View source for Henrik Shipstead

{{Short description|American politician (1881–1960)}}
{{Infobox officeholder 
| name = Henrik Shipstead
| image = SHIPSTEAD, HENDRIK. SENATOR LCCN2016861939 Trim.jpg
| caption = Portrait by [[Harris & Ewing]] {{circa}} 1930s
| state1 = [[Minnesota]]
| jr/sr1 = [[United States Senate|United States Senator]]
| term_start1 = March 4, 1923
| term_end1 = January 3, 1947
| preceded1 = [[Frank B. Kellogg]]
| succeeded1 = [[Edward John Thye]]
| state_house2 = Minnesota
| district2 = 47th
| term_start2 = January 1, 1917
| term_end2 = January 5, 1919
| preceded2 = Iver J. Lee
| succeeded2 = Carl N. Nelson
| birth_date = {{birth date|1881|01|08}}
| birth_place = [[Kandiyohi County, Minnesota]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1960|06|26|1881|01|08}}
| death_place = [[Alexandria, Minnesota]], U.S.
| resting_place = Kinkead Cemetery, Alexandria, Minnesota, U.S.
| party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] {{small|(before 1922, 1940–1960)}}<br>[[Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party|Farmer-Labor]] {{small|(1923–1940)}}
| otherparty = [[Independent politician|Independent]] {{small|(1920)}}
| alma_mater = [[Northwestern University]]
| profession = [[Dentist]]
| spouse= 
}}
'''Henrik Shipstead''' (January 8, 1881{{spaced ndash}}June 26, 1960) was [[Norwegian-American]] [[dentist]] and [[politician]] who served in the [[United States Senate]] from 1923 to 1947, representing the state of [[Minnesota]]. He served first as a member of the [[Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party]] from 1923 to 1941 and then as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] from 1941 to 1947.

Few members of Congress in American history were more consistent in opposing US foreign interventionism, despite not believing himself to be an isolationist and voting in favor of declaring war on [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] after the [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]]. He is also noted for his antisemitism and support of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.<ref>With Satisfaction and Honor: William Mitchell College of Law, 1900-2000 pg. 138</ref><ref>Life Reborn: Jewish Displaced Persons, 1945-1951 : Conference Proceedings, Washington, D.C. January 14–17, 2000 by Menachem Z. Rosensaft, pg. 105</ref>

==Early life==
Shipstead was born on a farm in [[Kandiyohi County, Minnesota]], in 1881 to Norwegian immigrant parents. In the early 20th century, he set up a dental practice and was elected president of the village council of Glenwood in neighboring [[Pope County, Minnesota|Pope County]].

==Political career==
[[File:Dr. Henrik Shipstead LCCN2014711581 Trim.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Doctor Henrik Shipstead {{circa}} 1915–1920]]
Shipstead entered politics as a Republican, serving one term in the [[Minnesota House of Representatives]] from 1917 to 1919.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shipstead, Henrik "Henrick" |url=https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=14773 |website=lrl.mn.gov |publisher=Minnesota Legislative Reference Library |access-date=5 May 2025}}</ref> In [[1918 United States House of Representatives elections|1918]], he ran for [[United States House of Representatives|Congress]] in [[Minnesota's 7th congressional district]], narrowly losing the Republican primary to incumbent [[Andrew Volstead]].<ref>{{cite web |title=MN District 7 - R Primary, June 17, 1918 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=492280 |website=ourcampaigns.com |access-date=5 May 2025}}</ref> [[1920 Minnesota gubernatorial election|Two years later]], he ran for [[governor of Minnesota]] as an [[Independent politician|Independent]], losing to Republican [[J. A. O. Preus]] but coming in second place with over 35% of the vote. He finally returned to public office in [[1922 United States Senate election in Minnesota|1922]], when he was elected to the U.S. Senate under the banner of the new Farmer-Labor Party. While he generally shared the party's left-wing agenda, he rejected the extreme anti-capitalism of some members. Although he was the only Farmer-Laborite in the Senate, he won appointment to the powerful [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Foreign Relations Committee]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

Shipstead opposed U.S. entry into the [[League of Nations]] and the [[Permanent Court of International Justice|World Court]]. He called for the cancellation of German reparations, which he regarded as vindictive. Unlike non-interventionists in the [[Old Right (United States)|Old Right]], he objected to the U.S. occupation of [[Haiti]], the [[Dominican Republic]] and [[Nicaragua]]. He blamed these interventions on the [[Roosevelt Corollary]] to the [[Monroe Doctrine]] of 1905, which had turned the United States into an arrogant "policeman of the western continent."

