1. Eugene Siler was the only member of the House of Representatives to oppose the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
18 Facts About Eugene Siler
1. 2.
Eugene Siler was a staunch Republican and hailed from a traditionally Republican region of Kentucky.
3.
Eugene Siler served in the United States Navy during World War I and in the United States Army as a captain during World War II.
4.
Eugene Siler graduated from Cumberland College in Williamsburg in 1920 and from the University of Kentucky at Lexington in 1922.
5.
Eugene Siler attended law school at Columbia University and returned to Williamsburg to be a small-town lawyer.
6.
Eugene Siler was a devout Baptist and became a renowned preacher.
7.
Eugene Siler abstained from alcohol, tobacco, and profanity; and, as a lawyer, rejected clients seeking divorces or who were accused of alcohol-related crimes.
8.
In 1945, Eugene Siler was elected a judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky.
9.
Eugene Siler refused his 150-dollar expense allotment, instead donating it to a special fund Siler set up for scholarships.
10.
Eugene Siler did the same in his speeches during his 1951 run for governor.
11.
Eugene Siler was defeated by Democratic incumbent Lawrence Wetherby, Wetherby received 346,345 votes to Siler's 288,014.
12.
Eugene Siler sponsored a bill to ban liquor and beer advertising in all interstate media.
13.
Eugene Siler stated that permitting these ads was akin to allowing the "harsh hussy" to advertise in "the open door of her place of business for the allurement of our school children".
14.
Eugene Siler made exceptions for his home district by supporting flood control and other federal measures that aided his district.
15.
Eugene Siler supported Barry Goldwater in 1964 but did not share his interventionist foreign policy views.
16.
Eugene Siler did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto, and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, as well as the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, but did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
17.
Eugene Siler ran on a platform calling for withdrawal of all US troops by Christmas.
18.
Eugene Siler died at his daughter's Louisville home on December 5,1987.