Editing Hubert Humphrey (section)

==United States Senate (1949–1964)==
Humphrey was elected to the [[United States Senate]] in [[1948 U.S. Senate election|1948]] on the [[Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party|DFL]] ticket, defeating James M. Shields in the DFL primary with 89% of the vote,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leg.state.mn.us/archive/sessions/electionresults/1948-09-14-p-man.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.leg.state.mn.us/archive/sessions/electionresults/1948-09-14-p-man.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=PRIMARY ELECTION RETURNS ON ELECTION HELD September 14, 1948|publisher=leg.state.mn.us}}</ref> and unseating incumbent Republican [[Joseph H. Ball]] in the general election with 60% of the vote.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leg.state.mn.us/archive/sessions/electionresults/1948-11-02-g-man.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.leg.state.mn.us/archive/sessions/electionresults/1948-11-02-g-man.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=GENERAL ELECTION RETURN ON ELECTION ON ELECTION HELD November 2, 1948|publisher=leg.state.mn.us}}</ref> He took office on January 3, 1949, becoming the first Democrat elected senator from Minnesota since before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/states/MN/senators.htm|title=Minnesota's United States Senators|publisher=senate.gov}}</ref> Humphrey wrote that the victory heightened his sense of self, as he had beaten the odds of defeating a Republican with statewide support.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics|page=86|year=1991|publisher=Univ Of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0816618972|first=Hubert|last=Humphrey}}</ref> Humphrey's father died that year, and Humphrey stopped using the "Jr." suffix on his name. He was reelected in [[1954 U.S. Senate election|1954]] and [[1960 U.S. Senate election|1960]].<ref name="Humphrey Bioguide"/> His colleagues selected him as [[Majority Whip of the United States Senate|majority whip]] in 1961, a position he held until he left the [[United States Senate|Senate]] on December 29, 1964, to assume the vice presidency.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9nYh3RocaG8C&pg=PA305|title=The Oxford Guide to the United States Government|author=John J. Patrick|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=9780195142730}}</ref> Humphrey served from the [[81st United States Congress|81st]] to the [[87th United States Congress|87th]] sessions of Congress, and in a portion of the [[88th United States Congress|88th Congress]].
[[File:Senator Humphrey.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Senator Humphrey]]
Initially, Humphrey's support of civil rights led to his being ostracized by Southern Democrats, who dominated Senate leadership positions and wanted to punish him for proposing the civil rights platform at the 1948 Convention. Senator [[Richard Russell Jr.]] of Georgia, a leader of Southern Democrats, once remarked to other senators as Humphrey walked by, "Can you imagine the people of Minnesota sending that damn fool down here to represent them?"{{sfn|Caro|2002|p=448}} Humphrey was reportedly "crushed",<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7nRmDwAAQBAJ&dq=richard%20russell%20jr.%20hubert%20humphrey%20%22damn%20fool%22&pg=PA60 Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of the Country]</ref> so hurt by the remark that he broke into tears while driving home.<ref>[https://www.americanheritage.com/democratic-debacle#:~:text=One%20day%20soon,man%20of%20conscience. Democratic Debacle]</ref> But he refused to be intimidated and stood his ground; his integrity, passion and eloquence eventually earned him the respect of even most of the Southerners.{{sfn|Solberg|1984|p=180}} The Southerners were also more inclined to accept Humphrey after he became a protégé of Senate [[Majority Leader]] Lyndon B. Johnson of [[Texas]].<ref name="Debolt and Baugess, 2011"/> Humphrey became known for his advocacy of liberal causes (such as [[civil rights]], [[arms control]], a [[nuclear testing|nuclear test ban]], [[Food Stamp Program|food stamps]], and humanitarian [[foreign aid]]), and for his long and witty speeches.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hearstfdn.org/ussyp/about_founding_senators/|title=FOUNDING SENATORS Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr.|publisher=Hearst Foundation|date=April 19, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511041655/http://www.hearstfdn.org/ussyp/about_founding_senators/|archive-date=May 11, 2013}}</ref>

