Illinois’ first district, based in a majority black area of Chicago, was the first in the 20th century to elect a black man to Congress. The first one was Oscar De Priest, a Republican who although not ultra-conservative, was opposed to the New Deal broadly. De Priest’s politics, and those of the GOP, fell out of favor with a majority of black voters during the Great Depression and he lost reelection in 1934. De Priest had been part of the Republican machine in Chicago, and it was a machine from which several black politicians traced their political start, including De Priest’s successor Arthur W. Mitchell as well as his protégé, William Levi Dawson (1886-1970).

Dawson had been born and raised in Georgia, where he attended segregated schools. At the age of 19, he fled the Deep South after an altercation with a white man and his family followed soon after his father also had one (Manning, 2003, 3). A lawyer by profession, Dawson became active in the Chicago Republican Party in the 1920s and his political career kicked off when in 1930 he was elected to the Illinois Republican Central Committee, and in 1933 he was elected to the Chicago City Council, representing the 2nd ward. By inclination, he was already on the road to liberalism, being a New Deal Republican. Dawson proved an effective political organizer, employing patronage and precinct workers, creating a political machine of his own that spanned up to five wards (WTTW).

In 1938, Dawson ran for Congress, giving his old mentor Democrat Arthur W. Mitchell a substantive challenge. The next year, he decided to leave the GOP and align himself with Democratic Mayor Ed Kelly. Fortunately for him, by 1942, Mitchell, who was not a particularly popular representative, had crossed the Chicago machine of Mayor Ed Kelly, who had not appreciated his lawsuit against a railroad company based in Chicago for racial discrimination and it was known to Mitchell that Kelly would not back him for another term (Hill). Instead, Kelly’s backing went to Dawson, who won election to Congress in 1942.

Dawson was typically known as a man who wasn’t much of a national boat-rocker, but he from time to time he was outspoken on a civil rights matter, such as opposing the construction of a segregated VA hospital in 1951. Additionally, he delivered that year a notable speech against the proposed Winstead Amendment, which The Chicago Defender credited for its defeat, that if adopted would have allowed whites to opt out of integrated units in the military thereby undermining desegregation, stating, “There is but one God and there is but one race of men all made in the image of God. I did not make myself black any more than you made yourselves white, and God did not curse me when he made me black anymore than he cursed you when he made you white” (Manning, 2009). Dawson’s work on civil rights tended to be more behind-the-scenes. For instance, an article in the July 1972 edition of Ebony magazine written by Doris E. Saunders credited Dawson with playing a significant role in blocking Jimmy Byrnes from the vice-presidential nomination. The South Carolinian Byrnes had in his long career worn many hats, and one of them was as Roosevelt’s right-hand man on domestic issues. Another, and this was consistent throughout, was as a segregationist. Dawson, although officially only a representative from Illinois’ 1st district, was the only representative in Congress in 1944 who was black and thus his views would be influential for black people across the nation. He made it clear to FDR that he would not accept a candidate that was unacceptable for the black voter, and the Democratic Party of 1944, especially when up against Thomas E. Dewey and a Republican Party with a pro-civil rights platform, needed to get the majority of black votes. Dawson, at the behest of Mayor Ed Kelly, met with Byrnes for three hours at the Blackstone Hotel, and emerged concluding that Byrnes was indeed unacceptable and made it clear this was so (Saunders, 49-50). Ultimately, Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri was picked as a compromise nominee. In 1949, Dawson became the first black chairman of a Congressional committee, heading the Committee on Government Operations. Starting that year, he led voter registration drives in multiple Southern states (Manning, 2003, 4).

Although Dawson was a rather quiet success in Congress, this didn’t please everyone. Black radicals Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton regarded him as a “tool of the downtown white Democratic power structure” (Manning, 2003, 5-6). Dawson was also criticized by the militant black publication The Chicago Defender. He was characterized as “non-committal, evasive, and seldom takes an outspoken stand on anything. Bill Dawson is, by all odds, ultra-conservative” (WTTW). Despite these views, Dawson repeatedly received high scores from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. From 1947 to 1964, for instance, he opposed the ADA position only three times. Dawson’s DW-Nominate score has him at a -0.527. For reference, Bernie Sanders’ score is a -0.539. Some analyses of his career have pointed to a more complex picture than that of Carmichael and Hamilton, such as Charles Branham’s 1981 analysis in which he writes, “Rather than being “co-opted” by the white political machine, Dawson embraced the historically dualistic tradition of black political culture in Chicago. His career was consonant with a tradition of clientage, patronage and dependence which coexisted, sometimes uncomfortably, with the racially self-conscious heritage of social welfare, civil rights, and the maintenance and expansion of the race’s representation” (Manning, 2003, 10). In 1958, Dawson faced a notable challenger in civil rights activist Dr. T.R.M. Howard, but his political machine was sufficiently robust and voters sufficiently Democratic to easily fend him off. By this time, Dawson had formed an alliance with Mayor Richard Daley, whose machine placed Chicago in the Democratic column for good.

Although Dawson voted for all the major civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s, he wasn’t really at the forefront of the civil rights movement, focusing more on maintaining power in Congress and in his district. In 1960, he was of significant help to JFK in rallying the black vote in Chicago for him. Illinois was, with Texas, the swing states that Kennedy needed to win the election. In 1961, Dawson declined an offer from him to be postmaster general, preferring to remain at his perch in Congress. Had he accepted and been confirmed, he would have been the first black cabinet officer in American history. As would be expected, Dawson was a strong supporter of both JFK’s New Frontier and LBJ’s Great Society programs. In his later years, he was in poor health and in his last term in Congress he had cancer. However, the proximate cause of his death on November 9, 1970, at Chicago’s VA hospital, was pneumonia.

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

https://adaction.org/ada-voting-records/

Dawson, William Levi. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://www.voteview.com/person/2433/william-levi-dawson

Hill, R. Mitchell v. United States, et. al. The Knoxville Focus.

Retrieved from

https://www.knoxfocus.com/archives/this-weeks-focus/mitchell-v-united-states-et-al-arthur-w-mitchell-of-illinois/

Manning, C.E. (2003). The ties that bind: The congressional career of William L. Dawson and the limits of black electoral power, 1942-1970. Northwestern University.

Retrieved from

https://www.proquest.com/openview/e08f22e061030216b31ce62828015d41/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Manning, C.E. (2009). “God Didn’t Curse Me When He Made Me Black”. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 102(1).

Retrieved from

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27740147

Power, Politics, & Pride: Dawson’s Black Machine. WTTW.

Retrieved from

https://interactive.wttw.com/dusable-to-obama/dawsons-black-machine

Rep. William L. Dawson Dies; Served Chicago Area Since ’42. (1970, November 10). The New York Times.

Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/10/archives/rep-william-l-dawson-dies-served-chicago-area-since-42-first-negro.html

Saunders, D.E. (1972, July). The Day Dawson Saved America from a Racist President. Ebony Magazine.

Retrieved from

https://books.google.com/books?id=M9oDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq

By 1933, with the nation in the Great Depression, revenue needed by governments across the country, and the public tiring of Prohibition as they thought it had gone too far and encouraged lawlessness. With the mighty power of the Anti-Saloon League diminished and its head Wayne Wheeler six years dead, Congress acted upon the result of a Constitutional convention that had proposed the ending of Prohibition.

In the Senate, the end of Prohibition passed with a bipartisan majority on February 16th. This was a 63-23 vote, with Republicans voting 29 for and 14 against while Democrats voted 33 for and 9 against, with the Farmer-Labor senator voting for. The senators from Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming all backed repeal. The senators from Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma all opposed. A notable vote against its end was the Prohibition Amendment’s father, Morris Sheppard of Texas. Another notable vote against was Phillips Goldsborough of Maryland, who was badly out of sync with his wet state. Although a courageous vote given the state’s preference, he would lose reelection in 1934.

