Frederick Van Nuys | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Senator fromIndiana | |
| In office March 4, 1933 – January 25, 1944 | |
| Preceded by | James Eli Watson |
| Succeeded by | Samuel D. Jackson |
| Member of theIndiana Senate | |
| In office 1913–1916 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1874-04-16)April 16, 1874 Falmouth, Indiana, United States |
| Died | January 25, 1944(1944-01-25) (aged 69) Vienna, Virginia, United States |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | |
Frederick Van Nuys (April 16, 1874 – January 25, 1944) was aUnited States senator fromIndiana. Born inFalmouth, he attended thepublic schools and graduated fromEarlham College (Richmond, Indiana) in 1898 and from Indiana Law School (nowIndiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law) in 1900. He wasadmitted to the bar in 1900 and commenced practice inShelbyville moving shortly afterward toAnderson. From 1906 to 1910 he wasprosecuting attorney ofMadison County and was a member of theIndiana Senate from 1913 to 1916, serving aspresident pro tempore in 1915. He moved to Indianapolis in 1916 and continued the practice of law; he wasUnited States Attorney for the U.S. District of Indiana from 1920 to 1922.
According to an interview inThe Literary Digest, he pronounced his last name "van-NIECE".[1]
He was elected as aDemocrat to the U.S. Senate in1932, soundly defeating longtime incumbent and Majority LeaderJames Eli Watson. He was an opponent of theEighteenth Amendment and called for changes to theVolstead Act.[2] In 1937, he joined with SenatorRobert F. Wagner in introducing an anti-lynching bill in the Senate. TheHouse of Representatives passed a similar numbered bill (HR 1507) by a wide 277–120 margin. The bill failed to achieve even a simple majority on either cloture vote in the Senate in 1938 because of the way the Senate Judiciary committee rewrote the bill.
While in the Senate he was chairman of theCommittee on Expenditures in Executive Departments (76th Congress) and a member of theCommittee on the Judiciary (77th and78th Congresses).
Although he was a Democrat who was elected as part ofFranklin D. Roosevelt’s sweeping victory, Van Nuys was not always a reliable supporter ofNew Deal policies and opposed the president’s plan toenlarge theUnited States Supreme Court.[3] He also stayed outside of the Indiana Democratic Party political machine opposing the party in patronage matters.[3] His positions led some forces in the Democratic Party, including theAFL–CIO to oppose his renomination in 1938. Loyalists to GovernorsPaul McNutt andM. Clifford Townsend sought to "eliminate" him from the Senate, which was welcomed by the Roosevelt administration.[4]
After initially threatening to run as an independent, he secured support for the Democratic nomination and faced Republican newspaper publisherRaymond E. Willis in thegeneral election. Van Nuys won the election by a mere 5,100 votes, which led Willis to appeal to the Senate for a recount, alleging election irregularities. The Senate denied the recount on the grounds that the affected votes would not have changed the results.[5]
In 1943 a confidential analysis byIsaiah Berlin of theSenate Foreign Relations Committee for the BritishForeign Office stated of Van Nuys:
his voting record is a very mixed one; in 1939 he was one of the members of the committee which voted to postpone consideration of theNeutrality Act in June of that year; in October he voted for a revision but not for repeal. LikeGeorge andGillette, he is one of the Senators whom the1938 purge failed to eliminate, and his feeling towards the President is, therefore, somewhat cool. He voted forLend-Lease in common with most Democrats, against reciprocal trade agreements, and occasionally votes with the FarmBloc. A man of very uncertain views tinged with isolationism and liable, on the whole, to vote with theConservatives.[6]
He died on January 25, 1944, at his home inVienna, Virginia, after a short illness and was buried in East Maplewood Cemetery,Anderson, Indiana. GovernorHenry Schricker appointedSamuel D. Jackson to succeed him in the Senate.
Media related toFrederick Van Nuys at Wikimedia Commons| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Albert Stump | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromIndiana (Class 3) 1932,1938 | Succeeded by Cornelius O'Brien |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. senator (Class 3) from Indiana 1933–1944 Served alongside:Arthur Raymond Robinson, Sherman Minton,Raymond E. Willis | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chairman of theSenate Judiciary Committee 1941–1944 | Succeeded by |
| Class 1 |  | |
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| Class 3 | ||
| Expenditures in Executive Departments (1921–1952) |  | |
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| Government Operations (1952–1977) | ||
| Governmental Affairs (1977–2005) | ||
| Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (2005–) | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
