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*{{cite book |last=Libbey |first=James K. |chapter=Barkley, Alben William |editor=John E. Kleber |others=Associate editors: [[Thomas D. Clark]], [[Lowell H. Harrison]], and James C. Klotter |title=The Kentucky Encyclopedia |year=1992 |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |location=[[Lexington, Kentucky]] |isbn=0-8131-1772-0 |url=http://www.kyenc.org/entry/b/BARKL01.html |accessdate=August 28, 2012}}
*{{cite book |last=Libbey |first=James K. |chapter=Barkley, Alben William |editor=John E. Kleber |others=Associate editors: [[Thomas D. Clark]], [[Lowell H. Harrison]], and James C. Klotter |title=The Kentucky Encyclopedia |year=1992 |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |location=[[Lexington, Kentucky]] |isbn=0-8131-1772-0 |url=http://www.kyenc.org/entry/b/BARKL01.html |accessdate=August 28, 2012}}
*{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Allison Gardner |title=Attorney General Conway Concludes Investigation into Student Loan Company Involved with Bankrupt West Kentucky Law School |agency=U.S. Federal News Service |date=September 28, 2010 |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2148854221.html |accessdate=October 6, 2012}}
*{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Allison Gardner |title=Attorney General Conway Concludes Investigation into Student Loan Company Involved with Bankrupt West Kentucky Law School |agency=U.S. Federal News Service |date=September 28, 2010 |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2148854221.html |accessdate=October 6, 2012}}
* Pietrusza, David. ''1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Changed America'' Union Square Press, 2011.
*{{cite news |last=Poore |first=Chris |title=Challenger Pounds Home His Message |newspaper=Lexington Herald-Leader |date=November 3, 1993 |page=A1}}
*{{cite news |last=Poore |first=Chris |title=Challenger Pounds Home His Message |newspaper=Lexington Herald-Leader |date=November 3, 1993 |page=A1}}
* Robinson, George W. "Alben Barkley and the 1944 Tax Veto". ''Register of the Kentucky Historical Society'' (1969) 67(3): 197-210.
*{{cite journal |last=Sexton |first=Robert F. |title=The Crusade Against Pari-mutuel Gambling in Kentucky: a Study of Southern Progressivism in the 1920s |journal=Filson Club History Quarterly |volume=50 |issue=1 |month=January |year=1976}}
*{{cite journal |last=Sexton |first=Robert F. |title=The Crusade Against Pari-mutuel Gambling in Kentucky: a Study of Southern Progressivism in the 1920s |journal=Filson Club History Quarterly |volume=50 |issue=1 |month=January |year=1976}}



Revision as of 18:54, 11 October 2012

Alben W. Barkley
A man with receding white hair wearing a gray jacket and vest, black tie, and white shirt, seated and leaning on a desk
Portrait of Barkley, circa 1950
35th Vice-President of the United States
In office
January 20, 1949 – January 20, 1953
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byHarry S. Truman
Succeeded byRichard Nixon
United States Senator
from Kentucky
In office
January 3, 1955 – April 30, 1956
Serving with Earle C. Clements (1955–1956)
Preceded byJohn Sherman Cooper
Succeeded byRobert Humphreys
In office
March 4, 1927 – January 19, 1949
Serving with Frederic M. Sackett (1927–1930)
John M. Robsion (1930)
Ben M. Williamson (1930–1931)
M. M. Logan (1931–1939)
Happy Chandler (1939–1945)
William A. Stanfill (1945–1946)
John Sherman Cooper (1946–1949)
Preceded byRichard P. Ernst
Succeeded byGarrett L. Withers
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Kentucky's 1st district
In office
March 4, 1913 – March 3, 1927
Preceded byOllie M. James
Succeeded byWilliam Voris Gregory
Personal details
Born
Willie Alben Barkley

(1877-11-24)November 24, 1877
Graves County, Kentucky
DiedApril 30, 1956(1956-04-30) (aged 78)
Lexington, Virginia
Resting placeMount Kenton Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)
Dorothy Brower
(m. 1903⁠–⁠1947)

(m. 1949⁠–⁠1956)
RelationsFather-in-law of Douglas MacArthur II
Grandfather of Stephen M. Truitt
ResidenceAngles
Alma materMarvin College
Emory University
University of Virginia School of Law
ProfessionLawyer
SignatureAlben W. Barkley

Alben William Barkley (November 24, 1877–April 30, 1956) was a lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky who represented the state in both houses of Congress before being elected Vice-President in 1948. A lawyer in heavily Democratic western Kentucky, he was elected county attorney in 1905, and Congressmen from Kentucky's First District in 1912. Inspired by Woodrow Wilson, he became a committed liberal Democrat, supporting Wilson's New Freedom domestic agenda and Wilson's foreign policy.

He gained statwide stature by leading the anti-gambling crusade, in cooperation with Protestant ministers. Barley nearly secured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1923, and he built a base that carried the Democratic primary for Senate in 1926. He lost the 1923 Democratic primary to fellow Congressman J. Campbell Cantrill, marking the only loss of his political career, but his ability to rise above party factionalism put him in position to unseat incumbent Republican Senator Richard P. Ernst in 1926. In the Senate, he embraced Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal approach to addressing the Great Depression and began to be mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate as early as 1928. Barkley was elected by a single vote over the more conservative Pat Harrison of Mississippi to succeed Senate Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson upon Robinson's death in 1937. Immediately after being chosen floor leader, he faced a reelection challenge in the Democratic primary from A. B. "Happy" Chandler, the ambitious young governor. After a bitter campaign, Barkley won with 56% of the vote, drawing his support from farmers and workers, while the middle class voted against him. Chandler accused Barkley of using employees of the Works Progress Administration to campaign for him, while Chandler allegedly used his patronage powers to influence state employees to campaign on his behalf. President Roosevelt personally campaigned for Barkley, and he won the election by over 50,000 votes. Although neither candidate was officially charged with wrongdoing related to their campaigning, journalist Thomas Lunsford Stokes won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for his investigation of the charges, and Congress soon passed the Hatch Act of 1939, making it illegal for federal employees to campaign for political candidates.

Barkley failed to secure passage of Roosevelt's controversial court packing plan, but eventually became an effective floor leader. When World War II diverted Roosevelt's attention to foreign affairs, Barkley gained substantial influence over the administration's domestic agenda. Roosevelt's veto of a 1944 tax bill against Barkley's advice prompted him to resign as floor leader in protest of the president's action. The Democratic caucus was supportive of Barkley and unanimously reelected him minutes later. The dispute probably cost Barkley the vice-presidential nomination in 1944; Roosevelt instead chose Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman. After Roosevelt's death in 1945, Barkley developed an excellent working relationship with Truman as president. With Truman's popularity waning entering the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Barkley energized the delegates with his keynote address, and Truman selected him as his running mate in the upcoming election. The Democratic ticket scored an upset over the Republicans in the election, partially on the strength of Barkley's vigorous campaigning. In contrast to previous vice-presidents, Barkley took an active role in the Truman administration, acting as the administration's primary spokesman, especially after the Korean War necessitated the majority of Truman's attention.

When Truman announced that he would not seek reelection in 1952, the 74-year-old Barkley began organizing a presidential campaign, but key labor leaders refused to endorse his candidacy because of his age, and he withdrew from the race. He briefly retired, but was coaxed back into public life to challenge incumbent Republican Senator John Sherman Cooper in 1954. Barkley unseated Cooper but exerted no significant influence on congressional proceedings during his partial term, which ended when he died of a heart attack while giving a speech at the Washington and Lee Mock Convention on April 30, 1956.

Early life

Willie Alben Barkley, the first of eight children born to John Wilson and Electra Eliza (Smith) Barkley, was born November 24, 1877.[1][2][3] His paternal grandmother, midwife Amanda Barkley, delivered him in the log house she lived in with her husband, Alben, in Wheel, Kentucky.[1] His parents were tenant farmers who grew dark tobacco, and his father was also an elder in the local Presbyterian church.[4] Both parents were extremely religious, shunning playing cards and alcohol.[4] Occasionally, Barkley's parents would have so much work to do that they had to leave him in the care of his paternal grandparents for extended periods, and it was during these times that his grandmother told him stories of her relatives and childhood playmates Adlai Stevenson, who served as vice-president under Grover Cleveland, and James A. McKenzie, later a Congressman from Kentucky, inspiring an early interest in politics in her young grandson.[5]

As soon as he was old enough, Barkley joined his parents, working on the farm and only attending school in the small Graves County community of Lowes between the fall harvest and spring planting.[6] Unhappy with his birth name, he reversed his first and middle name and adopted the more formal "William" instead of "Willie" as soon as he was old enough to express his opinion in the matter.[7] In late 1891, the difficult economic times that preceded the Panic of 1893 convinced Barkley's father to sell his farm and move to Clinton in Hickman County, where relatives had told him of opportunities to grow wheat on tenant farms.[8] Barkley enrolled at a small seminary school operated by James M. Shelton.[9] Although he never finished high school, in 1892 he enrolled at Marvin College, a now-defunct Methodist institution in Clinton that accepted adolescents.[10] The college's president offered Barkley a scholarship that covered all of his academic expenses in exchange for his work as a janitor at the school.[10] He also allowed Barkley to miss the first and last month of the academic year to help on the family farm.[10] While at Marvin, Barkley was active in the debating society, polishing the oratorical skills that served him well later in life.[11] He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1897, and his experiences at Marvin persuaded him to convert to Methodism, the denomination with which he identified for the rest of his life.[7][10][12]

