Daniel Brewster

Daniel Baugh Brewster Sr. (November 23, 1923 – August 19, 2007) was an American attorney and politician from the state of Maryland. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in both chambers of the United States Congress as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1959 to 1963 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1963 to 1969. Previously, he served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1950 to 1958 and from Maryland's 2nd congressional district from 1959 to 1963. After his Senate career, and following a lengthy court battle, Brewster pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of accepting an illegal gratuity.

Early life, education, and military service

Daniel Baugh Brewster, Sr. was born on November 23, 1923, in Baltimore County, Maryland, in the Green Spring Valley Region. He was the oldest of six children of Ottolie Y. (Wickes) and Daniel Baugh Brewster. Brewster was born into a wealthy family and was "raised in comfort on a beautifully appointed farm in Maryland fox-hunting country". The Washington Post described him as an "inheritor of the Baugh Chemical fortune". His father died when he was 10 years of age.

After the war, Brewster again attended Johns Hopkins. He then enrolled at the University of Maryland Law School, from which he graduated with an LL.B. degree in June 1949. He was admitted to the bar in November 1949 and began practicing law in Towson, Maryland.

left|thumb|346x346px|19-year-old Marine Lieutenant Daniel B. Brewster was wounded seven times during the battles for Guam and Okinawa and was awarded both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Military service

In 1942, Brewster enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

Political career

Maryland House of Delegates (1950-1958)

Brewster, a Democrat,

left|thumb|[[John F. Kennedy|President John F. Kennedy invites Daniel Brewster to meet with him in the Oval Office after endorsing Brewster's campaign for the United States Senate in 1962.]]

U.S. Senate (1963-1969)

In 1962, Brewster ran for the United States Senate seat vacated by the retiring Republican senator John Marshall Butler. He defeated Congressman Edward Tylor Miller to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Maryland since 1946. the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. Brewster was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Brewster sought re-election to the Senate in 1968. However, "his complicated personal life, his support of the Vietnam War and his increasingly serious problems with alcohol took their toll", and he was defeated by Republican Charles Mathias.

In 1978, Brewster stated that the greatest mistake he made in his public life was his support for the Vietnam War.

Legal troubles

In 1969, Brewster was indicted on 10 criminal counts of solicitation and acceptance of bribes while a United States senator, as well as two counts of accepting illegal gratuities.

At trial, the judge dismissed five of the charges, saying that Brewster's actions were protected under the Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The prosecution appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard the case in 1971 and 1972. In June 1972, the Court held 6 to 3 in United States v. Brewster that the taking of illegal bribes was not protected speech, as taking of a bribe was not part of the "performance of a legislative function".

The charges were reinstated. Brewster stood trial and was found "not guilty" of the bribery charges but was convicted of accepting an unlawful gratuity "without corrupt intent." However, in August 1974,thumb|Daniel Brewster retired from the [[United States Marine Corps|Marine Corps as a Colonel after thirty years of service.]]

Post-Senate career

After leaving the Senate, Brewster took up farming in Glyndon, Maryland.

In 1967, Brewster "attended the funeral of William Bullitt, the U.S. ambassador to France. There, he became reacquainted with Anne Bullitt, Mr. Bullitt's daughter and Mr. Brewster's first fiancee, who had jilted the senator while he was overseas during the war". Brewster divorced his first wife. Brewster's second marriage also ended in divorce.

Brewster survived large cell lymphoma and leukemia in the 1980s.

In 2023, a biography of Brewster by John W. Frece, Self-Destruction: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster, was published by Loyola University Maryland's Apprentice House Press.