Orville H. Platt

Orville H. Platt
United States Senator from Connecticut
In office March 4, 1879 – April 21, 1905
Preceded by	William H. Barnum
Succeeded by	Frank B. Brandegee
Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives
In office 1864 1869
Personal details
Born	Orville Hitchcock Platt (1827-07-19)July 19, 1827 Washington, Connecticut
Died	April 21, 1905(1905-04-21) (aged 77) Meriden, Connecticut
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican

Orville Hitchcock Platt (July 19, 1827 – April 21, 1905) was a United States Senator from Connecticut.

Life and career

Born in Washington, Connecticut, he attended the common schools and graduated from The Gunnery in Washington. He studied law in Litchfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1850, commencing practice in Towanda, Pennsylvania. He moved to Meriden, Connecticut in 1850 and continued to practice law. He was clerk of the Connecticut Senate in 1855 and 1856, Secretary of the State of Connecticut in 1857, and a member of the State senate in 1861 and 1862. He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1864 and 1869, and served as speaker in the latter year. The former Platt National Park in Oklahoma (since 1976 part of the Chickasaw National Recreational Area) was named for him.

Platt was state's attorney for New Haven County, 1877 to 1879, and was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 1879. He was reelected in 1885, 1891, 1897 and 1903, and served from March 4, 1879, until his death. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Patents (Forty-seventh through Forty-ninth and Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses) and a member of the Committees on Pensions (Forty-seventh Congress), Territories (Fiftieth through Fifty-second Congresses), Cuban Relations (Fifty-sixth through Fifty-eighth Congresses), and the Judiciary (Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses). Platt's influence in the Senate swelled to the point that, eventually, he was known as a member of the "Senate Four," along with John Spooner, William Allison, and Nelson Aldrich.^[1][2] Because of his votes against the Sherman Anti-trust Law, the Eight-Hour Labor Act, and the Anti-Injunction Bill, Platt was denounced by the labor organizations and was considered a reactionary.^[3] He was an earnest advocate of the abolition of secret executive sessions of the Senate.^[4]

On March 1, 1901, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Army Appropriation bill with the Platt Amendment as a rider which governed U.S. relations with Cuba from 1901 to 1934, and was named for Sen. Platt.

Platt National Park

In 1902, Platt introduced legislation to establish the 640-acre Sulphur Springs Reservation, protecting about 30 mineral springs, in Murray County, Oklahoma (then part of Indian Territory). On June 29, 1906, Congress redesignated the reservation as Platt National Park, named for the senator. It remained the smallest national park in the United States until it was abolished by Congress and made part of the much larger Chickasaw National Recreation Area in 1976.^[5]

Yale gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1887.^[4] Platt died on April 21, 1905, aged 77, in Meriden, and was interred in Washington, Connecticut in the Cemetery on the Green. One of the two Public High Schools in Meriden was named for Platt.

Notes

References

• L. A. Coolidge, An Old-Fashioned Senator: Orville H. Platt (New York, 1910)

• United States Congress. "Orville H. Platt (id: P000382)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 

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United States Senators from Connecticut
Class 1	Ellsworth Hillhouse Dana Boardman Edwards Foot N. Smith Niles Betts Huntington R. S. Baldwin Toucey Dixon Buckingham Eaton Hawley Bulkeley McLean Walcott Maloney Hart R. E. Baldwin Benton Purtell T. Dodd Weicker Lieberman Murphy
Class 3	Johnson Sherman Mitchell Trumbull Tracy Goodrich Daggett Lanman Willey Tomlinson P. Smith Niles T. Smith Gillette Foster Ferry English Barnum Platt Brandegee Bingham Lonergan Danaher McMahon Purtell Bush Ribicoff C. Dodd Blumenthal

Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Chase Crittenden Burrill Smith Van Buren Berrien Rowan Marcy Wilkins Clayton Grundy Wall Berrien Ashley Butler Bayard Trumbull Edmunds Thurman Edmunds Hoar Pugh Hoar Platt Clark Culberson Nelson Brandegee Cummins Norris Ashurst Van Nuys McCarran Wiley McCarran Langer Kilgore Eastland Kennedy Thurmond Biden Hatch Leahy Hatch Leahy Hatch Specter Leahy Grassley

Cuba–United States relations
pre-1902	Spanish–American War Teller Amendment Platt Amendment
1902–1959	Cuban–American Treaty of Relations (1903) First Occupation Second Occupation Sugar Intervention Hay-Quesada Treaty (1925) Cuban–American Treaty of Relations (1934)
1959–present	Groups and individuals Brothers to the Rescue Balseros (rafters) Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations Cuban-American lobby Cuban Five Luis Posada Carriles Military and paramilitary activities Bay of Pigs Invasion Cuban Missile Crisis Cuban Project Elián González affair Cuba–United States aircraft hijackings Mariel boatlift Operation Northwoods Operation Peter Pan Legislation and offices United States embargo against Cuba United States Interests Section in Havana (1977–2015) United States–Cuban Thaw Embassy of the United States, Havana Embassy of Cuba in Washington, D.C. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Helms–Burton Act United States Ambassador to Cuba Miscellaneous Balseros (2002 film) Cuban American