William Gibbs McAdoo

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William Gibbs McAdoo
William Gibbs McAdoo
In office
March 6, 1913 – December 15, 1918
Preceded by Franklin MacVeagh
Succeeded by Carter Glass
Born October 31, 1863(1863-10-31)
near Marietta, Georgia, U.S.
Died February 1, 1941 (aged 77)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse Sarah Houston Fleming
(1885-1912 [her death])
Eleanor Randolph Wilson
(1914-1934 [divorce])
Doris Isabel Cross
(1935-1941 [his death])
Profession Politician, Lawyer
Religion Episcopalian
This article is about the Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Senator from California. For the Representative from New Jersey and New York City Police Commissioner, see William McAdoo (New Jersey).

William Gibbs McAdoo[1] (October 31, 1863 – February 1, 1941) was an American lawyer and political leader who served as a U.S. Senator, United States Secretary of the Treasury and director of the United States Railroad Administration (USRA). By virtue of his position as Secretary of the Treasury in August 1914 he also served as the first Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Contents

[edit] Early life and career

McAdoo was born near Marietta, Georgia, to author Mary Faith Floyd McAdoo and attorney William Gibbs McAdoo. His uncle, John D. McAdoo, was a Civil War general and justice on the Texas Supreme Court[1]. McAdoo attended rural schools until his family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1877, when his father became a professor at the University of Tennessee.

He graduated from University of Tennessee. He was appointed deputy clerk of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in 1882. He married his first wife, Sarah Houston Fleming, on November 18, 1885. They had seven children: Harriet, Francis, Julia, Nona, William[1], Robert, and Sarah.

He was admitted to the bar in Tennessee in 1885 and set up a practice in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1889, he lost most of his money trying to electrify the Knoxville Street Railroad system.[2]In 1892 he moved to New York City, where he met Francis R. Pemberton, son of the Confederate General John Pemberton. They formed a firm, Pemberton and McAdoo, to sell investment securities.

At the turn of the century, McAdoo took on the leadership of a project to build a railway tunnel under the Hudson River to connect Manhattan with New Jersey. A tunnel had been partly constructed during the 1880s by Dewitt Clinton Haskin. With McAdoo as President of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company, two passenger tubes were completed and opened in 1908. The popular McAdoo told the press that his motto was "Let the Public be Pleased." The tunnels are now operated as part of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) system.

His first wife died in February, 1912. That year, he served as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

[edit] Political career

McAdoo was lured away from business after meeting Woodrow Wilson in 1910. He worked for the Wilson presidential campaign in 1912. Once President, Wilson asked McAdoo to serve as Secretary of the Treasury from 1913 to 1918.[3][4][5]

He married Wilson's daughter Eleanor Randolph Wilson at the White House on May 7, 1914. [6] They had two daughters, Ellen Wilson McAdoo (1915-1946) and Mary Faith McAdoo (1920-1987). Ellen married twice, had a son by each marriage, and eventually committed suicide.[7] Her parents adopted her eldest son after her death, and he took their surname. Mary Faith married three times but had no children.

McAdoo offered to resign when he married the President’s daughter but Wilson urged him to complete his work of turning the Federal Reserve System into an operational central bank. The legislation establishing the System had been passed by Congress in December 1913. McAdoo confronted a major financial crisis at the outbreak of World War I. During the last week of July, 1914, British and French investors began to liquidate their American securities and transfer gold to Europe. McAdoo kept the U.S. on the Gold Standard by closing the New York Stock Exchange for an unprecedented four months to prevent Europeans from selling American securities and exchanging the proceeds for gold.[8] In order to prevent a replay of the bank suspensions that plagued America during the Panic of 1907, he invoked the emergency currency provisions of the 1908 Aldrich Vreeland Act. William Silber credits his actions for having turned America into a world financial power, in his book When Washington Shut Down Wall Street.[8]

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the United States Railroad Administration was formed to run America’s transportation system during the war. McAdoo was appointed Director General of Railroads, a position he held until November 1918 when the armistice was declared, ending World War I.

After leaving the Wilson Cabinet, he focused on his law firm, which included serving as general counsel for the founders of United Artists. [9] He ran twice for the Democratic nomination for President, losing to James M. Cox in 1920,[10] and to John W. Davis in 1924,[11] even though in both years he led on the first ballot.[12][13][14] He served as Senator for California from 1933–1938. He was defeated for renomination to the Senate in 1938 by Sheridan H. Downey. McAdoo and Eleanor were divorced in 1934. [15] Two months after the decree was finalized in July 1935, the 71-year old married 26-year-old nurse Doris Isabel Cross. [16] [17]

McAdoo was a "Dry" with respect to Prohibition and was the favored candidate of the Ku Klux Klan in 1924 when the other front-runner appeared to be the Catholic Al Smith of New York. McAdoo took a payment of $25,000 from oil executive Edward Doheny in connection with the Teapot Dome scandal, but returned it once he discovered Doheny's links with Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall.