Humphrey was a liberal leader who fought to uphold Truman's veto of the [[McCarran Internal Security Act|McCarran Act of 1950]]. The bill was designed to suppress the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]]. With a small group of liberals he supported the [[Harley M. Kilgore|Kilgore substitute]] that would allow the president to lock up subversives, without trial, in a time of national emergency. The model was the [[Internment of Japanese Americans|internment of West Coast Japanese in 1942]]. The goal was to split the McCarran coalition. For years critics charged that Humphrey supported concentration camps. The ploy failed to stop the new law; the Senate voted 57 to 10 to overturn Truman's veto.<ref>{{cite news|last=Trussel|first=C.P. |title=Red Bill Veto Beaten, 57-10, By Senators|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/09/24/306329152.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/09/24/306329152.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 24, 1950}}</ref><ref>Robert Griffith, ''The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate'' (University Press of Kentucky, 1970) pp 117–122.</ref>{{sfn|Ybarra|2004|pp=517–533}} In 1954 he proposed to make membership in the [[CPUSA|Communist Party]] a felony. It was another ploy to derail a bill that would hurt labor unions. Humphrey's proposal did not pass.{{sfn|Ybarra|2004|pp=743–744}}

Humphrey was the author of the first humane slaughter bill introduced in the U.S. Congress and chief Senate sponsor of the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958.<ref>{{cite SSRN |last1=Achille |first1=Jean-Francois |title='Unnecessary Cruelty': Freedom of Religion and the Humane Slaughter Act |date=May 15, 2021 |ssrn=3917164 }}</ref>

Humphrey chaired the [[U.S. Senate Select Committee on Disarmament|Select Committee on Disarmament]] ([[84th United States Congress|84th]] and [[85th United States Congress|85th]] Congresses).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/wagner/MSS20060234.html|title=Jerry Wagner Political Collection 2006.0234 An Inventory|publisher=[[Thomas J. Dodd Research Center]], [[University of Connecticut]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921110600/http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/wagner/MSS20060234.html|archive-date=September 21, 2013}}</ref> In February 1960 he introduced a bill to establish a National Peace Agency.<ref>Schuman, Frederick L. ''Why a Department of Peace''. Beverly Hills: Another Mother for Peace, 1969.</ref> With another former pharmacist, Representative [[Carl T. Durham|Carl Durham]], Humphrey cosponsored the [[Durham-Humphrey Amendment]], which amended the [[Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act]], defining two specific categories for medications, legend ([[prescription drug|prescription]]) and [[over-the-counter drug|over-the-counter]] (OTC).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/ThisWeek/ucm117875.htm/|title=This Week in FDA History – Oct. 26, 1951|publisher=U.S. Food & Drug Administration|date=May 20, 2009|access-date=April 3, 2015}}</ref>

As Democratic [[whip (politics)|whip]] in the Senate in 1964, Humphrey was instrumental in the passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|Civil Rights Act]] that year. He was a lead author of its text, alongside Senate Republican Minority Leader [[Everett Dirksen]] of Illinois.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty1.coloradocollege.edu/~bloevy/CivilRightsActOf1964/|title=A Brief History of the Civil Rights Act of 1964|work=Excerpted from David C. Kozak and Kenneth N. Ciboski, editors, The American Presidency (Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall, 1985), pp. 411–419.|author=Robert D. Loevy|author-link=Robert D. Loevy|publisher=coloradocollege.edu}}</ref> Humphrey's consistently cheerful and upbeat demeanor, and his forceful advocacy of liberal causes, led him to be nicknamed "The Happy Warrior" by many of his Senate colleagues and political journalists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.minnpost.com/dc-dispatches/2011/05/happy-birthday-happy-warrior-senate-honors-hubert-humphrey|title=Happy birthday 'Happy Warrior': Senate honors Hubert Humphrey|author=Derek Wallbank|publisher=minnpost.com|date=May 26, 2011}}</ref>

