Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 – November 9, 1924) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
statesman, a Republican politician, and a noted
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
.
Lodge was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of John Lodge and Anna
CabotThe Cabot family is one of the Boston Brahmins, also called the "First Families of Boston".-Family origins:Despite the Cabots' reign as the supreme family of Boston's social elite, the Cabots arrived in America without the prestige that many first families enjoyed. The Cabots did not arrive on the...
. His great-grandfather was former Senator
George CabotGeorge Cabot was an American merchant, seaman, and politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and as the Presiding Officer of the Hartford Convention....
. Lodge grew up on Boston's
Beacon HillBeacon Hill is a name shared by many hills, suburbs, villages and other places around the world. Many are so called because they were historically the site of a warning beacon. Others are named after other places of the same name.-In the United Kingdom:...
after spending part of his childhood in Nahant, Massachusetts. In 1872 he graduated from
Harvard CollegeHarvard College is one of two undergraduate degree granting schools, and the oldest school, of Harvard University, a private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature...
. At Harvard he was a member of
Delta Kappa EpsilonDelta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who, upon hearing that some but not all of them had been invited to join the two existing societies , instead elected to form their own fraternity...
fraternity (Alpha chapter) and the
Porcellian ClubThe Porcellian Club is a male-only final club at Harvard University, sometimes called the Porc or the P.C. The year of founding is usually given as 1791, when a group began meeting under the name "the Argonauts," or as 1794, the year of the roast pig dinner at which the club, known first as "the...
.
Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 – November 9, 1924) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
statesman, a Republican politician, and a noted
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
.
Biography
Lodge was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of John Lodge and Anna
CabotThe Cabot family is one of the Boston Brahmins, also called the "First Families of Boston".-Family origins:Despite the Cabots' reign as the supreme family of Boston's social elite, the Cabots arrived in America without the prestige that many first families enjoyed. The Cabots did not arrive on the...
. His great-grandfather was former Senator
George CabotGeorge Cabot was an American merchant, seaman, and politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and as the Presiding Officer of the Hartford Convention....
. Lodge grew up on Boston's
Beacon HillBeacon Hill is a name shared by many hills, suburbs, villages and other places around the world. Many are so called because they were historically the site of a warning beacon. Others are named after other places of the same name.-In the United Kingdom:...
after spending part of his childhood in Nahant, Massachusetts. In 1872 he graduated from
Harvard CollegeHarvard College is one of two undergraduate degree granting schools, and the oldest school, of Harvard University, a private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature...
. At Harvard he was a member of
Delta Kappa EpsilonDelta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who, upon hearing that some but not all of them had been invited to join the two existing societies , instead elected to form their own fraternity...
fraternity (Alpha chapter) and the
Porcellian ClubThe Porcellian Club is a male-only final club at Harvard University, sometimes called the Porc or the P.C. The year of founding is usually given as 1791, when a group began meeting under the name "the Argonauts," or as 1794, the year of the roast pig dinner at which the club, known first as "the...
. He also was a member of the
Hasty Pudding ClubThe Hasty Pudding Club was founded by Nymphus Hatch, a junior at Harvard College, in 1770. The club is named for the traditional American dish that the founding members ate at their first meeting. The Hasty Pudding Club was originally established in Concordia Discors to bring together...
and took part in an early show. After traveling through Europe, Lodge returned to Harvard where he became the first student of
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
to graduate with a Ph.D. in History. His teacher and mentor during his graduate studies was Henry Adams; Lodge would maintain a lifelong friendship with Adams. Lodge wrote his dissertation on the ancient Germanic origins of Anglo-Saxon government. Throughout his career, Lodge would be a vocal proponent of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race.