In the House, the end of Prohibition passed with a bipartisan majority on February 20th, being a 289-121 vote, with Democrats voting 179 for and 32 against, Republicans voting 109 for and 89 against, and a Farmer-Labor representative voting for. Most of the Democratic opposition came from the South and there was a significant urban-rural divide on this matter. States that completely opposed Prohibition’s end in the House were Idaho, Kansas and Maine while states that completely supported its end were Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wyoming. As the year 2023 closes and 2024 begins, bear in mind that it was ninety years ago in which Congress said that you could again legally purchase alcohol. The votes, detailed with DW-Nominate scores, are linked below:

In Wisconsin for quite some time the GOP dominated, but it wasn’t always the conservative party you’re thinking of today. Robert La Follette made being a left-wing Republican a thing in the state, and numerous others followed in his stead, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s. Throughout the 1920s, Wisconsin’s GOP was essentially in a state of rebellion against the national GOP, and the state voted not for Coolidge in 1924, but La Follette. Other rural areas were also inclined to vote La Follette, and he had strong performances in some other states, including coming close to winning North Dakota. One significant figure who had gone in this direction was Congressman Henry Cooper of the 1st district, who represented the district from 1893 to 1931 with one interruption in the 66th Congress, as he had lost renomination due to his vote against US participation in World War I. Although he had been reelected in 1930, he died two days before the next Congress, and Thomas Ryum Amlie (1897-1973) was elected to succeed him.

Amlie was hardly your typical Republican in his first term in Congress, and he voted for aid to agriculture, public works spending, for public ownership of Muscle Shoals (a proposal which would eventually become the Tennessee Valley Authority), veterans’ bonuses, and tariff reduction. His record displeased numerous Republicans, and he lost renomination in 1932 to the more conservative George W. Blanchard. However, Blanchard’s election was a bit of a fluke.

In 1934, inspired by Robert La Follette’s 1924 run as well as dissatisfaction with the GOP’s policy of opposition to FDR’s New Deal, the Progressive Party was formed out of the progressive wing of Wisconsin’s GOP in alliance with certain radical factions and had resounding successes that year. Any Republican who was reelected that year to Congress from Wisconsin was reelected as a Progressive, and Amlie won back the seat.

On his return to Congress, Amlie was one of the strongest non-Democratic supporters of the New Deal. He held regarding taxation for the New Deal, “I am with it a hundred percent. When 4 percent of the people own 80 percent of the wealth, how are you going to take care of the other 96 percent, or at least 70 percent, who haven’t anything? You can only get it by taxing and taking from those who have” (U.S. Government Printing Office, 227). Amlie even in 1938 voted to keep FDR’s reorganization plan, which was opposed by all Republicans and all other serving Wisconsin Progressives. Critics of this plan, most notably progressive activist turned New Deal enemy Amos Pinchot, condemned it as an effort by FDR to make himself a dictator (The New York Times). Amlie would frequently introduce legislation that would greatly strengthen government control over the economy. In 1937 and 1938 he sponsored with Reps. Jerry Voorhis (D-Calif.) and Robert Allen (D-Penn.) the Industrial Expansion bill, which if enacted would have moved the U.S. to a planned economy and this was par usual for him per a Wall Street Journal article of January 25, 1939, which observed that his bills “put the federal government in control of all industry by practical socialization” (Wisconsin Historical Society). In 1938, Amlie ran for the Senate on the Progressive Party ticket, but he lost the primary and the seat was won by Republican Alexander Wiley in a conservative wave year, for the nation and quite strongly for Wisconsin itself, putting an end to the progressive wing’s domination of the party.

Amlie for the Interstate Commerce Commission

In 1939, FDR nominated him to be a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, but he faced great opposition from conservative forces in Congress. This included Senator Warren Austin (R-Vt.), who asked him about being introduced as “Comrade Amlie” in a 1934 Chicago meeting, with the built-in implication that this was connected to communism (Library of Congress). Although Amlie countered that many organizations referred to members as “comrade”, numerous accusations arose about his sympathies. In a letter to Senator Clyde Reed (R-Kan.), E.E. Cahoon of Racine Confectioners’ Machinery Co. stated his belief that Amlie should be disqualified due to “His expressed antagonism toward private enterprise and belief that the Government should acquire and operate all railroads, utilities, and industry” and Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Vernon W. Thomson, who would later serve as Governor and in Congress, got a resolution passed against Amlie’s nomination, arguing that he “has by his public utterances and other expressions of policy aligned himself with the Communist movement in this country”, that he sympathized with “a foreign element which has been promiscuous in its slaughter of Christians and their apostles”, and that he “advocated scrapping of our Federal Constitution, a completely new social order, creating of a great central authority, without checks or balances, to run our industry and placing all men in equal economic status” (US Government Printing Office, 256). The Wisconsin State Legislature wasn’t the only political force he faced opposition from. He was also condemned by his successor to his Congressional seat, conservative Republican Stephen Bolles, who called him a “radical” (US Government Printing Office, 232). However, Amlie had his defenders in Congress including Senator Elbert Thomas (D-Utah) and Representative Jerry Voorhis (D-Calif.), both staunch New Dealers. He was defended in testimony by economist John Bauer, director of American Public Utilities Bureau, who held that he “Has a greater grasp of detail and general knowledge for the position of Commissioner than the great majority of appointees I have known” and that he “will be most fair and reasonable to investors and to the rights of railroad companies. He would perform the duties in connection with railroad reorganization and readjustments in the light of the public interest” (US Government Printing Office, 241).

Amlie ultimately decided that a drawn-out fight was not worth it and withdrew his nomination. Roosevelt was disappointed by this development, and in writing to Amlie regarding the withdrawal of his nomination, he condemned his opposition. He wrote, “A quarter of a century ago I, too, was called a Communist and a wild-eyed radical because I fought for factory inspection, for a fifty-four-hour-a-week bill for women and children in industry and similar measures. You are still young and I hope that you will continue to work for the improvement of social and economic legislation under our framework of Government” (Roosevelt).

Amlie would switch his party affiliation to Democrat in 1941 and would be a founding member of the Union for Democratic Action, an organization that was formed to support the New Deal and FDR’s interventionist foreign policy, the latter a break from the Progressive Party itself, which opposed intervention in World War II until Pearl Harbor. The following year, Amlie was made director of Union for Democratic Action and conducted research into the voting records of members of Congress to ascertain liberalism and published scorecards, a practice that would be used to great effect by its successor organization, Americans for Democratic Action, which would be founded in response to the 1946 midterms. Both organizations, contrary to those who thought Amlie a communist, barred communists from joining. He also worked for the CIO in 1944 and conducted similar legislative research for them (Wisconsin Historical Society). However, Amlie’s subsequent efforts at securing elected or government roles would be repeatedly hampered. His unsuccessful efforts to secure federal positions over the years led him to believe that he was unofficially blacklisted over his staunchly left-wing views (Wisconsin Historical Society). Amlie also ran for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1949 and for Congress in 1958. He would thereafter focus instead on practicing law and after having to drop his practice for health reasons in 1962, he owned and maintained several properties until his death on August 22, 1973 (Wisconsin Historical Society).

Amlie’s DW-Nominate score, available on the Voteview website, is a -0.322, very low for a non-Democrat by that scale, and extremely so for anyone who ever was elected as a Republican. He was without doubt one of the most radical people to ever serve in Congress and call himself a Republican, second possibly only to Vito Marcantonio of East Harlem, who was outspokenly pro-communist.

References

“Comrade Amlie” question refuted by ICC Nominee. Library of Congress.

Retrieved from

https://www.loc.gov/item/2016874979/

Dictatorship Step Laid to Roosevelt; Amos Pinchot Says His Bill for Reorganization Would Strip Congress of All Power. (1938, January 31). The New York Times.

Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/1938/01/31/archives/dictatorship-step-laid-to-roose-velt-amos-pinchot-says-his-bill-for.html

Nomination of Thomas R. Amlie. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.

Retrieved from

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nomination_of_Thomas_R_Amlie/WsoTAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Thomas+R.+Amlie&pg=PA256&printsec=frontcover

Roosevelt, F.D. (1939, April 17). Withdrawal of the Nomination of Thomas R. Amlie for the Interstate Commerce Commission. The American Presidency Project.

Retrieved from

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/withdrawal-the-nomination-thomas-r-amlie-for-the-interstate-commerce-commission

Thomas Ryum Amlie Papers, 1888-1967. Wisconsin Historical Society.

