New York politician William Sulzer (1863-1941) served as a United States Representative from New York (1895-1912). During 1912 Sulzer chaired the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs. In January, 1913 Sulzer was elected governor of New York State. Shortly after his inauguration, he was impeached by the New York State Assembly on charges of having diverted campaign funds to his own use. Sulzer asserted that false charges had been brought against him because he refused to follow the wishes of Charles F. Murphy, leader of the corrupt New York City political organization Tammany Hall. In October 1913, Sulzer was removed from office. He later served on the New York State Assembly and made a second, unsuccessful run for the governor’s office in 1914. Sulzer died in New York City in 1941.
Correspondence, news clippings, a scrapbook, and legislative reviews in the William Sulzer Papers (1911-1918, bulk 1912) document Sulzer’s activities on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and his interest in political consequences from the sinking of the ship Titanic (April, 1912). Approximately sixty letters, telegrams and reports from business men and politicians concern Sulzer’s lobbying in support of [House of Representatives] H.R. 20044 (1912), a bill introduced by Sulzer for the reform and improvement of the United States Foreign Service. Ten letters and five news clippings concern American legislative responses to the Titanic disaster. Approximately thirty letters and news clippings concern various bills under review by the Foreign Affairs Committee. A memorandum of February 8, 1918 recounts conversations with Generals Kerr and MaCain at the War department, concerning an ROTC [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] program at Washington and Lee University. A scrapbook containing letters - mainly political in nature - written to Sulzer, newspaper clippings, campaign broadsides, and pamphlets chronicles Sulzer’s long and controversial career.
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William Sulzer Papers, 1911-1918, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.