Charles Augustus Lindbergh

Background

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of August and Louise (Carline) Lindbergh. His parents emigrated to the United States in 1859 and settled on a farm near Melrose, Stearns County, Minnesota.

Education

Lindbergh received some preliminary education and then attended the law school of the University of Michigan. He graduated in 1883.

Career

Lindbergh began the practice of law in Little Falls, Minnesota, where he made his home for the remainder of his life. In 1906 he was elected as a Republican to Congress and served for five successive terms (1907 - 1917). In 1916 he was defeated by Frank B. Kellogg in the primary election for United States senator. Two years later, as a Progressive Republican with Non-Partisan League indorsement, he was defeated for the governorship of Minnesota. He entered the primary for the same office on the Farmer-Labor ticket in 1924, but his death occurred before the election. The name Lindbergh did not have the ring in Minnesota in 1917-1918 that it had ten years later when his only son, of the same name, electrified the world by his transatlantic flight. The elder Lindbergh was of the type to whom statues are erected only after the lapse of many years.

Lindbergh's interest in financial reform prompted his volume entitled Banking and Currency and the Money Trust, published in 1913. In July 1917 he published Why is Your Country at War, and What Happens to you After the War, purporting to analyze the causes of the war. The book was used against him in the following year, when his candidacy threatened to plunge the Republican party down to defeat by the Non-Partisan League. The press vilified him, his meetings were broken up, and he was threatened with violence. His defeat was hailed as a victory for "loyalty. " His appointment to the War Industries Board was greeted with such a storm of protest that Lindbergh resigned in order not to obstruct the cooperation of certain elements in the prosecution of the war. His last work was The Economic Pinch (1923), which explained further his social and economic ideas. After his death his name gained increased respect.

Achievements

• Lindbergh was remembered for his service as United States Congressman from Minnesota's 6th congressional district from 1907 to 1917.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Banking And Currency And The Money Trust

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Why Is Your Country At War And What Happens To You After The War: And Related Subjects (1917)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Economic Pinch

Politics

Starting his congressional career as a Rooseveltian, when the West was infatuated with progressive policies that brought Republican "insurgency" against "standpat" leadership, Lindbergh was always in the first rank of "reformers. " His praise for Roosevelt's attacks on the methods of big business, following the panic of 1907; his vote against the Payne-Aldrich tariff; his vote to declare the office of speaker vacant, despite the unwillingness of some of the leaders of the revolt against "Cannonism" to go to that length; his commendation of the moral influence of Wilson in framing the Underwood tariff, including the income tax provision; his espousal of rural credits and postal savings banks; his resolution which inspired the Pujo investigation of the "money trust"; his advocacy of the repeal of the canal tolls exemption; his indorsement of Wilson's Mexican policy; his statement that the Socialists' view of war was correct; and his denunciation of "war propaganda--dollar plutocracy versus patriotic America" and a "nation muzzled by false national honor"--all reacted favorably upon his constituency and the people of his state.

He also opposed American entry into World War I as well as the 1913 Federal Reserve Act.

Personality

Lindbergh was generous, honest, and a champion of the common people, but he had few personal friends.

Connections

His first wife was Mary Lafond. After her death he married Evangeline Lodge Land, who became the mother of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.

Father:

August Lindbergh

Mother:

Louise (Carline) Lindbergh

Spouse:

Mary Lafond

Spouse:

Evangeline Lodge Land

Son:

Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.

aviator, military, author, inventor

References

• The Lindberghs / Lynn and Dora B. Haines