Everything about William G Mcadoo totally explained
William Gibbs McAdoo (
October 31,
1863 –
February 1,
1941) was an
American lawyer and political leader who served as a
U.S. Senator,
United States Secretary of the Treasury and director of the
United States Railroad Administration (USRA). By virtue of his position as Secretary of the Treasury in August 1914 he also served as the first
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
Early life and career
McAdoo was born near
Marietta, Georgia, to author Mary Faith Floyd McAdoo and attorney William Gibbs McAdoo. His uncle, John D. McAdoo, was a Civil War general and justice on the Texas Supreme Court
(External Link
). McAdoo attended rural schools until his family moved to
Knoxville, Tennessee in 1877, when his father became a professor at the
University of Tennessee.
He graduated from University of Tennessee. He was appointed deputy clerk of the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in 1882. He married his first wife, Sarah Houston Fleming, on November 18, 1885. They had seven children: Harriet, Francis, Julia, Nona,
WilliamIn 1892 he moved to
New York City, where he met Francis R. Pemberton, son of the Confederate General
John Pemberton. They formed a firm, Pemberton and McAdoo, to sell
investment securities.
At the turn of the century, McAdoo took on the leadership of a project to build a railway tunnel under the
Hudson River to connect
Manhattan with
New Jersey. A tunnel had been partly constructed during the 1880s by
Dewitt Clinton Haskin. With McAdoo as President of the
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company, two passenger tubes were completed and opened in 1908. The popular McAdoo told the press that his motto was "Let the Public be Pleased." The tunnels are now operated as part of the
Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) system.
His first wife died in February, 1912. That year, he served as vice chairman of the
Democratic National Committee.
Political career
McAdoo was lured away from business after meeting
Woodrow Wilson in 1910. He worked for the Wilson presidential campaign in 1912. Once
President, Wilson asked McAdoo to serve as Secretary of the Treasury from 1913 to 1918.
He married Wilson's daughter
Eleanor Randolph Wilson at the
White House on May 7, 1914. They had two daughters, Ellen Wilson McAdoo (1915-1946) and Mary Faith McAdoo (1920-1987). Ellen married twice, had a son by each marriage, and eventually committed suicide. Her parents adopted her eldest son after her death, and he took their surname. Mary Faith married three times but had no children.
McAdoo offered to resign when he married the President’s daughter but Wilson urged him to complete his work of turning the
Federal Reserve System into an operational central bank. The legislation establishing the System had been passed by Congress in December 1913. McAdoo confronted a major financial crisis at the outbreak of
World War I. During the last week of July, 1914, British and French investors began to liquidate their American securities and transfer gold to Europe. McAdoo kept the U.S. on the
Gold Standard by closing the
New York Stock Exchange for an unprecedented four months to prevent Europeans from selling American securities and exchanging the proceeds for gold. In order to prevent a replay of the bank suspensions that plagued America during the
Panic of 1907, he invoked the emergency currency provisions of the 1908
Aldrich Vreeland Act. William Silber credits his actions for having turned America into a world financial power, in his book
When Washington Shut Down Wall Street.
After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the
United States Railroad Administration was formed to run America’s transportation system during the war. McAdoo was appointed
Director General of Railroads, a position he held until November 1918 when the armistice was declared, ending World War I.
After leaving the Wilson Cabinet, he focused on his law firm, which included serving as general counsel for the founders of
United Artists. He ran twice for the
Democratic nomination for President, losing to
James M. Cox in 1920, and to
John W. Davis in 1924, even though in both years he led on the first ballot. He served as
Senator for
California from 1933–1938. He was defeated for renomination to the Senate in 1938 by
Sheridan H. Downey. McAdoo and Eleanor were
divorced in
1934. Two months after the decree was finalized in July 1935, the 71-year old married 26-year-old nurse Doris Isabel Cross.
McAdoo was a "Dry" with respect to
Prohibition and was the favored candidate of the
Ku Klux Klan in
1924 when the other front-runner appeared to be the
Catholic Al Smith of
New York. McAdoo took a payment of $25,000 from oil executive
Edward Doheny in connection with the
Teapot Dome scandal, but returned it once he discovered Doheny's links with
Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall.
Death and legacy
McAdoo died of a
heart attack while travelling in Washington, D.C., after the
inauguration of
Franklin D. Roosevelt. and was buried in
Arlington National Cemetery in
Arlington, Virginia.
McAdoo was played by
Vincent Price in the
1944 biopic Wilson. McAdoo's former home in Chattanooga's
Fort Wood neighborhood has been restored and is now a private residence.
The town of McAdoo, Texas was named after him.
(External Link)
Bibliography
Broesamle, John J. William Gibbs McAdoo: A Passion for Change, 1863-1917. National University Publications, Kennikat Press, Port Washington, N.Y., 1973, ISBN 978-0804690430
McAdoo, William G. The Challenge. New York: Century Co., 1928.
McAdoo, William G. Crowded Years: The Reminiscences of William G. McAdoo. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1931, ASIN B000OALAE6
McKinney, Gordon B. "East Tennessee Politics: An Incident in the Life of William Gibbs McAdoo, Jr." East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 48 (1976): 34-39.
Synon, Mary. McAdoo, the Man and His Times: A Panorama in Democracy. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1924.Further Information
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