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vo1000-190
Guide to the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers Repeal Papers,
1927 - 1943
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Guide to the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers Repeal Papers, 1927 - 1943
Special Collections &
Archives
Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT, USA
© 2010 Wesleyan University. All Rights
Reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan
University
Voluntary Committee of Lawyers.
Voluntary Committee of Lawyers Repeal
Papers, 1927 -
1943
1000-190
Material in English
2.5
5
For current information on the location of these materials,
please consult Special Collections & Archives staff.
In 1927, The Voluntary Committee of
Lawyers, Inc. was organized by a group of young New York lawyers who felt that the
national prohibition law was both unjust and unenforceable. Its leaders were Joseph
H. Choate, Jr., who served as chairman of the Executive Committee, and Harrison
Tweed, Treasurer. The organization existed to organize like-minded associates, take
opinion polls of lawyers across the country, issue bulletins and annual reports
reciting arguments against the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and work
closely with the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment. They stressed that a
Repeal Amendment should provide for ratification by state convention and then
proceeded to prepare and place before all state governors in February 1933 draft
bills providing for election at large of all delegates. The alertness and prestige
of the members of the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers contributed to the fact that
most states enacted the model convention bill verbatim. When the Twenty-First
Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers
disbanded.
The repeal papers of The Voluntary Committee of Lawyers,
Inc. 1928-1944, were originally working files of Joseph Hodge Choate, Jr.
(1876-1968) and of Harrison Tweed (1885-1969) when they were among the leaders of
this single-purpose organization. The Choate materials are correspondence and
publications. The Tweed records represent financial aspects of the organization, of
which he was treasurer. These papers include the records of the financial
transactions of the organization, all known publications, and a original
correspondence.
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
Copyright Notice
Copyright for Official University records is held by Wesleyan University; all
other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their
descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Voluntary Committee of Lawyers Repeal Papers,
Collection #1000-190, Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan
University, Middletown, CT, USA.
Acquisitions Information
In 1968 Harrison Tweed arranged that both sets of materials be used for research
purposes. He also agreed preliminarily, prior to his death, that the financial
records he held in the law offices of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
could be transferred to Wesleyan. The understanding was confirmed by Mrs.
Harrison Tweed who donated the Tweed portion of the papers to Wesleyan
University in 1969.
The Choate papers had been held in the law firm of Choate, Regan, Davis &
Hollister from the time they were generated until 1969 when they were donated to
Wesleyan University by Joseph H. Choate, III. Arrangements for this donation
were aided by Dickerman Hollister, Esq.
Processing Information
Processed by Andrea Benefiel, March 2010
Encoded by Andrea Benefiel, March 2010
Biographical and Historical Note
In 1927, The Voluntary Committee of Lawyers, Inc. was organized by a group of young
New York lawyers who felt that the national prohibition law was both unjust and
unenforceable. Its leaders were Joseph H. Choate, Jr., who served as chairman of the
Executive Committee, and Harrison Tweed, Treasurer. The organization existed to
organize like-minded associates, take opinion polls of lawyers across the country,
issue bulletins and annual reports reciting arguments against the Eighteenth
Amendment to the Constitution, and work closely with the Association Against the
Prohibition Amendment. They stressed that a Repeal Amendment should provide for
ratification by state convention and then proceeded to prepare and place before all
state governors in February 1933 draft bills providing for election at large of all
delegates. The alertness and prestige of the members of the Voluntary Committee of
Lawyers contributed to the fact that most states enacted the model convention bill
verbatim. When the Twenty-First Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, the
Voluntary Committee of Lawyers disbanded.
JOSEPH H. CHOATE, JR. was the acknowledged leader and moving force in the Voluntary
Committee of Lawyers, Incorporated. His interest in this subject was preceded by an
association during World War I and the 1920s with the chemical section of the Alien
Property Custodians Bureau where he came to know A. Mitchell Palmer, also later to
be active in the repeal movement. Upon ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment in
1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt named Choate, a Republican, chairman of the
Federal Alcohol Control Administration. He served in this position for two years.
He was born in New York February 2, 1876. His father was Joseph H. Choate, a famous
lawyer and Ambassador to England from 1899 to 1905. Joseph H. Choate, Jr. graduated
from Harvard College in 1897 and from Harvard Law School. At his death in 1968, at
age 91, he was counsel in Choate, Regan, Davis and Hollister in the Graybar Building
in Manhattan. He had residences at 950 Park Avenue, New York, in Mount Kisco, and in
North Haven, Maine. [See
New York Times, January 20,
1968, p. 29.]