===Isolationism===
[[File:Sen. Magnus Johnson and Henrik Shipstead (npcc.10017).jpg|thumb|right|Shipstead and fellow [[Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party|Minnesota Farmer–Labor]] Senator [[Magnus Johnson]], 1923]]
Shipstead did not consider himself an isolationist. While he favored a policy of political non-intervention overseas, he opposed the [[Smoot-Hawley Tariff]] of 1930, which he called "one of the greatest and most vicious isolationist policies this government has ever enacted." He argued that high tariffs "raise prices to consumers" and make "monopolies richer and people poorer." Affable and dignified, his adversaries generally liked him personally. He concluded, "It doesn't necessarily follow that a radical has to be a damned fool."

Along with Congressman [[Robert Luce]] of [[Massachusetts]], he introduced the bill that enlarged the purview of the [[United States Commission of Fine Arts]] to include new buildings on private land facing federal property. The commission, established in 1910, reviews new buildings, memorials, monuments, and public art constructed on federal property in [[Washington, D.C.]] The bill, the [[Shipstead-Luce Act]], is still in effect.

Shipstead defected from the Farmer-Labor party in the late 1930s, charging that Communist elements were taking control. He won reelection to the Senate in 1940 as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]].

===Antisemitism===
Shipstead was an outspoken ally of [[Henry Ford]] and [[Charles Lindbergh]], and he trafficked in anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, as well as straightforward bigotry against Jewish people. Shipstead said he believed that ''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'' were fact, and he frequently encouraged other people to read them.<ref>With Satisfaction and Honor: William Mitchell College of Law, 1900-2000 pg. 138</ref><ref>Life Reborn: Jewish Displaced Persons, 1945-1951 : Conference Proceedings, Washington, D.C. January 14–17, 2000 by Menachem Z. Rosensaft, pg. 105</ref>
Meanwhile, few fought more tenaciously against [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s efforts to enter the war in Europe. Although Shipstead voted for the declaration of war after the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], he still maintained his independence from Roosevelt. In October 1942, for example, he was one of the very few to vote against [[Selective Service]], just as he had in 1940.

===World War II===
In April 1943 [[Isaiah Berlin]], a top British expert on American politics, secretly prepared an analysis for the British [[Foreign Office]] that stated that Henrik Shipstead was:

{{blockquote|a rabid Isolationist of [[Norwegian Americans|Norwegian]] descent, elected largely by the Scandinavian vote. A very narrow, bigoted, crotchety man, intensely antagonistic to Minnesota's Governor [[Harold Stassen]]. A member of the Farm ''Bloc'' and consistently votes against the Administration.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/singles/bib139a/bib139a.pdf |title=American Profiles on Capitol Hill: A Confidential Study for the British Foreign Office in 1943 |author=Hachey, Thomas E. |journal=Wisconsin Magazine of History |date=Winter 1973–1974 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=141–153 |jstor=4634869 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021185357/http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/singles/bib139a/bib139a.pdf |archive-date=October 21, 2013 }}</ref>}}

In protest of his views, a group of southern senators including [[J. Lister Hill]], [[John H. Bankhead II]], [[Tom Stewart (politician)|Tom Stewart]], [[Kenneth McKellar (politician)|Kenneth McKellar]], [[Richard Russell Jr.]] and [[Walter F. George]] stopped conversing, got up, and left from the Senate's lunch counter when Senator Shipstead tried to join them, with Hill later telling reporters they "would not associate" with the Senator due to his isolationist views. Later, after a private argument with the same six Senators, Shipstead lamented what he called the "extreme Anglophilia of the southern states." [[Richard Russell Jr.]] said that Shipstead was "a chicken" who was "in kahoots" with Germany.<ref>Nazi Germany and the American Hemisphere, 1933-1941, Volume 86 - Alton Frye Yale University Press, 1967</ref>