Retrieved from

https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;cc=wiarchives;view=text;rgn=main;didno=uw-whs-mss00452

To Aid Agriculture and Relieve Its Ever Existing National Emergency. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-2/h96

To Pass H.R. 7726 [Veterans’ Bonuses]. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-1/h64

To Pass H.R. 9642, Authorizing Supplemental Appropriations for Emergency Highway Construction with a View to Increasing Employment. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-1/h17

To Pass Over the Veto of the President H.R. 6662, Amending the Tariff Act of 1930. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-1/h49

To Recommit S. 3331 to Select Committee on Government Reorganization [Defeat FDR’s reorganization plan]. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/75-3/h125

To Recommit to Committee on Military Affairs, H.R. 11051, Providing for the Leasing and Other Utilization of the Muscle Shoals Property in the Interest of National Defense and of Agriculture, with Instructions to Strike Out the Section Providing for Operation of the Plant by the Government if it is not Leased within 18 Months from the Approval Date. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-1/h47

Joseph T. Deal, according to DW-Nominate, the most liberal representative of the 1920s.

In trying to examine and ascertain the ideology of the parties in the past, it can be rather difficult to translate to contemporary politics. There are some persistent themes that occur overtime, some examples being:

. Policies that empower or restrict the private sector, particularly large businesses.
. Creditors vs. Debtors
. Using the tax code for wealth redistribution.

However, there is a period that is most perplexing and is at its height in the 1920s. I read an interesting article a while back called Substantive Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives, which highlights this difficulty between the scale and the history of the twenties. As noted by researchers Caughey and Schickler (2014), “Conservatives had considerable leverage within both parties in the 1920s, as evidenced by Democrats’ nomination of pro-business corporate attorney John W. Davis to face off against Calvin Coolidge in the 1924 President election. Dissatisfied with the perceived conservatism of the major parties, Robert La Follette of Wisconsin led a faction of Progressive Republicans which outflanked both parties on the “left” during these years” (3-4). Yet, figures who tend to be identified with the more conservative elements of the Democratic Party in this time, including Oscar Underwood of Alabama and Carter Glass of Virginia, are a bit more on the left than expected, with them at -0.396 and -0.304 respectively. DW-Nominate scores show much partisanship, particularly strongly from certain Southern Democrats and among urban Northern Democrats. The politician that DW-Nominate considers most liberal with a score of -0.824 is Joseph T. Deal of Virginia. Yet, Deal cast some curious votes for someone so allegedly liberal, including voting against veterans’ bonus legislation in 1922 and 1924, voting against agricultural aid, voting against the Howell-Barkley Railway Labor Disputes bill in the 68th Congress, and voting against the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act in 1921. Such votes seem good markers for later opposition to the New Deal and when first looking at this period I thought him one of the more conservative Democrats, yet he by this standard he scores almost as liberal as Adam Clayton Powell’s (D-N.Y., 1945-71) -0.833, and he was known as a black radical. He is by DW-Nominate more liberal than any currently serving Democrat in Congress, yet his record obviously cannot be considered far left. The two members of the Socialist Party who served in the 1920s were Meyer London of New York and Victor Berger of Wisconsin. They score respectively -0.026 and 0.176. While they were a bit independent-minded and the latter could cast some votes we would consider conservative, it beggars belief that Berger was more conservative than all Democrats serving in the 1920s (and more conservative than Richard Nixon, at 0.162, when he was in Congress!). Yet, this strange phenomenon is not seen among Republicans. The most conservative representative listed in the 1920s as Charles Underhill of Massachusetts at an incredible 0.991. Underhill’s reputation by DW-Nominate is well-deserved: he voted for tax reduction, against veterans’ bonuses, against Sheppard-Towner, and opposed almost everything that could be considered progressive in his day. By the way, I emphasize the latter two issues because these were matters in which many conservative Republicans made exceptions. Both Underhill and Deal, by the way, were on the same side on the proposed Child Labor Amendment to the Constitution: against. The former did so as a manifestation of his extreme conservatism while the latter did so as a manifestation of regional priorities. The South had much more to lose economically from heavy regulation or abolition of child labor than the North. After all, as I have noted in a previous post, none other than Sam Rayburn (D-Tex.), a leading New Dealer who would support the Fair Labor Standards Act, voted against the Child Labor Amendment, while John Taber (R-N.Y.) and Dan Reed (R-N.Y.), who would both have extremely anti-New Deal records to the point of voting against the Fair Labor Standards Act and Social Security, voted for.

So what do we have here? Either in the 1920s there were a lot of votes that constituted 2nd dimension per DW-Nominate (regional, lifestyle issues) or there was a major transition underway in what it meant to be a liberal…perhaps a bit of both! I have seen on DW-Nominate two groups of people in the House who score most liberal: those Democrats who appear hyper-focused on state’s rights as a concept and voted that way and urbanites, largely from New York City, who we would easily see as liberal today and whose records were indisputably staunchly liberal during FDR’s presidency. And I think part of this involves the evolving perception of the concept of “state’s rights”. Historically, as I have written in the past, state’s rights have not always been a conservative concept. Indeed, states had a history of seeking to restrict the expansion of business while the federal government has had a history of seeking to expand it, at least that’s how it largely was until the Progressive Era and especially the New Deal. I believe now that there was a transition period between the Wilson and Roosevelt presidencies in which the meaning of what it was to be a progressive in the Democratic Party underwent a transition on some matters, namely the tolerance for the use of the federal government. Men like Deal, who appear quite liberal in their scoring yet voted conservative positions on some key issues, which in the 68th Congress also included William Boyce of Delaware and William Humphreys of Mississippi, seem to be a real mixed bag. They also defended Congressional prerogatives when opposing the Public Buildings bill in the 68th Congress, sponsored by Richard Elliott (R-Ind.), which served to streamline the process of constructing public buildings in Washington D.C. by placing it under the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, rather than Congress voting individually on buildings. This was a way to improve government efficiency and cut down on pork, and numerous Northern Democrats, including those who would be among the staunch liberals of the New Deal era, voted for.

It should be noted that a response article was written by Nolan McCarty (2016) on the subject, “In Defense of DW-NOMINATE”, in which he acknowledges the validity of many criticisms, but he also holds that alternative methods fall short and that the case against DW-Nominate is overstated. However, I cannot ignore that some figures regarded as among the most “liberal” on DW-Nominate voted for some strangely conservative matters. However, certainly on some issues these people were liberal, such as opposition to Republican tariff policy and measures encouraging business investment in China through tax breaks.

Given this new information and article, I am seriously considering dropping using the liberal end of the DW-Nominate scale to determine ideological scores between the start of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency and the conclusion of FDR’s second term. It seems to me that the conception of what it was to be a staunch Democrat started undergoing some changes during the Wilson presidency as he focused more on the use of the federal government to attain progressive ends, and while Southern Democrats could deal with fine with someone who was known to be on their side of the issue of race and the Democratic Party still widely regarded as a “white man’s party”, this was considerably more difficult with a Democratic Party that was winning the black vote in presidential elections starting in 1936 and giving more and more focus to urban issues.

Note: All the DW-Nominate scores are available on:

Voteview.com

References

Caughey, D. & Schickler, E. (2014, September 28). Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Retrieved

http://caughey.mit.edu/sites/default/files/documents/NOM140928.pdf

McCarty, N. (2016, September 22). In Defense of DW-Nominate. Cambridge University.

Retrieved from

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/abs/in-defense-of-dwnominate/0D5161CCD8C62BEC8DD5ECF8FA8DABEA

To Agree to the Recommendation of the Committee on the Whole to Strike Out the Enacting Clause of H.R. 7358 [Barkley-Howell Bill]. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://www.voteview.com/rollcall/RH0680102

To Suspend the Rules and Pass H.R. 7959…[Veterans’ Bonus Bill]. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://www.voteview.com/rollcall/RH0680041

To Pass H.R. 11791…[Public Buildings Bill]. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://www.voteview.com/rollcall/RH0680146

The 1932 election was nothing short of a revolution in American politics. FDR is elected president and Democrats gain 97 seats in the House. In West Virginia’s 2nd district, Congressman Frank Bowman loses reelection to Democrat Jennings Randolph (1902-1998), part of a clean Democratic sweep of the state that ends Republican primacy in the state for generations. He votes a solid New Deal line in his first term. Randolph’s philosophy of governance was, “Problems are truly wonderful, because we have the opportunity to solve them” (Weil). He only gains votes in the 1934 midterms and again, mostly votes a liberal line in the next Congress. Randolph does, however, exercise a little independence with his vote against the “death sentence” clause of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act. His record moderates considerably in the next Congresses, and he votes for a number of proposals to crack down on strikes, including the Smith-Connally Act in 1943. Randolph also votes to permanently establish the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1945. He does, however, find the Case labor bill in 1946 to be too harsh on unions. However, his increasing moderation doesn’t prevent him from falling to the 1946 Republican wave, being defeated by Republican Melvin Snyder.

