Oscar Underwood | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byHarris & Ewingc. 1920s | |
| Senate Minority Leader | |
| In office April 27, 1920 – December 3, 1923 | |
| Deputy | Peter G. Gerry |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Taylor Robinson |
| Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus | |
| In office April 27, 1920 – December 3, 1923 | |
| Preceded by | Gilbert Hitchcock(acting) |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Taylor Robinson |
| United States Senator fromAlabama | |
| In office March 4, 1915 – March 3, 1927 | |
| Preceded by | Francis S. White |
| Succeeded by | Hugo Black |
| House Majority Leader | |
| In office March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1915 | |
| Preceded by | Sereno E. Payne |
| Succeeded by | Claude Kitchin |
| House Minority Whip | |
| In office March 4, 1899 – March 3, 1901 | |
| Leader | James D. Richardson |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | James T. Lloyd |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromAlabama's9th district | |
| In office March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1915 | |
| Preceded by | Truman H. Aldrich |
| Succeeded by | George Huddleston |
| In office March 4, 1895 – June 9, 1896 | |
| Preceded by | Louis W. Turpin |
| Succeeded by | Truman H. Aldrich |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Oscar Wilder Underwood (1862-05-06)May 6, 1862 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | January 25, 1929(1929-01-25) (aged 66) Accotink, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Education | University of Virginia, Charlottesville |
Oscar Wilder Underwood (May 6, 1862 – January 25, 1929) was anAmerican lawyer and politician fromAlabama, and also a candidate forPresident of the United States in 1912 and 1924. He was the first formally designated floor leader in theUnited States Senate, and the only individual to serve as theDemocratic leader in both the Senate and theUnited States House of Representatives.[1]
Born inLouisville, Kentucky, Underwood began a legal career inMinnesota after graduating from theUniversity of Virginia. He moved his legal practice toBirmingham, Alabama, in 1884 and won election to the House of Representatives in 1894. Underwood served as House Majority Leader from 1911 to 1915, and was a strong supporter of PresidentWoodrow Wilson'sprogressive agenda and a prominent advocate of a reduction in thetariff. He sponsored theRevenue Act of 1913, also known as the Underwood Tariff, which lowered tariff rates and imposed afederal income tax. He won election to the Senate in 1914 and served as Senate Minority Leader from 1920 to 1923. He unsuccessfully opposed federalProhibition, arguing that state and local governments should regulate alcohol.
Underwood sought the presidential nomination at the1912 Democratic National Convention, but the convention selected Woodrow Wilson after forty-six ballots. He declined the vice presidential nomination, which instead went toThomas R. Marshall. Underwood ran for president again in 1924, entering the1924 Democratic National Convention as a prominent conservative opponent of theKu Klux Klan.[2] One of the few prominent anti-Klan politicians in theSouth at the time, Underwood and his supporters narrowly failed to win adoption of a Democratic resolution condemning the Klan. He experienced a boomlet of support on the 101st presidential ballot of the convention, but the Democrats nominatedJohn W. Davis as a compromise candidate. Underwood declined to run for re-election in 1926 and retired to hisWoodlawn plantation inFairfax County, Virginia, where he died in 1929.
Underwood was born inLouisville, Kentucky, on May 6, 1862, the eldest of three sons of lawyer and planter Eugene Underwood and his second wife, Frederica Virginia Wilder. Eugene Underwood also had three sons with his first wife before her death in 1857. His paternal grandfather,Joseph R. Underwood, served as U.S. Representative and Senator from Kentucky, as well as on theKentucky Supreme Court. His maternal grandfather, cotton merchant Jabez Smith, once served as mayor ofPetersburg, Virginia.[3]
In 1865, the Underwood family moved toSt. Paul, Minnesota, hoping the climate would help Oscar's chronic bronchitis, as well as his mother's health. After ten years, the family moved back to Louisville, where Oscar graduated from the Rugby University School, an exclusive private school, in 1879. He then attended theUniversity of Virginia atCharlottesville, where he was president of the Jefferson Society, as well as excelled in debate. He also received thehonorary degree ofLL.D. fromColumbia University in 1912 andHarvard University in 1922.[4][5] He served as president of the University of Virginia Alumni Association in 1913 and 1914.[6]
Oscar Underwood married twice, the first time in Charlottesville on October 8, 1885, to Eugenia Massie, daughter of Dr. Thomas Eugene Massie. They had two sons before she died in 1900: John Lewis Underwood (1888–1973) and Oscar Wilder Underwood Jr. (1890–1962). Underwood remarried on September 10, 1904, to Bertha Woodward (1870–1948), daughter of Union Army veteranJoseph Hershey Woodward (1843–1917) of theWoodward Iron Company and his wife Martha Burt (both of Ohio County in what becameWest Virginia), who survived him.[7]
After graduation, Underwood returned to Minnesota to begin his legal career. However, his older half brother William soon convinced him of better opportunities awaiting inBirmingham, Alabama. There, he moved in September 1884 and established a successful legal practice, working for a decade, including with James J. Garrett.
Alabama earned an additional seat after the census of 1890, and Underwood became chairman of the new 9th District's Democratic Committee in 1892. Two years later, voters elected him as a Democrat to theUnited States House of Representatives. However,Truman H. Aldrich successfully challenged that election result, forcing Underwood to resign in the middle of the term, on June 9, 1896.[8]
However, Underwood persisted, and campaigned for tariff reform. He won the seat again in the election at year's end, then re-election numerous times, serving nine terms (from 1897 to 1915).[9] Underwood became as the first DemocraticHouse Minority Whip, serving from about 1900 to 1901.[10] He then becameHouse Majority Leader from 1911 to 1915.