===Postwar===
Shipstead's vote against US entry into the [[United Nations]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1204.html#article |title=UNO Bill Approved By Senate, 65 to 7, With One Change |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 4, 1945 |access-date=December 27, 2016}}</ref> was entirely predictable by anyone who had followed his career. It was the capstone of decades of opposition to foreign entanglements. Like many modern conservative critics of the UN, he feared that it would foster a world superstate. But he also believed that the major powers would use the UN as a tool to dominate smaller countries. He and [[William Langer]] were the only two senators to vote against the [[United Nations Charter]]. Not surprisingly, Shipstead and Langer were also among the seven senators who opposed full United States entry into the [[United Nations]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1204.html#article|title=UNO Bill Approved By Senate, 65 to 7, With One Change|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=December 4, 1945|access-date=December 27, 2016}}</ref> These votes may have cost him reelection a year later; a new breed of "internationalists", led by Governor [[Edward John Thye]] and former [[Harold Stassen|Governor Stassen]], assumed leadership of the Minnesota state GOP, and in [[1946 United States Senate election in Minnesota|1946]], Shipstead lost the Republican primary to Thye. 

==Later life and death==
After his loss, Shipstead retired to rural western Minnesota, where he died in 1960.

==See also==
* [[List of United States senators who switched parties]]

== References ==
<references />

==Further reading==
*David T. Beito, [https://web.archive.org/web/20051031045351/http://hnn.us/blogs/comments/13436.html "Henrik Shipstead Against the UN,"] History News Network, July 28, 2005.
* Barbara Stuhler, "The Political Enigma of Henrik Shipstead," ''Ten Men of Minnesota and American Foreign Policy 1898&ndash;1968''. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1973. pp.&nbsp;76–98.
* {{CongBio|S000369}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Henrik Shipstead}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henrik Shipstead}}
*[http://greatriversnetwork.org/index.php?brand=cms&imagesonly=yes&q=Henrik%20Shipstead&type=Photographs Henrik Shipstead photos] at the [[Minnesota Historical Society]]

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{{s-ttl|title=[[Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party|Farmer–Labor]] nominee for [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] from [[Minnesota]]<br />([[Classes of United States Senators|Class 1]])|years=[[United States Senate election in Minnesota, 1922|1922]], [[1928 United States Senate election in Minnesota|1928]], [[1934 United States Senate election in Minnesota|1934]]}}
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{{U.S. Senator box|state=Minnesota|class=1|before=[[Frank B. Kellogg]]|after=[[Edward John Thye]]|years=1923&ndash;1947|alongside=[[Knute Nelson]], [[Magnus Johnson]], [[Thomas D. Schall]], [[Elmer Austin Benson]], [[Guy V. Howard]], [[Ernest Lundeen]], [[Joseph H. Ball]], [[Arthur E. Nelson]]}}
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{{United States senators from Minnesota}}
{{Third-party US senators}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shipstead, Henrik}}
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1960 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Lutherans]]
[[Category:American Lutherans]]
[[Category:American anti-communists]]
[[Category:American conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:America First Committee members]]
[[Category:American people of Norwegian descent]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in Minnesota]]
[[Category:Farmer–Labor Party United States senators]]
[[Category:Minnesota Farmer–Laborites]]
[[Category:Minnesota Republicans]]
[[Category:Northwestern University Dental School alumni]]
[[Category:People from Alexandria, Minnesota]]
[[Category:People from Kandiyohi County, Minnesota]]
[[Category:People from Willmar, Minnesota]]
[[Category:Republican Party United States senators from Minnesota]]
[[Category:20th-century United States senators]]