Randolph has a twelve-year hiatus from political office after this loss, and he works as an executive for Capital Airlines, now defunct. In 1958, an opportunity would present itself for him to return to politics.
Matthew Neely had long been a presence in West Virginia politics, having been in and out office since the start of the Wilson Administration and one might say that he led the Democrats to dominance in West Virginia. However, in 1957 he had a recurrence of cancer, and died on January 18, 1958. Republican Governor Cecil Underwood appointed Republican John Hoblitzell to the Senate, but he would be up for election to finish the remainder of the term. 1958 was also the year in which a recession hit the United States, and it hit West Virginia particularly hard. Republican Senators Hoblitzell and Revercomb were out, and Democratic Senators Randolph and Robert Byrd were in.

The Senate

On his return to the Senate, Randolph proved about as liberal if not even more so than he was during FDR’s first term. He did have to face Cecil Underwood in the 1960 election, but he won by over ten points. Randolph solidly backed the New Frontier and the Great Society, and unlike his colleague Byrd, he supported all major civil rights legislation. Randolph also called for the creation of the Department of Peace, a foreign policy dream for liberals. The voters of West Virginia approved of his record, and he was reelected in 1966 with a higher percentage of the vote. Randolph, like Byrd, paid his state much attention and steered billions in federal money to black lung benefits. In 1969, Randolph succeeded in getting into law the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, requiring inspections of underground and strip-mining sites (West Virginia Archives & History). He indeed focused heavily on matters related to his state. Randolph’s focus on his state was highlighted by his quote, “…I’m not what you’d call a national Senator or international Senator” (West Virginia Archives & History). However, he does have a legacy in the Constitution.

Randolph’s Contribution to the Constitution

In 1970, Congress passed, and President Nixon reluctantly signed a five-year extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nixon’s reluctance was due to a provision that granted 18-year-olds the vote in federal, state, and local elections. This was challenged in the Supreme Court, and the court struck down mandates for an 18-year-old vote in state and local elections in Oregon v. Mitchell (1970). In response, Randolph, long an advocate for lowering the voting age to 18, introduced the 26th Amendment, which applied it on the state and local level as well. This amendment overwhelmingly passed both Houses of Congress in 1971. Randolph stated on this measure, “I believe that our young people possess a great social conscience, are perplexed by the injustices which exist in the world and are anxious to rectify these ills” (West Virginia Archives & History). He won reelection by his widest margin yet in 1972, but he was widely believed given his evident aging to not be running for reelection in 1978. However, Randolph decided to give it another go. There were two complications for this plan. First, he had to wage an active campaign as he got a substantial challenger this time around in Arch Moore, who had served two terms as governor and six terms in Congress. The second was the Panama Canal Treaties, although seen as a necessity by the Carter Administration and many in the foreign policy establishment such as former Secretaries of State Dean Rusk and Henry Kissinger, were controversial with the American public as many regarded the Canal as an American achievement and that it should not be given away as a matter of national security, with future President Ronald Reagan being one of the most outspoken opponents. Randolph was one of three or four senators who would only vote for the treaties if his vote was absolutely required, and it wasn’t, so he voted against (Congressional Quarterly). Randolph won reelection with about 50.5% of the vote.

Although far from agreeing with President Reagan on many issues, seemed to have friendly relations with him and his record had again moved more to the center. In 1982, while praising Reagan for keeping compulsory draft registration he also called on him to reinstate mandatory conscription (UPI). Randolph decided not to surprise the public again by running for reelection in 1984; by this time, he is 82 years old. His DW-Nominate score was a -0.247, surprisingly a bit to the right of Robert Byrd’s -0.309 even though Byrd is a bit more associated with conservatism. When Randolph departed the Senate on January 3, 1985, so went the last politician who served in Congress when it was passing FDR’s First Hundred Days legislation. Although Claude Pepper of Florida, who served in the Senate from 1937 to 1951 and was a staunch New Dealer, was serving in the House at the time of his death in 1989, Randolph lived until May 8, 1998, and seemed to retain his lucidity throughout. Upon his death, Rep. Bob Wise (D-W.V.) praised his record, stating, “Much of his career was spent building roads, bridges, water and sewer systems the background that proved so vital to West Virginia and the nation’s growth. All Americans, no matter how young or old, owe a great debt of thanks to Senator Randolph” (CBS News).

References

Former Sen. Jennings Randolph Dies. (1998, May 8). CBS News.

Retrieved from

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-sen-jennings-randolph-dies/

Jennings Randolph: Your “New Dealer” for all the years! West Virginia Archives & History.

Retrieved from

https://archive.wvculture.org/history/exhibitsonline/randolph/jrnewdealerch5.html

Panama Canal Treaties: Major Carter Victory. Congressional Quarterly.

Retrieved from

https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal78-1238869

Sen. Jennings Randolph, D-W.V.A., urged President Reagan Tuesday to reinstitute the military draft. (1982, January 12). UPI.

Retrieved from

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/01/12/Sen-Jennings-Randolph-D-WVa-urged-President-Reagan-Tuesday-to/7067379659600/

Weil, M. (1998, May 9). Former Sen. Jennings Randolph Dies. The Washington Post.

Retrieved from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/junkie/links/randolph.htm

Although there were many people who contributed to the legal environment of Jim Crow in the South, there is one particular person who was most influential in the adoption of such systems in James Zachariah George (1826-1897).

George was an attorney by profession and had served as a private in the Mexican-American War. He also served as a reporter on the proceedings of the Mississippi Supreme Court, and like other prominent Southerners, he was a slaveowner. In 1861, George participated in the Mississippi Secession Convention and signed the Secession Ordinance. The conventioneers held that “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world” (National Park Service). In the War of the Rebellion, he would rise in the Confederate army to the rank of brigadier general.

Reconstruction

During Reconstruction, George would be active in the Democratic Party and would push to restore white supremacy in the state. In 1875, he convinced Governor Adelbert Ames not to arm black militias as he promised to do all in his power to make the election peaceful. What actually happened was that the Mississippi Plan was put into effect, in which numerous Democrats threatened violence, suppressed, or bought black votes.

In 1881, George was elected to the Senate, in which he garnered a good reputation among his colleagues for his debating ability and was viewed positively by many white Mississippians, who called him the “Great Commoner”. His record in the Senate was one of support for stronger regulations on railroads, support for anti-trust laws, and support for free coinage of silver. His DW-Nominate score is a -0.482. However, George’s sort of progressivism was for “whites only” and it is on the subject of race that George gained his greatest fame.

In 1890, George led the push for the adoption of a new constitution in Mississippi. Since the 15th Amendment, the status of blacks in Southern politics was in flux, especially after the departure of U.S. troops in 1877. Although blacks did vote, fraud, intimidation, and violence were frequent, and their turnout lessened overtime, or they were coerced into voting Democratic. Unlike today, Mississippi was a majority-black state in 1890, making up 58% of the population (Hanna, 3). The last Republican to be elected to Congress from Mississippi at the time, Elza Jeffords, was white and had served as single term from 1883 to 1885.

George’s proposal, in response to the potential of federal intervention through the Lodge Federal Elections Bill, aimed to kill two birds with one stone: disenfranchise black voters and curb election violence. The constitutional convention that adopted this amendment had 133 white delegates and one black delegate, Isaiah Montgomery, despite the state being majority black (Hannah, 3). Montgomery, by the way, was no spokesman for black suffrage. He had previously been a slave of Jefferson Davis’s brother and voted for disenfranchising black and some white voters (Mississippi History Timeline). George’s amendment succeeded in getting around constitutional concerns by instead of placing decisions of who gets to vote on the state, it became up to the local registrar, who would most of the time in practice reject the black applicant.

