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John W. Bricker
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(b. Pleasant Township, 6 Sept. 1893; d. 22 Mar. 1986) US; State Attorney-General 1933 – 7, Governor 1938 – 46, vice-presidential candidate 1944, US Senator 1946 – 58 John Bricker was a conservative whose values reflected the isolationist wing of the Republican Party associated with Robert A. Taft. He attended Ohio State University, where he studied law. Although Bricker passed the Ohio bar examination in 1917, his legal training was interrupted by the First World War. Initially declared medically unfit to serve, Bricker became first an army athletic instructor and then, after getting ordained for the purpose, an army chaplain. He practised law in Ohio, becoming state Attorney-General in 1933.
In 1938 Bricker was elected Governor of Ohio, a position he held for three successive terms. In office Bricker was extremely successful at improving the state's finances while expanding its expenditure on social programmes and education. He was instinctively hostile to the New Deal and its expansion of federal government power, which he saw as a threat to the integrity of state government.
In 1944 Republican nominee Thomas Dewey chose Bricker as his running mate, rather than Everett Dirksen. Bricker's isolationist values appealed also to the far right but Bricker repudiated the attempt by Gerald L. K. Smith and the America First Party to nominate him as that party's vice-presidential candidate. The Dewey-Bricker ticket was defeated by Franklin Roosevelt but Bricker emerged as a significant figure in the Republican Party. He was elected to the Senate in 1946 and served two terms until defeated in 1958 as a result of a massive anti-Republican swing in Ohio.
In the Senate, Bricker was a fierce opponent of Communism and anything which ensnared America in international institutions or smacked of world government. He opposed American membership of the International Atomic Energy Agency and was hostile to the United Nations and foreign aid. He repeatedly tried to amend the constitution to limit the power of the President to make international agreements. Although all his efforts failed, the so-called "Bricker amendment" found support in both parties and underlined the strength of isolationist sentiment in Congress after the Second World War. In 1953, despite Eisenhower's rejection of the philosophy of the Bricker amendment, the Senate came within one vote of the two-thirds majority required to submit the amendment to the states.
| Wikipedia: John W. Bricker |
| John William Bricker | |
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54th Governor of Ohio
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| In office January 9, 1939 – January 8, 1945 |
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| Lieutenant | Paul M. Herbert |
| Preceded by | Martin L. Davey |
| Succeeded by | Frank J. Lausche |
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| In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1959 |
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| Preceded by | Kingsley A. Taft |
| Succeeded by | Stephen M. Young |
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| Born | September 6, 1893 Mount Sterling, Ohio |
| Died | March 22, 1986 (aged 92) Columbus, Ohio |
| Political party | Republican |
John William Bricker (September 6, 1893 – March 22, 1986) was a United States Senator and Governor of Ohio. A member of the Republican Party, he was the Republican nominee for Vice President in 1944.
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Early life
Bricker was born on a farm near Mount Sterling, Ohio. He attended The Ohio State University at Columbus, where he divided his time between the debating team and the varsity baseball team.[1] After graduating with a B.A. from Ohio State in 1916[2] and from its law department in 1920, he was admitted to the bar in 1917[clarification needed][citation needed] and commenced practice in Columbus in 1920.[3]
He was married to the former Harriet Day.
Public service
During World War I, Bricker served as first lieutenant and chaplain in the United States Army in 1917 and 1918. He subsequently served as solicitor for Grandview Heights, Ohio from 1920 to 1928, Assistant Attorney General of Ohio from 1923 to 1927, a member of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio from 1929 to 1932 and Attorney General of Ohio from 1933 to 1937.
He was elected Governor of Ohio for three two-year terms, serving from 1939 to 1945, each time winning with a greater margin of victory.[1] Bricker espoused a stance against centralized government, preferring to increase involvement in state and local governments, and made this known in his inaugural address as Governor:
There must be a revitalization of state and local governments throughout the nation. The individual citizen must again be conscious of his responsibility to his government and alert to the preservation of his rights as a citizen under it. That cannot be done by taking government further away, but by keeping it at home.
– John W. Bricker, inaugural gubernatorial address, January 9, 1939.[1]
Bricker was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1944, sharing the unsuccessful ticket with Presidential nominee Thomas Dewey, which lost to Franklin Roosevelt.[2] He was then elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1946 and re-elected in 1952, serving from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1959.
His Senate service is best remembered for his attempts to amend the United States Constitution to limit the President's treaty-making powers (the Bricker Amendment). He was the chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce during the 83rd Congress.
In 1958, Stephen Young ran for the Senate against the incumbent Bricker. Bricker seemed invincible, but Young capitalized on widespread public opposition to the proposed "right to work" amendment to Ohio's constitution, which Bricker had endorsed. Few thought that Young, 70 at the time, could win; even members of his own party had doubts, particularly Ohio's other senator, Democrat Frank J. Lausche. In an upset, Young defeated Bricker by 52% to 48%, who then retired from public life.
Professional life
In 1945, Bricker founded the Columbus, Ohio law firm now known as Bricker & Eckler. The firm now has additional offices in Cleveland, Ohio and West Chester, Ohio. The West Chester office serves the cities of Cincinnati and Dayton. "Bricker" is now one of the ten largest firms in the state of Ohio.
After leaving the Senate, John Bricker resumed the practice of law. He died in Columbus at the age of ninety-two and is interred there at Green Lawn Cemetery.
Miscellaneous
- On The Ohio State University campus in Columbus, the Bricker Hall building was named after Bricker. The building currently serves as the home of the Department of Sociology. Bricker was a member of the OSU Board of Trustees from 1948 to 1969.[4]
- In Phillip K. Dick's 1962 novel The Man in the High Castle, set in an alternate timeline, Bricker succeeded John Nance Garner as the Vice President of the United States in 1940.
Notes
- ^ a b c Ohio Fundamental Documents: John Bricker
- ^ a b "History of Bricker & Eckler". http://www.bricker.com/FirmInformation/History.asp.
- ^ BRICKER, John William, (1893 - 1986). Retrieved on 2009-04-24 from http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000820.
- ^ "Campus Connections, Bricker Hall" (PDF). The Ohio State University, Physical Facilities. http://fod.osu.edu/newsletter/2004/2004_dec.pdf. Retrieved October 28 2006.
External links
| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by Gilbert Bettman |
Ohio Attorney General 1933 – 1937 |
Succeeded by Herbert S. Duffy |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Martin L. Davey |
Governor of Ohio 1939 – 1945 |
Succeeded by Frank J. Lausche |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by Kingsley A. Taft |
United States Senator (Class 1) from Ohio 1947 – 1959 Served alongside: Robert A. Taft I, Thomas A. Burke, George H. Bender, Frank J. Lausche |
Succeeded by Stephen M. Young |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Charles L. McNary |
Republican Party Vice Presidential candidate 1944 |
Succeeded by Earl Warren |
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