"Indiana Congressman" Charles A. Halleck Hand Written Note Todd Mueller COA

Description

Up for auction
"Indiana Congressman" Charles A. Halleck Hand Written Note Dated 1970.
This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-3969
Charles Abraham Halleck
(August 22, 1900 – March 3, 1986) was an American politician. He was the
Republican
leader of the
United States House of Representatives
from the
second district of Indiana
. Halleck was born near
DeMotte
, in
Jasper County
, Indiana, the son of Abraham and Lura (née Luce) Halleck. He served in the infantry of the
United States Army
in
World War I
. After military service, Halleck attended
Indiana University
at
Bloomington
. In 1924, Halleck was admitted to the bar and began practicing in
Rensselaer, Indiana
. From 1924 to 1934, he was the prosecuting attorney for the 13th district court. In 1935, Halleck was elected to fill the House vacancy created by the death of Congressman-elect
Frederick Landis
, and remained in that position until 1969. A prominent member of the
conservative coalition
, he served as the
House Majority Leader
after the elections of 1946 and 1952. He was
House Minority Leader
from 1959 to 1964. Halleck noted that a highlight of his career came at the
1940 Republican National Convention
, when he nominated another person from Indiana,
Wendell Willkie
. Noting the mixed reception he got, Halleck said, "I got more brickbats and more bouquets over that speech than any other I've ever made."
In 1944, even before
Thomas Dewey
was named as the Republican presidential nominee, Halleck, as the new chairman of the
National Republican Congressional Committee
, addressed a party gathering in
Chicago
. He rejected the Democrat "don't-change-horses-while-crossing-the-stream" mantra and declared that a Republican president would retain
George C. Marshall
,
Dwight Eisenhower
,
Douglas MacArthur
, and
William F. Halsey
in their military positions. He attacked what he called the
New Deal
"snooping into our ice boxes," a reference to the
Office of Price Administration
and
rationing
. Halleck said that Americans should "live again as God meant us to live and not as some
bureaucrat
in Washington... would like us to live."
According to Halleck, he was rumored to be Thomas Dewey's vice-presidential nominee in Dewey's second general election campaign in 1948 if Halleck guaranteed the support of the Indiana delegation at the
1948 Republican National Convention
. In the end, Dewey selected the
governor of California
,
Earl Warren
. The Dewey-Warren ticket surprisingly narrowly lost that November, to the Democratic
Truman
-
Barkley
ticket.
In 1959, with the declining popularity of Eisenhower enabling Democrats to maintain their hold on the House, Halleck parlayed his following among Congressional Republicans and the frequent public approval of Eisenhower and
Richard Nixon
into a successful challenge to the 20-year reign of
Joseph W. Martin, Jr.
, as the leader of House Republicans.
He was a strong opponent of the liberal social proposals of Democrats
John F. Kennedy
and
Lyndon Johnson
but supported the
Vietnam War
and voted in favor of the
Civil Rights Acts of 1957
, 1960
1964
, and
1968
, as well as the
24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965
. Along with Senator
Everett Dirksen
, he was the face of the
Republican Party
in most of the 1960s, and both made frequent appearances on television news and talk programs. The press jocularly nicknamed his joint appearances with Mr. Dirksen the "Ev and Charlie Show." After the heavy election setbacks of 1964, Halleck was defeated in his bid to remain Minority Leader by
Gerald Ford
, who was the nominee of the
Young Turks
.