In 1871, he married Anna Cabot Mills Davis, the daughter of Admiral
Charles Henry DavisCharles Henry Davis was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, serving primarily during the American Civil War and with the United States Coast Survey.-Early life and career:...
and granddaughter of U.S. Senator Elijah Hunt Mills. His wife's maternal aunt was married to mathematician
Benjamin PeirceBenjamin Peirce Benjamin Peirce Benjamin Peirce( purse, (April 4, 1809 – October 6, 1880) was an American mathematician who taught at Harvard University for forty years. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, number theory, algebra, and the philosophy of mathematics....
and the mother of Charles Peirce. Henry and Anna had two sons, the noted poet
George Cabot LodgeGeorge Cabot Lodge , nicknamed 'Bay', was an American poet of the late 19th and early-20th century. He is the only son of Henry Cabot Lodge....
and John Ellerton Lodge, an art
curatorCurator , means manager, overseer.Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections...
. He also graduated from the
Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. HLS typically ranks among the top law...
in 1874 and was admitted to the bar in 1875. In 1880-1881, Lodge served in the
Massachusetts House of RepresentativesThe Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from an equal number of single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives...
. Lodge represented his home state in the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from 1887 to 1893 and in the Senate from 1893 to 1924.
Lodge was early on associated with the conservative faction of the Republican Party. He was a staunch supporter of the gold standard, vehemently opposing the populists and the silverites, who were led by the left-wing Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Lodge was a strong backer of U.S. intervention in
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
in 1898, arguing that it was the moral responsibility of the United States to do so:
Of the sympathies of the American people, generous, liberty-loving, I have no question. They are with the Cubans in their struggle for freedom. I believe our people would welcome any action on the part of the United States to put an end to the terrible state of things existing there. We can stop it. We can stop it peacefully. We can stop it, in my judgment, by pursuing a proper diplomacy and offering our good offices. Let it once be understood that we mean to stop the horrible state of things in Cuba and it will be stopped. The great power of the United States, if it is once invoked and uplifted, is capable of greater things than that.
Following American victory in the Spanish-American War, Lodge came to represent the imperialist faction of the Senate, those who called for the annexation of the Philippines. Lodge maintained that the United States needed to have a strong navy and be more involved in foreign affairs. He was a staunch advocate of entering World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, attacking President
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
's perceived lack of military preparedness and accusing pacifists of undermining American patriotism. After the United States entered the war, Lodge continued to attack Wilson as hopelessly idealistic, assailing Wilson's
Fourteen PointsThe Fourteen Points was a speech delivered by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe...
as unrealistic and weak. He contended that Germany needed to be militarily and economically crushed and saddled with harsh penalties so that it could never again be a threat to the stability of Europe.
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lodge led the successful fight against American participation in the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
, which had been proposed by President Woodrow Wilson at the close of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. He also served as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference from 1918 to 1924. During his term in office, he and another powerful senator,
Albert J. BeveridgeAlbert Jeremiah Beveridge was an American historian and United States Senator from Indiana....
, pushed for the construction of a new navy.
Lodge maintained that membership in the world peacekeeping organization would threaten the political freedom of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by binding the nation to international commitments it would not or could not keep. Lodge did not, however, object to the United States interfering in other nations' affairs, and was in actuality a proponent of
imperialismImperialism, as defined by the dictionary of human geography, is “the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination.” Imperialism, in many ways, is described...
(see Lodge Committee for further explanation). In fact, Lodge's key objection to the League of Nations was
Article X-Text of Article X:-Interpretation:The objections of Republicans in the US Senate at the time were based on the fact that by ratifying such a document, the United States would be bound by international contract to enter conflicts involving a League of Nations member on the side of that member. Many...
, the provision of the League of Nations charter that required all signatory nations to make efforts to repel aggression of any kind. Lodge perceived an open-ended commitment to deploy soldiers into conflict regardless of it being relevant to the national security interests of the United States. He did not want America to have this obligation. Lodge was also motivated by political concerns; he strongly disliked Woodrow Wilson and was eager to find an issue for the Republican Party to run on in 1920.
