Bill Langer | |
|---|---|
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| United States Senator fromNorth Dakota | |
| In office January 3, 1941 – November 8, 1959 | |
| Preceded by | Lynn Frazier |
| Succeeded by | Norman Brunsdale |
| 17th and 21stGovernor of North Dakota | |
| In office January 6, 1937 – January 5, 1939 | |
| Lieutenant | Thorstein H. H. Thoresen |
| Preceded by | Walter Welford |
| Succeeded by | John Moses |
| In office December 31, 1932 – June 21, 1934 | |
| Lieutenant | Ole H. Olson |
| Preceded by | George F. Shafer |
| Succeeded by | Ole H. Olson |
| 10thAttorney General of North Dakota | |
| In office January 3, 1917 – January 5, 1921 | |
| Governor | Lynn Frazier |
| Preceded by | Henry Linde |
| Succeeded by | William Lemke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1886-09-30)September 30, 1886 |
| Died | November 8, 1959(1959-11-08) (aged 73) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (NPL faction) |
| Spouse | Lydia Cady |
| Education | University of North Dakota (LLB) Columbia University (BA) |
William "Wild Bill"Langer (September 30, 1886 – November 8, 1959) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 17thgovernor of North Dakota from 1932 to 1934 and the 21st governor from 1937 to 1939. His governorship was demarcated by a scandal that forced him out of office and into multiple trials.
Langer was elected to theUnited States Senate in 1940, serving until he died in office in 1959. As a senator, he strongly opposed American military involvement in world affairs, being derided by his opponents as an isolationist.
Langer was born on September 30, 1886, nearEverest,Dakota Territory,[1] toGerman-Americans Frank and Mary (Weber) Langer. HisCatholic father, Frank Langer, was a member of the first legislature of the state of North Dakota. William, who spokeGerman fluently,[2] was valedictorian of Casselton High School upon graduation in 1904. He obtained a bachelor of laws from theUniversity of North Dakota inGrand Forks, but was too young upon graduation to practice law. He therefore continued his undergraduate education atColumbia, where he graduated at the top of his class in 1910. Although he was offered a position at a prominent New York law firm, he elected to return to North Dakota, where he practiced law inMandan before starting his career in politics.
Langer married Lydia Cady, the daughter of New York architectJ. Cleaveland Cady, in 1918,[3] and had four daughters, Emma, Lydia, Mary, and Cornelia (who became a wife of abstract painterKenneth Noland).
In 1914, Langer was appointed state's attorney ofMorton County and was one of a few non-farmers on theNonpartisan League (NPL)Republican 1916 state ticket. He was elected state attorney general as the newly formed NPL party swept to victory in the 1916 election, but soon clashed with the party's founder and mercurial leaderArthur C. Townley. By 1920, Langer was publicly accusing Townley ofBolshevism, and failed in a primary campaign to replace the incumbent NPL governorLynn Frazier as the party's gubernatorial candidate. Langer's break with the NPL leadership was a reflection of the infighting that limited the party's eventual influence on North Dakota politics.
Langer eventually mended his rift with the NPL and was elected governor of North Dakota in 1932. As governor, Langer in 1933 required all state employees to donate part of their annual salaries to the NPL and to theLeader, a weekly newspaper owned by high-ranking officials in his administration. Collecting this money was not prohibited by state law and was a common, traditional practice. But when donations were made by highway department employees, who were paid through federal relief programs, the U.S. Attorney for North Dakota,P. W. Lanier, charged that the donations constituted a conspiracy to defraud the federal government. Brought to trial in 1934, Langer and five co-conspirators were convicted. The trial was presided over by JudgeAndrew Miller and prosecuted by Lanier, two of Langer's strongest political opponents in the state.[4]
The first trial was littered with procedural errors that made it invalid on appeal, including improper and rigged jury selection (the jurors were alleged to have had personal bias against Langer and been hand-picked by Lanier) and heavily biased jury instructions.[4]
Because of the felony conviction, theNorth Dakota Supreme Court on September 19, 1934, ordered Langer removed from office and declared Lieutenant GovernorOle H. Olson the legitimate governor.[5] Langer signed a Declaration of Independence of North Dakota, declared martial law in Bismarck, and barricaded himself in thegovernor's mansion.[6] He eventually relented when his own officers refused to recognize his authority, and Olson served the remainder of Langer's term as governor.[7]
In 1935, the convictions were overturned on appeal.[8] The case against Langer was retried twice in 1935. Miller, following a recusal motion by Langer, refused to step down as judge in the first retrial, which resulted in a hung jury. Between the second and third trials, Lanier filed charges against Langer for committing perjury in his recusal motion against Miller. This trial, unprecedented on perjury in an affidavit requesting a recusal, resulted in adirected verdict to acquit Langer. The second retrial of the original charges, presided over by a judge other than Miller, resulted in Langer's acquittal.[4]
Throughout the trials, Langer maintained that he was innocent and the victim of a political vendetta by Miller and Lanier. He wasreelected governor in 1936. Historian Lawrence Larsen has called Langer "a master of political theater".[9]
Langer's wife, Lydia, ran for governor in1934 but lost to Democratic candidateThomas H. Moodie.[10][11]
In 1938, Langerran for the Senate as an independent, and received 42% of the vote, losing to RepublicanGerald Nye.
