American politician
Edward P. Costigan
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Senator_Edward_Prentiss_Costigan.jpg) |
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In office
March 4, 1931 ? January 3, 1937
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Preceded by
| Lawrence C. Phipps
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Succeeded by
| Edwin C. Johnson
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Born
| Edward Prentiss Costigan
(
1874-07-01
)
July 1, 1874
King William County, Virginia
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Died
| January 17, 1939
(1939-01-17)
(aged 64)
Denver
,
Colorado
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Resting place
| Fairmount Cemetery
, Denver, Colorado
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Nationality
| American
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Political party
| Democratic
(after 1914)
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Other political
affiliations
| Republican
(before 1912)
Progressive "Bull Moose"
(1912-1914)
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Spouse
| Mabel Cory
(m. 1903)
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Education
| Harvard University
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Occupation
| Lawyer, politician, activist
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Profession
| Law
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Edward Prentiss Costigan
(July 1, 1874 – January 17, 1939) was a
Democratic Party
politician
who represented
Colorado
in the
United States Senate
from 1931 to 1937. He was a founding member of the
Progressive Party
in Colorado in 1912.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Edward Prentiss Costigan was born near
Beulahville
in
King William County, Virginia
, on July 1, 1874.
[1]
His parents were George and Emilie (Sigur) Costigan.
[2]
In 1877, his parents moved to
Lake City, Colorado
, and the following year settled in
Ouray
.
[1]
[2]
After five years in Ouray, his father was appointed judge of the newly-formed
San Miguel County, Colorado
, by Governor
James Benton Grant
. He was elected the judge of
Telluride
two times. Both of his parents had an interest in mining and were owners of the Belmont mine and in mining in
Mono County, California
. The family resided in Denver, where his mother was a prominent member of the Denver Women's Club.
[2]
Costigan attended Denver public schools, including
East Denver High School
.
[2]
He studied law and was admitted to the bar in
Salt Lake City
in 1897. He graduated from
Harvard University
in 1899.
[1]
His brother, George Purcell Costigan, Jr. was a lawyer, professor, dean, and author.
[2]
Career
[
edit
]
The following year, he moved to
Denver, Colorado
, and practiced law.
[1]
In 1902, he was declared the winner in the election as state representative, but a contest prevented his assuming his seat at the House of Representatives during the session. He began a fight for honest elections, which lasted over a decade. In 1906, he became a lawyer for the Honest Election League as well as the Law Enforcement League, the latter position he held for two years. He fought for a
local option
law as legal advisor, which was sustained in the
Colorado Supreme Court
. Costigan was chairman of the Dry Denver Committee in 1910 and was the president of the Civil Service Reform Association of Denver.
[2]
During this period, he ran his law practice. He litigated freight rate cases before the
Interstate Commerce Commission
, representing Arizona commercial organizations and the Denver Chamber of Commerce. He was an attorney for the
United Mine Workers of America
in 1914 during a congressional investigation into the
Colorado coal strike
. There were several murder cases that occurred during the strike and Costigan secured acquittals for a number of defendants.
[2]
Initially a
Republican
, in 1912 he was a founding member of the
Progressive Party
in Colorado. He then unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1912 and 1914. President
Woodrow Wilson
appointed Costigan as a member of the
United States Tariff Commission
in 1917, a position he held until March 1928, when he began practicing law again.
[1]
He was elected to the
U.S. Senate
as a
Democrat
in 1930.
Oscar L. Chapman
managed his campaign. He served from March 4, 1931, to January 3, 1937.
[1]
Jones?Costigan amendment to the Sugar Act
[
edit
]
In 1934 he co-sponsored the
Jones?Costigan amendment
to the
Agricultural Adjustment Act
, protecting the U.S. sugar industry, including sugar from Colorado beets. It was a cause of deep interest to Costigan and his wife, Mabel. It reformed the sugar industry, prohibited the hiring of workers under 14, and set a maximum eight-hour work day for those 14 to 16.
[3]
Mabel, a member of the
National Child Labor Committee
advisory council, was particularly concerned about the practice of employing children to work in sugar beet fields.
[2]
Costigan?Wagner Bill
[
edit
]
Costigan and New York Democratic Senator
Robert F. Wagner
sponsored a federal anti-
lynching
law in 1934. In 1935, Senate leaders tried to persuade President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
to support the Costigan?Wagner Bill. Roosevelt was concerned about a provision of the bill that called for the punishment of sheriffs who failed to protect their prisoners from lynch mobs. He believed that he would lose the support of the white voters in
the South
by approving it and lose the
1936 presidential election
.