After graduation, Barkley matriculated to Emory College (now Emory University) in Oxford, Georgia.[2] Many of the administrators and faculty members at Marvin College had been educated at Emory, and one of Barkley's college classmates had also determined to enroll there.[13] Barkley attended Emory during the 1897–1898 academic year and was active in the debating society and the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, but he was unable to afford to continue his education and returned to Clinton after the spring semester.[14] He took a job teaching at Marvin College but did not make enough money to afford his basic living expenses.[2] He resigned in December 1898 to move with his parents to Paducah, Kentucky, where his father found employment at a cordage mill.[15]

In Paducah, Barkley began working as a law clerk in the office of Congressman Charles K. Wheeler.[2] He had hoped that being associated with a man of Wheeler's prestige would aid him in his future endeavors, but Wheeler's congressional duties frequently kept him away from the office.[16] Further, Wheeler was a staunch supporter of William Jennings Bryan and the Free Silver wing of the Democratic Party, while Barkley identified with the Gold Democrats due to the influence of the administrators of Marvin College.[17] Finally, Wheeler refused to pay Barkley for his services, claiming that free access to his extensive law library was payment enough.[18] Barkley spent only two months in Wheeler's office before accepting an offer to serve in a similar capacity for two local lawyers, William S. Bishop and former Congressman John Kerr Hendrick, who paid him $15 per month.[18] He read law while completing his clerking duties and was admitted to the bar in 1901.[2] He began practicing in Paducah and Judge L. D. Husbands, a friend of Hendrick's, appointed him reporter of the circuit court.[2] Despite already being admitted to the bar, he spent the summer of 1902 studying at the University of Virginia School of Law.[19]

Barkley frequently attended social events in Paducah and joined the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church where he was a lay preacher.[2] He was a member of several fraternal organizations, including Woodmen of the World, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Improved Order of Red Men.[20] On June 23, 1903, he married Dorothy Brower with whom he had three children – David Murrell Barkley (b. 1906), Marion Frances Barkley (b. 1909), and Laura Louis Barkley (b. 1911).[2][20] Laura Louise would later marry Douglas MacArthur II, a U.S. diplomat and nephew of famed General Douglas MacArthur.[21]

Early political career

On December 19, 1904, Barkley declared his candidacy for county attorney of McCracken County months in advance of the March 1905 Democratic primary.[22] In the heavily Democratic county, the primary election was of paramount importance; the Republicans did not put forward a nominee in the general election.[2][23] Barkley faced two opponents in the primary – incumbent Eugene A. Graves, who was seeking a third term, and Paducah Police Court Judge David Cross.[24] He organized his own campaign and made numerous campaign speeches across the county, showcasing his eloquence and personal likeability.[2] Graves received more votes than Barkley in the city of Paducah, but the votes of McCracken County's rural farmers propelled Barkley to victory in the primary by a vote of 1,525, to 1,096; Cross came in third with 602 votes.[24] The race marked the only time in Barkley's political career that he challenged an incumbent Democrat.[25]

Barkley took office in January 1906 and immediately made a name for himself, attending more than 600 hearings and prosecuting about 300 cases.[26][27] He challenged improper charges to the county's account, saving local taxpayers over $35,000.[23] He also prosecuted two magistrates on the county's Fiscal Court for approving contracts in which they had a conflict of interest.[28] Even Republicans admitted that he generally performed well in his office.[23] As a result of his success, he was selected president of the State Association of County Attorneys and added to the Democratic State Central Committee's speaker's bureau.[2] He served as the official county spokesman of the Democratic Party during the 1907 gubernatorial election, and despite his previous support for the Gold Democrats, he supported William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 presidential election.[29]

County elections, 1909

In mid-1908, Barkley's friends began encouraging him to run for county judge, the most powerful county-level position because that official controlled political patronage and the expenditure of county funds.[6][30] On August 22, 1908, Barkley announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination, and the chairman of the county's Democratic Club Executive Committee endorsed him.[30][31] The incumbent judge, Richard T. Lightfoot, decided to retire rather than challenge him, leaving no opposition within his own party.[31] The Democratic Club Executive Committee declared him the nominee in late October 1908.[30]

Barkley's political career began in the city of Paducah in western Kentucky.

On January 16, 1909, Hiram Smedley, a Democrat who had served as county clerk since 1897, was indicted for embezzling tax payments.[23] Smedley resigned, and the McCracken County Fiscal Court appointed a three-man commission, including Barkley, to investigate the losses.[23] After the commission presented its report to the Fiscal Court, they authorized Barkley to settle with the company that held Smedley's surety bond.[23] In March 1909, he settled for $1,582.50, the full amount discovered by the investigation.[23] In May 1909, Smedley was arrested and charged with 20 counts of forgery.[23] This prompted a thorough audit of the county's finances which revealed a shortage of $16,000, only $6,000 of which was accountable to Smedley.[32] The fact that the corruption extended beyond Smedley to other Democratic officials gave Republicans an issue for the upcoming election campaign.[32] They charged that the entire Democratic organization in the county was corrupt and all Democrats must be swept from office.[32] Smedley was found to be of an unsound mind at a lunacy trial in early October and sent to Western State Hospital in Hopkinsville.[32] Republicans pointed to the removal of Smedley from the county as evidence that the Democratic machine was so powerful that it had Smedley removed from the county just as the campaign was beginning in earnest.[32] The fact that he was released from the hospital on October 29, a day before the campaign closed, seemed to lend further credence to the Republican accusation.[32]

Barkley and his Republican opponent, Thomas N. Hazelip, participated in a series of debates throughout the month of October.[33] In each debate, Hazelip recited a litany of charges against past Democratic administrations, including the Smedley malfeasance.[33] Instead of defending his predecessors, Barkley admitted their guilt but maintained that he was not personally responsible for their wrongdoing.[34] To make his point, Barkley used the example of William Goebel, the Democratic governor who had been assassinated in 1900, allegedly as a result of a Republican conspiracy.[35] Barkley claimed that, although he had been elected on a ticket with Smedley four years earlier, he had no more responsibility for his wrongdoings than Hazelip had for Goebel's murder.[36] In later debates, Barkley provided documentary evidence showing that he had fulfilled his obligations as county attorney, a fact that his opponent was grudgingly forced to concede.[37] He also pointed to his improvement of the county's financial situation through diligent inspection of charges presented to his office.[37] In spite of the scandal, Democrats won every county-wide office, although by smaller margins than usual.[38] Republicans managed to capture a 5-to-3 majority on the Fiscal Court, however.[39] Barkley's victory – 3,184 to 2,662 – was the smallest margin of victory of any county officer.[40]

County judge

Barkley took office in January 1910, and at the first meeting of the Fiscal Court, he laid out an agenda that included reducing the county's debt, improving its roads, and auditing its books annually.[41] He also appointed a purchasing agent and an inspector of weights and measures for the county and allocated a salary for the county's almshouse keeper instead of relying on a system of fees to fund the position.[41] Despite the Republican majority on the Court, most of the measures he proposed during his term were adopted.[41]

To effect his road improvement plan, he awarded private contracts instead of utilizing the corvée system previously in place.[42] While the extensive widening and gravelling of county roads provided his rural constituents with unprecedented access to Paducah's amenities, it also ensured that Barkley's promise to reduce the county's debt would go unfulfilled.[43] This reduced the availability of funds for other government programs like free textbooks for indigent children.[43] Opponents also charged Barkley with practicing nepotism when he named his father as the county's juvenile court probation officer.[43]

U.S. Representative

First District Congressman Ollie M. James' decision to seek election to the U.S. Senate in 1912 left his House seat open.[6] Barkley was the first to declare his candidacy for the seat, doing so in December 1911.[44] After an early challenger withdrew in March, three formidable candidates entered the race – Trigg County Commonwealth's Attorney Denny Smith, Ballard County Judge Jacob Corbett, and John K. Hendrick, Barkley's former employer.[44] All three of Barkley's opponents were from the more conservative wing of the party, allowing Barkley to stand out by espousing progressive ideas.[45] Courting the votes of the district's farmers, he advocated lower taxes and increased regulation of railroads by the Interstate Commerce Commission.[46] Because he also supported federal funding of highway construction, opponents attempted to brand him a socialist.[46]

Hendrick, in particular, took aim at Barkley during the campaign.[45] He charged that Barkley's membership in Woodsmen of the World was solely motivated by its potential political advantages.[45] When Hendrick carelessly let one of his denunciations of Barkley's membership turn into an attack on the organization itself, however, he angered the approximately 5,000 members of the club living in the First District.[47] Hendrick also attacked Barkley's youth and relative inexperience, as well as his apparent ambition to seek offices beyond the House of Representatives.[45] Instead of denying his ambition, Barkley freely admitted his desire to one day hold a seat in the Senate and reminded voters that Hendrick was known as a frequent candidate for a variety of political offices.[45] "When the Pope died some years ago, nobody would tell Hendrick, for fear he would declare for that office," Barkley quipped.[45]

