constitution and the Supreme Court are presented in Sam J. Ervin, Jr. and Ramsey Clark, Rule of the Supreme Court: Policymaker or Adjudicator? (1970). Thad Stem and Alan Butler have presented information about Ervin's anecdotes in Senator Sam Ervin's Best Stories (1973), and Senator Ervin published his own account of many anecdotes in Humor of a Country Lawyer (1983). He summed up his long career in a 1984 book - Preserving the Constitution: The Autobiography of Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr.

Additional Sources

Dabney, Dick, A good man: the life of Sam J. Ervin, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.

• Born: Sept. 27, 1896, Morganton, N.C.
• Political party: Democrat
• Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduated, 1917; Harvard University Law School, graduated, 1922
• Representative from North Carolina: 1946–47
• Senator from North Carolina: 1954–74
• Died: Apr. 23, 1985, Winston-Salem, N.C.

When it became clear that the Watergate break-in had been more than just a “third-rate burglary” and that Congress needed to investigate the Nixon administration's tactics during the 1972 Presidential election, Senate majority leader Mike Mans-field (Democrat-Montana) wisely chose North Carolina senator Sam Ervin to chair the special investigating committee. The 76-year-old Ervin called himself “just a country lawyer.” But despite his grandfatherly appearance, Ervin was a shrewd politician, constitutional scholar, and relentless investigator.

As a conservative Southern Democrat, Ervin had opposed civil rights legislation, but as the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, he had labored long in defense of civil liberties. From his reading of the Bill of Rights, Ervin opposed excessive government secrecy and defended individual privacy and freedom of the press. When he became chairman of the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, formed to investigate Watergate, Ervin captivated national attention with his folksy sayings and Southern drawl. At the same time, his probing of witnesses from the Nixon administration exposed the “dirty tricks” they had employed during the election. Ervin's persistence led to the indictment and conviction of many government officials and eventually to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. (1973–74)

See also Bill of Rights; Investigations, congressional; Watergate investigation

Sources

• Dick Dabney, A Good Man: The Life of Sam J. Ervin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976).
• Sam Ervin, Preserving the Constitution: An Autobiography of Senator Sam Ervin (Charlottesville, Va.: Mitchie, 1984)

Quotes:

"A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under."

"I've always been worried about people who are willing to work for nothing. Sometimes that's all you get from them, nothing."