Blanton C. Winship
Encyclopedia
Major General Blanton C. Winship (1869—1947) was a military law
yer and veteran of both the Spanish-American war
and World War I
. During his long career, he served both as Judge Advocate General
of the United States Army
and as the Governor
of Puerto Rico
.
and graduated from Mercer University
in 1889. He received a law degree from the University of Georgia
in 1893, where he also played football
for one year. During the Spanish-American War
, Winship joined the 1st Georgia Infantry, a volunteer force. After the war, he elected to join the United States Army
as a judge advocate. He remained in the military through 1914 when he began to teach law at the Army Service School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. When World War I
broke out, he fought in France and led several campaigns. For his service during that war, he was awarded both a Distinguished Service Cross
and Silver Star
.
Following the war, he returned to military law, and served as a military aide to president Calvin Coolidge
. Eventually he became the Judge Advocate General of the Army, a position he held from 1931 to his retirement from service in 1933.
as military governor of Puerto Rico.
During his time in office, Winship fought to have then-new minimum wage
laws not apply to Puerto Rico, which would have doubled the hourly wage of 12.5 cents which was standard for sugar
plantation
workers. Although this decision was unpopular, when the new minimum-wage law was passed, nearly two-thirds of the island's textile
factories were forced to close because they could not afford the increase.
Winship also was sharply critical of many of Secretary of the Interior
Harold L. Ickes
's policies toward the island. Relief spending for Puerto Rico was per capita far below either that of the mainland or Hawaii
. This lack of spending contributed to the poverty of the island which itself led to some of the problems of unrest.
In the year 1934 there were major strikes on the island. In response, the United States appointed General Winship as the governor. Colonel Francis Riggs came with him as chief of police. Riggs had formerly assisted Nicaragua's dictator Anastasio Somoza.
Consistent with this desire to clamp down on Puerto Rican national movements, "in October 1935 the State Police in the town of Rio Piedras murdered four [Nationalist] party members" at the University of Puerto Rico
in Rio Piedras, a neighboring town next to San Juan. This is known as the Rio Piedras Massacre
. Ramón S. Pagan, Pedro Quiñones, Eduardo Rodríguez Vera, José Santiago Barea and a bystander were killed in the carnage. On February 23, 1936, the nationalists Hiram Rosado and Elias Beauchamp responded by killing Col. Riggs in San Juan in retaliation for the massacre. Rosado and Beauchamp were both captured and executed at the police headquarters without a trial. No law enforcement officer ever stood trial for the executions.
(March 21), 1937, Governor Winship cancelled a Nationalist parade which was to have taken place in Ponce
only an hour before it was to have begun. When the march continued anyway, the Insular police, under direct orders from Governor Winship, fired upon the demonstrators resulting in nineteen deaths and more than 200 wounded. One hundred fifty protesters were arrested. This event, called the Ponce Massacre
, sparked outrage even in Washington where Minnesota Representative John Bernard
gave a speech in the United States House of Representatives
on April 14 denouncing the action. The full speech can be seen in the Congressional Record of April 14, 1937, page 4499. Congressman Vito Marcantonio also became a vocal critic of Winship's methods, and President Roosevelt eventually removed Winship from his position as governor of Puerto Rico. Part of Congressman Marcantonio's speech reads,
A months-long ACLU investigation on the Ponce Massacre put the blame squarely on Governor Winship. A Grand Jury
was convened to investigate the incident, but was closed without finding Governor Winship responsible. Almost simultaneously with this investigation, the federal law which allowed public officials to be indicted was repealed, effectively granting Governor Winship immunity from further prosecution.
Following these events, on the other hand, many of the leaders of the Nationalist party were put on trial for insurrection and after experiencing a hung jury
and retried, six were sentenced to life in prison. However, since the prosecutors were appointed by Governor Winship, ex-Congressmen Vito Marcantonio
and John T. Bernard have suggested that this may have contributed to a bias in Winship's favor.
A second panel, an independent investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union
led by Arthur Garfield Hays
, with Fulgencio Pinero, Emilio Belaval, Jose Davila Rice, Antonio Ayuyo Valdivieso, Manuel Diaz Garcia, and Franscisco M. Zeno, as members, concluded that the events on March 21 constituted a massacre. Their report harshly criticized the repressive tactics and massive civil rights violations by the administration of Governor Winship.