The Democrats' nomination of Woodrow Wilson for president and adoption of a progressive platform at the 1912 Democratic National Convention in June bolstered Barkley's candidacy.[46] He won a convincing 48.2 percent of the vote in the primary and went on to win the general election.[48]

Domestic matters

A man with dark, wavy hair wearing a dark jacket and tie and white shirt
Barkley in 1913

One of Barkley's first acts as a congressman was to appoint Edmund Speights, son of the Marvin College president who had helped him graduate from college, to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.[10] Although he was initially a more conservative legislator, working with Wilson (who was elected president) caused him to embrace more liberal views.[7] On April 24, 1912, he made his first speech in the House, advocating passage of the administration-backed Underwood–Simmons Tarriff Act which lowered protectionist tariffs on foreign goods.[49] He endorsed Wilson's New Freedom agenda, including the 1913 Federal Reserve Act and the 1914 Federal Trade Commission Act.[50] Because of his strong support for the administration, he was assigned to the powerful Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee and became the first freshman representative to preside over a session of the House.[51] One of the rare occasions where he and Wilson differed was when Barkley introduced a bill to end lame duck sessions of Congress between January and March; Wilson had other legislative priorities, and his lack of support contributed to the demise of Barkley's bill.[50]

As a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Barkley strongly supported the Clayton Antitrust Act and sought to end child labor in interstate commerce through passage of the Keating–Owen Act in 1916.[46][52] He also supported measures to extend credit to and fund road improvements in rural areas like his home district.[19] Widely known as a national speaker for the Anti-Saloon League, in 1916 he co-sponsored the Sheppard-Barkley Act which banned alcohol sales in Washington, D.C.[53][54] Although the measure was initially defeated, it passed the following year.[54] With World War I raging in Europe, he sponsored an amendment to the Lever Food and Fuel Act that would have forbidden the use of grain – rendered scarce by the war and a poor harvest in 1916 – for making alcoholic beverages.[55] The amendment passed the House, but before it could become law, a conference committee changed its language to allow production of beer and wine.[55] Both measures increased Barkley's national visibility, and set the stage for future prohibition legislation, including the Eighteenth Amendment.[19]

Because of Democratic factionalism in Kentucky over the issue of prohibition, prohibitionists began trying to enlist Barkley as a candidate in the 1919 gubernatorial race as early as 1917.[56] The Memphis Commercial Appeal noted in late 1917 that Barkley had not yet declined these invitations, but his continued silence on the matter caused the prohibitionists' enthusiasm to wane.[56] Similarly, attempts to recruit Barkley to challenge incumbent anti-prohibition Senator Ollie M. James in the 1917 Democratic primary were met with silence from Barkley and soon fizzled.[25]

By 1919, James had died in office and Governor Augustus Owsley Stanley was elected to the vacant Senate seat, leaving Lieutenant Governor James D. Black to seek reelection to the governorship.[57] The normally dominant Democratic Party splintered over the issue of prohibition, and recent Republican gains, particularly in the city of Louisville, had made the Democratic primary of particular interest.[58] Governor Black had served as lieutenant governor under Stanley, the leader of the anti-prohibitionist wing of the party, and was not trusted by the prohibitionists, led by former governor J. C. W. Beckham.[58] At the time of his election in 1915, however, Black had identified with the prohibitionists and was chosen to run with Stanley to balance the party's ticket; consequently, the anti-prohibitionists did not entirely trust him either.[58] Black decided to try and unite the two factions by having Barkley act as temporary chairman of the 1919 state Democratic convention.[59] Although he had favored prohibition, Barkley had never been strongly connected to either faction.[59] At the convention, he delivered an address that skillfully attacked Republicans and praised the Democrats' record without making specific reference to prohibition.[60] Despite the address, many in the Beckham faction refused to accept Black, and he was defeated in the general election by Republican Edwin P. Morrow.[61] Serving as chair of the convention served to introduce Barkley to state political leaders outside his First District.[61]

World War I

Barkley supported President Wilson's policy of keeping the U.S. neutral in World War I.[62] When Wilson proposed that the United States purchase its own fleet of merchant ships instead of paying the high fees charged by foriegn carriers to travel waters infested with German U-boats, Barkley vigorously supported the purchase in speeches on the House floor.[62] His position was consistent with the needs of his district, since 80% of the dark tobacco grown in western Kentucky was sold overseas, and higher shipping costs adversely affected profits.[62] The House authorized the purchase, but Republicans and conservative Democrats regarded the idea as socialistic and blocked the Senate's concurrence with a successful filibuster.[62]

Barkley and other Democrats campaigned for President Wilson's re-election in 1916, utilizing the slogan "he kept us out of war".[63] By 1917, however, the Germans had lifted all restrictions on their U-boat operations against neutral vessels, and the publication of the Zimmermann Telegram – wherein a German official proposed to the government of Mexico that, if the U.S. entered the war, Mexico should declare war on them and the Germans would work to return Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to Mexican control – made the idea of continued American neutrality unlikely.[64] President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917, and Barkley, angered by the Germans' belligerence, voted in favor of the resolution two weeks later.[65] At 40 years old, he even considered resigning his congressional seat an enlisting in the U.S. Army, but Wilson persuaded him not to do so.[65]

After the declaration of war, Barkley spoke in favor of bills implementing conscription and raising revenue for the fight.[55] Between August and October 1918, he joined an unofficial congressional delegation that toured Europe, meeting with European leaders and surveying the tactical situation there.[65] Like Wilson, he supported U.S. ratification the Treaty of Versailles and participation in the League of Nations, but both measures failed after the election of a more conservative Congress in 1918.[66]

Harding administration

As a delegate to the 1920 Democratic National Convention, Barkley supported William Gibbs McAdoo as the Democratic presidential nominee, but the nomination ultimately went to James M. Cox.[67] After the convention, he campaigned for Cox and his running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, although his speeches lacked his usual enthusiasm and focused more on Wilson's progressive record than Cox's fitness for office.[67] Voters, however, chose Republican Warren G. Harding in the general election.[67] Early in Harding's presidency, Barkley found common ground with him on issues such as the creation of the Veterans' Bureau and the passage of the progressive Sheppard–Towner Act.[68] Harding's administration, though, was too favorable to big business interests for Barkley's taste, and in 1922, he proclaimed that if the Republican administration had returned the country to normalcy, "then in God's name let us have Abnormalcy".[68]

Gubernatorial election of 1923

By virtue of his decade-long tenure in the House, Barkley had become the ranking Democrat on the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee by the time of his 1922 re-election bid.[68] In the election, he carried every First District county, including the traditional Republican strongholds of Caldwell and Crittenden counties.[68] Despite the convincing victory, Barkley realized that, outside the First District, he lacked the political organization he would need to propel him to higher office.[69] The establishment of such an organization, and not necessarily a desire to become governor of Kentucky, likely motivated him to announce his candidacy for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination on November 11, 1922.[69] Critics recognized his intent, and he did little to deny their charges.[70]

A man with dark hair and a prominent mustache wearing a black jacket, patterned tie, and white shirt
J. Campbell Cantrill defeated Barkley in the 1923 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Opposing Barkley in the primary was Congressman J. Campbell Cantrill, who opposed both prohibition and women's suffrage and, along with Stanley, served as a co-leader of the more conservative Bourbon wing of the party.[71][69][71] Beckham, leader of the more liberal wing, had designs on running for governor in the 1923 election, and his surrogates, particularly Louisville Courier-Journal editor Robert Worth Bingham, to began a "Business Man for Governor" campaign in late 1922.[72] Although Beckham had served as governor from 1900 to 1907 and later in the U.S. Senate, he was presently out of office (a "Business Man", according to Bingham), in contrast to both Cantrill and Barkley, present officeholders who were widely considered the leading contenders for the governorship.[72]

Bingham's campaign forced Barkley to declare his candidacy earlier than he had intended.[72] "Businessman for Governor" failed to gain traction outside of Louisville, however, and would-be Beckham supporters belatedly flocked to Barkley, more to prevent Cantrill's nomination than because they genuinely supported Barkley's.[72] Beckham's law partner, Elwood Hamilton, became Barkley's campaign chairman, and Percy Haly, an influential political boss in the Beckham faction, was a key Barkley advisor.[73] Barkley recruited Wiley B. Bryan, an erstwhile Cantrill supporter, as his campaign treasurer, and appointed Mildred Spaulding, who genuinely supported Barkley more than Cantrill or Beckham, as head of his Louisville campaign headquarters.[74] Recognizing the need to broaden his appeal into central and eastern Kentucky, he opened his campaign on February 19, 1923, in Danville, Kentucky.[74] He adopted the slogan "Christianity, Morality, and Good Government", and he and Cantrill, who were colleagues in the House, agreed to refrain from personal attacks throughout the campaign.[53][75] His admiration for Woodrow Wilson and the influence of Percy Haly led him to denounced the influence of the coal, racing, and railroad trusts in the state's politics.[53] "Woodrow Wilson drove the crooks and corruptionists out of New Jersey, Governor Pinchot is driving them out of Pennsylvania, and if I am elected Governor of Kentucky I promise to drive them out of Frankfort," he declared.[53]