George’s constitution included some other provisions to deter black voting and curb whatever remaining political power they had:

. A literacy test requiring the voter to read a portion of Mississippi’s Constitution, which could be waived by a registrar if the voter simply “understood” the clause, a way for more poorly educated whites to get through as opposed to poorly educated blacks. 61% of Southern blacks in 1890 were illiterate (Margo, 8).
. An annual $2 poll tax. Although I was unable to find a figure for equivalency for 1890, in 1913, $2 was the equivalent of $62.18 in today’s currency.
. A secret ballot, which meant voters had to be literate.
. Disenfranchisement for numerous criminal offenses that its drafters believed blacks committed at a higher rate than whites.
. A crackdown on black firearm ownership, namely by changing right to bear arms from “all persons” to “citizens” and permitted the Legislature to prohibit carrying concealed weapons (Pettus).

Other provisions in the Constitution included mandated segregated schools and a ban on interracial relations.

The first Congressional election to occur after the enactment of George’s constitution, 1892, demonstrated that the law was effective in its purpose: 69,905 whites and 9,036 blacks voted. Despite blacks being 58% of the population, they were only 11% of the voters, and the suffrage situation would worsen over the years. In 1964, the year before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, only 6.7% of Mississippi’s black population eligible to vote was registered (Lopez). Although this law faced a challenge in the Supreme Court, George successfully defended it. Other former Confederate states followed his lead in adopting Jim Crow Constitutions between 1890 and 1908. He died in office on August 14, 1897.

To this day, George is one of the two Mississippi figures whose statue is in the Hall of Statues at the U.S. Capitol. The other is Jefferson Davis.

References

Hannah, J.A. et. al. (1965, May 18). Voting in Mississippi. A Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Retrieved from

https://web.archive.org/web/20100611013934/http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr12v94.pdf

Lopez, G. (2015, August 6). How the Voting Rights Act transformed black voting rights in the South, in one chart. Vox.

Retrieved from

https://www.vox.com/2015/3/6/8163229/voting-rights-act-1965

Margo, R.A. (1990, January). Race and schooling in the South, 1880-1950: an economic history. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Retrieved from

https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c8792/c8792.pdf

Mississippi Secession. National Park Service.

Retrieved from

https://www.nps.gov/articles/ms-secession.htm

Perman, M. (2017, July 10). Disenfranchisement. Mississippi Encyclopedia.

Retrieved from

Disfranchisement

Pettus, E.W. (2018, June 10). Gun ruling includes Mississippi history lesson from state Supreme Court justice. Clarion Ledger.

Retrieved from

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/11/analysis-gun-ruling-includes-mississippi-history-lesson/687892002/

Vogt, D.C. (2017, July 11). James Z. George. Mississippi Encyclopedia.

Retrieved from

George, James Z.

Idaho’s 1st district, which consists of the Northern part of the state including Coeur d’Alene, I find an enjoyable place to visit in the summer. The area itself has had a fascinating political transformation over time, and its politics helped inform the pull of the state. Although Idaho has for way longer been a Republican state than anything else, its politics weren’t always uniformly to the right. One of its first two senators, Fred Dubois, was a Republican who became increasingly progressive and in his second term as senator served as a Democrat. One of its most prominent senators was William Borah, an incredibly independent-minded Republican who took some positions that would strike people today as progressive (his embrace of parts of the New Deal) and others that would appear extremely conservative (opposition to Sheppard-Towner maternity aid). Democrat Glen Taylor, who served from 1945 to 1951, was extremely left-wing and was Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party running mate in 1948. From 1957 to 1981, Democrat Frank Church was one of the state’s senators, and he was no conservative. Although the state’s 2nd district has had a much longer history as a conservative district, the 1st by the 1930s became the Democratic stronghold of the state thanks to its high rates of unionization. From 1933 to 1967, Democrats held the seat for all but four years. This changed dramatically in the 1966 midterms, and the man who represented this change was James Albertus McClure (1924-2011).

Although in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson won a full term in a landslide and all states but Arizona and five Deep South states, Idaho was the state he had the worst performance in while still winning, and he did lose in the 2nd district, which was one of the few seats above the Mason-Dixon line to go from Democratic to Republican representation in Congress. Congressman Compton I. White Jr. in the 1st only won reelection with 51.7% in an excellent year for Democrats nationwide. This left him vulnerable to a challenge in a better year, a challenge by McClure, who had served as a state senator since 1961. The results would be pretty much the inverse in 1966 with McClure defeating White.

In his first term in Congress, McClure established a staunchly conservative record in opposition to the Great Society, with Americans for Constitutional Action giving him a 100% in 1967 and a 90% in 1968. His advocacy for limited government and his staunch opposition to gun control resounded well with the people of the 1st, and he easily beat back former Congressman White in a rematch in 1968 with 59.4% of the vote. Although a conservative, McClure had a sense of pragmatism and could from time-to-time vote against party line, such as his opposition to Nixon’s executive order expanding the functions of the Subversive Activities Control Board in 1971.

In 1972, Senator Leonard Jordan, at this time 73 years old, decided to call it quits. McClure ran in the primary but faced three opponents, with the toughest of them being former Congressman George Hansen, a flamboyant and even more conservative guy than McClure. However, he prevailed and in the general election faced a considerable opponent in Idaho State University President Bud Davis but prevailed by nearly 7 points. This would be his closest race in the Senate. McClure established himself as an expert in natural resources and would favor policies that encouraged a diverse range of energy production in the United States, including oil and nuclear energy. This placed him at odds with conservation groups, and Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.), a founder of Earth Day, stated, “As a general proposition, the environmental community disagreed with him about 100 percent of the time” (Brown). Indeed, McClure supported development in the west, much to the consternation of conservationists, and opposed the River of No Return Wilderness in 1980. His lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters was an 11%. He also supported the development of electric cars and oil deregulation. As part of McClure’s focus on energy, he sought to balance out how the United States regarded the Middle East, with maintaining support of Israel while giving support to other nations in the region, including with weapons sales as pushed by both President Carter and President Reagan. He also served as something of a goodwill ambassador to the Middle East, visiting leaders at least nine times for discussions on the issues of energy and matters impacting the region, aiding the U.S. in improving relations (Woods-Davis).

On Civil Rights

McClure’s record on civil rights issues is mixed. During the Johnson Administration, he voted for the first version of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (a measure primarily aimed at prohibiting racially motivated violence, before fair housing was added) and supported the Jury Selection and Service Act, prohibiting racial discrimination in federal jury selection. However, McClure voted against the second version of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 for its inclusion of fair housing (many Republicans opposed on grounds of freedom of contract). He would vote against the extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 1970 for its inclusion of an 18-year-old vote (this portion was struck down by the Supreme Court, resulting in the 26th Amendment) but vote to extend the act in 1975. McClure would be one of the only members of Congress to vote to extend in 1975 and vote against extending in 1982. McClure would vote against the Civil Rights Restoration Act in 1988 but also for the Fair Housing Act Amendments in 1988, which strengthened fair housing laws. He did subscribe to the conservative positions against busing as a means of desegregation and opposed affirmative action and racial quotas.

The Reagan Administration: Leading the Conservatives

In 1980, not only did Ronald Reagan win the presidency but the Republicans also won the Senate and McClure got the chairmanship of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Along with Jesse Helms of North Carolina, he took the lead for the agenda for the conservative wing of the party. Peter Range (1981) described this group thusly, “They are bound by broad agreement on the so-called “profamily issues” – anti-abortion, anti-equal-rights amendment, anti-busing, pro-prayer in schools – and a free-market conservatism on economic issues. They favor limited Government spending on social programs but more for defense. They share a hawkish view of the world that favors a more assertive resistance to Soviet expansion and accepts limited human-rights abuses in the interest of supporting staunch military allies”. Curiously, 1981 and 1982 turned out to be McClure’s weakest years per ACA, scoring a 74% and a 59% respectively. This was a significant departure from the 100% he had received in 1967, 1974, and 1976. However, his 1983 and 1984 scores would be 89% and 96% respectively. Americans for Democratic Action’s lifetime average for McClure, with absences not counted against him, is a 6%. His DW-Nominate score is 0.492.

