Name John Trevor, Died 1956 | Parents John Bond Trevor Grandparents John B. Trevor | |
Books An Analysis of the American Immigration Act of 1924 | ||
John Bond Trevor Sr. (1878–1956) was an American lawyer and "one of the most influential unelected officials affiliated with the U.S. Congress." He was very active in the immigration debate, once described as "the most influential lobbyist for restriction." Along with Pennsylvania senator David A. Reed, and with strong support from the AF of L labor leader Samuel Gompers, he was influential in shaping the Immigration Act of 1924, which put in place restrictive immigration quotas and stood until 1964. Immigration advocate Louis Adamic wrote of Trevor that "if a man's love for his country is measurable by his detestation of all who had the bad taste to be born elsewhere, there probably is no greater patriot in America to-day." The Sons of the American Revolution recognized Trevor's patriotism by awarding him their gold medal for Americanism in 1951.
Trevor received his law degree from Harvard and was a prominent New York socialite. Trevor belonged to the circle of Madison Grant.
During World War I, Trevor worked in military intelligence as a US Army captain and was decorated as chevalier in the French Légion d’Honneur for his assistance to the French Army in a matter of national importance. In 1919, he was deputy attorney general of the State of New York. In 1920, he was associate counsel for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Sub-Committee and counsel of the New York State Legislative Committee Investigating Subversive Activities. In 1927 he founded a committee that became the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies, an organization opposed to unrestricted immigration, natzism, fascism, and communism. In 1954, the Atlanta Constitution published an article falsely associating Trevor with an organization called the Coalition of Patriotic Societies that was pro-Nazi. This story was later retracted on the front page of the Atlanta Constitution on 23 January 1957. Despite this published retraction and the corroborating sworn testimony of Special Assistant Attorney General of the United States, William P. Mahoney, certain authors continue to perpetuate this slander by citing the original false article.
Mr. Trevor was a founding trustee of Paul Smith's College of Arts and Sciences, and at various times a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, a trustee of New York University, and Commodore of the St. Regis Yacht Club (1938-1939).
On 25 June 1908, he married Caroline Murray Wilmerding. They had two sons. His son John B. Trevor Jr. was a founding trustee of the Trudeau Institute.