Barkley advocated a tax on coal deposits, a marked contrast from his usual preference for keeping taxes low.[73] In addition to reducing the coal trust's political influence, he believed the increased revenue, which would largely be generated by out-of-state coal buyers, would allow him to lower property taxes on farmers.[76] His friends in the Anti-Saloon League also convinced him that banning parimutuel betting would cripple the racing trust, and he first advocated such a ban in an April 2 speech in Lebanon, Kentucky.[53][76] Those positions caused Bingham, typically a staunch Beckham ally, to wait until just before the election before coming out in favor of Barkley.[73] For Desha Breckinridge, editor of the Lexington Herald who, like Bingham, helped create the parimutuel betting system, Barkley's positions were enough to convince him to use his paper to back Cantrill, despite the fact that he generally disliked Cantrill.[73]

Barkley electioneered across the state, earning the nickname "Iron Man" for his ability to make up to 16 speeches in a single day.[7] His proposals for a statewide highway system and improvements in education were popular, but the state's coal mining and horse racing interests, based mostly in the eastern part of the state, vehemently and predictably opposed him.[71][46] Though he neither publicly accepted nor denounced them, he received the endorsement of some extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.[53] In the primary election, the counties east of a line from Louisville to Middlesboro solidly supported Cantrill, while those west of the line mostly went for Barkley.[77] Barkley lost the primary by 9,000 votes (out of 241,000 cast), marking the only time in his career that he lost an election.[77][78]

After the primary, Barkley pledged to support Cantrill in the general election, a gesture which engendered much goodwill within the normally divided Democratic Party.[79] However, Cantrill died on September 2, and the Democratic State Committee was charged with nominating his replacement.[78] Barkley was not an acceptable choice for many of the members of the committee, and he refused to accept a nomination by the party chairman instead of being chosen by the people.[80] On September 11, the committee chose Congressman William J. Fields, and Barkley supported Fields in the general election, which he won over Republican Charles I. Dawson.[78][80]

Coolidge administration

Barkley's party loyalty during the governor's race made him a formidable candidate to challenge Stanley, the incumbent Democratic senator, who had angered members of both state Democratic factions, in 1924, but he had exhausted most of his funds in his primary campaign against Cantrill, and he feared that he would endanger his reputation as a party unifier by challenging a fellow Democrat.[81] Instead, he determined to rebuild his financial resources in anticipation of unseating Kentucky's incumbent Republican senator, Richard P. Ernst, when his term expired in 1926.[81] In the meantime, he refrained from using his influence in state races to avoid squandering any of his hard-earned goodwill with Kentucky voters.[82]

As a delegate to the 1924 Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden, he once again supported William G. McAdoo for president.[82] Urban interests at the convention promoted the candidacy of New York Governor Al Smith, and a bitter convention fight ensued.[82] During the course of the 103 deadlocked ballots, convention chairman Thomas J. Walsh temporarily yielded the chairmanship to Barkley in order to take a rest from his duties.[82] Because the 1924 convention was the first such event to be broadcast nationally, Barkley's service as chair further augmented his national recognition and appeal.[19] The two Democratic factions finally agreed to compromise by nominating John W. Davis, a lackluster candidate who lost in the general election to incumbent Calvin Coolidge, who had succeeded Harding upon Harding's death in 1923.[82] Barkley won another term in the House by a 2-to-1 margin over his Republican opponent in 1924, but after witnessing how Democratic divisions led to the election of Republican Frederick M. Sackett as the next U.S. Senator from Kentucky, he became more convinced than ever of the value of party loyalty.[82]

U.S. Senator

A bald man with glasses wearing a gray jacket and vest, white shirt, and black bowtie
Richard P. Ernst, Barkley's opponent in the 1926 Senate race

Because of Barkley's influence in crafting the Railway Labor Act, the Associated Railway Labor Organizations endorsed him to unseat Senator Ernst even before his formal announcement of his candidacy on April 26, 1926.[83] The Democratic factions that had splintered over Barkley's candidacy in the 1923 gubernatorial race united behind him.[84] In the years since his that election, Barkley had distanced himself somewhat from Haly and made an agreement with the Bourbon faction that he would not push a ban on parimutuel betting if elected.[85] Consequently, he had no opposition from fellow Democrats in the primary.[46] He chose Congressman (and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) Fred M. Vinson to manage his general election campaign.[85]

President Coolidge supported Ernst, and his Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover came to the state to campaign on his behalf.[86] Ernst had opposed a bonus for veterans of World War I, however, an unpopular move in Kentucky.[85] At 68 years old, his age also worked against him.[84][85] Barkley contrasted his humble upbringing with Ernst's affluent lifestyle as a corporate lawyer, and also attacked him for supporting Michigan Senator Truman Handy Newberry, who was forced to resign due to allegations of election fraud.[86] Republican voters were angered that Ernst did not support his fellow Republican legislator, Kentucky Congressman John W. Langley, when Langley was charged with illegally aiding a large bootlegging operation in Louisville.[84] Ernst futilely tried to resurrect the issues of Barkley's support for the coal tax and opposition to parimutuel betting, but in the general election, Barkley prevailed by a vote of 287,997 to 266,657.[85]

Upon taking his seat in the Senate, Barkley was assigned to numerous committees, including the Committee on the Library, and the committees on Finance and Banking and Currency; later, he was added to the Commerce Committee.[87] In early 1928, Vice-President Charles G. Dawes selected Barkley as part of a special committee to investigate the campaign expenditures of the leading candidates in the upcoming presidential election.[87] As a result of his service on this prestigious committee, he was considered for his party's vice-presidential nomination that year.[87] Supporters touted his party loyalty and felt his appeal to rural, agricultural constituents and prohibitionists could help balance a ticket headed by likely presidential nominee Al Smith, an urban anti-prohibitionist.[88]

A man with thinning, salt-and-pepper hair wearing a black jacket and vest, white shirt, and patterned tie
Joseph T. Robinson received the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 1928 instead of Barkley.

Soon after the Kentucky delegation arrived in Houston, Texas, for the 1928 Democratic National Convention, they approached Smith supporters about pairing Barkley and their candidate.[88] Although the delegation was received cordially, Smith's advisors decided that placing two candidates with such widely differing views on the same ticket would seem too contrived to the electorate.[89] They did not tell Barkley of their decision, however, until after he had delivered a speech seconding Smith's nomination for president.[89] Smith then announced Arkansas Senator Joseph T. Robinson as his preferred running mate.[89] The persistent Kentuckians nominated Barkley in spite of Smith's stated preference, but after the overwhelming majority of delegates voted for Robinson, Barkley personally came to the podium and announced that the delegation was changing its support in order to make his nomination unanimous.[89] After the convention, Barkley and his wife took a cross-country vacation, returning to Kentucky in August 1928 to find that, despite his absence, Barkley had been chosen state chairman of Smith's campaign in Kentucky.[90] Although he campaigned vehemently for Smith, Republican nominee Herbert Hoover defeated him in a landslide.[91]

Barkley quickly became the leader of a coalition of liberal Democrats and Republicans that opposed President Hoover's use of high tariffs to protect the prices of American goods.[92] From mid-1929 through mid-1930, the debate over higher tariffs consumed much of Congress' time in session, with this issue taking particular urgency following the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[93] Barkley stridently opposed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, which he claimed would cost Americans both jobs and exports, but Congress approved the act and it was signed into law by President Hoover on June 17, 1930.[93] When Congress recessed later that summer, Barkley embarked on a tour of Europe, including a trip to the Soviet Union in August 1930 on which he was accompanied by Sherwood Eddy and fellow senators Burton K. Wheeler and Bronson M. Cutting.[93] Although he was impressed by the level of industrial development brought about through Joseph Stalin's First Five-Year Plan, he did not advocate forming closer diplomatic ties with the Communist nation upon returning to Congress, as some of his colleagues did.[94]

Barkley felt that Hoover's response to the continuing depression and the severe drought in 1930 were inadequate.[95] He pointed out that the $45 million in loans to farmers that Hoover reluctantly approved amounted to less than half the losses sustained by farmers in Kentucky alone.[95] Hoover's refusal to call a special congressional session in early 1931 to adopt further relief measures angered Barkley.[95] Injuries sustained in a severe automobile accident in June 1931 limited Barkley's political activities for the remainder of that year, however.[96]

