James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr

James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. (August 12, 1877 - June 21, 1952) was a U.S. Republican politician, grandson of General Wadsworth. A member of Skull and Bones, he graduated from Yale in 1898, and immediately entered the live-stock and farming business in which his father was interested both in New York and Texas.[1]He became active early in Republican politics, being elected to the New York State Assembly in 1905 (when 28 years old) and serving continuously until 1910. He was speaker of the Assembly from 1906 to 1910. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1915 until 1927, and as a United States Congressman from 1933 until 1951.

Wadsworth was a firm proponent of individual rights and feared what he considered the threat of federal intervention into the private lives of Americans. He believed that the only purpose of the Constitution was to and limit the powers of government and to protect the rights of citizens. For this reason, he voted against the Eighteenth Amendment when it was before the Senate. Before it went into effect, Wadsworth predicted that prohibition would result in widespread violations and contempt for law and the Constitution.

By the mid-1920s, Wadsworth was one of a handful of congressmen who spoke out forcefully and frequently against Prohibition. He was especially concerned that citizens could be prosecuted by both state and federal officials for a single violation of prohibition law. This seemed to him to constitute double jeopardy, inconsistent with the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution.

Lineage: James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. 1877, James Wolcott Wadsworth 1846, James Samuel Wadsworth 1807, James Wadsworth 1768, John Noyes Wadsworth 1732, James Wadsworth 1677, John Wadsworth 1630, William Wadsworth 1594, William Wadsworth 1550. William Wadsworth 1550 was the 3x great grandfather to Hannah Wadsworth 1750 who married John Bigelow 1739.