Key Pittman

Pittman was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on September 12, 1872, a son of William Buckner Pittman and Katherine Key Pittman. His siblings included a younger brother, Vail M. Pittman, who served as Governor of Nevada.{{cite web|url= http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_nevada/col2-content/main-content-list/title_pittman_vail.html|title= Nevada Governor Vail Montgomery Pittman |publisher= National Governors Association

|access-date= October 6, 2012}}

Key Pittman was educated by private tutors and at the Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He studied law, then later was admitted to the bar. In 1897, Pittman joined in the Klondike Gold Rush and worked as a miner until 1901.

Pittman moved to Tonopah, Nevada, in 1902 and continued the practice of law. He represented Nevada at the St. Louis Exposition, the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, and the National Irrigation Congress.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}

File:Key Pittman cph.3a02989.jpg

In the early 20th century, Nevada was one of several states that hoped to institute the popular election of United States senators; the U.S. Constitution had provided for them to be elected by state legislatures. The states aiming to change this held popular elections as Senate terms expired, with the goal of forcing their legislatures to elect the people's choices. This was almost certainly unconstitutional, but the matter never reached the U.S. Supreme Court before the 17th Amendment became part of the Constitution.[https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Direct_Election_Senators.htm "Direct Election of Senators"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206010152/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Direct_Election_Senators.htm |date=December 6, 2017 }}, United States Senate webpage, Origins and Development—Institutional.

Nevada held a popular vote for the Senate in 1910, in which Pittman was the Democratic nominee; he lost to Republican incumbent George S. Nixon. After Nixon died on June 5, 1912, Pittman faced Republican interim appointee William A. Massey in a special election that November. Pittman won the election and, as happened in all of these questionable Senate elections held prior to the adoption of the 17th Amendment, the Nevada Legislature made the popular result official. The 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913 and Pittman won full terms in 1916, 1922, 1928, and 1934; he was re-elected again in 1940 but died shortly after the election.

Between 1933 and 1940, during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Pittman was the chairman of the powerful Committee on Foreign Relations, in which capacity (after much prompting by the President) he authored the Pittman Act that formed the basis of the Neutrality Act of November,1939, enabling allies to purchase war materiel from the United States on a cash-and-carry basis.’’FDR Into the Storm.’’ Kenneth S. Davis. pp. 449-451. Random House. (1993) He was a member of the Committee on Territories and the Committee on Industrial Expositions. In addition, during those years Pittman was also President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

Among his legislation is the Pittman–Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937, which set up a formula for federal sharing of ammunition tax revenue for establishing state wildlife areas. The program is still in effect.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} The Key Pittman Wildlife Management Area near Hiko, Nevada, which encompasses the Frenchy and Nesbitt lakes, is named in his honor.

It was falsely rumored for years that Pittman died before his final election in 1940, and that Democratic party leaders kept the body at Tonopah's Mizpah Hotel in a bathtub full of ice until after he was reelected so Governor Edward P. Carville, a fellow Democrat, could appoint a replacement. The truth was, former Nevada State Archivist Guy Rocha wrote, "just as disreputable." Pittman suffered a severe heart attack just before the election on November 5, and two doctors told his aides before the election that death was imminent. To avoid affecting the election, the party told the press that the senator was hospitalized for exhaustion and that his condition was not serious.{{cite news |last=Nevada Yesterdays |title=The Truth Of The Legend Of Key Pittman |url=https://knpr.org/knpr/2015-11/truth-legend-key-pittman |work=KNPR |location=Las Vegas, NV |access-date=September 28, 2020}} Pittman died on November 10 at the Washoe General Hospital in Reno, Nevada.{{cite web|url=http://nsla.nevadaculture.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=665&Itemid=418 |title=Myth #88 - Key Pittman on Ice |publisher=State Library and Archives, Department of Administration, State of Nevada |work=Sierra Sage |date=May 2003 |access-date=October 3, 2013 |last1=Rocha |first1=Guy |last2=Myers |first2=Dennis |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215959/http://nsla.nevadaculture.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=665&Itemid=418 |archive-date=October 4, 2013 }}

Several pieces of legislation bore his name, including the Pittman Act of 1918 and the Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937.

The Pittman section of the Alaska Railroad, more commonly known today as the community of Meadow Lakes west of Wasilla, was also named for him.{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Anita L.|last2=Ewers|first2=Linda D.|title=Ride Guide to the Historic Alaska Railroad |year=2003 |publisher=TurnAgain Products|location=Anchorage|isbn= 0939301016 |page=30}} Pittman Road runs north from its intersection with the George Parks Highway at "downtown" Meadow Lakes.

A section of the city Henderson, Nevada is unofficially known as Pittman. There is also a natural wash that traverses a large section of Henderson named after the former senator. It is known as the Pittman Wash and has a walking / biking trail alongside it.

In 1941, his wife donated Pittman's papers to the Library of Congress. She temporarily withdrew them in 1942. They were returned to the Library by the Gates family in 1954.{{Citation |last=Brand |first=Katherine |date=2011 |title=Key Pittman Papers: A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress |url=http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms011137 |publisher=Manuscript Division, Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C.}}

• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–1949)

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite journal |last=Cole |first=Wayne S. |date=March 1960 |title=Senator Key Pittman and American Neutrality Policies, 1933-1940 |journal=Mississippi Valley Historical Review |publisher=Organization of American Historians |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=644–662 |jstor=1886281 |doi=10.2307/1886281}}
• {{cite book |last=Glad |first=Betty |date=1986 |title=Key Pittman: The Tragedy of a Senate Insider |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-06112-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/keypittmantraged0000glad }}
• {{cite journal |last=Israel |first=Fred L. |date=November 1961 |title=The Fulfillment of Bryan's Dream: Key Pittman and Silver Politics, 1918-1933 |journal=Pacific Historical Review |publisher=University of California Press |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=359–380 |jstor=3636423 |doi=10.2307/3636423}}
• {{cite book |last=Israel |first=Fred L. |date=1963 |title=Nevada's Key Pittman |location=Lincoln, Nebr. |publisher=University of Nebraska Press}}

{{Commons cat|Key Pittman}}

• The [http://findingaids.loc.gov/db/search/xq/searchMfer02.xq?_id=loc.mss.eadmss.ms011137&_faSection=overview&_faSubsection=did&_dmdid=d8715e6 Key Pittman papers], including a [http://findingaids.loc.gov/db/search/xq/searchMfer02.xq?_id=loc.mss.eadmss.ms011137&_faSection=printDownload&_faSubsection=otherfindaid&_dmdid=d8715e5 finding aid], at the Library of Congress
• {{CongBio|P000372}}
• {{Find a Grave|7125856}}
• {{PM20|FID=pe/013667}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from Nevada
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{{s-aft|after=James G. Scrugham}}

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{{s-aft|after=William H. King}}

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{{s-ttl|title=President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate|years=1933–1940}}

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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittman, Key}}

Category:1872 births

Category:1940 deaths

Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Nevada

Category:Nevada Democrats

Category:Nevada lawyers

Category:People from Tonopah, Nevada

Category:People of the Klondike Gold Rush

Category:Politicians from Vicksburg, Mississippi

Category:Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate

Category:Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Category:20th-century United States senators