In 1984, McClure ran to replace the retiring Howard Baker Jr. of Tennessee as majority leader, but the more moderate Bob Dole (R-Kan.) won the post. That year, as he had in his last reelection, he won all counties. In 1986, McClure sponsored the Firearm Owners Protection Act with Rep. Harold Volkmer (D-Mo.), which partially rolled back the Gun Control Act of 1968 in response to criticisms by the firearms industry that enforcement methods and frequency by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms amounted to harassment and hampered their ability to do business. President Reagan signed the bill into law. That year, McClure persuaded Reagan to abandon adherence to the unratified SALT II agreement as Soviets were violating it (Associated Press).

In 1990, McClure opted not to run for another term, not wanting to stick around into his seventies and his growing disdain for what he called “wet-finger politics”, using public opinion polling rather than principles to determine political positions, and stated that it served as an “instrument of response not an instrument of leadership” (Brown, Associated Press). After his Senatorial career, McClure did what many former legislators do…lobbying! He represented Idaho interests including Idaho Power Co. and Coeur d’Alene Mine as well as supervise citizens’ committees to study deregulatory policy (Associated Press). McClure’s health began to decline when he suffered a stroke in December 2008, and he died on February 26, 2011. He was one of those figures who helped in Idaho’s move increasingly towards the Republicans and since his first election to Congress in 1966, the 1st district has only been represented by Democrats for a total of six years. The federal building and courthouse in Boise is named after McClure.

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Brown, E. (2011, February 28). James A. McClure dies: Three-term U.S. senator from Idaho was 86. The Washington Post.

Retrieved from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/james_a_mcclure_dies_three_term_us_senator_from_idaho_was_86/2011/02/28/AB4M1RK_story.html

Former U.S. Senator James McClure of Idaho dies. (2011, February 27). Associated Press.

Retrieved from

https://www.deseret.com/2011/2/27/20176156/former-u-s-senator-james-mcclure-of-idaho-dies

Range, P.R. (1981, February 8). Thunder From the Right. The New York Times Magazine.

Retrieved from

Senator James McClure (R). The League of Conservation Voters.

Retrieved from

https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/james-albertus-mcclure

Woods-Davis, W. (2005). Portrait of a pragmatic conservative: Senator James A. McClure of Idaho and the politics of United States energy and Middle Eastern affairs, 1967-1990. University of Idaho.

Retrieved from

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005PhDT…….159W/abstract

When considering what to do for the 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, I originally thought writing about the Warren Commission would be interesting, and while it would be interesting, it would be in truth better to talk about what he stood for and did rather than the aftermath of his demise. The Warren Commission article can wait until the 60th anniversary of the Warren Commission report. Bear in mind, given the biweekly format of my writing, there are limits to how much I can write, and Kennedy himself is such a comprehensive subject that I cannot possibly hope to match the major historical books on him. So, I thought I would write not some big biography of him, but rather a review of what John F. Kennedy stood for as a politician. This is particularly important in my mind as Kennedy is one of those presidents, like Washington, Jefferson, or Lincoln, that people like to tie in their philosophy to, to say in essence that JFK would be on my side on *insert issue here*. Something that must be kept in mind with Kennedy is that he is a man who is forever crystallized in the politics of 60 years ago. As a Catholic, he undoubtedly opposed abortion on a personal level, but the Kennedy family became pro-choice in the 1970s thanks in good part to the influence of ultra-liberal Congressman and Father Robert F. Drinan of Massachusetts. Who is to say that if Kennedy had lived into the 1970s that he would have been the black sheep of the family on the issue?

A Career in Congress

Although Kennedy had political influence from both sides of his family, the man who mentored him most was his maternal grandfather, John F. “Honey” Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had served both as mayor of Boston and one of its representatives. Initially it was Joseph Kennedy Jr. who was supposed to be the great politician and running for Congress in 1946, but he was killed in World War II, while JFK was a bona fide war hero for his rescuing ten sailors. Thanks to some political maneuvering by Fitzgerald to get the seat’s current occupant, Jim Curley, to bow out and run for mayor of Boston once again, Kennedy was able to run in a safely Democratic district and thanks to his charisma, background, and Fitzgerald’s support, he was able to win the election. However, he did not enter Congress at the easiest time for the Democrats.

The 80th Congress

Although we know the Bay State today as an iconic place of American liberalism, indeed it sends an entirely Democratic delegation to Congress, this isn’t how it was at the start of Kennedy’s political career. Although the last time Republicans had won Massachusetts was with Calvin Coolidge (who had previously served as the state’s governor), they held 9 of 14 of its Congressional districts and both of its Senate seats. Joe Martin of the 14th district was the House speaker, and the agenda of the 80th Congress was, at least on domestic questions, distinctly conservative.

Kennedy, contrary to his contemporary reputation as a tax cutter, opposed GOP-pushed tax reduction legislation in 1947. He was also consistently supportive of organized labor, and voted against the Taft-Hartley Act that same year, its most controversial provision being allowing states to choose whether to be “right to work” or not. Kennedy was a strong supporter of President Truman’s foreign policy, supporting the Greek-Turkish Aid Act in 1947 and the Marshall Plan in 1948. The 1948 election reelected Truman and brought Democrats back to majorities in both the House and Senate.

Kennedy would in his next two terms in Congress support banning the poll tax, the Housing Act of 1949 (a major public housing measure), retaining middle income housing aid in housing legislation, Point Four foreign aid (aid for poor nations as opposed to war-torn ones), price and rent controls, maintaining the Federal Power Commission’s ability to regulate oil prices, limiting the power of the Rules Committee to block legislation from the floor, a Republican substitute for reciprocal trade legislation, federal title over offshore oil deposits, and the McCarran Internal Security Act, which contained a requirement that communists register with the Justice Department. Kennedy was, however, often supported more regulation of the economy, including backing price and rent controls after World War II as well as during the Korean War. His modified (absences are not counted against) Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) scores during his time in the House were as follows:

1947 – 100

1948 – 92

1949 – 90

1950 – 85

1951 – 91

1952 – 100

Overall, out of 65 votes in which he took a position, he sided with what ADA regarded as the liberal position on 60 of them.

In 1952, Kennedy challenged Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. for reelection. This year was a bit of a watershed moment in Massachusetts political history, as Kennedy’s maternal grandfather, “Honey” Fitzgerald, had tried but failed to defeat Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. for reelection in 1916. This time, however, a Lodge was defeated, by 3 points. Lodge had been distracted running Dwight Eisenhower’s election campaign but also had caught the ire of some conservative voters in the state for his role in defeating the nomination of conservative standard-bearer Robert Taft in the Republican primary, thus they declined to vote for him.

As a senator, Kennedy seemed a bit less liberal than as a representative. He supported a few foreign aid cuts, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s (R-Wis.) 1953 proposal to cut foreign aid to nations trading with Communist China and opposed Democratic farm legislation in 1956. Some, like Senator Wayne Morse (D-Ore.), questioned his commitment to liberalism. He would try to run for president in 1960 on this theme, but to little success. This is probably because Kennedy’s record was mostly still favorable to liberalism, although it seemed to grow more so as he increasingly thought about his presidential ambitions. On civil rights, Kennedy was mostly in favor of such proposals. This included his vote against the Anderson-Aiken Amendment, which stripped the Civil Rights Act of 1957 of its 14th Amendment implementation, but he also voted for the weakening jury trial amendment to the bill. Kennedy’s most known work was the Pulitzer Prize winning Profiles in Courage (most of it was ghostwritten by speechwriter Ted Sorensen), and it is here that I must comment that he had a moment that reflected courage and another, not so much, and both occurred in 1954.

The Eisenhower Administration in 1954 was finally pushing through with the St. Lawrence Seaway through its support of the Wiley-Dondero bill, which authorized U.S. participation in the construction of the seaway. This was quite unpopular in the New England area, among Democrats and Republicans alike, as sea traffic would be directed away from the region and to the Midwest. It was the one issue that House Speaker Joe Martin (R-Mass.) told President Eisenhower he couldn’t assist him on. Not even House Minority Whip John W. McCormack (D-Mass.), typically a loyalist to national Democratic and liberal positions, could be swayed for. But Senator Kennedy voted for it. Of Massachusetts elected officials, only Republican John Heselton and Democrat Edward Boland also supported the Seaway. He voted for it as he saw it as helping the nation overall, even if at the cost of New England. He stated publicly on the matter on January 14, 1954, “1) I am frank to admit that few issues during my service in the House of Representatives or the Senate have troubled me as much as the pending bill authorizing participation by the United States in the construction and operation of the St. Lawrence Seaway. As you may know, on 6 different occasions over a period of 20 years, no Massachusetts Senator or Representative has ever voted in favor of the Seaway; and such opposition on the part of many of our citizens and officials continues to this day. I shall discuss the bases of that opposition subsequently; but in initiating a comprehensive study on this issue, I limited myself primarily to two questions which have not previously been before those Massachusetts Senators and Representatives opposing the Seaway, two questions which are indeed facing all Members of the Congress on this issue:

First, is the St. Lawrence Seaway going to be built, regardless of the action taken in the United States Senate on this bill?
and
Secondly, If so, is it in the national interest that the United States participate in the construction, operation and administration of the Seaway?