HARRISON TWEED served as treasurer of the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers and did so
in the spirit of civic interest that marked many other of his activities. The task
was done with easy dispatch but with gusto as one of a string of similar public
activities he believed should concern lawyers. While he was one of the country's
best known and most successful lawyers, Tweed worked for years in the legal aid
movement to extend legal services to the poor and underprivileged. In 1963 he joined
Bernard Segal of Philadelphia as co-chairman of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law, formed at the invitation of President John F. Kennedy at a White
House meeting. Tweed served as president of the Association of the Bar of the City
of New York from 1945 to 1948 and was also president at different times of the
American Law Institute and of the National Legal Aid Association.
Tweed was born in New York on October 18, 1885 of New England ancestry, not related
to William Marcy Tweed, the Boss of Tammany Hall in the l870s. Tweed's father,
Charles Harrison Tweed, was general counsel to prominent railroads while his mother,
Helen Minerva Evarts, was the daughter of William M. Evarts who was successively
Attorney General, Secretary of State and a United States Senator between 1868 and
1891. Tweed was himself little interested in genealogy. He graduated from Harvard in
1907 and the Harvard Law School in 1910. At the end of his career he was a partner
in Milbank, Tweed, Fadley & McCloy at One Manhattan Chase Plaza. His home
was at 10 Gracie Square. Tweed died on June 16, 1969 at the age of 83. [See
New York Times, June 18, 1969, p. 41.]
Historical Note on the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers
1851-1917
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. The evolution of prohibition covers the entire
sweep of American history beginning with colonial settlement in the 17th
century. The clergy, the educated, and other members of the Eastern elite at
first practiced and advocated temperance. Over several generations and as a
part of the movement West and the democratization of elite values,
temperance came to hold an appeal for the middle and lower classes. By the
second third of the 19th century temperance was a widely enough shared value
in the United States that organized advocates sought to outlaw alcoholic
beverages. Statewide prohibition came first in the State of Maine in 1851
through the leadership of Neal Dow of Portland, later a candidate for
President on the Prohibition Party ticket. The Woman's Christian Temperance
Union (WCTU) led by Frances Willard was the most prominent of many 19th
century organizations which sought state prohibition or, at least, local
option laws, of which many were enacted by the turn of the century. [The
best intellectual account is Joseph R. Gusfield, Symbolic Crusade (Urbana and London: University of Illinois
Press, 1966).]
1893-1933
THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE OF AMERICA. A more militant organization that was
prohibitionist in spirit was founded at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio in
1893 called the Anti-Saloon League. After forming chapters in most
communities in the state, led mainly by Baptists and Methodists, Ohio became
a model for similar organizations throughout the country. With a mass
following, well-financed, closely related to fundamentalist churches, with
full-time staffs and dynamic leaders, the Anti-Saloon League's work
exemplified skilled lobbying and had the services of zealous and able
lawyers like Wayne B. Wheeler. An increasing number of states went dry by
voting in prohibition laws. In 1913 the Anti-Saloon League of America voted
to seek national prohibition through a constitutional amendment. With wide
popular support, especially from among the leading Progressive politicians
of the day, and by persisting, Congress was persuaded to submit a
prohibition amendment on December 18, 1917. Ratification was completed on
January 16, 1919. The amendment took effect one year later. [For an
exposition of the view that the appeal of prohibition "lay largely with the
oldstock, middle class section of the American community" which
"constituted the backbone of the Progressive Movement," see James H.
Timberlake, Prohibition and the Progressive Movement
1900-1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963), pp. 2-3.]
The Anti-Saloon League continued on to help draft the Volstead Act and to
administer national prohibition, and began only after Wheeler's death in
1927 to decline. [For a contemporary, muckraking account by a political
scientist, see Peter Odegard, Pressure
Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928). For a view
stressing litigation and court enforcement by the Anti-Saloon League, see
Clement E. Vose, Constitutional Change: Amendment
Politics and Supreme Court Litigation Since 1900 (Lexington,
Mass.: Lexington Books, 1972), chapter 4, pp. 69-100.]
1918-1920
THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT. The National Prohibition Amendment was
ratified on January 16, 1919 and took effect on January 16, 1920. Its
three sections read as follows:
Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the
manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the
importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United
States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for
beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have
been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of
the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years
from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the
Congress.
1920-1933
ASSOCIATION AGAINST THE PROHIBITION AMENDMENT. There had always been
opposition to laws banning the sale of alcohol and the most important single
voluntary association to enlist in the campaign for the repeal of the
Eighteenth Amendment was officially formed on December 31, 1920. The
organization called the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment had
been advocated as early as November 12, 1918 by Navy Captain William H.
