Title: David J. Blanchard Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1941-1962

Creator:

• Blanchard, David J., 1921-1962

Call Number: Whitewater Mss BB

Quantity: 2.6 c.f. (7 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of an Edgerton, Wisconsin, attorney and Republican assemblyman (1954-1962), primarily pertaining to his political career. Blanchard was chairman of the Assembly State Affairs and Rules Committees, a member of the Board of Government Operations, Republican Floor Leader of the Assembly in 1959, and Speaker of the Assembly from 1960 until his death in December 1962. In 1961-1962, he was chairman of the Joint Legislative Council and in 1960, chairman of the Platform Committee of the Wisconsin Republican Party, and a Richard M. Nixon delegate from Wisconsin's First Congressional District to the Republican national convention. The collection includes general correspondence on legislative and political topics; speeches, primarily delivered to constituent groups; campaign files; files on Republican Party state conventions and the 1960 national convention; and subject files on Assembly committees, legislation, and issues. Information is present on committee assignments, reapportionment, the Water Resources Committee of the Joint Legislative Council, Blachard's work on the Republican state platform committee (1960-1962), and his support for Warren Knowles for governor in 1962 and for Richard Nixon for president in 1960.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-whit00bb

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David J. Blanchard, an Edgerton, Wisconsin attorney and Republican assemblyman (1954-1962) from Rock County's second district, was born 5 January 1921 at Edgerton. The son of George W.^[1] and Helen (Sherman) Blanchard, he was educated in the Edgerton public schools and received a B.A. degree in 1942 and an LL.B.degree in 1943 from the University of Wisconsin. He was a member of bar associations, a 32nd degree Mason, and an active conservationist. Blanchard was elected to the Assembly in 1954 on his first try for public office and reelected in 1956, 1958, 1960, and 1962. As an assemblyman he served on a variety of committees, as chairman of the Assembly State Affairs and Rules committees, and as a member of the Board on Government Operations. Blanchard was Republican floor leader of the Assembly in 1959, and Speaker of the Assembly from 1960 until his death. In the 1961-1962 session Blanchard was chairman of the Joint Legislative Council; in 1960 he was chairman of the platform committee of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Afflicted with a congenital kidney ailment, Blanchard was forced to use a wheelchair during the last years of his life. He died of this illness on 23 December 1962, survived by his wife, Carolyn (Jensen) Blanchard, whom he had married on 29 September 1943. They had no children. In a special election held in April 1963, Carolyn Blanchard was elected to fill her husband's seat in the Assembly. She was reelected in every succeeding election until 1970 when she lost to Democrat Janet Soergel Mielke.

The majority of the David Blanchard Papers pertain to Blanchard's political career, 1954-1962. The collection is arranged in seven series: correspondence, Assembly files, speeches, campaigns, Republican conventions, personal papers, and clippings. The papers contain no substantive information relating to Blanchard's personal affairs or to his professional activities.

More than half of the collection is a chronological CORRESPONDENCE file, 1954-1962. The letters clearly document political maneuvering, as well as the breadth of activity, conciliatory efforts, accommodations, and privileges of office.

Some correspondence, through 1958, concerns specific bills, and is similar to correspondence of later dates filed by Blanchard's staff in his Assembly Files.

The ASSEMBLY FILES, 1955-1962, have been subdivided into sections on committees, legislation, the Joint Legislative Council, and Blanchard's reference files. Under Committees are letters and working papers concerning committee assignments for the 1961 legislative session and to interim committees during Blanchard's term as Speaker of the Assembly. There is also a folder relating to the reapportionment question and the Assembly interim committee on reapportionment appointed in June 1962. The segment on Legislation, 1955-1962, includes copies and analyses of bills, joint resolutions, and acts to amend; notes and press releases concerning legislation; and correspondence, 1959-1962, from Blanchard's constituents, most of which concerns specific legislation, on such matters as bus transportation for parochial school children, withholding tax, sales tax, a uniform commercial code, and conservation appropriations. The folders titled Joint Legislative Council concern the Council and the Water Resources Committee of the Council during Blanchard's tenure as chairman, 1961-1962. Blanchard's Reference Files are self-explanatory as listed in the Container List.

The SPEECHES are copies of addresses Blanchard made from 1955 to 1962, usually before Rock County groups, on a number of subjects: education; estates and wills; farms and the farmer; government and legislation in Wisconsin; juvenile delinquency; Abraham Lincoln; Masonry and revolutionary period Masons; Memorial Day; peace; political issues; Republicanism; restaurants; taxation and the economy; traffic safety; water resources; and women. Also found here is a small group of speeches, “At Edgerton,” which includes a variety of topics touched on in talks Blanchard made in his home city. Many of the speeches filed here are little more than notes and fragments. They have been arranged alphabetically by subject.