A careful, and I believe thorough and objective, study of this issue has fully satisfied me that both of these questions must be answered in the affirmative” (JFK Library). Such a stance is, in this writer’s opinion, what is meant when the term “statesman” is used. One subject, however, that Kennedy could not take a stand on for years was on the influence of Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.). Although Kennedy no doubt privately opposed McCarthy’s methods, he was a friend of the Kennedy family, had dated two of the Kennedy daughters, and had pointedly not campaigned for Lodge’s reelection in 1952. Kennedy himself scheduled his back surgery to occur on the day his censure vote (Goodman, 18). He was the only Democrat to not vote or cast a pair on the censure. Kennedy would not denounce McCarthy until after his death on May 2, 1957, and he had a presidential run on the mind. In 1956, Kennedy made a strong bid for the Democratic nomination for vice president and although he lost to Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, he came in second, making him a favorite for a presidential run in 1960 after the ticket’s defeat. In 1958, Kennedy won reelection with 73% of the vote, as not only was it a great year for Democrats, Republicans also were unable to recruit a formidable candidate to run against him.

Kennedy ran on for president on a platform of liberalism, including support for anti-poverty programs for rural America, increased minimum wage, the creation of the Peace Corps, federal aid to education, and other domestic priorities that would become the New Frontier. This largely reflected his Senate record, which was by ADA modified scores:

1953 – 77

1954 – 85

1955 – 67

1956 – 86

1957 – 83

1958 – 100

1959 – 100

1960 – 100

Out of 93 votes in the Senate that Kennedy registered a position, he voted with ADA 82 times.

Kennedy’s overall modified ADA score averaged a 90. Americans for Constitutional Action, ADA’s conservative counterpart, thought similarly, giving Kennedy an 11% for his record from 1955 to 1959. His DW-Nominate score for his Congressional career overall stands at a -0.311. If it isn’t clear by this point, I want to demolish the myth of “Kennedy the conservative” for all time. It is not consistent with how his supporters and opponents viewed him at the time. His chief challenger in the Democratic primary was Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, who was to Kennedy’s left. His victory over Humphrey in the strongly Protestant state of West Virginia provided proof that the Democratic Party was ready to accept a Catholic nominee for president. His victory over Republican Richard Nixon represented a victory for New Deal liberalism but also a triumph for Catholics as being fully accepted as part of mainstream America, as the last Catholic nominee, Al Smith in 1928, was defeated in part because of his religion.

The New Frontier

John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier program was a distinctly liberal one, but in order for it to have a chance, it needed to overcome a key obstacle: the House Rules Committee. This committee was chaired by Howard W. “Judge” Smith (D-Va.), a man who opposed most of the national Democratic Party’s platform, collaborated with House Minority Leader Charles Halleck (R-Ind.), and had no qualms about bottling up legislation in his committee that he disagreed with. On January 31, 1961, Speaker Sam Rayburn’s (D-Tex.) proposal, openly backed by Kennedy, to expand the committee by two Democrats and one Republican passed by five votes, giving the new president’s agenda a chance to pass. And some measures did pass; a raise and expansion in minimum wage coverage, the Housing Act of 1961, the creation of the Peace Corps, an accelerated public works program, and anti-poverty aid to rural areas. His administration also negotiated and succeeded in getting the Senate to ratify the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which banned for the US and USSR above-ground nuclear testing. Kennedy also got through a now widely misunderstood in context tax reduction in 1963, which was in fact opposed by many conservatives as they saw the Administration’s failure to reduce spending as well as inflationary. Not all efforts of the Kennedy Administration, however, were successful. For instance, federal aid to education went down to defeat in the House in 1961 as did the proposed Department of Urban Affairs and the Administration’s wheat-grain bill in 1962.

On November 22, 1963, America in multiple generations lost a sense of national innocence with JFK’s assassination. I phrase it this way because the United States has had many traumatic events, including the War of the Rebellion (yes, I’m sticking to calling the Civil War this in writing) as well as three presidential assassinations before. I suppose Kennedy’s assassination was the first to happen in a time of modern media and of course, still within the living memories of millions of Americans. May he be the last president to be assassinated.

References

ADA Voting Records.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Goodman, J. (2006). The Kennedy mystique: creating Camelot. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.

Retrieved from

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Kennedy_Mystique/a6jnl_16zNsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy on the Saint Lawrence Seaway Before the Senate, Washington D.C., January 14, 1954. JFK Library.

Retrieved from

https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/united-states-senate-st-lawrence-seaway-19540114

I suppose this blog’s subtitle could be, “You think THAT’S BAD…”, given how few things that happen in politics lack some sort of precedent. The most recent news is that Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) alleged that former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) deliberately elbowed him while walking past as a form of retaliation against his vote to declare the speaker’s office vacant. If what Burchett alleges happened did happen, it is in truth small fries compared to the history of legislative violence in the U.S. Congress. In this post, I will detail some of the incidents that were more serious than this alleged occurrence.

Griswold vs. Lyon

Cartoon portraying the scuffle between Matthew Lyon (left) and Roger Griswold (right).

There was a good deal of bad blood between Federalist Congressman Roger Griswold of Connecticut and Democratic-Republican Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont. Two weeks before this incident, Lyon had declared himself a champion of the common man and told Griswold that Connecticut Federalists didn’t represent 90% of their constituents (would be similar today to a Democrat telling a Republican he or she only represented the wealthy) and that if he lived in Connecticut and had a printing press he would start a revolution, and in response Griswold asked if he would be fighting for his constituents with a wooden sword (New England Historical Society). This was a reference to Lyon’s court-martial and dishonorable discharge by General Horatio Gates during the Revolutionary War, which his opponents alleged was for cowardice and as punishment he had to wear a wooden sword. Lyon in response spat tobacco juice in Griswold’s face. For this act he was denounced, and Federalists had all sorts of insults for him, including that he was “a kennel of filth” and a “nasty, brutish, spitting animal” (New England Historical Society). A vote to expel Lyon for this act had failed, and this conflict of personalities reached a boiling point on February 15, 1798, when Griswold attacked Lyon with a hickory stick in retaliation for the spitting, hitting him about the head and shoulders, with Lyon brandishing a pair of tongs to defend himself. The conflict was broken up by other representatives. Lyon would later be convicted under the Alien and Sedition Acts, but his constituents would reelect him from jail, and he would cast the deciding vote for Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 election, which had gone to the House of Representatives.

Foote vs. Benton

Cartoon portraying the 1850 incident between Foote (left) and Benton (right).

The year is 1850 and the debate on the Compromise of 1850, a series of bills designed to provide peace on the question of free vs. slave states, is in full heat. Senator Thomas Hart Benton (D-Mo.), one of the founders of the Democratic Party known for his hot temper, has recently turned against slavery, against the wishes of his state and party, and opposes the Compromise as it in his view furthers slavery too much. Senator Henry Foote (D-Miss.) is on the opposite side; he supports the Compromise and is a staunch supporter of slavery. Foote is actually unique on this question from his state, as fellow Senator Jefferson Davis (D-Miss.) opposes this compromise as too limiting on slavery and the Mississippi delegation to Congress opposes it. Benton and Foote despise each other, and Foote, an obnoxious man with a history of getting into duels and fistfights, insults and rails against Benton relentlessly in his speeches for weeks. On April 17, 1850, he accuses Benton, a man who prides himself on his ethics, of taking a bribe, and this is the last straw. He storms over to Foote, who draws a pistol, cocks it, and points it at him. Although Foote at 46 has an age advantage on the 68-year-old Benton, Benton has a major size advantage on the rail-skinny Foote. Benton proceeds to open his jacket to bear his chest and shouts, “I have no pistols! Let him fire! Stand out of the way and let the assassin fire!” (Langeveld, 2016) Foote is wrestled to the floor and disarmed by fellow senators. To this day it is the only time in which a senator has pointed a gun at another senator on the Senate floor.