Senator Lodge argued in 1919 against the League:
The United States is the world's best hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and quarrels of other nations, if you tangle her in the intrigues of Europe, you will destroy her powerful good, and endanger her very existence. Leave her to march freely through the centuries to come, as in the years that have gone. Strong, generous, and confident, she has nobly served mankind. Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance; this great land of ordered liberty. For if we stumble and fall, freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin.
Lodge appealed to the patriotism of American citizens by objecting to what he saw as the erosion of national sovereignty: "
I have loved but one flag and I can not share that devotion and give affection to the mongrel banner invented for a league." The
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
was established without U.S. participation in 1920. With headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, it remained active until
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After the war, it was replaced by the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
, which assumed many of the League's procedures and peacekeeping functions, although Article X of the League of Nations was notably absent from the UN mandate.
Lodge's grandsonHenry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Vietnam and the Vatican . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life and career:Lodge was born in Nahant, Massachusetts...
and
namesakeNamesake is a term used to characterize a person, place, thing, quality, action, state, or idea that is called after, or named out of regard to, another. For example, if a target person, place, or thing is named after a source person, place, or thing, then the name target is said to be the...
served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1953 to 1960.
Lodge was also a vocal supporter of
immigrationImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
restrictions and the assimilation of foreigners. The public voice of the
Immigration Restriction LeagueThe Immigration Restriction League, was founded in 1894 by three Harvard College graduates, Charles Warren, Robert DeCourcy Ward, and Prescott Farnsworth Hall. The members of the league felt it necessary to oppose the avalanche of supposedly "undesirable immigrants" that were coming to the United...
, Lodge argued on behalf of literacy tests for incoming immigrants, appealing to fears that unskilled foreign labor was undermining the standard of living for American workers and that a mass influx of uneducated immigrants would result in social conflict and national decline. Lodge was alarmed that large numbers of immigrants, primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe, were flooding into industrial centers, where the poverty of their home countries was being perpetuated and crime rates were rapidly rising. Lodge observed that these immigrants were "
people whom it is very difficult to assimilate and do not promise well for the standard of civilization in the United States." He felt that the United States should temporarily shut out all further entries, particularly persons of low education or skill, in order to more efficiently assimilate the millions who had come. From 1907 to 1911, he served on the
Dillingham CommissionThe United States Immigration Commission was a special congressional committee formed in February 1907 by the United States Congress, which was then under intense pressure from various nativist groups, to study the origins and consequences of recent immigration to the United States...
, a joint congressional committee established to study the era's immigration patterns and make recommendations to Congress based on its findings. The Commission's recommendations led to the
Immigration Act of 1917On February 4, 1917, the United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 with an overwhelming majority, overriding President Grover Cleveland's December 14, 1916 veto...
. It should be remembered, however, that Lodge was no rampant xenophobe, remarking once that
"It [the U.S. flag] is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the man whose people have been here many generations."
Lodge, along with
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
, was a supporter of "100% Americanism." In an address to the New England Society of Brooklyn in 1888, Lodge stated:
Let every man honor and love the land of his birth and the race from which he springs and keep their memory green. It is a pious and honorable duty. But let us have done with British-Americans and Irish-Americans and German-Americans, and so on, and all be Americans...If a man is going to be an American at all let him be so without any qualifying adjectives; and if he is going to be something else, let him drop the word American from his personal description.
Lodge died in 1924 of
strokeA stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by thrombosis or embolism or due to a hemorrhage...
at the age of 74. He was interred in the
Mount Auburn CemeteryMount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery", or the first "rural cemetery", with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain...
in
Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent...
.
See also
- George Cabot Lodge
George Cabot Lodge , nicknamed 'Bay', was an American poet of the late 19th and early-20th century. He is the only son of Henry Cabot Lodge....
, poet, son of Henry Cabot Lodge
- Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Vietnam and the Vatican . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life and career:Lodge was born in Nahant, Massachusetts...
, politician, grandson of Henry Cabot Lodge
- Lodge Committee
External links