The following year, Governor Winship, moved the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the United States invasion of Puerto Rico to Ponce, instead of San Juan, Puerto Rico
which had been traditional. This was seen by many as a direct response to the protests the prior year. During this celebration, on July 25, 1938, Ángel Esteban Antongiorgi attempted to assassinate the governor and managed to fire several shots before being killed by the police. (One police officer was also killed in the attempted assassination.)
Winship was removed from office on May 12, 1939, by President Roosevelt
after charges were filed against him by New York Congressman Vito Marcantonio
. William D. Leahy
was appointed by the President as Winship's successor, though it would be several months before he could take that office. (During this time, José E. Colón
would serve as Acting Governor.)
Ironically, Winship's term united many of the political factions of the island against him, leading to a strong win by the newly formed Popular Democratic Party
in 1940.
Winship retired again in 1944. At 75, he was at that time the oldest Army officer on active duty.
Military law
Military justice is the body of laws and procedures governing members of the armed forces. Many states have separate and distinct bodies of law that govern the conduct of members of their armed forces. Some states use special judicial and other arrangements to enforce those laws, while others use...
yer and veteran of both the Spanish-American war
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
and World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. During his long career, he served both as Judge Advocate General
Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Army
The Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army is composed of Army officers who are also lawyers and who provide legal services to the Army at all levels of command. The Judge Advocate General's Legal Service includes judge advocates, warrant officers, paralegal noncommissioned...
of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and as the Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
.
Military career
Winship was born in GeorgiaGeorgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and graduated from Mercer University
Mercer University
Mercer University is an independent, private, coeducational university with a Baptist heritage located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Mercer is the only university of its size in the United States that offers programs in eleven diversified fields of study: liberal arts, business, education, music,...
in 1889. He received a law degree from the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
in 1893, where he also played football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
for one year. During the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, Winship joined the 1st Georgia Infantry, a volunteer force. After the war, he elected to join the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
as a judge advocate. He remained in the military through 1914 when he began to teach law at the Army Service School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. When World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out, he fought in France and led several campaigns. For his service during that war, he was awarded both a Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Cross (United States)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Army, for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force. Actions that merit the Distinguished Service Cross must be of such a high degree...
and Silver Star
Silver Star
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
.
Following the war, he returned to military law, and served as a military aide to president Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
. Eventually he became the Judge Advocate General of the Army, a position he held from 1931 to his retirement from service in 1933.
Governor of Puerto Rico
In 1934, he was appointed by Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
as military governor of Puerto Rico.
During his time in office, Winship fought to have then-new minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
laws not apply to Puerto Rico, which would have doubled the hourly wage of 12.5 cents which was standard for sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
workers. Although this decision was unpopular, when the new minimum-wage law was passed, nearly two-thirds of the island's textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
factories were forced to close because they could not afford the increase.
Winship also was sharply critical of many of Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...
Harold L. Ickes
Harold L. Ickes
Harold LeClair Ickes was a United States administrator and politician. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest serving Cabinet member in U.S. history next to James Wilson. Ickes...
's policies toward the island. Relief spending for Puerto Rico was per capita far below either that of the mainland or Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. This lack of spending contributed to the poverty of the island which itself led to some of the problems of unrest.
In the year 1934 there were major strikes on the island. In response, the United States appointed General Winship as the governor. Colonel Francis Riggs came with him as chief of police. Riggs had formerly assisted Nicaragua's dictator Anastasio Somoza.
Consistent with this desire to clamp down on Puerto Rican national movements, "in October 1935 the State Police in the town of Rio Piedras murdered four [Nationalist] party members" at the University of Puerto Rico
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus
The University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras , also referred to as UPR-RP, is a public research university located on a campus in Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico...
in Rio Piedras, a neighboring town next to San Juan. This is known as the Rio Piedras Massacre
Río Piedras massacre
The Río Piedras massacre occurred at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, and involved a confrontation between local police officers and supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party on October 24, 1935...
. Ramón S. Pagan, Pedro Quiñones, Eduardo Rodríguez Vera, José Santiago Barea and a bystander were killed in the carnage. On February 23, 1936, the nationalists Hiram Rosado and Elias Beauchamp responded by killing Col. Riggs in San Juan in retaliation for the massacre. Rosado and Beauchamp were both captured and executed at the police headquarters without a trial. No law enforcement officer ever stood trial for the executions.
The Ponce massacre
On Palm SundayPalm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....