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He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in1912 and had some strength at the national convention among southern delegates but could not compete withChamp Clark andWoodrow Wilson. At the convention that year inBaltimore, Wilson's managers offered Underwood the vice-presidential nomination, which he declined.[11] Following the election, Underwood supported the progressive reforms of Wilson's first term,[12] using his position as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to manage legislation and maintain party discipline. In return, Wilson granted him considerable control over patronage and appointedAlbert S. BurlesonPostmaster-General upon Underwood's recommendation.[13] TheRevenue Act of 1913 is also known as the Underwood Tariff Act or Underwood-Simmons Act in recognition of Underwood's role in writing and managing the bill as Chairman of theHouse Ways and Means Committee. He stood with a small minority of House members in opposition to the President when he voted to maintain an exemption fromPanama Canal tolls for American ships traveling between American ports, despite British protests that the policy violated theHay–Pauncefote Treaty.[14]
Underwood twice won election to theUnited States Senate, in 1914 and 1920, and served there from March 4, 1915, to March 3, 1927. He wasSenate minority leader from 1920 to 1923. Underwood was part of the four-person American delegation at the1921-22 Washington Naval Conference. There, he helped negotiate theFive-Power Treaty limiting American, British, Japanese, French, and Italian naval armament.[15]
He opposed federalProhibition as "an attempt to rob the states of their jurisdiction over police matters" and advocated local control of liquor regulation because "the improved conditions which we may naturally expect to find in the lives of the men and women who practiceTemperance are not found to predominate in the state where Prohibition laws have been on the statute books for years as compared to those states where liquor is sold under a license system or where Temperance laws are controlled by the sentiment of the local communities."[16]
Underwood led the anti-Ku Klux Klan forces at the1924 Democratic National Convention. He was a longtime opponent of the Klan. In 1924, when the Klan organized a parade in Birmingham during that year'sDemocratic National Convention, Underwood called it an effort "to intimidate me, the Alabama delegation and the Democratic Party....It will not succeed....I maintain that the organization is a national menace....It is either the Ku Klux Klan or theUnited States of America. Both cannot survive. Between the two, I choose my country."[17] By 1924 Underwood was one of very few anti-Klan officeholders left in the South.[18]
He blamed the Klan's opposition to his candidacy for his loss in the Georgia presidential primary to former Secretary of the TreasuryWilliam Gibbs McAdoo.[18] He then determined to embarrass McAdoo by putting the party on record against the Klan.[18] Even before the Convention considered its platform, the speech nominating Underwood called for the condemnation of the Klan and produced a lengthy floor demonstration.[18] The attempt to modify the platform to condemn the Klan by name produced rousing demonstrations and speeches, many, including that ofWilliam Jennings Bryan, interrupted by the anti-Klan crowds that filled the galleries. The Convention's final vote, though contested, defeated the minority proposal naming the Klan by a vote of 542 3/20 to 541 3/20. The fight proved a polarizing battle that made each of the Convention's two major candidates unacceptable to large segments of the party, without enhancing Underwood's chances in the least.[18]
The Convention was marked by a deadlock between the supporters of the Irish Catholic New York GovernorAl Smith and McAdoo, while the Convention's rules required a two-thirds vote to secure the nomination. Several delegations declined to support either of the leading candidates and persisted in voting for their state's "favorite son" instead. Like the other favorite son candidates, Underwood resisted efforts to remove the convention's two-thirds rule.[18] As the Convention labored through 103 ballots, Alabama, as the first state alphabetically, cast its votes first. The delegation's leader, GovernorWilliam W. Brandon, reported the state's unanimous vote tally each time without variation: "Alabama casts 24 votes for Oscar W. Underwood." Underwood became a symbol of the Convention's deadlock.[18] His vote totals were meager, fewer than 50, until the deadlock broke and on the 101st ballot he won 229.5, but his anti-prohibition, anti-Klan stances made him a most unlikely compromise candidate and the Convention turned toJohn W. Davis of West Virginia, whose work as aWall Street lawyer proved less of a political hurdle for the delegates.[18]
Underwood declined to run for reelection to the Senate in 1926. His anti-Klan stance had upset some in his own party and as well as from the Klan, andHugo Black was a formidable candidate.[19]
In 1927, Underwood was appointed to an international peace commission. In 1928, Underwood supported New York GovernorAl Smith for president.[20]
In retirement, he and his second wife lived atWoodlawn plantation, a historic house associated withGeorge Washington nearAlexandria, Virginia. There, Underwood wrote his only published book, an analysis of the transformation of American government in the 20th century,Drifting Sands of Party Politics, which appeared in 1928. He decried federal legislation aimed at regulating morality, government by commissions, and excessive American engagement in foreign affairs.[21]
Underwood suffered two disabling strokes in the winter of 1928–29. He died on January 25, 1929, at Woodlawn plantation.[7] Pursuant to his wishes, his corpse was returned to Alabama, and buried beside his first wife in Birmingham'sElmwood Cemetery. His second wife was later buried with him, as was his son John Lewis Underwood (1888–1973). His sonOscar Wilder Underwood Jr. (1890–1962), who served with distinction as a U.S. Army Captain inWorld War I, later became a law professor at theUniversity of Virginia.
Most of Underwood's papers are held by the Alabama Department of Archives and History,[22] with some made available free online.[23] Some of the family's papers are also held by his alma mater, the University of Virginia.[24]
Future PresidentJohn F. Kennedy mentioned Underwood as one of hisProfiles in Courage for his stand against the Klan. Underwood's former home in Washington, D.C., theOscar W. Underwood House, was designated aNational Historic Landmark in 1976. Woodlawn plantation was named to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1970, and designated a national landmark in 1998. In 1990, Underwood was inducted into the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame.[25]
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