Daniel Brewster

Early life, education, and military service

Daniel Baugh Brewster, Sr. was born on November 23, 1923, in Baltimore County, Maryland, in the Green Spring Valley Region. He was the oldest of six children of Ottolie Y. (Wickes) and Daniel Baugh Brewster. Brewster was born into a wealthy family and was "raised in comfort on a beautifully appointed farm in Maryland fox-hunting country". The Washington Post described him as an "inheritor of the Baugh Chemical fortune". His father died when he was 10 years of age.

Education

Brewster was educated at the Gilman School in Baltimore City and at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He attended college at Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University before the U.S. entry into World War II.

After the war, Brewster again attended Johns Hopkins. He then enrolled at the University of Maryland Law School, from which he graduated with an LL.B. degree in June 1949. He was admitted to the bar in November 1949 and began practicing law in Towson, Maryland.

Military service

In 1942, Brewster enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was commissioned from the ranks in 1943. During World War II, he served in the Pacific theatre, including participating in the Battle of Guam and the Battle of Okinawa. For his actions during the war, he received a Bronze Star. He was wounded seven times, receiving a Purple Heart and a Gold Star in lieu of a second award. He left active duty in 1946 but continued in the Reserve until 1972, reaching the rank of colonel.{{cite web |access-date=December 19, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117003403/http://www.lib.umd.edu/archivesum/actions.DisplayEADDoc.do?source=MdU.ead.histms.0064.xml&style=ead |archive-date=January 17, 2010

Political career

Maryland House of Delegates (1950-1958)

Brewster, a Democrat, was elected as to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1950. At age 26, he was one of the youngest members of Maryland's state legislature in history. He served in the House of Delegates until 1958.

U.S. House of Representatives (1959-1963)

In 1958, Brewster was elected to the House of Representatives from the 2nd district of Maryland, defeating the Republican Party candidate, J. Fife Symington Jr. He was a member of the House during the Eighty-sixth (1959–1961) and Eighty-seventh Congresses (1961–1963), serving on the United States House Committee on Armed Services and on the subcommittee on Military Personnel, Manpower Utilization, and Emergency Defense Transportation.

U.S. Senate (1963-1969)

In 1962, Brewster ran for the United States Senate seat vacated by the retiring Republican senator John Marshall Butler. He defeated Congressman Edward Tylor Miller to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Maryland since 1946. as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court of the United States. Brewster was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Brewster sought re-election to the Senate in 1968. However, "his complicated personal life, his support of the Vietnam War and his increasingly serious problems with alcohol took their toll", and he was defeated by Republican Charles Mathias.

In 1978, Brewster stated that the greatest mistake he made in his public life was his support for the Vietnam War.

1964 presidential election

In 1964, Brewster ran in the Democratic presidential primaries against segregationist George Wallace. As Lyndon Johnson refused to run nationally, "favorite sons" were run in his place against Wallace, such as Matthew E. Welsh of Indiana and John W. Reynolds of Wisconsin. Brewster won his state's primary but was embarrassed by Wallace's showing of 43 percent; he barely carried Baltimore County.

Legal troubles

In 1969, Brewster was indicted on 10 criminal counts of solicitation and acceptance of bribes while a United States senator,{{cite book |url-access=registration

At trial, the judge dismissed five of the charges, saying that Brewster's actions were protected under the Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The prosecution appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard the case in 1971 and 1972. In June 1972, the Court held 6 to 3 in United States v. Brewster that the taking of illegal bribes was not protected speech, as taking of a bribe was not part of the "performance of a legislative function".

The charges were reinstated. Brewster stood trial and was found "not guilty" of the bribery charges but was convicted of accepting an unlawful gratuity "without corrupt intent." However, in August 1974, his conviction was overturned on appeal due to the trial judge's improper instructions to the jury. In 1975, he pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor charge of accepting an illegal gratuity "without corrupt intent" and was fined and allowed to keep his law license. The government dropped the other charges.[[File:1967 DBB Military Color (March).jpg|thumb|Daniel Brewster retired from the [[United States Marine Corps|Marine Corps]] as a [[Colonel]] after thirty years of service.]]

Post-Senate career

After leaving the Senate, Brewster took up farming in Glyndon, Maryland.

As of 1978, Brewster operated his farm, worked as an alcoholism counselor at a veterans' hospital, led the Governor's Advisory Council on Alcoholism, and worked at "a quarter-way house in Baltimore".

