John J. Williams (senator)
| John J. Williams | |
|---|---|
 |
|
|
United States Senator from Delaware |
|
|
In office January 3, 1947 – December 31, 1970 |
|
| Preceded by | James M. Tunnell |
| Succeeded by | William V. Roth, Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
John James Williams May 17, 1904 Frankford, Delaware, U.S. |
| Died | January 11, 1988 (aged 83) Lewes, Delaware, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Elsie Steele |
| Residence | Millsboro, Delaware |
| Occupation | businessman |
| Religion | Methodist |
John James "Whispering Willie" Williams (May 17, 1904 – January 11, 1988) was an American businessman and politician from Millsboro, in Sussex County, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party, who served four terms as U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1947 to 1970.
Williams was born on a farm near Frankford, in Sussex County, Delaware, the ninth of eleven children. He married Elsie Steele in 1924. In 1922, he moved to Millsboro, Delaware where he and his brother, Preston, established the Millsboro Feed Company, a livestock and poultry feed company. In 1946, he served on the Millsboro Town Council.
Williams was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1946, defeating incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator James M. Tunnell. During this term, he served in the Republican majority in the 80th Congress, but was in the minority in the 81st and 82nd Congress.He was elected to a second term in 1952, defeating Democrat Alexis I. du Pont Bayard, and once again served in the Republican majority in the 83rd Congress, but returned to the minority in the 84th and 85th Congress. He was elected to a third term in 1958 and a fourth term in 1964, both times defeating Democrat Elbert N. Carvel, who at the time of the 1964 election was the Governor of Delaware. During these terms he served in the Republican minority in the 86th, 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, and 91st Congress. In all, he served for 24 years, from January 3, 1947 until December 31, 1970, when he resigned. This was during the administrations of U.S. Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. Williams was Delaware's first four-term U.S. Senator.
In the Senate, Williams established himself as an opponent to wasteful government bureaucracy. A proponent of free markets, Williams objected to U.S. President Harry S. Truman's continuation of many New Deal and World War II policies. He supported tax cuts, opposed the continuation of price controls, and suggested the federal budget could be balanced by slashing one million federal jobs he felt were unnecessary after the Great Depression and World War II.
From 1947 through 1948, Williams worked to root out corruption in the Internal Revenue Service, exposing the illegal activities of two hundred employees of the Treasury Department. In 1963, Williams exposed corruption in the office of U.S. Senate aide Bobby Baker, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's protégé. He voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1967, Williams helped defeat a proposed rule change that would have eliminated the filibuster, a tool that had been of great use to him in exposing government waste and misconduct. In 1968, unable to defeat the tax increase proposed by President Johnson, Williams worked with Democratic U.S. Senator George Smathers of Florida to simultaneously cut federal spending by $60 billion.
...
Wikipedia