The Costigan?Wagner Bill received support from many members of Congress but the
Southern bloc
managed to defeat it in the Senate. The national debate that took place over the issue again brought renewed attention to the crime of lynching. By the mid-1930s, the rate of the crime had finally dropped to mostly below 20 annually. Several organizations held
1935 New York anti-lynching exhibitions
in support of the bill.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Mabel Cory Costigan
,
Representative Women of Colorado
, 1914
He married a fellow high school classmate,
Mabel Cory
on June 12, 1903. He was class president and she was class secretary. She was involved in church, educational, and community affairs. She was an expert on Sunday school primary work and was a lecturer and story-teller. Mabel was the president of the Woman's Club of Denver and chairwoman of the industrial committee of the Colorado State Federation of Women’s Clubs. She campaigned for
child labor law
, particularly interested in prohibiting the practice of using children in sugar beet fields. Mabel was a member of the
National Child Labor Committee
advisory council. She was also interested in the plight of foreign-born individuals in labor practices.
[2]
After leaving Congress, he retired from professional and political life. He died on January 17, 1939, and was buried at
Fairmount Cemetery
in Denver.
[1]
References
[
edit
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Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Before 1900
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1900?1940
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After 1940
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Multiple victims
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- Death of Joseph Smith
(
Joseph Smith
,
Hyrum Smith
) (1844)
- Marais des Cygnes, KS, massacre
(1858)
- Great Hanging at Gainesville, TX
(1862)
- New York City draft riots
(1863)
- Detroit race riot (1863)
- ? Lachenais and four others
(1863)
- Fort Pillow, TN, massacre
(1864)
- Plummer Gang
(1864)
- Memphis massacre
(1866)
- Gallatin County, KY, race riot
(1866)
- New Orleans massacre of 1866
- Reno Brothers Gang
(1868)
- Camilla, GA, massacre
(1868)
- Steve Long and two half-brothers
(1868)
- Pulaski, TN, riot
(1868)
- Samuel Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman
(1868)
- Opelousas, LA, massacre
(1868)
- Bear River City riot
(1868)
- Chinese massacre of 1871
- Meridian, MS, race riot
(1871)
- Colfax, LA, massacre
(1873)
- Election riot of 1874
(AL)
- Juan, Antonio, and Marcelo Moya
(1874)
- Benjamin and Mollie French
(1876)
- Ellenton, SC, riot
(1876)
- Hamburg, SC, massacre
(1876)
- Thibodeax, LA, massacre
(1878)
- Mart and Tom Horrell
(1878)
- Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer
(1879)
- Elijah Frost, Abijah Gibson, Tom McCracken
(1879)
- T.J. House, James West, John Dorsey
(1880)
- New Orleans 1891 lynchings
(1891)
- Ruggles Brothers (CA)
(1892)
- Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN)
(1892)
- Porter and Spencer (MS)
(1897)
- Phoenix, SC, election riot
(1898)
- Wilmington, NC, insurrection
(1898)
- Julia and Frazier Baker
(1898)
- Pana, IL, riot
(1899)
- Watkinsville lynching
(1905)
- 1906 Atlanta race massacre
- Kemper County, MS
(1906)
- Walker family
(1908)
- Springfield race riot of 1908
- Slocum, TX, massacre
(1910)
- Laura and L.D. Nelson
(1911)
- Harris County, GA, lynchings
(1912)
- Newberry, FL, lynchings
(1916)
- East St. Louis, IL, riots
(1917)
- Lynching rampage in Brooks County, GA
(1918)
- Jenkins County, GA, riot
(1919)
- Longview, TX, race riot
(1919)
- Elaine, AR, race riot
(1919)
- Omaha race riot of 1919
- Knoxville riot of 1919
- Red Summer
(1919)
- Duluth, MN, lynchings
(1920)
- Ocoee, FL, massacre
(1920)
- Tulsa race massacre
(1921)
- Perry, FL, race riot
(1922)
- Rosewood, FL, massacre
(1923)
- Jim and Mark Fox
(1927)
- Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith
(1930)
- Tate County, MS
(1932)
- Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes
(1933)
- Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels
(1937)
- Beaumont, TX, Race Riot
(1943)
- O'Day Short, wife, and two children
(1945)
- Moore's Ford, GA, lynchings
(1946)
- Harry
and
Harriette Moore
(1952)
- Anniston, AL
(1961)
- Freedom Summer Murders
(
James Chaney
,
Andrew Goodman
,
Michael Schwerner
) (1964)
- Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore
(1964)
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International
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National
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People
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Other
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