Nicholas Longworth | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Longworth in 1920 | |
| 38th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives | |
| In office December 7, 1925 – March 3, 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Frederick H. Gillett |
| Succeeded by | John Nance Garner |
| Leader of theHouse Republican Conference | |
| In office December 7, 1925 – March 3, 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Frederick H. Gillett |
| Succeeded by | Bertrand Snell |
| House Majority Leader | |
| In office March 3, 1923 – December 7, 1925 | |
| Speaker | Frederick H. Gillett |
| Preceded by | Frank W. Mondell |
| Succeeded by | John Q. Tilson |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromOhio's1st district | |
| In office March 4, 1915 – April 9, 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Stanley E. Bowdle |
| Succeeded by | John B. Hollister |
| In office March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1913 | |
| Preceded by | William B. Shattuc |
| Succeeded by | Stanley E. Bowdle |
| Member of theOhio Senate | |
| In office 1901–1903 | |
| Member of theOhio House of Representatives | |
| In office 1899–1900 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Nicholas Longworth III (1869-11-05)November 5, 1869 |
| Died | April 9, 1931(1931-04-09) (aged 61) Aiken,South Carolina, US |
| Resting place | Spring Grove Cemetery |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | Timothy Walker (grandfather) Maria Longworth (aunt) Clara Eleanor Longworth (sister) |
| Parent(s) | Nicholas Longworth II Susan Walker |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Law |
Nicholas Longworth III (November 5, 1869 – April 9, 1931) was an American lawyer and politician who becameSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives. ARepublican, he was elected to theOhio Senate, where he initiated the successful Longworth Act of 1902, regulating the issuance of municipal bonds. As congressman forOhio's 1st congressional district, he soon became a popular social figure of Washington, and married PresidentTheodore Roosevelt's daughterAlice Lee. Their relationship became strained when he opposed her father in the Republican Party split of 1912. Longworth became Majority Leader of the House in 1923, and Speaker from 1925 to 1931.
In 1962, theLongworth House Office Building was named after him.
Longworth was the son ofNicholas Longworth II and Susan Walker. TheLongworth family was an old, prominent, and wealthy family which dominatedCincinnati,Ohio. He had two younger sisters, Anna andClara. Nicholas Longworth II was the son ofJoseph Longworth and grandson of winemakerNicholas Longworth I, both distinguished citizens of Cincinnati.[1]
Nicholas Longworth III attended the Franklin School,[2] a school for boys in Cincinnati, and then went on to attendHarvard College (Class of 1891), where he was a member ofDelta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter) and thePorcellian Club. He was a talented, but not necessarily an industrious student; one friend wrote about him: "His good head made it easy for him to get perfectly respectable marks without doing much of any work."[3] After receiving his bachelor's degree from Harvard, he attendedHarvard Law School for one year, but transferred to and received his law degree fromCincinnati Law School in 1894.
Longworth was aviolinist, and on their first visit to Bayreuth, his wifeAlice Lee Roosevelt reported that "Nick was really a musician and cared deeply for music...."[4] Later she observed that "In Washington, Nick never had much time to play his violin, and in those days there were very few people to play with him. In Cincinnati there were the orchestra, the College of Music, and the Conservatory to draw on, and soon we were having musical parties, at least once, and often two or three times a week. ... We would all have dinner first, the musicians and a few others who cared for music, and afterwards lose no time getting started, by about nine at the latest. From then on music and yet more music until midnight and usually long after."[5] In a letter to Longworth's sister Clara,Leopold Stokowski wrote "Your brother had a rare understanding of music. He penetrated directly into the spirit of music. It was his natural element."[6]
Longworth began a law practice in Cincinnati after being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1894. His political career began with a position on the city's Board of Education in 1898.
As the protégé of Republican bossGeorge B. Cox, Longworth was elected to theOhio General Assembly, serving in theOhio House of Representatives in 1899 and 1900, then in theState Senate from 1901 to 1903. In 1902 he was instrumental in writing and passing the Longworth Act, a bill regulating the issuance of municipal bonds, which has been labeled "one of the most successful laws in Ohio's history."[7] Longworth was elected to theUnited States House of Representatives from theFirst Congressional District of Ohio which included the city of Cincinnati and the surrounding counties.