Second term and ascension to floor leader

Barkley had long been acquainted with Franklin D. Roosevelt when Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932, and he privately believed Roosevelt could help alleviate the nation's ills.[97] Facing a re-election bid himself, however, he avoided announcing his support for Roosevelt too early, fearing that Roosevelt's message might not resonate with voters in Kentucky.[98] In an attempt to enlist Barkley's support, Roosevelt supporters offered Barkley a keynote address and temporary chairmanship of the the 1932 Democratic National Convention.[98] Conscious that the prestige associated with both opportunities would likely help his reelection chances, Barkley publicly endorsed Roosevelt on March 22, 1932.[98] Opponents charged Roosevelt and Barkley with carrying out a "corrupt bargain", but such accusations gained little traction and quickly faded away.[98] Biographer James K. Libbey characterized Barkley's keynote address as "one of the longest and most memorable keynote speeches ever delivered in the history of the national party conclaves".[99] Barkley's warm recollections of the Wilson administration and bitter denunciations of more than a decade of Republican dominance were frequently punctuated by applause, with the longest interruption – a 45-minute near-riot – erupting after Barkley called for the Democratic platform to include a plank directing Congress to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment.[99]

Libbey argues that Barkley's remark was not so much a repudiation of his previous prohibitionist position but a call for the people to be allowed to express their will on the question.[100] Barkley's disappointed prohibitionist constituents continued to support him despite his remarks because the depression trumped all other concerns for most of the electorate.[100] George B. Martin, who had previously served a six-month stint in the Senate after being appointed to fill a vacancy in 1918, opposed Barkley in the 1932 Democratic senatorial primary.[101] Barkley easily turned back Martin's challenge, defeating him by a two-to-one margin.[101] In the general election, he faced Republican Congressman Maurice H. Thatcher, but handily defeated him by a vote of 575,077 to 393,865.[102] His reelection marked the first time in the 20th century that a U.S. Senator from Kentucky had won a second consecutive term.[103]

In 1933, Democrats gained control of the Senate, and Joseph T. Robinson was chosen majority leader.[7] Robinson appointed Barkley assistant floor leader, and the two worked together to secure passage of New Deal legislation, including the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the Federal Emergency Relief Act.[104] Robinson was a forceful leader, relying on threats, favors, and parliamentary tactics to accomplish his ends; Barkley was the more polished orator, and secured votes through compromise and diplomacy.[7] Combining the two approaches, they were very effective in assuring adoption of administration priorities.[7] In July 1934, the Democratic National Committee chose Barkley to respond to Republican chairman Henry P. Fletcher's radio attacks against the New Deal.[105] Later that year, he embarked on a tour of twenty states, defending the New Deal and stumping for Democratic candidates in the 1934 midterm elections.[105]

Barkley was again the keynote speaker at the 1936 Democratic National Convention.[46] During his address, he alluded to the Supreme Court's decision in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States – which struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act as unconstitutional – asking "Is the court beyond criticism? May it be regarded as too sacred to be disagreed with?"[106] These remarks help set the anti-Supreme Court tone for Roosevelt's second term.[107] On February 5, 1937, Roosevelt proposed legislation authorizing the U.S. President to appoint an additional justice to the court for each justice over the age of 70.[107] Many Americans saw this proposal as an attempt by Roosevelt to appoint more justices sympathetic to the New Deal to the court, avoiding further decisions that would nullify its provisions as unconstitutional.[107]

Majority Leader Robinson died on July 14, 1937, and Barkley and Mississippi Senator Pat Harrison became candidates for the vacated floor leader position.[7][101] Harrison, whose tenure in the Senate was eight years longer than Barkley's, was supported by more conservative Southern Democratic senators who opposed Roosevelt's controversial "court-packing plan".[7] Harrison had helped secure Roosevelt's nomination at the 1932 Democratic National Convention by convincing Mississippi Governor Martin Sennet Conner to keep his state's delegation loyal to Roosevelt instead of backing another candidate.[108] Roosevelt preferred Barkley, however, because of his steadfast support of the New Deal.[109] Although publicly non-committal, a letter from Roosevelt addressed to "My Dear Alben" and praising Barkley's legislative accomplishments was widely seen as an endorsement.[109] Further, he pressured William H. Dieterich and Harry S. Truman – senators from Illinois and Missouri, respectively – to switch their support from Harrison to Barkley.[109] Dieterich succumbed to Roosevelt's pressure, while Truman remained loyal to Harrison.[109] Many senators resented Roosevelt's interference in a traditionally legislative prerogative.[109] Ultimately, Barkley was elected by a single vote.[110]

Challenge by Happy Chandler

A man with dark, slicked-back hair wearing a pinstriped black jacket, patterned tie, and white shirt
Happy Chandler unsuccessfully challenged Barkley for his U.S. Senate seat.

Shortly after being chosen floor leader, Barkley faced a primary challenge in his reelection bid from Kentucky Governor A. B. "Happy" Chandler.[19] The race proved to be one of the most important of the midterm elections, with The New York Times characterizing it as "the Gettysburg of the party's internecine strife over national control in 1940 [at the Democratic National Convention]".[111] Chandler was a popular governor and built a strong political organization throughout the state.[112] By his own admission, he believed he was destined to be president, and he saw the senatorial election as another step in his ascension.[113] Attempting to avoid a showdown with Barkley, Chandler twice petitioned Roosevelt to appoint Kentucky's junior Senator, M. M. Logan, to a federal judgeship, allowing Chandler to appoint himself to the vacant seat.[108] On one of these two occasions – the retirement of Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland – Roosevelt took Barkley's advice instead, appointing Solicitor General (and Kentuckian) Stanley Forman Reed instead of Chandler.[113] Encouraged by his mentor, Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd, and the bloc of southern conservative Democrats who felt increasingly discontent with Roosevelt's New Deal, an angry Chandler then announced his candidacy for Barkley's seat in Newport on February 23, 1938.[108][114]

Early in the race, Chandler attempted to portray himself as a supporter of Roosevelt personally – since Roosevelt was extremely popular in Kentucky – while criticizing the New Deal programs Barkley supported.[115] Chandler pointed to his fiscal conservatism as governor, including a reorganization and downsizing of the executive branch and the reduction of the state's debt.[113] Polls showing Barkley with a comfortable lead and an overwhelming victory by New Deal supporter Claude Pepper in the Florida senate primary in May convinced Chandler to shift his campaign's focus away from the New Deal.[111] He criticized Barkley as "a stranger to the state" and obliquely referred to "fat, sleek senators who go to Europe and have forgotten the people of Kentucky except when they run for election".[115] At 40 years old, Chandler was also 20 years Barkley's junior, and he consistently referred to him on the campaign trail as "Old Alben", seeking to make Barkley's age an issue in the campaign.[116]

In the early days of the campaign, Barkley was restricted to campaigning on weekends because of congressional business, so he enlisted allies like Fred Vinson and the Courier-Journal (now edited by Barry Bingham, Sr., Robert Worth Bingham's son) to campaign on his behalf.[117][118] He also drew support from Chandler's political enemies such as former governor Ruby Laffoon, whom Chandler had crossed as lieutenant governor, and John Y. Brown, Sr., who felt that Chandler had broken a promise to support him for a seat in the Senate.[117] Because of Roosevelt's strong support for organized labor – another important constituency that had backed Chandler's gubernatorial bid – the state's labor leaders endorsed Barkley.[119] After the end of the congressional session, Barkley resumed his "Iron Man" campaign style from years before, making between 8 and 15 speeches each day and traveling, on average, 4,500 miles (7,200 km) per week.[21][117] This countered Chandler's implication that Barkley's age was a disadvantage, a charge that was further blunted when the younger and supposedly more vigorous Chandler fell ill in July, temporarily halting his campaign activities.[117] Chandler claimed his illness was the result of drinking some poisoned ice water, indirectly charging that a Barkley supporter had sabotaged him.[120] Louisville police investigated Chandler's claims, soon dismissing them as "a political bedtime story".[121] Barkley regularly ridiculed the suggestion on the campaign trail, promising to appoint "an ice water guard" for his campaign.[120] During speeches, he would lift a glass of water to his lips, then mockingly inspect it and refuse to drink it.[120]

Roosevelt, recognizing that a Chandler victory against his hand-picked floor leader would amount to a repudiation of his agenda, began a tour of the state in Covington on July 8, 1938.[122] As the state's chief executive, Chandler was invited to the event to welcome the president.[123] Although Roosevelt was clearly campaigning for Barkley, he publicly made courteous remarks about Chandler in the spirit of party unity.[112] When Roosevelt traveled by motorcade from Covington to Latonia Race Track, Chandler secured the middle position in the back seat of the president's car, separating Roosevelt and Barkley.[123] Roosevelt then traveled to Louisville and Bowling Green before leaving the state.[124] During his last stop, he chastised Chandler for "dragging federal judgeships into a political campaign".[124]

As nearly every 20th century Kentucky governor had done, Chandler printed campaign materials with state funds, solicited campaign funds from state employees, and promised new government jobs in exchange for votes.[117] A later investigation determined that Chandler had raised at least $10,000 from state employees.[125] With the advent of several New Deal bureaucracies, however, there were, for the first time, a sizable number of federal workers in the state who could counter the effort of state employees by working on Barkley's behalf.[117] Although Barkley and George H. Goodman, Barkley's friend who served as director of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Kentucky, would later deny that WPA employees played any role in the campaign, journalist Thomas Lunsford Stokes investigated the matter and concluded that "the WPA...was deep in politics" in Kentucky.[126] Stokes was awarded the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting for his investigation of the campaign.[126] A Senate committee conducted an internal investigation of Stokes' findings, and WPA administrator Harry Hopkins claimed the subsequent report refuted all but two of Stokes' twenty-two charges.[127] Nevertheless, Congress passed the Hatch Act of 1939 which restricted the ability of federal employees to engage in partisan political activities.[125] In his capacity as Democratic floor leader, Barkley supported the bill and helped secure its passage.[123]

