Edmund Muskie

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Edmund Sixtus Muskie (March 28, 1914 – March 26, 1996), an American politician who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter, was a Maine Senator from 1955 to 1960, and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President of Maine in the 1968 race. Born in Rumford, Maine, he served as a lawyer for two years before joining the United States Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1945 in the War II.

Muskie served in the Maine State Legislature from 1946 to 1951, and unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Waterville from 1946 to 1951.

Muskie was elected as the first Maine Democratic Party governor in almost 100 years in 1954 under a reform platform.

Muskie pressed for economic growth and reintroduced environmental controls. Muskie was first elected to the Senate in 1959.

He was an environmentalist and influenced the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the 1972 Clean Water Act.

Muskie also supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Jr. Day.

Muskie endorsed New Federalism in reaction to Richard Nixon's resignation.

Muskie ran alongside Hubert Humphrey against Nixon in the 1968 presidential election, losing the popular vote by 0.2 percentage points (42.42%) and losing the electoral college vote by 301 to 191 (with 46 people voting for a third-party candidate George Wallace).

The outing of the "Canuck letter" in 1972 as a candidate in the 1972 presidential election brought him out of office. He gave the Union Response in 1976 as Senator.

Muskie served as the first chairman of the new Senate Budget Committee from 1975 to 1980, where he initiated the United States budget process. President Jimmy Carter nominated him as the 58th U.S. Secretary of State after his resignation from the Senate.

Although Secretary of State Muskie unsuccessfully arranged the release of 52 Americans, 52 Americans were released.

After Ronald Reagan acceded to the presidency, the hostages returned home, ending the Iran hostage crisis.

Early life and education

Edmund Sixtus Muskie was born in Rumford, Maine, on Saturday, March 28, 1914. He was born after his parents' first child, Irene (born 1912), and before his brother Eugene (born 1918) and three sisters, Lucy (born 1923), and Frances (born 1921). Stephen Marciszewski, his father, was born and raised in Jasionów, Russian Poland, and spent as an estate manager for minor Russian nobility. In 1903, he immigrated to America and changed his name to Muskie from "Marciszewski" in 1914. Josephine (née Czarnecka), Muskie's mother, worked as a housewife, and he served as a master tailor and housewife. In Buffalo, New York, she was born to a Polish-American family. Josephine and Muskie's parents married in 1911, and Josephine and his father moved to Rumford soon after.

Muskie's first language was Polish; he used it as his first language until age 4. He began learning English right away and then lost fluency in his mother tongue, which eventually developed fluency. He was an avid fisherman, hunter, and swimmer in his youth. He felt as though his given name was "odd," so he went by Ed throughout his life. Muskie was shy and fearful in his youth, but he had a large number of friends. Muskie graduated from Stephens High School, where he played baseball, was active in the performing arts, and was elected student body president in his senior year. He would go on to graduate in 1932 as a valedictorian at the top of his class. "Because you see a head and shoulders soaring over you in Stephen's halls, you should know that your eyes are feasting on the future President of the United States," the school's newspaper reported in 1931.

He attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and was influenced by the political excitement surrounding Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to the White House. Muskie, a student, excelled on the debating team, competed in many sports, and was elected to student government. Despite receiving a modest grant and New Deal grants, he had to work in Kennebunk during the summers as a dishwasher and bellhop to fund his stay in Bates. Muskie would recall occasional feelings of insecurity among his wealthy Bates peers; he was concerned about being kicked out of the college as a result of his socioeconomic status. His fortune would gradually improve, and he would graduate in 1936 as the class president and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He started planning to major in mathematics but then switched to a double major in history and government.

He received a partial merit-based scholarship to Cornell Law School upon his graduation. His scholarship was denied after his second semester at the University of Rhode Island. William Bingham II, a "eccentric millionaire" who had a habit of randomly and sporadically paying the tuition, mortgages, car loans, and other bills of those who wrote to him, was expected to drop out. Muskie's uncle was given $900 by the man who allowed him to finance his remaining years at Cornell after Muskie told him about his immigrant roots. He was elected to Phi Alpha Delta in 1939 while in law school and went on to graduate cum laude. Muskie was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1939 after graduating from Cornell.

When he was preparing for the Maine Bar exam, he became a high school substitute teacher; he died in 1940. Muskie bought a small law firm in Waterville, dubbed "Muskie & Glover" after $2,000 in March 1940. He drafted Waterville's first zoning law and was elected secretary of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Jane Frances Gray was born in Waterville on February 12, 1927, to Myrtie and Millage Guy Gray. She was voted "best in school" in high school and, at age 15, began her first work in a clothes store. She was recruited to work as a bookkeeper and saleswoman in a posh luxury boutique in Waterville at the age of 18. When he was working in Muskie as a prosecutor, a mutual friend tried to introduce her to Muskie. As he was walking to work, she had Gray models in the store window. Muskie came into the shop one day and invited her to a gala event. She was 19 and he was 32 at the time, and their difference in age caused a lot of controversies in the neighborhood. However, after eighteen months of hearing Gray and her relatives, she and her family decided to marry him in a private ceremony in 1948. Five children were born: Stephen (born 1949), Ellen (born 1950), Melinda (born 1956), and Edmund (born 1961). When the Muskies lived in Maine, they lived in a yellow cottage at Kennebunk Beach.

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