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Alben W. Barkley
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Alben William Barkley (November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate from Paducah, Kentucky, majority leader of the Senate, and the 35th Vice President of the United States.
ley was born Willie Alben Barkley in a log cabin near Lowes, Graves County, Kentucky.
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Alben William Barkley (November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate from Paducah, Kentucky, majority leader of the Senate, and the 35th Vice President of the United States.
Early life and career
Barkley was born Willie Alben Barkley in a log cabin near Lowes, Graves County, Kentucky. His parents, John Wilson Barkley and Electra Eliza (Smith) Barkley, were deeply religious tenant farmers. He graduated from Marvin College in 1897, where he excelled in speech and debate. He worked his way through college with a full-time janitorial job. Barkley later attended Emory College, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta Social Fraternity, graduated in 1900, and then attended the University of Virginia School of Law . It was during this time that he legally changed his name from "Willie Alben" to "Alben William."
Barkley was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1901 and commenced practice in Paducah, Kentucky. He was the prosecuting attorney for McCracken County from 1905 to 1909 and judge of McCracken County Court from 1909 to 1913. He built a reputation as a progressive who sided with the farmers more than the townspeople. His energetic, folksy campaigning and strong oratorical skills made him a power in the local Democratic party. He defeated three opponents in the 1912 congressional primary, won the Congressional election, and became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Congressional career
House of Representatives
Barkley was elected to the Sixty-third and to the six succeeding Congresses (1913 - 1927) representing Kentucky's 1st district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He gained statewide stature by leading a crusade against the coal and gambling special interests during his 1923 campaign for Governor of Kentucky. Barkley narrowly lost the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. However, that sole electoral defeat actually helped propel him into the U.S. Senate in 1926. The race gave him name recognition throughout Kentucky and won him the title "Iron Man," for his ability to give as many as sixteen speeches a day on the campaign trail.
Senate
Barkley was first elected to the United States Senate in 1926; he would be reelected in 1932, 1938, and again in 1944.
Barkley was the keynote speaker at the 1932 national Democratic convention which chose Franklin Roosevelt as its party nominee for President. The following year, he became vice chairman of the Democratic Conference and assistant to Senate majority leader Joseph T. Robinson. After Robinson's death during the court-packing incident of 1937, Barkley narrowly defeated Pat Harrison of Mississippi in a 38-37 vote to become the new majority leader. He was aided by the vocal support of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the President's "Dear Alben" letter submitted to the Washington press corps, which highlighted Roosevelt's desire for Barkley to become majority leader. Barkley's most critical election came in the 1938 primary when he defended the New Deal against conservative Governor Albert B. "Happy" Chandler. After a bitter race in which Barkley's diligent campaigning was bolstered by Roosevelt's strong endorsement, Barkley handily defeated the sitting Governor, receiving 56% of the vote.
Barkley continued to serve as Senate majority leader from 1937 to 1947 and Senate minority leader from 1947 to 1949. He shepherded Roosevelt's agenda through the Senate, sponsoring financing for World War II and the lend-lease bill, which prevented Britain from capitulating to the Nazis. However, he broke with Roosevelt in 1944 on tax issues. When Roosevelt vetoed a tax bill because the rates were too low, Barkley resigned his leadership position, and called for a veto override. The veto was overridden and Barkley was unanimously returned as Majority Leader, clearly demonstrating that he, not the President, controlled the Senate.
During the 1944 Democratic convention, Barkley was snubbed as vice-presidential candidate in favor of Harry S. Truman, Senator from Missouri. Barkley unwaveringly supported the Roosevelt/Truman ticket and continued his service in the Senate, helping to ensure passage of the United Nations treaty through the Senate.
Barkley continued in his career after the death of his wife in 1947, and his popularity soared. He was ranked as the most popular Democrat, and vied with General Dwight D. Eisenhower as Look magazine's most "fascinating" American.
Vice President: "The Veep"
Barkley was nominated for Vice-President at the 1948 Democratic convention in Philadelphia following a rousing speech that garnered some support for his nomination as President. President Truman was widely considered an unpopular candidate for re-election against Governor Dewey of New York.
Despite their underdog status, Truman and Barkley continued to campaign doggedly. Barkley coined the term "Give 'em hell, Harry" as Truman was leaving Washington on his "whistle-stop" train across the country. Barkley's "prop-stops" by airplane also initiated a new phase in presidential campaigning by air. He was 71 years old at the time of his election and inauguration, the oldest vice president to date. Barkley was elected Vice President on the Democratic ticket with President Harry S. Truman in 1948 and was inaugurated January 20, 1949. Because of his legislative experience, Truman insisted on his inclusion in all cabinet-level meetings and on the National Security Council, which made him the first working vice-president in U.S. history.
In his first year as Vice President, Barkley became the only vice president to marry while in office. At the age of 71, he married Jane Hadley Barkley, a widow from St. Louis, capturing national attention.