The 1940 Senate election was another very dramatic one. Langer defeated incumbent Lynn Frazier in the Republican primary, and then faced both the Democratic candidate,Charles Joseph Vogel, and Republican/NPL CongressmanWilliam Lemke, who declined to run for reelection to Congress in order to run for the Senate as an independent. Langer won the election with 38% of the vote.
Because of the trials mentioned above, Langer's qualifications were questioned under Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution, which declares the U.S. Senate the ultimate judge of its members' elections, qualifications, and returns. The Senate seated Langer conditionally and began an investigation into his trials. TheCommittee on Privileges and Elections found Langer guilty of "moral turpitude" and unqualified to be a U.S. senator. The full Senate reversed the committee and voted to seat Langer.[4] The vote to expel Langer failed, then needing 64 votes to reach the two-third majority to pass.[12]
Biographer Glenn H. Smith calls Langer's Senate career "A Study in Isolationism, 1940–1959" and emphasizes his close ties with German American and Scandinavian American voters who bitterly remembered the First World War in the Dakotas and deeply distrusted Britain and the United Nations.[13] Like SenatorHenrik Shipstead of Minnesota, Langer championednon-interventionism[14] and supported minimizing America's involvement inWorld War II. At home, he concentrated on making life easier for North Dakotan farmers by raising wheat prices and granting government relief. He was also adamant about implementing affordable healthcare for everyone. As a senator, he served on the Post Office, Civil Service and Indian Affairs committees. He and Shipstead were the only senators to vote against theUnited Nations Charter in 1945.[10] He was also one of seven senators to oppose full U.S. entry into theUnited Nations.[15]
After African-American organizations asked Langer to propose a bill for the federal government to pay for the repatriation of African-Americans to the African continent, he did so.[16] The bill, S. 1800, failed to pass.[16] Langer was a Zionist who supported the establishment ofIsrael. During World War II, he had also supported American action to rescue Jewish refugees.[17]
In September 1950, Langer filibustered to prevent the override of PresidentHarry S. Truman's veto of theMcCarran Internal Security Act for five hours before collapsing.[18]
In 1951, Langer lobbiedJohn J. McCloy, the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, to grant a reprieve toMartin Sandberger, a high-ranking SS official who had been convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the mass murder of Jews and others in Estonia during theHolocaust.[19] Although sentenced to die by the tribunal of theEinsatzgruppen trial, in no small part due to Langer's lobbying,[19] Sandberger's sentence was commuted and he served only 13 years in custody. He died in 2010, at the age of 98.[20]
After theNonpartisan League merged with the state Democratic party, Langer remained on the Republican ticket in the 1958 Senate elections and won without making a single campaign appearance in the state. He voted for theCivil Rights Act of 1957.[21] Langer died in Washington, D.C., on November 8, 1959. He was the last U.S. senator tolie in state in the Senate Chamber untilRobert Byrd ofWest Virginia in 2010.[22]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Attorney General of North Dakota 1917–1920 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forNorth Dakota Attorney General 1916, 1918 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of North Dakota 1932,1934 (withdrew) | Succeeded by Lydia Cady Langer |
| Vacant Title last held by William Lemke1922 | Nonpartisan League nominee forGovernor of North Dakota 1936 | Last |
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromNorth Dakota (Class 1) 1940,1946,1952,1958 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of North Dakota 1932–1934 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of North Dakota 1937–1939 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from North Dakota 1941–1959 Served alongside:Gerald Nye,John Moses,Milton Young | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Judiciary Committee 1953–1955 | Succeeded by |
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| Civil Service and Retrenchment (1873–1921) | ||
| Civil Service (1921–1947) | ||
| Post Office and Civil Service (1947–1977) | ||
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