Sam Ervin Quotes
Recalling an old magistrate's words to a young attorney, The rain it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella; But chiefly on the just, because The unjust steals the just's umbrella.
Ervin, Sam J., Jr. Humor of a Country Lawyer. University of North Carolina Press, 1983, p. 57.
Doty acquitted Chief Oshkosh who had murdered another Indian in retaliation of the murder of one of his tribe. Under the Indian customs of the time, revenge killings were normal and expected. The white citizens were outraged and voted Wisconsin’s first judge out of office. He later became Governor of the territory and when Wisconsin became a state, Doty became its Congressman.
The city he represented had, under his leadership, declared itself a nuclear-free zone, protested apartheid in front of the South African embassy in Washington, fought for rent-control during a period of soaring rents, and became known as "the Berkeley of the East":
Commenting on the lenient treatment the German justice system provided neo-Nazi and other right wing perpetrators of violence;
Samuel James Ervin Jr. was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A native of Morganton, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer", and often told humorous stories in his Southern drawl. During his Senate career, Ervin was a staunch defender of the Jim Crow laws and racial segregation, as the South's constitutional expert during the congressional debates on civil rights. Paradoxically, he was also known for his support of civil liberties. He is remembered for his work in the investigation committees that brought down Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 and especially for his investigation of the Watergate scandal in 1972 that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.