The final vote was 294,391 for Barkley and 223,149 for Chandler.[120] Barkley had carried 74 of Kentucky's 120 counties, winning especially large majorities in his native western Kentucky, the city of Louisville, and predominantly rural areas.[125] It was the first loss of Chandler's political career, and the worst suffered by a primary candidate in Kentucky's history to that time.[128] He never forgave either Barkley or Roosevelt for his defeat.[125] Encouraged by Barkley's success in the primary, Roosevelt began campaigning against several entrenched conservatives in southern states; all of these candidates, lost, however, damaging Roosevelt's image.[129] Barkley went on to defeat his Republican opponent, Louisville Judge John P. Haswell, in a landslide, securing 62% of the general election vote.[130]

Floor leadership

Leading a caucus divided between conservative and liberal elements, Barkley failed in his first major objective when legislators ultimately defeated Roosevelt's court-packing plan.[46] The successive failures of several administration-backed domestic measures led the press to dub the Senate Majority Leader "bumbling Barkley".[110] He was able to salvage an appropriations bill that covered overspending by the WPA in a Congress that was increasingly hostile toward the New Deal, although the bill allocated much less funding than Roosevelt had wanted.[130] In 1940, Congress amended the Hatch Act to prohibit campaign activities by federally-funded state employees; The Washington Daily News called the amendment a "monument to Alben Barkley's persistence and parliamentary skill".[130]

Despite his mixed record, Roosevelt privately told Barkley that some Democratic partisans hoped to nominate him to succeed Roosevelt at the 1940 Democratic National Convention.[131] However, Roosevelt was intent on seeking a third term, and the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, deepened his resolve, since he did not feel a transition of leadership shortly after the outbreak of a major world war was in the nation's best interest.[131] Barkley vigorously disagreed with Roosevelt's decision to drop Vice-President John Nance Garner from his ticket in 1940 in favor of Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Wallace.[131] Barkley biographer James K. Libbey opines that "there is enough evidence from Barkley's tortuous private and public statements about the qualifications of Wallace to infer that Barkley wanted the vice presidency for himself", although he did not explicitly promote this idea to Roosevelt.[131] Instead, Barkley was chosen permanent chairman of the 1940 convention, and his July 16 keynote whipped the delegates into a frenzy.[132] Chants of "We want Roosevelt" interrupted Barkley's speech for twenty minutes, indicating that Barkley had been successful in creating a popular mandate for the president's renomination to an unprecedented third term.[132] The next day, Roosevelt was renominated on the first ballot, and he went on to win reelection in a landslide.[132]

Barkley supported Roosevelt's decision to provide aid to the Allied Powers during World War II, sponsoring the Lend-Lease Act in the Senate.[133] He personally invited British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to address a joint session of Congress on December 26, 1941.[133] In November 1943, he helped draft the Connally-Fulbright Resolution that advocated the creation of an international peace-keeping body at the conclusion of the war, an idea Barkley had favored since Woodrow Wilson supported the League of Nations.[133] Due to the influence of Supreme Court Justice and fellow Kentuckian Louis Brandeis, Barkley also became interested Zionism.[19] During and after the war, he advocated the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and introduced a congressional resolution in 1943 that called for the Nazis to be punished for their persecution of the Jews.[133]

U.S. entry into the war diverted much of Roosevelt's attention away from domestic affairs.[110] Consequently, Vice-President Wallace, House Speaker Sam Rayburn, Democratic House Floor Leader John William McCormack, and Barkley – the president's "Big Four" – helped develop and pass the administration's legislative agenda.[110] Barkley regularly met with the chairmen of the Senate's standing committees, forming a sort of legislative cabinet.[133] With the support of the committee chairs, he helped secure passage of the War Powers Act and the Emergency Price Control Act.[134] He also advocated passage of a measure to outlaw poll taxes, but the bill was defeated.[135]

Split with Roosevelt

Tension developed between Roosevelt and Barkley during the war.[110] In 1943, Roosevelt refused to appoint Barkley to a vacancy on the Supreme Court.[19] Barkley also criticized the War Production Board because it routinely awarded contracts for the production of war-related materials to large companies rather than small businesses.[135] Their most notable clash, however, occurred in February 1944 when Roosevelt requested that Congress approve tax increases to generate over $10 billion in revenue to help fund the war effort.[135] In response, Barkley and other members of the Senate Finance Committee engaged in negotiations which produced a bill containing some tax increases, although they amounted to only $2.3 billion.[135] Roosevelt felt the measure was insufficient; he convened the "Big Four" on February 21 and told them of his intent to veto it.[135] Barkley and the other legislative leaders urged him not to pursue this course of action, assuring him that the bill they had drafted was the best one that they had enough votes to pass.[135] The next day, the House of Representatives received Roosevelt's veto message, marking the first time in history that a U.S. president had vetoed a revenue measure.[110]

By the time Barkley entered the Senate chamber the morning of February 23, word had spread that Roosevelt's veto had greatly angered him and that he intended to resign as Democratic floor leader.[136] In an impassioned speech, he announced his intent to resign as floor leader and encouraged his legislative colleagues to override Roosevelt's veto.[137] He opined that Roosevelt's characterization of the bill as "providing relief not for the needy, but for the greedy" was "a calculated and deliberate assault upon the legislative integrity of every member of the Congress of the United States".[137] Upon hearing of Barkley's speech, Roosevelt hastily composed and sent a letter to him declaring that he had not intended to impugn the integrity of Congress and urging him not to resign.[137] The next morning, Barkley made good on his promise to resign, whereupon he left the Democratic Conference Room where his caucus had assembled.[137] Minutes later, Texas Senator Tom Connally burst from the room shouting "Make way for liberty!"[137] The caucus had chosen Connally to deliver the news to Barkley that they had unanimously re-elected him as their floor leader.[137] As a result of Barkley's stand, the caucus, many of whom had seen him as Roosevelt's advocate in Congress, now looked upon him as Congress' advocate with Roosevelt.[110] Subsequently, Congress overwhelmingly overrode the veto.[137]

Delegates the the 1944 Democratic National Convention favored replacing unpopular vice-president Harry Wallace with Barkley on their ticket for the upcoming election.[110] Due to the rift between them, however, Roosevelt refused to consider Barkley, telling a July 11 meeting of Democratic leaders that he was too old.[138] Instead, he took the recommendation of Robert E. Hannegan, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and choose Harry S. Truman to replace Wallace.[138] Despite his differences with Roosevelt, Barkley was easily reelected in 1944. He faced no serious challengers in the Democratic primary, and he defeated his Republican challenger, Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney James Park, by a vote of 464,053 to 380,425.[139]

Truman succeeds Roosevelt

Roosevelt died in April 1945, and Truman ascended to the presidency.[110] Shortly thereafter, the Allies defeated the Axis Powers, ending World War II.[140] In the war's aftermath, Americans demanded answers as to why the U.S. was seemingly so ill-prepared for the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that pulled the nation into the war.[140] Barkley sponsored a resolution to create the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, and after overwhelming approval of the resolution by both houses of Congress, Barkley was chosen as chairman of the ten-person committee.[141] The committee's report, delivered on July 20, 1946, exonerated Roosevelt of any potential blame for the attack and highlighted weaknesses in communications between the branches of the U.S. armed forces; the latter finding eventually led to the creation of the United States Department of Defense.[141] Continuing in his role as Democratic floor leader in the Senate, Barkley helped ensure U.S. participation in the newly created United Nations and advocated approval of billions of dollars in loans to rebuild the European economy.[141] Look magazine declared him the second most fascinating person in the country behind war hero (and future president) Dwight D. Eisenhower.[142]

A slightly-built, dark haired woman wearing a white dress and leaning backward onto her left arm
Barkley's wife, Dorothy, died March 10, 1947 after a long illness.

