Changes

|predecessor=Henry W. Keyes

|predecessor=Henry W. Keyes

|successor=Maurice J. Murphy, Jr.

|successor=Maurice J. Murphy, Jr.

|office2=Chairman of the<br>

|office2=Chairman of the Senate<br>Republican Policy Committee

Senate Republican Policy Committee

|term_start2=January 3, 1955

|term_start2=January 3, 1955

|term_end2=November 26, 1961

|term_end2=November 26, 1961

|predecessor3=Kenneth McKellar

|predecessor3=Kenneth McKellar

|successor3=[[Walter F. George]]

|successor3=[[Walter F. George]]

|office4=Leader of the Senate Republican Conference

|office4=Leader of the Senate<br>Republican Conference

|term_start4=January 3, 1949

|term_start4=January 3, 1949

|term_end4=November 29, 1951

|term_end4=November 29, 1951

|predecessor4=Kenneth S. Wherry

|predecessor4=Kenneth S. Wherry

|successor4=[[Robert A. Taft]]

|successor4=[[Robert A. Taft]]

|office5=Chairman of the<br>Senate Appropriations Committee

|office5=Chairman of the Senate<br>Appropriations Committee

|term_start5=January 3, 1953

|term_start5=January 3, 1953

|term_end5=January 3, 1955

|term_end5=January 3, 1955

}}

}}

'''Henry Styles Bridges''', known as '''Styles Bridges''' (September 9, 1898 &ndash; November 26, 1961), was a [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[governor]] of [[New Hampshire]] from 1935 to 1937 and a [[United States Senator]] from 1937 until his death in office.

'''Henry Styles Bridges''' (September 9, 1898 &ndash; November 26, 1961), known as '''Styles Bridges''', was a [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[governor]] of [[New Hampshire]] from 1935 to 1937 and a [[United States Senator]] from 1937 until his death in office.

==Background==

==Background==

Bridges was born in West Pembroke in Washington County in southeastern [[Maine]], the son of the former Alina Roxanna Fisher and Earle Leopold Bridges. He attended public schools in Maine and attended until 1918 the University of Maine at Orono. Afterwards, he held a variety of jobs, including teaching, [[newspaper]] editing, business, and government. For a year, he was an instructor at Sanderson Academy in Ashfield, [[Massachusetts]]. He was a member of the extension staff of the [[University of New Hampshire]] at Durham from 1921 until 1922. He was the secretary of the New Hampshire [[Farm Bureau]] Federation from 1922 until 1923, and he edited the ''Granite Monthly'' [[magazine]] from 1924 until 1926. Meanwhile, he worked in the financial services industry from 1924 until 1929 and served on the New Hampshire Public Service Commission from 1930 until 1934.<ref name=findagrave>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7146308/henry-styles-bridges|title=Henry Styles Bridges|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=March 3, 2021}}</ref>

Bridges was born in West Pembroke in Washington County in southeastern [[Maine]], the son of the former Alina Roxanna Fisher and Earle Leopold Bridges. He attended public schools in Maine and attended until 1918 the University of Maine at Orono. Afterwards, he held a variety of jobs, including teaching, [[newspaper]] editing, business, and government. For a year, he was an instructor at Sanderson Academy in Ashfield, [[Massachusetts]].

 

He was a member of the extension staff of the [[University of New Hampshire]] at Durham from 1921 until 1922. Bridges also was the Secretary of the New Hampshire [[Farm Bureau]] Federation from 1922 until 1923, and he edited the ''Granite Monthly'' [[magazine]] from 1924 until 1926. Meanwhile, he worked in the financial services industry from 1924 until 1929 and served on the New Hampshire Public Service Commission from 1930 until 1934.<ref name=findagrave>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7146308/henry-styles-bridges|title=Henry Styles Bridges|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=March 3, 2021}}</ref>

==Political career==

==Political career==

In 1934, Bridges was elected as the nation's youngest governor at that time and served a single two-year term prior to entering the U.S. Senate. In 1937, he retired from the [[United States Army]] Reserve Corps, in which he had served as a lieutenant since 1925. In 1940, he attempted to win the Republican presidential nomination, which instead went on the sixth ballot by [[Moderate Republican]] [[Wendell Willkie]]. After losing the presidential nod, he obtained two delegates for the Republican vice-presidential nomination, which eventually went to another Moderate Republican, [[Charles McNary]] of [[Oregon]], who ran opposite Senator [[Harry Truman]]. Bridges broke his hip on December 31, 1941, and missed several months of the next Senate session.

