William Ezra Jenner (July 21, 1908 – March 9, 1985) was an American lawyer and politician from the state of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

. A

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, Jenner was an

Indiana state senator The Indiana Senate is the upper house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The Senate is composed of 50 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. Senators serve four-year terms ...

from 1934 to 1942, and a

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...

from 1944 to 1945 and again from 1947 to 1959. In the Senate, Jenner was a supporter of

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

Background

Jenner was born in

Marengo, Indiana Marengo is a town in Liberty Township, Crawford County, Indiana, United States. The population was 828 at the 2010 census. One of the tourist attractions and sources of revenue for the town is Marengo Cave, a U.S. National Landmark. Originally d ...

, on July 21, 1908,Isabel Wilkerson
William E. Jenner, Ex-Senator, Dead
''New York Times'' (March 11, 1985). to L.L. Woody and Jane McDonald Jenner. He attended Lake Placid Preparatory School in New York before attending

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest c ...

, where he graduated in 1930. Jenner worked as elevator operator in the old House Office Building while attending night classes at the

George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest top law school in the national capital. GW Law offers the largest range of co ...

. Jenner later graduated with a law degree from Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington.

Career

After law, Jenner practiced law in Paoli and later in

Shoals In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

Indiana Senate

Jenner entered politics in 1934, when he was first elected to the Indiana State Senate in 1934. He was minority leader from 1937 to 1939, and then majority leader and president pro tempore from 1939 to 1941. In 1940, Jenner ran for Governor of Indiana, finishing second at the Republican state convention. In 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Jenner resigned his seat to become a

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

in the

U.S. Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

. Jenner was discharged in 1944 at the rank of captain.

U.S. Senate

One month after his discharge from the Army Air Corps, Jenner was elected to the U.S. Senate seat that had been vacated by the death of Frederick Van Nuys. He served the last few months of Van Nuys's term from November 14, 1944, to January 3, 1945; he was not a candidate for the full six-year term that began in 1945.JENNER, William Ezra, (1908-1985)
''

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress The ''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress'' (Bioguide) is a biographical dictionary of all present and former members of the United States Congress and its predecessor, the Continental Congress. Also included are Delegates fro ...

''. Jenner was the first veteran of World War II elected to the Senate and the youngest member of the Senate. He ran for the Senate in 1946 defeating Congressman

Charles M. La Follette Charles Marion La Follette (February 27, 1898 – June 27, 1974) was an American lawyer and politician. His great-grandfather was William Heilman, who was in the United States House of Representatives from Indiana. He served as a Republi ...

1,994 to 105 at the Republican state convention. He then won the general election by over 150,000 votes. He ran for

governor of Indiana The governor of Indiana is the head of government of the State of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state governmen ...

for a second time in 1948, winning a plurality on the first ballot at the Republican state convention. Jenner lost the nomination on the second ballot to Holbart Creighton 885 to 931. Jenner was re-elected to the Senate in 1952. Jenner voted in favor of the

Civil Rights Act of 1957 The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwi ...

McCarthyism

In Congress, Jenner was the chairman of the Committee on Rules and Administration during the

Eighty-third Congress The 83rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 1953, until January 3, 1955, during the last two weeks of the Truman administration, with ...

. He was also a member of the Subcommittee on Internal Security.Robert Griffith, ''The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate'' (University of Massachusetts Press, 1996), p. 196. He was a strong supporter and friend of

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarth ...

and engaged in

. Jenner and McCarthy were both part of "a core of isolationist Republicans in the Senate" along with

Herman Welker Herman Orville Welker (December 11, 1906 – October 30, 1957) was an American politician from the state of Idaho. He was a member of the Idaho Republican Party and served one term in the United States Senate, from 1951 to 1957. Early years Bor ...

of Idaho and George W. Malone of Nevada. In 1950, when McCarthy issued a report falsely accusing a number of State Department employees of being secret Communists (see

Tydings Committee The Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees, more commonly referred to as the Tydings Committee, was a subcommittee authorized by in February 1950 to look into charges by Joseph R. McCarthy that he had a list of ...