Personal life and death

Brewster married Carol Leiper DeHavenon of Philadelphia in 1954. The couple had two sons, Daniel Baugh Brewster, Jr. (born 1956) and Gerry Leiper Brewster (born 1958).

In 1967, Brewster "attended the funeral of William Bullitt, the U.S. ambassador to France. There, he became reacquainted with Anne Bullitt, Mr. Bullitt's daughter and Mr. Brewster's first fiancee, who had jilted the senator while he was overseas during the war". Brewster divorced his first wife. On April 29, 1967, he married Anne Bullitt (1924–2007) at Glyndon, Maryland. Brewster's second marriage also ended in divorce.

Brewster was an alcoholic. According to his account, his drinking began to spiral out of control in 1964; by 1969, he was "'drinking with a vengeance'", and he almost died following an "alcoholic collapse". He sought inpatient rehabilitation multiple times, and reportedly became sober in 1973.

In 1976, Brewster married Judy Lynn Aarsand after meeting her at an alcohol treatment facility. The couple had three children, Danielle (born 1977) and twins Jennilie and Dana (born 1979).

Brewster survived large cell lymphoma and leukemia in the 1980s.

Brewster died of liver cancer on August 19, 2007, at age 83. He was the last living former U.S. senator who left office in the 1960s. He is buried at Saint Thomas' Episcopal Church Cemetery, Owings Mills, Maryland.

Legacy

Several individuals who served on Brewster's Senate staff in the 1960s later became politically prominent, including Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer.

In 2023, a biography of Brewster by John W. Frece, Self-Destruction: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster, was published by Loyola University Maryland's Apprentice House Press.

References

References

1. [https://www.nytimes.com/1934/05/16/archives/daniel-baugh-brewster-vice-president-of-fidelity-trust-co-of.html?sq=Daniel%2520Baugh%2520Brewster&scp=3&st=cse Obituary: "Daniel Baugh Brewster"] ''New York Times.'' May 16, 1934.
2. Kernan, Michael. (August 24, 1978). "The Fall and Rise of Dan Brewster: Life Close to the Land". Washington Post.
3. "Brewster, Daniel Baugh (1923-2007)".
4. Brewster, Daniel B.. (February 9, 1966). "Statement of Daniel B. Brewster". U.S. Government Printing Office.
5. (June 4, 1949). "To Graduate From U. of M.". [[The Baltimore Sun]].
6. (November 9, 1949). "94 Admitted To State Bar". [[The Baltimore Sun]].
7. "HR 8601. PASSAGE. -- House Vote #102 -- Mar 24, 1960".
8. "HR. 7152. PASSAGE. -- Senate Vote #409 -- Jun 19, 1964".
9. "TO PASS S. 1564, THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965. -- Senate Vote #78 -- May 26, 1965".
10. "CONFIRMATION OF NOMINATION OF THURGOOD MARSHALL, THE FIRST NEGRO APPOINTED TO THE SUPREME COURT.". GovTrack.us.
11. (27 August 2007). "Daniel B. Brewster, 83, Former Senator, Dies". The New York Times.
12. (August 21, 2007). "Senator, war hero backed civil rights". Baltimore Sun.
13. (May 30, 1964). "Primary Vote Now Official: Brewster Defeats Wallace By 52,247". The Baltimore Sun.
14. Ervin, Sam J. Jr.. (1973). "The ''Gravel'' and ''Brewster'' Cases: An Assault on Congressional Independence". [[Virginia Law Review]].
15. (June 26, 1975). "Ex-senator Brewster pleads no contest". The New York Times.
16. "The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Battlefield to Baxmeyer".
17. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/09/AR2010020903808.html Obituary: "Carol L. Brewster"] ''Washington Post.'' February 10, 2010.
18. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E4DE113AF931A3575AC0A9619C8B63&scp=1&sq=Anne%20Moen%20Bullitt%20Biddle&st=cse Obituary: "Anne Moen Bullitt Biddle"] ''New York Times.'' September 2, 2007.
19. Weisman, Jonathan and Lois Romano. (November 16, 2006). "Pelosi Splits Democrats With Push For Murtha". The Washington Post.
20. "War Hero and U.S. Senator Danny Brewster Had It All, and It Nearly Killed Him. What Happened? {{!}} Apprentice House Press / Loyola University Maryland".