William Robinson Pattangall

William Robinson Pattangall (June 29, 1865 – October 21, 1942) was an American politician from Maine. He was particularly known for his support of public schools and opposition to the Ku Klux Klan.[1] He was later the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court retiring on July 16, 1935.[2]

Hon.
William Robinson Pattangall
Chief Justice of the
Maine Supreme Judicial Court
In office
February 7, 1930 – July 16, 1935
Appointed byWilliam Tudor Gardiner
Preceded byLuere B. Deasy
Succeeded byCharles J. Dunn, Jr.
Associate Justice of the
Maine Supreme Judicial Court
In office
July 2, 1926 – February 7, 1930
Appointed byOwen Brewster
Preceded byScott Wilson
Succeeded bySidney St. Felix Thaxter
Maine Attorney General
In office
1911–1913
GovernorFrederick W. Plaisted
Preceded byCyrus R. Tupper
Succeeded byScott Wilson
17th Mayor
Waterville, Maine
Preceded byNorman K. Fuller
Succeeded byLouis E. Hilliard
Personal details
BornJune 29, 1865
Pembroke, Maine, U.S.
DiedOctober 21, 1942 (aged 77)
Augusta, Maine, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Other political
affiliations		Democratic
Spouse(s)Jean M. Johnson, m. 1884;
Gertrude Helen McKenzie
ProfessionLawyer

Early political career

He was born on June 29, 1865, in Pembroke, Maine, a coastal town in Washington County. Pattangall married Jean M. Johnson in 1884 and later Gertrude Helen McKenzie (1874–1950) in 1892. Pattangall was elected as both a Republican and Democrat.[3] He became Mayor of Waterville,[4] a member of the Maine House of Representatives (1897–1898; 1901-1902; 1909–1912), and then Maine's Attorney General (1911–1913). Pattangall was a supporter of Woodrow Wilson and a proponent of civil rights.

As a state legislator, Pattangall fought for a provision from 1909 to 1911 doubling the amount of state tax money dedicated to Maine schools. Passed in 1911, the law was then brought before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court as unconstitutional. Pattangall, now Attorney General, argued in its favor and prevailed.[5]

Opposition to the Ku Klux Klan
Main article: Ku Klux Klan in Maine

Pattangall was the Democratic candidate for Governor of Maine in 1922 and 1924 but lost both times. The second race was against Republican Owen Brewster, who was supported by the Ku Klux Klan. Pattangall made Brewster's Klan support the centerpiece of the campaign. Although this was not a winning strategy, it helped set the stage for a split within the Maine Republican Party around the issue of Klan support, resulting in the election of anti-Klan (and anti-Brewster) Republican Senator Arthur R. Gould in 1926.

Pattangall also fought the Klan element in his own party. As a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1924, in New York, he proposed inserting an anti-Klan plank into the party platform, despite the presence of an estimated 300 Klansmen in the hall. The attempt caused the "hissing and booing of Klansmen along with fist fights, chair tossing, and destruction of convention decorations". Opposed by William Jennings Bryan and other party leaders, the plank was voted down, and with it the potential presidential candidacy of Catholic Al Smith. Smith's supporters would be more successful at the subsequent Democratic convention, however, by which time the Klan had seriously weakened as a political force.[6]

Pattangall was a gifted and entertaining orator, well known for his caustic wit. This is exemplified in his volume "Meddybemps Letters" that included a "Hall of Fame" with bitterly satiric biographies of the leading Republicans of the time. Pattangall was never elected to national office, however, due to what he characterized as "Democratic treachery."

Judgeship and Defection to the Republican Party

Pattangall was appointed Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (by the Republican administration) in 1926, but only broke with his party over President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, to which he became bitterly opposed. He ultimately joined the Republican Party and soon after was appointed Chief Justice (1930–35). He died on October 21, 1942, in Augusta, Maine.[2][7]

References
  1. "Washington Republicans Say It Means Their Party Is Regaining Its Own". New York Times. September 10, 1913. Retrieved 2009-12-22. There was remarkable divergence of opinion among politicians here to-day regarding the lesson to be drawn from the victory in yesterday's special election in the Third Maine District of John A. Peters, Republican, by a plurality of 589 over William R. Pattangall, Democrat, and 8,616 over Edward M. Lawrence, Progressive.
  2. "Obituary". Chicago Tribune. October 22, 1942. Willlam R. Pattangall, 77 years old, retired chief justice of the Maine Supreme court, died today. Pattangall retired as chief justice July 16, 1935. A powerful speaker and a satiric writer, Judge Pattangall long was a figure in Maine politics, as a Republican and as a Democrat, ...
  3. "Legislators Biographical Search". Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  4. History of Mayors City of Waterville, Maine
  5. Lewiston Daily Sun, Aug. 12, 1924
  6. Brian R. Farmer, American Conservatism: History, Theory, and Practice (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2005), p. 210
  7. "Pattangall New Deal Foe Dies In Maine". Associated Press in the Hartford Courant. October 22, 1942. Retrieved 2009-12-22. William R. Pattangall, 77 retired chief justice the Maine Supreme Court, died today.
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