By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff
From his trips to Europe to his strong voice on the Senate floor to his dedication as Massachusetts’ governor, there was very little Senator Leverett Saltonstall could say he didn’t do by the time he retired to his Dover farm.
Sen. Saltonstall purchased his farm in 1928. It is from there that he received news of major events, like Pearl Harbor, as well as pondered important career decisions.
On January 5, 1939, Saltonstall was elected as governor of Massachusetts, just three years after an unsuccessful attempt of running for lieutenant governor. He served three two-year terms.
As the country faced changes brought on by World War II, Saltonstall made it his mission to make sure that the country kept on moving forward. In his New York Times obituary, written by Eric Pace, a particular incident was cited. Truck drivers were on strike, threatening transportation in New England. Desperate to get the region moving, Saltonstall went to see the strikers himself and convinced them to go back to work.
“‘Go back, and I give you my solemn promise that I will see to it personally that you get justice … Please go back.’ For an instant the meeting hall was silent. Then a single truck driver began to clap. Soon others joined in, cheers broke out, and the whole hall burst into thunderous ovation. Within hours the men were back on the job, and the Governor then engineered a compromise settlement,” wrote Pace.
In 1944, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge resigned and Saltonstall decided to run in the special election for his seat. Saltonstall won, and then won three more senatorial elections. Serving from 1945 until 1967, Sen. Saltonstall had an exceedingly productive and impactful career. He served on the Committee of Naval Affairs, the Committee on the District of Columbia, the Appropriations Committee, the Armed Services Committee, and the Small Business Committee. As a result of these important defense committee assignments, he had influence not only within his own country, but abroad, as well.
It is perhaps Sen. Saltonstall’s opposition to the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy, however, that is most often remembered.
The wave of McCarthyism and its titular senator is studied by every high school student in the United States. The question that seems to always be asked: how did anyone even let it McCarthy gain so much power? The simple answer: fear.
Senator McCarthy was very popular in Massachusetts. Though the two had gone back and forth in Senate meetings, Saltonstall never outwardly rebuked McCarthy. It should be noted that plenty of Massachusetts political figures let McCarthy’s actions slide for a long time for fear of losing office, including Senator Saltonstall. However, on December 2, 1954, Senator Saltonstall became the only member of the Republican Party voting in favor of censoring McCarthy. The punishment did not remove McCarthy from office, but it did make it nearly impossible for the sitting senator to have a productive career; his party removed him from every committee on which he served.
Ten years later, Saltonstall made another major country-altering decision and helped pass the landmark Civil Rights Act. He had voted in favor of an earlier Civil Rights Act in 1957, and its follow-ups in 1960 and 1964. He also threw his support behind the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Saltonstall was never one to quit too soon, but he knew when to quit. When he was first elected as a senator, he refused to take the oath of office so he could complete his entire term as governor. In 1965, Saltonstall announced that he would not run for a fifth senatorial term. In 1967, Saltonstall retired from the Senate. He gave up his seat in hopes that Edward Brooke, a rising Republican politician, would assume it. Brooke won, and became the first African-American popularly elected to the United States.
In 1976 Saltonstall published “Salty: Recollections of a Yankee in Politics,” a memoir about his time in government. On June 17, 1979, Leverett Saltonstall died of heart failure.
Today, few recognize the name Saltonstall, but they should. In an age where party affiliation seems to set the terms of all political discourse, Sen. Saltonstall’s independent streak seems particularly relevant.