The Caning of Charles Sumner

In 1856, Senator Charles Sumner (R-Mass.) delivered a speech before the Senate regarding Kansas as a free or slave state and identified two senators he found responsible for the outbreak of violence in Kansas among pro and anti-slavery settlers in Stephen Douglas (D-Ill.) and Andrew Butler (D-S.C.). He condemned Douglas as a “noise-some, squat, and nameless animal…not a proper model for an American senator” while accusing Butler of taking “a mistress…who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight – I mean, the harlot, Slavery” (U.S. Senate). While the speech offended many Southerners, one who was particularly strongly so was Butler’s cousin, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina. Brooks thought that because of his speech Sumner was not a gentleman and thus the Code Duello didn’t apply to him, so he outright decided to beat him with his cane, and that is what he did on the floor of the Senate on May 22, 1856, with Rep. Laurence Kiett (D-S.C.) holding off other senators with a gun. Brooks proceeded to beat Sumner until he broke his cane. Brooks would not be expelled but he would resign and run again, being elected. He would be convicted of assault and fined $300. Northern voters widely regarded Sumner as a martyr while Brooks was widely regarded as a hero by Southern voters. Brooks would die of croup at the age of 37 on January 27, 1857, before he could take his seat in the new Congress. Sumner would take three years to recover and served in the Senate until his death on March 11, 1874, aged 63.

The House Brawl of 1858

The cause of this incident was once again the issue of slavery. This matter surrounded the proposed LeCompton Constitution, which was supported by President James Buchanan and was pro-slavery. The debate got heated as Representatives Laurence Keitt (D-S.C.) and Galusha Grow (R-Penn.) dished out insults. When Grow went to sit on the Democratic side of the chamber next to Keitt, he told him to sit down on the Republican side and called him a “black Republican puppy”, to which Grow responded, “No negro-driver shall crack his whip over me”, which resulted in Keitt shouting, “I’ll choke you for that” (Damon). Keitt proceeded to attempt to choke him and this started a brawl among around 50 representatives. This fight ended in about two minutes when Cadwallader Washburn (R-Wis.) grabbed William Barksdale (D-Miss.) by his “hair” and threw a punch, only to miss and find in his left hand a wig (Damon). No one knew that Barksdale was bald, and in embarrassment, he put his wig on backwards to the laughter of the House, instantly ending the brawl.

1902: South Carolina Senators Don’t Get Along, Cause a New Senate Rule

Although Senators Benjamin Tillman and John McLaurin are both Democrats and both represent South Carolina, the latter has been increasingly voting with Republicans on major issues, and this royally ticks off Tillman, especially his support for annexing the Philippines. On February 22, 1902, McLaurin bursts into the Senate and accuses Senator Tillman of perpetrating “a willful, malicious, and deliberate lie” (Goodwin). Tillman promptly socks McLaurin in the jaw and the two men fought, and some senators got hit with missed punches as they tried to break up the fight. Tillman was able to hit McLaurin with a series of punches in the process, and both Tillman and McLaurin were censured by the Senate for this incident. In response, Senator George Frisbie Hoar (R-Mass.) got a provision into the Senate rules that states, “No senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming of a Senator” (Goodwin).

Clarence Cannon – Victim and Aggressor

In 1933, Representative Clarence Cannon (D-Mo.), a pugnacious and independent-minded figure, got into two incidents with fellow Missouri Democrat Andy Romjue, the two who had a mutual dislike. In the first incident, Romjue, a significantly taller man, called him a “double-crosser” and a “liar”, possibly over not getting a coveted spot on a committee, and slapped him across the face, to which Cannon responded the next day in a second incident in which after he asked for a check for the Democratic campaign fund, he followed up with, “You made an unprovoked assault on me yesterday” and punched him in the face (Hill). Another scrap he got into was with his Republican counterpart, John Taber of New York. In 1945, his argument with Taber boiled over and he punched him in the face (Henry). Cannon would remain in the House until his death in 1964, at which time he had still held the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee.

1940: Vincent vs. Sweeney

Although Beverly Vincent (D-Ky.) and Martin Sweeney (D-Ohio) are in the same party, they are on the opposite sides of the question of FDR’s peacetime draft. After Sweeney delivers a speech hotly condemning the peacetime draft as a British plot in September 1940, he sits next to Vincent. Vincent said to him, “I’d rather you would sit somewhere else” and after Sweeney bristled, he added, “You are a traitor” and went on to call him a “son of a bitch” (Time). Sweeney then took a swing at him, after which Vincent landed a hard right on him.

1949: Cox vs. Sabath

Although 69-year-old Gene Cox of Georgia and 83-year-old Adolph Sabath of Illinois are both Democrats, their differences are many and have been heightened by the politics of the New Deal and the Fair Deal. Cox is a prominent member of the House Rules Committee and a leader in the Conservative Coalition while Sabath is the staunchly liberal chairman of said committee. Among their many differences is over housing policy, and in 1949 Cox demanded Sabath grant 10 minutes of speaking time for opposition to the Truman Administration’s public housing bill. Sabath refused, holding that seven minutes was the maximum he could grant. Cox angrily called Sabath a “liar” and punched him on the side of the head. Sabath, although an octogenarian, responded with “a short left to the jaw, then a short right cross with real steam behind it” (Time, 1949). The scuffle was then broken up and the two made up afterwards.

1955: Frustration on Education Bill Boils Over

Democrat Cleve Bailey of West Virginia is a staunch supporter of federal aid for school construction and is enraged that once again Democrat Adam Clayton Powell of New York, a man who identified as black (he was mixed-race and could have passed for white had he chosen to), has introduced an amendment to the education bill barring aid funds to segregated schools. This amendment was a regular measure that Powell introduced to education bills and such an amendment was either watered-down to meaninglessness in conference or it would kill such legislation. The adoption of such an amendment would guarantee unified opposition to the measure from Southern Democrats. Bailey punches Powell in the jaw, but the two make up, and Powell said of the matter, “Cleve Bailey and I smoke cigars together, and are old friends” (O’Hea, 45).

References

Damon (1975, December). Filibuster: A Look at the Record. American Heritage, 27(1).

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https://www.americanheritage.com/filibuster-look-record

Glass, A. (2011, February 15). Griswold-Lyon fight erupts on House floor, Feb. 15, 1798. Politico.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2011/02/griswold-lyon-fight-erupts-on-house-floor-feb-15-1798-049518

Goodwin, G.E. (2023, November 15). The last time there was a fight in the Senate, they changed the rules to ban calling each other corrupt. Business Insider.

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https://www.businessinsider.com/us-senate-fight-rules-changed-history-2023-11

Henry, C. (2018, July 12). The Man Who Brought Two Presidents to Town. Elsberry Historical.

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http://elsberryhistorical.org/items/show/163

Hill, R. Milton A. Romjue of Missouri. The Knoxville Focus.

Retrieved from

https://www.knoxfocus.com/archives/this-weeks-focus/milton-a-romjue-of-missouri/

Langeveld, D. (2016, August 28). Henry S. Foote: Two Time Traitor. Downfall Dictionary.

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http://downfalldictionary.blogspot.com/2016/08/henry-s-foote-two-time-traitor.html

Matthew Lyon, Vermont’s Spitting Congressman. New England Historical Society.

Retrieved from

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/matthew-lyon-vermonts-spitting-irishman/

O’Hea, O. (2022). Earl Warren’s Last Stand: Powell v. McCormack, Race, and the Political Question Doctrine. Journal of Supreme Court History, 47(1), 44-64.

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https://muse.jhu.edu/article/874535/pdf

The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner. U.S. Senate.

Retrieved from

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm

The Congress: Let Harry Do It. (1949, July 4). Time Magazine.

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https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,888523-1,00.html

The Congress: The Bitter End (1940, September 16). Time Magazine.

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https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,764654,00.html