Up for auction "Wisconsin Senator" Alexander Wiley Hand Signed TLS Dated 1950. 

ES-9262E

Alexander

Wiley (May 26, 1884 –

October 26, 1967) was a Republican who

served four terms in the United States Senate for

the state of Wisconsin from 1939 to 1963. When he

left the Senate, he was its most senior Republican member. Wiley was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

He received his undergraduate education at Augsburg College in Minnesota and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in

1907 and was also admitted to the bar the same year. He served as the Chippewa County district

attorney from 1909 to 1915. Wiley

was the Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin in

1936, but his bid failed. Philip La Follette and

the new Wisconsin Progressive

Party, which split from the Republicans in 1934, won the election.

In 1938, Wiley was elected to the U.S. Senate, first defeating Tax Court

judge Stephen J. McMahon to

win the Republican nomination, and then defeating incumbent F. Ryan Duffy to win the seat. In 1944, he was challenged

by United States Marine Corps Captain Joseph R. McCarthy in

the Republican primary. He defeated

McCarthy and won the general election. Wiley, then an isolationist in foreign policy, and Governor Walter S. Goodland supported

Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey in the 1944 race

over incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt, and

Dewey won Wisconsin's electoral votes but fell far short nationally. Wiley

was re-elected two more times in 1950 and 1956. In 1956, he was challenged

by U.S. Representative Glenn Robert Davis in

the Republican primary, but again prevailed. Wiley voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 1962, Wiley lost his bid for a fifth term to

Governor Gaylord Nelson, a liberal Democrat. Wiley

was the last Republican to serve as U.S. Senator from Wisconsin until the

election of former 9th district congressman Bob Kasten in 1980 United

States Senate elections. Wiley had a distinguished Senate career

that included the chairmanship of both the Foreign Relations and Judiciary

committees. Wiley died in Germantown,

Pennsylvania at age 83.[6] He was interred at Forest Hill Cemetery in

Chippewa Falls. During his lifetime he was a member of the Freemasons, the Knights Templar,

the Elks Club,

the Kiwanis, the Knights of Pythias,

the Moose International,

the Sons of Norway, and Sigma Phi Epsilon.