In 1934, Bridges was elected as the nation's youngest governor at that time and served a single two-year term prior to entering the U.S. Senate.<ref>[https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=263001 NH Governor]. ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved April 18, 2021.</ref> During his tenure, he enacted relief measures to aid economically disadvantaged mothers and needy children and promoted a fair unemployment insurance bill.<ref>[https://www.nga.org/governor/henry-styles-bridges/ Gov. Henry Styles Bridges]. ''National Governors Association''. Retrieved August 23, 2021.</ref> Bridges also appointed the first woman to the state's judicial branch.

 

In 1937, he retired from the [[United States Army]] Reserve Corps, in which he had served as a [[Lieutenant]] since 1925. In 1940, he attempted to win the Republican presidential nomination, which instead went on the sixth ballot by [[Moderate Republican]] [[Wendell Willkie]]. After losing the presidential nod, he obtained two delegates for the Republican vice-presidential nomination, which eventually went to another Moderate Republican, [[Charles McNary]] of [[Oregon]], who ran opposite to then-senator [[Harry Truman]].

 

 

 

Bridges broke his hip on December 31, 1941, and missed several months of the next Senate session.

 

Bridges was reelected in 1942, 1948, 1954, and 1960, but he served less than a year of his final term because of his death from a heart attack. He became the highest-ranking Republican senator, serving as chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Economic Cooperation when the Republicans had control of the upper chamber.  For a year, he was the Senate Minority Leader. In 1954, he was one of twenty-senators, all Republicans, who voted against the [[censure]] of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] of [[Wisconsin]], who exposed [[communist]] infiltration of the U.S. government.<ref>U.S. Senate ''Congressional Record'', roll call vote on Senate Resolution 301, December 2, 1954.</ref>

====Efforts to bar racist demagogue Bilbo from re-entering Senate====

Along with [[Bourke Hickenlooper]] of [[Iowa]], Bridges sought to bar Democrat [[segregation]]ist demagogue [[Theodore Bilbo]] from taking office in the wake of racist [[voter suppression]] during the 1946 Senate election in Mississippi;<ref>[https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/126Theodore_Bilbo.htm The Election Case of Theodore G. Bilbo of Mississippi (1947)]. ''United States Senate''. Retrieved March 3, 2021.</ref> the two Republicans voted "nay" in a 3–2 party-line decision in a committee which, chaired by Louisiana segregationist [[Allen J. Ellender]], cleared the Mississippi racist.<ref>Fleegler, Robert L. [http://www.mississippihistory.org/sites/default/files/bilbo.pdf Theodore G. Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism,  1938-1947]. ''Mississippi Historical Society''. Retrieved August 23, 2021.</ref> Bilbo, running for a third Senate term, openly threatened blacks in the [[Deep South]] state during the campaign and faced calls to be blocked from taking office. Ensuing gridlock was soon broken by [[Minority Leader]] [[Alben Barkley]], who announced that Bilbo would return to Mississippi to be treated for surgery. The virulent racist never returned, dying in August 1947.

Along with [[Bourke Hickenlooper]] of [[Iowa]], Bridges sought to bar Democrat [[segregation]]ist demagogue [[Theodore Bilbo]] from taking office in the wake of racist [[voter suppression]] during the 1946 Senate election in Mississippi.<ref>[https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/126Theodore_Bilbo.htm The Election Case of Theodore G. Bilbo of Mississippi (1947)]. ''senate.gov''. Retrieved March 3, 2021.</ref> Bilbo, running for a third Senate term, openly threatened blacks in the [[Deep South]] state during the campaign and faced calls to be blocked from taking office. Ensuing gridlock was soon broken by [[Minority Leader]] [[Alben Barkley]], who announced that Bilbo would return to Mississippi to be treated for surgery. The virulent racist never returned, dying in August 1947.

====Civil rights, McCarthyism====

He voted present on the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/85-1957/s75|title=HR. 6127: The Civil Rights Act of 1957|publisher=govtrack|date=August 7, 1957|accessdate=March 3, 2021}}</ref> though supported the 1960 version of the bill.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/86-1960/s284|title=HR 8601: Passage of amended bill|date=April 8, 1960 |publisher=govtrack|accessdate=March 3, 2021}}</ref> Both measures, despite being gutted of their strong provisions in the U.S. Senate by Southern Democrats, were signed into law by [[President Dwight Eisenhower]].

