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CATEGORY:Sweeney

Martin Leonard Sweeney (April 15, 1885 – May 1, 1960)

At the age of 12 Martin found work to support himself while attending St. Bridget's Parochial School, and later worked as a longshoreman, construction worker, laborer, hoisting engineer and a salesman while attending Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace College part-time, graduating and being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1914. After one term (1913-14) in the Ohio legislature, Sweeney entered private practice until 1923, when he became a Municipal Court judge. On the bench he vocally opposed Prohibition.Sweeney was admitted to the bar that same year and begin practicing law in Cleveland. From 1924-32 Sweeney was judge of the municipal court of Cleveland.

In 1931, Sweeney was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles A. Mooney. Attending the 1932 Democratic National Convention as a delegate pledged to Al Smith, Sweeney instead supported Franklin Roosevelt, resulting in a split with county party chairman BURR GONGWER. He was re-elected to the Seventy-third and the four succeeding Congresses, serving from November 3, 1931, to January 3, 1943.

After losing Cleveland's 1933 Democratic mayorial primary, the split widened when Sweeney supported the Republican candidate. In mid-1936, he turned against President Roosevelt's policies, supporting the Catholic priest Charles Coughlin. Reelected in 1934 and 1936 without Democratic party support, Sweeney considered his victories as mandates for independent action.

During the late 1930s his politics became increasingly isolationist. Sweeney reconciled with Gongwer in 1937, but RAY T. MILLER broke with Sweeney and Gongwer and won the county party leadership. Sweeney failed to oust Miller as party chairman in 1940 but successfully defended his congressional seat against Miller-supported Michael Feighan. Sweeney was an unsuccessful candidate for re-nomination in 1942 after being targeted for his stand against British Lend Lease and a vague isolationism. He was defeated in the primary by Michael Feighan, who represented Cleveland in Congress for the next twenty-eight years.

He was an unsuccessful for Democratic nomination for mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1933 and in 1941, and for the gubernatorial nomination in 1944. Sweeney went on to practice law in Cleveland with his son Robert. Sweeney until his death there May 1, 1960. He was interred in Calvary Cemetery. Sweeney married Marie Carlin in 1921 and had four children: Martin, Jr., Anne Marie, Robert, and Eileen.

Martin L. Sweeney. Among the younger members of the Cleveland bar, one whose thorough learning and varied ability in public life account him one of the leaders is Martin L. Sweeney. Mr. Sweeney practices as a general practitioner of the law with offices in the Society for Savings Building.

He was born at Cleveland, April 15, 1885, a son of Dominic and Anna (Cleary) Sweeney. His parents were both natives of Ireland, his father born in County Roscommon and his mother in County Sligo. They were married in Cleveland. Dominic Sweeney came to the United States when about twenty years of age, landing in New York City and coming direct to Cleveland. That was about 1860. The mother came to this country and to Cleveland at about the age of sixteen and has lived in Cleveland for more than forty-five years. Dominic Sweeney was a teaming contractor, and under the late Mayor Blee held the office of superintendent of catch basins. He was very active in democratic politics, especially in that district of the city now the twelfth ward. As contractor he also had much to do with building up and developing the Upper Cuyahoga Valley. In the family were seven children, three sons and four daughters, all living except one daughter. John Thomas, the oldest, is a resident of Los Angeles, California; Mary is the deceased daughter; Catherine, Anna, Martin L., Agnes and Dominic J. are the five younger children. Dominic is now assistant priest of the Blessed Sacrament Church of Cleveland. All were born in Cleveland. Martin L. Sweeney was twelve years of age when his father died. It then became necessary for him to go to work, and from that age he has depended upon his own energy and resources to put him into the profession of law and into a position where he may properly be considered one of the successful men of this city. In the meantime he had attended St. Bridget's Parochial School of Cleveland and in the intervals of his self-supporting work made himself opportunities to attend private school and also the night classes of the Cleveland Law School, the law department of Baldwin-Wallace College. Mr. Sweeney is a very capable salesman, and mastered that art before he was ready to practice law.

He was graduated with the class of June, 1913, from law school and was admitted to the Ohio bar December 16, 1913. He began practice in the Society for Savings Building in December, 1914.

Mr. Sweeney has taken an active part in democratic politics in Cleveland. In the fall of 1912, before his admission to the bar, he was elected to the Eightieth General Assembly, during the administration of Gov. James Cox. He served in the session of 1913-14 and was a member of the committees on Benevolent and Penal Institutions, Liquor Traffic and Temperance, Supplies and Expenditures. While in the Legislature Mr. Sweeney gave particular attention to the Workmen's Compensation Act, the Mothers' Pension Bill and the Liquor License problem. In the Eightieth Assembly he was next to the youngest member of the House of Representatives.

Mr. Sweeney, who is unmarried, is interested in a number of fraternal societies, including the Knights of Columbus, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Loyal Order of Moose, is a past officer of the Catholic Order of Foresters of Perry Court of Cleveland, and is the Cuyahoga County president for the four year term, 1915-18, of the Ancient Order of Hibernians of Ohio. He also belongs to the City Club, the Cleveland Bar Association, and St.'Thomas Parish of the Catholic Church.

A History of Cleveland and Its Environs: Biography by Elroy McKendree Avery, Lewis Publishing Company

http://books.google.com/books?id=XoAUAAAAYAAJ

Debate over the initial draft bill the year before had proved stormy. Upstate New York Republican Congressman James Wadsworth, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, had introduced it on June 20, 1940, two days before France capitulated to Nazi Germany. Wadsworth’s measure, H.R. 10132, bore the ringing title, “A Bill to Protect the Integrity and Institutions of the United States through a System of Selective Compulsory Military Training and Service.” This first peacetime draft sought to impose a single year of Army service on men aged 21 through 36. It proposed to strengthen preparedness, while keeping America out of the war in Europe by barring draftees from serving in foreign countries.

Opposition boiled up. Sen. Claude Pepper of Florida, who spoke in favor of the bill, was hanged in effigy outside the Capitol by the Congress of American Mothers. A colonially garbed “Pauline Revere” rode up the Capitol steps on a white horse, bearing a sign that read, “Mobilize for Peace and Defeat Conscription.” The isolationist America First Committee, boasting among its members former president Theodore Roosevelt’s outspoken daughter Alice Longworth, aviation hero Eddie Rickenbacker, and Hollywood star Lillian Gish, deeply opposed the draft extension. Should beleaguered Britain fall, they argued, the wisest course for the United States would be to find an accommodation with Adolf Hitler rather than to jump into another European war.

Tempers frayed as the debate in Congress dragged on. Congressman Martin Sweeney (D-OH) denounced the bill as a ruse to drag America into war on the side of Britain. Beverly Vincent (D-KY) shot back that Sweeney was not only a traitor but “a son of a bitch.” Sweeney took a swing at Vincent, who counterpunched with a hard right to Sweeney’s head. The House doorkeeper called it the best fistfight he had witnessed in his 50 years at his post. On September 14, after being amended 33 times, Wadsworth’s bill carried handily by 47 to 25 votes in the Senate and by 232 to 124 in the House. Numerous members of Congress ducked the vote by voting only “present” or were off campaigning in an election year. Two days later, the president signed the measure.

Source: American Heritage; http://www.americanheritage.com/content/day-when-we-almost-lost-army