SAMUEL J. "SAM" ERVIN JR. - ENVELOPE SIGNED - HFSID 300073

SAMUEL J. "SAM" ERVIN JR.
9x4 envelope signed by the politician
Envelope Signed: "Sam J Ervin, Jr.", 9x4. Envelope addressed to: "Honorable Basil O'Connor, Chairman, The American National Red Cross, Washington, D.C." Sam Ervin (1896-1985), who had been appointed as U.S. Senator from North Carolina on June 5, 1954 to fill a vacancy, spent the next 20 years representing the state in Washington. He chaired the Committee on Government Operations and on the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. In the latter capacity, on May 17, 1973, he opened the public hearings that explored an alleged cover-up by the Nixon administration in the Watergate affair. Ervin, who had earlier been instrumental in bringing down Senator Joseph McCarthy, who terrorized the political community -- including the Senate, played a significant role in bringing about Nixon's downfall. Ervin came to an uncomplicated verdict on Watergate: Nixon and his chief aides had pulled some funny business to weaken the Democratic presidential ticket and enhance Nixon's changes for re-election in 1972. He said that Watergate "for the first time undertook to destroy the integrity of the process" and that its perpetrators showed "the same mentality as the Gestapo." Ervin retired from the Senate in December 1974; four months after President Nixon had resigned. Fine condition.