While President [[John F. Kennedy]] is often credited for creating the [[Peace Corps]], Humphrey introduced the first bill to create the Peace Corps in 1957—three years before Kennedy's University of Michigan speech.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2094254_2094247_2094228,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110922115535/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2094254_2094247_2094228,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 22, 2011|title=Before Kennedy, There Was Humphrey|author=Claire Suddath|magazine=Time|date=September 22, 2011}}</ref> A trio of journalists wrote of Humphrey in 1969 that "few men in American politics have achieved so much of lasting significance. It was Humphrey, not Senator [Everett] Dirksen, who played the crucial part in the complex parliamentary games that were needed to pass the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. It was Humphrey, not John Kennedy, who first proposed the Peace Corps. The [[Food for Peace]] program was Humphrey's idea, and so was [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]], passed sixteen years after he first proposed it. He worked for Federal aid to education from 1949, and for a nuclear-test ban treaty from 1956. These are the solid monuments of twenty years of effective work for liberal causes in the Senate."<ref name="Chester, p. 147">(Chester, p. 147)</ref> President Johnson once said that "Most Senators are minnows ... Hubert Humphrey is among the whales."<ref name="Chester, p. 147"/>
In his autobiography, ''The Education of a Public Man'', Humphrey wrote:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jpteachers.com/tefl/peaceCorpsinfo.html|title=JP Education|publisher=Jpteachers.com|access-date=April 12, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313211327/http://jpteachers.com/tefl/peaceCorpsinfo.html|archive-date=March 13, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<blockquote>There were three bills of particular emotional importance to me: the [[Peace Corps]], a disarmament agency, and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The President, knowing how I felt, asked me to introduce legislation for all three. I introduced the first Peace Corps bill in 1957. It did not meet with much enthusiasm. Some traditional diplomats quaked at the thought of thousands of young Americans scattered across their world. Many senators, including liberal ones, thought the idea was silly and unworkable. Now, with a young president urging its passage, it became possible and we pushed it rapidly through the Senate. It is fashionable now to suggest that Peace Corps Volunteers gained as much or more, from their experience as the countries they worked. That may be true, but it ought not demean their work. They touched many lives and made them better.</blockquote>

On April 9, 1950, Humphrey predicted that President Truman would sign a $4&nbsp;billion housing bill and charge Republicans with having removed the bill's main middle-income benefits during Truman's tours of the Midwest and Northwest the following month.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19500410&id=yhAkAAAAIBAJ&pg=1770,4016625|title=Truman Approval Of Bill Forecast|date=April 10, 1950|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times}}</ref>

On January 7, 1951, Humphrey joined Senator [[Paul Douglas (Illinois politician)|Paul Douglas]] in calling for an $80&nbsp;billion federal budget to combat Communist aggression along with a stiff tax increase to prevent borrowing.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A7-hzOuI2KQC&dat=19510107&printsec=frontpage|title=Douglas Asks $80 Million Budget|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|date=January 7, 1951}}</ref>

In a January 1951 letter to President Truman, Humphrey wrote of the necessity of a commission akin to the [[Fair Employment Practices Commission]] that would be used to end discrimination in defense industries and predicted that establishing such a commission by executive order would be met with high approval by Americans.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2238&dat=19510116&id=ZEYmAAAAIBAJ&pg=997,3243060|title=Humphrey Asks Truman for FEPC|date=January 16, 1951|publisher=Washington Afro-American}}</ref>

On June 18, 1953, Humphrey introduced a resolution calling for the US to urge free elections in [[East Germany]] in response to the recent [[East German uprising of 1953|anti-communist uprising]] there.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19530619&id=LNwbAAAAIBAJ&pg=1249,2906128|title=Humphrey Asks Initiative By U.S. In Reich|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|date=June 19, 1953}}</ref>

In December 1958, after receiving a message from [[Nikita Khrushchev]] during a visit to the Soviet Union, Humphrey returned insisting that the message was not negative toward America.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19581208&id=XLofAAAAIBAJ&pg=894,980441|title=Humphrey Says U.S. Has Nothing To Fear If They Stay Strong|newspaper=Gadsden Times|date=December 8, 1958}}</ref> In February 1959, Humphrey said American newspapers should have ignored Khrushchev's comments calling him a purveyor of fairy tales.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1959/02/14/page/13/article/press-goofed-in-attack-on-me-humphrey|title=Press Goofed in Attack on Me – Humphrey|date=February 14, 1959|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|access-date=September 21, 2017|archive-date=September 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921192513/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1959/02/14/page/13/article/press-goofed-in-attack-on-me-humphrey/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In a September address to the National Stationery and Office Equipment Association, Humphrey called for further inspection of Khrushchev's "live and let live" doctrine and maintained the Cold War could be won by using American "weapons of peace".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1959/09/29/page/4/article/nikitas-live-and-let-live-doctrine-hit|title=Nikita's 'Live and Let Live' Policy Hit|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=September 29, 1959|access-date=September 21, 2017|archive-date=September 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921143937/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1959/09/29/page/4/article/nikitas-live-and-let-live-doctrine-hit/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In June 1963, Humphrey accompanied his longtime friend labor leader [[Walter Reuther]] on a trip to [[Harpsund]], the Swedish Prime Minister's summer country retreat, to meet with European socialist leaders for an exchange of ideas.{{sfn|Solberg|1984|p=219}} Among the European leaders who met with Humphrey and Reuther were the prime ministers of Britain, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, as well as future German chancellor [[Willy Brandt]].{{sfn|Solberg|1984|p=219}}