Longworth, a bachelor when he entered Congress, marriedAlice Lee Roosevelt, the daughter of PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, on February 17, 1906, in aWhite House wedding that received widespread public attention[8][9] In 1925, Roosevelt gave birth to a daughter named Paulina Longworth, who was conceived from her affair with SenatorWilliam Borah.[10] One family friend said of Paulina, "everybody called her 'Aurora Borah Alice.'"[11] Biographers and historians have concluded that though Longworth was delighted with Paulina's birth and doted on her, he almost certainly knew that Borah was her father.[12] Longworth also had affairs, but the couple remained married, though Alice's support for the progressive movement while Longworth sided with the conservative wing of the Republican Party caused a political rift between them.[13]
Throughout his political career, Longworth championed issues regarding foreign affairs and the protective tariff. As theprogressive Republicans pulled apart from the conservatives in 1910–12, Longworth sided with the conservatives. When they bolted from the party in the1912 election to support Theodore Roosevelt and establishtheir own party, Longworth, along with many of Roosevelt's closest political allies, remained firmly behind Republican standard-bearer PresidentWilliam Howard Taft. Longworth agreed more with Taft than Roosevelt on critical issues like anindependent judiciary and support for business. As a result of the Republican Party rift, Longworth and his wife Alice found themselves on opposite sides of the divide in the fall campaign. She actively supported her father's third-party presidential candidacy, even though her husband was running for reelection on the Republican ticket.[8] Longworth narrowly lost his House seat to Democratic challengerStanley E. Bowdle.[14]
Longworth returned to Congress in 1915, after defeating Bowdle in an election rematch,[15] and served until his death in 1931. He becameHouse Majority Leader in 1923, and rose to speaker in 1925,[8] succeedingFrederick Gillett, who had been elected to theSenate.
Soon after becoming speaker, he set out to restore to the speakership many of the powers that had been stripped away during the revolt againstJoseph Cannon.[8] He also punished 13 progressives who supportedRobert M. La Follette instead ofCalvin Coolidge in the1924 election. He expelled the rebels from the GOP caucus, and stripped even the committee chairmen among them of all seniority. Additionally, Longworth took control of the Steering Committee and Committee on Committees and placed his own men on the Rules Committee, guaranteeing that he controlled the work of the House.
Ignoring the progressive wing of the party, Longworth pursued legislation that aimed for balanced budgets and major tax reductions, resisting any new programs that would expand the role of government. However, Longworth defied PresidentHerbert Hoover in 1931 by supporting the long-stalled veterans bonus bill; it passed but Hoover vetoed it, setting up theBonus March of 1932.
Longworth reached across the aisle to Democrats, forging a productive relationship withJohn Nance Garner, that party's House minority leader, who relied upon informal methods to strengthen his party's influence. He enjoyed a close rapport with Garner, who said of Longworth, "I was the heathen and Nick was the aristocrat." Together they hosted a daily gathering of Democratic and Republican congressmen in a secluded room in the Capitol, which became known as the "Bureau of Education." This unofficial club provided a place for politicians to relax with a drink and get to know and work with one another across party lines.[16]
Longworth served as speaker until the end of the 71st Congress on March 4, 1931, and wasspeaker-presumptive for the upcoming72nd Congress at the time of his death (as he had won reelection inNovember 1930 and as at the time Republicans retained a narrow 3-seat House majority).[17] He died unexpectedly from pneumonia on April 9 while visiting his friendDwight Filley Davis (ofDavis Cup fame), and Daniel J. Duckett inAiken, South Carolina. His body was subsequently interred atSpring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. At a memorial service held at the Library of Congress on May 3, 1931, his old friendsEfrem Zimbalist andHarold Bauer playedBrahms's D minor sonata.
Donald C. Bacon described Longworth as "Debonair and aristocratic, given to wearingspats and carrying a gold-headed cane. He was perpetually cheerful, quick with a joke or witty retort, and unfailingly friendly. He seemed never to have a care and made hard decisions with such ease and detachment that some people wondered if anything at all really mattered to him."[18]
One particular famous retort is attributed to Longworth. One day, while he was lounging in a chair at the Capitol, another member of the House ran his hand over Longworth's bald pate and commented, "Nice and smooth. Feels just like my wife's bottom." Longworth felt his own head and said: "Yes, so it does."[19]
Journalist Frank R. Kent ofThe Baltimore Sun wrote of him:
Without any revision of the rules he completely recovered the power of the speakership and was the undisputed leader of the House with as autocratic control as eitherReed or Cannon. It is true he exercised this power with infinitely more tact and grace and gumption and without that touch of offensive arrogance that characterized former House Czars. But he was just as much a Czar. What Mr. Longworth clearly proved was this matter of leadership depends not so much on the rules but on the man.[20]
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