United States Senate
 GO
United States Senate Senators HomeCommittees HomeLegislation & Records HomeArt & History HomeVisitors Center HomeReference Home
United States Senate
People
Origins & Development
Historical Minutes
Exhibits
Special Collections
Paintings
Sculptures
Graphic Arts
Oral History


  
 
 

Lee Slater Overman: A Featured Biography

Lee Slater Overman by Unknown

Lee S. Overman (1853-1930), won a Senate seat in 1903 as a Democrat from North Carolina in opposition to the reforms advocated by a fusion of Populists and Republicans in his state. Once in office, however, he identified himself with much of the reform legislation of the progressive era. After Democrats took the majority and Woodrow Wilson won the presidency in 1912, Overman chaired the Senate Rules Committee and was a ranking member of his party on the Judiciary and Appropriations Committees. He advocated banking and currency reforms that eventually became the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and worked for passage of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act in 1914. Overman loyally supported President Wilson's foreign policies prior to the First World War, and later fought for passage of the Treaty of Versailles at the war's end.


 

 
  

Senate Historical Office

Historical information provided by the Senate Historical Office.


E-mail a Senate historian

Have a historical question?  E-mail a Senate historian.

Go