University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-1965 Congressional Career of Cordell Hull Joseph Leland Johnson University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Johnson, Joseph Leland, "Congressional Career of Cordell Hull. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1965. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4209 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Joseph Leland Johnson entitled "Congressional Career of Cordell Hull." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in History. Stanley J. Folmsbee, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: LeRoy P. Graf, Ralph W. Haskins Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) July 28, 1964 To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Joseph Leland Johnson entitled "Congressional Career of Cordell Hull." I recommend that it be accepted for nine quarter hours credit in partial fulfillment of the re­ quirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in History. Major rssor We have read.this thesis and recommend its acceptance: 1/ Accepted for the Council:· Dean of the Graduate School CONGRESSIONAL CAREER OF CORDELL HULL A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Council of The University of Tennessee In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Joseph Leland Johnson August 1965 PREFACE During the summer of 1963, under the direction of Dr. Stanley J. Folmsbee, Professor of History at The University of Tennessee, I pre­ pared a short paper on an early period of Cordell Hull's congressional career. This study was fascinating. It appeared to me that many stu­ dents who know a great deal about Hull's secretaryship under President Roosevelt are unaware of his preparation for this high position. Thus, during the latter part of the summer after a trip to Hull's hometown, Carthage, Tennessee, it was concluded that a thesis on the congressional career of Cordell Hull would prove a valuable contribution to historic$! research. Of �nvaluable help in this project was the staff of The University of Tennessee Library. Miss Eleanor Goehring, research librarian at The University of Tennessee, deserves special appreciation. Also of assist­ ance was the staff of Knoxville's Lawson McGhee Library. I am also deeply indebted to those of the Department of History,, University of Tennessee, who served so ably as members of the committee responsible for the reviewing of this thesis. Of great assistance were Dr. LeRoy P. Graf and Dr. Ralph W. Haskins. A special word of grati­ tude is given Dr. Folmsbee, head of the committee. And above all, my faithful mother is thanked for her splendid help in typing. ii 634845 TABLE OF OONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. BACKGROUND, STATE POLITICS, ELECTION 10 THE HOUSE 1 II. AurHOR OF INOJME TAX LAW•••• .••. 12 III. WORLD WAR I: GUARDIAN OF THE TREASURY. 3l IV. DEM:>CRATIC DISSENTER IN REPUBLICAN OONGRESSES • 61 V. SENATORIAL CAREER •••••••.••••••• . 106 VI. AN EVALUATION OF HULL'S CO�RESSIONA.L CAREER. 135 BIBLIOGRAPHY. • • • . • • . • . • • . • • . • . • � 138 iii CHAPTER I BACKGROUND, STATE POLITICS, ELECTION TO THE HOUSE Cordell Hull, the middle child in a family of five sons, was born in a rented log cabin on October 2, 1871, in Overton (now Pickett) County, Tennessee, a distance of seventy-five miles from the nearest railroad. A mile away was the only store in the entire area, and it also housed the post office called Olympus. The section in which he was born w�st ' known as the foothills of the Cumberland Plateau. During the Civil War it was considered a border area, and its inhabitants con­ sisted largely of pe ople with divided loyalties between the North and the South. Hull's father chose to fight on the side of the Confederacy.1 As to the type of people who surrounded Hull during his early years-­ they were a common group possessed with that quality of the frontier "Jacksonian spirit" that was to characterize many of our nation's leaders of Hull's time. They were unalterably convinced that in a democratic nation an individual, by hard work and discipline, could rise far above his lowly surroundings of birth. Hull typified the "Jacksonian spirit"--.the rise of the conunon man. Cordell Hull's early schooling was received at various free schools which he attended, as his father moved frequently within the 1cordell Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull (2 vols., New York: The Macmillian Company-:--1'948), I, t:'6. 1 2 mountain section establishing new farms. It was while going to school at Willow Grove, a distance of two miles from the family farmhouse, that the father made a decision which had lasting effect on the son's life. During a school debate which attracted most of the community, the fourteen-year-old Hull delighted his father.so much by his presentation that the proud father readily decided that his middle son should receive the best educ�tion possible. The debate resulted in Hull's being sent to Montvale·lnstitute·in Celina, the county seat of Clay County. The principal of the schQol was Professor Joe S. McMillin, the brother of Congressman Benton McMillin of Tennessee. There, during the first months of 1886, Hull studied algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, English, rhetoric, Latin, Greek, and German. He soon found that he was much more interested by "mathematics, history, and literature than by languages and· sciences." Before the age of twelve, Hull had found that he "could answer any question in.the United States history textbook" and even the footnotes. During the same year, 1886, he went to the "normal school at Bowling Green, Kentucky," 2 which he attended for two five-months terms. The first large city that Hull ever saw was Nashville, Tennessee, when at the age of sixteen he floated down the Cumberland River on a raft. In his book, The Memoirs �.Cordell Hull, he records his vivid impressions: 2 Ibid. , 14-18. 3 It was a sight to be treasured, one·r shall always recall. The buildings were more magnificent and the people more numerous than I could have imagined. Nashville was the metropolis of middle Tennessee, most of which was a bluegrass section. It was a large hardwood market as well as a market for livestock and farm com­ modities generally. It was then, as now, a noted educational city, sometimes called the Athens of the South. The·city was calculated to impress, not to say overawe, the average young backwoodsman like myself who first·visited it.3 There, in Nashville, Hull bought his first law books, paying for them from the wages received from working on the raft. Before Hull was quite seventeen years old, he made his first po­ litical speech. It was during the presidential campaign of 1888 between Cleveland and Harrison, with the major issue being the tariff question. Hull supported Cleveland's platform for a lower tariff, and thus formu­ lated ideas which would endure the remainder of his life and affect people in all corners of the world. That fall Hull traveled to Lebanon, Ohio, and enrolled in the National Normal University, the parent school of the normal school he attended at Bowling Green, Kentucky. There he scored 90, 95, and 100 in debating, 95 in elocution,. 100 in rhetoric, and 60 to 75 in other subjects.4 In 1890 Hull began to study law· in Nashville in.the office of Pitts and Meeks. During the summer of the same year, he was selected for an office which he later declared "thrilled me more than any other since that time." He was elected chairman-of the Democratic County 3rbid., 19-21. 4liarold B. Hinton, Cordell_Hull, ! Biography (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran, and Company, Inc. , 1942), 46. 4 Committee for Clay County.5 Although only nineteen,.the same summe� he was chosen as a delegate to the Democratic State Convention. He·partici­ 6 pated in the convention even though.he was not able to vote·in elections. That fall Hull read law in the office of Congressman·Benton McMillin's brother, John H. McMillin, in Celina. When the Congressman arrived to campaign for his reelection, he found the ambitious young man more than willing to offer his assistance. Driving a horse and buggy, Hull toQk Congressman McMillin across the rugged Cumberland Plateau and Highland Rim areas of his mountainous district. From this experience, especially through talking with Congressman McMillin, Hull gained a considerable amount of practical political knowledge. In January, 1891, Hull began.his formal. law education by enter­ ing Cumberland Law School at Lebanon, Tennessee. After successfully passing a rigid entrance examination, he was promptly permitted to enter the senior-class. In June of the same year, he passed the final examina­ tions, was graduated, and was sworn in as a memper of the bar.7 While practicing law during the summer of 1892, several weeks before his twenty-first birthday, Hull campaigned to represent his traditionally Democratic·county in the state legislature.8 To the sur�\ 5Hull, op.