Stayton. By the mid-1920s, a group of wealthy businessmen who had earlier
thought the Amendment might be beneficent joined the AAPA because they were
alarmed "over the rising crime rate, the violence of the enforcement effort,
the growth of federal power, and the perceived threat to constitutional
liberties." They included Pierre and Irenee du Pont, John J. Raskob, James
W. Wadsworth and later, Jouett Shouse. By publicity, state organization and
attention to lobbying Congress, the AAPA was always in the forefront of the
campaign to see a repeal amendment proposed by Congress. Their success came
when a repeal amendment was proposed by Congress on February 20, 1933. [For
the best account of the arguments against national prohibition by amendment
and of the organized activities of the AAPA, see David E. Kyvig, "In Revolt
Against Prohibition: The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment and
the Movement for Repeal, 1919-1933" (Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern
University, 1971).]
1927-1933
VOLUNTARY COMMITTEE OF LAWYERS, INC. In 1927 some young New York City
lawyers who believed national prohibition to be wrong and unenforceable
public policy formally established a single-purpose organization called the
Voluntary Committee of Lawyers. In the lead were Joseph H. Choate, Jr., who
served as chairman of the Executive Committee, and Harrison Tweed,
Treasurer. As lawyers they believed the Eighteenth Amendment to be
illegitimate as well as unwise policy. They organized associates in every
state, took polls on the opinions of city lawyers across the country, issued
bulletins and annual reports reciting arguments against the Eighteenth
Amendment and worked closely with the Association Against the Prohibition
Amendment. The papers of Choate and Tweed in the Collection on Legal Change
today show that the most important contribution of the VCL was in the
ratification process. They stressed that a Repeal Amendment should provide
for ratification by state convention and then proceeded to prepare and place
before all state governors in February 1933 draft bills providing for
election at large of all delegates. The alertness and the prestige of the
members of the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers contributed to the fact that
most states enacted the model convention bill verbatim. This helps to
account for the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5,
1933. The VCL then closed its books. [For an account based on these papers
see the chapter entitled "Lawyers for Repeal," in Clement E. Vose, Constitutional Change, chapter 5, pp.
101-138.]
1933
THE TWENTY-FIRST AMENDMENT.
Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of
the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State,
Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use
therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is
hereby prohibited.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have
been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the
several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from
the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
Collection Overview
The repeal papers of The Voluntary Committee of Lawyers, Inc. 1928-1944, were
originally working files of Joseph Hodge Choate, Jr. (1876-1968) and of Harrison
Tweed (1885-1969) when they were among the leaders of this single-purpose
organization. The Choate materials are correspondence and publications. The Tweed
records represent financial aspects of the organization, of which he was treasurer.
These papers include the records of the financial transactions of the organization,
all known publications and a great deal of original correspondence.
Online Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online
catalogs.
Prohibition--United States.
Choate, Joseph H., Jr.
Tweed, Harrison.
Association Against the Prohibition
Amendment.
Voluntary Committee of Lawyers.
Prohibition--Alabama.
Prohibition--Arizona.
Prohibition--Arkansas.
Prohibition--California.
Prohibition--Colorado.
Prohibition--Connecticut.
Prohibition--Delaware.
Prohibition--Florida.
Prohibition--Georgia.
Prohibition--Illinois.
Prohibition--Indiana.
Prohibition--Iowa.
Prohibition--Kentucky.
Prohibition--Maine.
Prohibition--Maryland.
Prohibition--Massachusetts.
Prohibition--Michigan.
Prohibition--Minnesota.
Prohibition--Missouri.
Prohibition--Montana.
Prohibition--Nevada.
Prohibition--New Jersey.
Prohibition--New Mexico.
Prohibition--New York.
Prohibition--North Carolina.
Prohibition--Ohio.
Prohibition--Oklahoma.
Prohibition--Oregon.
Prohibition--Pennsylvania.
Prohibition--Rhode Island.
Prohibition--South Carolina.
Prohibition--South Dakota.
Prohibition--Tennessee.
Prohibition--Texas.
Prohibition--Utah.
Prohibition--Vermont.
Prohibition--Virginia.
Prohibition--Washington.
Prohibition--West Virginia.
Prohibition--Wisconsin.
Temperance--United States--History.
Constitutional amendments--United States.
United States. Constitution. 18th
Amendment--History.
United States. Constitution. 21st
Amendment--History.
Liquor laws--United States--History.
Detailed Description of the Collection
Voluntary Committee of Lawyers Records
1
1
Statement of Purpose, By laws, etc.
circa 1930
1
2
Lists of State Representatives,
1927-1933
1
Membership lists
1
3
Alabama-Idaho
1
4
Illinois-Massachusetts
1
5
Michigan-New York
1
6
North Carolina-Wyoming
1
7
Executive Committee reports and statements,
1929-1933
1
The Constitutional Convention Amending Process
1
8
Historical precedent
1
9
Related to appeal
1
10
Comments
1
11
Film: Paramount Newsreel, "Joseph H. Choate, Jr. Attacks
Bootlegging," 16 mm. 1 minute. 2 copies.