), Jenner supported him, claiming that the State Department had engaged in "the most scandalous and brazen whitewash of treasonable conspiracy in our history" and stating: "Considering the fact that we are now at war ... how can we get the Reds out of Korea if we cannot get them out of Washington?" When McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954, Jenner gave a speech suggesting that censure resolution "was initiated by the Communist conspiracy." In the Senate, Jenner was a strident opponent of General

George Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the US Army under Pre ...

, who was appointed

Secretary of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in so ...

in 1950. During the

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

debate, Jenner and McCarthy formed part of a group of militantly anti-communist Republican Senators that attacked Marshall. Jenner "delivered a shrill, hour-long attack on the nominee" in which he also disparaged President Harry S. Truman and Secretary of State

Dean Acheson Dean Gooderham Acheson (pronounced ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truma ...

. Using McCarthist rhetoric, Jenner accused the Truman administration of "bloody tracks of treason" and called Marshall "a living lie" who was "joining hands once more with this criminal crowd of traitors and Communist appeasers ... under the direction of Mr. Truman and Mr. Acheson."Cray, p. 686. Jenner also "denounced and blamed Marshall for the

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

defeat and for his role in helping FDR 'trick America into a war,' the extension of

lend-lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

to the Communist Soviet Union, the 'selling out' of Eastern Europe at

Yalta Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Cri ...

, the loss of China, and the inclusion of an offer of aid to the Soviet Union under the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

." When Marshall was informed of Jenner's speech, the former general replied: "Jenner? Jenner? I do not believe I know the man." In 1951, after President Truman dismissed General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination, Jenner gave a speech on the floor of the Senate in which he said: "I charge that this country today is in the hands of a secret inner coterie, which is directed by agents of the Soviet Government. Our only choice is to impeach President Truman and find out who is the secret invisible government." Jenner introduced legislation that sought to strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction "in all the areas where it had interfered with the anticommunist program," a measure that Senator

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

maneuvered to oppose. Ultimately, Jenner's measure was tabled by a vote of 49-41. A consistent opponent of American

foreign aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Ai ...

Anti-Communist Ex-Sen. William E. Jenner Dies
. ''Los Angeles Times''. March 13, 1985. and any involvement in foreign affairs, he opposed U.S. participation in the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

. and other isolationist positions. During his tenure, right-wingers wanted Jenner to run for president as a

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

third-party candidate.Leibowitz, p. 369. Jenner claimed that the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

had infiltrated the American educational system in 1952. In 1958, he did not seek re-nomination.

Later life

After leaving the Senate, Jenner practiced law in Indianapolis and was the owner of the Seaway Corporation, a land development company. He also owned farms in Indiana and Illinois.

Personal life and death

In 1933, Jenner married Janet Paterson Cuthill (1908–2002) and had a child, William Edward Jenner (1942–2019). William Ezra Jenner died age 76 on March 9, 1985, of a respiratory illness at Dunn Memorial Hospital in

Bedford, Indiana Bedford is a city in Shawswick Township and the county seat of Lawrence County, Indiana, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 13,792. That is up from 13,413 in 2010. Bedford is the principal city of the Bedford, IN Micropo ...

. Jenner was interred at Crest Haven Memorial Gardens in Bedford, Indiana.

References

External links

* * * *
Let's Put America First
; address delivered by Jenner on February 14, 1955 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jenner, William E. 1908 births 1985 deaths People from Crawford County, Indiana Republican Party Indiana state senators McCarthyism George Washington University Law School alumni Indiana University Maurer School of Law alumni Old Right (United States) Republican Party United States senators from Indiana People from Bedford, Indiana People from Paoli, Indiana 20th-century American politicians American conspiracy theorists American anti-communists Indiana lawyers Farmers from Indiana People from Indianapolis