Martin Leonard Sweeney, Sr. (April 15, 1885 – May 1, 1960), was a Democratic

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and the father of

Robert E. Sweeney Robert E. Sweeney (November 4, 1924 – June 30, 2007) was a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from Ohio and a son of another former Representative, Martin L. Sweeney. Early life Sweeney was born in the West Park neighb ...

Biography

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Sweeney attended

parochial Parochial is an adjective which may refer to: * Parishes, in religion ** Parish churches, also called parochial churches * Parochial schools, primary or secondary schools affiliated to a religious organisation * Parochialism Parochialism is the ...

and public schools in the area, including St. Bridget's Parochial School.SWEENEY, MARTIN L.
''Encyclopedia of Cleveland History''. Retrieved January 27, 2022. Prior to his political career, Sweeney worked as a laborer, hoisting engineer and a salesman from 1901 to 1913. He served as a member of the State House of Representatives in 1913 and 1914 and graduated from the

Cleveland Law School Cleveland State University College of Law is the law school of Cleveland State University, a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. The school traces its origins to Cleveland Law School (founded in 1897), which merged in 1946 with the Jo ...

Baldwin-Wallace College Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio. It was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin. The school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace C ...

in 1914. Sweeney was admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

that same year and begin practicing law in Cleveland. From 1924 to 1932 Sweeney was judge of the

municipal court City court or municipal court is a court of law with jurisdiction limited to a city or other municipality. It typically addresses "violations of city ordinances and may also have jurisdiction over minor criminal cases...and over certain civil cases ...

of Cleveland, where he vocally opposed

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

. Sweeney also served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1932. From 1927 to 1931, Sweeney was national president of the

Ancient Order of Hibernians The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH; ) is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be male, Catholic, and either born in Ireland or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in N ...

. Sweeney was elected as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

to the

Seventy-second Congress The 72nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1931 ...

to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles A. Mooney. He was re-elected to the Seventy-third and the four succeeding Congresses, serving from November 3, 1931, to January 3, 1943. Although Sweeney initially supported President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, he later turned against Roosevelt and sided with anti-Semitic priest and social justice activist

Charles Coughlin Charles Edward Coughlin ( ; October 25, 1891 – October 27, 1979), commonly known as Father Coughlin, was a Canadian-American Catholic priest based in the United States near Detroit. He was the founding priest of the National Shrine of the ...

. Sweeney's re-elections in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

and

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

without support from the national Democratic Party led him to continue his independent congressional course in an increasing swing towards non-interventionist politics. In September 1939, a column on ''The Clarksburg Exponent'' accused Sweeney of

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and reported that he had opposed the appointment of foreign-born Jews to the Cleveland federal bench. Sweeney in turn later sued the paper for $250,000, a case he lost in 1941. In the summer of 1940, a bill establishing a peacetime military draft, H.R. 10132, was introduced. Sweeney denounced the bill as an attempt to drag America into World War II on the side of Great Britain.

Beverly Vincent Beverly Mills Vincent (March 28, 1890 – August 15, 1980) was a U.S. representative from Kentucky. He was born in Brownsville, Edmonson County, Kentucky, March 28, 1890; attended the public schools, Western Kentucky State Teachers College at ...

(D-KY) said Sweeney was a traitor and a "son of a bitch." Sweeney swung at Vincent, and Vincent landed a hard right to Sweeney's head. The House doorkeeper called it the best fistfight he had witnessed in the House in his fifty years at his post. Sweeney was an unsuccessful candidate for re-nomination in 1942 after being targeted for his stand against British Lend Lease and his alleged isolationism. He was defeated in the primary by Michael Feighan, who represented Cleveland in Congress for the next twenty-eight years. He was unsuccessful for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Cleveland in 1933 and in 1941, and for the gubernatorial nomination in 1944. He practiced law in Cleveland until his death there on May 1, 1960. He was interred in Calvary Cemetery.

Family

His daughter was married to the son of Cuyahoga County Sheriff Martin O'Donnell (1886–1941). His first cousin was Dr. Francis E. Sweeney, (1894–1964) the prime suspect in the Cleveland Torso Murders (1934–1938)

References

Sources

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Martin Leonard 1885 births 1960 deaths 20th-century American judges Activists from Ohio American anti-war activists Baldwin Wallace University alumni Burials in Calvary Cemetery (Cleveland) Cleveland Municipal Court judges Lawyers from Cleveland Democratic Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives Non-interventionism Ohio lawyers 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American lawyers Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio Old Right (United States) 20th-century far-right politicians in the United States