Barkley was popularly known as "the Veep". His young grandson, Stephen M. Truitt, had suggested this abbreviated alternative to the cumbersome "Mr. Vice President." When Barkley told the story at a press conference, the newspapers printed it, and the title stuck. Barkley's successor as vice president, Richard Nixon, declined to continue the nickname, saying that it had been bestowed on Barkley affectionately and belonged to him. However, the term has continued to be used as shorthand for Vice-President.
In 1949, he returned to his alma mater, Emory University, to receive an LL.D. degree and deliver the commencement address, an occasion which became the first Emory event ever televised. Later that year, he received the Congressional Gold Medal.
In December 1950, a Paducah site (the location of the former Kentucky Ordnance Works) was chosen from a short list of eight locations for construction of a new gaseous diffusion plant. It was speculated that Vice President Barkley, a former Paducah, KY resident, may have helped tip the scales toward the selection of the Paducah site.
1952 Presidential campaign
Truman gave up his reelection campaign in 1952 after losing the New Hampshire primary. Barkley announced his bid on July 6. On July 20 the A.F.L and C.I.O announced they would not support his candidacy. The ranking A.F.L. official among the delegates to the Democratic convention, George M. Harrison, said "we can't sell Barkley to labor, not because of his record, but his age." Barkley was 74 at the time. Two days later, Barkley withdrew from consideration.
This is in marked contrast to later Vice Presidents, the majority of whom have succeeded to the presidency or at least campaigned hard for it. (The exceptions are Spiro Agnew, Nelson Rockefeller, and Dick Cheney). Barkley's own withdrawal created a wide open race in both parties the likes of which would not be seen again until 2008. Ultimately, the nominees were Adlai E. Stevenson II and former General Dwight Eisenhower, with Eisenhower winning the 1952 Presidential election.
Return to the Senate
After retiring, Barkley hosted a national political television show, had numerous speaking engagements, and began writing his memoirs. He decided to again run for the U.S. Senate in 1954, to help Lyndon Johnson secure a majority in that body and become Majority Leader. Barkley easily defeated incumbent John Sherman Cooper and was again elected to the United States Senate and served from 1955 until his death the following year of a heart attack while giving a speech at the 1956 held at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He died moments after declaring, "I'm glad to sit on the back row, for I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty." He was interred in Mount Kenton Cemetery, on Lone Oak Road, near Paducah, Kentucky.
In his honor, the award-winning debating society at Emory University was renamed the Barkley Forum in 1960. Lake Barkley, a man-made lake on the Cumberland River at the Kentucky-Tennessee border, and Barkley Dam at the same lake, are also named in his honor.
In 1953, 26 oral history interviews were conducted with Alben Barkley and are available at the University of Kentucky's Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History
Electoral history
- United States Senate election in Kentucky, 1926
- United States Senate election in Kentucky, 1932
- Alben W. Barkley (D) (inc.) 59.2%
- M.H. Thatcher (R) 40.5%
- United States Senate election in Kentucky, 1938
- Alben W. Barkley (D) (inc.) 62%
- John P. Haswell (R) 38%
- United States Senate election in Kentucky, 1944
- Alben W. Barkley (D) (inc.) 54.8%
- James Park (R) 44.9%
- United States Senate election in Kentucky, 1954
- Alben W. Barkley (D) 54.4%
- John Sherman Cooper (R)(inc.) 45.5%
See also
- -- Man-made lake named for Barkley
- -- Barkley's Papers at the University of Kentucky
- -- Intercollegiate debate and forensics organization at Emory University
- -- Kentucky airport named for Barkley
Primary sources
- Alben Barkley, That Reminds Me (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1954), autobiography
- Alben Barkley, Veep: Former Vice-President Alben W. Barkley Tells His Own Story (Folkways Records, 1959), oral history
- Jane R. Barkley, I Married the Veep (New York: Vanguard, 1958), memoir
Secondary sources
- Davis, Polly. "Court Reform and Alben W. Barkley's Election as Majority Leader". Southern Quarterly 1976 15(1): 15-31.
- Davis, Polly Ann. "Alben W. Barkley's Public Career in 1944". Filson Club History Quarterly 1977 51(2): 143-157.
- Hixson, Walter L. "The 1938 Kentucky Senate Election: Alben W. Barkley, 'Happy' Chandler, and the New Deal". Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 1982 80(3): 309-329.
- Libbey, James K. Dear Alben: Mr. Barkley of Kentucky (1979), 110 page biography
- Libbey, James K. "Alben Barkley's Rise from Courthouse to Congress" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (2000) 98(3): 261-278.
- Robinson, George W. "Alben Barkley and the 1944 Tax Veto". Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (1969) 67(3): 197-210.
- Sexton, Robert F. "The Crusade Against Pari-mutuel Gambling in Kentucky: a Study of Southern Progressivism in the 1920s" Filson Club History Quarterly 1976 50(1): 47-57.
Footnotes
External links
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