1933
1
12
Duplicate copies of draft bills
1
13
Early writings on the 18th Amendment and Prohibition
1930-1932
1
14
Later Writings on the repeal of Prohibition,
1932-1933
1
15
Writings on the economic effect of Prohibition,
2
16
Media notices on repeal activities,
1932 May-1933 February
2
17
Media notices on repeal activities,
1933 March
2
18
Media notices on repeal activities,
1933 April
2
19
Media notices on repeal activities,
1933 May-November
2
20
Association Against the Prohibition Amendment papers
2
21
VCL miscellaneous papers
2
22
Miscellaneous related legislation
2
23
The 21st Amendment
2
VCL Revival
2
24
Correspondence,
1942 October
2
25
Correspondence,
1942 November-December
2
26
Correspondence and other materials,
1943 January-April
Joseph H. Choate, Jr. Correspondence
2
27
1932 January 21-April 31
2
28
1932 May 1-October 31
2
29
1932 November 1-December 31
2
30
1933 January 1-27
2
31
1933 January 28-31
2
32
1933 February 1
2
33
1933 February 2
2
34
1933 February 3
2
35
1933 February 4-5
2
36
1933 February 6
2
37
1933 February 7
2
38
1933 February 8-9
2
39
1933 February 10-11
2
40
1933 February 13-14
2
41
1933 February 15-16
2
42
1933 February 17
2
43
1933 February 18
2
44
1933 February 20
2
45
1933 February 21
3
46
1933 February 22-23
3
47
1933 February 24-25
3
48
1933 February 27
3
49
1933 February 28
3
50
1933 March 1
3
51
1933 March 1
3
52
1933 March 2
3
53
1933 March 3
3
54
1933 March 4
3
55
1933 March 6-7
3
56
1933 March 8-9
3
57
1933 March 10
3
58
1933 March 11-14
3
59
1933 March 15-16
3
60
1933 March 17-18
3
61
1933 March 20
3
62
1933 March 21
3
63
1933 March 22
3
64
1933 March 23-24
3
65
1933 March 25-27
3
66
1933 March 28-30
3
67
1933 March 31
3
68
1933 April 1-3
3
69
1933 April 4-9
3
70
1933 April 10-11
3
71
1933 April 12-18
3
72
1933 April 19-20
3
73
1933 April 21-30
3
74
1933 May 1-7
3
75
1933 May 8-13
3
76
1933 May 14-20
3
77
1933 May 21-23
3
78
1933 May 24-26
3
79
1933 May 27-31
3
80
1933 June 1-10
4
81
1933 June 11-20
4
82
1933 June 21-25
4
83
1933 June 26-30
4
84
1933 July 1-12
4
85
1933 July 13-31
4
86
1933 August 1-September 19
4
87
1933 September 20-30
4
88
1933 October1-31
4
89
1933 November 1-10
4
90
1933 November 11-15
4
91
1933 November 16-20
4
92
1933 November 21-1934 January 17
VCL State Files
4
93
Alabama
4
94
Arizona
4
95
Arkansas
4
96
California
4
97
Colorado
4
98
Connecticut
4
99
Delaware
4
100
Florida
4
101
Georgia
4
102
Illinois
4
103
Indiana
4
104
Iowa
4
105
Kentucky
4
106
Maine
4
107
Maryland
4
108
Massachusetts
4
109
Michigan
4
110
Minnesota
4
111
Missouri
4
112
Montana
4
113
Nevada
4
114
New Jersey
4
115
New Mexico
4
116
New York
4
117
North Carolina
4
118
Ohio, Part 1: General
4
119
Ohio, Part 2: Newspaper clippings
1933 June-July
4
120
Ohio, Part 3: Court case material
4
121
Ohio, Part 3: Court case material
5
122
Oklahoma
5
123
Oregon
5
124
Pennsylvania
5
125
Rhode Island
5
126
South Carolina
5
127
South Dakota
5
128
Tennessee
5
129
Texas
5
130
Utah
5
131
Vermont
5
132
Virginia
5
133
Washington
5
134
West Virginia
5
135
Wisconsin
Harrison Tweed Records
5
136
Check book stubs,
1928 October 19-1929 August 6
5
137
Check book stubs,
1929 August 6-1930 July 24
5
138
Check book stubs,
1930 August 1-1932 August 11
5
139
Check book stubs,
1932 August 11-1933 November 23