He voted present on the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/85-1957/s75|title=HR. 6127: The Civil Rights Act of 1957|publisher=govtrack|date=August 7, 1957|accessdate=March 3, 2021}}</ref> though supported the 1960 version of the bill.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/86-1960/s284|title=HR 8601: Passage of amended bill|date=April 8, 1960 |publisher=govtrack|accessdate=March 3, 2021}}</ref> Both measures were signed into law by [[President Dwight Eisenhower]].

In 1954, he was one of twenty-two mostly [[conservative]] senators, all Republicans, who voted against the [[censure]] of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] of [[Wisconsin]], who exposed [[communist]] infiltration of the U.S. government.<ref>Two references:

*U.S. Senate ''Congressional Record'', roll call vote on Senate Resolution 301, December 2, 1954.

*[https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/83-1954/s271 S. RES. 301. PASSAGE.]. ''GovTrack.us''. Retrieved April 25, 2021.</ref>

In 1954, Bridges and his allies, Joseph McCarthy and Herman Welker of [[Idaho]], were implicated along with McCarty and Senator Herman Welker of [[Idaho]] in the [[blackmail]] of Democratic colleague [[Lester C. Hunt]] of [[Wyoming]], who like Bridges was a former governor of his state. Bridges threatened to expose Hunt's son as a [[homosexual]] who was found guilty of having solicited an undercover police officer. Following the threats of Bridges and Welker, Hunt resigned from the Senate but subsequently committed suicide in his Capitol office on June 19, 1954. Bridges' involvement in the blackmail much later caused ''The Boston Globe'' to reconsider the honors afforded to Bridges, including Interstate 93 from Concord to the [[Vermont]]  is named in his honor. Along that highway was the "Old Man of the Mountain," which many in the Granite State equated to Bridges.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/editorial/2012/12/29/new-hampshire-should-reassess-legacy-senator-styles-bridges/VM5ILWFhTDqsW80owDszPP/story.html|title=N.H. should reassess legacy of Senator Styles Bridges|publisher=''The Boston Globe''|date=December 29, 2012|accessdate=March 3, 2021}}</ref>

During the same year McCarthy was censured, Bridges, the Wisconsin senator, and [[Herman Welker]] of [[Idaho]], were implicated in the [[blackmail]] of [[Wyoming]] Democrat colleague [[Lester C. Hunt]], who like Bridges was a former governor of his state. Bridges threatened to expose Hunt's son as a [[homosexual]] who was found guilty of having solicited an undercover police officer. Following the threats of Bridges and Welker, Hunt resigned from the Senate but subsequently committed suicide in his Capitol office on June 19, 1954. Bridges' involvement in the blackmail much later caused ''The Boston Globe'' to reconsider the honors afforded to Bridges, including Interstate 93 from Concord to the [[Vermont]]  is named in his honor. Along that highway was the "Old Man of the Mountain," which many in the Granite State equated to Bridges.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/editorial/2012/12/29/new-hampshire-should-reassess-legacy-senator-styles-bridges/VM5ILWFhTDqsW80owDszPP/story.html|title=N.H. should reassess legacy of Senator Styles Bridges|publisher=''The Boston Globe''|date=December 29, 2012|accessdate=March 3, 2021}}</ref>

Bridges is interred along with his wives at Pine Grove Cemetery in East Concord, New Hampshire.<ref name=findagrave/>

Bridges is interred along with his wives at Pine Grove Cemetery in East Concord, New Hampshire.<ref name=findagrave/>

==See also==

==See also==

*[[Norris Cotton]], former governor and U.S. senator from New Hampshire

*[[Norris Cotton]], former governor and U.S. senator from New Hampshire

==References==

==References==

[[Category:Business People]]

[[Category:Business People]]

[[Category:Republican Party]]

[[Category:Republican Party]]

[[Category:Former Governors]]

[[Category:Former Governors]]

[[Category:Republican Governors]]

[[Category:Republican Governors]]

[[Category:Former United States Senators]]

[[Category:Former United States Senators]]

[[Category:Conservatives]]

[[Category:Conservatives]]

[[Category:Civil Rights]]

[[Category:Civil Rights]]

[[Category:United States Army]]

[[Category:United States Army]]