In addition to his taxing workload as floor leader, Barkley maintained a full schedule of speaking engagements to supplement his $10,000 annual salary.[138] He had given up his law practice when he was elected to the Senate, but his wife had fallen ill with heart disease and became an invalid, requiring constant nursing care.[19] Barkley was the Democratic Speakers Bureau's most requested orator, surpassing even Truman.[142] In a poll of legislators conducted by Pageant magazine, Barkley and Republican Robert A. Taft were chosen as the hardest-working members of their respective parties.[142] The Barkleys sold their house in Washington, D.C. and moved into a modest apartment to reduce their living expenses.[140] Marny Clifford, wife of Truman's Naval Advisor Clark Clifford, nicknamed Barkley "Sparkle Barkle" for his devoted care of his wife, who died March 10, 1947.[140] When Barkley won the Collier Award in May 1948, he donated the $10,000 prize to the University of Louisville School of Medicine in his wife's honor.[142]

A recession followed the end of World War II, and the difficult economic situation was exacerbated by a strike of railroad workers in 1946.[142] Consequently, in the 1946 elections, Republicans wrested control of both houses of Congress from the Democrats for the first time since the Great Depression and also gained control of state government in the majority of the states.[110][142] The new Republican majorities in Congress passed the Twenty-second Amendment, limiting the U.S. president to two terms, a posthumous slap at Roosevelt.[143] Over Barkley's vehement objection, they also enacted the Taft-Hartley Act to curb the power of labor unions which had expanded dramatically under Roosevelt.[143] Central to Truman's Fair Deal agenda were a number of civil rights bills that were unpopular with Southern Democrats.[143] Dissatisfaction with Truman's administration continued to grow in the lead-up to the 1948 presidential election; Democratic Senator J. William Fulbright even publicly called for Truman's resignation.[142]

Because Barkley had solid liberal credentials but could still appeal to the Southern Democrats that Truman's civil rights advocacy had alienated, Truman convinced Barkley to be the keynote speaker at the 1948 Democratic National Convention for an unprecedented third time.[144] Because of the recent Republican resurgence and Truman's difficulty appealing to some members of his own party, Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey was expected to win the upcoming presidential election.[144] Disheartened Democrats were energized by Barkley's keynote address, however, which promoted New Deal accomplishments and chided the Republican-controlled Eightieth Congress as a "do nothing" Congress.[145] Barkley had mentioned Truman only once in the speech, and Truman began to suspect that Barkley was seeking to supplant him as the party's presidential nominee, but no such attempt occurred.[110] Truman wanted Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as his running mate for the upcoming election, but Douglas declined.[138] The convention delegates persuaded Truman to accept Barkley as his running mate despite Truman's suspicions of him and his contention that a ticket consisting of a Missourian and a Kentuckian lacked regional geographic balance.[110]

Barkley was disappointed to know that he was not Truman's first choice as running mate, comparing his nomination for vice-president as a hot biscuit that had been passed around until it was cold.[145] Nevertheless, over the next six weeks, he crisscrossed the country by plane, making over 250 campaign speeches in 36 states.[146] Playing off Barkley's keynote speech, Truman called a special congressional session on July 26, 1948, and challenged the Republicans to enact their agenda.[147] When the Republicans were unable to pass a single significant piece of legislation, they confirmed Barkley's characterization of them as a "do-nothing Congress".[147]

Vice-President

In an upset victory, Truman and Barkley were elected over their Republican opponents by over 2 million votes, and Democrats regained small majorities in both houses of Congress.[148] Barkley resigned from the Senate on January 19, 1949 to accept the vice-presidency.[12] The next day, he was sworn in as the 35th Vice-President of the United States by Stanley Forman Reed.[149] Seventy years old at the time of his inauguration, he was the oldest man ever elected vice-president.[46][150] During his tenure, he was familiarly known as "Veep", a name suggested by his grandson, Stephen M. Truitt, as an alternative to the more formal "Mr. Vice President" during Barkley's May 1949 visit to his daughter Marion's family.[151] The nickname was picked up by the press, but his successor, Richard Nixon, declined to continue using the moniker, saying it belonged to Barkley alone, and future vice-presidents have generally observed this same convention.[150]

Barkley showing the vice-presidential seal to Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan and his wife

Despite their previous differences, Truman and Barkley agreed on nearly every major issue.[146] Because of Barkley's extensive legislative experience, Truman insisted on his attendance at meetings of the president's cabinet, an unprecedented request.[46] Barkley also chaired the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and regularly attended Truman's weekly legislative conferences.[152] When Congress approved the creation of the National Security Council, they included the vice-president as a member.[153] Truman also used Barkley as the administration's primary spokesperson; in the first eight months of his term, Barkley made forty major speeches touting administration positions.[153] Because of the vice-president's increased visibility, Truman commissioned the United States Army Institute of Heraldry to create of a seal and flag for the office.[46] Truman also advocated raising the vice-president's salary and increasing his expense budget.[154] In his biographical sketch of Barkley, Mark O. Hatfield noted that he was "the last [vice-president] to preside regularly over the Senate, the last not to have an office in or near the White House, [and] the last to identify more with the legislative than the executive branch".[150]

Despite the Democrats' newly reacquired advantage in the Senate, some conservative Democrats united with the Republican minority to oppose much of President Truman's agenda, most notably, civil rights legislation.[155] This was the case in Barkley's most notable ruling as the Senate's presiding officer, which occurred in March 1949.[156] Illinois Senator Scott W. Lucas introduced an amendment to Senate Rule XXII designed to broaden the number of instances in which a cloture vote was in order.[156] Lucas proposed the change to enable a cloture vote to end a ten-day filibuster that prevented a vote on an administration-backed civil rights bill.[156] Conservative Republicans and Southern Democrats opposed both the civil rights bill and Lucas' rule change, and they immediately took up a filibuster against the rule change.[156] Lucas asked for a cloture vote on the rule change, but opponents of the change contended that the motion was out of order.[156] Before ruling, Barkley studied the original debate on Rule XXII, which also governed this cloture motion.[157] From this study, he ruled Lucas' motion in order.[157] Georgia Senator Richard Russell, Jr. appealed the chair's decision, and the chamber voted 46–41 to overrule Barkley.[157] Sixteen Republicans, mostly from the Northeast and West Coast states, voted to sustain Barkley's ruling, while most of the Southern Democrats voted with the majority of Republicans to overrule him.[157]

When Barkley attended a party thrown by Clark Clifford on the White House yacht on July 8, 1949, he met Jane (Rucker) Hadley, a widow approximately half his age from St. Louis, Missouri.[158][150] Hadley was attending the party as a guest of the Cliffords, and after her return to St. Louis, Barkley continued to keep contact with her via letters and his frequent plane trips.[158] The courtship between the two garnered national attention, and on November 18, 1949, they married in the Singleton Memorial Chapel of St. John's Methodist Church in St. Louis.[159] Bishop Ivan Lee Holt, Methodist Bishop of Missouri, assisted the church's pastor, Dr. Albea Godbold, in performing the ceremony.[159] Only close family and friends, along with a few press representatives, attended the ceremony.[157] Barkley remains the only U.S. vice-president to marry while in office.[46]

Barkley's most notable tie-breaking vote as vice-president was cast on October 4, 1949, to save the Young-Russell Amendment which set a 90% parity on the price of cotton, wheat, corn, rice, and peanuts.[160] The vote put him in opposition to his friends, Scott Lucas and Clint Anderson, but was consistent with his promise during the 1948 campaign to support such a measure.[160]

In 1949, Barkley was chosen to give the commencement address at Emory University.[161] He also received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at the ceremony, which was the first event ever televised from Emory.[161] The following year, the university's debating society renamed itself the Barkley Forum in honor of the vice-president.[162] The university also created the Alben W. Barkley Distinguished Chair its Department of Political Science.[162]

President Truman presents the Congressional Gold Medal to Barkley honoring his years of legislative service.

Barkley tried to mentor his immediate successors as floor leader – Scott Lucas and Ernest McFarland – by teaching them to work with the vice-president as he had with Truman during Truman's brief tenure in that office, but as Truman became more unpopular as president, cooperation between the executive branch and the legislature became more difficult.[155] After the United States' entry into the Korean War, Truman focused mostly on foreign affairs, leaving Barkley to campaign on behalf of Democratic candidates in the 1950 midterm elections.[154] He traveled over 19,000 miles (31,000 km) and spoke in almost half of the states during the campaign.[163] Feeling ill when he arrived home in Paducah on election day, he contacted a doctor, who diagnosed him with a "tired heart".[164] On his return to Washington, D.C., he spent several days in Naval Hospital, but was able to preside over the Senate session that opened November 28, 1950.[164] Although Democrats lost seats in both houses during the election, they maintained their majorities in each.[154]

On March 1, 1951 – 38 years to the day from his first day in Congress – Barkley's fellow congressmen presented him with the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of his long tenure as a legislator.[165] President Truman surprised Barkley by appearing on the Senate floor to present both the medallion and a gavel fashioned from timbers used to renovate the White House after the burning of Washington in 1817.[164]

In November 1951, Barkley and his wife traveled to Kimpo Air Base in Seoul and ate Thanksgiving dinner with U.S. troops engaged in the Korean War.[166] Days later, on his seventy-fourth birthday, Barkley traveled to the front lines on a fact-finding mission for the president.[166] On his return, he helped pass Truman's plan to replace 64 Internal Revenue Service collectors with 25 deputy regional directors.[166] On June 4, 1952, he cast another notable tie-breaking vote to save Wage Stabilization Board.[167]

Campaign for president

At the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraiser on March 28, 1952, Truman stunned the assembled crowd – including Barkley – by announcing that, although he was exempt from the term limits imposed by the recently-ratified Twenty-second Amendment, he would not seek another term as president.[168] After the announcement, the District of Columbia Democratic Club formed a Barkley for President Club with Iowa Senator Guy Gillette as the chairman.[167] Prominent Kentuckians – including Senator Earle C. Clements, Governor Lawrence Wetherby, and Lieutenant Governor Emerson "Doc" Beauchamp – also lined up behind a potential Barkley candidacy.[167] Exactly two months after Truman's announcement, Barkley publicly declared his availability to run for president, although he maintained that he was not actively campaigning for it at that time.[169]

A man with receding dark hair wearing a black jacket, white shirt, and striped tie
Adlai Stevenson received the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952 instead of Barkley.

Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, a distant cousin of Barkley's, was considered his primary competition for the nomination, but he had not made a firm commitment to seek it in advance of the convention.[169] Richard Russell, Jr. and Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver were also known to be interested in the nomination.[170] Kentucky's delegation to the 1952 Democratic National Convention announced that they would support Barkley's nomination, and Truman encouraged the Missouri delegation to do so as well.[169] Barkley also secured the backing of Democratic National Committee chairman Frank E. McKinney, former chairman James Farley, and Senate Secretary Leslie Biffle.[171] Two weeks before the convention, Jacob Arvey, a key Stevenson advisor, called Barkley at his home in Paducah to inform him that Stevenson was not going to be nominated and suggested that Stevenson would be amenable to nominating Barkley.[171] Barkley's advisors believed that Kefauver and Russell would knock each other out of competition for the nomination in the early balloting, allowing Barkley to emerge as the nominee in later balloting.[170]

At age 74, Barkley's age, failing eyesight, and earlier diagnosis of heart problems concerned the electorate.[170] In an attempt to confront and dispel these concerns, after Barkley arrived in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention on July 18, 1952, he briskly walked seven blocks up Michigan Avenue from the bus station to the Conrad Hilton Hotel where the Barkley for President headquarters were located.[171] This attempted demonstration of physical fitness and vigor was rendered nearly moot when, on the evening of July 20, a group of labor leaders that included United Automobile Workers President Walter Reuther issued a statement calling Barkley too old to be a serious candidate and requesting that the Democrats nominate someone younger like Stevenson.[172] A distraught Barkley hastily organized a breakfast meeting for the labor leaders the next morning and tried to persuade them to retract their statement, but they did not, although United Mine Workers of America President John L. Lewis sent a supportive telegraph later that day.[172] The statement by the labor leaders caused delegations from large industrial states like Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania to waiver on their commitments to vote for Barkley on the first ballot.[173] By the evening of July 21, Barkley resigned himself to the fact that his candidacy was no longer viable and issued a press release acknowledging his withdrawal from the race.[172] He accepted an invitation from convention leaders to deliver a farewell address to the convention on July 22.[174] Upon taking the podium, he received a 35-minute ovation, and at the conclusion of the speech, the applause lasted 45 minutes.[154][174] In a show of symbolic respect, a Missouri delegate nominated Barkley for president later in the convention, and the nomination was seconded by House Majority Leader McCormack, but Stevenson was easily chosen as the nominee.[175]

Barkley began campaigning for Stevenson about a month after the convention adjourned, hosting a picnic and campaign rally at his Paducah home and later introducing him at a rally in Louisville.[176] Despite Barkley's confident predictions of a Democratic victory, Stevenson lost in overwhelming fashion to Republican nominee Dwight Eisenhower.[177]

Later life and death

Barkley's term as vice-president expired January 20, 1953.[12] He was diagnosed with cataracts and immediately after the election, he had surgery which improved his eyesight.[177] He then signed a contract to create a series of 26 fifteen-minute commentary broadcasts called "Meet the Veep" on NBC.[177] Ratings for these broadcasts were low, and NBC did not renew the series in September 1953.[178] Barkley then retired to Angles, his home in Paducah.[178] He remained a popular speaker and began working on his memoirs with journalist Sidney Shallett in between speaking engagements.[178]

Unhappy in private life, he re-entered politics in 1954, challenging incumbent Republican Senator John Sherman Cooper.[179] Historian Glenn Finch opined that Barkley was the only person in the state who could beat the popular Cooper.[180] Few issues differentiated the candidates, and the campaign hinged on party politics; this notion was reinforced by visits to Kentucky by President Eisenhower, Vice-President Richard Nixon, and Senator Everett Dirksen on Cooper's behalf.[178] Barkley once again resumed his Iron Man campaign style, frequently campaigning for sixteen hours a day and giving numerous speeches, helping to quell the "too old" meme that had cost him the presidential nomination.[181] In the general election, he bested Cooper a vote of 434,109 to 362,948.[176] His election helped the Democrats secure a one-vote advantage in the Senate.[154]

Veteran West Virginia Senator Harley M. Kilgore offered to exchange seats in the chamber with Barkley, putting Barkley on the front row reserved for the chamber's most senior members and himself on the back row where the newly elected Barkley sat with freshman legislators, but Barkley declined the offer.[182] In honor of his previous service, he was appointed to the prestigious Committee on Foreign Relations.[46] In this position, he endorsed Eisenhower's appointment of Cooper, his most recent opponent, as U.S. Ambassador to India and Nepal.[182] Otherwise, his lack of seniority kept him from significantly influencing the chamber's business.[182]

On April 30, 1956, Barkley traveled to Lexington, Virginia, to give a keynote address at the Washington and Lee Mock Convention.[46] Speaking of his willingness to sit with the other freshman senators in Congress, he closed his address with an allusion to Psalm 84:10, saying "I'm glad to sit on the back row, for I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty."[154] After uttering these words, he collapsed onstage and died of a heart attack.[46] He was buried in Mount Kenton Cemetery near Paducah.[12]

The River and Harbor Act of 1954 authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a series of locks and dams along the Cumberland River.[183] The lowermost mainstream project – designated the Lower Cumberland Project – was completed in 1966.[183] Later, the dam and the lake it forms were redesignated Barkley Dam and Lake Barkley in Barkley's honor.[183] Barkley Regional Airport in Paducah is also named for him.[184] After the federal government rejected an offer to purchase Angles, Barkley's Paducah home, and make it a national park, it was sold at auction on June 15, 1984.[185] In February 2008, Paducah's the American Justice School of Law changed owners after failing to secure accreditation from the American Bar Association.[186] It was renamed the Alben W. Barkley School of Law, but still failed to obtain accreditation and closed in December 2008.[186]

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Bibliography

  • "Alben Barkley Home, Effects to be Sold". Lexington Herald-Leader. March 21, 1984. p. B1.
  • "Alben William Barkley". Dictionary of American Biography. New York City, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1936. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  • "Alben William Barkley". University of Virginia. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
  • "Barkley, Alben William". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
  • Davis, Polly Ann (1978). "Alben W. Barkley: Vice President". Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 76 (2). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Davis, Polly. "Court Reform and Alben W. Barkley's Election as Majority Leader". Southern Quarterly 1976 15(1): 15-31.
  • Davis, Polly Ann. "Alben W. Barkley's Public Career in 1944". Filson Club History Quarterly 1977 51(2): 143-157.
  • Finch, Glenn (1971). "The Election of United States Senators in Kentucky: The Barkley Period". Filson Club History Quarterly. 45 (3). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Grinde, Gerald S. (1980). "The Emergence of the "Gentle Partisan": Alben W. Barkley and Kentucky Politics, 1919". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 78 (3). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Grinde, Gerald S. (1976). "Politics and Scandal in the Progressive Era: Alben W. Barkley and the McCracken County Campaign of 1909". Filson Club History Quarterly. 50 (2). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Harrison, Lowell H. (1997). A New History of Kentucky. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2008-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Hatfield, Mark O. (1997). "Alben W. Barkley (1949-1953)" (PDF). Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789-1993. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
  • "A History of Commencement at Emory". Emory University. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
  • Hixson, Walter L. (1982). "The 1938 Kentucky Senate Election: Alben W. Barkley, "Happy" Chandler, and the New Deal". Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 80. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Klotter, James C. (1996). Kentucky: Portraits in Paradox, 1900–1950. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-916968-24-3.
  • "Lake Barkley". Lake Productions, LLC. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
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  • Libbey, James K. (2000). "Alben Barkley's Rise from Courthouse to Congress". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 98 (3). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Libbey, James K. (1998). "Alben W. Barkley: The Making of the "Paducah Politician"". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 96 (3). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Libbey, James K. (1979). Dear Alben: Mr. Barkley of Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813102383.
  • Libbey, James K. (1992). "Barkley, Alben William". In John E. Kleber (ed.). The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Associate editors: Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1772-0. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
  • Martin, Allison Gardner (September 28, 2010). "Attorney General Conway Concludes Investigation into Student Loan Company Involved with Bankrupt West Kentucky Law School". U.S. Federal News Service. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
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Further reading

Political offices
Vacant
Title last held by
Harry S. Truman
Vice President of the United States
January 20, 1949 – January 20, 1953
Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 2) from Kentucky
January 3, 1955 – April 30, 1956
Served alongside: Earle C. Clements
Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 3) from Kentucky
March 4, 1927 – January 3, 1949
Served alongside: Frederic M. Sackett, John M. Robsion,
Ben M. Williamson, Marvel M. Logan, A.B. "Happy" Chandler I,
William A. Stanfill, John Sherman Cooper, Virgil Chapman
Succeeded by
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Kentucky's 1st congressional district

March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1927
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Senate Democratic Leader
1937–1949
Succeeded by
Preceded by Democratic Party Vice Presidential candidate
1948
Succeeded by

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