As years pass, we learn more about the remarkable efforts that US Senator Wayne Morse made which have improved and strengthened our society. Americans alive while he served us saw this first hand. Today persons interested in the Morse story must turn increasingly to other sources: reminiscences of his contemporaries, the skills of journalists who covered parts of his career and the emerging diligence of younger scholars who comb documents to find and acknowledge Morse contributions for future generations.
Many such findings are being preserved in the continuing Monograph Series initiated in 2006 to celebrate the Morse legacy. The series is published by the Wayne Morse Historical Park Corporation and the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.
Titles in the Monograph Series:
“Personal Memories of a Great Conservation Senator: Wayne Morse,” Robert E. Wolf. 2006. Recollections of a former U. S. staffer who worked closely with Wayne Morse on a variety of conservation issues during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
“Plenty of Advice and Not So Much Consent: Senator Wayne Morse and U. S. Policy in Latin America,” James Tschudy, 2007. Examines Morse’s impact and experience in US-Latin America foreign policy, through his chairmanship of the Latin American Affairs Subcommittee of the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1955 to 1968.
“Senator Wayne Morse and War Powers,” Benjamin Robert Dore, 2010. Examines Morse’s impact on the continuing debate about the division of war powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.
“Wayne Morse and Harry Bridges: I Hold a Brief for Truth,” Jilian Clearman, 2010. Examines a telling vignette in the early career of Wayne Morse: his testimony in support of Harry Bridges during deportation proceedings in 1939 and 1941. Morse was no fan of Bridges, but he was a stickler for the truth and for following the Constitution.
“A Triumph of Statesmanship: Senator Wayne Morse Delivers Federal Aid for Education,” A. Robert Smith, 2012. Discusses Morse’s “…uplifting imprint on American education.” Smith reported on Washington, D.C., politics for 27 years for several Northwest newspapers, including the Senator’s hometown newspaper, the Eugene Register Guard. His monograph provides a close examination of Morse’s leadership on landmark public education initiatives during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations that earned him the title of “Mr. Education.”
Copies of monographs in the series are available from the UO Wayne Morse Center as PDFs at the link below and can be purchased in printed form from WMHPC, for $2.00 per copy, plus $2 shipping and handling.