The CAMPAIGNS segment consists of correspondence, election financial statements, vote tabulations for the Assembly seat in Rock County's second district, and miscellaneous materials concerning Blanchard's campaigns for the Assembly. There is a signed letter from Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, 21 September 1956, offering campaign assistance to Blanchard if requested, and indicating McCarthy's intention to campaign in Wisconsin in support of the Republican ticket.

The REPUBLICAN CONVENTIONS file, 1959-1962, consists of material concerning Wisconsin state conventions and the 1960 national convention. The Wisconsin material includes programs, 1959-1962; correspondence between Lt. Governor Warren P. Knowles and Blanchard concerning Knowles' request for Blanchard's active support of Knowles' candidacy for governor; and the nomination speech for Knowles given by Blanchard at the 1962 state Republican convention. The papers created or collected by Blanchard during his service on the platform committee of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, 1960-1962, are filed in this series. These include platforms, statements of principles and resolutions, 1958-1962; and correspondence, notes and other working papers. The folder relating to the 1960 National Republican convention, at which Blanchard was a Richard M. Nixon delegate from Wisconsin's First Congressional District, includes correspondence; an election financial statement; lists of members of the Wisconsin delegation; copies of Saturday Evening Post editor Stewart Alsop's interview with Nixon and subsequent article published in the Post on 12 July 1958; a copy of Wisconsin “Delegate Law,” 1959; and some material relating to the Legislators for Nixon Club and to Wisconsin Volunteers for Nixon.

The PERSONAL PAPERS file contains only Blanchard's diplomas; and certificates of admission to the bar, of membership in bar associations, and of election. NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS constitutes a small file of Xeroxed clippings relating to matters of interest to Blanchard as a legislator.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. Carolyn J. Blanchard, Edgerton, Wisconsin, April 27, 1966. Accession Number: M66-109

Processing Information

Processed by W. Abdullah (FGH intern) and Joanne Hohler, August 1, 1977.

	Series: Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1-8	1954-1958
Box   2 Folder   1-6	1959-1960
Box   3 Folder   1-9	1961, January - August
Box   4 Folder   1-4	1961, September - 1962, December
	Series: Assembly Files	⇧
	Committees
	Assignments
Box   4 Folder   5	Requests and statements of preference for committee (and interim committee) assignments, 1960, November - 1961, August
Box   4 Folder   6	Appointments to committees - Working papers, 1961-1962, and notifications and announcements, , 1961-1962
Box   4 Folder   7	Reapportionment, 1962, March - September.
	Legislation
Box   5 Folder   1	Analysis of bills, 1959-1962
Box   5 Folder   2	Drafts, Notes, Press Releases concerning legislation, 1958-1961; n.d
	Correspondence with constituents,
Box   5 Folder   3	1959
Box   5 Folder   4	1961-1962; n.d
	Joint Legislative Council
Box   5 Folder   5	General, 1961-1962
Box   5 Folder   6	Water Resources Committee, 1955-(1961 - 1962)
	Reference Files
Box   5 Folder   7	General, 1959-1962
Box   5 Folder   8-9	Bad Fish Creek pollution, 1954-1955; n.d.
Box   5 Folder   10	Rock River pollution, 1958
Box   5 Folder   11	Proposals on education, 1958, December - 1962, August; n.d.
Box   5 Folder   12	Budget, 1959
Box   6 Folder   1	Taxation, 1959-1960
	Series: Speeches, 1955-1962	⇧
Box   6 Folder   2	“At Edgerton” - “On Political Issues”
Box   6 Folder   3	“On Republicanism” - “On Women”, Miscellany
Box   6 Folder   4-6	Series: Campaigns, 1956-1962	⇧
	Series: Republican Conventions	⇧
	Wisconsin
Box   6 Folder   7	Programs, 1959-1960, 1962; Knowles nomination for governor, , 1962; Rules Committee report, , 1959
	Platform Committee
Box   6 Folder   8	Platforms, statements of principles resolutions, 1958-9162; and miscellany, , 1962
Box   7 Folder   1	Correspondence, 1960; 1962
Box   7 Folder   2	Notes and working papers, 1960; 1962
Box   7 Folder   3	National, 1960
Box   7 Folder   4	Series: Personal Papers, 1942-1962	⇧
Box   7 Folder   5	Series: Newspaper Clippings	⇧

George W. Blanchard (1884-1964) was an Edgerton lawyer, city clerk and city attorney, 1913-1931; a Wisconsin assemblyman, 1925-1926 and senator, 1927-1933; and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1933-1935. See Whitewater Mss BA.