[edit] Death and legacy

McAdoo died of a heart attack while travelling in Washington, D.C., after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[18] and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. [19]

McAdoo was played by Vincent Price in the 1944 biopic Wilson. McAdoo's former home in Chattanooga's Fort Wood neighborhood has been restored and is now a private residence.

The town of McAdoo, Texas was named after him.[2]

[edit] Bibliography

  • Broesamle, John J. William Gibbs McAdoo: A Passion for Change, 1863-1917. National University Publications, Kennikat Press, Port Washington, N.Y., 1973, ISBN 978-0804690430
  • McAdoo, William G. The Challenge. New York: Century Co., 1928.
  • McAdoo, William G. Crowded Years: The Reminiscences of William G. McAdoo. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1931, ASIN B000OALAE6
  • McKinney, Gordon B. "East Tennessee Politics: An Incident in the Life of William Gibbs McAdoo, Jr." East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 48 (1976): 34-39.
  • Synon, Mary. McAdoo, the Man and His Times: A Panorama in Democracy. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1924.

[edit] References

Wikisource
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
  1. ^ a b McAdoo is variously differentiated from family members of the same name:
    • Dr. William Gibbs McAdoo (1820-1894) - sometimes called "I" or "Senior"
    • William Gibbs McAdoo (1863-1941) - sometimes called "II" or "Junior"
    • Lt. William Gibbs McAdoo, Jr. (1895-1960) - sometimes called "III"
  2. ^ Imjort, et al. (August 22, 1938). California's McAdoo . Time
  3. ^ Shook, Dale N. William G. McAdoo and the Development of National Economic Policy, 1913-1918. NY: Garland Publishing, 1987.
  4. ^ Staff report (February 26, 1913). FOUR MEN CERTAIN IN WILSON CABINET; Bryan, McAdoo, Burleson, and Daniels Accept -- Walker for Attorney General. New York Times
  5. ^ Staff report (March 6, 1913). CABINET MEMBERS SWORN.; McReynolds, Houston, and McAdoo Take Oath of Office . New York Times
  6. ^ Staff report (May 8, 1914). ELEANOR WILSON WEDS W.G. M'ADOO; President's Youngest Daughter and Secretary of Treasury Married at White House. New York Times
  7. ^ Staff report (December 23, 1946). M'ADOO'S DAUGHTER FOUND IN COMA, DIES. New York Times
  8. ^ a b Silber, William L., When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America's Monetary Supremacy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 2007, ISBN 978-0691127477
  9. ^ Pietruza, David. 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents. Carroll & Graf Publishers, ISBN 0786716223
  10. ^ Bagby, Wesley M. “William Gibbs McAdoo and the 1920 Democratic Presidential Nomination.” East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 31 (1959): 43-58.
  11. ^ Allen, Lee N. “The McAdoo Campaign for the Presidential Nomination in 1924.” Journal of Southern History 29 (May 1963): 211-28.
  12. ^ Gelbart, Herbert A. “The Anti-McAdoo Movement of 1924.” Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1978.
  13. ^ Stratton, David H. “Splattered with Oil: William G. McAdoo and the 1924 Democratic Presidential Nomination.” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 44 (June 1963): 62-75.
  14. ^ Prude, James C. “William Gibbs McAdoo and the Democratic National Convention of 1924.” Journal of Southern History 38 (November 1972): 621-28.
  15. ^ Staff report (July 18, 1934). Eleanor Wilson McAdoo Divorces Senator At Five-Minute Hearing on Incompatibility.New York Times
  16. ^ Staff report (September 15, 1935). M'ADOO WEDS NURSE IN COLONIAL STYLE; Senator, 71, and Bride, 26, Take Vows in Flower-Decked Home of Son-in-Law.New York Times
  17. ^ Staff report (September 23, 1935). No. 3 for McAdoo. Time
  18. ^ Staff report (February 2, 1941). William G. M'Adoo Dies in the Capital of a Heart Attack; Former Senator, Secretary of Treasury Under Wilson, Was Railways Director in War. Builder of Hudson Tubes. He Swung 1932 Nomination to Roosevelt -- Backed for the Presidency in '20 and '24. New York Times
  19. ^ Staff report (February 10, 1941). Footnote to History. Times

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Franklin MacVeagh		 United States Secretary of the Treasury
March 6, 1913 – December 15, 1918		 Succeeded by
Carter Glass
Preceded by
Samuel M. Shortridge		 United States Senators from California
March 4, 1933 – November 8, 1938		 Succeeded by
Thomas M. Storke
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