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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—North CarolinaERVIN, Samuel James, Jr.
(1896—1985)
Senate Years of Service:
1954-1974
Party:
Democrat
ERVIN, Samuel James, Jr., (brother of Joseph Wilson Ervin), a Representative and a Senator from North Carolina; born in Morganton, Burke County, N.C., September 27, 1896; attended the public schools; graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1917 and from the law school of Harvard University in 1922; during the First World War served in France with the First Division 1917-1919; admitted to the bar in 1919 and commenced practice in Morganton, N.C., in 1922; member, North Carolina general assembly 1923, 1925, 1931; judge of the Burke County criminal court 1935-1937; judge of the North Carolina superior court 1937-1943; elected on January 22, 1946, as a Democrat to the Seventy-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his brother, Joseph W. Ervin, and served from January 22, 1946, to January 3, 1947; was not a candidate for renomination in 1946; resumed the practice of law; associate justice of the North Carolina supreme court 1948-1954; appointed on June 5, 1954, and subsequently elected on November 2, 1954, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Clyde R. Hoey for the term ending January 3, 1957; reelected in 1956, 1962, and again in 1968 and served from June 5, 1954, until his resignation December 31,1974; was not a candidate for reelection in 1974; chairman, Committee on Government Operations (Ninety-second and Ninety-third Congresses), Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Ninety-third Congress); resumed the practice of law and engaged in literary pursuits in Morganton, N.C.; died in Winston-Salem, N.C., on April 23, 1985; interment in the Forest Hill Cemetery in Morganton, N.C.
Bibliography
American National Biography
; Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives
; Clancy, Paul. Just A Country Lawyer: A Biography of Senator Sam Ervin
. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974; Ervin, Sam. Preserving the Constitution: An Autobiography of Senator Sam Ervin
. Charlottesville, Va.: Mitchie Co., 1984.
Altman, Herb, ed. Quotations from Chairman Sam: The Wit and Wisdom of Senator Sam Ervin
. New York: Harper Row, 1973.
Campbell, Karl E. “Claghorn’s Hammurabi: Senator Sam Ervin and Civil Rights.” North Carolina Historical Review
78 (October 2001): 431-56.
___. The Last of the Founding Fathers: Senator Sam Ervin and the Road to Watergate
. Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1995.
___. “Preserving the Constitution, Guarding the Status Quo: Senator Sam Ervin and Civil Liberties.” North Carolina Historical Review
78 (October 2001): 457-82.
___. “Senator Sam Ervin and School Prayer: Faith, Politics, and the Constitution.” Journal of Church and State
45:3 (2003): 443-456.
Clancy, Paul R. Just a Country Lawyer: A Biography of Senator Sam Ervin
. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974.
Dabney, Dick. A Good Man: The Life of Sam J. Ervin
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976.
Ervin, Sam J., Jr. “The Case against Reform: A Nobler Purpose than Political Efficiency.” In The Senate Institution
, edited by Nathaniel S. Preston, pp. 192-202. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1969.
___. “Controlling ‘Executive Privilege’.” Loyola Law Review
20 (1973-1974): 11-31.
___. “The Gravel and Brewster Cases: An Assault on Congressional Independence.” Virginia Law Review
59 (February 1973): 175-95.
___. Humor of a Country Lawyer
. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983.
___. Preserving the Constitution: The Autobiography of Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
Charlottesville: Michie Co., 1984.
___. “In Pursuit of a Press Privilege.” Harvard Journal on Legislation
11 (February 1974): 233-78.
___. “The Role of the Lawyer in America.” New England Law Review
11 (Fall 1975): 1-6.
___. The Whole Truth: The Watergate Conspiracy
. New York: Random House, 1980.
___, and Ramsey Clark. Role of the Supreme Court: Policymaker or Adjudicator?
American Enterprise Institute Rational Debate Seminars. Washington: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1970.
Stem, Thad, Jr., and Alan Butler. Senator Sam Ervin’s Best Stories
. Durham, NC: Moore Publishing Co., 1973.
VanSickle, Clifford Kenneth. “The Oral Communications of Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr. in the Watergate Hearings: A Study in Consistency.” Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1976.
Wise, Bill M., comp. The Wisdom of Sam Ervin
. New York: Ballantine Books, 1973.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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