(March 21), 1937, Governor Winship cancelled a Nationalist parade which was to have taken place in Ponce
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
only an hour before it was to have begun. When the march continued anyway, the Insular police, under direct orders from Governor Winship, fired upon the demonstrators resulting in nineteen deaths and more than 200 wounded. One hundred fifty protesters were arrested. This event, called the Ponce Massacre
Ponce massacre
The Ponce massacre occurred on 21 March 1937 when a peaceful march in Ponce, Puerto Rico, by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party commemorating the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and coinciding with a protest against the incarceration by the...
, sparked outrage even in Washington where Minnesota Representative John Bernard
John Bernard
John Toussaint Bernard was a United States Representative from Minnesota.A native of the French island of Corsica, Bernard was born in 1893 in the town of Bastia. Moving to the United States in 1907, he would later work as an iron miner before enlisting in the United States Army during World War I...
gave a speech in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
on April 14 denouncing the action. The full speech can be seen in the Congressional Record of April 14, 1937, page 4499. Congressman Vito Marcantonio also became a vocal critic of Winship's methods, and President Roosevelt eventually removed Winship from his position as governor of Puerto Rico. Part of Congressman Marcantonio's speech reads,
A months-long ACLU investigation on the Ponce Massacre put the blame squarely on Governor Winship. A Grand Jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
was convened to investigate the incident, but was closed without finding Governor Winship responsible. Almost simultaneously with this investigation, the federal law which allowed public officials to be indicted was repealed, effectively granting Governor Winship immunity from further prosecution.
Following these events, on the other hand, many of the leaders of the Nationalist party were put on trial for insurrection and after experiencing a hung jury
Hung jury
A hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...
and retried, six were sentenced to life in prison. However, since the prosecutors were appointed by Governor Winship, ex-Congressmen Vito Marcantonio
Vito Marcantonio
Vito Anthony Marcantonio was an American lawyer and democratic socialist politician. Originally a member of the Republican Party and a supporter of Fiorello LaGuardia, he switched to the American Labor Party.-Early life:...
and John T. Bernard have suggested that this may have contributed to a bias in Winship's favor.
A second panel, an independent investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
led by Arthur Garfield Hays
Arthur Garfield Hays
Arthur Garfield Hays was a lawyer born in Rochester, New York. His father and mother, both of German descent, belonged to prospering families in the clothing manufacturing industry...
, with Fulgencio Pinero, Emilio Belaval, Jose Davila Rice, Antonio Ayuyo Valdivieso, Manuel Diaz Garcia, and Franscisco M. Zeno, as members, concluded that the events on March 21 constituted a massacre. Their report harshly criticized the repressive tactics and massive civil rights violations by the administration of Governor Winship.
The following year, Governor Winship, moved the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the United States invasion of Puerto Rico to Ponce, instead of San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
which had been traditional. This was seen by many as a direct response to the protests the prior year. During this celebration, on July 25, 1938, Ángel Esteban Antongiorgi attempted to assassinate the governor and managed to fire several shots before being killed by the police. (One police officer was also killed in the attempted assassination.)
Winship was removed from office on May 12, 1939, by President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
after charges were filed against him by New York Congressman Vito Marcantonio
Vito Marcantonio
Vito Anthony Marcantonio was an American lawyer and democratic socialist politician. Originally a member of the Republican Party and a supporter of Fiorello LaGuardia, he switched to the American Labor Party.-Early life:...
. William D. Leahy
William D. Leahy
Fleet Admiral William Daniel Leahy was an American naval officer, building his reputation through administration and staff work. As Chief of Naval Operations he was the senior officer in Navy, overseeing the preparations for war. After retiring from the Navy he was appointed by his close friend...
was appointed by the President as Winship's successor, though it would be several months before he could take that office. (During this time, José E. Colón
José E. Colón
José E. Colon was acting Governor of Puerto Rico between June 25, 1939 and September 11, 1939 after the previous governor, Blanton C. Winship, was removed from office by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for alleged abuse of his authority in depriving the people of Puerto Rico of their civil rights....
would serve as Acting Governor.)
Ironically, Winship's term united many of the political factions of the island against him, leading to a strong win by the newly formed Popular Democratic Party
Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico
The Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico is a political party that supports Puerto Rico's right to self-determination and sovereignty, through the enhancement of Puerto Rico's current status as a commonwealth....
in 1940.
World War II
During World War II, Winship returned again to active duty. During this time, he set precedents for military tribunals in the United States by participating in the military commission (created in July 1942) to put on trial Nazi saboteurs arrested in the country.Winship retired again in 1944. At 75, he was at that time the oldest Army officer on active duty.